Review | Night School by C.J Daugherty

Title : Night School

Publisher : Atom

Release Date : January 1st 2012

Genres : YA, Mystery

Pages : 454

Rating : ★★★☆☆

Allie Sheridan’s world is falling apart. Her brother’s run away from home. Her parents ignore her. And she’s just been arrested.

Again.

This time her parents have had enough. They cut her off from her friends and send her away to boarding school, far from her London friends.

But at Cimmeria Academy, Allie is soon caught up in the strange activities of a secret group of elite students.

When she’s attacked late one night the incident sets off a chain of increasingly violent events. As the school begins to seem like a very dangerous place, she finds out that nothing at Cimmeria is what it seems to be.

REVIEW : Cryptids by Lauren Evers

 Cryptids - Lauren Evers
 Publisher : Pronoun
 Release Date : September 4th 2016
 Genres : Young Adult, Contemporary
 Pages : 254
 Rating : ★★½☆☆

 Ell Weyanoke, the daughter of a multi-billionaire, does bad things for bad reasons; she doesn’t know why. No one does. Eventually, her schemes get her sent away to a prestigious academy where her father hopes for her to finally settle down.

It’s at this academy that Ell meets Percy, her seemingly perfect dream-boy. With Ell’s judgment clouded by Percy’s kindness, Ell forgets that dreams can be nightmares, too.

In this coming of age story, which analyzes complex social issues, Ell learns what it means to truly suffer. She learns what life is: making friends just to lose them.

REVIEW : Confess by Colleen Hoover

Confess - Colleen Hoover
Publisher : Atria
Release Date : March 10th 2015
Genres : NA, Contemporary
Pages : 306
Rating : ★★★☆☆

Auburn Reed has her entire life mapped out. Her goals are in sight and there’s no room for mistakes. But when she walks into a Dallas art studio in search of a job, she doesn’t expect to find a deep attraction to the enigmatic artist who works there, Owen Gentry.

For once, Auburn takes a risk and puts her heart in control, only to discover Owen is keeping major secrets from coming out. The magnitude of his past threatens to destroy everything important to Auburn, and the only way to get her life back on track is to cut Owen out of it.

The last thing Owen wants is to lose Auburn, but he can’t seem to convince her that truth is sometimes as subjective as art. All he would have to do to save their relationship is confess. But in this case, the confession could be much more destructive than the actual sin…

REVIEW : This is Where it Ends by Marieke Nijkamp

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This is Where it Ends - Marieke Nijkamp
Publisher : Sourcebooks Fire
Release Date : January 5th 2016
Genres : YA, Contemporary
Pages : 285
Rating : ★★★☆☆

10:00 a.m. The principal of Opportunity High School finishes her speech, welcoming the entire student body to a new semester and encouraging them to excel and achieve.

10:02 a.m. The students get up to leave the auditorium for their next class.

10:03 a.m. The auditorium doors won't open.

10:05 a.m. Someone starts shooting.

Told from four different perspectives over the span of fifty-four harrowing minutes, terror reigns as one student’s calculated revenge turns into the ultimate game of survival

REVIEW : Nerve by Jeanne Ryan

Nerve - Jeanne Ryan
Publisher : Dial Books
Release Date : September 13th 2012
Genres : YA, Thriller
Pages : 304
Rating : ★★★☆☆

A high-stakes online game of dares turns deadly

When Vee is picked to be a player in NERVE, an anonymous game of dares broadcast live online, she discovers that the game knows her. 

They tempt her with prizes taken from her ThisIsMe page and team her up with the perfect boy, sizzling-hot Ian. 

At first it's exhilarating--Vee and Ian's fans cheer them on to riskier dares with higher stakes. But the game takes a twisted turn when they're directed to a secret location with five other players for the Grand Prize round. Suddenly they're playing all or nothing, with their lives on the line. Just how far will Vee go before she loses NERVE?

Debut author Jeanne Ryan delivers an un-putdownable suspense thriller.

REVIEW : Maybe Someday by Colleen Hoover

Maybe Someday - Colleen Hoover
Publisher : Atria Books
Release Date : March 18th 2014
Genres : NA, Contemporary Romance
Pages : 385
Rating : ★★★☆☆

Sydney is living in an idyllic bubble—she's a dedicated student with a steady job on the side. 

She lives with her best friend, has a great boyfriend, and the music coming from the balcony opposite hers is fast becoming the soundtrack to her life. 

