Walking on Trampolines

by Frances Whiting

published: Gallery Books, 2015 (originally 2013)

pages: 368

When Lulu meets Annabelle, she is bewitched.  They quickly become the best of friends, sharing secrets and a language that no one else knows.  But when the unthinkable happens, they lose track of each other.  Lulu has to come to terms with her life and move on, but it doesn't happen easily or over night.  Lulu takes a journey to find herself and her purpose, amid new beginnings and unexpected endings. 

I love the title of the book, Walking on Trampolines.  It's not explained at all in the book, like some title would be; it's not even mentioned.  But it describes everything this book is about, everything that Lulu struggles with, every decision, every moment in her life.  Life is hard and sometimes you get thrown off, become unstable, just like walking on a trampoline.

The book delivers rich characters that made me hate them and love them at the same time.  There were characters that had no clue what they were doing, characters that were very self aware, and characters that were slightly naive.  This book was really about Lulu's journey into acceptance and happiness, but it proves that everyone you meet has some affect on you regardless of how long you know them.

Duncan is my favorite character in this book.  He has a great personally: he's flamboyant, boisterous and tender to those he loves.  He's also very aware that he is an asshole.  He likes to meddle and does his best to help Lulu when she comes to work for him.  He is a force of nature in Lulu's life and helps her discover happiness. 

The characters in this book are the reason people should read it.  The plot seems to be slightly trivial next to the amazing amount of lively and developed characters you come across in these pages.

Frances Whiting has the ability to create characters that feel so real.  I feel as though I've known them for a long time.  I will be waiting more from Whiting in the future! 

Stars: 3.5/5

Praise:

"A tender exploration of friendship, families, and first love."
      --Liane Moriarty, author of What Alice Forgot

"Whiting has crafted a compelling and emotional journey... Fans of Liane Moriarty, Sarah Dessen, and Jennifer Close will adore Whiting's heart wrenchingly honest and utterly earnest tale of female friendship, unbreakable bonds, and learning to let go."
     --Booklist, starred review

"Whiting's novel, reminiscent of novels by Kristin Hannah, evokes all the emotions the best books should: joy, sadness and the truth that life is messy, yet full of love."
     --RT Book Reviews


A Full House Challenge 2015 Book!

Ready Player One

by Ernest Cline
published: Broadway Books, 2011
pages: 372

When the creator of the worldwide virtual reality gaming system, OASIS, dies, he leaves his fortune hidden in an egg somewhere in his digital world.  People all over the world have been searching ever since.  Wade Wilson stumbles across the first clue that leads him closer to the ultimate prize.  However, time is not on his side; Wade must beat a slue of other competitors including some that are willing to kill.  There's only one way to survive: to win.

This book was a bit of a rollercoaster.  There's so much action packed into the story.  It had me on the edge of my seat wanting to know what happens next.  I loved all the plot twists and the big reveal; you never know who to trust when everything is online.

There was a bit of a lull in the story about halfway through.  We had some character development, but other than that not much seems to happen.  I found myself skimming the page every once in a while, waiting for the next moment of high action.

The vast amount of 70s and 80s references were incredibly entertaining.  I grew up on that kind of pop culture thanks to my dad, so I knew most of the references on the spot.  It was so much fun to geek out while reading this book.  I thoroughly enjoyed slipping in and out of OASIS with Wade.

OASIS is a virtual reality that I would love to visit.  The world is so intensely huge, there something for everyone.  Each planet is described with such vivid details that it feels like you are right there with all the avatars.  We only got a small peak into the virtual world.  There is some much left unexplored that it's incredibly enticing.  I  would love to explore it, I wouldn't be very good at the MMO (massive multiplayer online) parts of OASIS but it would definitely super cool to experience it.

Ernest Cline creates an amazing world with an intense adventure challenge to complete.  I definitely enjoyed reading this book.


Stars: 3.5/5

Praise:

"As one adventure leads expertly to the next, time simple evaporates."
      --Entertainment Weekly

"An action-packed, highly entertaining, nostalgic thrill ride through the past combined with the danger and excitement of a not-too-distant future."
      --New York Journal of Books

"An adrenaline shot of uncut geekdom... [featuring] the perfect lovable/unlikely hero."
      --Publishers Weekly

A Full House Reading Challenge 2015 book.
A 2015 TBR Pile Challenge book. 
An Alphabet Soup Challenge book.
A 2015 Book Blogger Recommendation Challenge book. 

