Anatomy of a Single Girl Review

TITLE Anatomy of a Single Girl (Anatomy #2)
AUTHOR Daria Snadowsky
PUBLICATION January 8th 2013 by Delacorte Books for Young Readers
READ May 20 to 21, 2013
SOURCE From the author for review

With Judy Blume-like honesty and insight, this sequel to Anatomy of a Boyfriend is about life after first love--romance, sex, friendship, family, and the ups and downs of life as a single girl.

After everything that happened—my first boyfriend, my first time, my first breakup—jumping back into the dating game seemed like the least healthy thing I could do. It’s not that I didn’t want to fall in love again, since that’s about the best feeling ever. But as a busy college premed still raw from heartbreak, which is the worst feeling ever, I figured I’d lie low for a while. Of course, as soon as I stopped looking for someone, an impossibly amazing—and devastatingly cute—guy came along, and I learned that having a new boyfriend is the quickest way to recover from losing your old one.

The moment we got together, all my preconceptions about romance and sex were turned upside down. I discovered physical and emotional firsts I never knew existed. I learned to let go of my past by living in the present. It was thrilling. It was hot. It was just what the doctor ordered.

But I couldn’t avoid my future forever.

In Daria Snadowsky’s daring follow-up to Anatomy of a Boyfriend, eighteen-year-old Dominique explores the relationship between love and lust, and the friendships that see us through.

And the series continues to be great! I jumped into ANATOMY OF A SINGLE GIRL immediately upon finishing ANATOMY OF A BOYFRIEND and it did not disappoint. We get to see a very different side of our MC, Dom and we also get to revisit some of our favorite relationships from the first.

We meet Dom upon finishing up her first year of college as she is headed home to spend the summer. Good old Calvin is dropping her off and we see that she is still torn on her feelings for this funny guy. I was happy to see that she was still questioning her emotions for him and that she hadn’t just jumped in with him head first just to get over Wes. Once she is home she meets another hottie, Guy and starts to experiment a bit more with him. This exploratory side of Dom was new, and I liked it! She still had her cautious characteristics to her (forcing an STD test and vaccination records out of the guy) but at the same time she let herself live a bit and feel a bit. We also see a new dynamic to Dom and Amy’s friendship. Now Dom is the single girl and Amy is the one in the relationship. We got to see a more vulnerable side of Amy and more ups and downs when it came to the two of them which was great because friendships are filled with ups and downs.

The sex is still ever present in this one and it is a bit more experienced. Seeing Dom take charge in the sack and really figure out her body was great! I love how the series doesn’t portray sex as something that is perfect for each person in the act every time. I think there is definitely a learning curve to finding what feels good for each partner and Snadowsky really captured that in her signature completely honest way. Hell, the book even made me want to try a few new things!

Once again, Dom’s parents are very present in the story and brought on the laughs. These two are adorable and I adore all the scenes with them. They are definitely struggling with accepting the fact that their little girl isn’t so little anymore but they are also looking at their lives and deciding what’s best for them. They break some news to Dom in the story that made me really happy because it’s nice to see that once your kids are all grown up you can start thinking about yourself a lot more like you did before children.

The closure that we get with these characters and relationships is definitely satisfying. As the novel explores moving on after your first love, figuring out your body, and also fighting to keep relationships that are important to you in your life I came to really connect with these people. This is definitely a series that I will be recommending to any female friends that I have because I think everyone can appreciate the honesty in them and the good laughs that they throw at you.

Anatomy of a Boyfriend Review

TITLE Anatomy of a Boyfriend (Anatomy #1)
AUTHOR Daria Snadowsky
PUBLICATION January 9th 2007 by Delacorte Books for Young Readers
READ May 19 to 20, 2013
SOURCE From the author for review

Before this all happened, the closest I'd ever come to getting physical with a guy was playing the board game Operation. Okay, so maybe that sounds pathetic, but it's not like there were any guys at my high school who I cared to share more than three words with, let alone my body.

