Book Review: Losing It by: Cora Carmack.

Title: Losing It

Author: Cora Carmack
Release Date: February 26 2013
Publisher: William Morrow
Page Count: 288
Source: Bought
Rating: ★★★★★

 Virginity.

Bliss Edwards is about to graduate from college and still has hers. Sick of being the only virgin among her friends, she decides the best way to deal with the problem is to lose it as quickly and simply as possible-- a one-night stand. But her plan turns out to be anything but simple when she freaks out and leaves a gorgeous guy alone and naked in her bed with an excuse that no one with half-a-brain would ever believe. And as if that weren’t embarrassing enough, when she arrives for her first class of her last college semester, she recognizes her new theatre professor. She’d left him naked in her bed about 8 hours earlier.

I picked up this book at Target and I put it down three times before I finally decided to buy it. The cover looked like something light and fun and the description was very Pretty Little Liars' Aria and Ezra -- College Edition, but I bought it and I adored it.

Bliss is a 22 year old virgin, which might as well be a leper as far as she's concerned. The night before classes armed with her bestie and too much make up, Bliss decides she's going to do something about it. Everything is going according to plan when she encounters Garrick reading Shakespeare on her way to the bathroom. It's smooth sailing until she panics when they get back to her apartment and makes up an off the wall excuse to get Garrick out of her apartment -- thinking it doesn't matter since she will never see him again... atleast until she shows up for her first class tomorrow morning...

Bliss is my absolute favorite. I loved her awkwardness. I found her incredibly relatable and hilarious. I had a great time hanging out with her

Garrick is delicious. I literately wanted to shake Bliss several times when she was pushing him away. Girlfriend... He's British and seriously into you! What's your deal?!

Cormack's writing is hilarious and steamy in all the right spots. Definitely something I would read again!

Book Review: Twenty Boy Summer by: Sarah Ockler.

Title: Twenty Boy Summer

Author: Sarah Ockler
Release Date: June 1 2009
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Page Count: 290
Source: Bought
Rating: ★★★★★ 

 "Don’t worry, Anna. I’ll tell her, okay? Just let me think about the best way to do it."
"Okay."
"Promise me? Promise you won’t say anything?"
"Don’t worry.” I laughed. “It’s our secret, right?"

According to Anna’s best friend, Frankie, twenty days in Zanzibar Bay is the perfect opportunity to have a summer fling, and if they meet one boy every day, there’s a pretty good chance Anna will find her first summer romance. Anna lightheartedly agrees to the game, but there’s something she hasn’t told Frankie–she’s already had her romance, and it was with Frankie’s older brother, Matt, just before his tragic death one year ago.

TWENTY BOY SUMMER explores what it truly means to love someone, what it means to grieve, and ultimately, how to make the most of every beautiful moment life has to offer

On her 15th birthday Anna Reilly gets everything she has ever wanted – Matt her best friend as a boy kisses her and from that moment a secret love affair is born - a secret from everyone including her best friend and Matt’s sister Frankie. The three of them have been inseparable since Anna can remember and she’s fears a secret like this might ruin everything and after Matt suddenly dies Anna is sure the secret is going to go with him.
A great
 summer read. When Anna and Matt get together in the beginning of the book I was immediately sad because we know from the summary that Matt is going to die. They are so good together. It almost seemed like a waste of a good romance. I completely understand why it takes Anna so long to get through it. Not only is she losing her best friend but her super dreamy new boyfriend. Sad right?

I developed a love/hate relationship with Frankie throughout the book. At first I didn’t really know what to think about her since she was acting out over the death of her brother. But I didn’t really like that she kept pushing Anna into doing things she thought she should be doing. Granted I know she had no idea about Anna and Matt but it still frustrated me. I also felt like she was pretty selfish when it came to grieving over Matt it was like she felt like she was the only person who should be able to be sad.

However the more I got into the book the more I liked her. Sure she’s superficial and pretends to be dumb but so do a lot of girls. She reminded me a lot of a girlfriend I had in college who was very similar around guys, but she her heart was in the right place and Frankie’s is too.

Nothing’s better than a summer romance and Anna and Sam’s is perfect. I loved falling in love with Sam just as Anna did. Slow and second-guessing at first and then finally giving in all at once. He is perfect to help her get over Matt.

I thought this book was going to be dark and intense and while it does have those moments the lightness and healing are what made this book so wonderful. Watching Anna put not only herself but her best friend back together is heartwarming.

Book Review: The Sea of Tranquility by: Katja Millay.

