Review/My Favorite Quotes and Lines - Every Day

Every Day by David Levithan

Review:

3 gnomes out of 5 gnomes

Feelings after reading: Surprised and a little bummed that the story was over.

This is another one of those books that I’ve known about forever but never got around to reading it, until I saw the preview for the movie based on this book. The preview looked pretty good so I knew I wanted to read this book ASAP.

It is intriguing seeing A’s point of view on this plethora of different lives. I kind of wish the book had started in the earlier years and then did a time jump to being 16 years old. The lives we do see really shape A into an interesting character.

Meeting Rhiannon changes everything for this character. It was almost a little too instalove but I just went with it and got drawn into the story.

The only real misstep/part I didn’t like was how harsh A was when they were in the body of someone that wore a 3XXXL. I myself am not exactly a small person but the way A describes the body is pretty darn insulting and makes the person sound horrible/like they have a hard time even existing. I mean A was two rather large football player dudes in the book, I imagine them close to 300 pounds too and rocking larger than a 3X shirt. After so much other diversity and openness in the book it was a little jarring that A was so upset by waking up fat.

The ending was a twist I wasn’t expecting. (I was expecting an ending kind of like the one in The Host by Stephanie Meyer.) So I really was surprised by how everything ended up and wish there had been just a little more of what exactly happens next.

____________________________________________________
My Favorite Quotes/Lines

“After a while, you have to be at peace with the fact that you simply are.”

“We all contain mysteries, especially when seen from the inside.”

“We all want everything to be okay. We don’t even wish so much for fantastic or marvelous or outstanding. We will happily settle for okay, because most of the time, okay is enough.”

“Happiness is so rarely a part of my vocabulary, because for me it’s so fleeting.”

“Once you experience enormity, it lingers everywhere you look, and wants to be every word you say.”

“Kindness connects to who you are, while niceness connects to how you want to be seen.”

“In my experience, desire is desire, love is love. I have never fallen in love with a gender. I have fallen for individuals. I know this is hard for people to do, but I don’t understand why it’s so hard, when it’s so obvious.”

“If your beauty is unquestioned, so many other things can go unquestioned as well.”

“If smart people are parodying it, that’s a sure sign that some less smart people are believing it.”

“As if when someone close to us dies, we momentarily trade places with them, in the moment right before. And as we get over it, we’re really living their life in reverse, from death to life, from sickness to health.”

Review - The Bone Witch

The Bone Witch by Rin Chupeco


* Read via NetGalley for review

3 gnomes out of 5 gnomes

This book was perplexing and vexing at times but also I just had to know what was going to happen next. It was a hard book to get through but I had to see what would happen. The story structure was something I both love and hated because it really made you feel like you were missing something because you’re never sure how Tea became who she is now.

I don't know how a book can feel like so much is happening when really almost nothing is happening. It kind of felt like a fantasy history book mixed in with a really dark future for the characters.

I liked the mythology and history of the asha. I did want to know more about all of the magic. What we do learn though is more than interesting.

The characters are all strong, especially Tea. I just wanted more of the story filled in. The whole past and future thing makes you wonder WTF happened over about two years.

That ending though was the truly infuriating part. When things are just getting good, like I don’t want to put down the book good, the story just ends.

Review - Nobody's Goddess

Nobody’s Goddess by Amy McNulty

* Read via NetGalley for review

Favorite Quote: “I was the elf queen—and I was nobody’s goddess.”

3 gnomes out of 5 gnomes

I don’t think I’ve ever been this close to DNF aka not finishing a book. This book just starts off slow and the mythology of the world takes a bit to get into. This book pulled me back from the brink though because things became a lot more interesting.

Noll is a strong character but also pretty darn conflicted. You can see her point of view but the whole problem she has with her sister make you question her motives more than once.

This world is intriguing with the whole men having to wear masks until they find the right woman/goddess for them. Plus the whole women possibly rejecting her man and never being loved.

The thing I really disliked was all the random time jumps forward like four months later (I wanted to know what happened that night, not months later. I think the story may have been a lot stronger without all the interruptions.

Everything leading up to the ending was great but the very end just felt so rushed and right when you think you're about to get resolution the book ends.