Then I met Wes, a track star senior from across town. Maybe it was his soulful blue eyes, or maybe my hormones just started raging. Either way, I was hooked. And after a while, he was too. I couldn't believe how intense my feelings became, or the fact that I was seeing—and touching—parts of the body I'd only read about in my Gray's Anatomy textbook. You could say Wes and I experienced a lot of firsts together that spring. It was scary. It was fun. It was love.

And then came the fall.

I was recommended this series by my good friend Christina of A Reader of Fictions so when I got a review request from the author I was quick to accept. Am I ever happy that I did! I ate this book up. I couldn’t put it down and ended up finishing it in a day. I think what I loved the most about it was how authentic it all felt. I loved the characterizations and how I found myself thinking “been there, girlfriend” so many times throughout.

Dominique starts out as an inexperienced high school senior and we get to follow her into college and through her first serious relationship. I could totally relate to so many things Dom went through. We get to watch her experience so many firsts; her first boyfriend, her first time, her first time with herself, her first days at college and it’s all done in a completely relatable voice. Dom isn’t perfect and she doesn’t know how to handle everything that is thrown at her which was perfect in the story. She was flawed and had some super selfish thoughts as the story wore on, it brought me back to when I was in her shoes and feeling the same things.

The relationships in the novel are well done too. I absolutely loved Dom’s friendship with Amy. They were besties and so honest with one another. Their conversations were brutally honest and came to show that they were very opposite of one another. While Amy was always ready to throw caution to the wind and jump into everything headfirst, Dom was much more calculated in her actions and I loved what they brought out of one another. Dom also has a solid relationship with both of her parents who are very present in the story, yay for the rare appearance of parents! Her dad’s reactions always garnered a chuckle from me because he was such a dad, nobody was good enough for his little girl.

The main relationship to take the stage here is of course between Dom and her first boyfriend Wes. The growth of their feelings for one another and the attachment that Dom felt to him was spot on. When you have your first love and give yourself to a person for the first time there is definitely an attachment that could be seen as pretty frightening. The clinginess was definitely something that I remember and also the awkwardness. The sex scenes in this novel are plenty and they aren’t uber sensual scenes that turn a reader on, but real first times never are. I appreciated how there was always a curiousness and a want to explore everything but also an underlying nervousness. I mean these are things that our bodies are made to do but at first they are definitely frightening and I think Daria captured that almost perfectly.

This is a new series that I will be recommending to everyone and I can’t wait to finish writing this review because I am going to be jumping straight into the second book. I’m excited to see how Dom fares in college and for the series to take on a much more New Adult feel as we see her out on her own. This was a super fun novel to read and if you are looking for a real story about firsts then definitely pick this on up.

Blog Tour: Bitter Angel by Megan Hand

TITLE Bitter Angel
AUTHOR Megan Hand
PUBLICATION April 1, 2013
READ May 18, 2013
SOURCE From AToMR Tours for the blog tour

Torn between two realities.
A choice that will mean life or death.
But she won’t know anything… until she wakes up.

College sophomore, Lila Spencer lived Friday night twice. She doesn’t know how or why, just that she did. As if she split in half and went in two different directions.

Out clubbing with her friends, Heather and Nilah, the girls rock it out and party hard. What begins as an innocent night will lead to a deadly fight for their lives, and Lila might be their only chance for survival.

In bed with her boyfriend, Jay, Lila is safe and warm as she drifts to sleep in the arms of the man she loves. Until she is sucked into a horrifying nightmare of her friends' deaths.

As the sunlight warms her face on Saturday morning, the two scenarios collide. But there can be only one outcome. Will she wake up in her warm bed with Jay by her side, devastated and grieving for her friends? Or was she there to save them?

The answer is just the beginning.

This book and me definitely had out ups and downs. It started off with and bang and was really interesting. I liked how we got to live the same night in two parallel ways and I liked how those two nights essentially wove together in a really good way. After we were initiated into the story and the actual plot got rolling I found that I had to stretch my imagination a bit and power through some definite lulls as I went.