Title: The Sea of Tranquility

Author: Katja Millay
Release Date: June 4 2013
Publisher: Dutton Children's
Page Count: 448
Source: Netgalley
Rating: ★★★★★ 

 I live in a world without magic or miracles. A place where there are no clairvoyants or shapeshifters, no angels or superhuman boys to save you. A place where people die and music disintegrates and things suck. I am pressed so hard against the earth by the weight of reality that some days I wonder how I am still able to lift my feet to walk.

Former piano prodigy Nastya Kashnikov wants two things: to get through high school without anyone learning about her past and to make the boy who took everything from her—her identity, her spirit, her will to live—pay.

Josh Bennett’s story is no secret: every person he loves has been taken from his life until, at seventeen years old, there is no one left. Now all he wants is be left alone and people allow it because when your name is synonymous with death, everyone tends to give you your space.

Everyone except Nastya, the mysterious new girl at school who starts showing up and won’t go away until she’s insinuated herself into every aspect of his life. But the more he gets to know her, the more of an enigma she becomes. As their relationship intensifies and the unanswered questions begin to pile up, he starts to wonder if he will ever learn the secrets she’s been hiding—or if he even wants to.

The Sea of Tranquility is a rich, intense, and brilliantly imagined story about a lonely boy, an emotionally fragile girl, and the miracle of second chances.- GoodReads 

The Sea of Tranquility – how more perfect of a title could you fathom about a girl who doesn’t talk? I know that isn’t where the title comes from and that it is actually talked about in the story but I just thought it was extremely fitting.

The first paragraph of the book is intense. If that doesn’t draw you in I don’t know what else would. To be honest it scared me a little bit. I was afraid this book was going to be all darkness and no light. Man was I wrong.

When the book opens all we know about Nastya is that a tragic event has taken from her everything she loved and left her with a severe enough hand injury that it will never work the same. We learn that since the incident Nastya has stopped talking and moved in with her Aunt Margot.

Enter Josh Bennett – steel-toed boot wearing, Angel of Death to most people. Josh is the last person Nastya thinks will save her from herself but when she wanders into his garage lost after a long run she finds something familiar about it and a feeling that she will most definitely be returning to feel again.

Nastya is a sassy character and I love that about her. Her inner dialogue really drove the story home. She collects names! How cool is that? It was interesting to watch the new people she was encountering start to chip away at the icy exterior she has created around herself.

I would totally date Josh Bennett. Who doesn't love the strong silent type? I found myself looking forward to his short POV interludes. He was such a warm character despite all the things he has had to deal with throughout his life. I just wanted to hug him and tell him that it was going to be ok.

I adore Josh and Nastya’s relationship and think it is completely necessary, but the relationship that surprised me the most was the one that develops between our heronine and Drew – Josh’s cocky-one night stand loving-best friend. Drew and Nastya grow together over the course of the book and bring things out in one another that the other didn’t think was possible.

Book Review: Daughter of Smoke and Bone by: Lani Taylor

Title: Daughter of Smoke & Bone (Daughter of Smoke & Bone #1)
Author: Lani Taylor
Release Date: September 27th, 2011
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Page Count: 448
Source: Bought
Rating: ★★★★★

Around the world, black handprints are appearing on doorways, scorched there by winged strangers who have crept through a slit in the sky. In a dark and dusty shop, a devil's supply of human teeth grown dangerously low. And in the tangled lanes of Prague, a young art student is about to be caught up in a brutal otherwordly war.

Meet Karou. She fills her sketchbooks with monsters that may or may not be real; she's prone to disappearing on mysterious "errands"; she speaks many languages--not all of them human; and her bright blue hair actually grows out of her head that color. Who is she? That is the question that haunts her, and she's about to find out.

When one of the strangers--beautiful, haunted Akiva--fixes his fire-colored eyes on her in an alley in Marrakesh, the result is blood and starlight, secrets unveiled, and a star-crossed love whose roots drink deep of a violent past. But will Karou live to regret learning the truth about herself? -GoodReads 

If I could live anywhere ever it would be the setting of this book. Lani Taylor has created such a seductively magical world that I felt myself longing to return back to in after I had put the book down and returned to normal life. With its hidden passages to another world and old time pre/post war Prague setting, this story is an artist dream come true.

I felt a kindred spirit with that of Karou, the wildly curious protagonist, who has spent her life, as much as she can remember, running errands for a Wishmonger named Brimstone. It was a thrill to travel the world and learn her story along the way. It’s not however until the appearance of the enthralling Akiva that our heroine starts to learn the truth about herself and her origins.

Never has a story of love and hate been more beautifully told since Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.