Make Up Reading

4.5 Stars First off I want to thank Netgalley and the Pan Macmillan AU publishing company for an advanced reader's copy in exchange for an honest review. In the small town of .Strathdee in Australia the body of sweet,young Bella Michaels is found brutally raped and murdered. Turning the whole town on it's head and altering the life of her older sister Chris forever. The novel is told through the first person voice of Chris and through a third person account of Sydney reporter May who is in town to write a story. Chris' voice is heartbreaking. She is a strong, tough and honest character who never tries to run from who she is. The grief she feels is overwhelming and we feel every bit of it. May is one of the few reporters that is not there .to exploit but is more or less there to write and actual story of Bella and what happened to her. This wonderful written novel is raw and honest. It talks of what it is like to be a woman. How as women we live in a world where anyt...

4.5 stars Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher Cornerstone Digital for allowing me to read an advanced copy of this novel for an honest review. Pre World War 1 Europe and the Goldbaum family are an extremely wealthy banking dynasty. Greta Goldbaum from Vienna does not really want to marry her English cousin Albert she does it anyway as that is what is expected and though Greta is a defiant girl she also knows that the sometimes you have to do what is expected. Greta is a fun, gregarious girl while Albert is a serious and quiet man. This novel takes us up through most of World War 1 and we follow the family through it all. With the war brewing we see how anti semitism began to take control of certain parts of Europe. A sweeping tale with Greta at the center this was a novel that I could not put down and though it was a bit long I managed to read it in 24 hours. There were a few slower parts but the characters and storylines were enough to keep me hanging in there. This is the first ...

I bought both books a few years ago to reread the books I read as a kid and these books were two of them. I did not enjoy them as much after the reading them again a few years ago. I had to give both books 3 stars.  After reading a good amount of R.L Stine books recently I really dislike the parents. The Dummy Goosebumps series suffered from the same thing. The parents never listen to the kids. In this Book Brenda is clearly having issues with her cousin. Her cousin wrecks her car, steals her boyfriend and the parents feel sorry for her. Not their own daughter. It seems like in the RL Stine world parents are never there for the kids and boys are all jerks. Now, there is a book of his called "Twisted" that I may pick up and reread because I remember how much I really enjoyed that book and I feel like it did not fall into his normal trope. I read all kinds of books from YA to Adult to children's if the mood fits but this is just annoying me a bit! The plot for the book ...

First off I want to thank NetGalley and  Delacorte Press for allowing me to read an advance copy of this novel for a full and honest review. This was a 3.5 stars read for me. This was my first Amanda Searcy book and I did enjoy it quite a bit. The novel had the feel of the old school YA mystery/thrillers that I used to and in reality still do really enjoy reading. It had the feel of Christopher Pike or R.L. Stine (Not Goosebumps R.L. Stine but the YA version). The novel begins with Jenny arriving from Ohio where she lived with her Mother, Step Father and half sister Hailey after an unfortunate incident. to a small town in New Mexico to live with her Father. Shortly after she arrives a slew of fires begin to appear within walking distance of the Motel she is staying in.  There is no point in hiding the fact that Jenny is the one starting the fires as it is revealed very quickly. We also find out quickly that she was in a fire herself as she has a burn that is an itches whenev...

First I would like to thank Netgalley and Graydon House  for allowing me to read an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review! Let me just say that I am not sure  exactly what genre this books is but I guess I would call it a historical paranormal romance and let me tell you that I am here for it! I just loved this book. I was intrigued by the cover of the book that the blurb but I did not expect to enjoy this as much as I thought I would. This is the perfect book to read on a chilly Autumn evening by the fire. It is warm yet gothic, romantic, lovely and yet heartbreaking. Lydia Montrose has known for a long time that she was different  and she can even tell you the exact day it hit her that something was off, she was around five and she hurt a crue little boy without touching him. After that her Mother warned her to never do that again. Though she didn't understand how she did what she did she tried her best to hide who truly is. In fact she did such a good job ...

I have to admit that I was a bit confused by the many poor reviews this book got. I actually liked it a lot. I thought it was very true to the rather rotten way we, as teenagers treat one another and even ourselves in the desperate need to be liked and thought of as cool. I am no longer a teenager and I was raised to actually stand up to bullies but in the process I myself had been attacked by the bullies. I can understand where each and every character was coming from. Alice is a slut who slept with two boys in one night or so says Elaine, Alice is responsible for the death of the coolest boy in school, QB Brandon Fitzsimmons if you ask his best friend Josh. Alice had an abortion if you ask her ex best friend Kelsie. Alice is perfection if you ask the class nerd Kurt. The truth lies somewhere in between. We hear all about Alice through the voices of these four characters. I will admit that most of them are not very likable characters and I hated the actions they took but if you rememb...

2.5 stars Here is the thing, I wanted to read this book so bad and I was super excited when I was able to get it on Kindle for 1.99, the problem is that this book was really hard to get into. It just felt flat. It is not because in a lot ways the writing feels like a classic, in fact that was one of the things I enjoyed most about it. The problem was that the storyline fell flat for me. This book had everything I love, good representation, an interesting and funny lead character that you actually could like even though he was rather dickish and relationships that I was rooting for. Yet, with all of that going for it there were times when I could not even bother to care. I actually fell asleep a few times while reading this. I know rom the ratings that I am in the minority here and I may read the next book but I am disappointed. The reason I rounded this up to three stars is because the wide representation in this novel. If not for that it would have only been a two star book.