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readingwitherin's reviews
1613 reviews
The Girl Who Was Supposed to Die by April Henry
3.0
3.5 stars
"It's like we stepped into some TV show about cops or spies. Only we're not cops or spies. We're teenagers."
Last year I read Henry's The Night She Disappeared and absolutely loved it, it was everything I look for in a YA thriller. So when I saw
The Girl Who Was Supposed to die I was pretty excited about it. Sadly I was somewhat disappointed with it. It was still a very nice short
page turning read.
The book starts out with Cady waking up in a cabin with no idea who she is, where she is, or why she is even there. From there we start on the
journey of trying to figure out what happened to her, and why these people think she knows information.
Along the way we meet Ty who helps her, and keeps her safe from the bad guys.
Henry made Cady and Ty both very realistic and enjoyable characters and I was rooting for them the whole way through. I also really liked the fact that
there was no romantic feelings between the two and the whole focus for once was on making sure Cady's family was safe.
I think this book would make a very nice action filled movie and I hope that maybe it will get made in to one someday.
See more reviews like this on my blog
"It's like we stepped into some TV show about cops or spies. Only we're not cops or spies. We're teenagers."
Last year I read Henry's The Night She Disappeared and absolutely loved it, it was everything I look for in a YA thriller. So when I saw
The Girl Who Was Supposed to die I was pretty excited about it. Sadly I was somewhat disappointed with it. It was still a very nice short
page turning read.
The book starts out with Cady waking up in a cabin with no idea who she is, where she is, or why she is even there. From there we start on the
journey of trying to figure out what happened to her, and why these people think she knows information.
Along the way we meet Ty who helps her, and keeps her safe from the bad guys.
Henry made Cady and Ty both very realistic and enjoyable characters and I was rooting for them the whole way through. I also really liked the fact that
there was no romantic feelings between the two and the whole focus for once was on making sure Cady's family was safe.
I think this book would make a very nice action filled movie and I hope that maybe it will get made in to one someday.
See more reviews like this on my blog
Marie Antoinette, Serial Killer by Katie Alender
2.0
"The Iselins were nobility. We were used to getting our own way and being surrounded by sumptuous settings. It was just in our blood."
I will say I was expecting far more paranormal, and mystery, and a lot less romance, and teenage mean girls.
I did like the parts where we got to go into the serial killers mind and see what she was doing and why she was doing it. I just wish those parts had been a bit longer.
The amount of times I want to slap Hannah throughout this whole story though got a bit out of hand. She was the typical mean girl in every sense of the meaning. Having said that though Collette was just as bad of a mean girl, and would do whatever she thought needed to be done to stay in Hannah's good graces.
I loved seeing Collette grow as a person throughout this book and realize that she didn't want to be like her so-called friends.
This was a nice light read for me. It was predictable at times, but still enjoyable.
See more reviews like this on my blog
I will say I was expecting far more paranormal, and mystery, and a lot less romance, and teenage mean girls.
I did like the parts where we got to go into the serial killers mind and see what she was doing and why she was doing it. I just wish those parts had been a bit longer.
The amount of times I want to slap Hannah throughout this whole story though got a bit out of hand. She was the typical mean girl in every sense of the meaning. Having said that though Collette was just as bad of a mean girl, and would do whatever she thought needed to be done to stay in Hannah's good graces.
I loved seeing Collette grow as a person throughout this book and realize that she didn't want to be like her so-called friends.
This was a nice light read for me. It was predictable at times, but still enjoyable.
See more reviews like this on my blog
The Great Trouble: A Mystery of London, the Blue Death, and a Boy Called Eel by Deborah Hopkinson
3.0
3.5 stars
"If people are told something for hundreds of years, its difficult to change their minds."
