Mothership, by Martin Leicht and Isla Neal

I was going to not review this book because I loved it so much, but then I realized that I was giving up a golden opportunity to review a novel about pregnant teenagers in outer space. Let me repeat that in case you didn't get it the first time-this novel is about PREGNANT TEENAGERS IN OUTER SPACE. The last time I got this excited about a plot was the killer unicorns in Rampant and Ascendent by Diana Peterfreund.

Smart and sassy Elvie got herself knocked up by the gorgeous idiotic Cole shortly before he runs away. Since her father has no idea what to do with her, he sends Elvie off to a school based on a spaceship orbiting Earth. The school has classes special for their expectant mothers, like prenatal water yoga (or something weird like that) as well as normal classes like English, and a staff including doctors to deliver the babies on the way. Then one day, while ditching aforementioned yoga class a bunch of space ninjas (her words not mine) burst into the ship and proceed to kill all the teachers and take over. Then they reveal to the girls that the teachers were all aliens, and all the girls were accepted onto the ship for a specific reason. And then one of the space ninjas takes off his helmet and reveals himself to be the long lost Cole. Yes, this story is that good. Though I shouldn't have to tell you that. After all, it's about PREGNANT TEENAGERS IN OUTER SPACE.

I was initially attracted to this book because of the pretty cover (pink and purple!), then I read the summary and made up my mind that I absolutely must read this book, then I read the short excerpt on the back and starting yelping with excitement about how I couldn't wait to start it. And it didn't disappoint in the slightest. This book is as random and obscure as I hoped it would be, in an awesomely put together and not at all messy way.

5 stars.

 
Teen pregnancy is never easy—especially not when extraterrestrials are involved. The first in a new trilogy.

Elvie Nara was doing just fine in the year 2074. She had a great best friend, a dad she adored, and bright future working on the Ares Project on Mars. But then she had to get involved with sweet, gorgeous, dumb-as-a-brick Cole--and now she’s pregnant.

Getting shipped off to the Hanover School for Expecting Teen Mothers was not how Elvie imagined spending her junior year, but she can go with the flow. That is, until a team of hot commandos hijacks the ship--and one of them turns out to be Cole. She hasn’t seen him since she told him she’s pregnant, and now he’s bursting into her new home to tell her that her teachers are aliens and want to use her unborn baby to repopulate their species? Nice try, buddy. You could have just called.

So fine, finding a way off this ship is priority number one, but first Elvie has to figure out how Cole ended up as a commando, work together with her arch-nemesis, and figure out if she even wants to be a mother--assuming they get back to Earth in one piece.

Anna and the French Kiss, by Stephanie Perkins

If you have spoken to me in the past week you will have already heard of Anna and the French Kiss, as it is my new favorite book. I'm pretty loose with giving out 5 stars, and right now I'm upset about that because it makes this 5-star rating more unimpressive.

When Anna's father decides he needs a more cultured family he sends Anna off the School of America in Paris, or SOAP, to clean off all the American dirt with some Parisian suds (sorry, couldn't help it). Upon arrival Anna is lucky enough to be adopted by a clique which happens to include her dream guy, Etienne St. Clair, who also happens to have a girlfriend. There isn't much else to say about the plot because it just follows Anna's year in France and the ups and downs of her relationships and friendships.

At first I thought Anna and the French Kiss was just a fun light romance but once the drama started I redefined it as more of a happy Sarah Dessen type novel. It was fun, but still serious, which made it extremely life-like. Sometimes these sorts of YA novels get too serious and too involved and forget to show the happy parts of life, or at least don't show them well enough to brighten it up significantly, but in Anna and the French Kiss the happy outweighed the sad.

