Don't Even Think About It by Sarah Mlynowski

Don't Even Think About It
by Sarah Mlynowski
Pages: 336
Published: March 11th 2014 by Delacorte Press
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Description: Contemporary teen fiction with romance, secrets, scandals, and ESP from the author of Ten Things We Did (And Probably Shouldn't Have).

We weren't always like this. We used to be average New York City high school sophomores. Until our homeroom went for flu shots. We were prepared for some side effects. Maybe a headache. Maybe a sore arm. We definitely didn't expect to get telepathic powers. But suddenly we could hear what everyone was thinking. Our friends. Our parents. Our crushes. Now we all know that Tess is in love with her best friend, Teddy. That Mackenzie cheated on Cooper. That, um, Nurse Carmichael used to be a stripper.

Since we've kept our freakish skill a secret, we can sit next to the class brainiac and ace our tests. We can dump our boyfriends right before they dump us. We know what our friends really think of our jeans, our breath, our new bangs. We always know what's coming. Some of us will thrive. Some of us will crack. None of us will ever be the same.

So stop obsessing about your ex. We're always listening.

MY REVIEW 

One fall morning a group of high school students are set to get their flu shots for the fall. However, there is a problem. The flu shots ended up giving them the ability of ESP. They can read each others minds. The story is centric around students of homeroom 10b. There are 23 students and 21 received the shot. This is a story of Tess who is in love with her best friend Teddy (no Espie), Olivia who is extremely shy, Pi who is the second smartest in the class, Mackenzie and Cooper who have been dating forever, and a few others. 

Now this book isn't going to be for everyone. If you look at the logic of the book, yes it doesn't make sense. How can someone write a novel when everyone can read each others minds. I though this book was a cute read. If you go into not expecting much from it, then you will enjoy it. If you're looking for a book that isn't going to be complicated, but enjoyable this will be it. 

The book is told from a point of view of an Epsie and we don't know who it is. At parts it can get a tad confusing, but getting past it, it works. Every character I enjoyed reading about. I did have a favorite and that was Olivia. 

Don't Even Think About It is a great guilty pleasure book. I was a little excited to see that this was book one because how it ended you wanted to know more of what was going to happen. 

Roomies by by Sara Zarr & Tara Altebrando

Roomies
by Sara Zarr & Tara Altebrando
Pages: 297
Published December 24th 2013 by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers 

Summary: It's time to meet your new roomie.

When East Coast native Elizabeth receives her freshman-year roommate assignment, she shoots off an e-mail to coordinate the basics: television, microwave, mini-fridge. That first note to San Franciscan Lauren sparks a series of e-mails that alters the landscape of each girl's summer -- and raises questions about how two girls who are so different will ever share a dorm room.

As the countdown to college begins, life at home becomes increasingly complex. With family relationships and childhood friendships strained by change, it suddenly seems that the only people Elizabeth and Lauren can rely on are the complicated new boys in their lives . . . and each other. Even though they've never met.

National Book Award finalist Sara Zarr and acclaimed author Tara Altebrando join forces for a novel about growing up, leaving home, and getting that one fateful e-mail that assigns your college roommate.

MY REVIEW 

Roomies is a story about life in between high school and the start of college. It documents those last few moments that you have with family, friends and who truly matters in your life. Roomies follows the story of Elizabeth or Eb and Lauren as they email each other back and forth to get to know each other before college. Before they realize they are relying on each other through their summers ups and downs and what they thought was completely weird turns into a surprised friendship. 

I enjoyed this book. I never went to college, but some how I still found myself attached to Elizabeth and Lauren and their experience. Maybe it's because I feel I missed out on this portion of my life, or the characters were that relateable. Either or, this was one of the few books where I enjoyed every single character. There wasn't a character I didn't like. 

I like how they started out just emailing each other and then found themselves building this friendship over time. They go about their lives and rely on each other in their times of need. 

The only thing I did have to complain about the book was I wanted more at the end. It cuts off at a cliffhanger, and it's like ugh. I wanted a little more from that, but after the initial let down of the end, I felt it was a good place to stop. It could have dragged on. It also leaves room for a sequel if they so desire. 

Alice I Have Been by Melanie Benjamin

Alice I Have Been

By Melanie Benjamin
Website

Paperback, 345 pages

Published December 21st 2010 by Bantam

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Summary: Part love story, part literary mystery, Melanie Benjamin’s spellbinding historical novel leads readers on an unforgettable journey down the rabbit hole, to tell the story of a woman whose own life became the stuff of legend. Her name is Alice Liddell Hargreaves, but to the world she’ll always be known simply as “Alice,” the girl who followed the White Rabbit into a wonderland of Mad Hatters, Queens of Hearts, and Cheshire Cats. Now, nearing her eighty-first birthday, she looks back on a life of intense passion, great privilege, and greater tragedy. First as a young woman, then as a wife, mother, and widow, she’ll experience adventures the likes of which not even her fictional counterpart could have imagined. Yet from glittering balls and royal romances to a world plunged into war, she’ll always be the same determined, undaunted Alice who, at ten years old, urged a shy, stuttering Oxford professor to write down one of his fanciful stories, thus changing her life forever.

