Review: A Different Blue by Amy Harmon

A Different Blue
Amy Harmon
Publication date: March 29th 2013
Rating: ★★☆☆☆

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Blue Echohawk doesn't know who she is. She doesn't know her real name or when she was born. Abandoned at two and raised by a drifter, she didn't attend school until she was ten years old. At nineteen, when most kids her age are attending college or moving on with life, she is just a senior in high school. With no mother, no father, no faith, and no future, Blue Echohawk is a difficult student, to say the least. Tough, hard and overtly sexy, she is the complete opposite of the young British teacher who decides he is up for the challenge, and takes the troublemaker under his wing.

This is the story of a nobody who becomes somebody. It is the story of an unlikely friendship, where hope fosters healing and redemption becomes love. But falling in love can be hard when you don't know who you are. Falling in love with someone who knows exactly who they are and exactly why they can't love you back might be impossible.

Blue Echohawk is a nobody.

Abandoned by her mother when she was two and raised by a drifter, she has no idea who she is. She doesn't remember her name, her parents, when she was born, or where she came from. Everything about her life and herself is based on wild guesses, but her talent to carve things out of wood, something her adoptive father taught her before he disappeared.

Needless to say, not knowing her identity makes it really difficult for Blue to feel like she belongs. So she hides behind snark remarks and faceless boys, using the way she looks in her favor. As if her only worth as a person come from how pretty others find her.

When Darcy Wilson starts teaching history at Blue's school, her life takes a different turn. The teacher first sees her as trouble, but through one of his lessons he can't help but find himself drawn and curious about who Blue Echohawk really is. Even more so when he discovers that she doesn't have a story, as least not one that's known to her.

They form a tentative friendship throughout the school year, but it's not until graduation day that Blue decides to change the path she's on. The situation she finds herself in makes it easier for her to make that choice, and  Wilson ends up becoming a really big part of Blue's resolve to truly find herself and figure out who she is as a person.

Him being by her side no matter what provides her with the stability she needs to get herself back together, and as Blue's life progresses and grows into something better she finds it's really hard to keep from seeing him as just a friend. Especially when Blue's world gets turned upside down and they both realize how strong and brave she is as she deals with everything thrown her way with her with her chin up.

I thought A Different Blue was going to be a lot better than I thought it was.

For me it was one of those books that had a really interesting premise and I was all excited about reading it, but when I actually did? Meh.

The one selling point was the fact that Blue and Wilson absolutely did not jump into a relationship. They both  had their priorities straight and had time to work on their lives before deciding to take a chance and be together. I'm really glad the author choose that path for both of them, especially considering everything Blue went through and the impact it all had in her life and in how she saw herself as a person.

The rest of it, though? Most of the book was either Blue having flashbacks about her life as a child with Jimmy Echohawk, her adoptive dad, or Wilson's history lessons.

The flashbacks are good to gives us info about how Blue learned to carve wood and why her dad is not in the picture anymore, but that's about it. There's also a interesting one where we learn about where she got her name from, but after that it just left to me like they were unnecessary to the story. Like they were just taking up page space.

For Wilson's history lessons, same thing. It was nice to read about it when the lesson itself served as a way to shake up Blue's life and make her think about things, but after a while it got tiring to have him going on and on about the subject when it had no real impact in the story whatsoever.

And the over use of Britishisms made getting through A Different Blue three times more difficult. The dialogue already felt stiff and made some of the characters sounded off, so we really didn't need to be reminded one of them was British by constantly having slangs thrown at us left and right every time he opens his mouth.

By the time I finished reading the book I wanted to congratulate myself on having the strength to go through with it. I have no doubt some people found A Different Blue and its characters to be quite a good read, but it just wasn't for me. At all.

Review: Starcrossed by Josephine Angelini

This book is part of my 2013 TBR Pile Challenge.

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Starcrossed
Josephine Angelini
Series: Starcrossed #1
Publication date: May 31st 2011 by HarperTeen
Rating: ★★☆☆☆

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How do you defy destiny?

