Eleanor & Park has been everywhere, and everyone seems to be raving about how AMAZING the story and its characters are! So as soon as I picked this one up, I knew I would push it to the top of my TBR pile, and start ASAP!

And I’m pretty happy that I did!

The cover looks awesome and the synopsis sounds fantastic! But I wouldn’t consider Eleanor & Park to be “starcrossed” lovers, well maybe. Eleanor never really left the house except for when she went to school, and she didn’t have a phone she could use. (Would you consider that “starcrossed”?)

It’s been almost a year since Eleanor was kicked out by her abusive and drunk step dad, Richie but Eleanor’s mom has finally talked him into letting Eleanor move back home. She now shares a room with her four younger siblings, and takes baths right after school, to avoid Richie and the lack of a bathroom door.

For the five siblings, it isn’t weird to wake up in the middle of night to shouting, crying or bedsprings. But when this happens, Eleanor and all the kids huddle together, doing their best to stay quiet.

While Eleanor is dealing with issues at home, Park’s life is a bit more normal. He spends his days going to school, reading comic books, listening to music and learning karate. But lately there’s been a bit of tension between Park and his dad. His dad always seems to be disappointed in him, and comparing him to his brother when it comes to karate and learning to drive a manual car.

Eleanor and Park meet on their way to school. They can’t even stand to look or talk to one another and are unaware of how  they will come to share much more than just a school bus bench…

I had such high expectations for this book BECAUSE of all the great things people were saying! I LOVED Eleanor & Park, but there were just a few small things that did bother me. But I’ll get into that in a little bit.

Eleanor was such a down to earth character, which I do appreciate, especially after reading books with super heroes, vampires or gods. She was an average girl, not an extremely pretty girl who turns every guys’ heads when she walks past them. She was REAL.

When Eleanor opened up to Park, I was so proud. It seemed throughout the story that no one has ever shown Eleanor true love, not romantic love, but family love; care. I would have never assumed that Eleanor had it in her when she’s never really witnessed “love”. I commend her for being so strong, after all the crap she’s been through with Richie, her mom and her real dad.

Park was also such a sweet character. He seemed to genuinely care so much for Eleanor and looked past  her struggles and issues. He accepted her in a way nobody in her entire life had. I loved Park for that! … I only wish there were more guys like Park out there!

Now for the small things that did bother me:

1. Eleanor and Beauty: I don’t think I can count how many times Eleanor has called herself ugly or fat. I understand that everyone has their own insecurities but how many times are you going to tell the guy that you like, and the only person that’s every truly cared for you, that you think you’re fat until he agrees with you?

2. Their Relationship: I though Eleanor and Park were imperfectly perfect for each other. I enjoyed reading about the two of them, their love and even their bumps in the road. But I felt that the beginning of their relationship seemed a little rushed.

Even with these small things, I really liked Eleanor & Park! The characters were fantastic, and the ending was…WOW! Rowell tore out my heart towards the end, but luckily put it back together in the last page or two! If you haven’t gotten the chance to pick this one, I recommend to do so… right now!

I absolutely adore the cover of The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer, as well as the covers of the other two books in the trilogy! While I don’t own the third one just yet, I’m dying to see how the set will look sitting on my white bookshelf!

This book was released about two years ago, and I feel horrible for taking so long to finally get to it! I remember when it first hit stores and I was so pumped to pick up a copy, but just never did for some reason.

But I’ve read it, and now I’m reviewing it. And I plan to read the second book soon, so that counts for something, right?

The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer, follows a girl named Mara Dyer (you guessed correct!), who is dealing and overcoming a tragic event that has recently happened to her, but that she doesn’t quite remember.

Mara (we don’t actually know if this is her real name or not) is suffering from losing her two best friends as well as her boyfriend in this traumatic event. After having visions and nightmares of that night over and over again, Mara and her family are questioning her sanity. Instead of going through the process of mental illness treatment, Mara’s family decides to move and start a new life somewhere new.

But even with the new house, new school and all the other new people and things surrounding her, she’s stilling having trouble and horrific flashbacks.

The reader knows just as much as Mara does; nothing. With the flashbacks, the visions and some of her memories, we discover, right alongside Mara, about that night and what caused all of it.

After being in the dark for so long, Mara finally meets her light and his name is Noah. He’s this beautiful boy, who Mara can’t help but drool over (and neither can I!), and who doesn’t mind flashing his fancy car, and his money. But he does seem to care about Mara a lot and helps her through some of her hardest times.

The sweetest thing that stuck to me about Noah, was when he help Mara save a beaten dog from its abusive owner. He gave Mara and the dog a ride to get it medical attention. Turns out his mom was the veterinarian… so it’s not like he had to pay the massive vet bill.

Throughout the story Mara wasn’t sure why she was the sole surviver after that night, and why she’s having this visions now, but with the help of her brother, and Noah, she’s (we’re) sure to find out!

This book claimed to be paranormal, but I couldn’t really see too much of that. I know that Mara had flashbacks and visions every once in a while throughout this story, but I just didn’t get a creepy paranormal vibe from it. However, the paranormal aspect wasn’t the MAIN reason I read this book, so I wasn’t too disappointed by that or anything.

