The Iron Knight by Julie Kagawa

Faery prince Ash--the last remaining son of Mab, Queen of the Unseelie Court--finally gets to tell his story: how he escaped the Winter Court with his life intact and the promise he made to the Iron Queen.

I finished this one a day or two ago and I've been sitting on it, trying to decide how I feel about it. The beginning lagged a bit for me, then it really picked up until about the last 100 or so pages. Three letters I can use to sum those pages up? W.T.F?! I felt like I had invested so much time into the characters and I felt the meetings were SO rushed and underwhelming. It was like "Oh, you're here! Let's forget about everything and hug! The end."

As I said, the writing in the middle was amazing and kept me wanting more but I felt very unsatisfied with the ending and that made the rating go so low. I wanted to know more about their meeting and have a little more emotion from Ash and Meghan in both the dream sequence and real life. The humor between Puck, Grimalkin and The Wolf is what kept me reading, as their wit and sarcasm made the book for me.

Even with that, I still felt very empty and impartial to the book and that saddens me!

***

The Future of Us - Jay Asher & Carolyn Mackler

It's 1996, and less than half of all American high school students have ever used the Internet. Emma just got her first computer and Josh is her best friend. They power up and log on--and discover themselves on Facebook, fifteen years in the future. Everybody wonders what their Destiny will be. Josh and Emma are about to find out.

While I liked this book, I wasn't taken by it. I found Emma to be bossy and had crazy double standards, Josh seemed a little too much like a doormat and not a realistic teenage boy. I have to say that the writing between Asher and Mackler was very good and seamless. If I didn't know they were two people, I would've thought it was one.

The ending of the novel was good in my opinion, it was open ended and I don't think it could've ended any other way without seeming too cheesy.

The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin

Seventeen-year-old Mara cannot remember the accident that took the lives of three of her friends but, after moving from Rhode Island to Florida, finding love with Noah, and more deaths, she realizes uncovering something buried in her memory might save her family and her future.

The hype surrounding this book was absolutely insane, and I admit that I too was extremely pumped about this book.

Unfortunately, I was pretty disappointed! I felt the idea of the mysterious, aloof, handsome guy who is a complete ass to you but you still find him attractive to be completely annoying. What does that teach girls? Even though this guy is a complete douche, if I remain his loyal puppy he'll grow to love me. Not cool.

There were some parts of the novel that I found creepy, but overall I didn't find it to live up to the hype it received. Maybe I'm too much of a critic for creepy YA books, but it fell flat for me. The only part that really freaked me out was the scene with the VooDoo man. I have to say that was awesomely written! I hated the part about the dog, it made my stomach turn and I almost stopped reading right there.

I'm really hoping now that the romance is established, the next book will be better. I thought the romance was too much of a focus and I ended the book wanting more of the plot. Disappointing, but I'm not going to lose hope just yet!

Chain Reaction by Simone Elkeles

When he returns to Illinois and the gang culture on the south side of Fairfield after six years in Colorado, high school senior Luis Fuentes, who dreams of becoming an astronaut, falls for a girl and enters a dark world after learning some disturbing news about his family.

 
When I saw this book at the library, I was unbelievably excited as I love this series dearly, the first one in particular. I have to say that I am a little disappointed. I had such high hopes and found this novel fell short and I thought it was quite boring actually. As always, the writing was spectacular however I felt like the plot fell flat.

Luis was okay as a character but I felt like he shined brightest when he was bantering with Alex and Carlos. Nikki annoyed me to no end...I felt like she held on to the past so much that she became way too angsty and cold hearted. The epilogue was extremely cheesy and I would've preferred to just have the book end and not have an epilogue.

I'm glad I read it, simply because it was Simone Elkeles, but not my favorite by no means.

***

Vicious Little Darlings by Katherine Easer

Sarah Weaver, a jaded seventeen-year-old from a broken home, leaves California to attend an all-women's college in Massachusetts, where she befriends a mysterious pair of legacy students and learns a shocking secret that could lead to murder.

The premise of this novel seemed very promising to me and I was very excited to read it. The beginning was okay, albeit a little slow, but the writing was interesting so I kept going. About fifty pages from the ending, I was still waiting for it to get creepy and suspenseful.

As I said, the writing was really interesting at first and I was intrigued, however nothing happened in the book to make my mouth open and be a complete page turner. I found Sarah to be very self involved and egotistical, not my type of character at all. At one point she slept with a man and feared she was pregnant, and she talked about not being ready for that and getting an abortion. If you're not ready, then don't open your legs and not use protection! Grrr. Sarah really irked me and I found it really hard to get into the novel.

The ending was good and made up for this book a little bit, though I still didn't think this book was great by any means. The characters were very shallow and into themselves and the love interest was really pathetic.

***

Twisted by Sara Shepard (PLL #9)

 Even though the disappearance of Alison DiLaurentis has been solved, Spencer, Emily, Hanna, and Aria harbor other secrets which could interfere with their perfect lives, as they try to forget what happened to them in Jamaica last spring.

It's been a while since I'd read a Sara Shepard novel, and I can't say I'm too impressed. :/ While the writing (as always) was enjoyable and quick, I thought the plot for Twisted was lame. I didn't read books 5-8 and was able to pick up on everything in Twisted. I'm not sure if that's a good or bad thing, as if I was a loyal reader, I'd hate to have to read pages of recap.

I feel as though Sara wrote this book to keep up with the television show when really, it should have ended with Wanted. There are three more books and I'm hoping they are more exciting than this one. There was an amount of 'creep' factor, however I didn't feel invested to the characters and found most of them annoying. Emily's story wasn't consistent at ALL with the plot (dates are wrong/aren't biologically possible).

Overall I'm not a super fan of this book, but I do take it for what it's worth - a light, fun read with no interesting plot.

***