Ten Things Sloane Hates About Tru by Tera Lynn Childs

Title: Ten Things Sloane Hates About Tru (Creative HeArts #1)

Author: Tera Lynn Childs

Publisher: Entangled Crush

Release Date: September 14, 2015

Source: ARC from Publisher

Buy the Book: Amazon / B&N / Indigo

When life gives you a blank canvas, make art.

Sloane Whitaker hates everything about moving to Texas. She hates leaving behind her friends and half her family in New York, starting over senior year at Austin’s NextGen Academy, and having to say she lives in Texas. Most of all, she hates that it’s all her fault. If she wants to earn her way back to the Big Apple, she has to prove she can still be the perfect daughter.

Which means no vandalism art, no trouble at school, and absolutely no Tru Dorsey, her serial screw-up neighbor, who loves nothing more than pushing her buttons.

But from the moment he vaults onto the roof outside her bedroom, there is something about him that makes her want to break every rule. Suddenly it’s not the ten things she hates about Tru that are at the top of her list. It’s the ten reasons she doesn’t want to be without him.

It feels like I’ve discovered a publishing imprint that feels like its as seemingly created just for me. Entangled Crush publishes contemporary YA romance exclusively, and I’ve loved every single one of the books I’ve read from them. And it was no different for Tera Lynn Childs’s Ten Things Sloane Hates about Tru.

Sloane Whitake does not want to be in Austin. She wants to be back in New York City, starting her senior year at her arts high school with her friends. But after The Incident and the fallout that came with it, her parents decided the best thing for Sloane would be to move to Austin and complete her senior year at the NextGen Academy. But Sloane won’t let that get her down. She’s determined to earn her way back to NYC, and that means being the perfect daughter. But that’s easier said than done when Sloane can’t seem to escape Tru Dorsey, her new neighbor and a serial screw-up. Though she knows she shouldn’t have anything to do with Tru, Sloane can’t help but feel drawn to him. And she knows there’s no way that can end well.

In the last six months, I have fallen completely in love with Entangled’s Crush imprint. Honestly, it almost feels like that particular imprint was tailor-made for me. I mean, it’s an imprint that specializes in YA contemporary romance. What is there not to love? Especially, if your name is Emilie and contemporary romance happens to pretty much be your favourite thing ever. So every time I hear about a new book from them, I want to read it. And that was true for Tera Lynn Childs’s Ten Things Sloane Hates About Tru. From the moment I read the synopsis, I knew this was going to be a fun story. And it was. It also had a fun mystery aspect going that was fun to read about and added to the dynamics of the story. But what surprised me about this story were some of the subjects it touched on. I didn’t think it was going to go where it did, and I liked that about this story. And since Ten Things Sloane Hates About Tru is the first in a series, I’m hoping some aspects get revisited in future books because there is definitely some things that still need to be dealt with. Or at least, that’s how it felt to me.

Sloane and Tru were a lot of fun. I loved the back and forth between them, seeing them go from neighbors to friends and then to something more. I definitely understood Sloane’s struggle when it came to resisting Tru, especially when she started to realize that he might not be the trouble magnet and screw-up that her mom had made him out to be. And I really wanted Sloane to realize that being in Austin might not be as bad as she thought and actually start making a connection with the people there. And Tru was so not who I had thought he was going to be based on the synopsis for the book. I didn’t expect to be completely charmed by him and to spend basically the entirety of the book rooting for him. But that’s totally what happened. And what I mentioned earlier about certain things being tackled in future book? There’s a lot about Tru’s home life that I hope gets addressed because it would make for a really compelling story. And I’m all for seeing more of Tru and Sloane together because they’re really just a little bit adorable (read: a lot adorable).

I really enjoyed Tera Lynn Childs’s Ten Things Sloane Hates About Tru. Though I am all about the adorable romance which there was lots of in this story, it also surprised me with its depth. And that combination makes for the best kind of book.

