Book Review: Dreamland by Sarah Dessen

Dreamland by Sarah Dessen
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Avg rating: 3.90
Genre: Young Adult, Romance, Contemporary

Goodreads Summary:
Wake up, Caitlin

Ever since she started going out with Rogerson Biscoe, Caitlin seems to have fallen into a semiconscious dreamland where nothing is quite real. Rogerson is different from anyone Caitlin has ever known. He's magnetic. He's compelling. He's dangerous. Being with him makes Caitlin forget about everything else--her missing sister, her withdrawn mother, her lackluster life. But what happens when being with Rogerson becomes a larger problem than being without him?

My Rating: 4.7

*Warning*
This book made me cry. I intend to talk about the book as a whole in my review which is hard to do without posting spoilers so if you haven't read this yet and plan to, don't read this.


Anyways.. Wow.. I was not expecting that. I have been on a Sarah Dessen binge recently and I find that I like some and hate others. I am not one to read the synopsis of a book before reading it as I think it often gives too much away. I was not expecting this relationship to take such a violent turn. I felt like I was watching [well reading about...] a tornado just building and building and waiting to take off on it's destructive path. I really liked Caitlin and in the beginning of her relationship with Rogerson I was pulling for him, thinking, you know, she would be the one to make him change his ways. To rescue him from his destructive home life or whatever. I didn't even consider that he was a product of his upbringing... The apple doesn't fall far from the tree, right?

My heart broke for Caitlin as I watched her ALLOW herself to get trapped in a relationship like this. Shame on her parents for allowing her so much freedom. So much independence that it came off as not caring. So many things, weighing down on her, she couldn't handle the pressure. I cried when she went to "rehab" and at the letter Cass wrote her, I cried at so many things!

I'm so glad books like this exist. It opens up the lines of communication about abuse and [hopefully] helps people to see how NOT okay it is. To tell somebody! Stand up for yourself. Allowing that to happen to you more than once is unacceptable.

Anyways, I loved this book. Super glad to have read it.

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Book Review: The Storyteller by Jodi Picoult [DNF]

The Storyteller by Jodi Picoult
My rating: 1 of 5 stars
Avg rating: 4.24

Goodreads Summary:
Sage Singer befriends an old man who's particularly beloved in her community. Josef Weber is everyone's favorite retired teacher and Little League coach. They strike up a friendship at the bakery where Sage works. One day he asks Sage for a favor: to kill him. Shocked, Sage refuses... and then he confesses his darkest secret—he deserves to die, because he was a Nazi SS guard. Complicating the matter? Sage's grandmother is a Holocaust survivor.

What do you do when evil lives next door? Can someone who's committed a truly heinous act ever atone for it with subsequent good behavior? Should you offer forgiveness to someone if you aren't the party who was wronged? And most of all—if Sage even considers his request—is it murder, or justice?

My rating:

DNF

This book had a promising start. I was interested enough in the characters to be curious about what would happen moving forward but about half way through it took a turn for the worst.

I typically like stories of the Hollocaust. I find that era very interesting and like to hear stories of the hardships experienced by both Germans and Jews and how they coped with all the devastation and loss in their own ways. However, this story dragged on and on and on and really brought my mood down. I found myself constantly wanting to get back to the regular story to see what was going on in present day. Then sometimes it would flash back to present day and I would be so confused about what was happening I found myself checking the genre for "paranormal." Which of course it's not, so the fact that I was questioning that is not a good sign.

This is the first Jodi Picoult novel I have not enjoyed and I am quite surprised because it has such a high average rating. Perhaps it was just not the right time in my life to be reading something like this.. I had to give up on in but maybe later in life I'll pick it back up and see how it goes.

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Throw Back/Book Thursday

Picture from March 29th, 2011

Lady Gaga's Monster Ball Concert

1 year ago today I was reading:

My Rating: 5/5

I highly recommend this book! 

It was sick and twisted but it was real and that's why I enjoyed it so much.

Book Review: The Truth About Forever by Sarah Dessen

The Truth About Forever by Sarah Dessen
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Avg rating: 4.15

Goodreads Summary:
A long, hot summer...

That's what Macy has to look forward to while her boyfriend, Jason, is away at Brain Camp. Days will be spent at a boring job in the library, evenings will be filled with vocabulary drills for the SATs, and spare time will be passed with her mother, the two of them sharing a silent grief at the traumatic loss of Macy's father.

But sometimes, unexpected things can happen—things such as the catering job at Wish, with its fun-loving, chaotic crew. Or her sister's project of renovating the neglected beach house, awakening long-buried memories. Things such as meeting Wes, a boy with a past, a taste for Truth-telling, and an amazing artistic talent, the kind of boy who could turn any girl's world upside down. As Macy ventures out of her shell, she begins to wonder, Is it really better to be safe than sorry?

