Review: Dream a Little Dream

Dream a Little Dream by Kerstin Gier
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Liv and her sister Mia have been traveling all around around the world between their two parents. Both parents love to explore, so every time they go to visit one parent after another, they are always going to a new country with new people and new experiences. This time is no different when they go to live with their mother for the school year in London.

But things may be this time around when their mom introduces them to her new boyfriend. Who they are moving in with...with his two children...who go to school with Liv and Mia... And it seems that their mom is really happy, so maybe she will be sticking to London for longer than a year. Which means that Liv and Mia better start getting along with their new brother and sister.

And the school is significantly better for Liv this time around. She's had her fair share of bullies and so far that hasn't happened at this school.

The one unique thing about Liv is her ability to have very vivid dreams. She's even been having unusual dreams lately, but when she sees the same boys from her dreams at her school, Liv is realizing that maybe they aren't normal dreams. Especially when she knows information that she got from her dreams that she didn't know when she was awake.

It turns out that the 4 boys - 4 of the most popular boys at her school - is doing dark magic to summon a demon. But they need another person to join their group, and after seeing her in their dreams, their eyes are now on her to be the 5th one.

But some things are not as they seem and Liv is a very inquisitive person who needs all of the answers to the mysteries of the world. However, some things might be better left unanswered because the answers aren't always what Liv wants to hear...

I've been wanting to read this series for a long time and when I saw all 3 books at my library at once, I snatched them up real quick to finally read it! I loved Kerstin Gier's Ruby Red series and was so excited to dive into this new world of hers!

And overall I really enjoyed it. There were a few things here and there that could have been better. Especially the romance between Liv and one of the 4 boys. That seemed a bit stilted and awkward and them BAM they are together. I mean, really? Give me some angst and passion before they are magically at each others hips, okay?

The scenes where she is dreaming is not quite clear at first which makes it clunky when I finally do realize that this is a dream scenes versus a awake scene. I think Gier wanted to keep the reader guessing at to what was happening, but after so many times I was just getting a little frustrated by the end of it.

The twists and turns were great and I loved learning more and more about the boys's secrets. And not all of them are revealed yet, so I'm very excited to learn even more in the next novel. Also, I really hope that the identity of Secrecy will be revealed by the end of the series, because I really want to know who this person of so much knowledge is and how (s)he figures everything out.

I think tons of readers will enjoy this book and I'm now going to dive right into the second novel!

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Review: Shadow Girl

Shadow Girl by Liana Liu
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I received this free eARC novel from Edelweiss in exchange for my honest review.

Mei has been working one way or another for the past few years and has everything planned out. First she started as a camp counselor and learned how to deal with hyper, wild children. Then she would talk to those kids parents about how she was doing tutoring throughout the summer and throughout school, getting those same kids that she has already learned about their behaviors. She would take on no more than 5 kids for each semester, and she would do tutoring in the summer too, for those who were struggling a lot.

So basically Mei was playing the system and making lots of money from it. Which was nice since it was just her mom and her so they needed all of the money they could get.

And there was no way that Mei was going to pass up a tutoring gig that paid over twice as much as her last tutoring kids last year. Plus it was just one girl and Mei was going to be living with them. On an island. Getting lots of great food and being able to go to the pool or the beach when she wasn't tutoring.

But Mei knew that she was only an academic tutor and wasn't to get any special treatment - even though she was getting some extra perks. And not everything was going as smoothly for the Morrison's as they wanted people to believe. Ella is a smart girl but she seems to get the answers wrong on purpose. Her mother, Vanessa, is always trying to spend money and throw parties, but her husband Jeffrey is never around. He's always back in the city working and 'tries' to come to the island every weekend to visit. And Ella's older brother Henry is annoying Mei crazy.

And then there is the matter of Eleanor...the 8 year old girl who died on the island with the original owners. But Mei doesn't believe in ghosts, even if Ella is convinced Eleanor is there all of the time.

Mei just needs to make it through the summer without anything too weird happening so she can get back on track. But the longer Mei is gone, the more she is changing, and the more she may be wondering if the island is really haunted or not...

This was a very interesting, and intriguing novel! I wasn't sure where it was going, and honestly I'm not quite sure what the overall message behind the book is actually about... I mean, there were a lot of factors going throughout the novel, but then it had an abrupt ending and a hint of mystery at the end that never really resolved anything.

