Hush, Hush Saga Book #3: Silence by Becca Fitzpatrick

Nora Grey has been through it all in the last few years. Her father was murdered. She had a stalker. She thought she was going insane. She was almost killed a few times. She fell in love for the first time. She found out that her father wasn’t really her father and that there are fallen angels and Nephilim walking around in the real world. So what could possibly happen to top all of that? Well…

It’s been three months since the end of Crescendo and Nora wakes up in the cemetery having no idea how she got there or what day it is. When the groundskeeper finds her, he tells her her worst fear. It’s not April like she thought, but actually September. She’s been missing for three months and she has no memory of the last five. She may not remember anything, but she does get the feeling that something isn’t right with her mom’s new boyfriend – Hank Millar. As she tries to unravel the mystery of what happened to her, she meets old friends and new foes.

So I have to say that I liked this book a whole hell of a lot more than I did the last one. Making Nora forget not only the three months she was being held captive by Hank but also the two months previously that she was with Patch was an evil but fantastic move. I also liked how he was still part of her life, but went by his real name Jev instead of Patch. Was I ever glad when Nora sort of kind of remembered him and what happened between the two of them. The character of Scott, like I predicted, became a major player in this book. Not only does he help jog Nora’s memory of what happened, but he also helps her start to bring down Hank at the risk of his own life, since the Black Hand was still after him. Vee, as usual, was her annoying self, believing that she – and Nora’s mother – knew what was best for Nora. I was sort of able to tolerate her character in the last two books because sometimes her attitude and quips were funny, but in this book. Wow. I didn’t like her at all. She was supposed to be Nora’s best friend and help her connect the dots, not lie to her.

Final Rating: 4 out of 5 stars. I’m still kind of confused with the whole oath thing that Hank made Nora swear upon, but I’m sure that it will resolve itself in the next book.

Bookshelf worthy? What font do they use for the title?!

Love Letters to the Dead by Ava Dellaira

Losing someone is hard. Losing a family member is especially hard. For Laurel, losing her sister was extremely hard because she was there when her sister May died. Add in the fact that she’s not only starting high school, but also a new school all together, and she has hit the extreme angst teenager scale. Her first assignment in English class though, throws things over the top. Write a letter to a dead person

Understandably, Laurel has a little trouble with the assignment, although you wouldn’t know it when she keeps writing letters to get her feelings out. Through these letters, everything that has happened since even before her sister’s death starts to come out, especially that she feels responsible.

I wanted to like this book. Seriously. It was written really well. The characters were fantastic. The story line was just the right amount of depressing and uplifting while still being a coming of age story. But…the whole time I was reading it I had this feeling that I had read this kind of story before. Person writing letters after a tragic event, trying to fit in with new friends, and at a new school…

It was The Perks of Being a Wallflower, just instead of having Charlie writing letters to some unnamed person it was a girl writing letters to dead people.

Final Rating: 3 out of 5 stars. This book was good, I just felt like it was too much a duplicate of The Perks of Being a Wallflower.

Bookshelf worthy? Support your local library!

Now & Forever by Susane Colasanti

Like Sarah Dessen and Meg Cabot, I have a soft spot in my heart for Susane Colasanti’s books. So when she announced that she was coming out with a new book this year, I was so excited, especially when I read the summary of the book. Sterling has the perfect boyfriend. Ethan is the lead singer in a band whose about to hit it big and he only has eyes for her. But sometimes fame can change a person, and Sterling has to decide if being a rock star’s boyfriend is worth it.

Okay, so like I said when I first heard about this book I was really excited to read it. A girl dating a rock star that just got discovered? Sounds fantastic and in some ways it was. But in other ways… Yikes. Sterling is a very insecure character, and when she’s put under the microscope by the media those insecurities are multiplied. I get where Sterling is coming from, compared to those other girls and celebrities that are out there, how is she supposed to compete? But on the other hand, Ethan has said many times how she’s the only one for him, and yeah, he’s changed since the band was discovered but he still loves her.

Until he changes for the worse. Fame starts to get to his head and it shows. He becomes more self-involved and I totally agreed with Sterling when she realized that he was more about his dreams then about hers. Like when she revealed to him her idea about the cooking videos, he was so down on them, like how are these cooking videos supposed to help my career? Self-obsessed much? Even in the beginning, before he got signed, I didn’t really care for him. What was the harm of adding someone else’s song to the mix?

Final Rating: 3 out of 5 stars. Although I didn’t care for Sterling and Ethan, it wasn’t too bad of a read. I liked the ending the best, when she realizes that she’s better off without Ethan – granted it’s after she finds out that he cheated on her – and she does her own thing.

