That Time I Joined the Circus by J.J. Howard

That Time I Joined the Circus 
Author: J. J. Howard
Pages: 259
Published: April 1st, 2013 by Point

Summary: Lexi Ryan just ran away to join the circus, but not on purpose.

A music-obsessed, slightly snarky New York City girl, Lexi is on her own. After making a huge mistake--and facing a terrible tragedy--Lexi has no choice but to track down her long-absent mother. Rumor has it that Lexi's mom is somewhere in Florida with a traveling circus.

When Lexi arrives at her new, three-ring reality, her mom isn't there . . . but her destiny might be. Surrounded by tigers, elephants, and trapeze artists, Lexi finds some surprising friends and an even more surprising chance at true love. She even lucks into a spot as the circus's fortune teller, reading tarot cards and making predictions.

But then Lexi's ex-best friend from home shows up, and suddenly it's Lexi's own future that's thrown into question.

With humor, wisdom, and a dazzlingly fresh voice, this debut reminds us of the magic of circus tents, city lights, first kisses, and the importance of an excellent playlist.

MY REVIEW 

That Time I Joined the Circus is a story of Lexi who gets a call one evening that would change her life. She is resorted to finding her long lost mother. Last address she had was a circus down in Florida.  To her disappointment and lack of surprise, her mother isn't there.  Lexi joins the circus that her mother left. she makes friends, learns to cop with a tragedy as well as cope with a bad decision she made before leaving NYC. 

There is a lot I could say about this book and how much it disappointed me. It had such a great promise, but it did not deliver.  If you want full details, you can always contact me and ask. I do not wish to bash the writer, but I will say the cover is gorgeous. 

Disconnected by Lisa M. Cronkhite

Disconnected
By Lisa M Cronkhite
Pages 200
Expected Publish: June 3rd 2014 by Poisoned Pencil
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Notes: This book was given to me through NetGalley for an honest review.

Summary: Seventeen-year-old Milly has a huge problem on her hands.  She is being bullied by Amelia Norris. Day in and day out, Amelia torments Milly and even threatens to hurt her, but she can’t tell anyone—not a soul.  Milly’s reasoning—she does not want anyone to know where her tormentor lives.  They only share one thing in common.  Both co-exist as one in the same body. Milly is so disconnected from her past that she feels compelled to find out what truly happened to her when her parents were still alive.  After a mysterious fire, she and Grandpa George move into Aunt Rachel's Victorian home where Milly then begins to unravel puzzling clues to her family history. Through dreams and scattered memories, Milly journals her breaking story, trying to cope by putting the shattered pieces back together, all the while resisting with her inner demon.  Amelia is determined to cut Milly out of the real world—literally.Milly starts to wonder who her real family is after stumbling across Aunt Rachel’s notebook—having the intuitive sense that something terribly awful is missing.  All she had thought to be true now seems like one big lie.

MY REVIEW 

This story is about Milly who suffers black outs and past demons that she is trying to figure out what happened. She is also bullied by a girl named Amelia. Amelia thinks the worst of Milly and she struggles with her harsh criticize daily and at times Milly tries to break free of Amelia and sometimes those lead to dangerous things.  

I could not finish this book, sadly. It had so much potential. Dealing with depression myself I often read these kinds of books because it's a good thing for teens to read about and how a lot of them do struggle with this daily. Lisa had a great idea. Something was off. I wish I could put my finger on it, but this goes in my DNF pile.

The Last Summer by Judith Kinghorn

The Last Summer 

By Judith Kinghorn
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Published: December 31st 2012 by NAL/Penguin USA
Pages: 433
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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.

{Arc Review} And We Stay by Jenny Hubbard

Title: And We Stay
Author: Jenny Hubbard
Pages: 240
Published: January 28th 2014 by Delacorte Press

* This was given to me by NetGalley for an honest review

Summary: When high school senior Paul Wagoner walks into his school library with a stolen gun, he threatens his girlfriend Emily Beam, then takes his own life. In the wake of the tragedy, an angry and guilt-ridden Emily is shipped off to boarding school in Amherst, Massachusetts, where she encounters a ghostly presence who shares her name. The spirit of Emily Dickinson and two quirky girls offer helping hands, but it is up to Emily to heal her own damaged self.

This inventive story, told in verse and in prose, paints the aftermath of tragedy as a landscape where there is good behind the bad, hope inside the despair, and springtime under the snow.

MY REVIEW

Unfortunately, I could not finish this novel. This subject is not written a lot in YA and it should be addressed. However, when reading And We Stay, I felt that Emily's voice was much younger than a 17 year old. She felt more like a middle schooler. I give props to Hubbard for tackling a subject that is difficult, and as mentioned.

The Parts I Remember by A.K. Mills

Title: The Parts I Remember

Author: A.K. Mills

Pages: 236

Published: March 1st 2013 

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Notes: This novel was given to me from the author for an honest review. 

Summary: Act first. Think never. Remember nothing.

Welcome to Kelly Rockport’s existence at Haysville University, where responsibility is just an elective. After all, fake IDs, alter egos, and one-night stands are all part of the college experience, right? So what if she blacks out from time to time? Memory is overrated.

