Review - Real Live Boyfriends

This is the synopsis from Amazon:

Ruby Oliver, the neurotic, hyperverbal heroine of the The Boyfriend List, The Boy Book, and The Treasure Map of Boys, is back!


Ruby Oliver is in love. Or it would be love, if Noel, her real live boyfriend, would call her back. But Noel seems to have turned into a pod-robot lobotomy patient, and Ruby can’t figure out why.

Not only is her romantic life a shambles:
Her dad is eating nothing but Cheetos,
Her mother’s got a piglet head in the refrigerator,
Hutch has gone to Paris to play baguette air guitar,
Gideon shows up shirtless,
And the pygmy goat Robespierre is no help whatsoever.

Will Ruby ever control her panic attacks?
Will she ever understand boys?
Will she ever stop making lists?
(No to that last one.)

Roo has lost most of her friends. She’s lost her true love, more than once. She’s lost her grandmother, her job, her reputation, and possibly her mind. But she’s never lost her sense of humor. The Ruby Oliver books are the record of her survival.

My review: 3 stars

Plot: This book was cute, but it bothered me a lot with the way she treated her relationships. Plus the girl on the cover looks younger, so I was not expecting her to be the 17 year old she is. It confused me through the entire book, as I was imagining her younger.

Characters: One thing I did like about Ruby is that she is very honest. She wasn't afraid to speak her mind to people, even if she knew she'd hurt them.

Setting: The only setting in the book I found significant was her houseboat. She spends a good amount of the book there, hanging out with friends or wakeboarding.

Overall: I didn't dislike this book, but there were many things that Ruby did regarding her relationships that really bothered me, such as her arrogance to her mother and her boundaries with her boyfriend. However, this book was cute and I enjoyed it.

Review - Don't Die, Dragonfly

This is the synopsis from Amazon:

After getting kicked out of school and sent to live with her grandmother, Sabine Rose is determined to become a "normal" teenage girl. She hides her psychic powers from everyone, even from her grandmother Nona, who also has "the gift." Having a job at the school newspaper and friends like Penny-Love, a popular cheerleader, have helped Sabine fit in at her new school. She has even managed to catch the eye of the adorable Josh DeMarco. Yet, Sabine can't seem to get the bossy voice of Opal, her spirit guide, out of her head . . . or the disturbing images of a girl with a dragonfly tattoo. Suspected of a crime she didn't commit, Sabine must find the strength to defend herself and, later, save a friend from certain danger.

My review: 4 stars

Plot: This book bored me at first, unfortunately. However once I dug into it, I couldn't stop reading! The plot twists and turns all the way until the abrupt ending which leaves you dying for the next book.

Characters: Sabine is a good main character, who has both virtues and flaws alike. She has strong friends as well, and learns to connect with them to help her with her troubles.

Setting: Her house is sporadic, like herself, which adds to her unique ability. Also the school is a strong setting for the crime she investigates.

Overall: I would definitely read this book if you get the chance! I am hoping to get my hands on the next one asap :)

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Review - Nightlight

This is the synopsis from Amazon:

About three things I was absolutely certain. First, Edwart was most likely my soul mate, maybe. Second, there was a vampire part of him–which I assumed was wildly out of his control–that wanted me dead. And third, I unconditionally, irrevocably, impenetrably, heterogeneously, gynecologically, and disreputably wished he had kissed me.

And thus Belle Goose falls in love with the mysterious and sparkly Edwart Mullen in the Harvard Lampoon’s hilarious send-up of Twilight.

Pale and klutzy, Belle arrives in Switchblade, Oregon looking for adventure, or at least an undead classmate. She soon discovers Edwart, a super-hot computer nerd with zero interest in girls. After witnessing a number of strange events–Edwart leaves his tater tots untouched at lunch! Edwart saves her from a flying snowball!–Belle has a dramatic revelation: Edwart is a vampire. But how can she convince Edwart to bite her and transform her into his eternal bride, especially when he seems to find girls so repulsive?

Complete with romance, danger, insufficient parental guardianship, creepy stalker-like behavior, and a vampire prom, Nightlight is the uproarious tale of a vampire-obsessed girl, looking for love in all the wrong places.

My review: 3 stars

Plot: This was pretty funny, I have to say. I don't dislike the Twilight series (I have read them all myself) but I only really liked Breaking Dawn. This book played up all the ridiculous parts of that book, but almost too much so. It kind of got annoying towards the end.

Characters: Belle was even more naive than Bella is. Belle is a lot funnier though, pretty similar to the girl in the Vampires Suck movie. Edwart was HILARIOUS. Being a computer and video game nerd myself, his antics just cracked me up.

Setting: I thought it was amusing that the town was Switchblade, OR :)

Overall: This wasn't a bad book, but I felt like the humor was over done which led to me just wanting to be done with it.

Review - Catching Fire

SPOILER ALERT: If you have not read The Hunger Games or Catching Fire yet, do not read this review. There will be spoilers.

This is the synopsis from Goodreads:

Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark won the annual competition described in Hunger Games, but the aftermath leaves these victors with no sense of triumph. Instead, they have become the poster boys for a rebellion that they never planned to lead. That new, unwanted status puts them in the bull's-eye for merciless revenge by The Capitol. Catching Fire maintains the adrenaline rush of Suzanne Collins's series launch.

My review: 5 stars

Plot: This book started slower than the first one did, but once it got steam I didn't want to put it down. I was prepared for the cliffhanger ending this time around, but not the magnitude of the cliffhanger. I cannot wait to get my hands on Mockingjay!

Characters: I wasn't sure of the state of the relationships between Peeta and Katniss, and Gale and Katniss. The book sets them up really well right away, and they play a large role in this one. Gale's relationship plays a huge role compared to the first book. Honestly, I was getting sick of Katniss and her indecision between Peeta and Gale. She better hurry up and make her final choice next book, that's all I have to say.

Setting: The description of the new arena was excellent. I could easily picture the huge dome and each slice of the clock they talked about.

Overall: This book was definitely a great continuation of the first one, and a perfect cliffhanger that makes me even more eager to find a Kindle lender for Mockingjay! These books are excellent, and I highly recommend everyone reads them.

Review - Tender Graces

This is the synopsis from Amazon:

A gentle yet unflinching look at how we find our way home. A woman returns to her West Virginia roots to resolve the ghosts of her childhood. In the tradition of Rebecca Wells, Sue Monk Kidd, Olive Ann Burns, and Dorothy Allison. TENDER GRACES by Kathryn Magendie is strong literary women’s fiction written with exquisite style. The death of her troubled mother and memories of her abused grandmother lure a young woman back to the Appalachian hollow where she was born. Virginia Kate, the daughter of a beautiful mountain wild-child and a slick, Shakespeare-quoting salesman, relives her turbulent childhood and the pain of her mother’s betrayals. Haunted by ghosts and buried family secrets, Virginia Kate struggles to reconcile three generations of her family’s lost innocence.

My review: 4 stars

Plot: This book made me cry so much. I am used to books making me cry, but this one was unbelievable. All that Virginia goes through is so heart breaking, you can't help but cry.

Characters: I loved how it went back and forth between present day Virginia, and memory Virginia. Although that became confusing at first, I realized the chapter would tell you at the beginning which year in time the book was in. Seeing the past through her memories made them that more real.

Setting: Both of her homes had special significance to parts of the story and helped blend the two families together.

Overall: This book makes you think. I connected to Virginia in so many ways, and it made me re-think some things in my life. Definitely a book worth checking out!