Review - Miss Frost Ices the Imp

Miss Frost Ices the Imp by Kristen Painter

3 gnomes out of 5 gnomes

I liked but didn’t love this second book. The characters are still awesome and everything but the mystery just didn’t feel big enough this time and the consequences and danger weren’t really there for the most part. It kind of read more like a short story than a whole book if that makes sense.

The love triangle feels a bit more grating this time. I really hope it’s featured less in the next book. There were a couple of loose ends I’m wondering about too that hopefully get resolved ASAP.

My favorite development in this book had to be Spider, that is one entertaining cat. I also like how connected the whole town is and how relationships continue to grow.

Overall a good addition to the series and I’m looking forward to seeing what happens next.

Review - Go Set a Watchman

Go Set a Watchmen by Harper Lee

* Spoilers are highlighted like so: :)

3 gnomes out of 5 gnomes

This is how I felt about a third of the way through this book:

“I really don’t know what to think of this book yet. It was written a long time ago so it’s moving a lot slower than what I usually read but I do find myself drawn into the story. A couple of parts have had me wondering so far but I am curious how it all ends...”

This is not what I was expecting at all. I expected something big but this book was small and off putting. I’m also very glad that this was not the first book published. I know it’s a product of its time and was actually written a long time ago but wow some of this book just felt very weird while reading.

After finishing the whole book I kind of wished she had just run off with Dill to have adventures and maybe married him.

The flashbacks to her youth were by far the best parts of the books. The only flaw there I think is the very disturbing scene where she’s planning to commit suicide because she thinks she’s pregnant. Let’s just say she got some wrong info from people at school.

Jem’s death bothered me too because they were just so nonchalant about it. Atticus even tells her at some point in the book to pretty much move on/get over it.

Don’t go into this book expecting a big court case again. It’s more of a character study of her going home to visit and seeing how everything has changed. The only part I really understood was the whole hero worship bit, the way it was handled though wasn’t exactly subtle. 

Also not subtle, the racism in the book. I really would have liked to see all the different points of view from each character, I think that might have made the book more well rounded.

Rachel Reviews - The Second Coming: A Love Story

The Second Coming: A Love Story by Scott Pinsker

* Book received from the author for review

This book is about religion, politics and the intertwining of the two. The only way it could be more controversial would be if it included a debate about pizza toppings. That being said, my goal in this review is to review the book itself, not its views on religion and politics, though I will admit, the presentation of each throughout the book was, while reading, balanced. You have no idea which one is the messiah and which is the devil until the very last two pages. Even then, there’s some doubt.

Throughout the entire book, you keep going back and forth, wondering which messiah is the real deal. Wondering if all the subversive tactics their respective disciples are using, are worth the pain they cause. You keep reading in the hopes of finding answers, even just a little bit of closure. The most I got out of it, humans are terrible creatures by nature and maybe the devil has good reason to despise us.

Every character in this book is clearly another take on their biblical namesakes. Peter Clay, Mary Magdala, it’s pretty obvious who these people are meant to portray. In addition, while the various members of the media do not have namesakes, it’s clear they are meant to represent various people currently working in radio, television, etc. Throughout all of the mass media attention, siding with one messiah, bashing the other, the only person I felt that truly kept their heads was Professor Solomon Basemath and he was only in one scene. The only person I felt any emotion for was Michael and that’s probably because, like the reader, he was stuck between two realms, with no clue about where he’s going or why he is where he is. Most of the other characters do truly deplorable things al in the name of supporting their messiah and it makes it almost impossible to empathize with them when bad things happen. Yet again, reaffirming one of the final messages of the book, humans are deplorable.

I went through this entire book out of interest in seeing which messiah would end up being real and which would be the devil. I sought closure in the last chapter of this book. I received none. Maybe this is the author’s intent, they do have a sequel coming out this year. Either way, the ending left a bad taste in my mouth. I will give this book credit for keeping me reading; I had no interest in not finishing it. I give this book credit for a consistent storyline. I also enjoyed the devil’s backstory that was interlaced with everything going on, even if it was incredibly confusing for the first several references. But I still feel let down by the ending and that’s the last impression I got from the book. The most I can give this is 3 Gnomes.

Rachel Reviews - American Monsters

American Monsters by Linda S. Godfrey

* Received from the publisher for review.

