Mini Reviews #23

Today I'm reviewing three hot summer reads. I'm sure some of you have been waiting for WICKED GAMES by Sean Olin, WE WERE LIARS by E. Lockhart and THE SECRETS OF LILY GRAVES by Sarah Strohmeyer to be released for a few months now. And I've heard great things about them, but they just weren't for me.

Wicked Games by Sean Olin

Carter and Lilah are the perfect couple. Until Carter falls in love with another girl and the wrath of Lilah is unleashed. 

At first I got excited that something bad was about to happen. It's like that gleeful feeling in movies when you are about to witness mean girls...well, being mean (but you know their ways won't work in the end). The first few pages you fall in love with the image of the perfect couple that are Lilah and Carter and the way they got to know each other. Then it fast goes downhill, your sympathy for them and the desire to learn more about their wicked thoughts, too. I admit, their fights offered a kind of cheap enjoyment at first. Unfortunately, it didn't take long for the story to get a psychotic and monotone feel to it. Sean Olin's characters hurt each other, they don't have empathy and have no idea what's going on in their minds and lives. So why would I want to invest any time in their relationships and finding a soluation for them when they weren't even willing to see reason? You should think twice about trusting those characters with your precious reading time.

2/5 ** WICKED GAMES – A crazy psychological drama, too disturbing for its own good, painting pictures of intrigues and false love without any morale.

When I first thought of WICKED GAMES as intriguing and entertaining to read, with a tinge of revenge and thrill, I almost couldn't bring myself to read on till the end. I didn't get the intention of the story at all, because characters keep repeating their mistakes, being ignorant to other people's feelings and acting upon their irrational and dangerous thoughts. 

Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books

Publishing Date: June 10^th 2014
Length: 352 pages
Keywords: YA, contemporary, romance, friendship, revenge, thriller

Source: Edelweiss

Goodreads Summary 

Author's Homepage

 

 

The Secrets of Lily Graves by Sarah Strohmeyer

By family tradition Lily Graves lives and works in a funeral parlor with her mother, aunt and grandmother. She might have a crush on football player Matt. And when his ex-girlfriend Erin is found dead, Lily has more than one problem. She now becomes main suspect after having a fight with Erin. 

The title is a bit misleading because Lily Graves isn't the girl who's keeping secrets all the time, lying to everyone. She's quite a nice girl under all that dark goth exterior. The story setting was a very good source for the general dark and mysterious mood of the book. In the end Lily and Matt's romance wasn't strong enough to make the story a really good read, but the murder mystery was engaging and had some gruesome details to it, thanks to all the resources a funeral home offers.

3/5 *** THE SECRETS OF LILY GRAVES - A perfect read for fans of Pretty Little Liars, only less lying and more graveyard visits.

Sarah Strohmeyer's new YA release is on the darker, more mysterious side of summer reads with a gentle romance and a morbid, gothic touch to it. You'll enjoy the murder case most, lots of teenage drama in there, too.

Publisher: Balzer + Bray

Publishing Date: May 13^th 2014
Length: 304 pages
Keywords: YA, funeral parlor, murder, gothic, romance

Source: Edelweiss

Goodreads Summary 

Author's Homepage

We Were Liars by E. Lockhart

Cadence Sinclair has spent her summers on Beechwood, a family island which belongs to her grandfather. She and the other grandchildren who are also her best friends since childhood call themselves the Liars. Cady tells you what it means to spent summers on Beechwood island. What is expected from you as a Sinclair and what does it mean to live with regrets, in a world in which no mistakes are allowed?

Stories set on a private island that only very few people have access to always draw me to them, especially if there's talk about a mystery and dark family secrets.

For me WE WERE LIARS was not so much a thriller working with tension and anticipation. I experienced it more as a live rendition of Cady's thoughts, piecing together what happened two summers ago. E. Lockhart's writing was jumbled, incoherent (kind of like Cady's memories), and absolutely not fit to engage a reader like me.

I have no idea why the teens were called Liars because in the end there really weren't that many secrets to be surprised about. I didn't connect with the characters at all, not even with Cady. And the entire family, the prestige, manipulation and money, everything that determined the Sinclairs' lives, was just so insufferable. No family I could bring myself to care about.

2/5 ** WE WERE LIARS – The tragic story of a family crumbling under the weight of its money, prestige and secrets.

