Review: Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins

Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins

• Reading Level: Young Adult 
• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Dutton Juvenile 
• ISBN-10: 052542381 
• ISBN-13: 978-0525423487
• Received From: I bought it.

From Goodreads:

Budding designer Lola Nolan doesn't believe in fashion... she believes in costume. The more expressive the outfit -- more sparkly, more fun, more wild -- the better. But even though Lola's style is outrageous, she's a devoted daughter and friend with some big plans for the future. And everything is pretty perfect (right down to her hot rocker boyfriend) until the dreaded Bell twins, Calliope and Cricket, return to the neighborhood.

When Cricket -- a gifted inventor -- steps out from his twin sister's shadow and back into Lola's life, she must finally reconcile a lifetime of feelings for the boy next door. 

My Thoughts:

This books seems to be so great because, to me, the characters are phenomenal! They all really come together and make this book truly wonderful.

Lola is a really flawed/human character. She makes mistakes, is a little bit of a compulsive liar, and is a little selfish as well but she doesn't do it with any malicious intent. I really LOVE Cricket! He is one of the most unique love interests that I have read in YA, this far. His character is a breath of fresh air when it comes to the male love interests. It seems that in most books that you pick up, you will probably find a loner/mysterious/moody/brooding love interest and I'm getting kind of tired of it. Cricket is sweet, the boy next door, and realistic. He wins you over with his charm and how genuinely nice his character is. I cannot say enough good things things about his character!

I wish Calliope's character would have been in the book a little more. I found her character to be very fascinating. I also found Calliope and Cricket's relationship very interesting as well. I would have loved to have been able to learn a little more about their dynamic and how they interacted with each other. However, I didn't really get Calliope and Max as the "villains/antagonist" at all. I didn't hate or wish harm to either of them and their reactions seemed very normal to me.

Usually in books there seems to be a lack of good best friends and parents who are actually aware of what their children are doing but, not in this book. Lola's best friend is great and very loyal to her as well. Lola's parents are also very aware of what she is doing most of the time. When they didn't approve of her boyfriend, Max, they made her bring him over for brunch every Sunday and she had to check-in whenever she was out with him. So you cannot say that Lola's parent's weren't a part of her life because they grounded her quite a lot for disobeying the rules.

I absolutely LOVE this book! It is amazing and I recommend it to just about anyone! It has moved up to my second favorite Contemporary book on my list. Cricked is, also, definitely on my fictional character crush list as well! SA-WOON! ;) Oh, Anna and St. Clair are also characters in this book, so that is definitely a plus! I have nothing but praise for this book and I'm giving it 5 Quills! So go out to your nearest book store and buy it!!

<3 Shannon

Review: The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight by Jennifer E Smith

The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight by Jennifer E Smith

• Reading Level: Young Adult 
• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Poppy 
• ISBN-10:   0316122386
• ISBN-13:   978-0316122382
• Received From: I bought it.

From Goodreads:
Who would have guessed that four minutes could change everything?

Today should be one of the worst days of seventeen-year-old Hadley Sullivan's life. She's stuck at JFK, late to her father's second wedding, which is taking place in London and involves a soon to be step-mother that Hadley's never even met. Then she meets the perfect boy in the airport's cramped waiting area. His name is Oliver, he's British, and he's in seat 18B. Hadley's in 18A. 

Twists of fate and quirks of timing play out in this thoughtful novel about family connections, second chances and first loves. Set over a 24-hour-period, Hadley and Oliver's story will make you believe that true love finds you when you're least expecting it.


My Thoughts:
If I saw this book in a book store and just read the title I probably wouldn't have picked it up because I hate "love at first sight". The only reason why I gave this book a chance is because I heard a lot of great things about it, and decided to give it a chance.  This book takes place over the course of 24 hours, but the love story does not feel like insta-love. It feels real and genuine, and there's no doubting that Oliver and Hadley are great together!


I read this book in two days and I enjoyed it very much but it's not all cute, light material; there is some heavy stuff in this book. Oliver and Hadley each have something they have to come to terms with; some of it you know, some of it you find out during the story. 


