Easy

Title: Easy
Author: Tammara Weber
Pub: 2012
Pages: 304
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary, Romance

This is a quick collegiate read the deals with date rape (in my assumptions) accurately.

Jacqueline and her boyfriend break up almost immediately after they start college together.  She's heartbroken because that's how she identified herself, popular fratboy girlfriend.  After some nagging by her BFF she goes to a party but ditches early.  Bad mistake. Never leave a party alone in the middle of the night.  Jacqueline comes > . < that close to getting raped by another frat boy.  But she doesn't because Lucas, this quiet boy in her stat class, beats the life out of him.

Jacqueline cannot deal so she pretends it didn't happen, refusing to go to the cops or even telling her bestie.

Life goes on in college.  She gets a tutor because her breakup put her in such a funk she began failing a class.  Her and Lucas have a few more run-ins. There's some making out and gossip and fights.

And then it comes back to that one night again.  Because usually, if someone's gonna do it once, they're gonna do it again.

I don't know if it makes sense to say this is a good book when the subject is rape.  So, I'll leave it at, this is a real book.  

The Beautiful Between

Title: The Beautiful Between
Author: Alyssa Sheinmel
Pub: Knopf for Young Readers; 2010
Pages: 192
Genre: Contemporary, Romance, Young Adult, Fairy-tale-ish


"If high school were a fairy-tale kingdom, Connelly Sternin would be Rapunzel"

That is exactly why I picked up this book because I am a self confessed fairy-tale retelling addict.  I also find that it's difficult to find contemporary retellings.  Or even adult retellings.  Are there any other there that I'm missing?  Help please. 

I also rated this a three-star as soon as I finished reading it, which means that I had to have dug it right?  Well, I'm (trying) to write this review a couple of months later and I can't remember ANYTHING about this book.

So I cheated and read some other reviews.  There's a vague memory in my brain somewhere.  Connelly's father died but she doesn't know why nor does it ever occur to her to ask her mom.  There's this popular boy (Jeremy) at their private richy high school who befriends her and he's going through issues because his sister is sick.  They form a friendship, not a romance, which is a plus because there's just not that many books out there filled with boy/girl friendships when the boy/girl are actually interested in opposite gendered luuurve.  (IE - in real life, folks, you don't have to be gay to have friends with the opposite sex).

Still.  I can't remember much about this one.  

Maybe I should change my rating from a three to a one because of that.

Shiver (Audio)

Title: Shiver

Author: Maggie Stiefvater
Narrator: Jenna Lamia & David Ledoux
Pub: Scholastic Press;2009
Pages: 392
Audio Length: 9 hours and 44 minutes
Genre: Paranormal, Fantasy, Romance, Series, Young Adult

I am not a big werewolf fan.  I can totally get into the vamp scene.  After all THEY'RE sparkly.  But werewolves are right up there with zombies.  ESPECIALLY if we're talking romance.  I mean...animals or the undead?  No thank you.

So. I had no desire whatsoever to read the Shiver trilogy.  (1) It's about wolves and (2) it's a trilogy.  But then I listened to The Scorpio Races which moved me from a horse-hating fool who ended up eating her own words and adoring it and I figured if there was anyone out there who would convince me that werewolves don't suck, it would be Ms. Stiefvater.

And I guess she sorta did.  There is a huge truth in the fact that Stiefvater researches her folklore and then takes those amazing stories and turns them into her own.  Because of THAT, I utterly dig the 'behind the scenes' of these weres, their mythos was pretty okay.

Still.  She didn't sell me enough to necessarily want to finish the trilogy.  I'm pretty okay with how the story ended in the first book and although it's not as though life is resolved, I can walk away from it peacefully.

And the narration? Definitely a winner.  I enjoy the two narrators for alternating chapters. I don't think it would have been as fantastic without that element.

Every Day

Title: Every Day
Author: David Leviathan
Pub: 2012; Knopf Books for Young Readers
Pages: 304
Genre: Young Adult; Reality Bending; Romance
Etc: Shouts and loves to Netgalley and Knopf (!)

