The Savage Grace (Dark Divine #3) by Bree Despain
Release Date: March 13, 2012
Publisher: EgmontUSA
Age Group: Young Adult
Pages: 488
Summary: A troubled soul. An impossible choice. A final battle.
Wrestling with the werewolf curse pulsing deep inside of her, Grace Divine was finally able to find her brother, but it nearly cost her everything.
With her boyfriend, Daniel, stuck in wolf form and Sirhan's death approaching, time is running out for Grace to stop Caleb Kalbi and his gang of demons. If she fails, her family and hometown will perish. Everything rests on Grace's shoulders.
The final installment in The Dark Divine trilogy brings Daniel and Grace's love story to a breathtaking conclusion.
My Thoughts: We are once again united with Daniel and Grace. But this time, Daniel is stuck in wolf form after the last encounter in The Lost Saint. Grace is trying her best with the help of her friends to find a way to get him back to being a human. They are still in danger, with being hunted. In more ways than one.
So many new characters, which was awesome. Talbot is still around to make Grace’s life confusing and frustrating. Actually liked him a lot less in this one!
Grace has a lot of tasks she has to do in this novel. She must find a way to help Daniel, keep her family safe, and find Caleb and his gang and do something about them. She also must think about college and what she is going to do.
By this point, you’ve read the others in the series, you know the characters, you know the plots, and you just want to know how it's all going to end, so I’m not going to go on and on and ruin it for you. Just read the novel to find out what happens to Grace and her crew.
The Savage Grace was a nice conclusion to the series. It was action packed, and I’m glad it ended the way it did. It was wrapped up nicely, almost in a big fat bow.
Overall: Really enjoyed it a lot. Still didn’t love as much as The Dark Divine, but it ended how I hoped it would. This is one of the best werewolf series I’ve read. And the books are freaking long, so very much worth the money for those who don’t like to spend $15 on 200 page books. haha.
Cover: Like it! Like the red. These covers are all pretty. Love the dress.
What I'd Give It:
This Is Not A Test by Courtney Summers
Release Date: June 19, 2012
Publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin
Age Group: Young Adult
Pages: 336
Summary:It’s the end of the world. Six students have taken cover in Cortege High but shelter is little comfort when the dead outside won’t stop pounding on the doors. One bite is all it takes to kill a person and bring them back as a monstrous version of their former self. To Sloane Price, that doesn’t sound so bad. Six months ago, her world collapsed and since then, she’s failed to find a reason to keep going. Now seems like the perfect time to give up. As Sloane eagerly waits for the barricades to fall, she’s forced to witness the apocalypse through the eyes of five people who actually want to live. But as the days crawl by, the motivations for survival change in startling ways and soon the group’s fate is determined less and less by what’s happening outside and more and more by the unpredictable and violent bids for life—and death—inside. When everything is gone, what do you hold on to?
My Thoughts: I'm not even sure where to begin this review or what to say exactly but I'll try.
This Is Not A Test is unlike any Summers we have read before. Usually Summers writes contemporary books and this book was so not that! Think of the world coming to an abrupt end and zombies taking over!
The protagonist, Sloane is a very ordinary yet unique girl. She lives with her sister Lily and her abusive father. Lily and Sloane had planned on running away, until Lily went without her.
The book opens up with Sloane and her father at their house while chaos takes over outside. After days spent on the run, Sloane ends up with a group of other kids from her school and they end up at the school to take shelter. It's madness outside.
This Is Not A Test is split up into parts, detailing more and more as the story goes on. Days tick by, and the teens are debating on what to do. Do they stay in the school, or do they try to make it to one of the shelters? Yes, they have food and water but for how long? They are tired and scared.
This novel goes beyond a reader's expectations regarding zombie novels because we actually get to experience firsthand what is happening. People die and things aren't always sunshine and flowers.
I really liked getting inside all the character's heads. I felt like I got to know each and every one of them. They all had their own attributes and thoughts. My favorite was probably Sloane's, because I could see how hard things were for her and how she handled them. At times, she wanted to cave in and just let herself go.
I usually don't really read zombie books, but this one was pretty good.