I loved seeing Mei get to experience new things and live her own life for once. She was stuck at home with her mom paying the bills and worrying about things from day to day, but she was able to just relax and do things that she wanted to do just for fun. Being around Ella and Henry helped too because they were able to convince her to hangout with them and just be a kid for once.

The whole supernatural aspect of this book was a bit odd for me... I get what the author did at the end to make the reader think, but it just wasn't really there for me to be honest. Though if this was made into a movie and had the suspenseful music, I may be changing my tune.

The Morrison's are an interesting family and they all have their issues and quirks. I honestly wouldn't want to live their lives of money and riches because it makes them spoiled and elite. And I think Mei got that feeling too, being on the other spectrum of the scale for money and fame.

Overall, I did enjoy this book. It definitely has left me thinking about the whole book and what really happened, so it did it's just right where I'm still thinking about it. I'd actually be interested to read another book with these characters to see what happens after this ending. See if they reconnect again or not.

I think a lot of readers will enjoy this book and I will definitely be recommending it when it releases in December 2017!

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Review: Pacifica

Pacifica by Kristen Simmons
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I received this free eARC novel from Edelweiss in exchange for my honest review.

I admit, the word pirate got to me. I am a sucker for pirate novels and have a high expectation of what the novel should consist of. And the way this novel starts? Not at all to do with pirates. And I understood that, so I kept trucking along through the book, but when I got to 40%, I just couldn't do it anymore. It was all political, giving the reader the backstory of what happened to the world with global warming and why they are making poor people go to this new island, this new world, for a better life.

But I was. Just. So. Bored! I couldn't handle the political aspect anymore, and then the characters were freaking out over people they met for 2 seconds. I had just gotten to the blackmail part when I decided I was skimming the novel more than reading it, and if it did get to the pirate stuff, I was already so disconnected from the story that it didn't even matter.

I haven't read Kristen Simmons other novels yet and I have been wanting to, so eventually I will pick them up and give them a try - just like I did with this one.

I wish I had liked it more because the synopsis and the cover really sucked me in. Maybe later I'll try it when it's published and see if I can be a bit more invested in the story to finish it. Especially since it's a stand alone and I love reading those, with no impatient waiting for the next.

I'm glad that I got an eARC of this book and I think other readers will enjoy it a bit more than I did!

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Review: If There's No Tomorrow

If There's No Tomorrow by Jennifer L. Armentrout
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I received this free eARC novel from Edelweiss and from the author in exchange for my honest review.

Lena has everything all planned out for her senior year in high school. She is applying early for college, she is going to see her best friends, Abbi, Dary and Megan, all of the time, and she is going to try to tell Sebastian that she has been in love with him since she saw him at age 8 when she moved in next door.

And all was starting to go on the right track...well mostly. But it's not going the way Lena wants it to. Especially when she kissed Sebastian and instead of kissing her back, he ran away and avoided her.

But all of these things became pretty insignificant to Lena after the car accident. After 4 people died and Lena was the only one to survive. When Lena knew she could have stopped it, but didn't and now she is paying the consequences.

I was so excited to get this ARC! I love JLA and was really looking forward to this book! And I wasn't disappointed in the slightest. It even made me cry a little bit...

This is a very emotional novel and I could not even imagine how Lena dealt with the situation at hand. I can completely understand why she thought the way that she did and why she acted the way she acted, even though I wanted to just slap her and make her see reason after a period of time.

All of JLA's guy characters make me swoon, and Sebastian was no exception. Seriously, I was flushed reading some of the scenes with him in it and I always get a kick out of how jealous I get when a character gets the hot guy and I'm at home realizing that he's not real and I'll never have him in my life. Guess that just means I'll have to re-read the book over and over, right? HA!

Lena not only had the issue with her classmates and best friends, but also home problems with her father, who she hasn't talked to or seen in 4 years. So when he shows up, Lena doesn't want to deal with that drama as well.

I laughed through this book. I cried through this book. It is very emotional and heartbreaking to read about Lena's story, but it makes the reader - or at least me - realize what is important in life and to not waste even a single second of your life. Because you never know what will happen tomorrow - or even today - and you don't want to have regrets of something you didn't do or didn't say.

Another thing I love about JLA is how almost all of her characters love to read. And when they love to read, I mean they LOVE to read and gush about the books they are reading, which is something I do every day. So now that Lena was reading to specific books, I'm going to go hunt down the one I haven't read yet: A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas. The other series I recognized right away and have already read: Paper Princess by Erin Watt.