Becoming Jinn

by Lori Goldstein

published: Feiwel and Friends, 2015
pages: 384

Azra's whole life is turned upside down on her 16th birthday.  She knew it was coming but she had hoped and fought it her entire life.  Now she that she has her powers, Azra is forced to grant the wishes of those around her.  The trick is she doesn't get to choose, the governing body of the Jinn choose for her.  All Azra wants is to be normal and to have normal friends, but she's starting to realize the people she has pushed away her entire life might just be the people who will help her get through becoming Jinn. (<-- Did you see what I did there?)

I really enjoyed reading this book.  I don't think there are many books focused on genies, so when I first heard about this I was all over it!  The plot is interesting.  I love the premise of this story, a hierarchy of genies that determine just who gets to have wishes granted and when they get them granted.  Genies are often depicted with very little character other than they grant wishes.  This book gives us fleshed out genies and their culture.  The characters have motivations and emotions that drive them, they aren't simply brainless wish granting machines.

I initially felt incredibly sad for Azra's predicament and the isolated lifestyle she has had to lead.  I know some of it, okay maybe a lot of it, is of her own making but it struck a chord with me.  I loved the fact that she is rebellious and headstrong, even against things that she can't change.  At the same time, she feels deeply and wants to protect her family and friends in any way possible.  She's definitely a character of flaws, but that's what makes her so relatable and enjoyable.

The other characters in this book are really cool as well.  There are so many characters that were introduced in this book, but they weren't given enough time for much development.  Azra's Jinn sisters are a good example of that.  There are six of them including Azra, but only two of them get much shine time.  I loved what we saw of each character; they each had distinct traits and interests that made them easy to remember and distinguish.  I just wish there was more of them in the book.  I am hopeful that we will see more of them as the series continues!

On that note, I didn't realize this was the beginning of a series so I was slightly confused when there were only about 50 pages left and questions weren't being answered.  On top of that, we were still learning new information.  I like when I get answers to all my questions and that certainly did not happen but I'm okay with it because now I know there is more to this story than just this book.  I am so happy that there is more coming.  I really enjoyed reading about the lives of these characters.

This story has so much potential to grow and I'm looking forward to following all the characters into the rest of this series! (P.S. the cover is way more purple than in this picture and I LOVE it!)

Stars: 3.5/5

Praise:

"[Azra's] struggles with family and impending adulthood ring true and will likely cultivate a loyal, sequel-hungry audience."
     --Booklist

"Through Azra's first-person, present-tense narration, the act of "becoming Jinn" provides a rich metaphor for the potency and frustration of adolescence."
     --Kirkus

"Becoming Jinn offers everything I adore in a book: a rebellious, snarky heroine, a fresh plot that had me devouring pages, and flourishes of dreamy romance."
     --Anna Banks, New York Times-bestselling author of the Syrena Legacy series

"Becoming Junn is a delightful portrait of what the life of a modern-day genie might be.  Vividly imagined and written with spirit and verve."
     --Emmy Laybourne, author of the Monument 14 series

A Full House Reading Challenge 2015 book.
An Alphabet Soup Challenge book. 

The Girl on the Train

by Paula Hawkins
published: Riverhead Books, 2015
pages: 336

Rachel takes the same train everyday and she passes by the same nice suburban houses and families.  She's even given names to some of the people she see regularly.  They remind her of the life she once had.  But what happens when those people become more than just passing glances in her life?  Rachel see something shocking and decides to go to the police with the information.  But in her attempt to do good could she possibly be making things worse not only for them, but for her as well?

One of the reasons this book is so suspenseful is that the narrators are all unreliable.  You never know if what they are telling you is true or how that truth is distorted.  None of them have the whole truth.  The reader gets the whole truth only because we are allowed to draw conclusions from three different points of view.  I loved that you couldn't trust anyone.  That's one of my favorite things about this book.

It was, however, a relatively slow read for me.  I felt like there was a quite a bit of slog before the action really hit.  For about two thirds of the book I was wondering when we would hit the main action of the book.  This was the biggest let down for me.  I would have liked to see the action hit a bit sooner in the story.  I love slow burn novels and tension building but it was almost too slow.  I was hooked just enough to need to finish to find out "who done it".

The characters kept me going.  I really enjoyed the different character perspectives and learning information through their perspectives.  I loved not being told specific characteristics about the characters but rather figuring out aspects of their life based on their actions and interactions with other people.  There's nothing more satisfying when the gears start to click in place and you realize that one of the characters has a problem and another isn't being honest with themselves. (This is really vague because I didn't want to give out specific examples.  That would ruin the fun for others.)

Overall, Paula Hawkins has an incredibly suspenseful novel that will capture the attention of those that love a good psychological thriller.