Overall: I won't lie, this book is pretty graphic. There are some parts that make you really think and you can see the scene unraveling in your head. I really enjoyed This Is Not A Test. I still like Summer's contemps better but this is a nicely done fresh start for her outside her comfort zone. All in all, I really enjoyed this novel. This novel is somewhat weird, but in an interesting way.
Cover: It's neat. It's kind of dark in a way but it's also kind of pretty. The blue in the background and the way her hair is falling is neat.
What I'd Give It:
My Life In Black And White by Natasha Friend
Release Date: June 14, 2012
Publisher: Viking Juvenile
Age Group: Young Adult
Pages: 304
Summary: What if you lost the thing that made you who you are?
Lexi has always been stunning. Her butter-colored hair and perfect features have helped her attract friends, a boyfriend, and the attention of a modeling scout. But everything changes the night Lexi's face goes through a windshield. Now she's not sure what's worse: the scars she'll have to live with forever, or what she saw going on between her best friend and her boyfriend right before the accident. With the help of her trombone-playing, defiantly uncool older sister and a guy at school recovering from his own recent trauma, Lexi learns she's much more than just a pretty face.
My Thoughts: I have been giving a lot of books 4 cupcakes lately because I really enjoy reading them but I don't love them like a 5 cupcake book. I want too, but they don't always live up to my expectations.
We are introduced to Lexie who has always known she is beautiful. She's popular and pretty and has it all, until one night she walks in on her best friend doing something she shouldn’t with Lexie’s boyfriend. She storms out and gets a ride home from her best friend's brother. They ram into a tree and he's left with a few broken bones and she's left with a messed up face that needs skin grafts, and lots of remodeling.
Lexie is left with the scars of her face and her life. She loses her beauty, her boyfriend, and her best friend in one night. She goes into a depression and doesn't know how to cope. She meets a new guy. I really liked him. He was sweet and actually had a personality.
My Life In Black And White was a really good novel, I just don't want to spoil it for you. I want you to feel what she feels. I want you to experience her loss so you can truly understand and appreciate this novel. I had a lot of feelings racing through me, I could see how she would see the world after this event.
Overall: Quick read for me. It was interesting, and the story just flowed right along in your head. She described things so clearly and you really understood her thoughts and feelings. Part of me didn't want to hate her best friend, especially after finding out the reason she did what she did. It wasn't right but I still felt for her a little bit. I also liked Lexie's sister. Totally a rad sister even if she didn't know it most of the time.
I really enjoyed this novel and I can't wait to read whatever Friend writes next.
Cover: Love it! It’s pretty!
What I'd Give It:
The Summer My Life Began by Shannon Greenland
Release Date: May 10, 2012
Publisher: Speak
Age Group: Young Adult
Pages: 256
Elizabeth Margaret—better known as Em—has always known what life would contain: an internship at her father’s firm, a degree from Harvard and a career as a lawyer. The only problem is that it’s not what she wants. When she gets the opportunity to get away from it all and spend a month with the aunt she never knew, she jumps at the chance. While there, Em pursues her secret dream of being a chef, and she also learns that her family has kept some significant secrets from her, too. And then there’s Cade, the laid-back local surfer boy who seems to be everything Em isn't. Naturally, she can’t resist him, and as their romance blossoms, Em feels she is living on her own terms for the first time.
My Thoughts: Em has her whole life planned out. Going in the fall to study law at Harvard and interning at her father's law firm this summer. She lives with her mother, father, and little sister. But her real dream is cooking!
When Em gets a letter from her aunt Tilly inviting her to come stay the summer at Pepper House. After she talks her parents into it, she’s on her way. The catch; nobody has had any contact with Tilly for years. Em didn’t even know she had an aunt Tilly.
She arrives and instead of Tilly picking her up, a young man named Cade shows up. She’s taken back to Pepper House where she meets the staff, her cousin Frederick, and a lot of other characters.
Gosh, that chemistry between Cade and Em. Oh boy. He and Em really supported each other and were there for one another. Their relationship was so sweet and I enjoyed every minute of it.
