Review: From What I Remember by Stacy Kramer and Valerie Thomas

From What I Remember by Stacy Kramer and Valerie Thomas

Hardcover, 462 pgs.

Published May 15th, 2012 by Hyperion

Source: NetGalley/Publisher

KYLIE: Tijuana WHAT? I should be putting the finishing touches on my valedictorian speech. Graduation is TODAY, and is this a wedding band on my finger.

MAX: It all started with Kylie's laptop and a truck full of stolen electronics Okay, it was kind of hot, the way she broke us out like some chick in an action movie. But now we're stranded in TIjuana. WIth less than twenty-four hours before graduation. Awesome.

WILL: Saving Kylie Flores from herself is kind of a full-time occupation. Luckily, I, Will Bixby, was born for the job. And when I found out she was stuck in Mexico with dreamy Max Langston, sure, I agreed to bring thier passports across the border--but there's no reason to rush back home right away. This party is just getting started.

LILY: I just walked in on my boyfriend, Max Langston, canoodling with Kylie Flores, freak of the century. Still, I can't completely hold it against him. He NEEDS me. It's even clearer now. And I'm not giving him up without a fight.

 You ever read a book and as you're reading it you're thinking 'OMG, this is a screenplay!  It was MADE for the big screen!?'  Well, I don't think that often but this book, this book IS a movie in book form.  It seriously was so visual for me it was like I was reading a movie.  And I'm not a big movie person... so if this doesn't become a movie I'll be surprised. (And please note that both authors DO actually write screenplays, so maybe I shouldn't be so surprised.)

This book was absolutely terrific!  I was really digging the characters and they felt unique to me.  And the story was definitely unlike anything I've read before.  I felt like everything really did POP and stand out.  I loved the whole idea of the story and how it all worked.  I liked that the authors brought it all to a real conclusion and didn't leave much open for us.  That part especially felt movie-like.  However, I can see that others won't like that aspect of it and will say they wish it had ended a couple chapters earlier.  I love me a good conclusion though, I don't like having to guess.  

Kylie and Max really go on a journey in this book and I loved watching their progression.  The book takes place over a period of two days (for the most part) but it worked.  Kylie was the studious nerd and Max was the rich guy that wasn't very nice.  But as they were forced to spend time together in the epic adventure (is it an adventure if you don't choose to be there?) they start to bring out the best in each other and find there's much more to the other.   And we can't leave out the flamboyantly gay bff Will as he was a pretty awesome character that just brought a bit of life to everything.  And he wasn't just a convenient character for plot development, he had his own stuff going on which I really liked.  It made him important to the story without him taking over.  I wouldn't mind a story all about him actually...  Oh, and Kylie's little brother Jake who has aspergers.  He had a few little parts from his POV and I thought that added another layer of awesome because how often do we see that?  And it helped us really get an idea of what it's like as well as what Kylie and her family have to go through.

This book is a bit long and I read the e-arc so I wasn't for sure if parts might be cut out, but looking at the page number it looks like it's going to be pretty long for the final edition.  I didn't really mind this too much though, it seemed to work for this one cause it never really got boring for me.  

I very highly recommend this to more mature YA readers as well as adults look for a good YA contemporary.  There was just a little bit of bad language and some sexual insinuation but the content wasn't too bad.  

4.5/5 stars!

Disclosure:  I received a copy of this book for review purposes.  All opinions expressed are my own and I was not paid or influenced in any way.

This book qualifies for the YA Contemporary Challenge 2012.  For more info click the button.

Cornerstone Blog Tour Stops Here! @MistyProvencher

Many of you saw my review for the fabulous Cornerstone by Misty Provencher several weeks back.  This was one book I did lots of raving about and hope that many more will give this book a chance.  

The Cornerstone Blog Tour takes place from May 1st-31st.  There are going to be lots of reviews, guest posts,  interviews and giveaways.  I hope that you'll stop through the different stops to see what's going on!

The awesome and amazing 

(the following is copied and pasted from Misty's blog cause I'm WAY too lazy to type it up myself)

GRAND PRIZE

The CORNERSTONE OF ALL GRAND PRIZES includes:

A signed copy of Cornerstone with a scattering of author's notes in the margins, a Southwest Sky Jewelry Cornerstone necklace, and some author-created, one-of-a-kind bookmark swag.
A critique by publishing intern, Brent Taylor. The former gymnast and die-hard Kelly Cutrone <3er, has been an intern at a literary agency for a little over a year. He's slightly naughty, although you shouldn't hold that against him because . . . (this is where you hear a loud and thunderous pounding of drums) HE IS GOING TO CRITIQUE YOUR ENTIRE FULL MANUSCRIPT.
You'll also nab an incredible, Addo-inspired, cookie scarf from my favorite knit-creations shop: CausticWear. If you haven't checked out CausticWear, you should. Lauren is the owner and she does the regular hats and scarves and mittens, but she can do pretty much ANYTHING from clothing and slippers to hair wear and jewelry and she is open to doing custom orders! (She even told me she could crochet a cookie jar- seriously!) If you have something in mind, just ask her!
In order to win these wonderful gifts, I'll be collecting comments left during the blog tour stops. 500 cookie-jar-points to commenters! If you're tweeting the tour - include me in your tweet and you'll earn another 1,000 field-petal points! If you recommend Cornerstone to a friend and I hear about it, you'll rack up 3,000 points and a Veritas prayer! Of course, that's all rubbish...I'm not going to be keeping track of points at all...but the more I see you participating, the more often your name gets chucked in the drawing hat for our fabulous, GRANDLY HUGE prize!


