Disclosure: If noted, I received these books for review. Opinions shared are mine.
Another batch of books have made its way to my “Read” shelf on Goodreads. Without doing a post for each, I decided to share mini reviews for them.
See All the Stars by Kit Frick was provided to me through Netgalley.
This story reminded me how glad I am to be done with high school. It’s not that high school was a bad experience (it wasn’t) but everything just seemed like such a big deal back then. Friends, boyfriends, school, the future….high school had a way of making it all seem so all-or-nothing. In the same way, See All the Stars put me in main character Ellory’s shoes for a little while, remembering the emotional highs and lows of those pre-adult days. See All the Stars might be a good read for moms of high school girls, and definitely for those girls themselves. It’s important for teens to recognize genuine friendship and how to spot a fake. When you’re in the throes of high school, that can be a hard distinction to make.
In this book, Ellory’s small group of girl friends are much like the ones you’d see on a show like Gossip Girl or Pretty Little Liars. Barely there parents serve as bank accounts and basically nothing else. The teens are free to hang out when/where they want, drink alcohol, have sex…whatever floats their pretty little boats. The big “twist” at the end wasn’t a huge surprise, but I got the impression that the twist wasn’t the author’s goal. Instead, Ellory’s journey of being comfortable in her own skin seemed to be the ultimate end. I rated this one 3/5 stars.
The Sandman by Lars Kepler was given to me through First to Read. This book played out like a movie in my mind. It was scary in all the right places, and also creepy as all get out! I did not read the previous books by this author but that wasn’t a problem. Enough character background was provided to help me work out the details. There were several scenes that made my skin crawl, mostly due to the violent and abusive nature of the topic, so I wouldn’t recommend this to a teen.
Some parts of the story felt bogged down by Hollywood-type details. Additionally, the story was written in 3rd person present tense, which made it feel more like a script than a book. It would be a great book for fans of X-Files or police drama shows. Overall, it was a good read that made me think! I rated it 4/5 stars.
A friend recommended Bonfire by Krysten Ritter, so I found it at the library. Sharp Objects meets Into the Water with this darkly suspenseful novel. I was initially bored of the Erin Brockovich-type reason that Abby Williams was driven back to her roots in small town Barrens. Around page 80, things started to pick up and become more interesting. Still, the story stayed glued to the high school drama that injured Abby’s psyche, and didn’t move beyond the predictable.
If you’re into self-destructive, hard-to-like main characters, this might be a good book for you. I wasn’t a fan of Bonfire, unfortunately. I rated it 2/5 stars.
I won Lie to Me by J.T. Ellison on a blog giveaway (thanks, Books and Spoons!) It was a treat to find a book with a Franklin, TN setting. I’ve been to that area several times and found the descriptions to be spot-on. Though there were several confusing parts of Lie to Me, I think that was probably intentional. The story line moved back and forth, lies to truth, and it was sometimes difficult to figure out what was going on. Again, that was probably the point. There were several disconnected details or events that didn’t really serve a purpose, and I found it hard to truly like any of the characters. Still, I wanted to find out what happened in the end. I rated it 3/5 stars.
Right now, I’m 17 books into my goal of 118 for 2018.
Great reviews, thanks. I’m not much into YA but the thrillers look really good and Lie To Me made my list of best books of 2017. JT is a favorite of mine, if you liked that book she’s got out two great series and some stand alones plus she co-authors with Catherine Coulter A Brit in the FBI series.
YA’s are usually hit or miss for me, but these do sound interesting. I’m especially fond of thrillers. J.T. Ellison is an author that I’ve been meaning to try.
Ah, the two I was looking forward to (Bonfire and See All the Stars) didn’t work so well, sad. I will say, even though I wanted to like Bonfire, my expectations were pretty low hah. Actually- I wanted to read it because Krysten grew up in the same town as my dad and grandparents (and it’s a suuuuper small place so it’s kind of a big deal hah) and I wanted to see how similar the towns were 😀 So it still may suffice for my curious purposes! Great reviews, also, 17 books into your goal is AWESOME!!