[Review] Tonight the Streets Are Ours by Leila Sales

Tonight the Streets Are Ours by Leila Sales
Published September 15th, 2015
Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)

Young Adult Contemporary

Premise:From the author of This Song Will Save Your Life comes a funny and relatable book about the hazards of falling for a person you haven't met yet.Seventeen-year-old Arden Huntley is recklessly loyal. Taking care of her loved ones is what gives Arden purpose in her life and makes her feel like she matters. But she's tired of being loyal to people who don't appreciate her—including her needy best friend and her absent mom. Arden finds comfort in a blog she stumbles upon called "Tonight the Streets Are Ours," the musings of a young New York City writer named Peter. When Peter is dumped by the girlfriend he blogs about, Arden decides to take a road trip to see him.During one crazy night out in NYC filled with parties, dancing, and music—the type of night when anything can happen, and nearly everything does—Arden discovers that Peter isn't exactly who she thought he was. And maybe she isn't exactly who she thought she was, either.

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Review

My thoughts:

I'm so sad that this book wasn't what I was expecting... I was highly anticipating its release for months and now I just feel a little deflated. It wasn't the worst I've read, but it wasn't satisfying either. 

The story starts off really slow and at first it goes from present to past to "distant" past to present again, which was a little bit confusing but I was still following. Then there's a lot of nothingness. like a good 150 pages of nothingness. Then things starts happening (finally), and for a second it was all kind of okay and there everything went to hell and we end up pretty much where we started. (Spoiler: plus a message about love, minus a boyfriend. Select the text if you want to read it).

The premise of this book sounds way better than it actually is and I completely fell for it. I'm going to make a comparison of my expectations going into the book (from the premise described in Goodreads) vs what the book actually was, so I can explain my disappointment to you. But beware, knowing what to actually expect from this story might be the biggest spoiler. 

What I expected: An effortlessly kind main character who loves her friends and family and does what she can to make them happy, because it's just what comes natural to her. 

What I got: A main character, Arden, who feels the need to point out every single time she's been kind to someone and bitching about how they don't appreciate how nice she is and complaining that she can't do anything but being nice, because that's the only thing that's special about HER, so they better notice that she's unbelievably kind! 

What I expected: A best friend who was needy and always asking for favors of our main character and our main character always saying yes, because of their friendship.

What I got: This is not how friendship works! Arden was always coming to Lindsay's rescue just because that made her feel important, not even because Lindsey ever asked anything of her or that she really needed her to save the day every time! I'll admit that Lindsay was always getting herself in trouble, she never asked Arden to help her get out of it, I didn't even feel like she expected her to do it, but the problem was that she let Arden save her ass over and over again, no matter what the consequences were for her friend. So, overall, we have two pretty crappy friends, in my opinion: one doesn't know how to say "thank you, but I made a stupid decision, so I'll be the one to deal with it" and the other one was always just waiting for her friend to screw up so she could save the day and feel better about herself. The whole relationship seemed unhealthy to me, but what bothered me the most was Arden being extremely patronizing towards her so called BFF, like she was so superior... Aghh!

What I expected: The blog platform taking a central spot during the story, because that's what made this book so appealing in the first place. 

What I got: Bits and pieces of blogging here and there in the midst of an ocean of whinnying from the main character. 

What I expected: An actual relationship between the main character and the blogger.

What I got: Arden stalking Peter for more than half the book. Peter didn't even know she existed -because she never even left a comment in the blog- until she shows up at his workplace on a whim, after being disappointed (yet again) by her boyfriend.  Here's her reasoning: "Peter just broke up with the love of his life, he doesn't know it yet, because he doesn't know me at all, but he needs me, not just anyone, but ME. So I must drive over six hours in my car that is barely holding itself together to get to New York, without telling anyone but my friend (who's coming with me, by the way, because she doesn't answer to her parents...) where I'm going"... Flawless logic! Especially considering he could turn out to be a psychopath!