This book is a true historical fiction novel, it focuses more on the history and what happened than any real connecting storyline to the characters. I found it very interesting how they used to think cholera spread. I found that the way the medical information was written was very nice and made it so everyone could understand it without getting confused. Sadly though I never really felt connected to any of the characters and felt like that that part of the story fell short. The villain that was supposed to be horrible was barely in the story at all and when he was it was only for a few pages. I did really enjoy the friendships that Eel had. He was a very nice, and caring boy, who just wanted to do his part and make a living and
See more reviews like this on my blog
"If people are told something for hundreds of years, its difficult to change their minds."
This book is a true historical fiction novel, it focuses more on the history and what happened than any real connecting storyline to the characters. I found it very interesting how they used to think cholera spread. I found that the way the medical information was written was very nice and made it so everyone could understand it without getting confused. Sadly though I never really felt connected to any of the characters and felt like that that part of the story fell short. The villain that was supposed to be horrible was barely in the story at all and when he was it was only for a few pages. I did really enjoy the friendships that Eel had. He was a very nice, and caring boy, who just wanted to do his part and make a living and
Spoiler
protect his brother.See more reviews like this on my blog
The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
3.0
“But dreams have ways of turning into nightmares.”
I'm not going to lie this book was a huge disappointment to me. I was expecting a competition to the death. Instead, what I got was slowly drawn out story of two people who were "raised" by insane father figures who "taught them" how to compete against each other. Except there was no real teaching much it was more here is what you need to do, now go and figure it out how to make it happen. In fact for the majority of the book the two didn't even know who there competitor was or that they had been working with them this whole time. Because of that fact there was no real competition between the two, it was just them making things to attempt to outshine the other one, and then to try to show the other one that they loved them.
I think what frustrated me the most about this book was the pacing, for the majority of the book everything was so slow in happening until the end and then it all seemed a little bit rushed.
If I disliked so much of it than why am I giving it three stars? Well it's simple the background characters. I loved them and loved how they were trying to figure out why certain things were happening in the circus. I did get slightly confused on who was saying what at times though due to the fact that there were 15 characters in all and it was a switching POV in each chapter sometimes.
Maybe in a few years I'll reread this book and feel differently about it. In fact I would love if that happened because I really did want to love this book.
See more reviews like this on my blog
I'm not going to lie this book was a huge disappointment to me. I was expecting a competition to the death. Instead, what I got was slowly drawn out story of two people who were "raised" by insane father figures who "taught them" how to compete against each other. Except there was no real teaching much it was more here is what you need to do, now go and figure it out how to make it happen. In fact for the majority of the book the two didn't even know who there competitor was or that they had been working with them this whole time. Because of that fact there was no real competition between the two, it was just them making things to attempt to outshine the other one, and then to try to show the other one that they loved them.
I think what frustrated me the most about this book was the pacing, for the majority of the book everything was so slow in happening until the end and then it all seemed a little bit rushed.
If I disliked so much of it than why am I giving it three stars? Well it's simple the background characters. I loved them and loved how they were trying to figure out why certain things were happening in the circus. I did get slightly confused on who was saying what at times though due to the fact that there were 15 characters in all and it was a switching POV in each chapter sometimes.
Maybe in a few years I'll reread this book and feel differently about it. In fact I would love if that happened because I really did want to love this book.
See more reviews like this on my blog
Heist Society by Ally Carter
4.0
"She almost believed him. She almost wondered if he believe it himself. But Kat had learned at a very young age that thieves live and die based on perception
her whole life was a lesson in sleight of hand. If someone thought her father had the paintings, then the truth wasn't going to save him."
Heist Society is exactly what I needed. It was a fun, fast paced read with mystery and a little bit of history mixed in.
We follow Kat who has left the family business to get a formal education... Which she does for all of three months before Hale gets her expelled because
her dad needs help. He's being framed for something he didn't do, something he had no way of doing because he was doing a different heist some place else.
Unfortunately Mr. Tuccone wont believe him and wants his paintings back at all costs or her father will be in trouble. So while her dad can't do anything
due to Interpol finding him it's up to Kat, Hale, Gabrielle and the rest of the young crew to find them and prove her fathers innocence.
