Endless, by Amanda Gray

Release Date: September 10th, 2013
Age Group: Young Adult
Publisher: Month9Books
Source: Publisher through NetGalley
Overall: 3 Monkeys
Interest: Romance
Categories: Paranormal, Romance
Read from October to November 2013

Summary:

Jenny Kramer knows she isn't normal. After all, not everybody can see the past lives of people around them.

When she befriends Ben Daulton, resident new boy, the pair stumble on an old music box with instructions for “mesmerization” and discover they may have more in common than they thought. Like a past life.

Using the instructions in the music box, Ben and Jenny share a dream that transports them to Romanov Russia and leads them to believe they have been there together before. But they weren't alone. Nikolai, the mysterious young man Jenny has been seeing in her own dreams was there, too. When Nikolai appears next door, Jenny is forced to acknowledge that he has travelled through time and space to find her. Doing so means he has defied the laws of time, and the Order, an ominous organization tasked with keeping people in the correct time, is determined to send him back. 

While Ben, Jenny and Nikolai race against the clock - and the Order - Jenny and Nikolai discover a link that joins them in life - and beyond death.

My Opinion:
I picked up Endless from NetGalley because of its beautiful cover. Isn't it just lovely? And then I read the description and I knew I had to read it. 

Unfortunately, it's ending left more to be said than the solutions it gave, making me somewhat mad for having read a book so beautiful only to have it end like it did. 

Don't get me wrong, it is a really nice book. But, as far as I know, it's a standalone; when it should be the first in a series. 

The MC, Jenny, is a lovable 16-year-old, with a weird habit of wearing fingerless gloves. Why? Because she sees things when she touches people. So far so good. Gray has a nice, solid start. Jenny's chapters intertwine with ones where we see a teenage Russian girl, named Maria. 

And the story begins to weave itself into life. I really enjoyed most of the book, but as Gray began introducing us to the reality of the conflict, she started leaving behind things that she'd written at the beginning. 

I was very unsatisfied with its ending. It's left quite open, but it doesn't give the closure some of the subjects needed. Jenny's ability is forgotten halfway through the book and we get no explanations as to what the Order would really do. We get hints, yes, but no satisfactory ending. 

I felt like I was reading a rushed ending.

Anyway, it IS a lovely book. And perhapd you'll see more in its ending than I did.

Crash Into You (Pushing the Limits, #3), by Katie McGarry

Release Date: November 26th, 2013
Age Group: Young Adult
Publisher: Harlequin Teen
Source: Publisher through NetGalley
Overall: 5 Monkeys
Interest: Romance, Bad Boy/Good Girl
Categories: Contemporary, Romance, Series
Goodreads / Katie McGarry's Website

Summary:

From acclaimed author Katie McGarry comes an explosive new tale of a good girl with a reckless streak, a street-smart guy with nothing to lose, and a romance forged in the fast lane 
The girl with straight As, designer clothes and the perfect life-that's who people expect Rachel Young to be. So the private-school junior keeps secrets from her wealthy parents and overbearing brothers...and she's just added two more to the list. One involves racing strangers down dark country roads in her Mustang GT. The other? Seventeen-year-old Isaiah Walker-a guy she has no business even talking to. But when the foster kid with the tattoos and intense gray eyes comes to her rescue, she can't get him out of her mind. 
Isaiah has secrets, too. About where he lives, and how he really feels about Rachel. The last thing he needs is to get tangled up with a rich girl who wants to slum it on the south side for kicks-no matter how angelic she might look. 
But when their shared love of street racing puts both their lives in jeopardy, they have six weeks to come up with a way out. Six weeks to discover just how far they'll go to save each other.

My Opinion:
Wow, I'm slow. I had no idea this book was part of a series when I requested it on NetGalley. Anyway, the book stands on its own, and what a great choice I made by requesting it!

The story of Rachel and Isaiah is fast and dangerous, just like what they most love: speed. They seek freedom at all costs, freedom from their families, from their school life, from everything that overwhelms them.

I seriously love a good bad boy-good girl book, and this one was just brilliant! I love how it alternated between both main characters, giving us a much wider take on their story.

Isaiah is a guy who puts up a front for everyone, he wants people to believe he's bad news. But then along comes Rachel, who can see past his walls and into the boy he really is. Both characters are from broken homes: Isaiah is a foster care system kid, while Rachel's existance is an excuse to make up for the death of an older sister she never knew.

I had no idea, none, about how bad a panic attack can be. This thing, this disease that Rachel suffers from... it's just WOW. Nice work, Katie, you really changed how I view them. I now know how serious they can get if whoever suffers from them doesn't get help. 

Where can I get myself an Isaiah? The tough bloke with the soft interior... I could just feel his love for Rachel through the pages, and I LOVED (kudos Katie!) how Rachel changed him and his need to always be in control. He learned how to fully trust her, and that just shows that he really, really loved her, and my heart just... <3 

Both of them get in real deep trouble with Eric, resident ruler of the streets, and they need to pay off their debt to him before something bad happens. The pressure of this drama, combined with Rachel's older brothers' bullying, really made her ill. 

I had to keep myself from screaming at my Kindle, they were so, so MEAN. Except for Rachel's twin, Ethan, they all pushed her so hard, I wanted to beat them until they felt the same pain I was getting from Rachel. (They eventually begin to change, but still. This just goes to show that you can be as rich as a king and still have a crappy family.)

Then there were the friends, who I now know have their own stories. Noah and Echo were lovely, all suportive, Logan was wicked cool and Abby... LOVED her. I would love to read her story.

The road to a good place will be difficult for these two, but they'll get there safe and... relatively sound. 

I'll of course be reading the previous books soon, I wish I'd read them before reading this one!
PRE-ORDER CRASH INTO YOU NOW!