Tehreem: The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight by Jennifer E. Smith

Who would have guessed that four minutes could change everything?

Today should be one of the worst days of seventeen-year-old Hadley Sullivan's life. Having missed her flight, she's stuck at JFK airport and late to her father's second wedding, which is taking place in London and involves a soon-to-be stepmother Hadley's never even met. Then she meets the perfect boy in the airport's cramped waiting area. His name is Oliver, he's British, and he's sitting in her row.

A long night on the plane passes in the blink of an eye, and Hadley and Oliver lose track of each other in the airport chaos upon arrival. Can fate intervene to bring them together once more?

Quirks of timing play out in this romantic and cinematic novel about family connections, second chances, and first loves. Set over a twenty-four-hour-period, Hadley and Oliver's story will make you believe that true love finds you when you're least expecting it. 

 I don't really know what compelled me to pick up this book. I mean, I do like contemporary, but the title itself should have turned me off. The title speaks of the one thing I loathe in books and movies with a burning passion.

Insta-love.

Just thinking about it makes me shudder with horror and disgust.

However, this book pulled it off in a unique way. Hadley doesn't just see Oliver and fall in love right away. She only notices that he is a very handsome man. Hadley only begins to truly like him when they speak. When I say speak, I don't mean something along the lines of the following conversation:

Boy: Hello.
Girl: *Internal thoughts* OMG! I LUV HIM ALREADY!! HE LUVS ME 2! WE CAN BE 2GETHER 4EVER!!!

No. That's not how it works, people. Sorry to disappoint you.

Instead, Hadley and Oliver talk about things that you would on a date with someone you don't really know. Things like hobbies, life, school, past relationships... you get the drift. It wasn't some kind of stupid attraction the had no focal point; there was actually something there.

Not only that, they don't necessarily fall in love right away. In fact, they don't really fall in love at all. Well, not in the written part of the book, anyway. We tend to use our imaginations, don't we? Err... BACK TO THE POINT!! They really only discover that they honestly like each other and they want things to work out. The whole "love at first sight" thing is just Oliver trying to be romantic. (And succeeding, might I add.)

Anyway, this book really was worth reading. I wouldn't say it's a "must". I'd say it's more of a "if you have the time, then by all means do so." Really, this book is very coercive in its own way.

.....

You know what? I am going to be perfectly serious with you guys. The reason I picked up this book was probably because deep down, I knew the guy was going to be amazing. And I was right; Oliver is beyond amazing. Oliver is sweet, charming, sarcastic, humorous, and comforting all at once. Now, he is a far cry from the standard of "perfect" given by society, but in his own way, he really is the perfect guy.

Oh, and he's British. All British people are perfect.

My rating:

Three out of Five Stars!

 

Meredith: My Super Sweet Sixteenth Century by Rachel Harris

 

On the precipice of her sixteenth birthday, the last thing lone wolf Cat Crawford wants is an extravagant gala thrown by her bubbly stepmother-to-be and well-meaning father. So even though Cat knows the family’s trip to Florence, Italy, is a peace offering, she embraces the magical city and all it offers. But when her curiosity leads her to an unusual gypsy tent, she exits . . . right into Renaissance Firenze.

Thrust into the sixteenth century armed with only a backpack full of contraband future items, Cat joins up with her ancestors, the sweet Alessandra and protective Cipriano, and soon falls for the gorgeous aspiring artist Lorenzo. But when the much-older Niccolo starts sniffing around, Cat realizes that an unwanted birthday party is nothing compared to an unwanted suitor full of creeptastic amore.

Can she find her way back to modern times before her Italian adventure turns into an Italian forever?

 

 

I was suprisingly entertained by the book, considering how disenchanted I first was with both the cover and the title. I mean, come on. A pink backpack? I know that it was important, but it does not need to be on the cover.

 

My Super Sweet Sixteenth Century by Rachel Harris follows social outcast Cat Crawford, the daughter of a movie star and a director. Ten years after her mother's desertion, her father is remarrying to a bright, bubbly blonde woman named Jenna. Her father's fiancee wants to throw Cat a huge ball of a Sweet Sixteen, but Cat will hear nothing of it. That is... until her father offers to take her to Italy, a dream of hers for years.

 

However, after stumbling into a suspicious gypsy tent by the side of the road, she gets more Italian history lessons than she bargained for. She is thrust into the sixteenth century, right into the life of Patience, a girl traveling to her cousins' home after losing both her parents to sickness.

 

My Super Sweet Sixteenth Century had beautiful world building in it. The descriptions of Renaissance Italy left me in awe. Rachel Harris has been bestowed with the beautiful gift of description.