I don't want to say too much about this book because in this case I think less is more, but there were two details I loved that I must share with you. The first was that Etienne is shorter than Anna. I know, it's stupid, but I loved how no one cared. The love interests in these books are usually everything Etienne is plus tall and Etienne set himself apart from all of those losers by actually being unique. The other thing I loved was how the author made fun of Nicholas Sparks by modeling Anna's father after him. The stupid overly-detailed plots involving cancer and an inevitable unhappy ending for somebody were clearly him but what I really liked was how she pointed out how he totally sold out by writing something stupid that sells. My opinion on Nicholas Sparks is that he probably sits there counting his money and laughing at the gullible women who enjoy the emotional trash he writes. It's refreshing to hear that someone else came to the same conclusion I did.

To end on a happy note: READ THIS NOW IF YOU HAVEN'T YET

5 stars

Anna is looking forward to her senior year in Atlanta, where she has a great job, a loyal best friend, and a crush on the verge of becoming more. Which is why she is less than thrilled about being shipped off to boarding school in Paris--until she meets Étienne St. Clair. Smart, charming, beautiful, Étienne has it all...including a serious girlfriend.

But in the City of Light, wishes have a way of coming true. Will a year of romantic near-misses end with their long-awaited French kiss?

The Essence, by Kimberly Derting (The Pledge #2)

After the supposed defeat of the evil Queen Sabara, Charlaina is now queen and has installed a New Something-or-other in her that represents freedom in her kingdom. No longer are the classes separated by tongue, school or work-everybody is now equal (except for the fact that there's a queen of course). However, now everybody is happy with this new regime, and some would like to go back to the days of free labor and superiority. While trying to deal with the threat of rebellion, Charlie is also invited to a summit of queens. She must dodge would-be assassins and lovers along the way and must also deal with the secret evil inside her head. No one but her sister knows of the essence lurking in Charlie's body, eager to find a new host, and Charlie must fight not only rebels and assassins, but the woman trying to take her over.

Just like The Pledge, I unintentionally read this book really fast. I didn't mean to, just once I started I felt an urge to finish it. The Essence was a very good sequel and middle book of a trilogy in that it continued the first book with minimal disappointment and it had a good and satisfying ending of its own while still leaving something unsolved so the reader will come back for book #3.

It was interesting to read about Sabara's history. In The Pledge she came off as as evil as Voldemort, with no redeeming qualities at all leading everyone including her own grandsons to hate her. Her backstory didn't explain where any of that comes from but it did show that she does have a heart. The ancient essence of evil didn't come from nowhere, and it was refreshing and tormenting to read her memories.

4.0 stars

At the luminous conclusion of The Pledge, Charlaina defeated the tyrant Sabara and took her place as Queen of Ludania. But Charlie knows that Sabara has not disappeared: The evil queen’s Essence is fused to Charlie’s psyche, ready to arise at the first sign of weakness.

Charlie is not weak, but she’s being pushed to the brink. In addition to suppressing the ever-present influence of Sabara, she’s busy being queen—and battling a growing resistance determined to return Ludania to its discriminatory caste system. Charlie wants to be the same girl Max loves, who Brook trusts, but she’s Your Majesty now, and she feels torn in two.

As Charlie journeys to an annual summit to meet with leaders of nearby Queendoms—an event where her ability to understand all languages will be the utmost asset—she is faced with the ultimate betrayal. And the only person she can turn to for help is the evil soul residing within.

The Mephisto Covenant: The Redemption of Ajax, by Trinity Faegen

I felt like clapping when I closed this book just because it was the corniest thing I have ever read. The title should have been warning enough, but I still had some hope that this book wouldn't be so bad. I regret that hope. Sasha is Anabo, a daughter of Eve, which means she is destined for Heaven and will never be tempted by evil. Jax is one of the sons of one of the big guys down under, and as such he is doomed to walk the earth forever and ever until he finds true love in an Anabo. And if he were to die before that happened, he would be on an express train to Hell. So when Jax finds Sasha, he is extremely excited and is eager to get her to fall in love with him so he can redeem himself. However, the path to true love has many roadblocks, and they must survive being hunted by Jax's evil older brother Eryx who is willing to use evil teenagers and international espionage to find and kill Sasha.

