Review: THE START OF ME AND YOU by Emery Lord

Title: The Start of Me and You
Author: Emery Lord
Publication date: March 31, 2015
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Source: an ARC provided by the publisher for an honest review

Following her pitch-perfect debut Open Road Summer, Emery Lord pens another gorgeous story of best friends, new love, & second chances.

Brimming with heartfelt relationships and authentic high-school dynamicsThe Start of Me and You proves that it’s never too late for second chances.

It’s been a year since it happened—when Paige Hancock’s first boyfriend died in an accident. After shutting out the world for two years, Paige is finally ready for a second chance at high school . . . and she has a plan. First: Get her old crush, Ryan Chase, to date her—the perfect way to convince everyone she’s back to normal. Next: Join a club—simple, it’s high school after all. But when Ryan’s sweet, nerdy cousin, Max, moves to town and recruits Paige for the Quiz Bowl team (of all things!) her perfect plan is thrown for a serious loop. Will Paige be able to face her fears and finally open herself up to the life she was meant to live? 

I gobbled this up in November last year when I was home for the weekend and to semi-binge on this was a very smart decision for me. There are a lot of things going for this book (besides the fact that Emery Lord, one of the great contemporary queens in my mind, wrote it and that Bloomsbury has a stamp of approval on it), making it be on your spring break (or just spring, if you're out of school) to-do list. 

1. It deals with the tough subject of death and grief, but in a different way. As a contemporary lover, I've read my fair share of "issue" or tragedy books. But this one felt different and I think it's mostly because of who died and what Paige is actually dealing with in the book. Her short-term boyfriend died in an accident. Note: I said short-term. They hadn't been dating for four years, they weren't engaged, they didn't have this enormous history together. They had been dating for a few months. I'm not lessening their affection because I certainly know people can get close during that time (heck, I know people who married after two months or less). While she was struggling with the fact that he died and the grief that comes with it, this book isn't necessarily about his death and her grief. It's about her regaining her life after two years and pushing away the title that her community gave her. She's the Girl Who's Boyfriend Died. She didn't have much of a life after he died and now two years later, she wants to "start living again" and be open for new love and new experiences (hopefully with her old crush). To me, this was refreshing.

2. It's not really a love triangle. I was afraid that we would go into love triangle territory after seeing that her old crush is Ryan, but the end of the synopsis makes Max out to be the future boyfriend. While I won't give anything away, you don't have anything to worry about.

I couldn't resist.

3. It involved a Quiz Bowl! Fun fact, if you didn't read the interview I had with Emery Lord, is that I was actually a part of a quiz team. Ours wasn't the stereotypical quiz bowl where it deals with different categories, but Paige's experience very closely represented mine. The nervousness, the anticipating of answering a question after buzzing in, everything; it all mirrored my past experience, which I enjoyed.

4. All the fun cuteness and great things I love in contemporaries. She makes a list (I love lists), her family is whole and supportive, her friends are also very supportive, Max is adorable, and the narrative is entertaining. Emery Lord brings the charm and engaging narrative to this story, but that's no surprise after reading Open Road Summer. 

5. Paige was on a journey and at the risk of sounding cheesy, I was on it with her. I have never had to deal with what Paige had to deal with. I've had loved ones die, but never a significant other. I've never been labeled because of someone's death. I've never had to essentially rebuild myself after two years. But I experienced that through Paige (and Lord's writing). And it was fun. It was entertaining and made me forget about everything else that was going on around me. For me, that's a major goal in reading. 

So do I recommend this? 

To read my interview with Emery Lord, click here.

Review: SOULPRINT by Megan Miranda

Title: Soulprint
Author: Megan Miranda
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Publication date: February 3, 2015
Source: an ARC provided by the publisher for an honest review.
*Any quotes were taken from an ARC and may be changed.

Alina Chase has been contained on an island for the last 17 years—whether that’s for the crimes of her past life, or for her own protection, well, that depends on whom you ask. With soul-fingerprinting a reality, science can now screen for the soul, and everyone knows that Alina’s soul had once belonged to notorious criminal, June Calahan, though that information is supposed to be private. June had accomplished the impossible: hacking into the soul-database, ruining countless lives in the process.

Now, there are whispers that June has left something behind for her next life—something that would allow Alina to access the information in the soul-database again. A way to finish the crimes she started.

Aided by three people with their own secret motivations, Alina escapes, only to discover that she may have just traded one prison for another. And there are clues. Clues only Alina can see and decipher, clues that make it apparent that June is leading her to something. While everyone believes Alina is trying to continue in June’s footsteps, Alina believes June is trying to show her something more. Something bigger. Something that gets at the heart of who they all are—about the past and the present. Something about the nature of their souls.

