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.