 But when Sydney finds out her boyfriend is cheating on her, the bubble bursts. The mysterious and attractive man behind the music, Ridge, gives Sydney hope that she can move on and they begin to write songs together. But moving on is harder than she expects, Sydney can only hope…. Maybe someday…

REVIEW : Harry Potter and the Cursed Child - J.K Rowling

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Harry Potter and the Cursed Child - J.K Rowling
Publisher : Little, Brown UK
Release Date : July 31st 2016
Genres : Fantasy
Pages : 327
Rating : ★★★☆☆

Based on an original new story by J.K. Rowling, Jack Thorne and John Tiffany, a new play by Jack Thorne, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is the eighth story in the Harry Potter series and the first official Harry Potter story to be presented on stage. The play will receive its world premiere in London’s West End on July 30, 2016.

It was always difficult being Harry Potter and it isn’t much easier now that he is an overworked employee of the Ministry of Magic, a husband and father of three school-age children.

While Harry grapples with a past that refuses to stay where it belongs, his youngest son Albus must struggle with the weight of a family legacy he never wanted. As past and present fuse ominously, both father and son learn the uncomfortable truth: sometimes, darkness comes from unexpected places.

REVIEW : Losing It by Cora Carmack

Losing It - Cora Carmack
Publisher : William Morrow
Release Date : February 26th 2013
Genres : NA, Contemporary Romance
Pages : 259
Rating : ★★★☆☆

Sick of being the only virgin among her friends, Bliss Edwards decides the best way to deal with the problem is to lose it as quickly and simply as possible - a one-night stand. 

But her plan turns out to be anything but simple when she freaks out and leaves a gorgeous guy alone and naked in her bed with an excuse that no one with half-a-brain would ever believe. 

And as if that weren't embarrassing enough, when she arrives for her first class of her last college semester, she recognizes her new theatre professor. She'd left him naked in her bed about 8 hours earlier.

REVIEW : Bloodfever by Karen Marie Moning

Bloodfever - Karen Marie Moning  
Publisher : Delacorte Press
Release Date : October 16th 2007
Genres : Urban Fantasy
Pages : 303
Rating : ★★★☆☆

I used to think my sister and I were just two nice southern girls who’d get married in a few years and settle down to a quiet life. Then I discovered that Alina and I descend, not from good wholesome southern stock, but from an ancient Celtic bloodline of powerful sidhe-seers, people who can see the Fae. Not only can I see the terrifying otherworldly race, but I can sense the sacred Fae relics that hold the deadliest of their magic.

When my sister was found dead in a trash-filled alley in Dublin, I came over to get answers. Now all I want is revenge. And after everything I’ve learned about myself, I know I have the power to get it….

MacKayla Lane’s ordinary life underwent a complete makeover when she landed on Ireland’s shores and was plunged into a world of deadly sorcery and ancient secrets.

In her fight to stay alive, Mac must find the Sinsar Dubh–a million-year-old book of the blackest magic imaginable, which holds the key to power over both the worlds of the Fae and of Man. Pursued by Fae assassins, surrounded by mysterious figures she knows she cannot trust, Mac finds herself torn between two deadly and irresistible men: V’lane, the insatiable Fae who can turn sensual arousal into an obsession for any woman, and the ever-inscrutable Jericho Barrons, a man as alluring as he is mysterious.

For centuries the shadowy realm of the Fae has coexisted with that of humans. Now the walls between the two are coming down, and Mac is the only thing that stands between them.…

REVIEW : Practice Makes Perfect by Julie James

Practice Makes Perfect - Julie James
Publisher : Berkley Sensation
Release Date : March 3rd 2009
Genres : Chick-Lit
Pages : 291
Rating : ★★★☆☆

When it comes to the laws of attraction...

Payton Kendall and J.D. Jameson are lawyers who know the meaning of objection. A feminist to the bone, Payton has fought hard to succeed in a profession dominated by men. Born wealthy, privileged, and cocky, J.D. has fought hard to ignore her. Face-to-face, they're perfectly civil. They have to be. For eight years they have kept a safe distance and tolerated each other as coworkers for one reason: to make partner at the firm.

...There are no rules.

But all bets are off when they're asked to join forces on a major case. Though apprehensive at first, they begin to appreciate each other's dedication to the law—and the sparks between them quickly turn into attraction. But the increasingly hot connection does not last long when they discover that only one of them will be named partner. Now it's an all-out war. And the battle between the sexes is bound to make these lawyers hot under the collar... 

