Shut Out by Kody Keplinger

Title: Shut Out

Author: Kody Keplinger

Publisher: Poppy

Release Date: September 5, 2011

Source: Purchased

Buy the Book: Amazon / Book Depository / Indigo

Most high school sports teams have rivalries with other schools. At Hamilton High, it's a civil war: the football team versus the soccer team. And for her part, Lissa is sick of it. Her quarterback boyfriend, Randy, is always ditching her to go pick a fight or haze a freshman. And on three separate occasions Randy's car has been egged while he and Lissa were inside, making out. She is done competing with a bunch of sweaty boys for her own boyfriend's attention.

Lissa decides to end the rivalry once and for all: She and the other players' girlfriends go on a hookup strike. The boys won't get any action from them until the football and soccer teams make peace. What they don't count on is a new sort of rivalry: an impossible girls-against-boys showdown that hinges on who will cave to their libidos first. And Lissa never sees her own sexual tension with the leader of the boys, Cash Sterling, coming. In this hilarious and romantic reimagining of Aristophanes' Lysistrata, the battle of boys against girls is on.

Over the last year Kody Keplinger has definitely become one of my favorite contemporary author and Shut Out has solidified that position. It was a story I enjoyed from start to finish and Kody Keplinger definitely knows how to write a good contemporary story.

Lissa is sick and tired of coming second to the feud between her school's football and soccer teams. And what girl wouldn't get annoyed when her boyfriend runs out on their make out session because the soccer team just pulled a prank. But she doesn't think the feud will ever end seeing as it's been going on for ten years already. So instead Lissa decides to give the boys incentive to stop fighting. She and the other girlfriends of the football and soccer players pledge to go on a sex strike until the two teams end their ridiculous feud. But what Lissa doesn't anticipate is the boys retaliating, attempting to seduce the girls to get them to go against their pledge. But what Lissa really doesn't see coming is Cash Sterling, the one boy who might just be able to break Lissa's resolve. It will all come down to who will be able to resist the call of their libido the longest...or so Lissa thought at first.

Until I heard about Shut Out I had never heard about Aristophanes' Lysistrata. When I found out more about both the book and the play I knew this had the potential to be a fantastic story. And Kody Keplinger definitely proved that. The story was incredible and I was drawn in right from page one. The way she retold Aristophanes' play was done in a creative way. I especially liked how she made the rivalry be between two teams at the same school which isn't something you see that often. It was definitely a story I enjoyed and I felt completely drawn in, to the point that it sometimes felt like I was a part of the story. I don't read that much contemporary books, and Kody Keplinger is an author that definitely makes them worth it. 

I love Lissa. She was definitely a great character and I felt like I could really relate to her. I've never been in the same situation but if I ever was, odds are I would react in the same way. And I mean what self-respecting girl wouldn't? My only problem with her was that it took her a while to figure out that Randy was a complete jerk. Which leads me to Randy and what a first class jerk he was. I don't want to say too much but basically he was not a very nice person, and that's putting it nicely. And that leaves Cash Sterling. At first, I didn't really think about him too much but then he began being more present in the story. At which point I figured out that he was a super sweet person and the polar opposite of Randy. Plus it sounded like he was rather easy on the eyes.

Shut Out was an absolutely fantastic read and I loved every page of it. Kody Keplinger once again proved how great a writer she is and I can't wait to read more of her future books.

Starcrossed by Josephine Angelini

Title: Starcrossed (Starcrossed #1)

Author: Josephine Angelini

Publisher: HarperTeen

Release Date: May 31, 2011

Source: Purchased

Buy the Book: Amazon / Book Depository / Indigo

Helen Hamilton has spent her entire sixteen years trying to hide how different she is--no easy tai on an island as small and sheltered as Nantucket. And it's getting harder. Nightmares of a desperate desert journey have Helen waking parched, only to find her sheets damaged by dirt and dust. At school she's haunted by hallucinations of three women weeping ears of blood…and when Helen first crosses paths with Lucas Delos, she has no way of knowing they're destined to play the leading roles in a tragedy the Fates insist on repeating throughout history.

