Book Review: The Truth About Alice by Jennifer Mathieu

     So the day after the signing, I dove into The Truth About Alice. At first, upon reading the description, I thought it was going to be a little too much for me in the way of sexual references. And then I heard Jennifer Mathieu talking about her book and thought that it sounded really interesting, so I picked it up anyway. Turns out there was a plethora of sex-related recurrences in the book, but the message behind the words was what kept me reading.
     Alice Franklin has the good life. She's fairly popular, she has a great best-friend, and everyone loves her. But that was before Elaine O'Dea's party. The party where Alice allegedly slept with not one, but two guys in the same night. And then Brandon Fitsimmons, one of the boys she supposedly slept with, dies in a car crash, and the blame is all put on Alice. Rumors go around, and soon enough, Alice has gone from the girl everyone knows, to the school slut. Alice. Is. All. Alone.
     The readers get to experience what life was like for the main people involved in Alice's social destruction, including Brandon's best friend, Elaine O'Dea, ALice's best friend, and the boy who lived next door to Brandon before he died. Each character gives up the information they know, and piece by piece, readers finally know The Truth About Alice.
     I would give this book a 3.5/5 stars. I loved the tone and underlying theme, but the amount of sexual relations was just a bit much for me, personally. Alice has the same vibe as Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher, for me. It's all about how one little rumor can completely destroy someone's life, and how people just sit by and let it happen instead of trying to find out the facts before they make their judgements. If you decide to read this book, I hope that your way of thinking about people and the rumors that surround them will change. See what he real story is. Be a friend when no one else will. Sometimes that's all they need.

Book Review: The Art of Lainey by Paula Stokes

     So I was told by a bloggy buddy that I was going to love this book, and now that I'll be attending a stop on the Mighty Mississippi  Book Blast tour, I went out and bought the books I'd need to read. Lainey was one of them, and I have to say that my bloggy buddy was right. I absolutely adored this book.
     Lainey has the perfect life. She's popular, she's the star of her school soccer team, and she has the best boyfriend she could ever dream of. Until he dumps her in her parents' coffee shop, right in front of everyone. Lainey is determined to get him back, and with the help of her best friend Bianca and a Dead Chinese Warrior's strategies, she's sure to succeed. But in order to do so, Lainey persuades her co-worker, Micah-- a punk-rock kid with tattoos and piercings and a mohawk-- to pose as her boyfriend. But maybe having Micah as a pretend boyfriend just isn't enough, and maybe, just maybe, Lainey's world is about to turn upside down.
     When I finished this book, I couldn't stop smiling for quite a while. It was just one of those books that you read and can feel happy and giddy about. Though, as Paula knows, there were some instances where a strangulation may have been warranted. There were a few sexual innuendos, but I was pleased with the lack of them, which is why I have no trouble giving The Art Of Lainey a 4.5/5 Stars. The wit and humor were fantastic, combined with the friendship and romance, and the way the spirit of a seventeen year old girl was captured, made for a spectacular read! I was highly impressed! Cannot wait for the prequel novella, coming out in August, from Micah's perspective!

Book Review: The Break-Up Artist by Philip Siegel

     So there's this tour of authors going around the Midwest (Hallelujah, praise the Lord!) (The Mighty Mississippi Book Blast See the Tumblr Page Here!)and I encourage any of you guys out there that live in or near the tour cities to go! Maybe I can meet some of you :) So anyway, I went out and bought a stack of books of the authors that I didn't already own books of, and the first one I started was The Break-Up Artist by Philip Siegel.
     The Break-Up Artist is about a girl named Becca who doesn't believe in true love. Or any type of romantic love, for that matter. In fact, she runs a business where people pay her to break up couples from her school. This business is anonymous though, and no one knows it's really her, so everything works out. That is, until Becca is hired to break-up the school's power couple, which consists of her ex-best friend, Huxley and her star football played boyfriend. In order to make this a win, Becca will have to get back on Huxley's good side, as well as doing some major sabotage to get the job done, and in turn, keep her identity a secret. In the meantime, Becca has to deal with the feelings growing inside her for her new best friend's super cute boyfriend, and give a little bit more thought to her outlook on life.
     This was a great book, and I loved the concept, but what I enjoyed most about the book was how much it made me think about my best friend, and how I don't know what I'd do if we ever parted ways. Really makes you think about what you have, and how much you take for granted. This is one of those books that sucks you in and takes you on a roller coaster of emotions! I give The Break-Up Artist a 4/5 stars, and hope you snatch it up the next time you see it!

Book Review: Sinner by Maggie Stiefvater

     I know I don't have any reviews posted for the Wolves of Mercy Falls series, and my reason for that is this: I read Shiver, Linger, and Forever way before I started this blog, and I didn't want to post a review of books that I may not remember every single specific detail of. But let me just tell you that I read those three books in a single weekend, and they were the first books to ever make me sob. Upon finishing them, I took out the novel I was writing, and wondered how anything I wrote would ever compare to these books. Unless you've read them, there is no way to describe how amazing they are. If you haven't read the previous three books, DO NOT READ THIS REVIEW. Click the back arrow. Ex out of the tab. Come back after you've read them. I do not want to spoil this series for you.
     Cole St. Clair has finally started his life back again. After the wild times in Minnesota with Sam and Grace, he got the opportunity to work with Baby North, a woman who makes her living off of filming the lives of superstars and watching them crash and burn. Every famous person who's ever been on Baby's show has come out of it in a worse state than they came in, and that's exactly what she hopes to happen with Cole. His past shows that he's a great candidate for it, but Cole is determined to stay clean and sober. He takes this job, and shows up in Los Angeles, and all he can think about is Isabel. Finally, they're in the same town once more, and as he struggles to live in this town and be alone, he also has to struggle to keep the wolf in his blood at bay.
     Isabel has finally started to try getting her life back together. She's taking classes to become a nurse, and she has a job, and though she's as bitter as ever, things are going alright. That is, until Cole shows up and tells her he came to L.A. for her. Now she has to use everything she has to not fall back in love with the boy who brings so many memories-- Good and bad-- from the past. Isabel is her same old self, though, and Cole is the only boy she just can't resist. But there is one way she can resist him, and that's if he starts to shift again.
     Sinner is a great companion novel to the Shiver trilogy. Everyone wanted more of Cole and Isabel, and to see what happened to everyone after Forever, and now we get a glimpse of Sam and grace's life, and the main focus on Cole and Isabel . Beautifully written, as always, and a great way to get thrown back into the Wolves of Mercy Falls for a while. Like I'd rate all of the Mercy Falls books, I give Sinner a 5/5 stars for all around fantasticness and unspeakable writing talent. Can't wait to meet Maggie on her Sinner Tour!