What I expected: Peter, having a secret or being slightly different that he appeared, but overall still a decent guy.

What I got: Peter being a complete self-centered, entitled asshole who had lied his way into getting a fan base and a publishing contract.

What I expected: A few of the supporting characters being kind of selfish and self-involved but that being okay, because nobody is perfect.

What I got: Every single person in Arden's life being completely and utterly self-centered. Her dad, her best friend, her mom, her boyfriend, freaking Peter, and of course, HERSELF!

So... when I say this wasn't what I was expecting, I absolutely mean it. 

My lowest rating is 1/5, and I seriously considered giving it just that, but I'm giving an extra point because, at the end, the main character seemed to realize that her behavior wasn't right even though to me, she still sounded as if she was doing it for everyone else and not just for herself.

“I used to think that loving somebody meant sacrificing anything for them. I thought it meant writing them a blank cheque. I thought it meant that you would die without each other. But it turns out that death and a broken heart are not he same.

These days, I think that love is not so dramatic as all that. Maybe loving somebody means simply they bring out the best in you, and you bring out the best in them - so that together, you are always the best possible versions of yourselves.” 

Overall, and simply put, I would not recommend it.

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About the author

Leila Sales was born in 1984 and grew up outside of Boston, Massachusetts. She graduated from the University of Chicago with a degree in psychology in 2006. Now she lives in Brooklyn, New York, and works in the mostly glamorous world of children's book publishing. Leila spends most of her time thinking about sleeping, kittens, dance parties, and stories that she wants to write. 

[Review] Everneath by Brodi Ashton

Everneath by Brodi Ashton
Everneath #1
Published July 24th, 2012 
Balzer + Bray
Young Adult Paranormal Fantasy

Premise:
Last spring, Nikki Beckett vanished, sucked into an underworld known as the Everneath. Now she’s returned—to her old life, her family, her boyfriend—before she’s banished back to the underworld . . . this time forever. She has six months before the Everneath comes to claim her, six months for good-byes she can’t find the words for, six months to find redemption, if it exists.
Nikki longs to spend these precious months forgetting the Everneath and trying to reconnect with her boyfriend, Jack, the person most devastated by her disappearance—and the one person she loves more than anything. But there’s just one problem: Cole, the smoldering immortal who enticed her to the Everneath in the first place, has followed Nikki home. Cole wants to take over the throne in the underworld and is convinced Nikki is the key to making it happen. And he’ll do whatever it takes to bring her back, this time as his queen.
As Nikki’s time on the Surface draws to a close and her relationships begin slipping from her grasp, she is forced to make the hardest decision of her life: find a way to cheat fate and remain on the Surface with Jack or return to the Everneath and become Cole’s queen.

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Review

My thoughts:

Warning: This review contains a lot of sarcasm and a bit more than the usual amount of swear words. If you're easily offended by that kind of language maybe you should stay clear of this review. 

This was so not what I was expecting. This series is really popular and I've had the first book on my shelf for what seems like forever, so maybe I've been building up my expectations regarding this book for way too long.

The main problem I had while reading this book was that I spent at least half the time bored out of my mind because nothing was happening and for the life of me I couldn't come up with a single reason for me to care about the characters. The whole ambiance is really depressing and I had to force myself to keep reading in multiple occasions so it just felt like a chore to me. 

The world in this story is supposed to be a mixture between Greek and Egyptian mythology surrounding the Underworld or the Underneath as it's called here. It's kind of complicated and I don't fully understand how everything correlates to those ancient myths, because we only get explanations at the beginning and at the end of the book in a way that feels more like info-dump than true world development. Here's the basics of what I'm able to make out of it: The Underneath is kind of a parallel world where time goes much faster than in the real world, and where the immortal creatures live, the Everliving. But these "people" have found that the only way for them to obtain immortality is by feeding off of the emotions of the mortals. So, from time to time, the Everlivings have to take a Forfeit, which is like a human sacrifice of some sort. Most of the Forfeits die in the process, but a few of them manage to survive having lost most of themselves to the Feed, only if you are absurdly especial, you can manage to escape the Feed with your memories and some essential parts of yourself intact.  The survivors are given 6 months to return to the Surface (the real-contemporary world). When the 6 months are up they are taken back to the Tunnels, which is a part of the Underneath that acts kind of like a power station, where the humans are considered batteries of emotion for the Everlivings.

