Review: Anything to Have You by Paige Harbison

Release date: January 28th 2014
Publisher: Harlequin Teen
Purchase: Amazon

Synopsis via Goodreads:

Nothing should come between best friends, not even boys. ESPECIALLY not boys.

Natalie and Brooke have had each other's backs forever. Natalie is the quiet one, college bound and happy to stay home and watch old movies. Brooke is the movie—the life of every party, the girl everyone wants to be.

Then it happens—one crazy night that Natalie can't remember and Brooke's boyfriend, Aiden, can't forget. Suddenly there's a question mark in Natalie and Brooke's friendship that tests everything they thought they knew about each other and has both girls discovering what true friendship really means.

*eBook Approved via netgalley

When I started reading Anything to Have You, I was convinced the story would turn out to be a good read. The characters seemed fun-loving, witty, and appealing. Even though it went downhill for me, with the party and Natalie waking up to realize that she'd gotten so wasted, that she blacked out and couldn't remember who she had sex with, because in fact, she knew she did. There are so many things wrong with that. The main thing being: hello? If you got drunk to the point where all logical thinking and clarity flew out the door, and you don't know who took advantage of you, because obviously someone took advantage of your drunken state, then that is in fact rape. I didn't like that such a serious issue was not brought up. If anything, it made the characters seem like that was a norm, like everything about that was cool. It is not. And I found that very disturbing. Still, it wasn't a bad read.

Let's detour from these teenagers a moment to examine their home life. Natalie's father bugs me. There's no way a parent should be that buddy-buddy with their kid and be so happy about them going to parties, where the opposite sex and plenty of alcohol would be. He was a teenager once so of course he should know the deal. And I felt his reaction to her being hungover a bit casual if not oblivious. The stern parent role should have come into play on many occasions, regardless of how smart and responsible he considered his daughter to be. If Natalie had gone out without his permission, I could have accepted that more than him just simply saying, "go ahead. go to this wild party. drink a lot, lose control, black out, then get taken advantage of." 

Aside from that awful event and the way in which it was handled, or rather not handled, Natalie didn't really win me over. She cracked easily under peer pressure, never truly spoke her mind, and basically appeared as a lapdog for her so-called best friend, Brooke. I would have loved for her to be stronger and not so wimpish. Brooke was more of that and then some.

Speaking of the latter, Brooke rubbed me the wrong way since the party as well. In fact, everyone turned out to be off since the party. Anyway, back to the wild flower. Brooke is your usual spoiled girl who loves attention. She's the kind of girl who doesn't care if every single guy in the world loves her, and she gets pissed if one of these guys likes somebody else. Talk about messed up. When you look into her life outside of this, she had issues with her family, which obviously stemmed her need for attention else where, whether it be in drinking or hooking up for the fun of it. She was portrayed in such a trashy way throughout the book that it overwhelmed me. Not only trashy by her grotesque habits, but also in her selfish tendencies towards her boyfriend, deeming their relationship outdated, and also towards the person that's supposed to be her best friend since how long. It took a long time for her to come back down to earth and tap into her real feelings. However, I felt really let down by her character for the most part. When I found out how it really was from the getgo, with Natalie and Aiden, Brooke turned me off even more. Then again, Aiden wasn't so perfect either. I wanted to slap him so bad for putting Natalie through that. Not only did he come off as a rapist from jump, because once again, that whole event didn't seem right to me, I thought he should have told Natalie the truth from the moment he realized she didn't know what really happened. Jerk. No matter how sweet the book tried to make him out to be, he was in my eyes an idiot.

So, what did I like about the story? The pacing, I flew through in no time, and the writing was good. It kept me interested enough to want to finish the book, in hopes that everything would work out. And you know what, even though it enraged me that their reaction to being wasted and passing out was so normal even if they had sex with someone and didn't remember who it was, I thought that reflected on actual issues in the real world. Truth is, teens do sneak off or go with their parents approval to parties, drink a lot, and do end up in situations like that where they simply brush it off. And while I hated how all the characters did was drink, party, drink, hookup, drink, it was somewhat realistic. Even though I was never like that as a teenager, there are kids who really do that. Watch the news. There are realistic elements within this story, no matter how off it mostly was for me.

Review: A Million Little Snowflakes by Logan Byrne

Release date: September 14th 2013
Self-Published
Purchase: Amazon

Synopsis via Goodreads:

Oliver Hurst has always been abnormally normal.