The plot itself was corny, but it wasn't what destroyed this book. What made this absolutely unbearable was how fast everything moved. If part of the book had been days and days of Jax and Sasha getting to know each other it would have felt more natural. Instead, the two fell in love at first sight and told each other their deepest darkest secrets within five minutes of meeting. I expected a long drawn-out courtship with Jax's big secret getting revealed at the end and Sasha getting furious at him and then a big battle where they reunite because they truly love each other. After Jax told Sasha his deepest darkest secrets I lost patience and skipped to the end to read the last chapter. Unsurprisingly, I was able to understand exactly what was happening in the last chapter without reading a giant chunk of the book. In conclusion, this entire book would have been a waste of my time and I am very glad I lost patience.

2.0 stars. 


Sasha is desperate to find out who murdered her father. When getting the answer means pledging her soul to Eryx, she unlocks a secret that puts her in grave danger--she is an Anabo, a daughter of Eve, and Eryx's biggest threat. 

A son of Hell, immortal, and bound to Earth forever, Jax looks for redemption in the Mephisto Covenant--God's promise he will find peace in the love of an Anabo. After a thousand years, he's finally found the girl he's been searching for: Sasha. 

With the threat of Eryx always looming, Jax knows he has to keep Sasha safe and win her over. But can he? Will Sasha love him and give up her mortal life?

Midnight in Austenland, by Shannon Hale

Charlotte is in desperate need for a vacation. After her husband leaves her for a younger woman, taking some of Charlotte's self-made fortune with him, Charlotte decides she needs to leave her life for a few days. The search for the perfect getaway leads her to Austenland, a place where time is turned back a few centuries and the guests experience life Jane Austen-style. However, life in Pembrook Park is not as simple as Charlotte expected it to be. After finding a dead body in the attic Charlotte is determined to find the murderer, which is very hard to do in a place where the line between reality and make-believe is so blurred. In order to solve the mystery Charlotte must sift through the 18th century facade and find remnants of today's truths. (That last phrase doesn't quite make sense but I like it so I'm leaving it.)

I am not a fan of mysteries. I can handle many genres of fiction, but mysteries seem kind of pointless to me. What's the point of reading through an entire novel of suspense is you can just turn to the last page to find out who did it? It is this attitude that led to my disinterest in Midnight in Austenland. I was severely tempted to close the book permanently many times and I only persevered because I enjoyed Shannon Hale's young adult novels (Goose Girl, Princess Academy, and their sequels). However, after completing Midnight, I have come to the conclusion that I do not like Shannon Hale's adult books. I didn't like Austenland and I didn't like Midnight in Austenland, so from now on I am going to stick to Hale's YA novels.

Midnight started out extremely slow, and not only because of my lack of interest. I tried very hard not to skim and was somewhat successful. In my defense, I skimmed the boring parts and then skipped to the end. When I decided I liked the epilogue, I went back to where I left off and continued reading.

I liked the scenes where Charlotte showed her mom side, but what I didn't like was the impression that her kids didn't love her. She was so insecure about her children's love and that they would love their new stepmom more than they love her that it became a reality in my mind. It wasn't until the end that I saw something resembling a real relationship between her and her kids. Her insecurities were valid, but she took them a little too far.

I would recommend Midnight in Austenland to anyone who has ever wished they could stick themselves in the 18th century for a few days or someone who enjoys mysteries with a twist.

3.1 stars.

When Charlotte Kinder treats herself to a two-week vacation at Austenland, she happily leaves behind her ex-husband and his delightful new wife, her ever-grateful children, and all the rest of her real life in America. She dons a bonnet and stays at a country manor house that provides an immersive Austen experience, complete with gentleman actors who cater to the guests' Austen fantasies.