This book gives you a little bit of everything: love, heartache, sadness, joy, anger, and acceptance. I would recommend it to everyone because it is so much more than a contemporary love story. The growth that Hadley and Oliver go through is what makes this book great. This book has quickly jumped into my favorite contemporary books. So I give this book 5 Quills and I highly suggest that you pick it up and read it.

<3 Shannon

Review: The Lover's Dictionary by David Levithan

The Lover's Dictionary by David Levithan

• Reading Level: Adult 
• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
• ISBN-10: 0374193681
• ISBN-13: 978-0374193683
• Received From: i bought it.

From Goodreads:
basis, n.

There has to be a moment at the beginning when you wonder whether you’re in love with the person or in love with the feeling of love itself.

If the moment doesn’t pass, that’s it—you’re done. And if the moment does pass, it never goes that far. It stands in the distance, ready for whenever you want it back. Sometimes it’s even there when you thought you were searching for something else, like an escape route, or your lover’s face.

How does one talk about love? Do we even have the right words to describe something that can be both utterly mundane and completely transcendent, pulling us out of our everyday lives and making us feel a part of something greater than ourselves? Taking a unique approach to this problem, the nameless narrator of David Levithan’s The Lover’s Dictionary has constructed the story of his relationship as a dictionary. Through these short entries, he provides an intimate window into the great events and quotidian trifles of being within a couple, giving us an indelible and deeply moving portrait of love in our time.

My Thoughts:
When I bought this book I had no idea that this was an Adult book and I couldn't tell it was when I was reading it either; so the reading level is moot. This book is absolutely FANTASTIC!!! It has now been placed on my list of favorites and my rereading list as well.

This is such a short book and has very little words on each page but that does not hinder the book at all. On page 21, in 45 words, David Levithan breaks your heart when the narrator's girlfriend tells him that she cheated on him. The book may not have a completely happy tone; but it's real and could actually happen in real life. It's amazing that David Levithan can tell a love story in about a 1/4 of what it takes other authors and it is just as good as their books!

I cannot praise this book enough! I would recommend this book to anybody because it is just that amazing. So I give it 5 Quills! :)

<3 Shannon

Review: Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare

Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare
*Book 1 of The Infernal Devices Series

• Reading Level: Young Adult 
• Paperback: 496 pages
• Publisher: McElderry Books
• ISBN-10: 1416975861
• ISBN-13: 978-1416975861
• Received From: Checked out from my library.

   From Goodreads:
When sixteen-year-old Tessa Gray crosses the ocean to find her brother, her destination is England, the time is the reign of Queen Victoria, and something terrifying is waiting for her in London's Downworld, where vampires, warlocks and other supernatural folk stalk the gaslit streets. Only the Shadowhunters, warriors dedicated to ridding the world of demons, keep order amidst the chaos. Kidnapped by the mysterious Dark Sisters, members of a secret organization called The Pandemonium Club, Tessa soon learns that she herself is a Downworlder with a rare ability: the power to transform, at will, into another person. What's more, the Magister, the shadowy figure who runs the Club, will stop at nothing to claim Tessa's power for his own. Friendless and hunted, Tessa takes refuge with the Shadowhunters of the London Institute, who swear to find her brother if she will use her power to help them. She soon finds herself fascinated by--and torn between--two best friends: James, whose fragile beauty hides a deadly secret, and blue-eyed Will, whose caustic wit and volatile moods keep everyone in his life at arm's length...everyone, that is, but Tessa. As their search draws them deep into the heart of an arcane plot that threatens to destroy the Shadowhunters, Tessa realizes that she may need to choose between saving her brother and helping her new friends save the world...and that love may be the most dangerous magic of all.

My Thoughts:
This book is fantastic!! When I first read the synopsis of this book I thought it sounded like it would be similar to her Mortal Instruments series, but it is very different. There are some themes that are similar but if they were they had their major differences. 