Nikki, the protagonist of this story, agreed to be taken to the Underneath so she could be free of the pain of her mother's death and the book starts right when she's being released from the Feed for her 6 months on the Surface. She is of course one of those ridiculously especial people who escapes the whole thing a little emotionally battered but otherwise still herself. This rare quality makes her really desirable, and the Everliving who took her as Forfeit, Cole, now wants her to become an Everliving and live with him in the Everneath. But Nikki, despite being emotionally drained, hasn't been able to let go of her former boyfriend, Jack, in all the time she spent in the Everneath, and she's determined to see him again before the Tunnels claim her back. 

First of all, I couldn't believe that after six months of being "away", Nikki's father watched her daughter come home and didn't even asked for an explanation about where she'd been all that time. Even if she left in the middle of a fight between them, you would think her father would've looked for her like a mad man and, of course, he would be relieved of having her back and unharmed, but at least you would think he would be pissed that she left without telling anyone, because that's just how parenting works. But no, he didn't even asked where she'd gone, which turned out to be really convenient since Nikki had no way of explaining it without getting herself committed to a mental health facility or lying her butt off. He is the major, for fuck sake! Someone in his position could have had the town turned inside out while looking for his daughter and at least, for the sake of appearances it's what everyone would've expected of him. But no, of course there's no mention of him actually ever looking for her. But now that she's back he's concerned about what others might think of him, so he makes her do community service because that looks good. WHAT? How does that make any sense!?

Now... Having Nikki drained of any emotion for half the book was a mixture between being completely and utterly depressed and trying to relate to a door at the same time. Yeah, painful and pointless. I could at least tell that she wasn't a terrible human being and was actually trying to do the right thing, but that is not nearly enough to make me care for her. 

Also, the book is written so the story goes back and forth between the present and the past which only confused me further. I think that if this was written in chronological order, maybe I would have had an easier time caring for the characters, but as it was, so convoluted and chopped up, I could barely tell if the plot was actually moving forward or not.

Cole, the Everliving that was trying to get Nikki to go with him to the Everneath, was the most annoying, self-serving bastard. Every girl wants him because he's a sexy musician and always looks so cool... Am I supposed to find sexy that he threatens to harm/kill Nikki's family if she doesn't do what he wants? Isn't it hot that he stalks her everywhere she goes? Am I supposed to believe he has feelings for her when he tries to screw her over every chance he gets so he can have what he wants? I hated him, and every time there was a hint at something happening between him and Nikki I was like: "If she actually falls for him, I'm SO done with this shit!"

Jack, Nikki's boyfriend was an okay dude, kind and patient but nothing especial, so I didn't fall for him either. Which left me with absolutely no characters to actually cheer for.

Overall, this was a huge disappointment. I believe this story had a lot of potential to be great, and that's what kept me reading until the end, but even if the concepts were unique and interesting ones, the execution didn't do justice to the ideas and the end result wasn't anywhere near what could have been. I respect that other people have found this book worth their time, but I would have rather spend my time reading something else. I can't say I'd recommend it, because it's just not my thing and I'm not going to continue this series.

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About the author

Brodi Ashton writes Young Adult novels. She lives for chocolate covered cinnamon bears. She loves Diet Coke. Her debut book EVERNEATH (the first in a trilogy) came out January 24, 2012 with Balzer and Bray (HarperCollins). The sequel EVERBOUND came out January 22, 2013 and the final installment, EVERTRUE, came out January of 2014. All three are available in paperback.