 

The same cannot be said of the characters. While her cousin Alessandra was without a doubt my favorite character, the rest left something to be desired. Lorenzo, the love interest, is perfect. So perfect, in fact, to the point of being a Gary-Sue. He has gorgeous brown eyes and golden locks; his personality is gentlemanly and he is sweet, funny, kind, and sarcastic. Her aunt and uncle both have the same emotions throughout the entire book. Cat was, of course, astoundingly beautiful. Do ugly people never find love?

 

And of course, there's Niccolo: a forty-year-old looker who is kind and polite and ready to find a wife. Naturally, being from the twenty-first century, Cat is disgusted by all the girls her age vying for his attention.

 

The only point that really bothered me about this book was the fact that everyone just seemed too perfect. Cat is beautiful and immediately falls for sexy Lorenzo before even getting to know him. Hormones, much?

 

My rating:

three and a half out of five stars

Tehreem: Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl

 

There were no surprises in Gatlin County.
We were pretty much the epicenter of the middle of nowhere.
At least, that's what I thought.
Turns out, I couldn't have been more wrong.
There was a curse.
There was a girl.
And in the end, there was a grave.
 
Lena Duchannes is unlike anyone the small Southern town of Gatlin has ever seen, and she's struggling to conceal her power and a curse that has haunted her family for generations. But even within the overgrown gardens, murky swamps and crumbling graveyards of the forgotten South, a secret cannot stay hidden forever.

Ethan Wate, who has been counting the months until he can escape from Gatlin, is haunted by dreams of a beautiful girl he has never met. When Lena moves into the town's oldest and most infamous plantation, Ethan is inexplicably drawn to her and determined to uncover the connection between them.

In a town with no surprises, one secret could change everything.

After reading so many reviews for this book, I can quite honestly say I was prepared for the worst. I think the reason it earned a three star rating was because my expectations were so low. If I had been expecting a five star read that blew my mind, I would have burned this book.

The book follows a teenage boy in the town of Gatlin. And yes, you guessed it, he falls in love with the witch - oh sorry, Caster.

In the process of falling in love, he realizes how terrible his friends are. So, he (finally) stands up to his friends when they try to torment his future girlfriend. He would sacrifice everything to be with the hot new girl he almost killed.

Twice.

I'm not even kidding.

Not only is the romance cliche, it's also love at first sight. Well, love before first sight. The book explains it all.

Did I mention that the male lead, Ethan, believes that the female lead, Lena, is his life now? Anything concerning her automatically concerns him. Even family stuff. When she wants space, he bothers the heck out of her.

That boy is crazy.

In case you couldn't tell, I don't really care for the characters. I felt like tearing my hair out - they were just so irksome!

Now, the main plot was pretty good, pretty cheesy. Basically, Lena is not able to choose whether or not she becomes a Dark Caster. Literally, the choice is beyond her. When her 16th birthday comes to pass, she will either become light or dark.

Did I say that the fate of the town basically relies on her remaining light?

Oh, and there is something evil lurking in the shadows - watching, and waiting...

ANYWAYS, the book was over all a decent read. I will say, it wasn't all that good, but it was quite enjoyable. Although, I do have one other complaint. Two things in the end made me feel led on.

Read and see for yourself.

My rating:

Two and a Half out of Five Stars!!

However, since there is no photo of 2.5 stars, I will just post a photo of three stars. :]

 

Tehreem: She's So Dead to Us by Kieran Scott

 Ally Ryan would rather be in Maryland. She would rather be anywhere, in fact, than Orchard Hill, site of her downfall. Well, not hers exactly—but when your father’s hedge fund goes south and all your friends lose their trust funds, things don’t look so sunny for you. Her mother moved her to Maryland to flee the shame, but now they’re moving back. Back to the country-club, new-car-every-year, my-family-came-over-on-the-Mayflower lifestyle that Ally has outgrown. One bright spot, however, is gorgeous, intense Jake Graydon. But it won’t be easy for the two of them to be together—not if his friends (her former friends) have anything to say about it. Is Ally ready to get thrown back into the drama of the life she left behind?

You know how when you hate the characters in a book, you tend to hate the book itself? Well, this book is not an example of that. Sorry.

I don't think someone could read this book, and not hate at least one character. All of them are snotty, stuck-up kids who don't care about anyone but themselves. They don't care about who gets hurt in the end. Even if that person who gets hurt is one of their closest friends. All they care about is their social status.

And whether or not they get the guy.

Ally, one of the main characters, is one of the only teenagers in the book I can sympathize with. She understands that some things she has done were wrong. She actually learns from her mistakes.

The other main character, Jake, is just a freakin' idiot.

Seriously! He is the man version of a slut. He is with a new girl every week, even though he has been pinning after Ally the entire time.

Apparently, the only way you can win a girl is by sucking face with all the other girls around you. 'Cos that totally makes a girl swoon over you.

“Oh, look at his amazing face sucking skills! I gotta get me some of that!”

Yeah, um... no.

