Swear by Nina Malkin

This is the second, and last, book in the Swoon series. My review of the first book is located here: Swoon.

It's been six months since Dice has seen Sin - ever since he professed his love to Dice, but then mysteriously left after their one night together.

Now, Dice is managing to get by. She is living with one of her friends, Marsh, and has started a band with her bandmates, Duck, Crane, and Tosh. As things become awkward-but-flirty way between Tosh and Dice, Crane goes missing. Marsh, who was dating Crane, thinks it's because he wants to break up with her, but later they find out that Crane was taken!

After Dice and Tosh kiss, Sin automatically appears, brokenhearted that Dice would stop loving Sin. That wasn't the case, but it was how Sin took it and felt devastated over Dice's decision.

Everyone goes on the hunt for Crane, and finds out that he was in another plane - as in, the ghost who lives in his house stole Crane in order to obtain her true prize: Sin.

Antonia has wanted Sin every since she died in the fire, hundreds of years ago. Now, with Crane as collateral, her and Sin are finally going to get married. Sin doesn't want to marry Antonia, but finds no other way in order to save Crane.

Dice realizes that she still loves Sin, so she tries to find a way to stop the marriage. Will Sin and Dice be able to prevent the wedding and be together, or will Dice have to watch Sin devote his life to another? Read Swear to find out!

My Thoughts/Reflections
Honestly? I'm not sure how I feel about this book. The first book, I was on the edge with liking/disliking it. This book didn't change my opinion - I actually think it lead me to the dislike ladder more.

It seemed that there was a lot of stuff crammed into this book. First finding out Sin left, then meeting Tosh, but, oh, no wait, back to Sin reappearing. Then with the disappearances, Antonia, and Dice accepting her magic to be a witch?

It was just too much.

The character developments was better in this novel, though. Other than that, I don't think I would recommend this series to too many people... It wasn't my style at least so, while others may like it, I will be putting this on my back burner for those unusual readers who like magic and mystery.

Swoon by Nina Malkin

Candice, or Dice as her friends call her, moved from New York to a small town in Connecticut: Swoon. Nothing to extraordinary happens there - it's just a small town with families who've known each other their whole lives.

Except one day, Dice's cousin Pen falls from a tree, dies, and is possessed by a revengeful spirit. How can Dice know this? She's somewhat psychic and saw his spirit go into Pen.

Now Dice has to figure out how to get the spirit out of Pen. The problem is, when Dice touches Pen, the spirit (who's name is Sinclair, or Sin for short) comes alive and Dice is falling in love with him.

Dice has a problem falling in love with a boy that is living through her cousin, so Dice and Pen do a exorcism ritual. Instead of getting rid of Sin, Dice accidentally gives Sin his own body.

Now Sin can act on his revenge that he has been waiting to instill for hundreds of years.

How can Dice love such an evil person? Throughout this story, Dice tries to stop Sin from evicting his revenge, while also searching for answers to lay his spirit to rest once and for all.

When Dice and Sin find the answers he's been looking for, will he disappear, becoming a peaceful spirit at rest and leaving Dice broken hearted? Or will he keep trying to find revenge for what had happened? Read Swoon to find out!

My Thoughts/Reflections
This was an interesting novel. For some reason, I couldn't focus on the style of writing that Nina Malkin wrote. It seemed all over for me and I started to drift through a few parts in the novel.

That being said, I loved the storyline. I haven't read a story where the main, swoonworthy guy possesses a...girl! That makes a twist for the girl that falls in love with him.

I liked Dice. A lot. She was mellow, level-headed, and independent. Her parents were never home, she took care of herself and lived alone for most of the week, and she was very loyal to her friends. When Sin was possessing Pen, even though Dice was already falling in love with him, she knew he couldn't keep possessing her because it was wrong, so she picked her family over the boy she loved.

That's loyalty and strength. Good thing it kinda backfired on her and Sin got his own body instead of leaving altogether.

I'm reading the second book in this series, Swear, so I'll see what happens with Sin and Dice after this novel.

Like I said, while this wasn't my favorite novel, I think it's a good read and an interesting storyline. For those who like paranormal and "weird" pick up this book because you might enjoy it!

Dead to You by Lisa McMann

For 9 years, Ethan has been missing from home. He was abducted right outside of his house when he was 7 and, now, at 16, he is finally coming home.

Only he can't remember anything that happened before the abduction.

Ethan has been on the run for the last year. He happened to see a missing child's website and a "futuristic" photo of himself - the ones where the cops change a photo from when the child was missing to what they should look like today.

After that, Ethan was introduced to his family again: his mother, father, younger brother Blake, and his younger sister, Gracie, who wasn't even born when Ethan was taken.

Everything happened very quickly for Ethan when he was taken home, but he assumed that everything will go back to normal after the initial shock of being back home.

