Waiting On Wednesday: Side Effects May Vary by Julie Murphy

WoW is weekly meme created by Jill at Breaking The Spine in which bloggers can share books they're excited to get soon :)

 

 

Y'all. This WOW has me crawling in the dirt in need

 

 

 

Side Effects May Vary by Julie Murphy

 

What if you’d been living your life as if you were dying—only to find out that you had your whole future ahead of you?

When sixteen-year-old Alice is diagnosed with leukemia, her prognosis is grim. To maximize the time she does have, she vows to spend her final months righting wrongs—however she sees fit. She convinces her friend Harvey, whom she knows has always had feelings for her, to help her with a crazy bucket list that’s as much about revenge (humiliating her ex-boyfriend and getting back at her arch nemesis) as it is about hope (doing something unexpectedly kind for a stranger and reliving some childhood memories). But just when Alice’s scores are settled, she goes into remission. 

Now Alice is forced to face the consequences of all that she’s said and done, as well as her true feelings for Harvey. But has she done irreparable damage to the people around her, and to the one person who matters most?

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First of all, I want to be a pediatric hematologist, which is the name of the doctor that treats kids with problems with their blood, like leukemia. LIKE ALICE.

 

 

Second, BEST FRIENDS FOREVER.

I love to read about childhood friends with a relationship that blossoms into something more.

 

 

Third. Harvey has the best boy name ever.

 

 

Review: The Moon and More by Sarah Dessen

Title: The Moon and More
Author: Sarah Dessen
Published June 4th 2013 by Viking Juvenile
Goodreads / Amazon
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I honestly cannot believe I am going to read a 'meh' review for this book, but sadly, my heart isn't in it because I did not find it that great.

 

Y'all know I love Sarah Dessen. She's one of the writers who got me into YA, also the author of many of my favorite books. I love her as a person and as a writer. So it's hard for me when I less than love anything she writes.

 

This time though, I gotta admit that I had a hard time connecting with her story. Emmaline is a beach girl who is going through the phase of branching out of her old routes and leaving Colby (I know! Colby where Auden and Eli met!) her hometown. But is the outside everything that's cracked up to be? or is she not appreciating what she has now?

 

I, for the life of me, could not care about Emmaline, I feel like Sarah Dessen tried to make her likable by making her situation with her dad a very unfortunate one, but even then, I just couldn't muster any warm feelings towards her and her first world problems. I couldn't get over that she kissed Theo hours after she broke up with Luke, her boyfriend of years.

 

And then I didn't even liked Theo from the beggining, so I felt like I was waisting my time since I didn't care where their relationship went. I liked Luke but he wasn't in the book that much anyway.

 

The only reasonably good parts where when Emmaline's brother, Benji, was in the picture. He was a cutie that brighten the scene he was in. And also, Colby, for a hardcore fan like me, re-visiting Colby was one of the great perks of this book, made me wish I was at the beach reading.

 

So there, I didn't really liked this book but honestly, nothing Sarah Dessen writes can ever be bad, so it's just not for me.

 

 

 

 

Waiting On Wednesday: Pointe by Brandy Colbert

WoW is weekly meme created by Jill at Breaking The Spine in which bloggers can share books they're excited to get soon :)


Hi there. Been a long time since I last posted a WOW I know but this one was worth it I think ;)



POINTE
by Brandy Colbert

Theo is better now.
 
She's eating again, dating guys who are almost appropriate, and well on her way to becoming an elite ballet dancer. But when her oldest friend, Donovan, returns home after spending four long years with his kidnapper, Theo starts reliving memories about his abduction—and his abductor.
 
Donovan isn't talking about what happened, and even though Theo knows she didn't do anything wrong, telling the truth would put everything she's been living for at risk. But keeping quiet might be worse.

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Ballet? Child Abduction? Anorexia? Secrets?
YES PLEASE.

Review: Levitating Las Vegas by Jennifer Echols

Title: Levitating Las Vegas
Author: Jennifer Echols
Published May 7th 2013 by Pocket Star
Goodreads | Amazon
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You and your neighbors know what a huge Jennifer Echols fan I am. It’s clear that I wear my love on my sleeve. I love each of her books and her characters and the passions in me are stirred every time I open one of her pages.

That’s why it literally pains me (this combined with the heartburn after all the spicy food I ate) to write this review.

It’s not like I hated Levitating Las Vegas (I so didn’t!), I enjoyed reading it, and not only because it was written by Jenn, but because it was entertaining, and the characters, as always, were witty and sassy and very likable. I loved Elijah Brown and his mysteriousness, his loyalty to Holly and his dazed and confused self was just incredibly endearing. And Holly was pretty fantastic too, she reminded me a bit of Holly Golightly (insert Audrey Hepburn) in her clueless ways.

The chemistry between Holly and Elijah can’t be denied, and their scenes together were the kind that sends sparks flying and induce fires in places that I won’t be talking about *wink*.