When JLA does these little hints in her books, that means she loves them and is recommending them to the world. So I'm listening, JLA. I'm gonna go get Maas' series now and devour them, because if you love them, I know I certainly will :)

This book is very emotional and for some it might be very hard to read, depending on what you've been through in life. But there is a great message in this book that I think everyone will relate to and I am going to try my hardest to listen to and act upon.

I'm so glad that I got a chance to read this early and I can't wait for the physical copy to be released September 5th so I can add it to my ever growing collection of JLA books :)

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Review: Crazy House

Crazy House by James Patterson
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Out of the two twins, Cassie is the good twin and Becca is the wild twin. Cassie wants to follow the rules of her cell and is always in the house between 10p and 6a. Not a minute out of that time frame. Becca though... well Cassie woke up one more and Becca wasn't in the house. So she's definitely a rule breaker.

But when Becca doesn't come home for over a day, Cassie knows that Becca is in trouble rather than being a trouble maker. Still, Cassie does the right thing and reports Becca is missing, but no one in her town will listen to her. Instead, they think she is starting to cause trouble just like the rest of her family and she starts to get shunned by the authorities.

Meanwhile, Becca has been kidnapped and taken to a prison...that is death row. Becca has no idea what she has done, but she is not going to take this treatment lightly. In fact, she fights, and fights, and fights. Only when the final straw has happened does Becca start to follow the rules - but unwillingly.

Because no one will help Cassie, she decides to take matters into her own hands and leaves the comfort of her home. But when she crosses the border, Cassie then gets kidnapped by the very same people!

Now the sisters are made to fight each other, fight other kids, and watch kids get injected and die right before their eyes. Since they are together now, and know that the other is somewhat safe...well at least alive...they are determined to find a way out of this prison and back to their lives before.

But all of what they have been put through was for a reason. And when they find out why, they realize that they really know nothing at all about their own lives.

This was an...interesting book. I was really intrigued by the title, then by the synopsis. And to top it off, it's a standalone book! No waiting around for the sequel!

But it was an odd adventure once I got to the very end. It seems like they said it was a stand alone, but the way it ended makes all of the readers speculate when the next book will be released. And to be honest, if there is a sequel, I probably won't pick it up.

I mean, I enjoyed the book for the most part. I loved how dedicated Cassie was to finding Becca and I loved how both sisters knew they had to fight to survive, no matter what their personal opinions are. But it was just the ending, when the "big reveal" happened, that the book became lost to me. Because I called most of the "secrets" throughout the book and it was just another typical dystopian novel to me.

And, I dunno, it just didn't captivate me as much as I was hoping for. Because Patterson wrote this book, I flew through it. His 2 page chapters really make a reader fly through a book, no matter what the book is. But I was just waiting for that moment that I really clicked with the book and it didn't happen at all...

So I'm glad I got a chance to read this, but I've read better by him and I've read better dystopian novels as well. I think readers will be thrilled if the authors decide to write another novel, but I'm content with what I've read and now know what the novel is about without the mystery appeal behind the synopsis.

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Review: The Siren

The Siren by Kiera Cass
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

80 years ago, Kahlen's ship was a hostage to the Ocean and her sirens. Everyone on the ship was jumping overboard because of the beautiful song they were hearing from afar. Kahlen's parents and younger brothers were part of the human lives that were taken to appease the Ocean. Kahlen would have been another person if she hadn't resisted the song long enough to pray to live.

The Ocean heard her and spared her life to make her one of her daughters, one of her sirens, for 100 years. Kahlen agreed, not realizing what she was committing herself to, and has done the Oceans bidding ever since.

But after 80 years, Kahlen is not sure she can live being a siren any more. She does everything that the Ocean wants her to do, but it destroys Kahlen little by little every time she has to sing the song to capture another human life. She even has nightmares about some of the victims - even though the Ocean has told her that she should not remember anything about the song.

The only thing that Kahlen has ever wanted in life was to get married and have a family. And Kahlen thinks she may have found the one she wants to be with: Akinli. The bad part is that she found him 20 years too soon. By the time Kahlen is out of her time with the Ocean, Akinli will be 40 years old whereas Kahlen will still be a girl at age 19.