REVIEW : Haze by Brandon J. Barnard

Haze - Brandon J. Barnard
Publisher : Nihilism Productions
Release Date : 21st March 2016
Genres : Psychological Thriller
Pages : 154
Rating : ★★★☆☆

Haze is the story of Jack Decker, an art school dropout who has to face his repressed memories in a post-apocalyptic London. It was just another workday when he saw that girl wanting to stuff her face with doughnuts from across the room. Who knew that this event would start it all

REVIEW : Blackmoore by Julianne Donaldson

Blackmoore - Julianne Donaldson
Publisher : Shadow Mountain
Release Date : September 9th 2013
Genres : Historical Fiction, Romance
Pages : 286
Rating : ★★★☆☆

Kate Worthington knows her heart and she knows she will never marry. Her plan is to travel to India instead—if only to find peace for her restless spirit and to escape the family she abhors. But Kate’s meddlesome mother has other plans. She makes a bargain with Kate: India, yes, but only after Kate has secured—and rejected—three marriage proposals.

Kate journeys to the stately manor of Blackmoore determined to fulfill her end of the bargain and enlists the help of her dearest childhood friend, Henry Delafield. But when it comes to matters of love, bargains are meaningless and plans are changeable. There on the wild lands of Blackmoore, Kate must face the truth that has kept her heart captive. Will the proposal she is determined to reject actually be the one thing that will set her heart free?

Set in Northern England in 1820, Blackmoore is a Regency romance that tells the story of a young woman struggling to learn how to follow her heart. It is Wuthering Heights meets Little Women with a delicious must-read twist.

REVIEW : Ruin and Rising by Leigh Bardugo

Ruin and Rising - Leigh Bardugo
Publisher : Henry Holt and Co.
Release Date : June 17th 2014
Genres : YA, Fantasy
Pages : 422
Rating : ★★★☆☆

The capital has fallen.

The Darkling rules Ravka from his shadow throne.

Now the nation's fate rests with a broken Sun Summoner, a disgraced tracker, and the shattered remnants of a once-great magical army.

Deep in an ancient network of tunnels and caverns, a weakened Alina must submit to the dubious protection of the Apparat and the zealots who worship her as a Saint. Yet her plans lie elsewhere, with the hunt for the elusive firebird and the hope that an outlaw prince still survives.

Alina will have to forge new alliances and put aside old rivalries as she and Mal race to find the last of Morozova's amplifiers. But as she begins to unravel the Darkling's secrets, she reveals a past that will forever alter her understanding of the bond they share and the power she wields. The firebird is the one thing that stands between Ravka and destruction—and claiming it could cost Alina the very future she’s fighting for. 

REVIEW : Siege and Storm by Leigh Bardugo

Siege and Storm - Leigh Bardugo
Publisher : Henry Holt and Co.
Release Date : June 4th 2013
Genres : YA, Fantasy
Pages : 435
Rating : ★★★☆☆

Darkness never dies.
Hunted across the True Sea, haunted by the lives she took on the Fold, Alina must try to make a life with Mal in an unfamiliar land. She finds starting new is not easy while keeping her identity as the Sun Summoner a secret. She can’t outrun her past or her destiny for long.

The Darkling has emerged from the Shadow Fold with a terrifying new power and a dangerous plan that will test the very boundaries of the natural world. With the help of a notorious privateer, Alina returns to the country she abandoned, determined to fight the forces gathering against Ravka. But as her power grows, Alina slips deeper into the Darkling’s game of forbidden magic, and farther away from Mal. Somehow, she will have to choose between her country, her power, and the love she always thought would guide her--or risk losing everything to the oncoming storm.

REVIEW : Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo

Shadow and Bone - Leigh Bardugo
​Publisher : Henry Holt and Co
Release Date : June 5th 2012
Genres : YA, Fantasy
Pages : 358
Rating : ★ ★ ★ ☆☆

Surrounded by enemies, the once-great nation of Ravka has been torn in two by the Shadow Fold, a swath of near impenetrable darkness crawling with monsters who feast on human flesh. Now its fate may rest on the shoulders of one lonely refugee.

Alina Starkov has never been good at anything. But when her regiment is attacked on the Fold and her best friend is brutally injured, Alina reveals a dormant power that saves his life—a power that could be the key to setting her war-ravaged country free. Wrenched from everything she knows, Alina is whisked away to the royal court to be trained as a member of the Grisha, the magical elite led by the mysterious Darkling.

Yet nothing in this lavish world is what it seems. With darkness looming and an entire kingdom depending on her untamed power, Alina will have to confront the secrets of the Grisha . . . and the secrets of her heart.