His grades are horrible, his best friend just left for Utah, and he's depressed. His overly religious parents don’t help, especially since they control every facet of his life. One stupid sentence said in desperation gets Oliver tossed in an adolescent psych ward, where his depression and fears become even more of a reality.

When Oliver meets snide, tough girl Lacey Waters he doesn't think his life could get any better, that is, until she becomes the ray of sunshine he has desperately needed on his cloudiest of days.

*Received a ecopy from netgalley

What truly pulled in my attention from start, with humorous remarks and realistic issues, turned somewhat flat as the story progressed. I think I stopped believing the second Oliver blurted out he wanted to kill himself and was immediately whisked off to the hospital by his father. It just seemed too abrupt, and it made me stop and consider that if this was real life, would my parents simply tell me to get up and let's go to the madhouse, or would they actually try to have a conversation with me about whatever I was going through? It was like this for me the more I read the story. Sure Oliver's mother was quite a piece of work and his father was too reserved with her and should speak out more, but I would've liked for them, or even him, to ask Oliver why he wanted to kill himself.

Now on to the hospital. The dynamics of this place was a little hard to convince me, especially when the characters were introduced. Lacey sounded like a tough girl with trust issues at first, but then suddenly she comes in contact with Oliver and starts telling him everything. Wouldn't she be mindful of the fact that this is a complete stranger, regardless if she's attracted to him? Hmm...my feelings about her and even the main character are still rather mixed. Neither rubbed me the right way.

Oliver lost me when his father admitted him. I know he's not entirely depressed or shares some of the extreme psychological issues as the others inside the hospital, but how is he so open to revealing everything about himself the second a doctor asks him to in group sessions or during one on one? And then some of the things he'd say were just too immature for his age, and often times those narration threw me off. Sure he's funny, but not always. Some things were uncalled for.

I'm in no way saying A Million Little Snowflakes was bad. It was an okay read with a few things (as mentioned above) that bugged me. Aside from those things lies a realistic story with great potential had I felt more connected to the characters and possibly if the period had been longer. I do like that the main character found his voice to speak up and express his feelings to his mother, the dictator, and I also like that in such an awkward situation he found love for the first time. Sadly, his rash judgment at the end resulted in quite a disaster for himself. I do like that the story is based on real events and that does make up a bit for the issues I've mentioned before that threw me off. Still, I feel it could haven been much better. 

Review: Awakened (Vampire Awakenings #1) by Brenda K. Davis

Release date: August 1st 2012
Self-Published
Purchase: Amazon

Synopsis via Goodreads:

Traumatized by her past, and struggling to move on from it, Sera has spent the past three years of college hiding herself from the world and content to stay that way. A chance encounter with Liam shatters her sheltered world, leaving her stunned and shaken by the strange feelings and emotions he arises in her, feelings she never thought she would experience and that frighten her in their intensity.

Harboring a dark and deadly secret of his own, Liam knows that he should stay away from Sera; that he will only bring her more hurt, but he is irresistibly drawn to her and unable to deny himself the pleasure that only she can bring to him. But when their pasts collide with their present, and Liam’s true nature is revealed, will their love for each other be enough, or will they be torn apart forever? 

This book contains...sex.

*Got for free on Amazon Kindle

Honestly, I don't know where to begin my review, probably because I have so many mixed emotions about the book. The main thing is that for a vampire story, I expected a lot more vampiric action. The first half dragged a bit, focusing on raging desire instead of establishing why this was a fantasy book to begin with. The story had so much potential to be great, but sadly it didn't give me the fireworks...oh, I should add there was plenty going on between the sheets of the main characters so if you're sensitive to intimacy on overload then you might want to pass on this one. 

There were good points to Awakened, like Sera's roommate Kathleen, and Liam's friends Mike and Jack. I felt like I didn't get to develop a connection with Doug, Danielle, or David: the 3 Ds. As for Sera and Liam, I'm iffy. While I did like them in the beginning chapters, I got put off the more I read. There were times I was utterly annoyed by Sera and felt she should relax some of her dramatic reactions. Where Liam's concerned, I would think he was crazy just like Kathleen with the way he acted. I can understand the whole soulmate thing and having an intense need to protect and mark the one you love, but wow, he freaked me out...a lot.

The story wasn't bad.I liked the writing, and yes, even how descriptive the heated scenes were, I just wish it could have been more fantasy aspect from start, and I wish I could have connected more with Sera and Liam. Even their romance didn't pull me in. It's suppose to be instant in their case, but it just couldn't convince me. Still, I'd like to give the series a chance, with the hopes it'll improve on the intrigue and get me hooked.