The ABSOLUTELY ENORMOUS GRAND PRIZE drawing will be held May 31st, the last day of the tour, but there will be giveaways going on through out the tour too. Here is our itinerary:



May 1 and 2
Twitter kick-off with a Book Drawing! Tweet me up with the #IWANTCORNERSTONE hashtag and on the 2nd, I'll draw one name to receive their choice of either a paperback or ebook copy of Cornerstone! I'm grateful for RTs, but be sure that your tweet is original, so it appears in the #IWANTCORNERSTONE hashtag list. That's where I'll be drawing names!

Candace's Book Blog ~ Review (that's here!)


May 3

Kat Ellis Writes ~ Book Review

Globug Needs A Book ~ Dream Cast post, Review & Paperback Giveaway

May 4
The Flyleaf Review ~ Interview and Swag Bag Giveaway

May 7
Pages of Forbidden Love ~ Book Review

May 8
The Unread Reader ~ Review

May 9
The Unread Reader ~ My Book Boyfriend

Twimom 101 Book Blog ~ Review and
Top 10 list


May 10
Juliana L. Brandt ~ Critter Chat (w/ my
amazingly awesome crit partner!)


May 11
Supernatural Snark ~ Guest Post ~ Why does
the Addo prefer cookies w/ no nuts &
and other insider info about Cornerstone.

May 12
PERSONAL APPEARANCE:
READING & BOOK SIGNING
The Mother's Day Fashion Fair in Hartland,
Michigan, at the Dunham Hill Golf Course,
from 11- 5 pm. Benefiting survivors of brain
injury and severe head traumas.
Stop in and say hello! I'd love to meet you!

May 14
Kindle Fever ~ Guest Post & Swag Bag Giveaway~ How
to write a book with maximum use of office
supplies.

May 15
Writer's Wanderings ~ Book Trailer and More


May 16
Literary Rambles ~ Interview & Book Giveaway

Buried in Books ~ Review

May 17
The Reading Housewives of Indiana ~
Interview and Ebook Giveaway

May 18
Bunny's Review ~ Guest Post and Review ~
What's there to love about self publishing?

May 19
Lover of Paranormal ~ Review & Character
Interview

May 21
Book Nerds Across America ~
Interview/Keystone Insider Info

May 22
Julie Rieman Duck ~ Interview and Review

May 23
Coffee Table Reviews ~ Something Super Cool

Captivated Reading ~ Review

May 24
Rainy Day Ramblings ~ Review and
Cornerstone T-Shirt Giveaway

May 25
Book Passion for Life ~ Guest Post, The
Cornerstone Playlist

May 29
Books in the Spotlight ~ Character Interview
with Garrett Reese

May 30
Brent Taylor ~ Interview and Review

May 31
GRAND PRIZE DRAWING HERE!

Now, for those who haven't seen my review, here it is!

 

Cornerstone by Misty Provencher
Young Adult
ebook or Paperback, 228 pgs.
Published Nov. 2011 by Misty Provencher

Nalena Maxwell has been branded ‘The Waste’ at her new school, due to her mom's obsessive paper hoarding. Nalena desperately wants something to change in her life, but when she receives a sign (and it's the wrong dang one) inviting her into a mysterious, ancient community, too much changes. What she knew of her family, what she thought of her life and what she believed about her future, is no longer applicable. Seventeen years worth of family skeletons come crashing into Nalena's life and it is the boy...the one that smiles at her like he wants to hear everything she'll ever say...that already knows her powerful secrets. But it is only Nalena that can choose between protecting the life that is already crumbling beneath her feet and the one that might sacrifice everything she could ever have.

My goal has been to try to read more self published books this year but it's not always easy because I've tried to read quite a few that were horrible (mostly terrible editing) and I've read a lot that were good, but not quite amazing.  I haven't read that many that totally blew my mind and this one did that.  Totally and completely.  Cornerstone had me riveted from page one as we are introduced to Nalena and her mother and her mothers paper hoarding.  I immediately found this fascinating and I felt this was a clue to the future of the book.  Especially when I learned that what her mother writes all over these papers is peoples names and something about them.  To Nalena these are characters that her mother has come up with for stories that she never writes.  And her mother keeps these stacks of papers everywhere, even in the oven (unplugged of course).  And she does this writing compulsively all day long.  She doesn't work, she doesn't do anything but write.  While this could be a compulsive disorder I immediately knew there was more to it.