While this may seem like an easy task the person who took them is using a Alias that only gets used by very important people to take very important things.
Along the way they find out what paintings there looking for exactly and where they came from. Which lead to a whole new morale choice of giving them back to Mr. Tuccone or to give them back to their rightful owners that should have never had them taken away.
Throughout this story you could tell how Kat really struggled at times to make sure she was doing the right thing even though what her family does for a living isn't exactly the most legal thing. She want's to be a good person and do right by people and set things right, all while protecting her family.
I really appreciated the fact that Carter didn't throw a love triangle in our faces, while you could sense that it might have happened it didn't. I
do think there will be some romance in the next few books, I doubt it will become the main storyline or take anything away from the rest of the story. I do hope she ends up with the right one though and that she doesn't want to long to realize who likes her.
See more reviews like this on my blog
her whole life was a lesson in sleight of hand. If someone thought her father had the paintings, then the truth wasn't going to save him."
Heist Society is exactly what I needed. It was a fun, fast paced read with mystery and a little bit of history mixed in.
We follow Kat who has left the family business to get a formal education... Which she does for all of three months before Hale gets her expelled because
her dad needs help. He's being framed for something he didn't do, something he had no way of doing because he was doing a different heist some place else.
Unfortunately Mr. Tuccone wont believe him and wants his paintings back at all costs or her father will be in trouble. So while her dad can't do anything
due to Interpol finding him it's up to Kat, Hale, Gabrielle and the rest of the young crew to find them and prove her fathers innocence.
While this may seem like an easy task the person who took them is using a Alias that only gets used by very important people to take very important things.
Along the way they find out what paintings there looking for exactly and where they came from. Which lead to a whole new morale choice of giving them back to Mr. Tuccone or to give them back to their rightful owners that should have never had them taken away.
Throughout this story you could tell how Kat really struggled at times to make sure she was doing the right thing even though what her family does for a living isn't exactly the most legal thing. She want's to be a good person and do right by people and set things right, all while protecting her family.
I really appreciated the fact that Carter didn't throw a love triangle in our faces, while you could sense that it might have happened it didn't. I
do think there will be some romance in the next few books, I doubt it will become the main storyline or take anything away from the rest of the story. I do hope she ends up with the right one though and that she doesn't want to long to realize who likes her.
See more reviews like this on my blog
Obsidian by Jennifer L. Armentrout
2.0
“I hate you and your freaky alien powers.”
There were so many things that irritated me throughout this whole book, yet I never stopped reading it because I wanted to find out why everyone else seems to love this book/series so much.
This book was entertaining, but I disliked all of the characters so much that the entertainment value didn't make-up for the dislike of the characters.
I liked Katy at first, but as she got closer to Daemon I started to dislike her. He was always able to get under her skin everyday and to make her so angry at him that she ended up just letting him get away with everything.
Now with Daemon I did understand why he was so protective of his sister, and why he didn't like Katy being around her. It wasn't enough to make-up for him being such a jerk and treating everyone like crap.
Dee was probably my favorite one of them she was kind, and treated others like they should be treated. She didn't want there to be people she couldn't befriends with and she just wanted to have a normal human life. I did dislike that she always made excuses for Daemons behavior though and that she always covered for him.
Overall while this wasn't a horrible storyline itself. The characters ended up ruining it and making it not very enjoyable.
See more reviews like this on my blog
There were so many things that irritated me throughout this whole book, yet I never stopped reading it because I wanted to find out why everyone else seems to love this book/series so much.
This book was entertaining, but I disliked all of the characters so much that the entertainment value didn't make-up for the dislike of the characters.
I liked Katy at first, but as she got closer to Daemon I started to dislike her. He was always able to get under her skin everyday and to make her so angry at him that she ended up just letting him get away with everything.
Now with Daemon I did understand why he was so protective of his sister, and why he didn't like Katy being around her. It wasn't enough to make-up for him being such a jerk and treating everyone like crap.