That wasn't the case. There were still some who questioned why Ethan couldn't remember the first 7 years of his life, and there was a lot of tension for Ethan.

However, Ethan was finally in a stable home after years of living on the streets. He got along great with his parents and with Gracie, had a girlfriend he was crazy about, and was actually doing well in school.

Will the tension die down for Ethan? Will he feel completely at home soon? Read Dead to You to find out!

My Thoughts/Reflections
Wow. This book was filled with intense scenes that sometimes made my jaw drop. I can't imagine finding out that I was kidnapped 9 years ago and being re-introduced to my family who looked for me for years.

I can see why Ethan felt overwhelmed at first.

This book definitely took me by surprise and kept me guessing throughout the novel.

I don't want to say too much and give spoilers, so I'll just say that Lisa McMann wrote a great novel and now I might read her trilogy that I've heard so much about, Wake (Dream Catcher), to see if her other works are this good.

I would definitely recommend this to anyone, and the narrator was a male so it is a good book for teen guys as well as girls.

Illuminated by Erica Orloff

Callie loves going to her Uncle Harry's place in New York every summer. It lets her escape her dad's controlling presence - always wanting her to be prepared for law school to follow his practice.

Callie doesn't want to be a lawyer, though. She loves history and philosophy, like Harry. Harry finds rare manuscripts and follows the history of that piece to find out where it came from and who it was from.

While Callie has never seen her uncle in action, she likes the adventure of his job. Then, she gets her own chance when Harry lets her try to find the source of a rare manuscript with mysterious writings on it. Now she has to figure out who the mysterious A. is, when it was written, where it was last seen - all while not letting the public know. Otherwise, others will try to get it for themselves.

Along with Callie on this adventure is August. His father is also very famous for finding rare manuscripts, so they have been mysteriously paired together after Harry played matchmaker.

Little did Harry know that they were going to fall in love - and not the teenage love that Harry was expecting.

Will Callie and August be able to figure out who A. is? Read Illuminated to find out!

My Thoughts/Reflections
Okay, I admit. I saw the cover and had to have this book. It's a beautiful cover and I assumed the story was going to be an epic love story.

It wasn't quite like that, though. Sure, Callie and August fell in love, but there wasn't enough chemistry written about their feelings. It was like they saw one another and BAM! Love. No hesitation, so that was a little disappointing to me.

However, I liked the adventure part of the story. Reading about Callie and August going from place to place to find out who A. was and where the piece was originated from made me excited for the adventure and hoping they would find the answer.

While this wasn't the best story I've read, I would recommend it to anyone wanting a short, fast read about soul mates and adventure.

Amy & Roger's Epic Detour by Morgan Matson

Amy has had a difficult 3 months at the end of her junior year. Her father died, her twin brother went to a rehab center in North Carolina, and her mother decided that her and Amy were going to move from California to Connecticut after Amy finished school.

Only Amy doesn't drive anymore. So, when her mom needs the Jeep in Connecticut, Amy is road tripping with an old friend, Roger.

Amy and Roger don't remember each other that much, since they have barely seen one another in 10 years, but Roger needs to get to Pennsylvania to stay at his dad's for the summer break off of college (which he goes to college in Colorado).

After careful planning, Amy's mom makes all of their decisions by reserving rooms at hotels and mapping out the roads to take, making a 4 day trip from CA to CT.

Instead of following the carefully made out plans, though, Roger and Amy decide to take a little...detour.

Which ends up taking more than 4 days and cutting them off of the money Amy's mother supplied at the beginning of the trip.

This doesn't stop Amy or Roger, though. The detour gives them freedom from their troubled background, and also gives them a chance to complete some unfinished business - for both of them.

My Thoughts/Reflections
Wow. This was an amazing book. Usually I'm all about the chemistry between the two characters, but the content and the way this book was written blew my mind.

I've read some road trip books before, so I wasn't expecting amazingness from this novel. Boy was I wrong. Reading Amy's troubled thoughts about what had happened to make her not want to drive was spell bounding. Even though I was able to figure out very early on what happened, reading her reactions and thoughts kept me on the edge of my seat.

Also, I really enjoyed the details of every state her and Roger drove/stopped through. I'm not much for riding in the car hours upon hours, but with company like Roger, I might be able to handle it. This book actually made me want to road trip - something I never thought I'd want to do.

This is a must read book, I think. The struggles that both Amy and Roger go through during this novel is very relatable and their reactions are real. Even if the reader can't relate to either of their stories (like myself) it is still a well written novel that will snare the reader's attention and keep them wanting more until the last page (and maybe even after they've finished!).

So...go read it to join Amy and Roger's adventure during their "epic detour"!

The Boys Next Door and Endless Summer by Jennifer Echols

This book has both books in the series (Summer) so I will be splitting this blog between the two reviews and saving my comments for both books at the end of the post.

