Title: Lola and the Boy Next Door (Anna and the French Kiss #2)
Author: Stephanie Perkins
Published: September, 2011 by Penguin
Pages: 384
Rating:  
Purchase: The Book Depository

Budding designer Lola Nolan doesn’t believe in fashion… she believes in costume. The more expressive the outfit – the more sparkly, more wild – the better. And life is pretty close to perfect for Lola, especially with her hot rocker boyfriend.

That is, until the Bell twins, Calliope and Cricket return to the neighbourhood and unearth a past of hurt that Lola thought was long buried. So when talented inventor Cricket steps out from his twin sister’s shadow and back into Lola’s life, she must finally face up to a lifetime of feelings for the boy next door. Could the boy from Lola’s past be the love of her future?

Final Thoughts:
Lola was awesome. She was just one of those narrators that you can’t help but connect with. She felt completely different to Anna, and I loved that. The art of fashion is her life. Designing elaborate and unique costumes for every day of the year, testing boundaries, she had this confidence, and a whole bout of insecurities. The romance may not have had the same desperate pull as Anna and St. Clair’s did, but it didn’t slow me in turning the pages. I devoured this book. Gulped it down. Consumed it. I never wanted that last page to come. But when it did, I had the biggest grin on my face. Stephanie Perkins has sold me. And now with that, comes the wait for Isla and the Happily Ever After.

Title: Boofheads
Author: Mo Johnson
Published: August, 2008 by Walker Books
Pages: 267
Rating:  
Purchase: The Book Depository

When their English teacher sets an assignment to write a letter as Mr Darcy from Pride and Prejudice, it gives Tom Sweeney the chance to prove that he is definitely not a boofhead. Getting inside a chick’s mind isn’t rocket science – he can “do the sensitive male thing” with the best of them. To prove his point, he becomes an agony aunt for his mum’s new magazine, PINK. Using the pseudonym Carrie Edwards, he ropes in his best mates, Casey and Ed, to help execute his dastardly plan. But being Carrie Edwards is harder than it looks and the three amigos’ lives begin to spiral out of control. Has it all come to an end for the Boofheads?

Final Thoughts:
The title was the first thing that reached out to me. I was in the mood for something funny and Australian, and “Boofheads” I think pretty much gave a good feeling. Not only did this novel turn out to be funny, but it was smart, engaging, and incredibly moving at times. It is such a cleverly written coming-of-age story about Tommo and his mates, Casey and Ed, as change sweeps in and threatens to tear their friendship apart. I spent the entire read hoping, and was glad to find out that it was at least on someone’s HSC reading list, because it reminded me so much of other must-read Aussie classics such as The Getting of Wisdom and Puberty Blues.

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: City of Heavenly Fire (The Mortal Instruments #6)
Author: Cassandra Clare
Published: May, 2014 by Margaret K. McElderry
Pages: 725
Rating:  
Purchase: The Book Depository

Shadowhunters and demons square off for the final showdown in the spellbinding, seductive conclusion to the #1 New York Times bestselling Mortal Instruments series.

Darkness has descended on the Shadowhunter world. Chaos and destruction overwhelm the Nephilim as Clary, Jace, Simon, and their friends band together to fight the greatest evil they have ever faced: Clary’s own brother. Sebastian Morgenstern is on the move, systematically turning Shadowhunter against Shadowhunter. Bearing the Infernal Cup, he transforms Shadowhunters into creatures of nightmare, tearing apart families and lovers as the ranks of his Endarkened army swell. Nothing in this world can defeat Sebastian, but if they journey to the realm of demons, they just might have a chance.

Lives will be lost, love sacrificed, and the whole world will change. Who will survive the explosive sixth and final installment of the Mortal Instruments series?

Final Thoughts:
This book ate my whole weekend. It was just so long. I’ve spent the past six hours on my couch getting through the last 300 pages, feeling like I just wanted it to end. Don’t get me wrong, it was a great book, a great end to the series, but it was just so…I guess ‘tiring’ is the word. All of the characters get a look in, with most getting a fair share of the time spent exploring and wrapping up their plots, but in doing this, it really slowed down the pacing with all of the jumping back and forth to all of the different perspectives. It’s probably a good thing for people who are sick of certain characters, but I just wanted to get to the end and put the heavy (you could use it as a brick) book down.