Mini Review - Into My Arms by Lia Riley

Title: Into My Arms (Off the Map #3.2)

Author: Lia Riley

Publisher: Forever Yours

Release Date: September 8, 2015

Source: ARC from Publisher

Buy the Book: Amazon / B&N / Indigo

“You’re here because I want to touch you.”

Beth Jacobs spends her days slogging away in a corporate “fish bowl,” as a hard-working assistant for one of North America’s youngest dot-com billionaires. Aleksander “Z” Zavtra is the definition of dark and dangerous with a sexy Eastern European snarl. He’s also ruthless. Curt. Exacting. An infuriating man she loves to hate. While Beth hardly sees him, it’s as if he’s always watching her…

Z doesn’t do romance. But he never expected to be captivated by a whip-smart, fiery assistant who just so happens to share an uncanny resemblance to the beautiful face that haunts his dreams. He craves Beth. He wants to stroke her skin, to feel her heat beneath him. And what Z wants, he gets. And for one weekend, the lines between employer and employee are blurred as Z and Beth give themselves completely to the dark pleasures they’ve both been dreaming about.

I have mixed feelings as far as novellas are concerned. But every so often, there are some that come along where I feel like they actually add something to the overall story they are a part of. When that’s the case, I’m all for those novellas, and that’s what I got with Lia Riley’s Into My Arms.

Beth Jacobs knows very little about the man who signs her paycheques. They might exchange hundreds of instant messages a day, but all Beth really knows is the same thing the world knows about Aleksander “Z” Zavtra, the Eastern European billionaire at the head of Zavtra Tech. Z has always kept to himself. But he can’t get Beth out of his assistant, not just because his assistant is smart and beautiful, but because she looks just like girl who haunts his memories. When Z decides that Beth is who he wants, Beth will find herself crossing all the lines she never considered crossing before.

Late last year, I absolutely devoured Lia Riley’s Off the Map series, and in the year since, I’ve read every book she has published. I’ve just become a little addicted to her brand of romance. So earlier this year, I read the first novella for the Off the Map series and really enjoyed finding out more about Sunny and Tanner. And when I was done, I was looking forward to Into My Arms and finding out more about Beth and Z, Talia’s other best friend and Bran’s old boarding school roommate, respectively. I’m a curious person by nature so I always finding out more about characters that were sort of in the periphery in other parts of the story. I wanted to know more about Beth since she was someone else who was really affected by Talia’s sister’s death. And I wanted to find out more about Z just because he was always so mysterious. But Bran liked him, so there had to be something there. And I definitely got my answers. There was a whole lot more going on with Z than I could have ever imagined. And I kinda wanted to punch Beth’s parents for what they did to her. For that matter, I pretty much wanted to beat up Z’s dad because that guy seemed like a serious ass. And though I wasn’t entirely sure what to make of the romance considering the way it started, U was happy with the way it all came together by the end of the novella. It wouldn’t necessarily be something I would go for normally, but for Beth and Z, it worked.

Into My Arms was just the glimpse I was looking for when it came to finding out more about Beth and Z. But my ultimate struggle with novellas is that I can’t help but wish the story were longer. I would have totally read a full length book about Beth and Z.

Don't Fail Me Now by Una LaMarche

Title: Don't Fail Me Now

Author: Una LaMarche

Publisher: Razorbill

Release Date: September 1, 2015

Source: ARC from Publisher

Buy the Book: Amazon / Book Depository / Indigo

Michelle and her little siblings Cass and Denny are African-American and living on the poverty line in urban Baltimore, struggling to keep it together with their mom in jail and only Michelle’s part-time job at the Taco Bell to sustain them.

Leah and her stepbrother Tim are white and middle class from suburban Maryland, with few worries beyond winning across games and getting college applications in on time.

Michelle and Leah only have one thing in common: Buck Devereaux, the biological father who abandoned them when they were little.

After news trickles back to them that Buck is dying, they make the uneasy decision to drive across country to his hospice in California. Leah hopes for closure; Michelle just wants to give him a piece of her mind.