Everyone at Pembrook Park is playing a role, but increasingly, Charlotte isn't sure where roles end and reality begins. And as the parlor games turn a little bit menacing, she finds she needs more than a good corset to keep herself safe. Is the brooding Mr. Mallery as sinister as he seems? What is Miss Gardenside's mysterious ailment? Was that an actual dead body in the secret attic room? And-perhaps of the most lasting importance-could the stirrings in Charlotte's heart be a sign of real-life love?

The follow-up to reader favorite Austenland provides the same perfectly plotted pleasures, with a feisty new heroine, plenty of fresh and frightening twists, and the possibility of a romance that might just go beyond the proper bounds of Austen's world. How could it not turn out right in the end?

The Splendor Falls, by Rosemary Clement-Moore

Sylvie is yet another misunderstood girl with parental issues who is shipped off to a random relative after an one-time-only act of rebellion. After breaking her leg while on stage, Sylvie must quit her promising career as a ballerina and after taking Vicadin with alcohol at her mom's wedding, she is sent down south to her late dad's cousin who is taking care of the family estate. Upon arriving in Alabama (I think), Sylvie discovers that she is something like royalty in the tiny town her aunt lives in. And of course, this story would not be complete without a prince charming and a prince not-as-charming vying for her heart. Her two pursuers are Rhys, the dark and mysterious foreigner who knows way more than he is letting on, and Shaun, the town's golden boy who can do no wrong in anybody's (except Rhys') eyes. As if a new home and two guys aren't enough, Sylvie starts getting the feeling there is something more going on on her family's estate, something with roots deep in her family's history.

Despite the previous paragraph, it should be known that although this book does follow many cliches, it also manages to separate itself from them. I don't know how and I can only pinpoint one or two reasons why that is, but while reading The Splendor Falls I didn't feel any deja vu which means it wasn't too typical. However, I could not give this book a perfect rating because of how long it was. In a book 500 pages long you expect something to happen every couple of pages, but those somethings were so boring that I felt like I was reading what her day to day life was and although it was written well, it was still not very interesting. There were little parts that kept me going, but there were many many times I was ready to give up. I was thankful when I finished the book because that meant that I could finally stop reading it and I would no longer have to convince myself to hold on.

For once there was a main character with a sharp tongue. I loved how Sylvie would react to Addie's insults-she was hurt but she hit Addie with an even sharper comeback. It was incredibly refreshing to have a heroine with both a backbone and a heart. It was also nice how she didn't complain through the whole book and only mentioned her hurt leg when relevant. Sylvie lost everything she ever wanted for herself when she fell and I was nervous that this would be an entire novel full of complaints but thankfully it wasn't.

The supernatural elements of this book were extremely vague for most of it, which almost made me believe at times that Sylvie was actually nuts. Then I remembered that is this is a YA fantasy novel and not a YA dark and twisty and suicidal novel.

One more clarification before I go: the love triangle in this book was perfect, mainly because it wasn't really a love triangle. (In case you couldn't tell, I don't really like love triangles.) Sylvie knows who she wants and makes it very clear who she is interested in so mentioning it in the summary is kind of misleading. And if you were wondering about the title, it's a reference to one line in the book which I forgot already. As for the purple rose, your guess is as good as mine.

4.3 stars.

Can love last beyond the grave?

Sylvie Davis is a ballerina who can’t dance. A broken leg ended her career, but Sylvie’s pain runs deeper. What broke her heart was her father’s death, and what’s breaking her spirit is her mother’s remarriage—a union that’s only driven an even deeper wedge into their already tenuous relationship.

Uprooting her from her Manhattan apartment and shipping her to Alabama is her mother’s solution for Sylvie’s unhappiness. Her father’s cousin is restoring a family home in a town rich with her family’s history. And that’s where things start to get shady. As it turns out, her family has a lot more history than Sylvie ever knew. More unnerving, though, are the two guys that she can’t stop thinking about. Shawn Maddox, the resident golden boy, seems to be perfect in every way. But Rhys—a handsome, mysterious foreign guest of her cousin’s—has a hold on her that she doesn’t quite understand.

