It's been awhile!

I just want to let you know that I'm going to be making an effort to update this blog more frequently. You can count on me, fellow readers!

Better Off Friends by Elizabeth Eulberg

Goodreads Description:
For Macallan and Levi, it was friends at first sight. Everyone says guys and girls can’t be just friends, but these two are. They hang out after school, share tons of inside jokes, their families are super close, and Levi even starts dating one of Macallan’s friends. They are platonic and happy that way. Eventually they realize they’re best friends — which wouldn’t be so bad if they didn’t keep getting in each other’s way. Guys won’t ask Macallan out because they think she’s with Levi, and Levi spends too much time joking around with Macallan, and maybe not enough time with his date. They can’t help but wonder . . . are they more than friends or are they better off without making it even more complicated? From romantic comedy superstar Elizabeth Eulberg comes a fresh, fun examination of a question for the ages: Can guys and girls ever really be just friends? Or are they always one fight away from not speaking again — and one kiss away from true love?

I'm going to just state the obvious: This book was not aimed at 29 year old women. I think that my 15 year old self would have loved this book. It was cute. It had banter, which I love. It was set in the Midwest. It just wasn't for me NOW.

I have another one of Eulberg's books, Revenge of the Girl with the Great Personality, on my Kindle and after seeing how quick and easy her books are, I'm definitely going to be picking that one up when I need something cute and fluffy.

Some of my gripes are just me being a grouchy old woman now... Why don't character's COMMUNICATE? Just TALK TO EACH OTHER! I realize that does not make a good book but I just want to shake some of these kids. Also, as someone who has had MANY platonic male friends, I find it to be exhausting to always read the same scenario. One day I'm going to read a wonderfully accurate male/female friendship. I just know it.

So, with all that being said, I'd recommend this to the audience it's actually aimed at. I liked the main characters. I liked the side characters. It made me crave ice cream from Ireland... :)

*I received this ebook for review from Netgalley.*

Keep an eye out for We Were Liars by e. lockhart

Goodreads Description:
A beautiful and distinguished family. A private island. A brilliant, damaged girl; a passionate, political boy. A group of four friends—the Liars—whose friendship turns destructive. A revolution. An accident. A secret. Lies upon lies. True love. The truth. We Were Liars is a modern, sophisticated suspense novel from National Book Award finalist and Printz Award honoree E. Lockhart. Read it. And if anyone asks you how it ends, just LIE.

I'm not shy about my love for e. lockhart's Ruby Oliver series, so when I got the chance to read We Were Liars, I took it. It's a mysterious book and I'm not going to lie: it wasn't my cup of tea but oh, man... so many people are going to love this. Mark my words.

It's expected publication date is May 13, 2014. Keep an eye out for it.

The Dead in Their Vaulted Arches by Alan Bradley (A Flavia de Luce mystery #6)

Goodreads Description:
1951 England village, a stranger warns narrator Flavia de Luce 11 for her father and a Gatekeeper, then is pushed under a train. Winston Churchill mysteriously asks about pheasant sandwiches. In her lab, she develops a film of her parents picnicking. Are the same words mouthed to the camera operator? At a funeral vigil, can chemist Flavia restore life?

This is the sixth offering Alan Bradley has given us is the freakin' delightful Flavia de Luce series. If you haven't heard of these books before, I'll give you a brief synopsis. Flavia de Luce is an 11 year old girl living in Bishop's Lacey in 1951 with her two older sisters and her father. She's incredibly intelligent and has an obsession with chemistry and poisons. Her mother has been missing since she was a toddler. Flavia manages to find her way in the middle of a number of murders in Bishop's Lacey over the course of the first five books and you're almost left wondering, "What the heck kind of town is this that this many murders happen in such a short time span??"

Now, I'm going to talk about some spoilers from the fifth book Speaking From Among the Bones. Beware!

Flavia's mother, Harriet's body was found at the end of Speaking From Among the Bones. When the coffin is arriving, a strange man approaches Flavia at the train station and tells her to deliver a cryptic message to her father. He then is pushed onto the train tracks and killed. The book sort of takes off from there. It's a really interesting book and it is going to take the series in an entirely new direction. It really HAS to. How many more murders could the meddling young genius solve before it started to become stale? I'm VERY excited to see what Mr. Bradley has in store for us.

The Dead In Their Vaulted Arches was an excellent read and for any Flavia fan, it won't disappoint.

It's release date will be January 14th, 2014.

Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn - REVIEW

Goodreads description for Sharp Objects:

WICKED above her hipbone, GIRL across her heart Words are like a road map to reporter Camille Preaker’s troubled past. Fresh from a brief stay at a psych hospital, Camille’s first assignment from the second-rate daily paper where she works brings her reluctantly back to her hometown to cover the murders of two preteen girls.

NASTY on her kneecap, BABYDOLL on her leg Since she left town eight years ago, Camille has hardly spoken to her neurotic, hypochondriac mother or to the half-sister she barely knows: a beautiful thirteen-year-old with an eerie grip on the town. Now, installed again in her family’s Victorian mansion, Camille is haunted by the childhood tragedy she has spent her whole life trying to cut from her memory.

HARMFUL on her wrist, WHORE on her ankle As Camille works to uncover the truth about these violent crimes, she finds herself identifying with the young victims—a bit too strongly. Clues keep leading to dead ends, forcing Camille to unravel the psychological puzzle of her own past to get at the story. Dogged by her own demons, Camille will have to confront what happened to her years before if she wants to survive this homecoming.

With its taut, crafted writing, Sharp Objects is addictive, haunting, and unforgettable.

Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn.

Camille Preaker is a reporter for a small newspaper in Chicago. (How much do I love books with ties to the Midwest, by the way?) Her editor has heard about some strange happenings in her hometown, so he assigns her to the story. Camille hasn't been home in eight years, so she's not too happy about the assignment to say the least. When she finally gets home to Wind Gap, MO, you find out pretty quickly why she's stayed away. Her mother, Adora, is one of the weirdest characters I've ever read. She's cold, cruel, and just plain old unlikable.

Camille's half sister Amma is one of the more disturbing characters in the book. She's only thirteen but the author describes her as being something of a seductress in the town. She's also a pretty big bully but only when she's out of the house. When she's home, she acts quite young and likes to throw tantrums and be babied by Adora.

Camille tries to write the story her editor wants but you find that she's sort of thwarted by the police and has to almost start her own investigation. She also starts a pseudo-romance with the police officer from Kansas City, who is in town to help solve the crime of the girls.

Camille is dealing with quite a lot. Her own demons, her need to cut, her feelings about being back home where she has a lot of bad memories, her mother, and her dead sister, Marion.

As this is Gillian Flynn's first novel and the first one of hers that I've read, I'm going to admit that I was very pleasantly surpirsed. It's extremely dark but I really liked this book. I was creeped out a lot and sufficiently psychologically thrilled. :) I picked up her second novel Dark Places and I plan on reading that quite soon.

I'd recommend Sharp Objects to anyone who likes a slightly disturbing murder mystery. It has a little bit of everything: mystery, horror, family drama, romance, drugs, sex, and suspense. Be aware that you might be a little queasy with some of the descriptions in the book. It's definitely not for one who is faint of heart.

Never Fade by Alexandra Braken

Never Fade is the follow up to The Darkest Minds.

Here's the summary, courtesy of Goodreads:
Ruby never asked for the abilities that almost cost her her life. Now she must call upon them on a daily basis, leading dangerous missions to bring down a corrupt government and breaking into the minds of her enemies. Other kids in the Children’s League call Ruby “Leader”, but she knows what she really is: a monster. When Ruby is entrusted with an explosive secret, she must embark on her most dangerous mission yet: leaving the Children’s League behind. Crucial information about the disease that killed most of America’s children—and turned Ruby and the others who lived into feared and hated outcasts—has survived every attempt to destroy it. But the truth is only saved in one place: a flashdrive in the hands of Liam Stewart, the boy Ruby once believed was her future—and who now wouldn’t recognize her. As Ruby sets out across a desperate, lawless country to find Liam—and answers about the catastrophe that has ripped both her life and America apart—she is torn between old friends and the promise she made to serve the League. Ruby will do anything to protect the people she loves. But what if winning the war means losing herself?

This book is amazing and if you loved The Darkest Minds: run, don't walk to go read this book. It's expected publishing date is October 15, 2013. Get on it! :)

Spooky Fall Reading Picks

What with fall (and October!) rapidly approaching, what are your fall reading picks? I always want to read something creepy until I remember I get too scared and can't handle it. I read The Diviners by Libba Bray recently and I think it will be an excellent October read for anyone who hasn't read it. It's creepy and funny and really really enjoyable, especially for someone who might have a love for the 1920's. Other books that I'd like to read this fall include Bag of Bones by Stephen King, The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman, Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger, and House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski. All of those are books that I currently have on my shelf and that I need to finally read. What are you going to be reading this fall?