Ally does some pretty annoying things too. She basically gets a boyfriend – who is really sweet and nice and ohmigodIwanthim – just to fill the “void in her heart.”

Please! Get over yourself, woman! Stuff happens in life. Build a bridge and get over it.

Overall, this book was very enjoyable, though I did throw it at a wall...

You will understand when you read it.

My rating:

Four out of Five Stars!

By the way, I don't normally harm books. This one was just asking for it.

Tehreem: Review of Such a Pretty Girl by Laura Wiess

They promised Meredith nine years of safety, but only gave her three. 
   
Her father was supposed to be locked up until Meredith turned eighteen. She thought she had time to grow up, get out, and start a new life. But Meredith is only fifteen, and today her father is coming home from prison. 

Today her time has run out.

When I picked up this book, I expected something gripping. A tear-jerker would have been nice. However, that is not what I received.

This book did not make me sad. It made me livid.

Meredith had been through so much. Her own father hurt her in ways as a child that are unforgivable. She had loved him, and he had betrayed her.

He is sick, vile, and absolutely disgusting.

But Meredith's mother doesn't seem to think he is.

She praises him as if he were a god. Even when he is released from prison and interested in Meredith alone, her mother doesn't see a thing. She only sees the man that she loved when she was twelve, and he sixteen. When she was just a kid and he was a teenager.

She never seems to understand that her husband will only ever be interested in youth.

And she isn't young anymore.

But their daughter is.

Her mother almost seems to blame Meredith for being "too appealing." She doesn't care that her husband continues to leer at their daughter. She thinks it was all a mistake, and blames Meredith for tearing apart their family.

Inside, Meredith's mother is still a spoiled child.

I hate her for that.

A mother should always be there for her daughter. Meredith was crying out, but her mother continued to remain oblivious. Or perhaps she wasn't. Maybe she knew what was happening, but just refused to acknowledge it.

Just thinking that makes this book worse.

Maybe it's unfair of me to judge a book on one simple character. However, when that character is as messed up as the tormenter, it's hard not to. Meredith's mother just made the story seem too unrealistic. Everyone looked over Meredith's mother. They saw how sick she was, yet they continued to place Meredith in her care.

I still liked this book, but the characters made the plot seem distorted. I was disappointed, but not to the point where I would never pick up this book again.

My rating:

Three out of Five Stars!

Meredith: Why I Love YA

Let's face it. My friends and I - we're teenagers. Ninety percent of the population is pure idiocy to us. We see the world in cliques and drama, in hormones and food. Yes, definitely food.

 

So when you're in the group who is known for being nerdy and bookish (also known as us) you get a lot of condescending people thinking they're so much better than you. You get a lot of "Why do you read so much?" and "Don't you have a life?" You get weird looks and scoffing faces.

 

But we don't care. I love the world of literature so much... it's a dream. It's unlike anything you could possibly have known. It's falling into someone else's head. It's twists and turns and things that hurt and crash and burn. Strength, and love, and courage. And for that, I love it.

 

YA is such a perfect balance. The plot is thrilling, the romance is enticing, the action is enjoyable. The authors truly know how to relate it to teenagers; I call it magic.

Tehreem: Review of Between the Lines by Jodi Picoult and Samantha Van Leer

  


What happens when happily ever after... isn’t?

Delilah is a bit of a loner who prefers spending her time in the school library with her head in a book—one book in particular. Between the Lines may be a fairy tale, but it feels real. Prince Oliver is brave, adventurous, and loving. He really speaks to Delilah.

And then one day Oliver actually speaks to her. Turns out, Oliver is more than a one-dimensional storybook prince. He’s a restless teen who feels trapped by his literary existence and hates that his entire life is predetermined. He’s sure there’s more for him out there in the real world, and Delilah might just be his key to freedom.

Delilah and Oliver work together to attempt to get Oliver out of his book, a challenging task that forces them to examine their perceptions of fate, the world, and their places in it. And as their attraction to each other grows along the way, a romance blossoms that is anything but a fairy tale.

This book was a lot better than expected. I kind of assumed it would be a copy of a book I read recently, The Vampire Stalker, but it was nothing like it. The ideas presented in the book were original and refreshing. Almost everything ran along quite smoothly. Almost

While this book is good, there is little to no action. The book has other elements, such as romance and humor, but nothing to really keep a reader motivated. The whole story is just about Oliver trying to escape his world and find a way into Delilah's. Are there any hidden obstacles? No. Everything is easily foreshadowed.

Normally, I would give a book like this 1 to 2 stars. However, the writing is just so...enthralling. This is one of those books where the story telling is the element that keeps you going. You can't just stop when an author can twist such simple words into a wonderful sonnet. The story is breathing to you.

I also felt like this story deserved a better rating because, well, everyone deserves a happy ending.

 My rating:

Three out of Five Stars!