When freshman year lasts about as long as a one-night stand and is quickly followed by the Year of the Blackout, Kelly projects junior year to be nothing shy of amazing. But as shots, beer, cocaine and men mesh together in an intoxicating haze, Kelly’s reckless ways get her into serious trouble. The only problem is, she can't remember what happened.

As she hovers along the edge of consciousness, Kelly forces herself to think past her pain to piece together the shards of her life. This is her story, told in her words: The Parts I Remember.

MY REVIEW 

The Parts I Remember starts off with Kelly entering college with the Dean stating that one in three do not finish their college education. Of course being freshman, Kelly and the other freshman laugh this off. You watch Kelly get into the party scene, and sleep with random guys. 

Things start to get out of control for Kelly when she hits  her junior year. Shots are being done constantly and the experiment with hard drugs come into play. Her sister and her boyfriend don't buy into Kelly's act of partying which puts a thorn in their relationship. 

Tradgey strikes towards the end of the book, and we see where Kelly's drinking and partying plays an important part and how it effects everyone. 

 This was my first 'new young adult', and I rather enjoyed it. While I couldn't relate to Kelly since I'm not a partier myself I did enjoy her as a character. She was likeable from the start, and kept true to herself in towards the end. You started to wonder what it was going to take to get her to change her ways. 

The writing was wonderful, and I was hooked. It's a good read for those who like the party scene, but it's also a good read to show how your choices effect other people. I also liked that it wasn't preachy. Sure there is a moral to the book, but it wasn't smack in your face like some of them can be. Everything meshed perfectly. Very enjoyable. 

 

Notes from Ghost Town from Kate Ellison

Title: Notes From Ghost TownAuthor: Kate Ellison
Pages: 336
Published: February 12th 2013 by Egmont USA
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Summary: Summary: They say first love never dies...

From critically acclaimed author Kate Ellison comes a heartbreaking mystery of mental illness, unspoken love, and murder. When sixteen-year-old artist Olivia Tithe is visited by the ghost of her first love, Lucas Stern, it’s only through scattered images and notes left behind that she can unravel the mystery of his death.

There’s a catch: Olivia has gone colorblind, and there’s a good chance she’s losing her mind completely—just like her mother did. How else to explain seeing (and falling in love all over again with) someone who isn’t really there?

With the murder trial looming just nine days away, Olivia must follow her heart to the truth, no matter how painful. It’s the only way she can save herself.

MY REVIEW 

Notes from Ghost Town is a story about Olivia “Liver” Tithe who goes color blind in a dramatic event and also is able to see ghosts. The story starts off with you knowing that Olivia’s mother is guilty and waiting trial of the death of Olivia’s best friend and first love Lucas Stern. Olivia faces the days before the trial struggling with the idea of her best friend and first love’s death and the idea that her mom is the one who killed him because not only was she seen at the crime scene but she also confessed. It’s a lot for Olivia to swallow. 

I loved Notes from Ghost Town from the start of the book to the finish of it. Olivia had her moments of being a little annoying, but who could blame her? She just lost two major people in her life, and her dad is already moving on with another woman. It’s hard for her to accept. The only thing that keeps her going is her new step sister. I loved every relationship in this book from the relationship of Lucas and Olivia, Olivia and her step sister to Olivia and the love interest that she begins to have feelings for. 

The book can be a tad slow at some parts, but once you get towards the end everything falls into place perfectly. Things happen for reasons and they are set up. This is one that I will keep in my own book collection, and possibly read again. 

 

Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock by Matthew Quick

Title: Forgive me, Leonard Peacock

Author: Matthew Quick

Pages: 288

Published: August 13th 2013 by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers 

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Notes: This was given to me curtious of Little, Brown Books for Young Readers and Netgalley for an honest review. Thank you. 

Summary: In addition to the P-38, there are four gifts, one for each of my friends. I want to say good-bye to them properly. I want to give them each something to remember me by. To let them know I really cared about them and I'm sorry I couldn't be more than I was—that I couldn't stick around—and that what's going to happen today isn't their fault.

Today is Leonard Peacock's birthday. It is also the day he hides a gun in his backpack. Because today is the day he will kill his former best friend, and then himself, with his grandfather's P-38 pistol.

But first he must say good-bye to the four people who matter most to him: his Humphrey Bogart-obsessed next-door neighbor, Walt; his classmate Baback, a violin virtuoso; Lauren, the Christian homeschooler he has a crush on; and Herr Silverman, who teaches the high school's class on the Holocaust. Speaking to each in turn, Leonard slowly reveals his secrets as the hours tick by and the moment of truth approaches.

In this riveting book, acclaimed author Matthew Quick unflinchingly examines the impossible choices that must be made—and the light in us all that never goes out.

MY REVIEW

Forgive me, Leonard Peacock is a story about Leonard who has a plan of killing his former best friend Mason and then killing himself by the time the story finishes. In the process he gives gifts to those that meant something to him. You find out through the stories of his friendships what lead up to the final moments. 

I couldn’t finish this book. I love gritty teen novels like this one, and it was written well however I could have dealt without the obsession with the Nazis or the jumping back and forth between future letters to the present Leonard from the future Leonard in a way that spoiled the ending for me. If he’s writing a letter from the future, you know the ending. 

I put this book down at 37% and couldn’t read any more.