The Truth About Forever by Sarah Dessen.

“Don’t be afraid, be alive.”

Rating: 4/5.

Summary: It’s going to be a long summer for sixteen year old Macy Queen. Her boyfriend Jason is going away to brain camp and she’s stuck working at the library.
But then one night, the summer seems to get a whole lot brighter when she’s needed to help the Wish Catering crew at her mother’s open house event. And not long after that, Macy ditches the library job and joins up with the Wish gang. Where she befriends: the big hearted Delia, quiet and clumsy Monica, fashion loving and funny Kristy, the young genius Bert. But who Macy likes the best is Wes, understanding, artistic Wes. The Wish crew teaches Macy to look at life a whole new way…


Review: I will firstly say that everyone who loves a young adult book, with a boy and an issue: you need to read Sarah Dessen’s books. I can’t enthuse that enough. Dessen is the queen of YA.

The Truth about Forever is wonderful. Sarah writes a beautiful novel where we get a fantastic plot and even more fantastic characters.

The characters are fun and entertaining, and have more to them then we think. From fashion conscious Kristy to Monica who barley speaks. As an avid Sarah Dessen fan I expect wonderful minor characters because she is so great at writing them. The Truth About Forever not only doesn’t disappoint, but brings her minor and quirky characters to a whole new and exciting level.
The Truth about Forever is laugh at loud funny in and brings tears to your eyes in other parts. It’s an emotional rollercoaster that is impossible to not jump on and enjoy like crazy!

The story is sweet and we see that trying to be perfect can waste away our lives, and that we should just be ourselves.

Sarah adds a lot of quirk and fun to the story as she is known to do. She lets us get to know the characters in fun ways, such as “the game of truth”.

We see raw and strong emotion that makes this book a page turner.

Four stars because I totally and utterly enjoyed this book, the characters fun and the plot sweet. Sarah writes us another fantastic book in her own style.

Allie.

Special: Cover to Cover (3)

After reading How I Live Now, I’ve become an admirer and fan of Meg Rosoff. I was very excited to find out that she has a new book – a wonderfully titled book – coming out later this year. The Bride’s Farewell.



Aussie publishers need your help in deciding between the U.S and the U.K cover for the book.

So here’s a sneak peek at the U.S cover:






And the U.K cover:







I’m tipping toward the U.K cover myself, but what about you? Which one grabs your attention? Which is your favourite?



--Allie.

In My Mailbox (2)

Whooo! I get to join in! This awesome idea comes from The Story Siren.

(From Amazon)Welcome to New Avalon, where everyone has a personal fairy. Though invisible to the naked eye, a personal fairy, like a specialized good luck charm, is vital to success. And in the case of the students at New Avalon Sports High, it might just determine whether you make the team, pass a class, or find that perfect outfit. But for 14-year-old Charlie, having a Parking Fairy is worse than having nothing at all—especially when the school bully carts her around like his own personal parking pass. Enter: The Plan. At first, teaming up with arch-enemy Fiorenza (who has an All-The-Boys-Like-You Fairy) seems like a great idea. But when Charlie unexpectedly gets her heart’s desire, it isn’t at all what she thought it would be like, and she’ll have resort to extraordinary measures to ditch her fairy. The question is: will Charlie herself survive the fairy ditching experiment?

Only one, but it's better then nothing and I am loving the look of this one. I can't wait to get into it!

Allie.

Aussie YA Alliance.

Something awesome has begun. The Aussie Young Adult Alliance or AYA for short. It’s a blog devoted to Aussie YA and international authors release in Australia. It’s been put together by Lisa May of Look At That Book, Adele of Persnickety Snark and myself. All Aussie's who love YA, especially those by Oz authors .

We’re planning a tonne of amazing things like regular features, author interviews, guest blogs, competitions and have already got an interview with the author of How To Ditch Your Fairy, Justine Larbalestier.

It’s just getting off the round now, but there are many amazing things to come. So go and show your support! Subscribe, follow, comment!

Want to see better versions of this post? Check Adele and Lisa’s blogs.

What Australian authors have you read? Who is your favourite Aussie author?


http://aussieya.blogspot.com/

Waiting On Wednesday (3)

Created by Jill over at Breaking the Spine. (Fantastic idea!). Basically we book lovers get to drool over books that haven't been released yet.

My pick this week? City of Glass by Cassandra Clare.

(From Amazon) To save her mother's life, Clary must travel to the City of Glass, the ancestral home of the Shadowhunters -- never mind that enter-ing the city without permission is against the Law, and breaking the Law could mean death. To make things worse, she learns that Jace does not want her there, and Simon has been thrown in prison by the Shadowhunters, who are deeply suspicious of a vampire who can withstand sunlight.
As Clary uncovers more about her family's past, she finds an ally in mysterious Shadow-hunter Sebastian. With Valentine mustering the full force of his power to destroy all Shadow-hunters forever, their only chance to defeat him is to fight alongside their eternal enemies. But can Downworlders and Shadowhunters put aside their hatred to work together? While Jace realizes exactly how much he's willing to risk for Clary, can she harness her newfound powers to help save the Glass City -- whatever the cost?