There were a lot of twists and turns in this novel. I didn’t see them coming. And Aunt Tilly, who she is, wow.
I also liked Em’s relationship with her sister. It reminded me how great it can be to have siblings.
All the people at Pepper House were like family. They all got each other.
The Summer My Life Began was a pretty cool novel. It’s the perfect summer read. I really enjoyed it a lot. At times it did feel like it was taking a while to get through, but the last 50 pages I strolled through them, and all of a sudden, I was done with the novel and had no more pages to turn! I hadn’t even noticed until I hit the last page!
Overall: I really liked this one a bunch. Not my favorite of the year so far but still a good read, especially on a hot summer day. Take this one to the beach or swimming pool with you.
Cover: Like how she’s on a bike in her swimsuit! Fits the book!
What I'd Give It:
For Darkness Shows The Stars by Diana Peterfreund
Release Date: June 12, 2012
Publisher: Balzer and Bray
Age Group: Young Adult
Pages: 416
Summary: Generations ago, a genetic experiment gone wrong—the Reduction—decimated humanity, giving rise to a Luddite nobility who outlawed most technology.
Eighteen-year-old Luddite Elliot North has always known her place in this caste system. Four years ago Elliot refused to run away with her childhood sweetheart, the servant Kai, choosing duty to her family’s estate over love. But now the world has changed: a new class of Post-Reductionists is jumpstarting the wheel of progress and threatening Luddite control; Elliot’s estate is floundering; and she’s forced to rent land to the mysterious Cloud Fleet, a group of shipbuilders that includes renowned explorer Captain Malakai Wentforth—an almost unrecognizable Kai. And while Elliott wonders if this could be their second chance, Kai seems determined to show Elliot exactly what she gave up when she abandoned him.
But Elliot soon discovers her childhood friend carries a secret—-one that could change the society in which they live…or bring it to its knees. And again, she’s faced with a choice: cling to what she’s been raised to believe, or cast her lot with the only boy she’s ever loved, even if she has lost him forever.
Inspired by Jane Austen’s PERSUASION, FOR DARKNESS SHOWS THE STARS is a breathtaking romance about opening your mind to the future and your heart to the one person you know can break it.
My Thoughts: First off, I haven't read Persuasion, so I didn't have anything to compare it too. For Darkness Shows The Stars is a retelling of Persuasion. I usually try to stay away from retellings even though there are a few I've read and enjoyed.
We are introduced to Elliot who is a Luddite and Kai who is a servant. Two people from opposite world status. Kai works on Elliot's estate but the two become friends and write each other letters as kids. They sneak out to play with each other and share thoughts and things such as books. They talk about things, they enjoy each others company. As time goes on, Kai leaves the estate and pursues his own dreams.
A few years later he comes back to Elliot’s estate and the two meet up again. This time, he's become established and is no longer a slave. He's advanced quite a bit and is very skilled. But he really resents Elliot for not running away with him. They pretty much despise each other now.
Elliot is faced with her own problems. She tries to take care of all the reduced and treat them equally. She does things around the farm and takes care of it. She's very responsible and handles a lot of things.
There are also a lot of other minor characters throughout the novel that I loved, especially Ro.
She has her own creations she is working on, and Kai has created the suncart.
Elliot and Kai learn what it means to work together and respect each other again. A lot does happen in this novel but the last half is definitely more fast paced the the first half.
At first, I also had trouble remembering who was the guy and who was the girl because of how similar their names are to boy names. Hehe.
I loved both Elliot and Kai's character. She was so strong and stubborn and so was he. They were both very successful in their own way.
Overall: For Darkness Shows The Stars was a good book. It wasn't my favorite of the year but I enjoyed reading it. At times, I did wonder what was going to happen, I wasn't sure. Even though it is described as post apocalyptic it reminded me more of a historical novel but I still enjoyed it. This is what the world could be like, where reduced people were so dramatically treated differently or had certain duties they had to perform. All in all, I think this is definitely worth a read and I enjoyed it a lot.
Cover: I love it! I think it's very pretty and the girl looks like she is having fun.
What I'd Give It:
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