Then she starts seeing things. Sylvie’s lost nearly everything—is she starting to lose her mind as well?

The Secret Lives of Dresses, by Erin McKean

Dora is living life without any direction, majoring in the extremely general "liberal arts" and not really finding much inspiration in school or her work in a coffee shop. When her grandmother who raised her suffers a stroke, Dora runs home to be by her side, leaving behind school, work, and her flirty boss who she has a crush on. At home Dora takes over the running of her grandmother's vintage clothing store and discovers stories her grandmother would give to customers about the dresses they were buying. During this tragic time Dora learns new things about herself, her grandmother, and her long dead parents that she never knew before. Throughout everything Dora is faced with the choice of her lifetime: leave school and run her grandmother's shop (and spend time with the cute contractor) or go back to school (and her crush) and get her degree.

Overall thoughts:
When I first heard the plot of the book I was excited to read it. How could I not love a book about vintage dresses? The answer: very easily. Although I loved the story, the prose was absolutely horrible in my opinion. Yes, it told the story, but the sweetness of the story could not overwhelm the bad writing. There was too much detail in the story and though detail can be good-it bored me to death. Extra detail must either be useful information that comes into place later, words to make the story flow, or entertaining. The details here were none of the above. It would be like telling the story of Little Red Riding Hood and describing the exact path she took through the forest complete with directions and tree species. Some of these extra details were negligible and easily ignored but what really bothered me were the tangents the author would go on that would last pages and pages. I agree that the background story is important, but sometimes it would be in the middle of a scene and by the time we were back in the present I had totally forgotten what was going on. (The tangents I'm referring to are not the secret lives.) The reason why I gave this book such a high rating was because I did love the story itself, outside of the words.

Characters:
I couldn't even find one character that I liked. Every single person was completely one-sided. Dora was unsure, Gary was flirty and self-centered, Dora's aunt and cousin were vapid, Maux was outgoing and slightly nuts in a cute way, Mimi was the perfect grandmother, and Con was the perfect man. Every single person had only one side to them, even though the story did provide space for them to extend their personalities. There were times of happiness and sadness, but each character was exactly the same in every situation.

Narration:
When the story is being told from the first-person, it should not feel like the third person. Elements of personality should shine through and taint the rest of the story. However, because Dora has no personality and no opinions other than "vintage dresses rock!" it did not come across as first-person. Also-in a book about vintage dresses I expect some salivating descriptions, but was disappointed by how boring they were. And now I will finish this review because I have a sudden craving for Modcloth.

2.6 stars. The story would make an amazing movie but the book just didn't cut it for me.


Dora has always taken the path of least resistance. She went to the college that offered her a scholarship, is majoring in "vagueness studies," and wears whatever shows the least dirt. She falls into a job at the college coffee shop, and a crush on her flirty boss, Gary.

Just when she's about to test Gary's feelings, Mimi, the grandmother who raised her, suffers a stroke. Dora rushes back home to Forsyth, NC, and finds herself running her grandmother's vintage clothing store. The store has always been a fixture in Dora's life; though she grew up more of a jeans-and-sweatshirt kind of girl, before she even knew how to write, Mimi taught her that a vintage 1920s dress could lift a woman's spirit.

While working there, Dora befriends Mimi's adorable contractor, Conrad. Is he after Dora, or is working from a different blueprint? And why did Mimi start writing down--and giving away--stories of the dresses in her shop?

When Mimi dies, Dora can't get out of town fast enough and cedes control of the store to her money-hungry aunt who wants to turn it into a t-shirt shop for tourists. But ultimately, she returns to Forsyth, willing to battle whatever may stand in the way of her staying there. Dora can trade her boring clothes for vintage glamour, but can she trade her boring life for one she actually wants?