[Multi-Review] The Selection: Books #1, #2, #3 & #4 by Kiera Cass

The Selection by Kiera Cass
The Selection #1
Published April 24th, 2012
HarperTeen
Young Adult Dystopia

Premise:
For thirty-five girls, the Selection is the chance of a lifetime. The opportunity to escape the life laid out for them since birth. To be swept up in a world of glittering gowns and priceless jewels. To live in a palace and compete for the heart of gorgeous Prince Maxon.
But for America Singer, being Selected is a nightmare. It means turning her back on her secret love with Aspen, who is a caste below her. Leaving her home to enter a fierce competition for a crown she doesn't want. Living in a palace that is constantly threatened by violent rebel attacks.
Then America meets Prince Maxon. Gradually, she starts to question all the plans she's made for herself—and realizes that the life she's always dreamed of may not compare to a future she never imagined.

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Review

My thoughts:

I honestly didn't think I was going to enjoy this one as much as I did. I was expecting it to be pretty mild and for some reason I thought of it as historical fiction (plot twist: it's not!) which I don't really enjoy for the most part. But I was surprised at how fast I became drawn to the story. I'd read other reviews that said the beginning was kind of slow so I was prepared to hate it and I started reading it thinking of it as little more than a chore.

Oh, boy was I wrong! America's voice is so captivating I couldn't put this thing down, I read it in one sitting. I was so curious about the world she lived in and her secret relationship with Aspen that I didn't feel like the beginning was slow at all. Things were happening, at least in my eyes. Maybe it wasn't action-packed or anything, but it was fairly good for a beginning. 

The thing is this is the opposite of a chore, it's like what you do when you're supposed to be doing chores, to avoid doing them, you know what I mean? Like you know you shouldn't be doing it, giving that you have so much stuff to do (important stuff!) but you can't help it, it sucks you in.

This story takes place in what would be the United States after several World Wars, but now it's called Illéa. People are divided in castes designated by numbers from One being the royal family, all the way through Eight, being the outcasts. These castes are hereditary and determined pretty much what kind of life a person will have, their profession and social status.

America Singer is a Five, she's in the artists caste. She's a musician as well as her mother, while her father and little sister are painters and her little brother doesn't really know if he's any good at anything. The Singers are not the worst off, but they definitely struggle to make ends meet and their jobs don't provide a stable enough source of income to sustain a family of five the whole year round. So when, America receives a letter informing her that she's in the right age category to take part in The Selection, her family is so excited they can barely contain themselves.

The Selection is a contest hosted by the royal family, when a prince comes of age, in the hopes of finding the new princess of Illéa. In this contest, a girl from each province, no matter which caste she's from, is chosen to go live at the palace and mingle with the other contestants and especially, with the prince himself, and her family receives a generous compensation while she's away. As the prince gets to know them, he's supposed to narrow the list down until he decides whom he will marry. This whole process is televised to the whole country, so everyone can see him court the girls and hopefully fall in love. It's pretty much like The Bachelor or some similar TV shows out there.

America didn't want to enter the contest in the first place. She had dreams of her own. She had been dating Aspen, a Six, in secret for a while, and she was in love with him, she wanted to marry him and she didn't care that he was of a lower caste than she was. But her family kept pushing her and so did Aspen, arguing that he wouldn't be able to forgive himself if she missed the opportunity of having a better life than the one he could provide for her (which was even worse than what she was used to). I hated America's mom for being so pushy, I hated the way she manipulated America and tried to make her feel guilty for wanting something for herself. It was her responsibility to take care of her family, not America's and I couldn't stand her snob-ish ways. 

America is a complex character. She has strong beliefs about justice and what's fair, and that can be her best and worst quality at The Selection competition. She has a sweet side to her that will make you love her and want to be her friend. But also, she doubts herself a lot and ends up making poor decisions more than a couple of times and that irritated the crap out of me. 

Since America's the main character you could say there's a love triangle going on. But taking into account what the Selection is, you have a lot more combinations possible for a couple. Let's talk about some of the most relevant characters in this book.