Instead The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer focused more on rediscovery and even some romance and I loved it. It wasn’t what I was expecting, but I truly enjoyed it. But I can see where others might be a little upset about that. They were informed of one thing, but received something different.

I thought Mara was down to earth, and dealt with this loss, her visions and her entire life, better than I would ever be able to. I enjoyed her relationship with Noah, and I’m pumped to see how the second book goes for me!

Some Quiet Place is like no other YA Paranormal book I’ve ever read, and that’s very exciting! No werewolves, no vampires, none of that! Kelsey Sutton has introduced a new and refreshing topic in this genre, which everyone should take the chance to read.

I was offered this book for review, and when I said yes, because of the beautiful cover, I had no idea what I was getting myself into (I’ve already seen the cover or the sister book, and it looks just as amazing!). If you have this book sitting on your shelf right now, unread, I recommend pushing it to the top of your TBR pile. If you don’t own it yet, I recommend purchasing it RIGHT AWAY!

Some Quiet Place revolves around a girl named Elizabeth, who was in an car accident at a young age, and only walked a away with a few bruises and scratches. She hasn’t been the same since.

Elizabeth hasn’t told anyone, but she has the ability to see emotions and elements in human forms. She can’t feel any sort of emotion; not happiness, not excitement, not sadness or even anger. Not even Fear who is constantly sending horrific scenes into her mind whenever he touches her.

Elizabeth isn’t sure why this is happening to her, but it doesn’t matter how hard she tries, or pretends, she can’t feel anything.

Some Quiet Place follows Elizabeth on her journey to discovering herself, dealing with the loss, having her mother scared of her, having her alcoholic father beating her, and her relationship with Fear.

Where can I sign up for the Fear Fan Club? I absolutely love him.

When Fear is first introduced, he seems mysterious, and I wasn’t really sure why he was always around Elizabeth. My guess was just that he was interested and had never met anyone like her who couldn’t feel emotions.

But throughout the story he becomes more of a friend to her than a nuisance, which he seemed to be at the beginning of the story. He even opens up about his feelings towards Liz. When she’s in danger, he risks his job as a emotion, and his life as well, just to protect her.

Fear is like no other boy in YA Paranormal genre, and nor is his relationship with Liz. He isn’t just a normal guy, who knows  how good he looks, but instead he is insecure about being an emotion instead of a human.

Overall, Some Quiet Place had me addicted! There are other books I’ve read where the main character “had no feelings”, but nothing like Liz. Kelsey Sutton did an amazing job breaking our (the readers) hearts and not Elizabeth’s. Suttons writing was enticing and intricate! Loved it, and I can’t wait to read her other books.

Blythewood was one of those books that had me back and forth with my opinions and thoughts. At the beginning I was excited to see the world of Avaline Hall, Blythewood and the Fey. Within the first few chapters, I found the story to be a bit slow, but only a few more chapters later, things started to pick up and it seems that there was no end to the action! Then I found myself a bit confused, and finally my heart skipped a beat throughout the ending!

Blythewood starts with a poor girl named Avaline Hall, Ava for short, who is working in a factory. Her and many other poor girls, including her best friend Tillie, are locked into a room every day to work for a ridiculous amount of hours and are paid very little.

Before her mother committed suicide by drinking landrum and was found with a black feather on top of her, Ava worked for her, sewing and selling hats. But once her mother passed Ava started to struggle to pay the bills and life is much harder.

When the Triangle factory catches fire, the girls inside have no way out, the doors are locked throughout working hours, and Ava has no idea what to do or where to go. Some of the girls are running around wild, other girls are jumping to their death out the window. Ava and her best friend, Tillie, only know one other way, climbing from the roof of the factory to the roof of the building next door.

After slipping and losing her grip, Ava finds herself saved by a mysterious pair of strong arms who belong to a boy with dark eyes and hair… and wings. She can’t believe her eyes but the next thing she knows, she’s in a mental hospital, drugged and diagnosed with mental issues. Six months pass, before Ava finally leaves the hospital, and escorted by a lady who claims that she knows her grandmother, and says that they’ve been looking for Ava.

Upon her arrival at her grandmother’s house, Ava learns a lot of herself and her mother. Ava has always known how much her mom loved Blythewood, and would speak about the school often, but still Ava didn’t know much about it. Her grandmother, a rather snarky thing, informed her that Ava’s mother got pregnant in her senior year at Blythewood, and ran away. Even though Ava just arrived, and hasn’t even settled in yet, she is told that her interview to Blythewood is in three days and they have a lot of work to do before then.

Upon being accepted, Ava is worried that people might judge her due to her mother’s history, but that is that last thing she worries about when finally going to the Blythewood initiation in the forest and sees all the creatures that live within it.

Blythewood isn’t just any school. Besides doing homework and studying for finals, Ava and her friends are learning about all the different dangerous creatures in the forest and how to defend themselves from these creatures so they can find Nathan’s twin sister, Louisa, who is lost in the Faerie world.

Ava also discovers who her dark angel is, and why he’s around right when she needs him. Right when Ava thinks she knows what’s going on, there’s always something else.