Alina doesn’t know who to trust, or what June intends for her to know, and the closer she gets to the answers, the more she wonders who June was, who she is, whether she’s destined to repeat the past, whether there are truths best kept hidden—and what one life is really worth.

I actually had a surprisingly easy time getting into this one until I was interrupted and had to wait a few days to resume. Connecting with the narrator's voice is high up on my "needs to happen" list while reading. Megan Miranda succeeded. 

I love me some sci-fi and dystopian-like worlds, but I wondered if I'd be able to actually understand it all. Souls are passed on when someone dies to a newborn baby so you don't just have your parents' DNA in you, but you have someone else's soul inside of you. Alina had a tougher time since she was stuck with a criminal's soul and locked up for it. But she fought to be different than June, her soul, and wanted everyone to see that they were different. Most importantly, she wanted to be free and be herself without any stigma of June attached. 

I want to stop chasing the last life and live this one instead.

While some parts seemed to drag a bit, I was fine with it. Personally, I focused more on how "real" it seemed, just like Mockingjay became slow in parts, it was realistic. I won't even get into how people bash on Mockingjay for really no reason if they think about it, but as for Soulprint, I thought it was nicely paced. The whole book is her being on the run. On the run from different people and in a search to be free from June, but also to solve the mystery surrounding June. So with her being on the run (with the cute Cameron and his sister Casey), you're going to get high action and then slow "let's think and wait" scenes. And I honestly didn't notice too much anyways (and there IS action, plenty of it, really).

I really liked the "surprise" that happened somewhat early on in the book, but still a bit disappointed that I guessed it from the absolute get-go. I want to say more, but I think it's classified as a spoiler, so you can message me if you want to talk! 

None of the characters truly shined for me so while I didn't have that connection with any of them (sadly that includes Alina), I was invested with the plot. More specifically, I was invested in the idea of the plot. Some serious ethical questions are raised in this and, yes, just like The Hunger Games, these things can happen. Not the souls being transferred exactly, but everything that affects Alina. She's locked up for crimes she didn't do, but that her soul did. The government (or whoever, really, I never did quite understand) appeased the public by showing her once a year and giving her access to normal things (side note: another thing I didn't understand was that she had a computer. They monitored her, we all knew, but come on, she couldn't get help or code things?). But the government still hid her away and essentially stripped her of every right. 

Speaking of the government, this quote really connected with our present day, yes? 

"Who controls the power? Not the president, or congress, or people even. They're all figureheads. Puppets. Chess pieces. It's the people who are in the shadows who determine what we see and how we see it...what gets reported, what gets covered up?"

Having been in several mass communications/mass media classes where they talk about this, it was a very HEY! THIS SOUNDS FAMILIAR moment for me. In my class last semester, my professor taught about how the media and the people "behind the scenes" control the power. If you don't know something, it didn't happen, right? (Anyone else thinking of our man Denton from Newsies who explained that if it's not in the papers, it didn't happen?) 

It also makes you think about life and how you need to focus on the now. People will try to remind you of the past...

"So you see," he says, "it's not just the past life that can come back to haunt you. It's the past in this life, too."

But that robs you of many great now moments. I think that you should resolve what you can of the past, but sometimes, you have to take a page out of my friend Taylor's book.

And shake it off.

I could've let the lack of character connection go, but what robbed me of giving it five stars was the fact that I was so confused. I really tried to understand in the end with what their motivation was (yes, power and money and all that jazz) and the mystery was behind it all and who was behind it and...it was just confusing. I think I somewhat understand it now, but it involved way too much thinking on my part. Of course, this might just be me. 

Verdict: I'll be having more of Megan Miranda's writing, thank you.

Review: SCARLET by A.C. Gaughen

Title: Scarlet

Author: A.C. Gaughen

Publication date: February 14, 2012

Publisher: Walker Childrens (Bloomsbury)

Many readers know the tale of Robin Hood, but they will be swept away by this new version full of action, secrets, and romance. 

Posing as one of Robin Hood’s thieves to avoid the wrath of the evil Thief Taker Lord Gisbourne, Scarlet has kept her identity secret from all of Nottinghamshire. Only the Hood and his band know the truth: the agile thief posing as a whip of a boy is actually a fearless young woman with a secret past. Helping the people of Nottingham outwit the corrupt Sheriff of Nottingham could cost Scarlet her life as Gisbourne closes in.

It’s only her fierce loyalty to Robin—whose quick smiles and sharp temper have the rare power to unsettle her—that keeps Scarlet going and makes this fight worth dying for.

Review:

First line: No one really knows 'bout me.