Aspen, America's secret boyfriend was a douche at the beginning and broke America's heart and mine in the process. I hated the way he handled things when America was announced as one the Selected. His way of thinking about life and his sense of pride were profoundly sexist and that prevented me from liking him as a love interest. I'm not saying this way of thinking is only his or that he's the one to blame for it, but for me he embodied in a way and at least at the beginning of the book, the way men thought of women as inferior to them. 

I really liked Prince Maxon, he was really sweet, even though he was kind of oblivious and there were scenes in which I really wanted to punch him in the face for not having a clue about life outside of his bubble. But again, it's not like I could blame it all on him, because that's the way he was raised and I finished the book thinking that he and America could be great together, because they complemented each other.

Among the Selected, Marlee is worth mentioning, since she's like America's best friend and I thought she was really sweet to her and I really liked that America had someone who wasn't out to get her during the competition. On the other hand, there's Celeste, who's a complete bitch just for the sake of being one. I thought this one was the most stereotypical character in the whole book and I didn't like her at all. She felt really flat, no backstory, just a spoiled rich girl with no redeeming qualities. I wish Maxon would've been ballsy enough to kick her out as soon as she started pulling her stunts to try and eliminate the competition.

Moving on to the writing. I thought the writing was pretty simple but yet really captivating, I couldn't put the book down even though there were many moments that had me rolling my eyes. I don't really know if it was the plot or the writing but somehow, I felt like I was watching one of those TV shows that you know is not the best, but still can't stop watching it. 

The ending was crappy, I felt like we were in the middle of the book when it was suddenly over. It made me want to pick up the next book immediately but also I felt cheated. 

Overall this book is pretty good. Not because of excellent writing or world building, but the sheer drama of what's going on will have you glued to the pages because even though you're hating some of the decisions the characters are making, and you want to yell at half the cast, the story is still entertaining and you want to know how it ends. I would recommend it, but I'd strongly advice that you lower your expectations before going into it. 

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The Elite by Kiera Cass

The Selection #2

Published April 23rd, 2013

HarperTeen

Young Adult Dystopia

Premise: The Selection began with thirty-five girls.Now with the group narrowed down to the six Elite, the competition to win Prince Maxon's heart is fiercer than ever—and America is still struggling to decide where her heart truly lies. Is it with Maxon, who could make her life a fairy tale? Or with her first love, Aspen?America is desperate for more time. But the rest of the Elite know exactly what they want—and America's chance to choose is about to slip away.

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Review

My thoughts:

This book made question my life decisions, especially my decision of picking up this series in the first place. I know I wasn't completely sold on the characters in the previous book, but this one made me hate them all and I was about to put it down and be done with this series for good on multiple occasions. 

This books picks up right where the previous one left off. Now there's only 6 girls competing for Maxon. America is one of them and so are Marlee and Celeste. But now there's also Kriss, Elise and Natalie and I thought we would get to know them all a little bit better.

With this, I hoped that we would get a bit more about Celeste and maybe she would stop being this one-dimensional character, and we would learn why she's how she is. But oh no! She's worse than before if you could even imagine that. And there still are no reasons why she's a bitch, we just have to accept that she is. 

The other girls also felt kinda flat. Like, take Kriss for example, she was okay, but I felt like she didn't have anything that would make her stand out. She was sweet I guess, but so were a lot of the other girls and for the life of me I couldn't find a plausible reason for Maxon to have kept her over them. The same with Natalie, she was completely forgetable, nothing especial about her and I even had to look up her name to write this review. Elise I got. I didn't like her, but I understood why she needed to stay since she had important connections as well as Celeste. 

The romance between Maxon and America in this book was all of two scenes and the rest was just drama and fighting and yelling. I hated Maxon during the book. I know that he had some good moments before, that he could be kind, but in this book he was so oblivious, so self-absorbed that I didn't want America to end up with him, because I knew he would keep breaking her heart over and over again, every time he put duty or appearances over her or what was right. I didn't understand why he would spend so much time with other girls if he truly just loved America. 