Helen Hamilton has spent her entire sixteen years trying to hide how different she is—no easy task on an island as small and sheltered as Nantucket. And it's getting harder. Nightmares of a desperate desert journey have Helen waking parched, only to find her sheets damaged by dirt and dust. At school she's haunted by hallucinations of three women weeping tears of blood . . . and when Helen first crosses paths with Lucas Delos, she has no way of knowing they're destined to play the leading roles in a tragedy the Fates insist on repeating throughout history.

As Helen unlocks the secrets of her ancestry, she realizes that some myths are more than just legend. But even demigod powers might not be enough to defy the forces that are both drawing her and Lucas together—and trying to tear them apart.

I originally rated this as a 3 stars book but upon reviewing and rereading some parts I had to change it to 2.

A funny thing happened when I picked up Starcrossed and sat down to read it for one of my reading challenges. I didn't really notice it at first but some parts felt weirdly familiar to me, like I had read them before, and it wasn't until I was around chapter three that I realized that was really the case. Apparently I tried reading this a couple of months after it came out but gave up halfway through and didn't touch it again.

Until now.

And I'm kind of wishing I had left it alone.

The beginning went by so freaking slowly for me, it was like I was dragging my feet trying to get through this story. I was bored. I didn't get pulled in by the story or its characters, and the only reason why I kept reading it was because I was hoping it would get better.

Not that it did, not really.

The Greek mythology part of the story had its moments, so did Helen's best friend Claire. Both aspects kept me entertained for the most part - and are also the reason why this book is getting 2 stars -, that is until Helen and Lucas' relationship was mentioned. And oh my god what a freaking mess their story was.

I'm getting kind of tired of reading about the whole girl-meets-boy-and-instantly-feels-a-connection-to-him-only-to-find-out-they-can't-be-together story. That's exactly what happened in Starcrossed, with Helen meeting Lucas and not being able to stay away from him even when the gods themselves told her to.

And the twist on their relationship and final reason of why they can't be together was such a communication failure. Like, if both of them just stopped for a second to think about what was said to them as to why their relationship shouldn't happen and then looked back at facts and dates and just thought about it, they'd know people were lying to them. I love misunderstandings in stories, especially the angst that it brings, but this was too much.

In conclusion, I wished I had left this book alone and went on with my life.

Review: If You Stay by Courtney Cole

If You Stay
Courtney Cole
Series: Beautifully Broken #1
Publication date: February 5th 2013 by Lakehouse Press
Rating: ★★☆☆☆

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24-year old Pax Tate is an asshole. 
Seriously. 

He’s a tattooed, rock-hard bad-boy with a bad attitude to match. 

But he’s got his reasons. 

His mother died when Pax was seven, leaving a hole in his heart filled with guilt although he doesn’t understand why. What he does know is that he and his dad are left alone and with more issues than they can count. 

As Pax grew up, he tried to be the kid his father always wanted; the perfect golden boy, but it didn’t work. His dad couldn’t overcome his grief long enough to notice and Pax couldn’t keep up the impossible perfect façade. 
So he slipped far, far from it. 

Now, he uses drugs and women to cope with the ugliness, the black void that he doesn’t want to deal with. If he pretends that the emptiness isn’t there, then it isn’t, right? 
Wrong. 

And it’s never more apparent than when he meets Mila. 
Sweet, beautiful Mila Hill is the fresh air to his hardened frown, the beauty to his ugly heart. He doesn’t know how to not hurt her, but he quickly realizes that he’s got to figure it out because he needs her to breathe.

When memories of his mother’s death resurface from where he’s repressed them for so long, Mila is there to catch him when the guilt starts making sense. Mila is the one…the one who can save him from his broken troubled heart; from his issues, from the emptiness. 

But only if he can stop being an asshole long enough to allow it. 

He knows that. And he’s working on it. 

But is that enough to make her stay?

Another one of those books that had me super excited to read it, only for the plot to fall flat and disappoint me.

The first paragraph was great. It made me want to stand up and clap and congratulate the author on such a start for her story, because it was just that good. It really gives you an insight as to who Pax is as a person and of how much he does not care about anything other than block himself out.