Bookshelf worthy? Colasanti is another one of those author’s who if I had more bookshelf space I’d own everything.

Hush, Hush Saga Book #2: Crescendo by Becca Fitzpatrick

Recently, Becca Fitzpatrick revealed on Twitter that Crescendo was not her favorite book to write out of the Hush, Hush Saga, and I can tell. When this book first came out, I read it in one day and was supremely confused and angered by the events that transpired. How is it that a sequel to a book that I loved could turn in to such…well, crap? Now, that I’ve read it again, I still don’t have an answer, but I kind of understand things better than that first reading.

Nora is used to her life being turned upside down. Her father was murdered almost two years ago, she’s learned that she is descended from a race called Nephilim, and that her lab partner from biology was a fallen angel until he saved her life two months ago. Now, Patch is a guardian angel her guardian angel and she couldn’t be happier. But as the book begins, Nora isn’t on the path to normal just yet. Feeling overwhelmed by her feelings for Patch, she declares her love for him and he doesn’t say it back.

The next morning in summer school she learns from Marcie Miller – her arch nemesis for years – that Patch went to her house right afterwards and stood watching. Nora asks Patch about it, but he doesn’t give her an answer. Feeling hurt and betrayed she breaks up with him causing a rift. Add in a new character named Scott with a dark past of his own, and the fact that Nora is seeing her father around town and you’ve got one interesting sequel.

So, like I said before when I first read this book I thought it was a bunch of crap. Here was another second book of a series that breaks up the main characters for really stupid reasons. True, I get that Nora didn’t want Patch to rebel on the archangels, and that she was still kind of miffed about Patch not telling her why he was hanging with Marcie – although I kind of had a feeling why he was – but still… Nora is very quick to assume the worst of people and that’s kind of one of things that I really hate about her. She knows that Patch is a guardian angel now, and once he explains that the archangels are just looking for a reason to cast him back to hell, shouldn’t she guess that the reason he’s hanging with Marcie is because he’s protecting her now?

Scott was an interesting character to throw into the mix. He seemed like such a jerk at the beginning – kind of like Patch – but at the end when it’s revealed what is really going on with him, I was kind of intrigued to see him come back in the next book. And can we talk about Marcie’s dad actually being Nora’s dad too?! What was Blythe thinking? And holy crap, holy crap! The ending! Just when you think there’s going to be some much-anticipated Patch/Nora make up making out, Mr. Miller shows up and confronts Nora about the death of Jules aka Chauncey. The end. WHAT?!

Final Rating: 4 out of 5 stars. So the ending still kind of confused me. Nora’s dad – Harrison – was told to marry Blythe and claim Nora as his own child even though it was really Mr. Miller’s kid? And Mr. Miller is the Black Hand, but he didn’t kill Harrison, that was actually Patch’s friend Rixon? And Rixon was after Nora because not only does she have the blood of Chauncey in her veins but the blood of Barnabas, who was Rixon’s blood oath host? Ouch. My brain hurts.

Bookshelf worthy? Gray scale cover art is gorgeous. I still want to know what font they use for the title.

Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick

Nora Grey has a normal life. She has a chatty best friend, a mom who worries way too much, and she worries herself about getting into a good college. But everything she knows is about to change when her biology teacher decides to change the seating chart. No longer is she sitting next to her best friend – Vee – she now has to sit next to the mysterious senior transfer who seems to make it his mission to make her blush.

But things are starting to get really weird. On her way home one night, she runs over a person who somehow is able to knock out her window and try to go after her. When she drives to her friend’s house, all the damage is gone. It looks like nothing happens. A few days later, she walks in on someone rummaging through her things, when she calls the police, her room is pristine. She thinks she’s finally going crazy, especially when Patch – the mysterious senior transfer – keeps showing up everywhere she goes.

Hush, Hush was one of those books that I stumbled across at the bookstore a long time ago because of intriguing cover art. Once I picked it up though I couldn’t put it down. The same goes for the second read through I did. The story flows hard and fast, and the character of Patch is as mysterious as Fitzpatrick makes him out to be on the page. Along with Nora, you go through the motions of hating Patch, being embarrassed by Patch, and slowly falling for him. When it’s revealed that he’s a fallen angel sent to kill her, but couldn’t do it because he likes her, I totally lost my shit. As for the school psychiatrist, Mrs. Greene, I totally called it. She was acting a little bit too controlling over Nora seeing Patch to just be a school administrator.

Final Rating: 4 out of 5 stars. Even through the second read through, I still got a little bit confused over some of the plot points in this book, but I think I got the gist of them to understand what was going on.