Every day I wake
A new body I am in
Never my own space

Aiight.  Check out this crazy plot.  (And before I begin, a quick *squee* fangirl cry because it's David-freakin'-Leviathan and I love him and feel even more warmth and fuzz and fangirl giddiness because I met him a couple of years ago and he is SUCH an amazing down to earth author which is awesome!)

Now.  The plot.  "A" wakes up every morning into a different body and "A" exists there for that day, making the decisions of that person for that day.  Immediately, you might want to associate it with Meyer's Host, but it's not like that.  Not really.  Because "A" doesn't get a choice, this is just the normal existence.  Also, "A" doesn't interact with the person's body that has been kidnapped.  This isn't an ideal existence, obviously, and "A" tries to live by the ideal do no harm, meaning, DON'T MESS UP THAT PERSON'S LIFE THROUGH SOME RASH DECISION.

*whew*  Let me tell you, trying to write that paragraph without using a gender was tres difficile.  Because, you now, "A" doesn't HAVE a gender.  One day "A"'s a girl, the next a boy.  (Also, "A" is a self given name).

Interestingly enough, this idea behind gender associations as well as sexual and racial identity is one of the reasons why David (I'm pretending here that David and I are on first name basis terms) wrote the book.  That reason alone is one of the reasons why he is such an amazing young adult writer.  He gets these notions and then writes books based on these notions for teens who need to spend time thinking about these things.  Fantastic!

I have to admit that this would be hands down a five-star book EXCEPT the ending sorta irked me.  I mean, sure, I get that this is an incredibly tough premise to wrap it up argh! It bothered me something fierce.  (So please, if WHEN you read this find me on twitter @ReadingThruNite so we can chaaattt!)

Bottom line, loved the concept, loved the author, REALLY liked the book.

The Girl She Used To Be

Title: The Girl She Used to Be
Author: David Cristofano
Pub: 2009; Grand Central Pub
Pages: 256
Genre: Romance, Suspense, Contemporary

The Girl She Used to Be is one of those books that end up on my shelves and I'm not quite sure how (I of course blame other bloggers).  I grabbed it randomly when I put together a stack of books I'd like to get through this summer.  Admittedly, the premise is not a book that I normally would have gone for.

Our main gal, Melody, has been in the witness protection program since she was six years old.  Her folks stumbled upon a mafia killing and that was that.  Since that moment, Melody's life has been tumultuous to put it lightly.  She has been shifted and moved around and given multiple personae since that fateful morning.  After all, convincing a six year old that she is no longer 'Melody' is difficult to do, and once you're in the program, if you're identity is revealed, it's time to create a new one.

When we first meet Melody, she is in her young adulthood and bored with her mundane life.  Her parents were murdered by the mafia family, so she has little faith in the program.  Plus, because she feels that the program took away her life, she acts fairly whimsical and calls upon them to create a new identity when she can't handle the normalcy of her current lie.

Melody is a tragic character.  Immediately we understand her despair.  Unable to begin any long term relationships for fear of causing turmoil in another life because of her fate, she is constantly an observer of the lives and families surrounding her.  What heartfelt scene is when she is hanging out in the local Hallmark following the patrons and their card choices just to get an idea of what it would be like to have those connections.

Melody no longer has her regular Program official, and instead, gets a newer younger version.  They quickly form an odd relationship as he escorts her to the place of her new identity.  Then, one night in the secluded hotel room a man breaks in and calls Melody by her real name.  She soon discovers that Jonathan is the son of the Mafia father-figure that is perusing her.  He wants her to come with him and confront his family. 

Melody is tired of running and agrees to go with Jonathan.  They end up building this amazing relationship on these horrible circumstances and the days leading up to meeting the mafia family are romantic and cleverly mushy.

As I was saying, what an odd story.  But man did I love it.  I read this book in one day, and only a couple of sittings.  (I had to do life-in-the-way sorta things).  Of course, the whole time I realized how far-fetched the story was.  Surely something like this wouldn't happen in real life.  But even though it was unrealistic, it was written so well that I bought it nonetheless.

I love how the theme of identity was questioned.  Melody spent her whole life not having an identity, not ever really know who she was and Jonathan spent his life living an identity created by his family and not the one that he desired.  Obviously that's the bond that brought them together.  It was impossible not to root for their love, even though the whole time you suspect it will end badly.