And America wasn't much better. She kept whynning about Maxon not paying her enough attention, but she was still sneaking around to see Aspen. I even liked Aspen better than Maxon in this book for how much time he spent with America, at least with him it was clear that America was the only girl he had eyes for, unlike Maxon. 

Overall, the whole book was ridiculous. The decision making was awful. Some of the things Maxon did were not something you just take in stride and say "it's okay, let's move past this" as he expected America to do. The explanations and the thought process behind some of their actions (America's and Maxon's) were completely absurd and didn't make sense at all. Then at the end in one of the big arguments they had, he dared say he didn't trust her! Are you fucking kidding me?! How could he be so inconsequential?! He knew everything that was happening and didn't do anything, didn't even thought of telling America. I lost all my respect for him in this book and I just didn't care for him at all by the end of it. 

This book was a complete disaster but I can't deny that even if it made me completely furious and I didn't agree with anything of what was happening I still got through it in one sitting. It entertained me even if it was completely ridiculous, maybe because of it. And now I'm continuing the series only because I want to see how it all will end up. 

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The One by Kiera Cass

The Selection #3

Published May 6th, 2014

HarperTeen

Young Adult Dystopia

Premise:The time has come for one winner to be crowned.When she was chosen to compete in the Selection, America never dreamed she would find herself anywhere close to the crown—or to Prince Maxon's heart. But as the end of the competition approaches, and the threats outside the palace walls grow more vicious, America realizes just how much she stands to lose—and how hard she'll have to fight for the future she wants.

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Review

My thoughts: 

This is the last book of this series in which America is the protagonist. I enjoyed it a bit more than the disastrous second installment but it was far from perfect. 

As I expected, this book picked up exactly where the second one left off. America is packing her things and preparing herself for leaving the Palace after her speech about getting rid of the castes was aired on national television and everything went to hell. 

As you could probably guess she doesn't end up going home just yet. She stays to fight another battle in the Palace. But now it's not just Maxon who doubts her, but also the King seriously hates her guts and is willing to do everything in his power to get rid of her. 

There's only four girls in this book, but it is fairly clear since the beginning that the final decision would be between America and Kriss. Celeste is still there somehow and now we do get to her a little bit better, but I don't think her backstory made any difference at this point, she's still a bitch. In this book we finally get to find out the true motives of each of the Elite girls for wanting to win the Selection. 

There was plenty of drama in this book too. Not only romantic drama, but also this one is the most political of the series and there's a lot of political drama. The rebels are freaking everywhere and Maxon has a lot to deal with in that sense.

But the romantic drama is still there. Maxon is still going on and on about not being sure of America. And I get it, I mean I know she's been seeing Aspen on the side, but he doesn't so I don't see why is he complaining, really... They both had made so many mistakes and hurt each other really badly, it's like every time they open their mouths you can expect a fight, quite literally in fact. 

I was disgusted by the first romantic scene in this book. America lost every last trace of sympathy and respect I had for her when she sunk to Celeste's level. And Maxon was so cruel to her. Their whole relationship drove me insane for the most part, it was ridiculous how they would get mad at each other for the tiniest things and they they would yelled and stomp their feet like little kids and then just walk away without having solved anything at all. They got so caught up in their own pride that they refused to say "I love you" before the other one said it, and that was like half of the book. There were cute scenes, like the one in the rain, but it was mostly fighting and finger pointing and I just couldn't get over the fact that the book was about to end and America still hadn't told Maxon about Aspen.

In this book we get to see the king's true colors. We suspected he was an ass since the beginning obviously but now we really know he is ruthless, always trying to tear America down because she represents the change he doesn't want. But if we're being honest she doesn't make it easy on herself. I understand of principles, but it's like she's always asking for trouble,  it's frustrating as hell! Like come on! You know he's going to kill you if you pull one more stunt and she goes and does it again... She must have no brain, that's the only explanation.