Lila lives this particular Friday night twice. In one scenario she goes out clubbing with her friends and ends up getting abducted by a group of college guys who want to use them as play things. In the other she stays home with her boyfriend and has to deal with the things from the first scenario happening to her two best friends who still decided to go. I had expected that Lila would wake up and see how the night could play out and have to make the decision of what she was going to do and attempt to change the outcomes either way but instead I got more of a vigilante justice story as she heads off and attempts to cut everything off before it happens. This is where I had to stretch my imagination a bit and for the most part I could but there were numerous instances where I was definitely rolling my eyes. The most interesting was when she was on a stake out and had gone what could have been maybe 24-36 hours without eating and proceeds to hop into a garbage can and go through the bags until she finds some ok looking Chinese and then eats it. That was pretty darn far fetched to me, no matter the situation.

As for the characters I have to say that, for the most part, I liked Lila. She was incredibly head strong and determined (and she also proved to be pretty resourceful I guess: See above.) Her inner dialogue did grate on me a bit. She was constantly thinking about how her friends needed to stay in the dorm and her intense love for cuddling with her boyfriend Jay and it did detach me from the story and jar me out of scenes quite a bit. I also came to really like Jay. In the beginning I was annoyed at how perfect he was, he seemed to be the perfect looking, perfect acting guy but as the story wore on we saw that he did make some bad decisions and have his share of flaws. The relationship between Lila and her two friends Nilah and Heather was what really stood out to me. I loved how these girls had grown up together and felt that we really got a sense of how close they were, everyone needs some sisters to put before their misters.

While this wasn’t a perfect novel I was sucked into the story and had a good time watching everything unfold. I enjoyed some of the characterizations but did struggle going along with some of the plot points. I think the story could have been much stronger had Lila went about the evening one way or the other and tried to stop stuff while it was happening but taking it at face value it was still a good ride.

Megan's Website | Twitter | Goodreads

At twelve, Megan decided to write a novel. A month later, she quit. A reading junkie by nature, she started writing again in her twenties as a way to get the voices out, because who wouldn't want to create a Real Living Person out of thin air? Megan also plays the piano and sings. She teaches little kids and takes pictures of pretty butterflies. She eats way too much chocolate, is sort of a mad scientist with her blender, and spends an unhealthy amount of time LOLing on Facebook and Twitter. She lives in Ohio with her husband and very smiley son. Bitter Angel is her first published novel.

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Book Girls Don't Cry - Books That Brought On The Tears

This week our topic was suggested by Kathy from I Read, I Write, I Review, she wanted to know what some of the books that have made us cry are.  Now, I have made it pretty clear to anyone who talks to me on Twitter or reads my contemporary reviews that my emotions are pretty much a hot mess.  I often find myself crying at the most random thing, from a sweet commercial to a sad movie, anything can spark my tear ducts to start leaking.  I used to be able to reign it in a bit more but it seems that ever since I popped out my kids my hormones (and emotions) have just gone haywire.

A lot of people would think that I would be embarrassed by this or that it would be something I tried not to talk about but nope, I love me a good cry, I really do! After something, such as one of the books mentioned below, touches me and brings out all my emotions I feel so refreshed after that I had let everything out.  Maybe when the tears do come I let out some tears that I have been holding in for other things in my life and that's why it feels so good, who knows, but it does!  So here are some books that made my eyes leak (click the cover to read my review):


Yes, one of the books that got me going was a zombie book (laughs at self.)  But anyway, all of these touched me in an extremely emotional way and they are all books that I am quick to recommend in any book related conversation. This Is Not A Test got me because of Sloane's family history and the memories that she looked back on throughout. What Happens Next and If You Find Me dealt heavily with rape and dealing with the aftermath, which is always something I find very hard to read.  Before I Fall touched me so immensely because of the transformation that the MC goes through and the way all the threads of the day come together in the end.  And If I Stay and Where She Went were just amazing all around.  In If I Stay I was wrecked over Mia's dilemma and the position that her mind was in whereas Where She Went had me reeling over Adam's heartbreak.  All of these novels are ones that you should have read by now, and if you haven't they should definitely be on your TBR.