The Boys Next Door (Book #1)
Lori has always been excited for the summer. She gets to live out on the lake wakeboarding and hanging out with her friends, including her neighbors, the Vader brothers.

Lori has had a crush on the middle Vader, Sean, since she can remember, and now that she's turning 16 she's hoping that Sean will feel the same way back.

When Sean steals his younger brother, Adam's, girlfriend from him, Lori thinks it's the perfect plan for her and Adam to "pretend" date to make both Rachel (Adam's ex) and Sean jealous.

After awhile, though, Lori gets excited to see Adam and starts to forget to look for Sean to see if the plan is working. Is Lori starting to like like Adam?

All of a sudden, Sean and Rachel break up because Rachel says she still loves Adam. Now that there is no reason to "date" one another, will Lori go after Sean, or will she stay with Adam because she's fallen in love with him?

Endless Summer (Book #2)
This is a spoiler for book 1, but Endless Summer starts on the same day that The Boys Next Door ends, showing us that Adam and Lori do get together.


For one day.


Adam and Lori fell asleep in Adam's truck for the whole night, putting Lori's dad and Adam's parents on alert that they were officially together. Unfortunately, Adam is not very trustworthy. He is reckless and because of his ADHD, he likes to do dangerous things without really thinking about it.


Not the best boyfriend material for a father to look at with his 16 year old daughter. To ensure the night out doesn't happen again, both parents decide that Adam and Lori can't date each other.


Throughout the novel both Adam and Lori try to find a way to date again, thinking of ridiculous plans to get their parents to listen to their story.


Will their plans work? Can Lori and Adam officially be together again, or will their parents keep them separated? Read Endless Summer to find out the ending of this 2 book series!


My Thoughts/Reflections
I enjoyed this story! It's about love and fighting for what one wants, which is exactly what Adam and Lori do throughout both novels.


I'm glad that the author started the second book on the exact day the first book left off. I'm not sure if I've read a series like that before, so it was nice to get a different beginning to the second book of a series.


Ahh, Adam. I liked Adam better than Sean, even though Lori was obsessed with Sean in the first book. He was too cocky and ignorant whereas Adam paid attention to Lori and joked around with her, had the same interests.


I have to say, though, that if my parents ever forbid me to date someone, that would be telling me to do the opposite. I know they are 16, which gives the parents some rights to that, but I would not have taken it well, like both Lori and Adam did throughout the second novel.


This series reminded me a lot of the Summer series by Jenny Han (I posted about all three books earlier this month) but there were also some differences from that series.


For any girl who has had years long crush - I would recommend this to you. I would also recommend it to anyone wanting a light, quick, fun summer read as these are books that one can fly through and laugh out loud with.

Catching Jordan by Miranda Kenneally

Jordan Woods is the best quarterback in the state. Woods is a shoe-in to go to college football, and maybe even the pros?

The only problem is... Jordan is a girl, which makes her not wanted by too many colleges. Her dream college is Alabama, which they have contacted her, but it seems they want her as a poster girl rather than a player on their team.

Right before the beginning of football season, Tyler Green transfers to her high school...and he's also a quarterback. Not only is Ty good, but he's also extremely handsome. So handsome that Jordan is finding her concentration on the game drifting - which is not good considering she needs to get a full ride through college with a football scholarship.

Her best friend, Henry, is also on the football team and wants to go to school in Michigan, making their friendship distant since they might not see one another after senior year is overwith.

Also, did I mention that Jordan's father is the great Donovan Woods, the best NFL player in the south? You would think that Don would be a proud father of a girl quarterback player, but he's always trying to persuade Jordan to do things besides football, bringing the excitement and proudness Jordan feels when she plays a football game.

With everything going downhill with her father, best friend, and a new quarterback in town that makes Jordan's knees weak, Jordan isn't sure if she's going to prove to Alabama that she can not only sponsor for Alabama but that she can play as well.

What will happen if she can't play? Will she be able to get everything right before the end of the football season?

My Thoughts/Reflections
I admit, this book surprised me. I was expecting to like it because the main star of the football team, captain and quarterback, was a female, and I, oh, so love it when a girl can take charge in a guy's environment.

But the chemistry in this book blew me away! That I was not expecting, but I truly loved it all the way throughout the book!

Jordan is one strong cookie. She was raised by going to her father's professional football games, followed her older brother who played football, so it was to be expected that she would be strong willed and determined to be who she wanted to be, despite the odds.

I'm also glad that Jordan was able to be a girl for a change. While I love tough, athletic Jordan, girly Jordan showed that she became a more diverse person throughout the novel and grew into a well rounded person.

I think this book is great for teen girls, but I also think it can be aimed toward teen guys since it is about football and Miranda Kenneally was able to describe the game very accurately. It might also make guys appreciate athletic and tough girls after reading what Jordan went through to be a female football player.

I would recommend this book to everyone, so go read it ;-)