The ending was fine I guess. But I felt like it was too easy. They never had to actually deal with their issues and got kind of a free pass and  forgot about everything that had happened like it was nothing. 

I don't even know why I still like this series. Seriously is beyond me how can I find this entertaining when there's so much that is wrong in these books. But I do. I can't put them down, I've read the three books in two days and I'm going into the next one completely resigned. I actually like this series despite its awfulness or maybe because of it, as I have said before.

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The Heir by Kiera Cass

The Selection #4

Published May 5th, 2015

HarperTeen

Young Adult Dystopia

Premise: Princess Eadlyn has grown up hearing endless stories about how her mother and father met. Twenty years ago, America Singer entered the Selection and won the heart of Prince Maxon—and they lived happily ever after. Eadlyn has always found their fairy-tale story romantic, but she has no interest in trying to repeat it. If it were up to her, she'd put off marriage for as long as possible.But a princess's life is never entirely her own, and Eadlyn can't escape her very own Selection—no matter how fervently she protests.Eadlyn doesn't expect her story to end in romance. But as the competition begins, one entry may just capture Eadlyn's heart, showing her all the possibilities that lie in front of her . . . and proving that finding her own happily ever after isn't as impossible as she's always thought.

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Review

My thoughts:

This book tells the story of next generation, after Maxon and America got married and became King and Queen. It's told from Eadlyn's point of view. She's their daughter and the heir to the throne.

A lot of things have changed since we left Maxon and America in the previous book. They have had four children, the castes have been eliminated and now the first born in the royal family is entitled to be the next ruler, even if she's a woman. And Eadlyn was born a few minutes before her twin Ahren, so she will be the next queen. 

Eadlyn has grown up knowing everything that's expected of her and also very conscious of what the country used to be like with the castes system. Her parents have made sure to tell her of all the adjustment that had been made so the country could work without the castes. She knows it all has been hard work, but there's still people unhappy with the government. So it's no surprise when she doesn't understand why people can't just be happy already. 

The problem still stands. Despite their best efforts Maxon and America haven't been able to make everyone happy, and their people are starting to rebel. They need a distraction while they figure out the next step, so they ask of Eadlyn what they swore they would never do. Eadlyn has to host her own Selection. 

Of course, Eadlyn says "hell to the no" as soon as they bring it up, since she considers herself an independent woman who doesn't need a man to rule her country. But no matter how much she protests, it's been already decided and she must go through with it. But she negotiates a full set of new conditions while she secretly plans to get rid of all her candidates before things get out of her control. She will put on a good show but there is no way she'll actually get married to any of those guys.

I didn't like Eadlyn at first. She comes off as really bratty and self-centered. She takes on the worst parts of the job of being a princess and let that govern her life. She's kind of blinded to the reality of others and is pretty oblivious of the message she sends with all of her antics because she thinks she's entitled to do whatever she pleases. We get to see a few cracks in the armor throughout the book and the whole experience is pretty amazing. 

I really like Kile and Henry and Erik as possible love interest material. And I'm really looking 

forward to see how the dates go in the next books. I know we've had some dates in this book, but Eadlyn's heart wasn't really into them. Even then, some of the dates have gone pretty well, while others have turned out to be completely disastrous, you never know which Eadlyn you're gonna get in each date, though, so they are all pretty interesting and kind of funny.

I love that we get to see a little of America and Maxon, and that they seem to have left their childish selves in the past. But I don't like that they've fallen too much into protocol and are no longer as vivid and fresh as they were in the novels before this one. I understand they've grown up and are now more mature and I really appreciate that, but now they're like in the other end of the spectrum. I still hoped to see that different kind of royal life for them and they just seem to be more of the same, like they've been transformed into the stereotypical royal family. Puaj!