So what are some books that made your eyes leak?

Don't forget to submit your suggestions for future topics.

Stacking the Shelves (56)

It's that time of the week again! This week I got some sweet ARC's, a prize came in the mail and I also did a little book shopping!  Here are my new goodies:

I got The Beautiful and the Cursed after winning it in a giveaway on Xpresso Reads and I got Spark from St. Martins Press.  I don't have the first book in that series but I guess I am going to have to grab it so I can start on the series.

On Tuesday after putting the brats to bed I snuck off to Chapters and got some contemporary reads that I think look really good! They both sound pretty gritty and right up my alley.

eBook haul (click cover for Goodreads):

A big thank you to Giselle, Randomhouse Canada, Flux Books, Disney Book Group and St. Martin's Press this week!

In case you missed it, Giselle and I have decided to open up our popular Cover Madness Giveaway so that everyone can get in on the fun.  This is always the biggest event for my blog so be sure to click the button below to visit the page and get your name on that linky!

Charm & Strange Review

TITLE Charm & Strange
AUTHOR Stephanie Kuehn
PUBLICATION June 11th 2013 by St. Martin's Griffin
READ May 15, 2013
SOURCE St. Martins Pree via Netgalley for review

When you’ve been kept caged in the dark, it’s impossible to see the forest for the trees. It’s impossible to see anything, really. Not without bars . . .

Andrew Winston Winters is at war with himself.

He’s part Win, the lonely teenager exiled to a remote Vermont boarding school in the wake of a family tragedy. The guy who shuts all his classmates out, no matter the cost.

He’s part Drew, the angry young boy with violent impulses that control him. The boy who spent a fateful, long-ago summer with his brother and teenage cousins, only to endure a secret so monstrous it led three children to do the unthinkable.

Over the course of one night, while stuck at a party deep in the New England woods, Andrew battles both the pain of his past and the isolation of his present.

Before the sun rises, he’ll either surrender his sanity to the wild darkness inside his mind or make peace with the most elemental of truths—that choosing to live can mean so much more than not dying.

So, yeah. What the heck did I just read? I have absolutely no idea how to go about reviewing CHARM & STRANGE, it is most definitely strange I just can’t decide if it held any charm. The one thing that is sticking out in my mind right now is that I feel just as confused upon finishing the novel as I felt at the 50% mark of the novel and I’m sure that’s not a good thing. Since I don’t know how to put my thoughts in review form for this one I am just going to talk about what I liked and didn’t like about it.

What I didn’t like: I didn’t like any of the characters in this novel. Everyone that we met incredibly was unlikeable and at no point showed any form of redemption. The main character Drew/Win was someone that I was never able to get a hold of. He seemed like he was a total outcast in his school but then when people were talking to him or about him he had all the signs of being a popular (if feared) athlete in his boarding school. I understand that he was quick to anger and troubled but I would have liked to get more of an idea of what his social status was. No one in his family treated him well at all, well except for his sister Siobhan but we only see her once and it was super weird. There is lots of mention of his mother but we never actually get to experience anything with her she is merely mentioned in passing here and there. There is so much that I want to talk about here but every time I think about how to talk about Win’s family I am taken into spoiler territory and we just can’t have that.

What I really didn’t like with this one is that I have so many questions upon finishing. I feel like everything was wrapped up so quickly and much too neatly and so many strings were just left flailing in the wind. I get why Win was the way that he was, I do, but there were so many little details that were mentioned about his immediate and extended family that were never mentioned again. I was excited at the end when he got to where he was going because I really thought there would be dialogue there that would bring everything together, but there wasn’t. I was left with far too many loose ends for me to look at this as a satisfying read. Had everything tied together more this would have easily been a 5 star read for me but as it stands I just don’t think it held the merit for that.