As Helen unlocks the secrets of her ancestry, she realizes that some myths are more than just legend. But even demigod powers might not be enough to defy the forces that are both drawing her and Lucas together--and trying to tear them apart.

Starcrossed is another one of those books that has a pretty cover and this is what originally drew me in. But as it often happens, this book was a lot more than just that pretty cover. As much as I was unsure about how the premise would work, it turned out to all be pretty awesome.

Helen has always felt like she was different from everyone around her and has spent her whole life trying to hid it. As she grows older, Helen has found doing so is becoming more and more difficult, especially when she starts having nightmares of a painful journey across a desert. Not only that, but when Helen wakes up all signs seem to indicate she actually did the journey. So when she starts hallucinating three weeping women, Helen starts to really question what is happening to her. When the Delos family arrives in town, things take a turn in an unexpected direction when Helen finally begins to understand what is going on with her. And when she starts to have feelings for Lucas Delos, their relationship sets ancient forces into motion that may cause Helen and Lucas to repeat a tragedy that has gone on throughout history.

When I first heard this story was a retelling of the story of Helen of Troy crossed with Romeo and Juliet, I wasn't really sure how the whole thing was going to fit together. But then I started reading and it all fell into place. And I fell in love with the story Josephine Angelini wrote. She wrote in a way that captivated the reader and at times it almost felt like I could be a part of the story. I was completely drawn in and I became so invested in the story, hoping against all hope that Helen's and Lucas' story wouldn't end as tragically as it was destined to. And everything that led up to the ending was absolutely heartbreaking and I cannot wait to read the sequel and find out more.

Helen had so many endearing qualities and that made me like her so much. I can't imagine what it's like to go through your whole life knowing you're different but not knowing why. And then when everything starts to go really well for her, it all goes down the drain because the Fates have other plans for her in mind. And where her relationship with Lucas is concerned, it definitely wasn't insta-love at first, but when it did turn into that it worked and was fully justified. But if anything, their relationship was tragic. The Delos family was very interesting to say the least. All their personalities were so different but they all fit together so well and the dynamic there was just incredible. But Lucas was definitely my favorite. I was rooting so much for him and Helen to work out no matter how much I knew there were other forces at play there. And you, he was pretty swoon-worthy so that definitely didn't hurt my opinion of him. 

Starcrossed was a fantastic debut from Josephine Angelini. It made two stories that shouldn't work together fit perfectly, and topped it with a beautifully tragic story. I definitely cannot wait for the sequel.

Excited for Silence

As many of you may be aware, Silence, book three in Becca Fitzpatrick's Hush, Hush saga will be releasing soon. I've read the other two books in this series, and I have to admit that I am pretty excited for this one.

When I first read Hush, Hush (my review) last year, I wondered why I had waited to so long to pick up this book. I was completely drawn into the story and I felt like I could relate to Nora on multiple levels. Plus, Patch wasn't so bad once I figured him out. Then earlier this year I read Crescendo (my review) and once again wondered why I had pushed off reading it for so long. It was a great story, but I have to admit that I didn't like it as much as I had liked the first book. Not that it was a bad read by any means, I just didn't like the story as much.

Now with the release of Silence looming, I can't wait to get back to this story, especially after the way the last instalment left off. I couldn't believe it just ended that way and already I was looking forward to this book. 

And now, to make things even better, Becca Fitzpatrick has just announced that there will be a book four to this awesome saga. It doesn't have a title yet and all I know is that it will be coming out in the fall next year. I haven't even read Silence yet and I'm already looking forward to it. 

Now if you are Canadian, things are getting even better for you. Simon & Schuster Canada, who publishes Becca Fitzpatrick's books in Canada, is having an awesome Silence Sweepstakes Contest. Check out the prizes in the picture below and follow the link above for your chance to enter. Let me just say, if I lived in the Toronto area, I would be all over this.

So if you are Canadian, be sure to hurry and go enter before it's too late!