We’ve all heard about legends of mermaids, Bigfoot, and Mothman. In American Monsters, Godfrey discusses reports of these monsters, and so many more. I honestly did not know until reading this book that there were so many sightings and legends of creatures, just here in the United States.

Godfrey has the difficult task of taking a high number of witness statements, sorting the credible from the non-credible, and following up on the credible ones where she can. A high number of sightings she records are from earlier centuries and need to be included with care. I give Godfrey full credit for keeping this book as close to objective as a writer could. Where other explanations are available, she does state them. Where the probability of a creature are virtually non-existent, she gives reasons why.

A problem that arises with writing this book so objectively is that is does come across as rather dry. These monsters are interesting. The eye-witness statements are interesting. But the overall feel of the book is that it’s almost as boring as a textbook; for similar reasons that textbooks are boring. American Monsters is about interesting things, but the need to be objective almost kills the interest of a reader that is not, themselves, a monster hunter. This is not a book for a casual reader.

Because I am a casual reader and not a monster hunter, I give this book 3 gnomes out of 5. It was well researched, as one would expect from a journalist, and Godfrey does do a good job of keeping her personal opinions out of it until her own sightings in the last chapter. Unfortunately, the material is so very dry to me that I had to push myself to keep reading.

Review - It Girl

It Girl by Nic Tatano

* Provided by NetGalley for Review

3 gnomes out of 5 gnomes

This book is a lot of fun if you’re in the mood for a romantic comedy type of story. The cover of the book isn’t all that pretty but the story inside is good. You pretty much know what’s going to happen but it’s a lot of fun along the way.

Veronica is a tough no nonsense reporter who has a clear goal she wants to accomplish. To meet this goal though she has to host a Good Morning America-like program called The Morning Show.

She finds out though that it’s not going to be as easy to do this as she thought. That’s when the real fun starts as she lets her snarkiness out on live television. Her interactions with the guests are really funny (I wish there would have been more of The Morning Show shown.) She is popular without trying to be and is in for an even bigger surprise when the network gives her an interesting assignment.

I loved her friends especially Savannah with all her Southern wisdom and sayings. Her meeting with her friends are always insightful and fun.

Veronica's love life is at first non-existent and then gets very interesting. The guys in this book are all a little different and Dexter is just a little too perfect at times.

Overall a fun quick read that will make you smile.

Eager Earthbound

Earthbound by Aprilynne Pike

* Received from the publisher for review.

3 gnomes out of 5 gnomes

Earthbound you have a great premise, you really do.  The thing is I was more than a little confused by you and what the heck was going on.  

You went and drew me in with your main character who seems like a great person who’s been dealt a horrible tragedy.  I was all for rooting for Tavia and seeing what she was going to do next/how she was going to move on with her life.  She is quite the character and it takes her awhile but she does find some real initiative in her life and wants to know her true purpose.

I was even all for the love interest at first and then it becomes a love triangle (a very strange love triangle but still a triangle.)  This triangle will definitely have you rooting more for one side over the other.  

All the paranormal/weirdness of this book intrigued me at first but it also confused the heck out of me.  I am looking forward to finding out more about this world and if Tavia really has a right choice in all of this.

I would like more power from the bad guys and an explanation for what they believe.  I’m not usually able to see twists in books as far ahead of time as I did with Earthbound, the main character has to be pretty darn dense not to figure out that somethings going on sooner.

I really liked your ending Earthbound because you switched things up in a good way and made me actually wonder what’s going to happen next. I look forward to the next book and am hoping there’s more explanation and that Tavia continues to grow as an awesome character. 

Quarrelsome Quarantine

The Loners by Lex Thomas

* Read via the publisher for review.

3 gnomes out of 5 gnomes

Have you ever read a book that just annoyed the heck out of you?  It took me so long to read this book, I just couldn’t seem to finish it.  The story is interesting but I think that there are way too many points of view in this story.

I think the story would have been easier to digest with one to two points of view not the plethora of perspectives that the book gives.  The time jumps were kind of disconcerting too, I wanted to know more of the early stuff about how they got by, how the virus affected them, and how the gangs were formed.

This book is a great example where you might not like the good guys a hundred percent at first but as you read along you’ll find yourself rooting for them.  There are plenty of attitudes and so many problems to overcome.  Some of the events are cringeworthy but with that many hormones I guess it’s surprising that there wasn’t more violence to be had.