Five people in a failing, old station wagon, living off free samples at food courts across America, and the most pressing question on Michelle’s mind is: Who will break down first—herself or the car? All the signs tell her they won’t make it. But Michelle has heard that her whole life, and it’s never stopped her before…

Una LaMarche triumphs once again with this rare and compassionate look at how racial and social privilege affects one family in crisis in both subtle and astonishing ways.

I first read a book by Una LaMarche last year and immediately knew after I finished that I would be reading anything and everything she writes. So when I heard about Don’t Fail Me Now, it was a no-brainer: of course I would read it. And, unsurprisingly, I loved it.

Michelle is used to taking care of Cass and Denny, her younger sister and brother. It’s what she’s had to do for most her life. It’s never been easy, but this time, with her mom in jail once again, Michelle isn’t sure what she’s going to do to keep them all afloat. That is until Tim and Leah walk into her life. With them comes the news that Michelle’s deadbeat of a dad is also Leah’s father and now he’s dying and wants to see his girls before it’s too late. And so the five of them cram into Michelle’s old station wagon, hoping that the car will make it all the way to California from Maryland. And even if the car does make it, there’s no guarantee everyone in it will still be sane by the time they get there.

Last summer, I loved Una LaMarche’s Like No Other. To make the same horrible joke I did at the time, the book really was unlike any other that I had read or had been reading around that time. And after reading it, I made the unsurprising decision that I would simply have to read whatever Una LaMarche wrote next. And Don’t Fail Me Now absolutely did not fail me (I really need to stop with the bad jokes/puns based off the titles) when it came to being an engaging and touching story. I loved this story, the way it shows how two people who share DNA can grow up in completely different circumstances. Uma LaMarche really succeeded in showing this by contrasting Michelle and Leah’s lives. Sure, they shared a father, but they had completely different lives, in large part because of their skin colour. Una LaMarche simply does a fantastic job showcasing diverse characters and it’s something I’ve loved about both books of hers that I’ve read. And though I love me some romance, one of the things I loved most about Don’t Fail Me Now was that the focus wasn’t really on the romance. Yes, there was a bit of a romance going between Tim and Michelle, but that wasn’t the point of the story nor was it the focus of the story. 

I have so much respect for Michelle. I mean, this girl has had it rough. More than rough, even. But through it all, she still did her best and made sure that her younger siblings were okay and that there family was going to make it through. There were times when it definitely wasn’t easy reading her story. Like when they all had to go stay with a certain aunt who I very much wanted to punch. So for pretty much the whole book, I wanted her to finally catch a break. But at a certain point, it started to seriously feel like that wasn’t going to happen. Pretty much everything that could go wrong for her was, and though at times there were situations that made me laugh, I just wanted Michelle to get through it all in one piece. Outside of Michelle’s struggles, I loved the family dynamics at play in Don’t Fail Me Now, whether it was between Michelle and the siblings she’d had her whole life, or with her newfound half-sister and said half-sister’s stepbrother who she really had no relation to. Put five people under the age of 18 in a car for a cross-country road trip and it’s bound to get interesting. 

Una LaMarche’s Don’t Fail Me Now absolutely was the engrossing and touching read I had hoped and thought it would be. With this book, LaMarche has just reaffirmed the fact that I’m willing to read pretty much anything she writes in the future.

Firewalker by Josephine Angelini

Title: Firewalker (Worldwalker #2)

Author: Josephine Angelini

Publisher: Feiwel & Friends

Release Date: September 1, 2015

Source: ARC from Publisher

Buy the Book: Amazon / Book Depository / Indigo

Worlds divide, magic slays, and love lies in these second book of Josephine Angelini’s The Worldwalker Trilogy.

“You think I’m a monster, but my choices, as ruthless as they seem, are justified.”

Lily is back in her own universe, and she’s ready to start a new life with Rowan by her side. True, she almost died in the Pyre that fuelled their escape from New Salem, and must hide her magic for the safety of everyone she cares about, but compared to fighting the Woven, the monstrous creatures inhabiting the alternate Salem, life is looking pretty good.