The story sucked me and held me the entire way through but don't expect to get answers right away.  I suppose I grew frustrated because I needed to know more so badly but it wasn't really a bad thing either.  I enjoyed the journey of getting to know Nalena and her mother as well as Garrett and his large and very quirky family.  Clues are everywhere as you continue through the story and piecing them together was slow going but yet a fantastic ride.  And the answers when they came were fantastic because this was a very unique take on something paranormal-like without really feeling paranormal.  I don't know what else to call it though... But there's not a vampire, zombie or a werewolf in sight.

I thought that the romance might be insta-love but it wasn't!  It was instant attraction but Nalena has a bit of a low self esteem and really doesn't believe that Garrett could ever like her.  Garrett is different from other boys though and doesn't care one wit about what people think of him.  He takes Nalena under his wing and while it appears that they are 'together' to the general population of the school, they aren't quite... not really.  I loved all interaction with these two because the vibe between them is strong and Garrett just has this personality that you can't help but be drawn to.   He's so hard to explain but he was so easy to 'get' as I was reading.  He's not a bad boy, but he's not a 'goodie two shoes' either.   One thing I can say is that he's so dreamy... He actually kind of reminds me a bit of Cricket in Lola and the Boy Next Door.  Just personality wise as he didn't dress like him.

Oh, and I have to mention, editing in this one was perfect!  If there were mistakes of any sort I didn't happen to notice them (which doesn't mean they weren't there, but they must have not been very obvious).  This is also a clean read.  There's kissing but that's about it.  I don't recall any cursing.

I highly recommend this to YA readers as well as adult readers who are eager for something a bit different.  Something paranormal-like but yet not really paranormal. 

I must also note that I see this book has all high ratings.  Right now I'm not seeing one review with less then 4 stars.  As a reviewer I prefer to see a variety of ratings as it concerns me that maybe all the reviewers are family or friends of the author.  I honestly have to give this one 5 stars because I loved it so much.  Yes, it's not a completely perfect book, but because it captured me so completely and had me entranced the entire time I just can't give it less.  But I purchased this book and had no prior contact with the author.  It wasn't until I read it that I start corresponding with her just because I loved it so much and wanted to tell her so.  My review is in no way biased, this is my complete honest opinion of the book and my guess is that the high ratings are because of the awesome'ness of the book.  So you better get on reading it cause you're missing out!

5/5 stars!

 

 

Leave a comment so you can rack up points toward the awesome grand prize!  

And be sure to tweet with the #IWANTCORNERSTONE hashtag to be entered to win a copy today! 

Review: Silence by Michelle Sagara

Silence by Michelle Sagara (With West at the end if you're looking on goodreads)

Hardcover, 256 pgs.

Published May 1st, 2012 by DAW

Source: Publisher

“It began in the graveyard. Ever since her boyfriend Nathan died in a tragic accident Emma had been coming to the graveyard at night. During the day she went through the motions at her prep school, in class, with her friends, but that’s all it was. But tonight was different. Tonight Emma and her dog were not alone in the cemetery. There were two others there—Eric, who had just started at her school, and an ancient woman who looked as though she were made of rags. And when they saw Emma there, the old woman reached out to her with a grip as chilling as death….”

This is one of those reviews that's difficult to do because I feel such intense conflicting feelings. When I started reading my first thought was that the writing was beautiful. It wasn't fluffy or full or big words or anything, but just the way she said things was beautiful. But at the same time I found myself feeling lost when there were more active scenes with lots going on. At times I felt so lost I kind of wanted to skim.

I really enjoyed the characters in the book. Emma has a bit of a no-nonsense attitude but not as much as her friend Amy. She did have a strong personality and strong convictions. When she made a decision no one was going to convince her otherwise. But she wasn't stupid and she'd do what she could to ensure her safety when doing some of these things she was so determined to do.

I really loved that one of Emma's friends was autistic. While this wasn't a focus in the story, it was there. And we saw how much she cared about him. We saw the things he struggled with but we also saw his strengths. I'm not sure I've ever seen an autistic character in YA and I think it's important to have little things like that so people understand them better. This, in my opinion, was one of the strongest things this book had going for it.

I loved the plot and setting and story line but it just didn't flow well for me and that definitely made me enjoy it a lot less. If that flow had been better this would have been an amazing book for me. I'm curious whether others have issues with the same thing or if it's just me.

Overall I think I would recommend the book if it sounds like something you'd enjoy. I don't feel like it's something we've seen a lot of before, it felt unique enough to me to be 'not just another paranormal read'.

3.5 stars

Disclosure:  I received a finished copy of the book from the publisher for review purposes.  All opinions expressed are my own and I was not paid or influenced in any way.