All of the relationships both familial and romantic in this book are very messy and I’m not sure if any of them can or will work out in the long run.  As the situation escalates though is when the story really gets good.  

The gang aspect was the most intriguing thing about the book that and the virus too of course.  I’m extremely curious to how everything will be explained and if there can be any happy outcomes for this group of students.  You have to wonder how society has allowed this and what the future could possibly look like for them all.

The ending was the best part because the intensity pretty much goes up to eleven and there was quite the twist at the end and the last sentence of the story was rather ominous.

Review - Indelible

Indelible by Dawn Metcalf

* Read via Wastepaper Prose for an ARC tour. Also read via NetGalley
* Spoilers are highlighted like so :)

* ARC read via a tour put on by Wastepaper Prose.  Also read via NetGalley

3 gnomes out of 5 gnomes

Oh Indelible, I really did not get along with you at first, you’re actually one of the first books in quite a while that I thought I might not be able to finish.  Everything is just so convoluted at first in your plot and it doesn’t gel until well over page 100.  Plus it drove me insane having two characters with the same name just spelled differently.  You were part of a tour though and your synopsis was ever so intriguing.  I am glad that I soldiered on further into the book though because finding out about the Twixt is when things truly get interesting.  

Let’s just say that I’m not a fan of Joy and Ink’s first meeting because it doesn’t exactly end well for Joy. Much is explained later but wow that is not the way you ever want to meet somebody.  I was so very confused by the new world at first but once more gets explained it and all the denizens you get to meet are much easier to understand.

Joy is not exactly a likable character at first, she’s one of those characters that might take a bit to grow on you.  She seemed rather obnoxious in the beginning of the book.  

The choices she makes are questionable at times and it’s not until a lot more gets explained that her actions become more reasonable.

Ink seemed to be just the stereotypical dark fae type character, you know the fae that automatically hates humans and is closed off from the world.  His character was one that I really enjoyed reading about though because you see him changing much faster than Joy does.  Him learning to be human is a great part of the story.

I kind of wish that the characters had been written as older because with Ink he’s more of an idea then a person so it’s kind of like if a girl fell in love with the idea of the Easter Bunny or something.   The action picks up at the end and I love that Joy really becomes more a part of the weird world.  

After that ending, I'm looking forward to the next book to seeing where they can go from here.

Magic Motel

Hocus Pocus Hotel by Michael Dahl

* Provided by the publisher for review

3 gnomes out of 5 gnomes

This is one magic trick filled quick read.  Most of the action takes place at the Abacadabra Hotel, which is owned by Tyler’s family.  There is magic and several mysteries afoot.  

The characters were kind of caricature like at first.  Charlie’s the nerd/smart kid and Ty’s known around school as a bully.  As a matter of fact Charlie thinks he’s about to be his next victim when they meet and then things change between them. 

Ty is looking for Charlie’s help because he thinks that he’s the only one that can help him.  Charlie’s know for his photographic memory and his love of puzzles.  Ty has some really interesting puzzles for Charlie to solve.  They slowly but surely seem to be becoming friends, just not at school.  Tyler and Charlie make a great team and the mysteries are solved rather quickly.  I hope there friendship continues to develop and that their adventures continue. 

The illustrations really help bring the story to life.  I felt while reading it that it would make for a great cartoon series especially with all of the eccentric magician characters.  A hotel built by a magician would make for a really good set piece in which to tell a bunch of different weird stories.    

The characters found around the hotel are a lot of fun and will leave you wanting to know their whole stories.  My favorite magician they meet is Mr. Madagascar (because he is one crazy old magician.).  I think Madagascar pulls off one of the best tricks too. 

The final reveal is really cool but then the book just kind of stops, it just doesn’t feel like it ends where it should because only one person finds out the big final reveal.  This book definitely feels like it would be on the younger side of Middle Grade. 

Crazy Commencement

Commencement by Paige Cuccaro                       

* e-book provided by the publisher for review

3 gnomes out of 5 gnomes

This is a very sound short story that pulls you in right from the very first line.  Emma is definitely a character that I am looking forward to learning more about.  

She seems kind of naive at first and not quick to believe in the supernatural even when it’s right under her nose.  I found the whole not believing thing really hard to believe because well Emma’s not exactly normal and she knows that not just anybody can do what she does.  

