Review: Speechless by Hannah Harrington

Speechless | Hannah Harrington | Harlequin Teen | Stand Alone | 5 Stars | Source: Netgalley | 288 pages | Young Adult | Contemporary 
Release Date: August 28th, 2012
Goodreads

Goodreads Synopsis:

“Everyone knows that Chelsea Knot can’t keep a secret

Until now. Because the last secret she shared turned her into a social outcast—and nearly got someone killed.

Now Chelsea has taken a vow of silence—to learn to keep her mouth shut, and to stop hurting anyone else. And if she thinks keeping secrets is hard, not speaking up when she’s ignored, ridiculed and even attacked is worse.

But there’s strength in silence, and in the new friends who are, shockingly, coming her way—people she never noticed before; a boy she might even fall for. If only her new friends can forgive what she’s done. If only she can forgive herself.”

Review:

Speechless follows the story of Chelsea – someone who can’t save a secret for love nor money. One day she lets a secret out that has serious repercussions. at this point she decides to take a vow a silence as she believes that when she opens it brings nothing but sadness.

I initially was not keen on Chelsea (this is the whole idea – you are not supposed to like a rat.) She is your typical Queen B sidekick. She lacks a mind of her own and follows her groups actions and thoughts without question. She is unintentionally cruel and never thinks of how her rumours harm people. This changes though towards the middle of the novel. She sees the error of her ways and karma hits her hard. She grew up and matured beautifully before our eyes.

in terms of plot I have to say I wasn’t to keen to start with. Her vow of silence initially came off as childish for me. But it’ s effectiveness shines through in the end stories unfolded that no words could ever explain. secondary characters made this. Sam was the perfect love interest, Asha the noble and new found best friend and the crew from the diner made the backdrop.

There are some fab messages in this novel. Forgiveness, redemption and the fact that every action always had an equal and opposite reaction. The insults and stick Chelsea receives is cruel and tear jerking and the ending is perfection.

I urge fans of novels such as Before I Fall. A fab coming of age novel!

Goodreads Average: 4.01/5 (out of 7.119 ratings)

 

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Review: Cursed by Jennifer L. Armentrout

Cursed | Jennifer L. Armentrout | Hodder and Stoughton | Stand Alone | 5 Stars| Source: Review (Bookbridgr) | 305 pages | Young Adult | Fantasy 
Release Date: September 18th, 2012 
ISBN13: 978-1937053123
Goodreads

Goodreads Synopsis:

“Dying sucks–and high school senior Ember McWilliams knows firsthand. After a fatal car accident, her gifted little sister brought her back. Now anything Ember touches dies. And that, well, really blows. Ember operates on a no-touch policy with all living things–including boys. When Hayden Cromwell shows up, quoting Oscar Wilde and claiming her curse is a gift, she thinks he’s a crazed cutie. But when he tells her he can help control it, she’s more than interested. There’s just one catch: Ember has to trust Hayden’s adopted father, a man she’s sure has sinister reasons for collecting children whose abilities even weird her out. However, she’s willing to do anything to hold her sister’s hand again. And hell, she’d also like to be able to kiss Hayden. Who wouldn’t? But when Ember learns the accident that turned her into a freak may not’ve been an accident at all, she’s not sure who to trust. Someone wanted her dead, and the closer she gets to the truth, the closer she is to losing not only her heart, but her life. For real this time”

Review:

A standalone young adult fantasy tickles my fancy and leaves me sceptical in equal measure. I think striking the balance between having the right amount of character development, world building and plot in a standalone can be difficult. With young adult being saturated with series and trilogies, I was happy to find something different in Cursed.

Cursed follows the story of Ember. Her baby sister, Olivia, brought her back with her touch after a car accident and now she has a death touch. Anything she so much as grazes with her thumbs will die within seconds. This makes daily life difficult and with her flesh toned gloves in tow, makes her high school life a living hell.

This is probably one of my favourite standalone novels of all time. It provides all of the above with the perfect balance and I finished it in one sitting!

We don’t learn too much about how people with certain gifts came to be or how they are policed. All we know is there is “The Facility” and a gentleman named Cromwell makes it his duty to look after other children like this. This was enough for me considering it was more about the characters and their development rather than the fantasy.

I definitely have a soft spot for our main character. Ember is easy to empathize with, strong willed and level headed. At points in the novel she is taken out of her comfort zone and introduced to new things. Her reactions to these are so plausible! Recently I have found main characters to be quite limp and Ember definitely breaks that streak for me.

The mystery aspect of this novel is so gripping! Following Ember on her journey to finding how and why the car crash with her family happened kept me guessing and the twist at the end was so well done!

This was my first taste of JLA and it definitely won’t be my last! Half-Blood here I come!

Goodreads Average: 3.87/5 (out of 6.199 ratings)

DNF Review: Let’s Get Lost by Adi Alsaid

Let’s Get Lost | Adi Alsaid | Harlequin Teen | Stand Alone | 352 pages | Young Adult | Contemporary | DNF Source: Netgalley
Release Date: July 29th, 2014
Goodreads

Goodreads Synopsis

Five strangers. Countless adventures. One epic way to get lost. 

Four teens across the country have only one thing in common: a girl named LEILA. She crashes into their lives in her absurdly red car at the moment they need someone the most. 

There’s HUDSON, a small-town mechanic who is willing to throw away his dreams for true love. And BREE, a runaway who seizes every Tuesday—and a few stolen goods along the way. ELLIOT believes in happy endings…until his own life goes off-script. And SONIA worries that when she lost her boyfriend, she also lost the ability to love. 

Hudson, Bree, Elliot and Sonia find a friend in Leila. And when Leila leaves them, their lives are forever changed. But it is during Leila’s own 4,268-mile journey that she discovers the most important truth— sometimes, what you need most is right where you started. And maybe the only way to find what you’re looking for is to get lost along the way.

Review:

To say I wanted to enjoy this novel would be the most monumental understatement among all the understatements. I saw this on Netgalley and I had to have it. Road trip novels are well and truly my jam and I am always looking for my next favourite when it comes to this kind of of subgenre. I went it to this novel with open arms, so you can imagine how distraught I was when I dropped it and thus becoming my first DNF of the year at just over 1oo pages.

I usually don’t write DNF reviews but I want to encourage people to try this one out despite me not what I read of this that much.

Every now and again, I come across a book that I can’t get in to. This was one of them. I usually give books 50 pages, but I doubled that for this one. I genuinely tried. After 100 pages I was just not a fan of where this was heading. Leila was a a bit hard to empathize with and the whole POV changes are not something that I am too huge a fan of anyways. It got to the point where I just did not want to put more of my time in to it. I think I may have hyped this up a bit too much and it kind of fell flat. My doing and undoing when it came to reading this.

One thing that is certain when it comes to this novel, is that I will try again. I think it is the kind of book that does deserve some kind of second chance, but for now, it remains on my DNF shelf.

Goodreads Average: 4.09/5 (Out of 251 ratings)