Title: Unremembered (Unremembered #1)
Author: Jessica Brody
Published: March, 2013 by Farrar, Straus, & Giroux
Pages: 320
Rating:  
Purchase: The Book Depository

When Freedom Airlines flight 121 went down over the Pacific Ocean, no one ever expected to find survivors. Which is why the sixteen-year-old girl discovered floating among the wreckage—alive—is making headlines across the globe.

Even more strange is that her body is miraculously unharmed and she has no memories of boarding the plane. She has no memories of her life before the crash. She has no memories period. No one knows how she survived. No one knows why she wasn’t on the passenger manifest. And no one can explain why her DNA and fingerprints can’t be found in a single database in the world.

Crippled by a world she doesn’t know, plagued by abilities she doesn’t understand, and haunted by a looming threat she can’t remember, she struggles to piece together her forgotten past and discover who she really is. But with every clue only comes more questions. And she’s running out of time to answer them.

Final Thoughts:
Though this took place over only a matter of days, possibly a week, Unremembered felt like such a journey, character-wise. Even from the beginning, I knew it would be. This girl woke up in the middle of the ocean, clinging to a piece of plane wreckage, no memories of herself or the world. She was an enigma, such a deviation from the usual YA heroine we usually get handed. I kept bursting into fits of laughter at all of her inane responses to things that would seem like basic knowledge to most people. I mean, this girl didn’t know what a hug was.

Title: Perfect Scoundrels (Heist Society #3)
Author: Ally Carter
Published: February, 2013 by Hyperion Books
Pages: 328
Rating:  
Purchase: The Book Depository

Katarina Bishop and W.W. Hale the fifth were born to lead completely different lives: Kat comes from a long, proud line of loveable criminal masterminds, while Hale is the son of one of the most seemingly perfect dynasties in the world. If their families have one thing in common, it’s that they both know how to stay under the radar while getting-or stealing-whatever they want. No matter the risk, the Bishops can always be counted on, but in Hale’s family, all bets are off when money is on the line.
When Hale unexpectedly inherits his grandmother’s billion dollar corporation, he quickly learns that there’s no place for Kat and their old heists in his new role. But Kat won’t let him go that easily, especially after she gets tipped off that his grandmother’s will might have been altered in an elaborate con to steal the company’s fortune. Forced to keep a level head as she and her crew fight for one of their own, Kat comes up with an ambitious and far-reaching plan that only the Bishop family would dare attempt.
To pull it off, Kat is prepared to do the impossible, but first, she has to decide if she’s willing to save her boyfriend’s company if it means losing the boy.

Final Thoughts:
After Uncommon Criminals fell short of the initial spark I found in the beginning of the series, I was admittedly a little worried, even hesitant, in starting Perfect Scoundrels. It started out intriguing enough, and by half way through I was settling into the whole ‘episode of the week’ vibe. But by the end my doubts had re-emerged as to whether it would be worth it for someone like me to continue with the possible fourth novel (still to be announced). Who knows?

Title: Anna and the French Kiss (Anna and the French Kiss #1)
Author: Stephanie Perkins
Published: January, 2010 by Penguin
Pages: 416
Rating:  
Purchase: The Book Depository

Anna has everything figured out – she was about to start senior year with her best friend, she had a great weekend job, and her huge work crush looked as if it might finally be going somewhere… Until her dad decides to send her 4383 miles away to Paris. On her own.

But despite not speaking a word of French, Anna finds herself making new friends, including Etienne, the smart, beautiful boy from the floor above. But he’s taken – and Anna might be too. Will a year of romantic near-missed end with the French kiss she’s been waiting for?

Final Thoughts:
I loved the book. I mean, really…never-wanted-to-put-it-down kind of loved it. I kept finding myself reading extra chapters even after I’d told myself I needed to sleep. It was that kind of book. Although it came out years before Fangirl, I found it gave me a similar kind of giddy rush while reading. I was immersed within their world, really caring about their lives and desperately hoping they would just get things together already. This is a relationship in a book—the good, the bad, all of it. I wasn’t even finished reading it and I was already online ordering the companion novels. I NEED more of Stephanie Perkins. She made me believe in YA romance again.