One word, name, whatever. Jace. I am a huge fan of Jace and think that Cassandra Clare is awesome for creating him and putting him into the YA novel world. *fangirl moment. After the huge cliffhanger at the end of City of Ashes, I am dying for this one!

What's your pick this week?

Allie.

White Is For Magic by Laurie Faria Stolarz.

Rating: 2/5.

Summary:A year has passed since Stacey Brown saved her best friend from a horrible death. Now she's having nightmares again, haunted by ghosts of the brutally murdered . . . and by a crazed stalker. As she desperately casts healing spells, a new student named Jacob enters her world. Beautiful and mysterious, he reveals that he is also having dreams. To stop a killer, they must join together. But can Jacob be trusted? Or will this new love cause her darkest dreams to come true?

Review: I feel like I’m writing lots of negative reviews recently. Oh well. Let’s get on with this. White is for Magic is the second novel in the Blue is for Nightmares series.

I felt like the series would get better, but I feel that it’s stayed the same, or even gotten a little worse. I feel like the characters haven’t grown at all since the tough times they’ve been through last year. Stacey is annoying and fickle. Drea is once again getting herself in trouble and I wish that she could look out for herself. None of them have grown at all. The new addition and love interest Jacob is cool and I hope that his character is more awesome and has more to him then Stacey and magic in the next novel. I think that Stolarz could have made the characters more human this time around. Instead of making the only thing they care about the mystery of the story and the person they’re interested in romantically.

The mystery was odd and I felt like it didn’t really make much sense, but I knew who the “bad guy” was going to be. One positive is that Stolarz allowed you to doubt who the bad guy was, like she did in Blue is for Nightmares.

For some reason I have a compulsion to finish this series, something has me hooked and I don’t want to be, so there’s another positive about the novel.

Two out of five for this sequel. I feel like it could have been much better though, I have still have a little hope that the series will improve.

Allie.

Waves by Sharon Dogar..

Rating: 4/5

Summary: Last summer Hal’s older sister Charley was in an accident in the waves, leaving her comatose, not dead, not alive.
On returning to the beach, Hal finds it difficult to shake Charley’s dominant presence. Thoughts of her fill his mind, pictures and places, even strong emotions crowd his busy mind and soon enough Hal realises that they’re not entirely his.
Hal is determined to find out what happened to Charley last summer in the waves, and as the summer goes along he gets closer and closer to finding out about what Charley really did last summer.

Review: This was a really fascinating story and I really enjoyed it.
A highly original story that had an excellent supernatural undertone. Wonderful plot, wonderful mystery. Awesome characters and some that were kind of disturbing. Dogar wrote the disturbing parts of her characters an enourmous amount of class.
There are two perspectives given in this novel. The most used is Hal’s, the younger brother, with him we go through his wonderfully written pain and anger about what’s happened to Charley. We’re able to watch him search for answers and put some of the pieces together and even fall in love. Even experience some of the emotion he is experiencing.

Then we have comatose Charley. Her perspective is very interesting, we get her now – as in, the Charley that’s lost in a coma – it’s very creative and vague and I enjoyed reading her parts so very much. Then we get Charley then, and we live her memories of last summer and get quite a few clues from there.
I think that this story takes a bit of getting in to, but it’s very much worth it when you finally do. The ending is beautiful. When all the pieces are put together and you finally see what happened that night things seem to make a lot more sense and we see why some people are the way they are.
Dogar is a lovely writer, who writes with such imagination and creativity it’s inspiring.
I would highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a mystery and putting pieces together, or even if you’re a supernatural addict, this could be a fix.



Four stars, this book was really enjoyable and so original, the characters were fun and mysterious, the views creative, I think that this story was a breathe of fresh air.

Cover to Cover. (2)

Cover to Cover. Want to know more about it? Check out the first one here.

This weeks pick? Looking for Alaska by the awesome John Green. A personal favourite of mine.

Miles Halter is fascinated by famous last words — and tired of his safe life at home. He leaves for boarding school to seek what the dying poet Francois Rabelais called the "Great Perhaps." Much awaits Miles at Culver Creek, including Alaska Young. Clever, funny, screwed-up, and dead sexy, Alaska will pull Miles into her labyrinth and catapult him into the Great Perhaps.

I have trouble choosing a favourite out of these three. My copy of the novel has the first cover. I like how simple it is and how intense the: "First friend. First Girl. Last Words." And how Alaska is written.

I love the second one because if you think about it for long enough it can imply a lot. Maybe it implys things going up in smoke? Maybe it implys the end? I adore the way that the smoke curls up the top of the shot.