Dee was probably my favorite one of them she was kind, and treated others like they should be treated. She didn't want there to be people she couldn't befriends with and she just wanted to have a normal human life. I did dislike that she always made excuses for Daemons behavior though and that she always covered for him.
Overall while this wasn't a horrible storyline itself. The characters ended up ruining it and making it not very enjoyable.
See more reviews like this on my blog
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
2.0
“The fallen angel becomes a malignant devil. Yet even that enemy of God and man had friends and associates in his desolation; I am alone.”
I have a lot of mixed feelings for this book. I really did want to like it, but through the majority of the book I just wanted it to be over.
Something I was very surprised to learn was that Frankenstein was not the Monster's name, but infact the creator of the monster. Something else I was surprised by was that it wasn't scary at all and in fact the majority of the story was quite dull and not very interesting.
It did make me feel a lot of emotions, mainly annoyance. Except when "the monster" was telling his side of the story and telling what had happened to him and why he had become the way he was. It was sad and made you want people to be more understanding towards him and to give him a chance to show that he just wanted a companion to spend life with.
I never felt any sympathy towards Frankenstein. Throughout the whole story I felt that he was always oh poor me and oh what have I done. He would always want to take action and protect the people he loved, but he never did it the right way or told anyone what was making him so upset. When I feel like the whole thing could have had a much different outcome if he just would have told people what he had done and that he needed help in getting rid of what he had created or making it so it wasn't so hated. Plus what did he expect to happen to "the monster" when it left his house.
Overall though I was very disappointed with this book and won't be rereading it. At least not for a very very long time.
See more reviews like this on my blog
I have a lot of mixed feelings for this book. I really did want to like it, but through the majority of the book I just wanted it to be over.
Something I was very surprised to learn was that Frankenstein was not the Monster's name, but infact the creator of the monster. Something else I was surprised by was that it wasn't scary at all and in fact the majority of the story was quite dull and not very interesting.
It did make me feel a lot of emotions, mainly annoyance. Except when "the monster" was telling his side of the story and telling what had happened to him and why he had become the way he was. It was sad and made you want people to be more understanding towards him and to give him a chance to show that he just wanted a companion to spend life with.
I never felt any sympathy towards Frankenstein. Throughout the whole story I felt that he was always oh poor me and oh what have I done. He would always want to take action and protect the people he loved, but he never did it the right way or told anyone what was making him so upset. When I feel like the whole thing could have had a much different outcome if he just would have told people what he had done and that he needed help in getting rid of what he had created or making it so it wasn't so hated. Plus what did he expect to happen to "the monster" when it left his house.
Overall though I was very disappointed with this book and won't be rereading it. At least not for a very very long time.
See more reviews like this on my blog
The Death Cure by James Dashner
5.0
"Fear of the unknown no longer controlled him. Hope had found its way in and taken hold."
I've had a like/hate/loved relationship with this trilogy. I thought the Maze Runner was okay, I absolutely hated the Scorch Trials though and genuinely wasn't sure if I was going to continue on with this series due to how many problems I had with it. I am so glad though that I decided to finish this trilogy. For once in the end of a trilogy we got all of the questions answered. We find out what caused the Flare, how it was spread, and why Wicked was doing what it was doing. (I would never have guessed that that was why the Flare was created and spread.)
As with how I felt after reading the Scorch trials the characters make this story all the more enjoyable. Thomas and Minho's friendship is one of my favorite friendships of all time. I was still very unsure if we should trust Brenda and Teresa or not, but I am glad that Thomas kept them at arm's-length pretty much until the almost end of the book.
I also want to mention that two of the deaths that happened were very unexpected to me and one was very heartbreaking.
While I can see how a lot of people thought the ending was predictable I really liked it and it made me love this book even more.
(I can even see a book being written about how they made a new society to continue the human race and how they kept it civilized.)