Waiting On Wednesday (27)

For those of you that don't know, Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Jill of Breaking the Spine where book bloggers devote a post to an upcoming book release they are particularly looking forward to reading.

THIS WEEK'S PICK:

SLIDE BY JILL HATHAWAY

Vee Bell is certain of one irrefutable truth—her sister’s friend Sophie didn’t kill herself. She was murdered.

Vee knows this because she was there. Everyone believes Vee is narcoleptic, but she doesn’t actually fall asleep during these episodes: When she passes out, she slides into somebody else’s mind and experiences the world through that person’s eyes. She’s slid into her sister as she cheated on a math test, into a teacher sneaking a drink before class. She learned the worst about a supposed “friend” when she slid into her during a school dance. But nothing could have prepared Vee for what happens one October night when she slides into the mind of someone holding a bloody knife, standing over Sophie’s slashed body.

Vee desperately wishes she could share her secret, but who would believe her? It sounds so crazy that she can’t bring herself to tell her best friend, Rollins, let alone the police. Even if she could confide in Rollins, he has been acting off lately, more distant, especially now that she’s been spending more time with Zane.

Enmeshed in a terrifying web of secrets, lies, and danger and with no one to turn to, Vee must find a way to unmask the killer before he or she strikes again.

As of late, I've seen this book popping up around the blogosphere and every time I see it I think of just how interesting it sounds. The premise for the story sounds absolutely fantastic and I can't wait to find out for myself if it will be just as good and interesting as it sounds.

Slide by Jill Hathaway will be published March 27th, 2012 by Balzer + Bray.

The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin

Title: The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer (Mara Dyer #1)

Author: Michelle Hodkin

Publisher: Simon & Schuster BFYR

Release Date: September 27, 2011

Source: ARC from Publisher

Buy the Book: Amazon / Book Depository / Indigo

Mara Dyer doesn't think life can get any stranger than waking up in a hospital with no memory of how she got there. It can.

She believes there must be more to the accident she can't remember that killed her friends and left her mysteriously unharmed. There is.

She doesn't believe that after everything she's been through, she can fall in love. She's wrong.

If there is one book I couldn't escape hearing about, it was The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer. Everywhere I turned, I was hearing about how awesome it was or how excited someone was to read it. Let me just say it blew my mind, and even now, a couple of weeks after I've finished reading it, my mind is still reeling.

When she wakes up in a hospital bed, Mara Dyer has no memory of how she got there. When she it told she and three of her friends were caught in an old building when it collapsed, she has no memory of that either. To makes things easier on her, her family decides to move to Miami, but Mara still doesn't remember anything about the night of the accident. But as time goes by, she starts to remember more and more of what happened. At the same time, she meets Noah Shaw, the mysterious attractive boy at her new school. And though Mara doesn't understand why, he seems to be interested in her. But the more Mara is getting settled in Miami and enjoying her time with Noah, weird things start happening everywhere she goes. And that's only the beginning.

This book messed with my mind so much. Every time I thought I understood what was going on, something happened an I was confused all over again. Even now, I'm still not sure I've completely grasped everything that's going on. But in spite of all this, I absolutely loved reading this book. Michelle Hodkin is a fantastic new writer and she most definitely knows how to play with people's minds but to be honest, that's in large part why I kept reading. I just wanted to understand what was going on, and so I just kept turning page after page. And by the last page, I think I had it all figured out. But with the way the story went, I might also be completely off.

I don't really know what to make of Mara, mostly because I was never really able to figure her out. But that made her more mysterious and interesting and because of that I liked her. Though I wasn't able to figure her out, I was still able to understand some of what she was going through and a lot of it obviously couldn't have been that pleasant or easy. Noah Shaw on the other hand was absolutely amazing. I may have just found a new literary crush. I don't even really know how to describe him, except to say again that he was amazing. I loved the way he was with Mara and how he took care of her. And their relationship was great, and no only because for once it wasn't insta-love. But I don't want to give too much away.

The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer was a phenomenal read and Michelle Hodkin is a fantastic writer. This is definitely a book that will mess with your head and leave you reeling. But all of that is totally worth it.