I guess this is one of the reads you either really really like because you get it, or you don't. Well, I didn't. Couldn't see the sense behind all of Cady's musings and her telling you about her great Sinclair family. Originally, I didn't plan to read WE WERE LIARS and only wanted it since everyone else started talking about how much they wanted it. I should've listened to my original feeling that this wouldn't be a story for me.

Publisher: Delacorte Press

Publishing Date: May 13^th 2014
Length: 240 pages
Keywords: YA, contemporary, friendship, romance, memories, thriller

Source: Netgalley

Goodreads Summary 

Author's Homepage

Book Review: The Here and Now by Ann Brashares

Title: The Here and Now
Author: Ann Brashares
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Publishing Date: April 8th 2014
Length: 288 pages
Keywords: YA, fiction, time travel, romance, action
Source: Netgalley

Follow the rules. Remember what happened. Never fall in love.

This is the story of seventeen-year-old Prenna James, who immigrated to New York when she was twelve. Except Prenna didn’t come from a different country. She came from a different time—a future where a mosquito-borne illness has mutated into a pandemic, killing millions and leaving the world in ruins.

Prenna and the others who escaped to the present day must follow a strict set of rules: never reveal where they’re from, never interfere with history, and never, ever be intimate with anyone outside their community. Prenna does as she’s told, believing she can help prevent the plague that will one day ravage the earth.

But everything changes when Prenna falls for Ethan Jarves. 

Summary by Goodreads

Ethan is your regular nice guy from the present and Prenna the girl from the future who is contained by her community of time travellers. Together they are reckless and ready to save the world. There's no possible future reading scenario in which you are not falling in love with these two!

You might have guessed by now that time travelling is involved in THE HERE AND NOW. I've been used to single individuals being able to travel through time under certain limitations. In this story it's a group of people from the future that comes to the present in order to save themselves, the old world and humankind's future. Like they are fugitives of time itself, awesome and complex concept!

Prenna and Ethan have their magic moments. Their moments that have been destined by fate. And they have their absolute ordinary teenager moments. You are going to love that their relationship is off to such a natural start because Ethan and Prenna have known each other for some time now. They go to school together and fall in love just like any other couple would.

Well, that doesn't say that there aren't tons of problems pre-programmed. A big conspiracy is brewing and Ethan and Prenna are determined to save the world. There are some dangerous leads Ethan and Prenna are following. The story could've used some additional explanations here and there, one or two chapters stealing time for Ethan and Prenna to actually be together, buying them time for some sweet romance.
Ann Brashares really did think up a horrible future scenario that is to be prevented at all costs. When you are not scared about it you are fascinated trying to puzzle over how it could all come to this future. THE HERE AND NOW is an intricately spun story about our world's future with all its possibilities and dangers. So you can expect big action scenarios, the bad guys being really corrupt and scary and more than a few conflicts between Prenna's desire to be with Ethan and her strict community standards. 

4/5 **** THE HERE AND NOW - Conspiracies, time travel and a timeless love story. What else do you need?

When I got a copy of THE HERE AND NOW I read it believing Ann Brashares a debut author. Well, she's only the author of the very famous THE SISTERHOOD OF THE TRAVELING PANTS series. Ann's writing is practiced, love and suspense aren't battling for the reader's attention, they are complementing each other. I can easily count THE HERE AND NOW to my favourite time travel stories and new releases of 2014! So all we've got to do now is hope for a sequel!

"He closed his eyes for a time, and when he opened them again, the river was mostly in its banks, and the air went back to being invisible and the sunshine had reassemled itself. He sat up and gradually reoriented himself to basics like up and down. The storm produced a scoured, sparkling look through the trees, and it also produced a girl."― p.2-3

THE HERE AND NOW you might enjoy TEMPEST by Julie Cross, ALL OUR YESTERDAYS by Cristin Terrill and HOURGLASS by Myra McEntire. Be prepared for time travel grandiosity!

* Have you read SISTERHOOD EVERLASTING, the last book in Ann Brashares' SISTERHOOD series?

* Click here for an excerpt of THE HERE AND NOW.

* For more information about Ann and her books visit www.annbrashares.com.

* Thanks to Delacorte Press and Edelweiss for the chance to review THE HERE AND NOW!