Bookshelf worthy? I got my copy for $4.99 at Borders before it closed. One of the best deals for a hardcover.

The Moon and More by Sarah Dessen

One year and two months after the release of The Moon and More, I finally got around to reading the latest from Sarah Dessen. I’m not sure if it was the build up of anticipation, or knowing what I was expecting from a Sarah Dessen novel, but for the first time I found myself not really caring for the novel, at all.

Emaline works at her family’s realty company. They rent out houses to those families visiting Colby. It’s the summer before she takes off for college, and after many pages of back story you find out why she isn’t really thrilled. Her mother, Emily, met this guy in Colby the summer before her senior year of high school. They were in love and promised to try and keep their relationship together even though he didn’t live in Colby. She got pregnant, and although he tried to stay in touch and support her, he lost contact. The only thing he did was have his father send her checks every month. But at ten, Emaline had to do a family tree project and wanted to know her true roots and not her ‘dad’ who adopted her when she was three. This started a chain reaction of content that mostly had to do with her studies. Her ‘father’ promised to help her with her college tuition if she got into a good school.

She did. She gets into Columbia, but due to unforeseen circumstances, her father backs out of paying, so she goes to East U instead. Her father doesn’t even attend her high school graduation and it isn’t until he comes to town with her half-brother to sell his aunt’s house, that the story is kind of revealed. Him and his wife Leah are separating. While this is going on a documentary duo come into town to do a story on a local artist – Clyde from the bike shop in Along for the Ride – and she meets Theo.

I really wished that this book had a point. Emaline was an interesting character but the people in her life were just so…I guess the word would be annoying. Emaline’s mother, and stepsisters don’t grasp the concept of personal space, especially Margo trying to make the company better all because she has a degree. Snobbish. Emaline’s boyfriend Luke is very presumptuous and I agree that he was a sex addict. Jeez. Theo is a go-getter, and I normally don’t mind that kind of attitude but he was very snobby about it. I honestly wonder what Emaline saw in him. The only true drama in this book was when Luke cheated on her and when she finally confronts her father about what really happened with the college tuition thing.

Final Rating: 3 out of 5 stars. This book lacked Dessen’s usual witty banter and intriguing characters. And while I was happy that Emaline ended up without a romantic interest, I kind of wished it was for another reason other than the boys she had her choice between weren’t total idiots.

Bookshelf worthy? I own a copy, but I kind of wished I had rented it from the library first.  

Cruel Beauty by Rosamund Hodge

Once upon a time, a line of kings that did not allow the barbarians to invade ruled the land of Arcadia. One day, it all changed. Demons took over the land and held it in its grasp. The lord of these demons – The Gentle Lord – made deals with the people of the land. One deal in particular involved a young couple that desperately wanted to get pregnant, but couldn’t. The young man struck a deal with the demon lord. His wife would become pregnant with twins, but one of the twins must be given in exchange to the Gentle Lord as his bride when she reached the age of seventeen. The man agreed and his wife became pregnant and gave birth to twins. The first came out easy, but the second twin took the life of her mother. So it was determined that the first twin would be given to the demon lord…

Nyx has known her duty to the land of Arcadia her entire life. She is to marry the Gentle Lord and find a way to destroy him and his fellow demons hold on their land. She is to avenge her mother’s death. She’s known and trained for this duty her entire life. But there is hate in her heart. Hate for her father for liking her sister over her, hate for her sister for killing her mother, and hate for her aunt for sleeping with her father.

The Gentle Lord is different than what she has come to know. He is still a demon and a lord of bargains, but he also has some dark secrets of his own. On their wedding night, he gives two rules to his new bride; one, the key he gives her opens certain rooms in his palace. Those are the only rooms she is allowed to enter, but he cannot protect her from what’s inside. Two, every night she will be given the chance to guess his real name. If she fails to guess correctly, she will die. If she guesses right, she will free him from his masters.

I was really excited to read this book. When I got the email from Goodreads telling me about it in February, I couldn’t wait to get my hands on it. It sounded like a Beauty and the Beast retelling. But when I actually started reading it, it turned into something completely different. It combined Greek gods with demons, and a little bit of Rumpelstilltskin into the mix. It was a good mysterious fairy tale. My only complaint was that the ending was confusing. She helps destroy the Gentle Lord who actually turns out to be half of the lost prince? And then time is restarted? What??

Final Rating: 4 out of 5 stars. Great story, I just wished the ending had been more concise.

Bookshelf worthy? The cover art is amazing. I would love to have this on my shelf.