Book Review: THE SUMMER I FOUND YOU by Jolene Perry

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The Summer I Found You
by Jolene Perry
Published: March 1, 2014
Genres: YA / Contemporary / Romance

A romance between a 19-year-old Afghanistan veteran Aidan and a 17-year-old high school student named Kate sprouts soon after Kate is dumped by her boyfriend. Both Aidan and Kate suffer from bodily otherness: Aidan lost his arm in Afganistan, and Kate has Type 1 diabetes, and this is what ultimately brings them together, despite their shame and self consciousness of their otherness. 

This is a beautiful premise, but what I end up seeing is a shallow relationship propelled by raging hormones in which Aidan and Kate use each other as a "distraction" from their problems:

Book Review: THE ISLAND by Jen Minkman (The Island #1)

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The Island

by Jen Minkman

(The Island #1)

Genres: YA Fiction / Dystopian / Star Wars / Post-Apocalyptic

Book Review: Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L. James (Fifty Shades #1)

Published 2012
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Genre: Romance / Erotica / BDSM

What the hell did I just read? 

I've never read a book that made me want to fling my e-reader across the room so bad. I've read erotica before, but Fifty Shades of Grey is like a five-hour porno with a boring, two-hour buildup.

Fifty Shades of Grey started out as Twilight fan fiction, and it was originally based on Edward Cullen and Bella Swan. The novel will be made into a movie that will come out in 2014.

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What I liked:

Book Review: Crash by Lisa McMann (Visions #1)

Published: 2013

Genre(s): YA / Paranormal

Jules is a high school student who works in her family's Italian restaurant. Lately, she's been experiencing horrifying visions of the future in which people die in a crash at the rival restaurant. 

The rival restaurant is owned by the Angotti family, which includes a teen boy named Sawyer. Jules has had a huge crush on Sawyer since 7th grade (she's like 17 now) but because of their families' rivalry, they haven't really spoken to each other for years. She needs to warn Sawyer of the future, but he thinks she is going crazy. How can she save him before it's too late? 

My thoughts: 

I wanted to like this book, but Jules's voice sounds monotone and not engaging at all.

Gossip Girl, Psycho Killer by Cecily von Ziegesar -- Book Review

Published: October 2011

Genre: Young Adult / Contemporary / Privileged

From the back of the book:

Welcome to New York City's Upper East side, where my friends and I live, and go to school, and play--and sometimes kill each other. It's a luxe life, but someone's got to live it. Until to they die. 

Serena van der Woodsen is back from boarding school, hoping to make amends with her BFF Blair Waldorf--things just haven't been the same since Nate Archibald came between them. Serena decides the only way for her to make things right with Blair is to eliminate Nate, and if that means killing him, well, c'est la vie. The attempted murder doesn't go unnoticed by Blair, however, who isn't about to let Serena kill whoever she wants and steal the spotlight yet again--not when so many Upper East Siders deserve to die. From the #1 bestselling author Cecily von Ziegesar, this bloody reimagining of the original Gossip Girl novel takes backstabbing to new heights. 

Actually, it was less of a "bloody reimagining" and more of a "bloody cut-and-paste" of the original Gossip Girl novel.