Robin Hood was starting to feel like the fairytale that was retold too much to me. Robin is the hero, Robin is the villain, Robin is a secondary character in a contemporary novel, the protagonist is pulling a Robin Hood, there are Hood aspects to a story. I thought that with all the different Robin Hood variations in the world that surely, I wouldn't be too impressed with Gaughen's version.

Boy, was I wrong.

Instead of having Robin as the main character, he's a secondary character. Instead of having the main character be about crushing on Robin, she's one of his team members, a fellow thief. Right there, it's different. We've all heard about Robin and his merry men. The one I really remembered was John and he's there, but instead of having Will Scarlet be a boy, he is now a she under disguise as a he. Sounds trippy, but it's not. While Robin Hood is the hero among the people, Scarlet is the best thief and the one the girls like to swoon after, ironically enough.

What I liked: 

• Scarlet kicking butt. I'm all about girl power, whether it's from inner strength or physical strength, and she definitely had the outer kind. Wielding knives, rescuing people from prisons, thieving, and undermining powerful people. I wanted to cheer her on like the obnoxious guys in football stands. 
• Much, one of Robin's Merry Men. We have John, Robin, Much, and Scarlet. Two of the three guys are crushing on Scarlet and Much is not one of them. I pictured him as a lovable, quiet guy with his disability and he gives you the feeling that you want to hug and protect him, but you know that he wouldn't appreciate it. Can we have more opposite sex platonic relationships, please? 
• I might have been in turmoil for most of the ending and I really, really liked that feeling. I already have enough stress in my life and usually don't go seeking for it in my reading. However, sometimes it's great to feel that angst because you know you're invested. You care. You're enthralled. The author has officially captured your attention and your emotions and she's doing a fantastic job of weaving her story. 

TURMOIL. FEELS. ANGST.

What I disliked:

• John aka The Pusher. I call him The Pusher because I felt overwhelmed and claustrophobic just reading about him. At first, I was torn because I thought, "I love underdogs!" and I wanted to root for him despite Robin being the other side of the love triangle. My feelings for John quickly evaporated though because he pushed. And pushed. He invaded my personal space, which is so not good. Back off, John. 
• Scarlet's speaking, which consisted of were instead of was, added character in the beginning, but then slowly became annoying. I think she was the only one who did that and honestly, I think she would have spoken correctly by then. SPOILER I so knew from the beginning that she was proper. I didn't necessarily figured her real name, but should've if I thought about it. END OF SPOILER.
• Robin was right, Scarlet played with everyone's emotions way too much. John would flirt with her, she would tell him to back off. He would kiss her, she would reciprocate. Scarlet ran back to Robin, he kept his distance, she went back to John. It was a frustrating cycle. At times, I was able to just enjoy this love triangle and holler for Robin to make his move. Other times, I wanted to slap some sense into Scarlet for being confusing and inconsiderate. Of course John wasn't going to back off if she kept giving mixed signals! 

Really, I don't know why I waited so long to read this. I love retellings and Gaughen wrote this one very well. I immediately longed to have the sequel in my hands so maybe it was a good thing I waited to read this first book. 

Verdict: A fresh way of retelling Robin Hood by adding a kick butt protagonist and tense moments. Also, romance. 

Have you read Scarlet? What's your favorite retelling?

Cover Love #12

Hosted by Bookshelvers Anonymous

Title: Dead Ends

Author: Erin Jode Lange

Publication date: September 3, 2013

Publisher: Bloomsbury

Dane Washington is one suspension away from expulsion. In a high school full of “haves,” being a “have not” makes Dane feel like life is hurtling toward one big dead end. Billy D. spends his high school days in Special Ed and he’s not exactly a “have” himself. The biggest thing Billy’s missing? His dad. Billy is sure the riddles his father left in an atlas are really clues to finding him again and through a bizarre turn of events, he talks Dane into joining him on the search. 
A bully and a boy with Down syndrome makes for an unlikely friendship, but together, they work through the clues, leading to unmarked towns and secrets of the past. But they’re all dead ends. Until the final clue . . . and a secret Billy shouldn’t have been keeping. 
As a journalist, Erin Jade Lange is inspired by hot button issues like bullying, but it is her honest characters and breakneck plotting that make Dead Ends a must-read.

Why I love: 

I initially saw this cover a few days (weeks? I have no idea, everything is blurred together) ago and was so intrigued. I then saw it again on Cover Snark and officially knew I had to highlight it in Cover Love. First of all, the colors are great. Secondly, I love the quirkiness of it. A bully and a boy with Down Syndrome working on a mystery sounds very quirky to me and I think this cover represents the synopsis very well. The street, the cartoonish wall, the bright Dead End sign, the boys...I could go on about all the things I love about it.

What are you loving this week?