The last one and I believe the Australian cover. I love the way: "First Friend. First Girl. Last Words" is written on this as well. I love how sweet the picture is and how it's faded. I like the black border as well.

My favourite cover, I think has to be the second one (U.S). What about you? Which cover is your favourite and why?

A Walk to Remember by Nicholas Sparks

Rating: 2/5.

Summary: In 1958 Landon Carter is a shallow but well-meaning teenager who spends most of his time hanging out with his friends and trying hard to ignore the impending responsibilities of adulthood. Then Landon gets roped into acting the lead in the Christmas play opposite the most renowned goody two-shoes in town: Jamie Sullivan. Against his best intentions and the taunts of his buddies, Landon finds himself falling for Jamie and learning some central lessons in life.

Review: I feel bad writing this review. But I’m going to express what I really thought about this novel.

I expected to really like A Walk to Remember. This is the first novel I’ve read by Nicholas Sparks and I thought that it would be better. Read the summary and it’s my kind of story. Only a small amount of time to spend with someone you love, it’s amazing and tragic and I adore stories like that.

Problem number one: I didn’t feel it. I didn’t feel like Landon and Jamie were in love, no matter how hard I tried, I just couldn’t. It wasn’t passionate enough for me.

Problem number two: Heaps of stuff was explained and never shown.

Problem number three: There weren’t enough major events or exciting things, even though I powered through this novel in a mere few hours, I did so because I felt like something really amazing was going to happen. It didn’t.

The beginning is so powerful, so amazing, so well written, the only thing you can do is have your hopes up high. The rest of the novel really lets down such amazing writing. It hooks you, and then deteriorates.

The characters were very well written, Landon was really realistic as far teen males go, I got a little sick of the way he explained everything though. Jamie, is sweet and nice. And just so sweet I could hardly stand it. I’ve read Nicholas’s notes on the novel and I agree, they should be innocent as they’re portrayed. But, I was hoping for a little corruption. Sometimes I felt with Jamie the only personality trait she had was her love and devotion to God.

It’s a good story about faith, starting off amazingly and slowly getting worse and more rushed. It took a long time to come into the main plot which is Jamie’s leukaemia. The way the town came together to express their sympathy is corny, but kind of beautiful.

I hate to do this, I really do. But I’m giving this novel two out of five. Too much explaining, too rushed. Not passionate enough.

Allie.

Waiting on Wednesday (2)

I just have to get my lust for this book out of my system.

It's been so long since Auden slept at night. Ever since her parents' divorce - or since the fighting started. Now she has the chance to spend a carefree summer with her dad and his new family in the charming beach town where they live. A job in a clothes boutique introduces Auden to the world of girls: their talk, their friendship, their crushes. She missed out on all that, too busy being the perfect daughter to her demanding mother. Then she meets Eli, an intriguing loner and a fellow insomniac who becomes her guide to the nocturnal world of the town. Together they embark on parallel quests: for Auden, to experience the carefree teenage life she's been denied; for Eli, to come to terms with the guilt he feels for the death of a friend.

Ah, now I don’t know whether you all know, but I’m pretty big fan of Sarah Dessen. (Does the title of the blog give it away? XD ). As you would expect, I am very excited about this novel. It seems like ages ago I read about the announcement of this novel and the days have been slowly ticking away to its release and are still trudging along and to be honest, it’s quite agonizing.

Allie.

Glass Houses by Rachel Caine.

Welcome to Morganville, Texas.
Just don't stay out after dark.

Rating: 4/5.

Summary: College freshman Claire Danvers has had enough of her nightmarish dorm situation, where the popular girls never let her forget just where she ranks in the school's social scene: somewhere less than zero.
When Claire heads off-campus, the imposing old house where she finds a room may not be much better. Her new roommates don't show many signs of life. But they'll have Claire's back when the town's deepest secrets come crawling out, hungry for fresh blood.

***

Review: What I liked about Rachel Caine’s Glass Houses was that I was told lots of good things about the novel and when I read it I wasn’t disappointed. One mildly negative thing I have to say about the novel is the writing style. It reminded me very much of a novel that I could not finish a couple months ago. The difference between the novels though is the plot and characters and all around wit of the story was able to carry the story and really make it a page turner.

The characters were only lovable. Claire, Eve, Michael and especially Shane. Caine crafted them well and made them human. Other characters were very intriguing, especially Amelie.

Something about the story that I really liked was how the town was crafted and ran. There’s so much potential in the story, plotting, the way the town is crafted that makes me very desperate for the next novel in the series. The vampires are pretty damn evil and stay evil, and I like that. Keeps things very interesting.

I’m singing nothing but praises about this novel. And can’t wait until I have money to buy Dead Girls Dance.

Four out of five. Fantastic. There’s been waves and waves of Vampire YA and I mean it when I say this: one of best Vampire YA novels I’ve read in a while.

Allie.