Books currently Reading soon to be reviewed

Books currently Reading soon to be reviewed

Review of Along for the Ride by Sarah Dessen

Along for the Ride
Publisher: Viking Juvenile (June 2009 )
Genre: YA
Format: Hardcover (383 pages)
Source: Purchased


 Rating 5/5
 
It’s been so long since Auden slept at night. Ever since her parents’ divorce—or since the fighting started. Now she has the chance to spend a carefree summer with her dad and his new family in the charming beach town where they live.

A job in a clothes boutique introduces Auden to the world of girls: their talk, their friendship, their crushes. She missed out on all that, too busy being the perfect daughter to her demanding mother. Then she meets Eli, an intriguing loner and a fellow insomniac who becomes her guide to the nocturnal world of the town. Together they embark on parallel quests: for Auden, to experience the carefree teenage life she’s been denied; for Eli, to come to terms with the guilt he feels for the death of a friend.

In her signature pitch-perfect style, Sarah Dessen explores the hearts of two lonely people learning to connect.

Review 
Along for the Ride was a book all about change.  It's about how life doesn't stay stagnant, that people can change and bring surprises along the way.  It's about growing up and looking at life with new eyes.  You see this clearly when Auden looks at her father with new eyes over the summer.  Her father isn't what maybe she thought he was and her mother isn't either.  

Auden has a lot of growing up to do.  I really liked this book.  It wasn't over the top or crazy.  It was about real issues and how people perceive each other.  Auden goes from a little girl to a new level of maturity as she approaches life from a different angle and realizes that not everyone is what she thinks they are.  I thought this was a good message to deliver, and not in the preachy, harpy tone that others might deliver.  

For those seeking action and major conflict of epic proportions, this is not the book for you.  However, if you want read about a girl that comes into her own as a young woman and sees the world for the first time, this is for you.

XOXO  

 

Review of Alice in Zombieland

Alice in Zombieland
Publisher: Harlequin Teen (September 2012)
Genre: YA, Horror
Format: Hardcover (404 pages)
Source: Purchased

Series : White Rabbit Chronicles #1

 Rating 5/5

She won’t rest until she’s sent every walking corpse back to its grave. Forever.

Had anyone told Alice Bell that her entire life would change course between one heartbeat and the next, she would have laughed. From blissful to tragic, innocent to ruined? Please. But that’s all it took. One heartbeat. A blink, a breath, a second, and everything she knew and loved was gone.

Her father was right. The monsters are real….

To avenge her family, Ali must learn to fight the undead. To survive, she must learn to trust the baddest of the bad boys, Cole Holland. But Cole has secrets of his own, and if Ali isn’t careful, those secrets might just prove to be more dangerous than the zombies….


I wish I could go back and do a thousand things differently.
I'd tell my sister no.
I'd never beg my mother to talk to my dad.
I'd zip my lips and swallow those hateful words.
Or, barring all of that, I'd hug my sister, my mom and my dad one last time.
I'd tell them I love them.
I wish... Yeah, I wish.

Review 

Summary
I fell down the rabbit hole and I loved it! 

I'm a huge fan of the Zombie genre.  So I picked this one up, one because I love Alice and two I love Zombies.  Gena Showalter has a writing style that certainly suckes you in.  From start to finish I was hooked.  

Alice our Heroine is no fainting lily, she's the kind of girl that jumps into battle and is out to win.  At the same time she is vulnerable and has a tender heart.  She's still that teen girl with all the problems and not quite grown up, but with a good head on her shoulders as she try's to navigate growing up.  You feel the raw emotion from her after she loses her parents.  There was a lot of thought but into the lose of her loved ones.  It wasn't one of those moments of, my family died and one week later I'm good, life goes on.  No Alice truly struggles and you root for her the whole way.   I really liked her spunk and determination. 

Oh Cole, you handsome and butt kicking zombie slayer.  What's there not to like about him.  If boy's had looked like that in High School I  never would have wanted to leave.  He's definitely your all around bad boy, but in some really good way's.   

There's enough action through the book that you never get bored but there is also plenty of character development.  You get to know not only Alice and Cole but also the secondary characters.  One of those was Kat.  She's a self loving, confident and rather cheeky girl.  Not so self centered that she doesn't adore her Alice.  All the characters for me had their on voice.  None so much as Kat, who I wouldn't mind seeing in her own book one day.  

This was a new take on Zombies for me.  I thought that it was interesting and unique spin on them.  When it comes to Z's and something different, kuddos thank you very much. 

Loved loved loved this book.  Great start to a new series and I can't wait to get my hands on the 2nd book!

XOXO