"Cruel Summer" Review

"Cruel Summer" by Alyson Noel

Synopsis:

Having recently discarded her dorky image-- and the best friend that went with it-- Colby Cavendish is looking forward to a long hot season of parties, beach BBQs, and, hopefully, more hookups with Levi Bonham, the hottest guy in school. But her world comes crashing down when her parents send her away to spend the summer in Greece with her crazy aunt Tally.

Stranded on a boring island with no malls, no cell-phone reception, and an aunt who talks to her plants, Colby worries that her new friends have forgotten all about her. But when she meets Yannis, a cute Greek local, everything changes. She experiences something deeper and more intense than a summer fling, and it forces her to see herself, and the life she left behind, in a whole new way.

Review:

Rating- *** (stars)

I have mixed feelings about this book. I liked the story overall but I didn't really like that the whole book had no chapters, just emails, letters and blog posts. Alyson Noel's writing style was really different in this book from the immortals series she is currently working on now. The story is the usual boy-meets-girl-and-falls-in-love type of story. She basically gets forcibly removed from her hometown to live on an isolated island with an aunt she barely knows, all because her parents are going through a messy divorce. The ending of the story is cute but not how I pictured it.

"Sisters in Sanity" Review

"Sisters in Sanity" by Gayle Forman

Synopsis:

For sixteen-year-old Brit Hemphill, it's hard to know who she can trust. Convinced she's out of control, her father has sentenced her to Red Rock: a center for supposedly rebellious teens, where the therapy consists of name-calling and the girls who get privileges are the the ones who rat out their peers.

But the Brit meets V, Bebe, Martha, and Cassie-- four girls who keep her from going over the edge. Together, they'll hold on to their sanity and their sisterhood despite the bleak Red Rock reality.

Review:

Rating- **** (stars)

This book was kinda different from what I normally read but I was surprised at how much I liked it when I finished. What really shocked me was at the end I read the Author's Note and I discovered that this book was inspired by a true event. I have been oblivious to the fact that there really are schools like Red Rock and that kids can be treated this way. The bond the girls have throughout the story is amazing that they can still find fun while in such a dismal place. This can be a depressing book at times when you stop and think about how they are being treated but I'm glad that there is a little bit of romance in there too to liven it up a little.

Kudos to Gayle Forman for writing such an inspiring book. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone.

I'm Back!

Wow it's been so long since I posted but I'm going to try my hardest to catch up on all my reviews... trust me there's a lot of them :) So over the next couple days, in my free time, I'll be working overtime to update this boring blog into something worth reading (I hope).

Here's some of the books that I've read recently (in no order) :

• City of Ashes by Cassandra Clare
• City of Glass by Cassandra Clare
• Sisters in Sanity by Gayle Forman
• Cruel Summer by Alyson Noel
• Dairy Queen by Catherine Gilbert Murdock
• Witch & Wizard by James Patterson
• Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins
• And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie
• Crusade by Nancy Holder and Debbie Viguie

There will probably be more to add to that list by the time I finish these reviews