Bone Gap by Laura Ruby

Bone Gap by Laura Ruby
Pub: 3/3/2015
Pgs: 368
ARC Received by Edelweiss

This story was awesome.  I really thought it would fall flat, I had no expectations for it to fulfill so much by the end. 

Finn isn't anyone's favorite.  People of Bone Gap know him as the resident space cadet.  It's true that Finn can sometimes be in the clouds, that he doesn't look you in the eyes, and doesn't have a clue; but it turns out that there is a possible explanation for that.  It's also hard for him to compete with his brother, Sean.  Everyone loves Sean, he's big, smart, and endearing.  After being abandoned by their mother, someone happens to pop up unexpectedly, enter Roza.  Roza is from Poland, she arrived on the boy's farm bloody, bruised, and confused.  The boys tend to her, and pretty soon they are a small family, until tragedy strikes.  This is the point our story begins.

Everyone in town blame Finn for Roza's disappearance.  He was the last person to see her, and his description of the man that took her does nothing to help law enforcement.  In fact many would say that his poor description can only lead to one possibility: Roza left on her own.

This story follows the town of Bone Gap through Finn, Roza, and other's eyes.  The nuances of a small town, secrets, realistic explanation woven in almost a fairy tale manner are all combined in this great book that will keep you reading to find out how Finn saves the princess.

4 stars.  Thanks Edelweiss. 

Vanishing Girls by Lauren Oliver

Vanishing Girls by Lauren Oliver
Pub: 3/10/2015
Pgs: 368
ARC Received by Edelweiss


Vanishing Girls is the sort of story that compels you to read it all in one sitting.  There are too many loose strands hanging about, and when you think you are reading a realistic YA book about sisters and the cost of growing up -bam- you're hit with the reality that this book is not what it seems. 

Nick and Dara are close siblings that couldn't more different if they tried.  Nick is the responsible, reliable, and studious daughter; while Dara is the social butterfly, pushes buttons, and gets into too much trouble.  Both deal with jealousy of each other in their own ways, but tend to be unified by their love of each other.  That is, until their best friend and neighbor Parker begins dating one of them.  After a terrible fight, and a terrible accident both sisters stop relying each other, and recover in separate homes. 

I really enjoyed the twist, because like I mentioned I thought this would be a conventional story about two sisters.  What ended up happening what that I was wrapped up in this psychological thriller, by the end.  I liked it, but I didn't love it.  It needed more.  After I accepted the twist, I thought about what I had read in the beginning and it didn't gel.  There were things that could not be right if you accepted the twist, i.e. text messages.  I just wish it was a bit cleaner in the twist.
3 out of 5 stars.  Thanks Edelweiss.

The Bargaining by Carly Anne West

The Bargaining by Carly Anne West
Pub: 2/17/2015
Pgs: 384
ARC Received by Edelweiss

The Bargaining is one of those books that makes you think about what goes bump in the night, about strange myths and legends, and frankly about making a deal with the Devil.  Penny has had a pretty bad few months.  Her friend is dead, and Penny feels so guilty that her friend's ghost is haunting her.  It isn't clear in the beginning why Penny feels guilty, but it's quickly understood that this experience has changed her profoundly.  Her mother cannot deal with it anymore and decides to ship her off to her father's house.  Now at her father's Penny has been notified that she will be spending her Summer a few hours away with her stepmom reconstructing a house she just purchased with only her camera and a journal full of unsent letters as her company.

Penny knows immediately there is something wrong with the house and with the surrounding woods.  The town folks are not very welcoming either, when they find out her stepmom has purchased the old Carver House.  It almost seems like there is a deadly secret and they wish to push these new folks out of town.  Almost instantly, on the first night, Penny is visited by a ghost of a young boy who claims he wants to show her something.  What Penny sees, hears, and understands are puzzle pieces to a very morbid and dark story.  Enter Miller, the young general store owner who has a connection to the house.  He knows more than he is willing to share.  After some more visits and investigation Penny realizes that she is in over her head and that these secrets that lie in this dead town.

Such a creepy story.  I know I gave it 3.5 stars but it's one of those stories that even with all it's faults makes you speed through it just to know, just so that you're not stuck in this horrific little world built by the author.  I wanted to know if Rae was a figment of Penny's imagination because of her guilty, or if Rae was really a ghost.  I wanted to know what happened to Miller's brother, and the rest of the kids who were lost in the woods.  I wanted Penny and her stepmom to leave that place.  I wanted so much... this book just had me constantly wanting more information and more creepiness.

3.5 stars.  Thanks Edelweiss.

All That Burns by Ryan Graudin

All That Burns by Ryan Graudin
Pub: 2/10/2015
Pgs: 464
ARC received by Edelweiss


I originally did not like this story when it first came out.  I liked the changes, the addition of royalty and giving up magic for love, and obviously the fairies.  I didn't like the ridiculous love story.  I don't mean I couldn't get behind the impossibility of it, after all we are dealing with fairies; however, I just couldn't deal with the insta-love and then the continuation of girly love language in everything.  I almost felt like it was written by a 12 year old girl. 

This book did tell us a little bit of a different story.  While the lovey-dovey sickness that contaminated the first novel was still there, the addition of King Arthur's story, the "real" reason for Guinevere's betrayal, and Annabelle's love story all made this book worth it.  Emrys and Richard were still annoying, and frankly Emrys isn't as strong as she pretends to be or even as others pretend she is.  We can chalk it up to spells that influenced her, but in reality she's been this way since the beginning.  Due to the additions of Annabelle and Guinevere's stories I give this book 3 stars. 