Unfortunately, Lillian, ruthless ruler of the 13 Cities, is not willing to let Lily got that easily. If she can’t persuade Lily to return to her world, she will force her to come back by doing away with the ones she loves.

Picking up right where Trial by Fire left off, Firewalker is another sexy, fast-paced, heartbreaking thrill ride from internationally bestselling author Josephine Angelini.

It’s no secret that Josephine Angelini ranks among my all-time favourite authors. I love everything she writes and everything of hers I read leaves me wanting more. Firewalker was so much more than I could have hoped and I loved every single page of it.

Lily is back in her world, this time with Rowan by her side. But after the months she’s spent in New Salem, it’s hard to just slip back into her old life. It doesn’t help that something, or rather someone, in New Salem keeps wanting to pull her back. Lily can only resist Lillian for so long before she finds herself going back to the Pyre and transporting herself, Rowan and her newfound mechanics back to New Salem. Back in this universe, Lily starts to question everything she thought to be true, and finds herself making decisions that may cost her everyone she loves.

I’m always a little apprehensive going in to a new Josephine Angelini book. Not because I’m worried I won’t enjoy the story because I have complete faith in her on that front, but rather because I’m never sure if I’m going to come out the other end with my heart intact. She is particularly gifted at writing stories where my emotions are put through the wringer but I still wouldn’t change any moment of that story. Firewalker was no different. Firewalker wastes no time jumping into things: the story picks up just moment after where Trial by Fire ended. So right from the start, something is happening. And honestly, it doesn’t let up until the very last page. And even at that point, I was kinda hoping there were still pages left to turn. And like I had predicted, Firewalker pretty much put my heart through the wringer. I was constantly worried about the fate of the different characters I have come to love over the course of these two books. And by the end of the book, let’s just say it’s kind of up in the air as to whether some of them are even alive anymore or not. And now I have to wait a whole year to find that out, and it’s going to be painful. 

But for real, though, Josephine Angelini wrote an absolutely fantastic story in Firewalker, and dropped so many hints as to what might actually be going on and it made me all the more curious about what’s to come. And like with any of her books that aren’t the last one in a series: THAT ENDING. WHAT WAS THAT EVEN? Aside from the fact that I’m not sure about the status of some people, I just need to know what happens next and what is going on. As a reader, you reach the end and you’re just left hanging. But in the best way possible. 

One of the things I loved about Firewalker was seeing how much Lily had grown. Where in the first book, she was kind of trying to find her footing as far as this whole magic and multiple universes thing was concerned, in this one, Lily was strong and fierce and ready to do just about anything it took to protect the people she cares about. In my review of Trial by Fire, I had predicted that Lillian was just sort of made to look like a villain and after reading Firewalker, my prediction seemed pretty accurate. Granted things might still change by the time I get to the end of the final book, but I found out so much about Lillian in Firewalker and it had me seriously reconsidering my opinions of her. She definitely isn’t the villain she seems to be and she has pretty valid reasons for doing what she did. It will definitely be interesting to see how it all plays out. And that brings me to Rowan. Who I am still all about. Even if there were a couple moments where I kinda wanted to smack him. But then I have so many unanswered questions where he’s concerned and all I will say is that Rowan better be coming out of all this in one piece otherwise I will be PISSED. 

Another interesting aspect of Firewalker was that it kind of introduces and spends time with different characters than the first book. I mean the story still very much focuses on Lily, Rowan and Lillian and whatever love triangle there is there, if you can even call it a love triangle at this point. But Firewalker also allowed me to get to know Lily’s Tristan (as opposed to the Tristan from New Salem who was very present in the first book), Breakfast (whose name cracked me up every time I read it) and Una, three people from Lily’s world who end up in New Salem because they become her new mechanics when Lily and Rowan are back in our world (are you confused yet—I might be and I’m the one writing this and I’ve read the book). I loved getting to find out more about this Tristan because I definitely had questions about him after the first book and at times what I found out about him and his story broke my heart a little. I’ll definitely be curious to read more about all of them in the future book, even if I am concerned about what my growing attachment to them will do to my heart in the next book.