For example there are the three teenage shadowhunters, two boys and one girl, but the characters couldn't be different from each other. Isabella and Jessamine couldn't be different; Jessamine wants nothing more than to get out of the shadowhunter life and get married, while Isabelle seems to thrive in it. Alec and Jem are very different as well; Jem is welcome and inviting but holds just enough back to be mysterious, while Alec is cold and closed off to anyone but his family or Jace. Jace and Will have more traits in common than any of the other characters, they both keep people at a distance but for different reasons (though Will's isn't revealed yet). Finally the main characters Clary and Tessa; Tessa lives her world according to the books that she has read and proper etiquette, while Clary is more defiant and obviously more current.

Another thing that I liked about Tessa is that she was a little less damsel-in-distress than Clary was in the first book.She seemed to handle herself better with the new world that she was thrust into. Henry is by far my favorite character that Clare has thought up so far. He's a little ditzy and clueless but when it really counts he makes it work. It is also very endearing how Tessa's knowledge of the world comes from books. Jessamine's character is very fascinating. She's fighting her heritage of being a shadowhunter with everything that she has, she would rather go shopping than even go near a weapon. But there has been a few situations when she's pushed to it she will kick some ass. Oh and Charlotte's fantastic, much better than Hodge!

This book also has a very dark feel to it; that the Mortal Instruments series doesn't have. The book is more intense and has less humor but it has a few quotes that have you laughing to break up the tension. I also like how she sticks with the etiquette of the time period and doesn't make them go completely against it. The shadowhunters are a little more relaxed but they still use it. And holy crap does it have a twist at the end!! Another plus is that it wraps up one of the main problems of the book but it nicely lays out another problem for the second book. It's not some; BOOM! cliffhanger ending.

All in all I think I like this book a little more than I like City of Bones. The characters seem to have more layers to them than IMS' do and I can't wait to see the direction that Clare takes them in! I give this book 5 Quills!!

<3 Shannon

Review: City of Fallen Angels by Cassandra Clare

City of Fallen Angels by Cassandra Clare

*Book 5 of The Mortal Instruments Series

•   Reading level: Young Adult
•   Paperback: 432 pages
•   Publisher:  Margaret K. McElderry
•   ISBN-10: 1442403543
•   ISBN-13: 978-1416995562
•   Received From: I bought it  

From Goodreads:
The Mortal War is over, and sixteen-year-old Clary Fray is back home in New York, excited about all the possibilities before her. She's training to become a Shadowhunter and to use her unique power. Her mother is getting married to the love of her life. Downworlders and Shadowhunters are at peace at last. And—most importantly of all—she can finally call Jace her boyfriend.
But nothing comes without a price.
Someone is murdering Shadowhunters, provoking tensions between Downworlders and Shadowhunters that could lead to a second, bloody war. Clary's best friend, Simon, can't help her. His mother just found out that he's a vampire and now he's homeless. Everywhere he turns, someone wants him on their side—along with the power of the curse that's wrecking his life. And they're willing to do anything to get what they want. Not to mention that he's dating two beautiful, dangerous girls—neither of whom knows about the other one.
When Jace begins to pull away from her without explaining why, Clary is forced to delve into the heart of a mystery whose solution reveals her worst nightmare: she herself has set in motion a terrible chain of events that could lead to her losing everything she loves. Even Jace.
Love. Blood. Betrayal. Revenge. The stakes are higher than ever in City of Fallen Angels.

My Thoughts:

One of the great things about Cassandra Clare is that her books always have the perfect amount of humor in them, and this book is no exception. To be honest I thought the series was over with the third book because everything ended, all of the problems in the first two books were fixed and all of the loose ends were tied up, so I was really surprised to hear that there was going to be three more books in the series. 

In this book Jace and Clary seem to take more of a backseat to the other characters in the book, but that still doesn’t stop them from having another problem as to why they can’t seem to be together and happy at the same time. Clary’s character is a semi-strong female character. In this book she is starting to learn to defend herself against demons and we do get to see her put some of her new skills to the test, and she does kick some butt; she also stood up to Jace and his “punishing himself”. I am so glad that she did this because she would just let him do it because “that is what he does and he would talk to her when he was ready”, and when she would do I would want to throttle her, so I’m very glad that she (sort of) put a stop to this. 