My Rating: 4.0

I loved this one! I have been reading a LOT of Sarah Dessen lately so I can't help but to compare them to each other. I love how the story is always so straight forward. There's no guessing or figuring out the background stories or the characters, they just are who they are.

As per usual, not a lot HAPPENED from start to finish but I met some great people along the way and watched a great love story unfold. I loved watching Macy realize how not-okay that relationship with Jason was. She was always on the back burner and never cherished as a human being with feelings and emotions. I'm so glad she found Wes and I loved how the game of Truth opened the lines of communication between them. It was a really cute way to get to know each other.

Everything tied up together nicely in the end, lots of life lessons.

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Book Review: Lock & Key by Sarah Dessen

Lock and Key by Sarah Dessen
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Avg rating: 4.02
Genre: Young Adult, Romance, Contemporary

Goodreads Summary:

Ruby, where is your mother?

Ruby knows that the game is up. For the past few months, she's been on her own in the yellow house, managing somehow, knowing that her mother will probably never return.

That's how she comes to live with Cora, the sister she hasn't seen in ten years, and Cora's husband Jamie, whose down-to-earth demeanor makes it hard for Ruby to believe he founded the most popular networking Web site around. A luxurious house, fancy private school, a new wardrobe, the promise of college and a future; it's a dream come true. So why is Ruby such a reluctant Cinderella, wary and defensive? And why is Nate, the genial boy next door with some secrets of his own, unable to accept the help that Ruby is just learning to give?

Best-selling author Sarah Dessen explores the heart of a gutsy, complex girl dealing with unforeseen circumstances and learning to trust again.

My Rating: 3.0

Sarah Dessen books are hit or miss. Sometimes I love the characters and story line enough to ignore the fact that nothing really happens in the book. Sometimes the characters are uninteresting and I lose interest in the story fast.

This was one of those that fell in the middle. The characters were nothing special and neither was the story line but it kept my interest enough to finish it.

There were a lot of "life lessons" wrapped up in a pretty package with a bow on top during the end of the book, I can appreciate that. I didn't find myself falling in love along side the characters. Nate wasn't all that interesting and I didn't find that Ruby brought out the best in him or him in her.

All in all my feelings about this book are awash. Not great but not terrible either.

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[My First!] Top Ten Tuesday

"Top Ten Tuesday" is a weekly event hosted at 

Broke and the Bookish. They give us a topic, and
I give you a list! This week's topic is:

Top Ten Books From the Last 2 Years

First can I say that I've read app 75% of the books I've read in the last two years? So this was rather hard. I tried to narrow it down for some time, even closing my eyes and randomly picking ones to remove. I still couldn't get lower than 12. Oh, and I refuse to put these in order because I love them all equally. Sorry... but I'm not sorry..

  

Waiting on Wednesday

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event hosted at 

Breaking the Spine that spotlights upcoming releases that 

we're eagerly anticipating.

I just LOVE Wednesdays! 
I go around to all the blogs and see what everyone is excited about. 
I've discovered some great books this way.

Anyways... this week my WoW is

Love Lies Beneath
Author: Ellen Hopkins
Release Date: July 21st, 2015
Publisher: Atria Books

Basically everything Ellen Hopkins writes is good so I already know this will be too. I love the way she writes, in poetic lines and all over the page. If you haven't read anything by her you're really missing out. She's a great author and an amazing person.

Goodreads Summary:

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Collateral comes a gripping novel about a woman caught in a love affair that could be her salvation...or her undoing.

Tara is gorgeous, affluent, and forty. She lives in an impeccably restored Russian Hill mansion in San Francisco. Once a widow, twice divorced, she’s a woman with a past she prefers keeping to herself.

Enter Cavin Lattimore. He’s handsome, kind, charming, and the surgeon assigned to Tara following a ski accident in Lake Tahoe. In the weeks it takes her to recover, Cavin sweeps her off her feet and their relationship blossoms into something Tara had never imagined possible. But then she begins to notice some strange things: a van parked outside her home at odd times, a break-in, threatening text messages and emails. She also starts to notice cracks in Cavin’s seemingly perfect personality, like the suppressed rage his conniving teenage son brings out in him, and the discovery that Cavin hired a detective to investigate her immediately after they met.

Now on crutches and housebound, Tara finds herself dependent on the new man in her life—perhaps too much so. She’s handling rocky relationships with her sister and best friend, who are envious of her glamour and freedom; her prickly brother-in-law, who is intimidated by her wealth and power; and her estranged mother. However perfect Tara’s life appears, things are beginning to get messy.

Writing in beautiful prose, Ellen Hopkins unveils a new style while evoking her signature poetic form that readers fell in love with in Collateral and Triangles

What book are you [not so] patiently waiting for??