Did I enjoy reading the novel? Yes, I did. It was an enthralling, fast read that I could not put it down. I loved the ominous tone of it that was maintained expertly throughout but I don’t feel like it went anywhere. The whole book I was waiting for a plot to show up and it somewhat did in the end but there was just too much that happened that just doesn’t fit. I thought that if I sat down and thought about it more and talked to some friends who had read it things would start lining up but it’s just getting me more befuddled so I am going to stop thinking about it. This was a very strange beast indeed, it’s one that I want everyone around me to read because I want to hear everyone’s viewpoint on it. I really wish I felt a bit more conclusive about it and my rating could reflect the fun I had reading it but there are just too many loose threads for me.

Boy Nobody Tour Stop

TITLE Boy Nobody (Boy Nobody #1)
AUTHOR Allen Zadoff
PUBLICATION June 11th 2013 by Little, Brown & CO
READ May 13, 2013
SOURCE From Orchard Books for review

Boy Nobody is the perennial new kid in school, the one few notice and nobody thinks much about. He shows up in a new high school, in a new town, under a new name, makes few friends and doesn't stay long. Just long enough for someone in his new friend's family to die -- of "natural causes." Mission accomplished, Boy Nobody disappears, and moves on to the next target.

When his own parents died of not-so-natural causes at the age of eleven, Boy Nobody found himself under the control of The Program, a shadowy government organization that uses brainwashed kids as counter-espionage operatives. But somewhere, deep inside Boy Nobody, is somebody: the boy he once was, the boy who wants normal things (like a real home, his parents back), a boy who wants out. And he just might want those things badly enough to sabotage The Program's next mission.

I waited a bit to write my review and was really worried how that would affect it but I learned something in this process. The way to bring it all back is to describe the plot and happenings to my husband and feed off his reactions. As I described the twists & turns and characters in BOY NOBODY to him he got excited because it played out like an action movie that he would love to watch and through that I was brought back to the excited place I was in while reading it.

Ben is an assassin. He is a highly trained operative who was brought up to be nobody. He knows how to blend into situations and get out completely unnoticed. I loved his inner dialogue, the way that he read every situation as a series of options he could take to deal with it. The novel definitely had a Jason Bourne feel which is always welcome with me. For someone who was so detached from everything I came to really like him and connect with him. When he meets Sam he starts to have emotions that are completely foreign to him and memories start to resurface that he had no idea were in his psyche.

The romance in this one could definitely be looked at as pretty insta lovey but I think you just have to take it for what it is here. He has 5 days to complete a mission and get a girl to fall for him, which did not prove easy once he got to know the target. Sam was a feisty one and while she did seem to fall for him rather fast she never made it easy on him at all. These two were pretty evenly matched, they could read every thing the other did and they didn’t hesitate to call them on it. I loved how we would experience the thoughts in Ben’s head and in a snap Sam was calling him out on exactly the head game he was planning to play. I love a girl who isn’t afraid to speak her mind.

The novel also comes along with it’s fair share of twists and I enjoyed watching the bad guy change from page to page. I never knew who to trust completely and I questioned everyone at least once. For a YA book it dealt with a lot of politics, which is usually a huge turn off for me, but there was just the right amount of angst and high school drama thrown in that it didn’t bug me at all. I actually came out really liking how it tied in the Israeli government and also some American politicians.

A strong start to a thriller series that is sure to be a hit, I don’t think this is one to be missed. Filled with action from beginning to end, this is one you will not be able to put down. If you are looking for a story with some endearing characters, great twists and pulse pounding action definitely give this one a go.

Interview with Allen Zadoff

Convince us to read BOY NOBODY twitter style (140 characters or less)

Brainwashed teen assassin wakes up and finds himself torn between his mission and a girl he loves. Will he survive?

What inspired you to write BOY NOBODY?

Boy Nobody himself inspired me. He appeared one day out of the blue when I was writing a comic novel. Suddenly I felt the presence of this boy without a name, a teen assassin with a secret past who moved from place to place, fitting in everywhere but belonging nowhere. I was immediately fascinated by him, and then he started to tell me about his life in short, intense sentences. I was hooked.