See more reviews like this on my blog
I've had a like/hate/loved relationship with this trilogy. I thought the Maze Runner was okay, I absolutely hated the Scorch Trials though and genuinely wasn't sure if I was going to continue on with this series due to how many problems I had with it. I am so glad though that I decided to finish this trilogy. For once in the end of a trilogy we got all of the questions answered. We find out what caused the Flare, how it was spread, and why Wicked was doing what it was doing. (I would never have guessed that that was why the Flare was created and spread.)
As with how I felt after reading the Scorch trials the characters make this story all the more enjoyable. Thomas and Minho's friendship is one of my favorite friendships of all time. I was still very unsure if we should trust Brenda and Teresa or not, but I am glad that Thomas kept them at arm's-length pretty much until the almost end of the book.
I also want to mention that two of the deaths that happened were very unexpected to me and one was very heartbreaking.
While I can see how a lot of people thought the ending was predictable I really liked it and it made me love this book even more.
(I can even see a book being written about how they made a new society to continue the human race and how they kept it civilized.)
See more reviews like this on my blog
Dorothy Must Die by Danielle Paige
3.0
3.5
“I didn’t know what was worse: to have your shot and screw it up, or to never have had a shot in the first place.”
Let's start this off by saying this is not the Oz movie that got played ever Easter for years. This Oz is what it would look like after an apocalypse.
Now to the main character Amy Gumm. She is from Kansas and has had a rather rough life due to her mom being a drug addict causing Amy to grow up fast and to learn to rely on herself. That is a very good thing because once she gets transported to Oz via a tornado she meets a boy who saves her from falling to her death and instead of following him (finally a protagonist that has some commonsense) she decides to figure where everyone else in Oz has gone to and why it looks like horrible. As Amy goes down the yellow brick road she sees Glinda who is absolutely terrifying to look at due to perma-smile, which is apparently a very common thing that is used in Oz now. Now you're probably wondering what has happened to make Glinda become evil and why Oz looks like the apocalypse happened. Well Dorothy came back and since then has been wrecking havoc and making the munchkins take the magic out of the land so that she can have it all!
Fast forward to Amy being saved by some Witches who you're never really sure are good or evil. They saved her though because she has to help them kill Dorothy. Yes she has to kill someone and she just got there and has no real idea what is going on, or even how to make this happen. Now I will give it to the Witches they do train her (I do feel like she could have used far more) and show her how to use magic, and teach her combat skills. But sadly they never really fully prepare her for having to be alone with Dorothy where she would have to think very fast and not have delayed reaction.
I'm going to stop giving details there though because I don't want to spoil the rest of the story.
All I'm going to say though is this far exceeded my expectations and I will hopefully read the second book later on this year.
See more reviews like this on my blog
“I didn’t know what was worse: to have your shot and screw it up, or to never have had a shot in the first place.”
Let's start this off by saying this is not the Oz movie that got played ever Easter for years. This Oz is what it would look like after an apocalypse.
Now to the main character Amy Gumm. She is from Kansas and has had a rather rough life due to her mom being a drug addict causing Amy to grow up fast and to learn to rely on herself. That is a very good thing because once she gets transported to Oz via a tornado she meets a boy who saves her from falling to her death and instead of following him (finally a protagonist that has some commonsense) she decides to figure where everyone else in Oz has gone to and why it looks like horrible. As Amy goes down the yellow brick road she sees Glinda who is absolutely terrifying to look at due to perma-smile, which is apparently a very common thing that is used in Oz now. Now you're probably wondering what has happened to make Glinda become evil and why Oz looks like the apocalypse happened. Well Dorothy came back and since then has been wrecking havoc and making the munchkins take the magic out of the land so that she can have it all!
Fast forward to Amy being saved by some Witches who you're never really sure are good or evil. They saved her though because she has to help them kill Dorothy. Yes she has to kill someone and she just got there and has no real idea what is going on, or even how to make this happen. Now I will give it to the Witches they do train her (I do feel like she could have used far more) and show her how to use magic, and teach her combat skills. But sadly they never really fully prepare her for having to be alone with Dorothy where she would have to think very fast and not have delayed reaction.
