DNF: Countdown, by Michelle Rowen

Release Date: October 1st, 2013
Age Group: Young Adult
Publisher: Harlequin Teen
Source: Publisher through NetGalley
Overall: 1 Monkey
Interest: Dystopia
Categories: Dystopia, Sci-Fi, Romance
Goodreads 

Summary:

3 seconds left to live. Once the countdown starts, it cannot be stopped. 
2 pawns thrown into a brutal underground reality game. 
Kira Jordan survived her family's murder and months on plague-devastated city streets with hard-won savvy and a low-level psi ability. She figures she can handle anything. Until she wakes up in a barren room, chained next to the notorious Rogan Ellis. 
1 reason Kira will never, ever trust Rogan. Even though both their lives depend on it. 
Their every move is controlled and televised for a vicious exclusive audience. And as Kira's psi skill unexpectedly grows and Rogan's secrets prove evermore deadly, Kira's only chance of survival is to risk trusting him as much as her instincts. Even if that means running head-on into the one trap she can't escape. 
GAME OVER

My Opinion:

To me, first chapters are everything. They're what define if I'll stick with a book or not. 

Sadly, Countdown's first chapters didn't do it for me. I got no substantial backstory (only a brief mention of some Great Plague, which, by the way, wasn't explained in the following chapters). 

Until chapter five I had no idea how Kira looked like. She did detail her and Rogan's clothes, but it was a long list I soon forgot and didn't feel like going back to check again. 

And Kira's power... it just felt forced. The narrative didn't do it for me either. 

In the second stage of the game, Kira magically finds the bell to get them to the next level. Here there's a passing mention of her life before, trying to give the story some backdrop (why would she be so comfortable going through the Dumpster?). But just as easily as it appears, it vanishes, and we're left with Kira and Rogan meeting a random man who wants to fix Rogan's shoulder. This did not seem plausible to me. Kira wanted to run at the first opportunity, so why would she act so nonchalant in front of a stranger who is clearly working for the people who've put her in this game? 

It all happens too fast and it doesn't get a chance to be properly developed. Five chapters were more than enough for me. 

Sorry, Michelle!

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!

DNF: The Children of the Mist, by Jenny Brigalow

Release Date: September 1st, 2013
Age Group: Young Adult
Publisher: Walker Books for Young Readers
Source: Publisher through NetGalley
Overall: 2 Monkeys
Interest: Vampires, Werewolves, Aussie Lit
Categories: Paranormal, Romance, Series
Goodreads / Amazon / Jenny Brigalow's Website 
Read in September-October 2013 

Summary:

An original paranormal YA about an unconventional girl, an unconventional boy, their extraordinary transformations, and the secrets of the Scottish Highlands.

When skater girl Morven Smith turns sixteen, she develops boobs, acute appendicitis...and a pair of pointy teeth. While she is stunned by her metamorphosis into vampire, her best mate, the enigmatic Zest, is not. For the young werewolf, Morven’s transformation is an answer to his lonely prayers. 

But they are unable to celebrate their mutual paranormalcy for long — there are too many dangers, too much suspicion, and too many questions. It’s only in Scotland that Morven can learn the truth about her past. But she discovers more than she bargained for when she meets her birth family — an ancient feud between vampires and werewolves. They may both be Children of the Mist, but only one species can survive.

My Opinion:

I first decided to read this book because I really like aussie books, I like their cool idioms and reading about places that I'd love to visit someday, in this case, Australia and Scotland. 

So I met Morven, a skater girl, 16-year-old and with a penchant for adrenaline. The first couple of chapters introduced her and her friend Zest. I read about them skating, trespassing private property and freeing a lively Dog, but I still couldn't feel anything for them. 

I couldn't tell you why, but I couldn't bring myself to care for these characters. Sometimes I'd get excited about a situation, like when Morven starts to transform, to Become, and nurses and doctors try to pin her down and stop her from escaping. 

But then the book would go back to its previous slow pace and lost its grasp on me. I read half of the book and still, I couldn't get into it. I really tried to finish it, but it's been a long while and I need to read the other books on my Review List. 

Maybe the book will make up for these things I'm listing here in its second half, but I'm not tempted to read it any time soon. Sorry, Jenny! I really hate it when I can't even finish a book. 

If any of you have read the whole thing, let me know how it ends!

xo, Ella

Wild Cards (Wild Cards, #1), by Simone Elkeles

Release Date: October 1st, 2013
Age Group: Young Adult
Publisher: Walker Books for Young Readers
Source: Publisher through NetGalley
Overall: 5 Monkeys
Interest: Romance, Simone Elkeles
Categories: Contemporary, Sports, Romance, Stand-Alone, Family Issues
Goodreads / Amazon / Simone Elkeles's Website
Read in September 2013

Summary:

After getting kicked out of boarding school, bad boy Derek Fitzpatrick has no choice but to live with his ditzy stepmother while his military dad is deployed. Things quickly go from bad to worse when he finds out she plans to move them back to her childhood home in Illinois. Derek’s counting the days before he can be on his own, and the last thing he needs is to get involved with someone else’s family drama.
Ashtyn Parker knows one thing for certain--people you care about leave without a backward glance. A football scholarship would finally give her the chance to leave. So she pours everything into winning a state championship, until her boyfriend and star quarterback betrays them all by joining their rival team. Ashtyn needs a new game plan, but it requires trusting Derek—someone she barely knows, someone born to break the rules. Is she willing to put her heart on the line to try and win it all?

My Thoughts:

Simone has done it again! This woman can really make you fall for her characters! There are so many things I loved about this book, I'll just list them for you:

1. A strong female MC. Ashtyn is such a good and independent (American) football player that her teammates choose her over her boyfriend to be the team's captain. When she first meets Derek, she brandishes a pitchfork at him to protect herself. She can take care of herself and she lets everyone know it.

2. The bad boy with a soft heart. Admit it. You love them. I love them. We all do. Derek has the Elkeles stamp all over him: hard exterior, but really loving heart. I just wanted to hug him all the time.

3. A really cool set of secondary characters. I mean, how great are Ashtyn's boy friends? Her relationship with them is amazing. She's one of them, but she can be a girly girl, too. And I just LOVED them whenever they stepped up to protect her. Those are real friends.

4. A greatly built story that has actual meaning, as opposed to just being there for the sake of giving the characters an environment to meet and fall in love. Derek has lost his mother, his father is overseas with the Navy and his stepmother is a 25-year-old girl with a little son and a baby on the way. Ashtyn's mum is MIA, her father barely gives her the time of day (but for ACTUAL reasons, not just to be out of her way!) and her sister's coming back home after seven years of having no contact with her. These are the conditions in which Derek and Ashtyn meet, and they shape up their story in a beautiful, beautiful way.

5. Sports in a Contemporary book! I don't understand squat about American football, I just think about it like I would rugby, but Simone really made me like the sport! I usually avoid Contemps with sports, but since this was an Elkeles book, there was just no way I was going to miss reading it.

Yes, your heart will twinge a little in pain, but trust me, it'll live. This is just a really lovely book meant to be read when you want to feel a little bit of loving.

Pre-order the book now through the links listed above.
Happy reading,
Ella