Overall, Blythewood was a new take on the Fey world. The only other books I’ve read on faeries are Julie Kagawa’s books, and these are nothing alike. While I can admit that the beginning of the book was kind of slow, pushing through that and continuing to read is definitely worth it. The ending was intense, and shocking! I had no idea what hit me on the last page!

There is no need to even speak about the cover, because all three of them look AHH-mazing!

I purchased Insurgent before I even started reading Divergent, and I’m really glad I did. Why? Because I was able to read it right away, instead of running out to the store in the middle of the night, just to get my hands on a copy! (I would recommend this for anyone!)

Before I begin to review Insurgent, I just want to explain the main reason I loved Divergent. Tris spent her entire life putting other people in front of her, she avoided eye contact, never saw herself in a mirror, and tried to only speak when spoken to. But when it was finally her turn to make a decision, and her turn to change her life, she did. COMPLETELY. She became something she never was before; strong. The character development in Divergent, through Tris, is what pulled me in. And it was also what forced me to continue the series.

Insurgent takes off exactly where Divergent ended; some reviews I read really liked this, but some also thought this was just ridiculous. I guess that just depends when you read the first book. I understand that if you read Divergent days after it released, and then read Insurgent when it was finally released, it would be hard to remember all the characters, everything that happened, and of course the little details. But if you read the two books within months of each other like I did, it wouldn’t be such a big problem. 

Erudite is trying to take over the world by injecting the Dauntless with a mind control serum. The Dauntless faction is split into two, the Traitors and the now Outcasts, who are teaming up with the Factionless, who are beginning a rebellion. Erudite are hunting down all citizens that are Divergent, because for some reason or another, the serum doesn’t work on them.

Tris is struggling with both the loss of her parents, and the guilt of killing her friend while he was under the mind control serum. Unsure of what to do, or where to go, Tris, Four, Caleb and a few Abnegation head to Amity, seeking protection, shelter and help. The world is in complete chaos, but she knows she can trust Four; he is her light in all this dark. With violence rising and alliances forming, the five factions Tris has grown up with, do not exist anymore. And with so much going on, and different sides of the dilemma the two are forced to pick sides, even if they might not be the same ones…(ooohh, doesn’t that make you want to read the book?)

So on my blog Turning Pages, I discussed why I like Divergent better than I did Insurgent. And these are the points I made:

1. Tris, her guilt, and her inability to shoot a gun. In Divergent, I absolutely fell in love with Tris; she was that kick ass girl that I look for in any action book I read. I thought it was cool that she didn’t know who she was, and was always told to be quiet when she was Abnegation. But when she decided to go into Dauntless, she showed her true side; her badassness, and her bravery! I loved everything about her. She made smart moves, played the game safe when needed, but also wasn’t afraid be risky. But she wasn’t anything like that in Insurgent… I understand that she lost a lot in the first book (her parents, and her friend), but the world is in complete shambles, she needed to get her head in the game. I was so frustrated when I read that she couldn’t even hold a gun, nor shot it, when she was in a life and death situation… you’ve got to be kidding me!? Shoot the dang thing! She spent the entire first book, becoming Dauntless, and now this??

2. Four..what a jerk? Okay this one wasn’t as bad as number one, but since when was he so mean? I loved that he was this tough guy, and that he was sweet to Tris. But in this second book, he just isn’t like that.

3. Romance? Action? I have to admit I love romance books, and if you’ve been with Turning Pages for a while you know that all too well! But I do like different genres. I came to love Divergent for the action, and adventure, not because of the romance. I was expecting the same thing from Insurgent. Yes, it’s true, there is some romance in Divergent between Tris and Four, but that isn’t “in your face”, its in the background. But Insurgent focused too much on the couple, and not enough on the action.. .I guess the romance aspect in this book wasn’t what I was expecting.

The things I liked about the book:

1. Caleb! Uhh I don’t want to further explain this one, but definitively liked this twist in the story!!

2. The ending! Ughh another one I can’t give away!

3. Four..what a jerk! Okay I know I put this one in my dislikes, but I also liked it in a strange way, and this goes along with number one in my dislikes. Throughout Divergent I liked that Tris was smart, and made smart moves. In Insurgent she doesn’t do that. She almost reminded me of one of those girls who just acts dumb and does dumb things to get attention. Tris making these idiotic moves, like not using a gun, wasn’t the Tris I got to know in the first book. And that’s why I liked Four. Though he was rude and a bit of a jerk about it, he called Tris out on her stupidity. Four made sense, but he was just a bit mean about expressing it, but I felt that Tris really needed that a few times throughout the story; a reality check!

I already reviewed (or ranted) about these points on my own blog, and decided just to incorporate them into this review as well. I don’t think I can explain them any other way.

So yes! I know, I liked Divergent much more, and I’m not afraid to admit it. But I still liked Insurgent, but there were just so many little things that bothered me throughout most of the book.

I continued to read the last book in this series, Allegiant, and fell incomplete love! LOVE I say! If you haven’t gotten the chance to pick these up yet, I recommend buying all three at one time! ASAP!