Title: Shadow Kiss (Vampire Academy #3)
Author: Richelle Mead
Published: November, 2008 by Razorbill
Thanks: Penguin, AU
Pages: 443
Rating:  
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Lissa Dragomir is a Moroi princess: a mortal vampire with a rare gift for harnessing the earth’s magic. She must be protected at all times from Strigoi; the fiercest vampires – the ones who never die. The powerful blend of human and vampire blood that flows through Rose Hathaway, Lissa’s best friend, makes her a Dhampir. Rose is dedicated to a dangerous life of protecting Lissa from the Strigoi, who are hell-bent on making Lissa one of them.

Rose knows it is forbidden to love another guardian. Her best friend, Lissa – the last Dragomir princess – must always come first. Unfortunately, when it comes to gorgeous Dimitri Belikov, some rules are meant to be broken…

Then a strange darkness begins to grow in Rose’s mind, and ghostly shadows warn of a terrible evil drawing nearer to the Academy’s iron gates. The immortal undead are closing in, and they want vengeance for the lives Rose has stolen. In a heart-stopping battle to rival her worst nightmares, Rose will have to choose between life, love, and the two people who matter most… but will her choice mean that only one can survive?

Final Thoughts:
It’s hard to really settle on one feeling for this series. They can be thrilling, sending you speeding through the pages, but that only seems to happen once you reach the fourth quarter of the book. The majority of it just seemed to drag on, with little to no action in the plot to keep it interesting. I spent over a month trying to get through this book. It was more of the same—academy drama, Rose keeping things from Lissa in order to ‘protect her’, and the Rose/Dimitri forbidden-relationship tension.

Title: Pivot Point (Pivot Point #1)
Author: Kasie West
Published: February, 2013 by HarperTeen
Pages: 352
Rating:  
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Knowing the outcome doesn’t always make a choice easier . . .

Addison Coleman’s life is one big “What if?” As a Searcher, whenever Addie is faced with a choice, she can look into the future and see both outcomes. It’s the ultimate insurance plan against disaster. Or so she thought. When Addie’s parents ambush her with the news of their divorce, she has to pick who she wants to live with—her father, who is leaving the paranormal compound to live among the “Norms,” or her mother, who is staying in the life Addie has always known. Addie loves her life just as it is, so her answer should be easy. One Search six weeks into the future proves it’s not.

In one potential future, Addie is adjusting to life outside the Compound as the new girl in a Norm high school where she meets Trevor, a cute, sensitive artist who understands her. In the other path, Addie is being pursued by the hottest guy in school—but she never wanted to be a quarterback’s girlfriend. When Addie’s father is asked to consult on a murder in the Compound, she’s unwittingly drawn into a dangerous game that threatens everything she holds dear. With love and loss in both lives, it all comes down to which reality she’s willing to live through . . . and who she can’t live without.

Final Thoughts:
I have wanted to read this one for a while now. I’m a fan of time travel and stories with alternate timelines so I thought this would be just the thing for me. While it may not have lived up to the self-imposed hype I’d given it, Pivot Point was still enjoyable in its own contemporary romance kind of way. It has a mystery and a bit of suspense, but for the most part, it plays out very much like a lot of other YA romances. I guess the real point of difference comes from the fact that there were two stories running parallel to each other that we switched back and forth between every second chapter.

Title: Oh Yeah, Audrey!
Author: Tucker Shaw
Published: October, 2014 by Amulet Books
Thanks: Amulet Books via NetGalley
Pages: 256
Rating:  
Purchase: The Book Depository

It’s 5:00 a.m. on Fifth Avenue, and 16-year-old Gemma Beasley is standing in front of Tiffany & Co. wearing the perfect black dress with her coffee in hand—just like Holly Golightly. As the cofounder of a successful Tumblr blog—Oh Yeah Audrey!—devoted to all things Audrey Hepburn, Gemma has traveled to New York in order to meet up with her fellow bloggers for the first time. She has meticulously planned out a 24-hour adventure in homage to Breakfast at Tiffany’s; however, her plans are derailed when a glamorous boy sweeps in and offers her the New York experience she’s always dreamed of. Gemma soon learns who her true friends are and that, sometimes, no matter where you go, you just end up finding yourself.

Final Thoughts:

I must confess that, as an Audrey fan, I may have jumped into this book expecting too much. The idea of following Gemma and her friends on a Breakfast at Tiffany’s inspired tour of New York City sounded great; I expected a lot to come from this group of teens that share no more than one fan-base in common, and who are meeting in person for the first time. It took me longer to finish reading than it should have, however, and while Oh Yeah, Audrey! seemed to end on an emotional high note, the beginning and the middle could’ve been better.

Title: The Darkest Minds (The Darkest Minds #1)
Author: Alexandra Bracken
Published: December, 2012 by Disney Hyperion
Pages: 488
Rating:  
Purchase: The Book Depository

When Ruby woke up on her tenth birthday, something about her had changed. Something alarming enough to make her parents lock her in the garage and call the police. Something that gets her sent to Thurmond, a brutal government “rehabilitation camp.” She might have survived the mysterious disease that’s killed most of America’s children, but she and the others have emerged with something far worse: frightening abilities they cannot control.