This book seemed to focus more on Simon and his life than any other character. Clare also introduced a new character, Kyle, and I’m excited to read about him and his female counterpart [telling would be giving too much away ;)]. We also got to see the more vulnerable side of Izzy as well! I’m really glad that she is starting to give the other characters some more attention and that we get to learn about them. However, I hope that she perfects the balance of all the characters getting the right amount of time in the book, because she just barely missed it in this book in my opinion. I have faith in her though because at the very very end of the book she adds another little twist that should bring Jace and Clary back on equal ground with Simon and the others!

Overall this was a fantastic book and I really enjoyed reading this book so I’m going to give it 5 quills!

<3 Shannon

Review: Fallout by Ellen Hopkins

Fallout by Ellen Hopkins
*Book 3 of The Crank Series

•   Reading level: Young Adult
•   Hardback: 672 pages
•   Publisher: McElderry Books
•   ISBN-10: 9781416950097
•   ISBN-13: 978-1416950097
•   Received From: Borrowed from Friend

From Goodreads: 
Hunter, Autumn, and Summer—three of Kristina Snow’s five children—live in different homes, with different guardians and different last names. They share only a predisposition for addiction and a host of troubled feelings toward the mother who barely knows them, a mother who has been riding with the monster, crank, for twenty years.
Hunter is nineteen, angry, getting by in college with a job at a radio station, a girlfriend he loves in the only way he knows how, and the occasional party. He's struggling to understand why his mother left him, when he unexpectedly meets his rapist father, and things get even more complicated. Autumn lives with her single aunt and alcoholic grandfather. When her aunt gets married, and the only family she’s ever known crumbles, Autumn’s compulsive habits lead her to drink. And the consequences of her decisions suggest that there’s more of Kristina in her than she’d like to believe. Summer doesn’t know about Hunter, Autumn, or their two youngest brothers, Donald and David. To her, family is only abuse at the hands of her father’s girlfriends and a slew of foster parents. Doubt and loneliness overwhelm her, and she, too, teeters on the edge of her mother’s notorious legacy. As each searches for real love and true family, they find themselves pulled toward the one person who links them together—Kristina, Bree, mother, addict. But it is in each other, and in themselves, that they find the trust, the courage, the hope to break the cycle.
Told in three voices and punctuated by news articles chronicling the family’s story, FALLOUT is the stunning conclusion to the trilogy begun by CRANK and GLASS, and a testament to the harsh reality that addiction is never just one person’s problem.

My Thoughts: 

I have been a fan of Ellen Hopkins' books since I was 15 (so 5 years) and I was so looking forward to when the FINAL book in the Crank series was to come out. However, when I found out that it was going to be from Kristina’s children point of views I was a little disappointed. At first I had a hard time getting into the story because I didn’t know where she was going to take the plot of the story. It also felt like there was all this build up, towards the end, about the siblings being reunited and there wasn’t very much interaction between the three of them, which was a huge let down for me.

I also found myself skimming Autumn’s and Summer’s part of the story just so that I could get back to Hunter’s story. So more than once I had to make myself go back and actually read their part so I wouldn’t miss out on any information. The reason why I was doing this was because Hunter was a character in the first two books, so I was more invested in his character than I was in Autumn’s or Summer’s. I really wish she would have added another book between Glass and Fallout that dealt with the events that lead up to Kristina having Autumn and Summer. I feel like I missed a lot of information and I have a lot of questions as well.

My all time favorite thing are the newspaper clippings that update you on the characters from the first two books. I also really enjoyed the Brendan and Hunter meetings; I was wondering if that was ever going to happen and I’m happy with the way that they turned out!

I think that most of my disappointment came from the fact that I was expecting a story about Kristina and while Ellen Hopkins did answer all the major questions, she didn’t go into enough detail for me. So I am going to give this book, 5 quills because overall it was a really good book and I’m probably going to re-read it multiple times in the future.

<3 Shannon