Stars: 3.5/5

Praise:

"Like the train, the story blasts through the stagnation of these lives in suburban London and the reader cannot help but turn pages."
     --The Boston Globe

"The Girl on the Train has more fun with unreliable narration than any chiller since Gone Girl... [It] is liable to draw a large, bedazzled readership."
     --The New York Times

"Gone Girl fans will devour this psychological thriller."
     --People

Isla and the Happily Ever After

by Stephanie Perkins
published: Dutton, 2014
pages: 352

Isla Martin has had a crush on Josh since she first laid eyes on him in their freshman year.  So when she sees him in a cafe the summer before their senior year, she takes a chance and finally talks to him.  This is where their love story starts, but can it last when real life begins to push its way into their fairytale?

I've been waiting for a book that told Josh's story! Josh was one of my favorite characters in Anna and the French Kiss and I'm so glad I got to see so much more of him in this book.  I always liked his artistry but we never saw too much of it in either of the previous books but now that he is one of the central characters, we get to see so much more of his art. 

Isla on the other hand, seems to be incredibly immature.  I get the whole three year crush thing, but the way she reacted to everything seemed a little bit out of place for her age.  (Although, there is some character development in that area.)

I'm going to say it, I've never seen such an incredible display of insta-love.  The way the book plays out, it feels like more should have passed, but it's astonishing the time span in which we're supposed to believe all this happened.  That was the most disappointing thing about this book.

Paris! Again we visit Paris as well as a couple other places in this book.  The descriptions are so vivid and done well for all the cities, however, Barcelona was by far the most vivid city of the book.  It was breathtaking and quirky; I felt the need to jump on a plane so I could experience the city with them.

One of my favorite things about these books is that the characters show up in each others lives.  I was wondering how it would work out this time and I wasn't disappointed.  It's great to see characters I love living their lives outside the view of the main character.  In this particular moment, everyone is together and it's beautiful.

Despite my issues with this book, I really enjoyed reading it.  It gave me good closure to this entire world and cast of characters.  It's safe to say that I will pick up any book that Stephanie Perkins writes.

Stars: 3.5 Stars

Praise:

"It's hard to imagine a more romantic tale than Isa and the Happily Ever After."
     --Bookpage, teen top pick

"Engaging teen characters with page-turning love lives offer ample vicarious pleasures...A satisfying dose of first love's physical and emotional thralls."
     --Kirkus Reviews

"Realistic characters, spot-on dialogue, and a truly delightful romance make for a novel that will delight the author's fans and win her legions of new ones."
     --School Library Journal, starred review.


An Eclectic Reader 2015 Challenge book
A Full House Reading Challenge 2015: Published in 2014
Alphabet Soup Challenge

The End Games

By T. Michael Martin

Published: HarperCollins, 2013

Pages: 369

Michael has one goal: to get his five-year-old brother, Patrick, to the safe zone.  Since Halloween, he and Patrick have dodged the brainless Bellows who are quickly evolving from wandering flesh-obsessed undead.  They aren't playing by the rules of The Game and neither are the new survivors that Michael and Patrick meet.  In order to survive, Michael needs to figure out who they can trust and follow The Game Master's instructions if they ever expect to get to the safe zone and end the game.

I have mixed feelings about this book.  I searched high and low for it and when I found it, I was ecstatic.  But I feel as though I hyped this book up far too much in my mind.  I did enjoy reading it, but not as much as I thought I would.  It took me a while to get into the book, though I did I sneak in a page or too whenever I had a moment to read.  

I  found myself falling in love with a five-year-old. Patrick's innocence along with his disability, touched me. In a world where Bellows run free and nothing makes sense, this boy gives a stark contrast - he is the hope this book needs. Michael's innate desire to protect Patrick, even before the apocalypse, makes their relationship tender. I love the contrast between the world they live in and the one that Michael creates for Patrick, however flawed it may be. Along with Patrick, some of the other characters, Michael and Bobbie particularly, were dynamic and intriguing.  I routed for them wholeheartedly despite the stupid decisions they may have made.

I had a little bit of a tough time with the voice of the story at first.  It seemed choppy and over the top.  I'm not sure what I expected, but this particular 17-year-old narrator annoyed me, which may be why it took me longer than usual to get into the book.   That being said, the narration grew on me as I got to know the characters.  I ended up sympathizing with Michael and finding his way to seeing the world engaging.

This was my second read into the zombie genre, but it's so much more than a zombie book.  It gives me hope for other zombie books.  As far as a debut book goes, it is incredibly imaginative and well done.  I am looking forward to T. Michael Martin's next book, with the hope that it will be even better than this!  