Even though Kahlen knows it's wrong, she just wants to spend time with Akinli, even if it's just for a day. But the more that Kahlen is around Akinli, the more she wants what she can't have. And the more she is upsetting the Ocean, who can do anything she pleases to makes sure she gets what she wants...

When an impossible event happens, many people, including Akinli, the Ocean, Kahlen and her sisters, are going to have to make important decisions to fix the situation. But one thing is for certain: things are not going to be the same as they once were.

I have been wanting to read this book for awhile now, so I was very excited to see it on the shelf at the library and instantly grabbed it! I haven't read too many stories about sirens, but enough to know what they are and what they do, so I was very excited to read this version. Especially since I love her "Selection" series so much!

And while you fellow "Selection" lovers out there are picking this up, I want to let you know now that this isn't as amazing as that series. I really liked it, don't get me wrong, but it's just not quiet there yet. Which makes sense since Kiera Cass wrote this book before the Selection series.

Kahlen is such a kind hearted spirit, so it makes sense why she has always had an issue with singing the song to kill humans. She doesn't want to ends lives - she wants to be able to live her own alongside them! So I definitely feel really bad for her and couldn't imagine having to go through that every year when they did a major song. I think I would have asked the Ocean to end my life a long time ago when I realized what my duty was in life.

It was nice seeing the other sisters and how they were dealing with their lifestyle. They all have their own issues but they all found ways of dealing with them. Kahlen, only wanting to be a wife and mother, couldn't do what she loved because they were forbidden from the Ocean. The other girls loved to party, paint, explore - something that they could do from day to day.

Akinli is such a sweetheart! Seriously! Kahlen couldn't talk, but did that stop Akinli? Not in the slightest! He was always finding knew topics to talk about and making sure that he was very attentive of Kahlen's answers and mannerisms. I'm sort of jealous of Kahlen that she had all of his attention!

Overall, this was such a sweet novel about love. Not only between Kahlen and Akinli, but also between Kahlen and the Ocean. There are all kinds of love out there in the world, and this novel touches on 2 different kinds of love that exist in the world.

I'm very glad that I finally got to pick this up and explore Cass's first novel published :)

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Review: Royal Bastards

Royal Bastards by Andrew Shvarts
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Tilla wants one thing in the world: for her father to recognize her as his daughter again and legalize her status, rather than keeping her be a bastard as his castle. But after 16 years, she's not sure if he will ever do that.

When the Princess Lyriana visits the Western Providence, Tilla doesn't realize that her whole life is going to change. And it starts when Lyriana wants to sit at the bastards table with the kids, rather than with the diplomatics at the Lords table. Because the Princess wants to have a little fun, Tilla takes her to the beach with her half-brother Jax, another bastard Miles, and a stranger Zell from the Zitochi clan. It was just supposed to be a night of fun, laughter, and getting to know everyone, but instead all 5 of them witnessed a terrible act that is intended to start another Great War.

Now Tilla and her crew need to get Lyriana back to the Kingdom to her father before they are captured and killed. Along the way, secrets are exposed, tensions run high, and friendships will be betrayed.

One will betray the group. One will die with a kiss on their lips. And all will be changed for good because of the actions they take throughout the long travels they are partaking in.

This was a great novel! I have to admit, the title really captured me and ensnared me. I don't think it would have mattered what the book was about, I was ready to read it the second I saw that title. But then I read the synopsis and instantly knew that I had to read this book, even though it's the first in a series and the other books haven't even been written yet. I broke my rule because that's how excited I was by this book!

And I was not disappointed either! This book was full of mystery, adventure, secrets, romance abrewing, and bravery. It had everything I was wanting and more. I loved all of the characters...well most of them. I'm not going to tell you who I didn't like because that may ruin something for readers while reading :)

Tilla is just an ordinary girl. Zell is the warrior and is pretty badass. Jax is the goofball, but also the muscle since he is built like an ox. Lyriana is royal and magical. Miles is studious and insightful. But out of all of them, Tilla is my girl. She is the bravest out of all of them because she is completely normal and is only doing what she thinks is best for the world. Then she makes herself better by asking Zell to train her to fight, to defend herself when the shit hits the fan.

I'm so glad that I decided to go against my rules and read this now! It was a great story and I am committed to these characters now. I will be waiting with lots of impatience for the rest of the series and will be making sure that my library purchases it right away!

I definitely recommend this to all my friends! :)

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