Now sixteen, Ruby is one of the dangerous ones.

When the truth comes out, Ruby barely escapes Thurmond with her life. Now she’s on the run, desperate to find the one safe haven left for kids like her—East River. She joins a group of kids who escaped their own camp. Liam, their brave leader, is falling hard for Ruby. But no matter how much she aches for him, Ruby can’t risk getting close. Not after what happened to her parents.

When they arrive at East River, nothing is as it seems, least of all its mysterious leader. But there are other forces at work, people who will stop at nothing to use Ruby in their fight against the government. Ruby will be faced with a terrible choice, one that may mean giving up her only chance at a life worth living.

Final Thoughts:
Coming highly recommended by one of my friends who can be quite critical with her reviews, I went and picked this one up from my library straight away. However, it didn’t click with me. It was by no means a bad book. I liked the characters, found them realistic given their circumstances, but I couldn’t connect with them. I just didn’t care about the outcome. Not even halfway through on the night before it was due back at the library, I went to renew my loan but found it had been reserved, therefore leaving me with two options—give up, or power through like a madman. I powered through. I’m not sure if the deadline soured my views or not, but I knew while reading it that I just wanted it to be over.

Title: Dangerous Girls
Author: Abigail Haas
Published: August, 2013 by Simon & Schuster
Pages: 388
Rating:  
Purchase: The Book Depository

Elise is dead.
And someone must pay.

Anna, her boyfriend Tate, best friend Elise and a group of close friends set off on a debaucherous Spring Break trip to Aruba. But paradise soon turns into a living nightmare when Elise is brutally murdered.

Soon Anna finds herself trapped in a foreign country and fighting for her freedom. As she awaits the judge’s decree, it becomes clear that everyone is questioning her innocence. To the rest of the world, Anna isn’t just guilty, but dangerous. As the court case unfolds the truth is about to come out, and it’s more shocking than you could ever imagine…

Final Thoughts:
This was an average sort of read for me. I could see that there had been a lot of hype around this book on Goodreads, especially regarding the “shocking” twist, but honestly I struggled to keep myself entertained. Too many flashback chapters left me drowsy and wishing it would end sooner, and when I got to the end, it was the “shocking” twist that kind of made me feel like I had wasted my time.

Title: Guardian Of The Dead
Author: Karen Healey
Published: August, 2010 by Little, Brown Books
Pages: 333
Rating:  
Purchase: The Book Depository

Seventeen-year-old Ellie Spencer is just like any other teenager at her boarding school. She hangs out with her best friend Kevin, she obsesses over Mark, a cute and mysterious bad boy, and her biggest worry is her paper deadline.

But then everything changes. The news headlines are all abuzz about a local string of serial killings that all share the same morbid trademark: the victims were discovered with their eyes missing. Then a beautiful yet eerie woman enters Ellie’s circle of friends and develops an unhealthy fascination with Kevin, and a crazed old man grabs Ellie in a public square and shoves a tattered Bible into her hands, exclaiming, “You need it. It will save your soul.” Soon, Ellie finds herself plunged into a haunting world of vengeful fairies, Māori mythology, romance, betrayal, and an epic battle for immortality.

Final Thoughts:
Admittedly, this wasn’t my favourite book. I liked the characters, even found myself letting out sharp bursts of laughter, but the plot dragged. It really felt like a chore getting through it. Being a standalone, I had expected this to be fast-paced, full of action from the get-go. Instead, we spent chapters upon chapters with the characters practicing for a university theatre production which really did nothing for the plot except in showing us how creepy one of the characters was. And with the lengthy, overly-descriptive chapters, it just kept leaving me with the feeling of wanting to put the book down and do something else.

Title: Grave Mercy (His Fair Assassin #1)
Author: Robin LaFevers
Published: April, 2012 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Thanks: Houghton Mifflin via NetGalley
Pages: 549
Rating:  
Purchase: The Book Depository

Why be the sheep, when you can be the wolf?

Seventeen-year-old Ismae escapes from the brutality of an arranged marriage into the sanctuary of the convent of St. Mortain, where the sisters still serve the gods of old. Here she learns that the god of Death Himself has blessed her with dangerous gifts—and a violent destiny. If she chooses to stay at the convent, she will be trained as an assassin and serve as a handmaiden to Death. To claim her new life, she must destroy the lives of others.

Ismae’s most important assignment takes her straight into the high court of Brittany—where she finds herself woefully under prepared—not only for the deadly games of intrigue and treason, but for the impossible choices she must make. For how can she deliver Death’s vengeance upon a target who, against her will, has stolen her heart?

Final Thoughts:
I haven’t had much experience with historical fiction. I look at them in the stores—mostly at their cool covers—and read the sometimes intriguing blurbs, but I always feel uneasy wondering how much fun the writers have had playing around with the true events. Enter Brett . . . who is never without some random YA novel he wants me read and review. And so he came to me and asked—who am I kidding? He doesn’t ask, he just says ‘I sent a book to your kindle,’ smiles, and then runs away before I can argue.