Crazy Love You by Lisa Unger

Crazy Love You by Lisa Unger
Pub: 2/10/2015
Pgs: 352
ARC Received by Edelweiss                         


"Heaven has no rage like love to hatred turned, nor hell a fury like a woman scorned."

Ian has been brought up in darkness.  He has always been an outsider.  When he was young his mother killed his baby sister and almost killed him, leaving her a ward in a psychiatric hospital.  What saved Ian that day was stumbling across a young waif of a girl named Priss.  After that day Ian is followed by mysterious situations that are dark and ominous.  If someone picks on him, and he tells Priss, that bully's house might burn down.  And the problem is that when ever these bad things happen Ian tries to tell people about Priss, but no one believes him.  In a small town where people know each other, no one knows who this mysterious girl is. 

Now grown up, Ian decides he needs to leave his home behind, where he was so unhappy.  He moves to NYC and begins a successful career as a graphic novelist, and even meets a wonderfully beautiful and sweet girl that he wants to eventually marry.  It almost seems as if his life has been turned around, but one thing he has never been able shake off is Priss.  Now that he has found happiness, Priss can't let him go and soon things turn murderous and a bit haunting. 

I did not expect this to become a ghost story, but I found it intriguing.  Yes at first it took some time to into the story, but once I realized that Ian was pretty much crazy and no one else seemed to know about Priss I was in.  The Ian began to investigate who Priss really was and his connection to her, and it got more interesting.  Finally the end was a bit mind blowing for me; honestly I cannot see how Ian and his wife could live happily ever after what happened and had been revealed in the end.

4 stars.  Thanks Edelweiss.

The Last Time We Say Goodbye by Cynthia Hand

The Last Time We Say Goodbye by Cynthia Hand 
Pub: 2/10/2015
Pgs: 400
ARC received by Edelweiss

Lex was your average girl.  She had a mother, a father, and a pretty awesome little brother.  She's crazy smart, has great band of friends, and is confident she will make something big of herself.  All these things began warping the minute her father walked out on her family, after an affair.  Things weren't looking that terrible, there just happened to be a lot of animosity but overall Lex felt like things were going well.  She was on her way to apply to MIT and continue to be brilliant.  On the other hand Tyler had taken the divorce very badly, he was a 12 and needed his father, but he also really was upset with his father's choices and lack of empathy when it came to breaking up the home.  It had gotten so bad that Tyler tried to commit suicide at 12 right after the divorce.  Thankfully he only swallowed Advil, and his liver was able to process them without killing him.

Unfortunately this isn't the story of how Lex, Tyler and their family were able to overcome this issue.  Instead this is the story of how Lex's life completely falls apart the day her brother kills himself.  At 16 he finally couldn't take the black hole living inside of him anymore, and Lex feels guilty because she received a text message from him the day of his death.  He didn't leave a note either... well he left a post-it note for his mother, but other than that he never provided closure for Lex or her family.  With a few ghostly apparitions Lex stumbles upon a letter Tyler wrote to his ex-girlfriend.  Could this possibly explain why he did it?  Lex will do what she can to piece together what happened that last day, and in turn she has written everything down in a journal as an alternative to anti-depressants provided by her therapists.

This was such a heart wrenching story, because suicide can be one of the most hurtful topics out there.  Whether you are suicidal or someone you love is, both roles have difficulties to deal with emotionally and mentally.  This book shows the different facets of pain that suicide leaves on the living.  Lex's mom goes off on the deep end, her father becomes a robot, Lex can barely deal with life, and everyone immediately wants to distance themselves from the family of the dearly departed.  The pain is so raw, but it's real and as complicated as this topic can be in the end it is very simple: losing a loved one too soon is a hard thing to process and move on from, but in the end we are not alone and we are not to blame and our loved ones who committed suicide are not the bad guys either.  Understanding is completely in order from friends, family, and ourselves.

4.5 stars.  Thanks Edelweiss, and thank you Cynthia Hand.

Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard

Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard
Pub: 2/10/2015
Pgs: 320
ARC Received by Edelweiss


Here's the crux about this book: it isn't new or fresh because it literally weaves multiple YA novels into one, but that's kind of why I liked it.  Mare is your average girl living as a Red below the Silver class.  What separates the two is that the Silvers have powers... funny story so does Mare, but she is a Red through and through. (Reds bleed red, Silvers bleed silver).  This becomes an issue for the all powerful Silvers.  If the Reds figured out that they might have powers, or that even just one of them has the power to defeat Silvers, there could be a rebellion on the lose.  In order to hide this fact, the Silvers adopt Mare, change her name to Maven, and tell everyone she is a lost Silver princess. 

With her family's life at stake, a rebellion beginning to rise, two princes that capture her heart, and plenty of backstabbing to go around this read will capture audiences.  Does that mean I loved every minute of it?  Of course not, but it still is entertaining if you like to figure out a puzzle.  I still want to know how Mare can bleed red but have powers, and I want to see how far the rebellion will make it... also there is a prince I would like to see destroyed (bet you really can't tell which one until the end!)
4 stars. Thanks Edelweiss