I loved Kaden and Olsten, they were adorable and I hope we get to know them a bit better in the next book. I didn't like Ahren that much though. He was protective of Eadlyn and that was cute, and I understood that he was in love, but I felt like he was a bit of a coward for some of the things he did and that his promises of being always there for Eadlyn were empty one. I know I wouldn't have done that to any of my siblings, not in a million years, especially not when they're in such precarious situation as she was. He didn't even care that his family was struggling to keep the country together... that infuriated me, because everyone always was saying how selfish Eadlyn was, and yet she was giving her life for her country amusement and Ahren was just looking out for himself and his happy ending over everyone else's. Such double standards!

Overall, I think I like the drama and the main character of this book more than I liked America and Maxon in the second and third book of this series. I think the love interests are more interesting too and I felt less offended reading this installment than the ones before it. I really hope things don't take a turn for the worse in the next book. Fingers crossed. 

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About the author

Kiera Cass is a graduate of Radford University with a B.S. in History. She grew up in South Carolina and currently lives in Christiansburg, Virginia with her electrical engineer hubby, car-obsessed son, and princess-loving daughter. She's a #1 New York Times bestseller. She's also a valued customer at her local cupcake shop. 

[Review] This Lullaby by Sarah Dessen

This Lullaby by Sarah Dessen
Published March 8th, 2004.
Speak.
Young Adult Contemporary Romance

Premise:
When it comes to relationships, Remy doesn't mess around. After all, she's learned all there is to know from her mother, who's currently working on husband number five. But there's something about Dexter that seems to defy all of Remy's rules. He certainly doesn't seem like Mr. Right. For some reason, however, Remy just can't seem to shake him. Could it be that Remy's starting to understand what those love songs are all about? 

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Review

My thoughts: 

I don’t know what this book was. I’d read a couple of Sarah Dessen’s books before and I really liked them, because the characters were so relatable and authentic, but in this one they were just awful.

I disliked every character in the story, except maybe for Monkey (Yes, the freaking dog!) and I don’t even know if that counts.

Remy, our main character is a bitter bitch, so afraid of any real commitment that she goes sleeping around without a single care in the world about who she’s hurting. She’s a control-freak that flips out whenever something doesn’t go her way and it was extremely hard for me to feel sympathy for her throughout the book. 

Remy’s friends weren’t much better than her. I hated Chloe the most, because she was the kind of friend who’s self-absorbed and superficial that she would rather mock her friend’s feelings rather than try to comfort her in time of need, because the first option just seems like more fun. Lissa and Jess were kind of okay but felt really flat for me and completely forgettable (I had to look up their names because I’d already forgotten them).

The love interest, Dexter, the musician, was kind of a mess and not really appealing for me. I mean I like when a guy is confident and everything but when you tell him “Leave me alone” repeatedly and he just won’t take the hint, it just becomes really annoying. 

Remy’s mother was the worst. I mean… that kind of people shouldn’t even be allowed to have children. I get that she’s a hopeless romantic and a writer, but after you’ve drag your children through your first four messed up marriages, you don’t make your just-fresh-out-of-school child plan your fifth wedding while you sit and wait that everything turns out perfectly. You just don’t! And the fifth husband was awful too and the way he treated Remy at one point… You would’ve expected this woman to say something to him, and defend her daughter… but she didn’t even bother. Jesus!

I just wonder why I kept reading… It was a mess, I hated everyone and somehow I still found it entertaining, which is beyond me…  Don’t even ask me to explain this because I can’t even understand it myself. I guess it was just so awful that it couldn’t get any worse, so I just kept hoping for it to get better.

I hope the next Dessen’s book I read won’t be as bad as this one, because I really liked the author before this one and now I’m kind of in the fence about her. A shame!

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About the author

 

Sarah Dessen grew up in Chapel Hill, North Carolina and attended UNC-Chapel Hill, graduating with highest honors in Creative Writing. She is the author of several novels, including Someone Like You, Just Listen and Along for the Ride. A motion picture based on her first two books, entitled How to Deal, was released in 2003. Her eleventh novel,The Moon and More, will be published in June 2013. She lives in North Carolina.