Stars: 3.5/5

Praise:

"I feel like calling The End Games a zombie apocalypse novel will deter many of the readers who will love it most.  It's brilliant, fun, and blisteringly intelligent fiction that happens to feature a zombie apocalypse.  I can't recommend this one highly enough."
     --John Green, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Fault in Our Stars

"The best of the undead bunch, meshing relentless action, intelligence, and emotion.  The plot rockets forth like a single exhaled breath.  Any last words? Yes: Very. Exciting. Book."
     --Booklist, starred review

"It's full of both jaw-dropping action and heart-twisting beauty."
      --Sara Zarr, National Book Award finalist

Daughter of Smoke and Bone

by Laini Taylor
published: Little Brown and Company, 2011
pages: 418

Karou lives in a world where her fake grandmother registers her for school, she goes on strange errands for her guardian, Brimstone, and she can acquire languages from wishes.  She is confident in what she knows, but when Karou ventures to find the answer to the question she's always asked herself: Who am I?, things begin to unravel into a dangerous mess.  What she's about to find out will not only change her life but also push her head first into a world in the crux of crisis.

There are books that people talk about nonstop, that make your desire to read them intensify, that promise a great and stunning book.  These books can, and often do fall short of their praise.  But sometimes the books live up to and exceed all expectations.

Unfortunately for me, this book falls into the category of too highly anticipated.  It is sad to say that I did not enjoy this book as much as I thought I would, given everything wonderful that I've heard about it.  My biggest issue with this book was the pacing.  For whatever reason, I had a hard time keeping interested in the book.  There are definitely periods of time where I could not stop reading, but there were also sections of the book that I thought about skipping because it was taking so long to get through them.

This however, does not mean I didn't notice how the masterful writing was both haunting and humorous.  The banter between characters and the descriptions of every creature were magnificent.  I could plainly see everyone in with their distinct characteristics.  Characterization was insanely good in this novel and the development of each character was purposeful and powerful.

I did like the idea that Karou was an artist and the things she drew in her sketchbooks were her reality, but others thought they were part of her imagination.  I thought that was extremely clever and it also made me think about what I've just assumed was someone's imagination in the past, whether it was story lines or drawings.  The idea that someone could be drawing a truth that I don't acknowledge is really intriguing.

Also, this was kind of like Romeo and Juliet with a paranormal twist to it, and unlike many adaptations, this ended with enough gusto that it couldn't have been predicted.  (Well, I guess it could have, but I didn't predict it.)

Laini Taylor has beautiful writing that alone makes me want to continue reading Karou and Akiva's story.  I am sure I will pick up the sequel in the near future.

Stars: 3.5/5

Praise:

"A masterful mix of reality and fantasy."
     --Publishers Weekly, starred review

"A breath-catching romantic fantasy about destiny, hope and the search for one's true self."
     --The New York Times Book Reveiw

"...the author crafts a fierce heroine with bright-blue hair, tattoos, martial skills, a growing attachment to a preternaturally hunky but not entirely sane warrior and, in episodes to come, an army of killer angels to confront.  Rarely does a series kick off so deliciously."
     --Kirkus, starred review

This is an Eclectic Reader 2013 Challenge Book!

21 Proms

edited by: David Levithan and Daniel Ehrenhaft

published: Scholastic

pages: 289

It's prom, and no matter which way you experience it, it will be memorable. 21 authors have taken the time to share their take on this rite of passage moment in high school.

Over all, this collection was a really entertaining group of extremely unique prom experiences.  Each story had it's own format: one was a one act play, others memoirs and also fiction.  I really liked that there was a memoir among the fiction stories.  For one, I think memoir is sometimes more humorous because it actually happened.  And had I not known that the story was a memoir, it would have read like fiction.

The thing I like about anthologies is that you get a taste of everyone.  You get to find out if there's an author you have somehow missed in your journey as a reader.  I have found several authors this way, notably: David Levithan and Holly Black.  In fact, there are a couple from this collection that I would like to read more of now, including Melissa de la Cruz and Adrienne Maria Vrettos.

I don't know that I would have picked up this anthology had I not been prompted by a reading list, but I am glad that I did.  Each story had a unique take on the ritual experience from the supernatural to the super-typical.  There wasn't a story I didn't like reading, even if I enjoyed some more than others.

Stars 3.5/5

Praise:

"Ranging from sad to funny to truly disastrous, these memorable stories mark that oh-so-important rite of passage for many teenagers."
     --New York Public Library, starred review