Pax is your standard asshole with a mysterious past and a serious drug problem while Mila is the naive good girl who wants to save him from himself. They're relationship is rocky from the start, Pax trying to get himself back together and dealing with his drug problem, and Mila wanting to forget about the bad boy she saved and who makes her feel like she never has before.

The book is told from dual POV, and that's where the problem starts. It just feels like whenever the change from Pax's POV to Mila's happens, the entire story just goes downhill. Pax's character was much more developed than Mila's, with us reading about how he deals with what happened in his past and coming to terms with the truth he kept buried for so long.

And Mila...

I didn't agree with most of the decisions she made along the way, and with how she often she made every bad situation about what she was feeling and how it affected her. I guess I just couldn't relate to her in this story, and that was what made me dislike this book as much as I did.

Review: While It Lasts by Abbi Glines

While It Lasts
Abbi Glines
Series: Sea Breeze #3
Publication date: October 6th 2012 by Simon Pulse
Rating: 2 stars

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Low broke Cage’s heart by getting with Marcus in Because of Low. Cage went into a tailspin that ended in a DUI. In order to salvage his baseball scholarship—the one thing he truly valued besides Low—Cage must take a summer job. At a farm. Away from Sea Breeze. With lots of cows, but no hot girls. Maybe that’s what Cage needs to get back on track.



But wait—there’s that hostile daughter of the farm boss. She’s pretty and occasionally sweet, and there seems to be a lot of sadness and mystery behind her anger. Cage is dying to strip her down—physically and mentally—in the back of the barn. But is he prepared for what will happen afterward?

I'm disappointed.

So far I've fallen in love with absolutely everything Abbi Glines wrote, so I have no idea why I didn't like this book.

It took me so much time to get into the story. I'd start reading it, then I'd abandon it, then I'd pick it up again and give it another try because it just didn't catch my attention and I couldn't take the time to finish it. It was awful.

I think it mostly had to do with Eva and how I couldn't relate to her. I didn't like her. I didn't like the way she was portrayed and I didn't like how she acted towards Cage - one minute wanting him and the next snapping at him because of it. I couldn't get into the story and bring myself to wish they were together.

I don't know if I read this during a bad time in my life or what, but I found the previous books so much better. I hope the fourth installment will renew my faith in this series.

Review: Of Poseidon by Anna Banks

Of Poseidon

Anna Banks

Series: Of Poseidon #1

Publication date: May 22nd 2012 by Feiwel and Friends

Rating: 2 stars

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Galen is the prince of the Syrena, sent to land to find a girl he's heard can communicate with fish. Emma is on vacation at the beach. When she runs into Galen — literally, ouch! — both teens sense a connection. But it will take several encounters, including a deadly one with a shark, for Galen to be convinced of Emma's gifts. Now, if he can only convince Emma that she holds the key to his kingdom . . . 

Told from both Emma and Galen's points of view, here is a fish-out-of-water story that sparkles with intrigue, humor, and waves of romance.

I was expecting so much more from this book.

It started out so witty and funny and with so much potential that I thought it would definitely end up as one of my favorite books, but unfortunately, for me, the story didn't turn out to be that great after all. The writing was off, with the author making Emma's chapters in the first person and Galen's in the third. It made the transition from one POV to the other not as smooth as one would like to in a book, and the pace she set for the story was so terribly slow I struggled with my decision to seeing it to an end.

As for the characters, most of them annoyed the hell out of me. One of the reasons I couldn't enjoy the story more was because most of the time I was busy wanting to hit them in the head with a shovel. Emma's behavior towards Galen is very contradictory: one minute she wants to have nothing to do with him and the next she's wishing for him to kiss her. She also does the opposite of everything he wants just to spite him, and not really because she actually wants to. As for Galen, he doesn't really care about what Emma wants, doesn't take her seriously, and is too controlling. I just couldn't find myself rooting for them as a couple. I kind of wanted them to drawn in the ocean, really.

One of the goods things here, though, was all the mermaid lore. The author went very deep with her explanations and mythology about how the mermaids were in this universe, and that was amazing. I found that it was very interesting to read all about it, but it wasn't enough for me to like this book. I won't be reading the sequel.