If this long and rambling review wasn’t a dead giveaway, I absolutely loved Josephine Angelini’s Firewalker and I have a lot of feelings about it. And those feelings are confused and complicated but completely worth it. And I’ll be pining for the final book in the series. For real, Traitor’s Pyre can’t come soon enough.

Infinite In Between by Carolyn Mackler

Title: Infinite In Between

Author: Carolyn Mackler

Publisher: HarperTeen

Release Date: September 1, 2015

Source: ARC from Publisher

Buy the Book: Amazon / Book Depository / Indigo

Printz Honor author Carolyn Mackler returns with this striking new novel that chronicles the lives of five teenagers through the thrills, heartbreaks, and joys of their four years in high school.

Zoe, Jake, Mia, Gregor, and Whitney meet at freshman orientation. At the end of that first day, they make a promise to reunite after graduation. So much can happen in those in-between years…

Zoe feels like she will live forever in her famous mother’s shadow. Jake struggles to find the right connections in friendship and in love. Mia keeps trying on new identities, looking for one that actually fits. Gregor thought he wanted to be more than just a band geek. And Whitney seems to have it all, until it’s all falling apart around her.

Echoing aspects of John Hughes’s The Breakfast Club, Carolyn Mackler skillfully brings the stories of these five disparate teens together to create a distinct and cohesive whole—a novel about how we can all affect one another’s lives in the most unexpected and amazing ways.

Considering the amount I read, there isn’t much about contemporary books that I haven’t said before. And that can make writing some of these reviews a little tricky. So I’ll just say this, I loved Carolyn Mackler’s Infinite in Between a whole lot more than I expected to.

Zoe, Jake, Mia, Gregor and Whitney all had their own concerns and apprehensions about starting high school. When they’re put in the same group at their freshman orientation, they decide to write themselves a letter that they’ll open at the end of high school. But a lot can happen in four years. As they go through high school, each of them goes through their own share of happiness and heartbreak, coming in and out of each other’s lives without thinking too much about it. What will they all think when they meet again at the end of their four years of high school?

Fun little story about Emilie for you: to this day, I still remember the first Carolyn Mackler book I read. I was in eighth grade and I would sit in front of my locker during my lunch break and read The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things. So it’s fair to say that Carolyn Mackler is one of the YA authors I’ve been reading for the longest time. And I still enjoy reading her books all these years later. As you can guess, I had a pretty good idea going in that I would really enjoy Infinite in Between. What I didn’t expect was to love it as much as I did. Infinite in Between was a story that kind of creeps up on you. At first, it’s a little tricky to follow since it quickly jumps around between five different characters. But at the same time, the story draws you in quickly. And before you know it, you’re curious about finding out more about these five people’s high school experiences and seeing how their lives intersect over the course of those four years. And by the end of the book, I was a lot more emotional than I ever thought I would be. Like I said, this story just creeped up on me in a way that I really didn’t expect.

What Infinite in Between really hit on the head is the way that people come in and out of each other’s lives in high school. How everyone always kind of seems to be on everyone’s periphery no matter how big the school is. And it really showed that no matter how much your life seems perfect from the outside, nothing is ever as it appears. And it also perfectly showed how, at the end of the day, everyone in high school is just trying to figure out who they are and where they fit in. That was more than the case for Jake, Mia, Gregor, Zoe and Whitney. Each one of them was basically trying to figure out who they were and who they wanted to be. And it wasn’t always easy, there were obstacles along the way and I was rooting for all of them throughout the book. Most of all though, I loved seeing the way their paths all crossed at different times during their high school career and how at the end of it all, they were able to come together in ways that I didn’t really expect. Reading from five different perspectives was a different experience, but it was definitely worth it in the end.

I loved reading Carolyn Mackler’s Infinite in Between in ways I didn’t expect. This story was understated in the best way possible and accurately portrayed the high school experience. This might be a quieter story, but it’s absolutely worth the read.