Now, what I really had problems with was the story itself. The plot was kind of all over the place. It’s probably best illustrated as a riding on a dirt road with the headlights off: bumpy and holey and no way of knowing what to except. Which isn’t always a bad thing, you know; but usually when you read a paranormal book you want your “facts” straight, and the book kind of did a not-so-good job at explaining most of the things that were going on. And some characters had not much explanation (or interactions) either, like Mr. Diamond, the casino owner, who I have a feeling was supposed to be a very important piece in the jigsaw puzzle but his role was the opposite, inexplicably irrelevant.

Another plus was that it really evokes Vegas to me. Hot and sexy and like, there’s no other place where so much crazy could be happening.

However lack of details and follow-up this book had, it didn’t disappoint me in the aspects I always look for in Ms. Echols books: a good time, a good laugh and characters I like to read about.

 

Release Day Launch: When You Were Here by Daisy Whitney

Today's marks the day when Daisy Whitney gives birth(?) to a new, exciting book. Celebrate with us with a fabulous giveaway!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

 

 

ABOUT WHEN YOU WERE HERE:

Filled with humor, raw emotion, a strong voice, and a brilliant dog named Sandy Koufax, When You Were Here explores the two most powerful forces known to man-death and love. Daisy Whitney brings her characters to life with a deft touch and resonating authenticity.

Danny's mother lost her five-year battle with cancer three weeks before his graduation-the one day that she was hanging on to see.

Now Danny is left alone, with only his memories, his dog, and his heart-breaking ex-girlfriend for company. He doesn't know how to figure out what to do with her estate, what to say for his Valedictorian speech, let alone how to live or be happy anymore.

When he gets a letter from his mom's property manager in Tokyo, where she had been going for treatment, it shows a side of his mother he never knew. So, with no other sense of direction, Danny travels to Tokyo to connect with his mother's memory and make sense of her final months, which seemed filled with more joy than Danny ever knew. There, among the cherry blossoms, temples, and crowds, and with the help of an almost-but-definitely-not Harajuku girl, he begins to see how it may not have been ancient magic or mystical treatment that kept his mother going. Perhaps, the secret of how to live lies in how she died.

WHEN YOU WERE HERE Goodreads.

 

ABOUT DAISY WHITNEY:

By day, Daisy Whitney is a reporter and ghostwriter. At night, she writes novels for teens and is the author of THE MOCKINGBIRDS and its sequel THE RIVALS (Little, Brown). Her third novel WHEN YOU WERE HERE releases in June 2013 (Little, Brown), and her fourth novel STARRY NIGHTS (Bloomsbury) hits shelves in September 2013. When Daisy's not inventing fictional high school worlds, she can be found somewhere north of San Francisco walking her adorable dog, watching online TV with her fabulous husband or playing with her fantastic kids.  A graduate of Brown University, she believes in shoes, chocolate chip cookies and karma.  You can follow her writing blog and new media adventures at DaisyWhitney.com.

 

Review: When You Were Here by Daisy Whitney

Title: When You Were Here 
Author: Daisy Whitney
Expected publication: June 4th 2013 by Little, Brown
Goodreads / Amazon
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I always feel awkward when I review books (which is very unfortunate since that’s what I do) but this time I feel especially inadequate. Because this book was beautiful and heartfelt and all I could think about was: WHAT KIND OF CANCER DOES ELIZABETH HAVE?

Really. My mind couldn’t stop swimming around all the possibilities and the possible treatments, and then I was just like; tea that cures cancer?! BS!

Yeah, not my classiest moment but sometimes I get carried away because I want everyone to win against cancer and I want to do everything possible and use ever single drug that’s been proven works.

I couldn’t concentrate, I couldn’t stop thinking what they could have done to save Elizabeth. I was a mess of feelings but not for the right reasons I think.

But then, when Danny (Elizabeth’s son) learns about the reason why Holland left him; I stopped, breathed in, and it was like I saw the story with different eyes, a new light was shed over the pages. I started to get the real point of the story.

That’s when my heart started breaking, because when your mom dies, omg I can’t even. Danny’s inconsolable, I was too; cancer’s an awful thing but when the person you love most in the world has it, how are you suppose to function still? I am fortunate enough to have my mom with me (thank God) but I still got Danny’s pain, felt it like it was my own, and grieved right along with him like it was my lost.

Despite all the sadness this book brought to my life (and believe me, it was a lot) there were some awesome aspects to it too. The most amazing of them all was definitely Japan. Now I’ve never been one of those girls obsessed with Japanese stuff, before this book I haven’t even considered ever visiting there, but I had another thing coming because Japan sounds awesome! The Karaoke! All the crazy colors! The fun merchandise! It sounds like I could be one happy gal over there.

 Also, I love boy point of views, and I personally think Daisy Whitney nailed it! I totally believed Danny’s voice, he didn’t seem like he was trying too hard at being all macho and ‘I’m a man, erase all doubt!’, he was teenage-boy-confused not only because his mom just died, or because he is now an orphan, or because the-big-secret-Holland-kept-from-him, it was everything that rolled into a big ball of destruction that crushed the life out of him. The real magic came when we got to see Danny rising from the ashes with the help of a city where dreams come true.

Now it's your turn to fall in love with Tokyo, and with Danny's story; since today's the day When You Were Here is out. Happy book birthday!