I'm going to stop giving details there though because I don't want to spoil the rest of the story.
All I'm going to say though is this far exceeded my expectations and I will hopefully read the second book later on this year.
See more reviews like this on my blog
The Debt of Tamar by Nicole Dweck
3.0
"Though the currents of the universe would always push man toward his fate, even a simple-minded trout can sometimes swim against the tide."
This story spans from 16th century Portugal and the Ottoman Empire, Nazi occupied Paris in the 1940s, Present day Turkey and United States of America. While this might sound like it would make the whole story very confusing with so many different time periods and culture changes it never was. Dweck did an amazing job of intertwining the stories together and made them all fit together very nicely and made it so you never got confused on who the characters were.
The story starts in the 16th century with the burning of unrepentant Jews. With this we meet Doña Antonia Nissim, her daughter Reyna and nephew Jose who are Jews living a "fake life" so they can stay safe and not get injured. We get to see their escape into Turkey with the help of Sultan Sulieman the Magnificent. Fast forward the story until Jose's and Reyna's daughter is almost grown and falls in love with the Sultan's son Murat. This makes Jose make a tough decision which makes the debt. Thus, causing the Sultan's curse.
We then jump to present day Turkey where we meet Selim Osman, the last living descendant of the Ottoman Sultans. We also meet Ayda who is a side character that we learn a little about and then don't hear from her again until the end. I'm not going to lie I really did struggle with Selim as a character due to how he was so closed off and didn't want to let Ayda in even after they had been together for quite awhile. I also didn't like how he kept very important information from her. Having said that though because he did keep some information from her, we were able to meet Hanna. With Hanna is where we get taken to Nazi occupied Paris and get to learn what happened to Reyna and Jose's daughter and how her family continued on. With Hanna also the Sultan's curse is finally broken and Selim is able to go about the rest of his short life as a happy man.
While there was an undertone of sadness throughout the whole story it was never overtaking due to the happy family moments that would happen.
Overall I really enjoyed this story and I can't wait to see what Dweck writes in the future.
I received an advance reader copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.
See more reviews like this on my blog.
This story spans from 16th century Portugal and the Ottoman Empire, Nazi occupied Paris in the 1940s, Present day Turkey and United States of America. While this might sound like it would make the whole story very confusing with so many different time periods and culture changes it never was. Dweck did an amazing job of intertwining the stories together and made them all fit together very nicely and made it so you never got confused on who the characters were.
The story starts in the 16th century with the burning of unrepentant Jews. With this we meet Doña Antonia Nissim, her daughter Reyna and nephew Jose who are Jews living a "fake life" so they can stay safe and not get injured. We get to see their escape into Turkey with the help of Sultan Sulieman the Magnificent. Fast forward the story until Jose's and Reyna's daughter is almost grown and falls in love with the Sultan's son Murat. This makes Jose make a tough decision which makes the debt. Thus, causing the Sultan's curse.
We then jump to present day Turkey where we meet Selim Osman, the last living descendant of the Ottoman Sultans. We also meet Ayda who is a side character that we learn a little about and then don't hear from her again until the end. I'm not going to lie I really did struggle with Selim as a character due to how he was so closed off and didn't want to let Ayda in even after they had been together for quite awhile. I also didn't like how he kept very important information from her. Having said that though because he did keep some information from her, we were able to meet Hanna. With Hanna is where we get taken to Nazi occupied Paris and get to learn what happened to Reyna and Jose's daughter and how her family continued on. With Hanna also the Sultan's curse is finally broken and Selim is able to go about the rest of his short life as a happy man.
While there was an undertone of sadness throughout the whole story it was never overtaking due to the happy family moments that would happen.
Overall I really enjoyed this story and I can't wait to see what Dweck writes in the future.
I received an advance reader copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.
See more reviews like this on my blog.