Which of the characters in the novel do you identify with most?

I’m a big fan of Howard, the geeky teen hacker who befriends Boy Nobody and may or may not help him in future missions. (I don’t want to give anything away.) Howard gets beaten up in school every day, but instead of plotting revenge, he funnels his hurt and anger towards his creativity. He uses his skills to become a “white hat”, a computer hacker dedicated to doing good and improving things on the web rather than breaking the law.

What has been your favourite part of publishing your novels?

There are two elements to writing that delight me. The first is the actual process of creation. It’s a combination of sweat and magic. If I’m willing to sweat (i.e. do the work), the magic sometimes happens. The second element is sharing my work with readers. As I write this, Boy Nobody is on the verge of publishing in the UK and US. This book that I’ve lived with mostly privately for two years is about to make its way out into the world. I’m nervous and excited, but also relieved that the time has finally arrived.

Being an author can definitely require some thick skin.  What advice do you have for up & coming authors on how to deal with the ups & downs of being a published author?

You’re right. There are a lot of ups and downs. This is true of life in general, but it’s particularly true of a writer’s life. It helps me to remember that not everybody is going to like my work, and they’re not supposed to. Of course I care what people think and I hope they enjoy my work, but It’s a mistake to define myself by what others think of me. This is not just the writer’s journey, it’s all of our journeys. If you need everyone in school or work to love you, then you are going to be very disappointed, right?

This or That:
Coffee or tea? Morning coffee, afternoon tea.
Summer or winter? I live in L.A. I miss winter.
Chocolate or vanilla? Vanilla.
Comedy or horror? Comedy.
Movies or reading? Reading, reading, reading.

Allen's Website | Twitter | Goodreads

Allen Zadoff is the author of three YA novels. His debut novel, Food, Girls, and Other Things I Can't Have won the Sid Fleischman Humor Award and was a YALSA selection for Most Popular Paperbacks of 2012. His second novel was My Life, the Theater, and Other Tragedies, the story of a techie hiding from life after a family tragedy. His most recent novel Since You Left Me is set in Los Angeles and tells the story of a religious school student who doesn't believe. He also wrote the memoir for adults, Hungry:Lessons Learned on the Journey from Fat to Thin.

Allen is a graduate of Cornell University and the Harvard University Institute for Advanced Theatre Training. Look for Boy Nobody, a YA thriller series, coming summer 2013 from Little Brown.

Bruised Review

TITLE Bruised
AUTHOR Sarah Skilton
PUBLICATION March 5th 2013 by Amulet/Abrams
READ May 11 to 12, 2013
SOURCE Purchased

When Imogen, a sixteen-year-old black belt in Tae Kwon Do, freezes during a holdup at a local diner, the gunman is shot and killed by the police, and she blames herself for his death. Before the shooting, she believed that her black belt made her stronger than everyone else -- more responsible, more capable. But now her sense of self has been challenged and she must rebuild her life, a process that includes redefining her relationship with her family and navigating first love with the boy who was at the diner with her during the shootout. With action, romance, and a complex heroine, Bruised introduces a vibrant new voice to the young adult world -- full of dark humor and hard truths.

I always find stories that deal with a traumatic incident and how it affects the characters minds (and essentially their day to day life) utterly fascinating. BRUISED dealt with just that. After Imogen lives through being one of the few patrons in a diner when it is held up she has blocked much of the event out of her mind. As she struggles with clearing the clouds in her memory of that day and with how mad she is at herself for not doing anything an interesting story unfolds but it left me longing for more of a connection to the characters.

Imogen is a black belt in Tae Kwon Do, her ranking and the fact that she didn’t do anything to take the gunman down during the heist is wreaking havoc inside her. Immediately after the event I really felt for her and I was sad that she was struggling so much with her self confidence. I could understand why she was beating herself up over it after having gotten so far and mastered her colors in TKD. But somewhere along the way her inner turmoil just lost me and I started to feel as if it was a bit grating. This is entirely personal and I know that there are tons of people who disagree with me but I started to kind of glaze over to her emotions. I longed for more to happen outside of her strife and inner dialogue that was essentially beating herself up.