MY REVIEW

Alice I Have Been tells the story of Alice Liddell and her relationship with Mr. Dodgson who later is known for Lewis Carroll. It starts off with 7 year old Alice being taken by Mr. Dodgson to in her 80s where she prefers to believe Dodgson is part of her past that she wishes to remain in her past. The story also goes into detail about her love affair with a soon to be king. We watch Alice grow up and how difficult it is for her to shake the image of Alice. It's a part of her past that she wishes to ignore, but the world does not let her forget.

I LOVED this story. I have always loved Alice In Wonderland spin offs, but this is a much different spin off. It has a little bit of truth to it and isn't about wonderland itself, but how wonderland became and how wonderland was soon forgotten. While this book may not fit everyone. The relationship between Alice and Dodgson could be turned off because of their huge age difference but also remember that during that time it was normal. If you put that behind, then this book is a fantastic read.

You find yourself feeling sorry for Alice as she goes through so much in her life, and how she never changes as a person. She suffers love loss and death multiple times. It raises a question on what exactly happened that made Alice hate Carroll so much that she completely washed him out of her history every chance she had.

It was beautifully written, and highly recommend if you're a Alice in Wonderland fan.

The Last Summer by Judith Kinghorn

The Last Summer 

By Judith Kinghorn
Website  and Twitter
Published: December 31st 2012 by NAL/Penguin USA
Pages: 433
Goodreads 
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Summary: Clarissa is almost seventeen when the spell of her childhood is broken. It is 1914, the beginning of a blissful, golden summer - and the end of an era. Deyning Park is in its heyday, the large country house filled with the laughter and excitement of privileged youth preparing for a weekend party. When Clarissa meets Tom Cuthbert, home from university and staying with his mother, the housekeeper, she is dazzled. Tom is handsome and enigmatic; he is also an outsider. Ambitious, clever, his sights set on a career in law, Tom is an acute observer, and a man who knows what he wants. For now, that is Clarissa.

As Tom and Clarissa's friendship deepens, the wider landscape of political life around them is changing, and another story unfolds: they are not the only people in love. Soon the world - and all that they know - is rocked by a war that changes their lives for ever.

MY REVIEW

The Last Summer is a story about an upstairs / downstairs relationship between Clarissa and Tom Cuthbert. Clarissa first meets Tom when she is just seventeen years old and have a romance that isn’t what Clarissa’s mother wants. Throughout the novel, you live the affair that Clarissa and Tom carry out throughout their whole lives. Clarissa struggles through her life trying to please everyone else but herself and during this struggle she suffers; not only with her heart but physically as well. 

Overall I enjoyed this novel. I loved how the novel started off with Clarissa’s innocence and we got to watch her grow into a woman at the age of forty by the end of the book. The only downfall to this growth was that I felt it made the book drag on. It was always about her longing for Tom and wishing to be with him, and her struggle of being unable to do so. 

I did enjoy reading the times Clarissa was with Tom. I also did enjoy her relationship with Antonio. I believe that was when Clarissa was truly allowed to be herself. She stopped caring what her mother wished, and it was nice to see that finally come out. Such a shame it happened much later in the book. Antonio was the perfect person at the perfect time for her. 

I loved how Judith writes and describes things. It has been a long time since I’ve wanted to sit with a blank notebook next to me while reading to copy down quotes or passages that I enjoyed. The Last Summer was full of them. My favorite was this 

"No, there's nothing to be afraid of, other than the stars, the universe, and the sense of being infinitesimal."

Overall, this book was enjoyable. Definite recommend to those who like historical fiction or Downton Abbey.

Book Haul #1

LIBRARY BOOKS
Picture Perfect by Elaine Marie Alphin
Wish you Were here by Catherine Clark

PURCHASED
Prom & Prejudice by Elizabeth Eulberg
Just Listen by Sarah Dessen
Five Summers by Una LaMarche
Another Little Piece by Kate Karyus Quinn
SYLO by D.J. MacHale
These Girls by Sarah Pekkanen
Rules of Summer by Anna Philbin

KINDLE PURCHASE
Walking Away by Adriane Boyd
Truth or Dare by Jacqueline Green
The Vintage Teacup Club by Vanessa Greene
In Too Deep by Amanda Grace
But I Love Him by Amanda Grace
Time Riders by Alex Scarrow
Mangled Hearts by Felicia Tatum 

COURTESY OF AUTHOR ALLIANCE
Buan: The Perfect Mortals 
Mechanical by Pauline C. Harris
Ride for Rights by Tara Chevrestt

COURTESY OF NETGALLEY
Forgive Me by Leonard Peacock
How to be a Good Wife by Emma Chapman
The Bookstore by Deborah Meyler