Her friend Mihir is a fun addition to the story and it looks like he may have a lot to teach her.  It feels like he understands her a lot better than her boyfriend does.  Her relationship with her boyfriend seems all cheery and great at first but then some weirdness starts to seep in.  He’s kind of a creep and well the character is pretty charitable to save the guy at all from what’s going on.

I liked the mystery of what’s going on.  It was both creepy and surprising when finding out what the problem is.  The actual ending of the story felt like a dark kind of fairy tale with quite the lesson to remember.  After reading this short story prequel, I’m excited to read the first book in the series and see where it goes from here.

Middling Manifest

Manifest by Artist Arthur

This book gets a good 3 gnomes out of 5 gnomes for being a fun read with some mystical magical goodness thrown in. 

The story is fun to read and it's easy to visualize everything that's happening.  The main character, Krystal is a bit whiny but it's understandable because I think having the ability to see, hear and talk to ghosts would make anyone grumpy.  She also doesn't have the best family life and her anger clouds her judgment of what's going around her.

Kyrstal kind of reminded me of the kid from The Sixth Sense, she just has to learn not to be afraid of the ghosts and thus be strong and help them.  The story starts with a ghost named Ricky asking for help.  At first Kyrstal wants nothing to do with it but after getting to know him she feels that she has to know what happened to him. 

She doesn't exactly have a lot of friends at school so it's a little weird when two people at school really want to talk to her about the tattoo like birthmark that they all have.  Though it does make you wonder how exactly they noticed Krystal's birthmark,  seeing as it's on the back of her neck.  It makes you wonder how they saw her neck without being creepy.  Sasha and Jake are already friends so they are used to each other which adds an interesting dynamic when they start to hang out with Krystal.  They figure out that their M shaped birthmarks are no meer coincedence.  They all have different powers and need to figure out why this power seems to be growing.

There is more than one mystery to solve and a lot of mythology to their birthmarks to get through.  The oddest part of the mystery is Ricky.  He says that everyone thinks that the people he hung out with killed him.  From what I read though, not many of the students even seemed concerned about Ricky's death and that he practically died on school property. 

The pace of the book is slow at first but picks up nicely towards the end and makes you curious about what dark and dangerous forces are at work in the town.  The ending will make you look forward to the next book and wonder if these three can come together as a group, they call themselves Mystyx, and succeed.

Fickle Future

Future Imperfect by K. Ryer Breese

* I received this book via Star Book Tours

* Release date - April 26, 2011

This book gets a good 3 gnomes out of 5 gnomes.  I liked the premise of the book and the characters were interesting in their own ways but also kind of hard to like.  First of all, their names are really weird.  The main character's name is Ade Patience and the girl he's in love/obsessed with is Vauxhall Rodolfo.  Let's just say those names don't really roll off the tongue and I'm pretty sure that I was mispronouncing them.

Ade is not exactly what you would call a reliable narrator.  He's not reliable because in order to see the future he has to give himself a concussion.  Doing this means he's been in more then one car accident and does things like jump off of buildings on purpose.  Having this many concussions of course is not good for you but Ade is addicted to the feeling that he gets after a vision.  This has led to him blacking out and having a horrible memory.  At points in the story you might find yourself wondering if any of it is true.

Ade's character is also pushed by his religious obsessed mother.  She believes his visions are a sign from God and Ade encourages her by always adding something that he thinks that she'll find important.  His Mom is pretty darn creepy with worrying more about writing Ade's visions down than whether he's irreparably damaging himself by getting the visions.

Vauxhall strikes me as the mysterious girl who is way more needy then she needs to be.  She's not exactly a reliable character either, at times you have to wonder what Ade sees in her.  Their secrets are what seems to bring them together and the fact that she currently has a boyfriend.

Psychic phenomenon abound and there is enough weirdness for even the most weird loving soul.   Ade may not be the only person with powers around town.  These characters are strong but if you're looking for cute or cuddly, you're in the wrong place.

The ending is what really brings the book to a solid 3 gnomes, because it leaves this character changed but with the reader also questioning what's going to happen next.  A good read but be warned the story can be a tad hard to follow at times and if you don't like unreliable narrators this may not be the book for you.  Definitely worth a read though to see how the ending which is hinted at in the beginning comes about.