She does make a great connection with Ricky (another survivor of the heist) he was a sweet guy but failed to become more than that. I think there were quite a few missed connections in the story and looking back there was so much potential. Imogen is in a fight with her very best friend and I wanted to get to see them work it out, she is having a hard time accepting her brother’s sleazy ways and I wanted to see them work it out, but there was so much turmoil which led up to some very short resolutions in the end. I think had I gone on more of the ups & downs in these relationships I would have connected to them more, but it was pretty much always down and I never got to experience the peaks. One relationship that I could connect to was between Imogen and her father. As someone who has a father who struggles with overeating greatly affecting his health I could feel the frustrations that she felt when looking at him. I latched onto those moments and was happy that we got to go through more with those two than with the relationships I mentioned previously.

An interesting look at PTSD and how it can affect a teenagers life, BRUISED was a read that kept me entertained for a day and a half but it’s not one that I will be thinking about for a long time to come. I think this is a solid read but I wish I had gotten more out of it. But hey, look at all the glowing reviews on Goodreads, maybe you will get something more out of it than me.

Book Girls - I Wish I Could Have Loved You

You know those books that everyone around you love so hard and recommended to you saying you will love them too, but then you're left wondering what all the hubbub is about? This week is all about those books. Ruby from Feed Me Books Now!!! suggested that we talk about "books you wanted to love, but couldn't."  It seems like this is something that happens quite a bit and it just shows what I love so much about book blogging.  We've even gone so far as to use the term "black sheep" to describe these situations.  Everyone perceives literature so differently and one person can take away something completely different from a novel than any other person.  So I guess in a way this topic ties into the hype one we had done earlier but there is much more to this one.

Being the black sheep isn't the only time I have found myself in these situations.  It seems so often lately there are books coming out with kick-ass covers and blurbs that have me salivating for more only to leave me wondering how they put something so disappointing in such a pretty package.  I've gone through so many books this year that I have been waiting months to get my hands on that leave me less than impressed.

So here are a few books that I went into wanting to love them so bad, but in the end I felt completely let down. For those who are curious you can click the cover to see my full review (except for Mockingjay because that was read before I started the blog.)


The First Days: This is one that let me down on both fronts.  Not only does this one have huge amounts of hype surrounding it amongst my Goodreads friends but it also has the cool cover and a blurb that had me wanting more.  I loved the idea of these two kick-ass bitches battling it out and surviving on their own terms.  Unfortunately, the characterizations and dialogue left much to be desired from me.

Renegade: Pretty cover? Check! Also I had read so much about the gore in this one that I was expecting a bloody good ride and instead I got an evil prude and an MC I didn't give a hot damn about. Too bad because it's gorgeous!

Onyx: When I read Obsidian I remember totally fangirling over it. I was in love with Daemon and Katy had so many great aspects to her personality that she had me connecting with her quickly.  In the second instalment however, I found myself so annoyed by the way these two were constantly going back and forth on their feelings for one another.  That whole "I love you but I can't be with you" thing drives me insane!

Dualed: Another one that had me so excited about meeting a kick ass girl that left me wanting more, a lot more.  West's decisions and actions were so flip floppy and I never did get a grasp of exactly why she became an assassin and yet ran her ass off when the time came to meet her alt.  What left me wanting a lot more though was the world building, where was it?

Siege: I've said it before and I will again: I have a weird obsession with school shooting books.  So when I read the shocking blurb for this and the warning that comes along with it I was so excited. I was expecting a gritty contemporary type story but it turned into something completely different and lost me along the way. I was really sad after this one.

Mockingjay: I really don't even want to get started on this one.  So I won't. *rages*

Daughter of Smoke & Bone: I can see why people would love this one but I think my reading ADD kicked in for it so I was bored through most of it.  I do still plan to read the sequel though!..... One day..... Someday.

What books did you want to love but couldn't?  We all have them so lets dish!