Tuesday Reviews: The Graces by Laure Eve

Title: The Graces (The Graces #1)

Author: Laure Eve

Publisher: Amulet Books

Release Date: Septemer 6, 2016

Format Read: ARC

Rating: One Star

Description from Goodreads: When a glamorous family of teenage witches brings a mysterious new girl into their fold, they unwittingly nurture a powerful black magic that could destroy them all. This paranormal YA fantasy features intrigue, spells, and a devastating twist. In THE GRACES, the first rule of witchcraft states that if you want something badly enough, you can get it... no matter who has to pay.

Everyone loves the Graces. Fenrin, Thalia, and Summer grace are captivating, wealthy, and glamorous. They've managed to cast a spell over not just their high school but also their entire town-- and they're rumored to have powerful connections all over the world. If you're not in love with one of them, you want to be them. Especially River: the loner, new girl at school. She's different from her peers, who both revere and fear the Grace family. She wants to be a Grace more than anything. But what the Graces don't know is that River's presence in town is no accident.

This fabulously addictive fantasy combines sophisticated and haunting prose with a gut-punching twist that readers will be dying to discuss. Perfect for fans of We Were Liars as well as nostalgic classics like Buffy the Vampire Slayer and the 1996 movie The Craft, THE GRACES marks the beginning of a new wave of teen witches.

Let me just go ahead and say that THE GRACES was one of the books I was most excited to receive an advanced copy of. The Goodreads description up there is good and all, but the one on the back of my ARC is about 10x more alluring and it made me so hyped. 

After finishing it, I'm just sitting here like... what the crap did I just read?

Honestly.

This is probably going to be a super short review, guys. More like a tangent.

My problems with the story were these: 

-I didn't fall in love with any of the characters-- they were all kind of detached and distant. 

-That big reveal mentioned up above? It was so obvious. 

-Literally had it figured out by chapter 5.

-The plot was... boring.

-Everything was very dragged out.

All that said, I'm highly disappointed in this book. I had such high hopes for it, and it felt like such a let down. And honestly, this would have been perfectly fine as a standalone. I'm not sure why they're making more of these, I feel like the plot is done. 

Actually, hold on.

The one good thing I found in this book was the ending-- even though another book doesn't feel quite necessary, the ending was pretty killer. The last like... chapter? Made the whole book. Even though I didn't really enjoy the story, I'll have to read book two simply because of the ending. The last few sentences were killer.

I give THE GRACES a single star, and that star is only because of the ending. Oops. 

I wanted so badly to love this one, but I just didn't. And that is a sad, sad thing.

(Un)happily,

Stephanie

Tuesday Reviews: How It Ends by Catherine Lo

Title: How It Ends

Author: Catherine Lo

Publisher: HMH Books for Young Readers

Release Date: June 7, 2016

Format Read: ARC

Rating: 3.5 stars

Description from Goodreads: There are two sides to every story.

It's friends-at-first-sight for Jessie and Annie, proving the old adage that opposites attract. Shy, anxious Jessie would give anything to have Annie's beauty and confidence. And Annie thinks Jessie has the perfect life, with her close-knit family and killer grades. They're BFFs... until suddenly they're not.

Told through alternating points of view, HOW IT ENDS is a wildly fast but deeply moving read about a friendship in crisis. Set against a tumultuous sophomore year of bullying, boys, and backstabbing, the novel shows what can happen when friends choose assumptions and fear over each other.

Not too long ago, I had a bestfriendship fall apart. I've never been one to get along that well with females, and yet I'd been close with this girl for five years, and then suddenly there was a betrayal, and things went downhill from there. Reading the back of this book was like reading a summary of how things went down for us, so I was highly intrigued when I received an ARC of HOW IT ENDS in the mail.

I actually really enjoyed this story, The differences between Jessie and Annie, and the drastic changes when swapping between POVs, were done perfectly. Annie is her own person, and Jessie is hers. Their friendship is forged around chapter three, and then you see it grow, and shape, and slowly start to fall apart, and it was great to be able to see if from both of their sides versus just one. 

What made me laugh was how much of a parallel this book drew with my own personal experience of losing a best friend. The accuracy of reactions and events in comparison to what happened with me were spot on, which was nice compared to how cliche Hollywood has made the break-up of a bestfriendship. It was increasingly odd to find similarities, which were on nearly every page... until about 3/4 of the way through the book, That's when things took a turn that I wasn't expecting, and suddenly it wasn't just an argument, it was a full blown fight. 

Things started to get really good, and that's when I got to the ending.

The ending of this book just didn't work for me. I thought I knew where it was leading, and I was super excited for it, and then... that's not what happened. The last ten chapters or so really took the book's rating down for me. I felt like a different outcome would have been so much better for this plotline.

Taking the ending into account, I give HOW IT ENDS a 3.5 star rating. It's a great story of friendship, typical high-school life, and the average obstacles that you face when you have a BFF.

Happily,

Stephanie

Finally Friday! (#6): When We Collided

Finally Friday! is a weekly post on Doodle's Book Review that hilights a recently acquired book that I've been waiting to get my hands on. Feel free to leave a comment!

I'm a sucker for a good contemporary, and I've been in the YA world long enough to know that a lot of people absolutely adore Emery Lord and her work. I personally haven't read anything of hers, so I was excited to see that the blurb for WHEN WE COLLIDED interested me quite a bit. That being said, I was content to wait until release date... until the opportunity arose for me to receive an ARC.

Now, I hold in my hands this April 2016 release that I am quite excited for. How did this happen? But now it is mine and I can't wait to dive into it, though I'm saving it to read until the New Year so that I can finish my current TBR.

WHEN WE COLLIDED has me full of anticipation.

Happily,

Stephanie