The Witch of Salt and Storm Review

The Witch of Salt and Storm by Kendall Kulper

“Just because it’s common doesn’t make it less powerful.”

Avery Roe is from a long line of sea witches from Prince Island and after her mother abandons her as a child she’s raised up by her grandma, the island’s resident witch.  Avery grows up fascinated by magic and her grandma and dreams of taking her grandma’s place when she’s older but her mother comes back and takes her away when she’s twelve and putting a dent on her plans, the same mother who turned her back on magic and becoming a witch leaving Avery’s grandma being the Roe witch way past her time.  Avery bids her time; passing four years living with her mother and her new family and waiting till it’s time to return to her grandma and learn to become a witch.

Though Avery’s mum has turned her back on the Roe witch’s it doesn’t stop her from using magic to prevent Avery escaping to her grandma. This puts Avery in a dilemma. That is until Tane comes along, from a different island and carrying his own magic he can help Avery but in exchange for something. Every Roe Witch has her own unique gift and Avery’s is to interpret dreams and Tane needs his dreams explaining and so they strike a deal.

What I didn’t expect this book to be was sad; in order to become a witch and unlock her magic Avery needs to experience pain, the kind of pain which doesn’t ever heal and every time she uses her magic it will be fuelled by this pain. Avery doesn’t know the first thing about being a witch and this shows from her excitement and happiness to get her magic, she’s willing to do anything and everything until the cost of her magic is too high.  

Her desperation to become a witch and to unlock her magic is down to the dreams she’s been having; a dream in which she gets killed. And everybody knows that you can’t kill a Roe Witch. But as Avery finds out more about how to unlock her magic and the sacrifices the Roe women have done to gain it the less sure she becomes on becoming a Roe witch.

Avery character was so strong and smart; she has to deal with a lot of hatred from the islanders, trying to escape from her mother’s tight grip, knowing she’s going to die and being unable to prevent it, everything to do with Tane and her undecided fate of being the Roe Witch or not. Her mother though at first seemed uptight, a bit crazy and cruel didn’t change that much but she did decide to tell her daughter the truth which helped Avery a great deal.

The last quarter of the book what happened in the book was so unexpected and sad. The amount of pressure put on Avery and the how much the islanders rely on the Roe Witches. The ending was beautiful in the sense it was sad but hopeful.

★★★★★

Trial by Fire Review

Trial by Fire by Josephine Angelini  

“I’m a witch. And witches burn.”

The start to the story is well developed and interesting as we glimpse at the struggles that Lily goes through in her everyday life, though her allergies make her fragile in this world we see that she’s not a naïve character or completely oblivious. Her friend Tristan who she’s always loved as more than a friend finally makes a move on her and when they go to a party together things seem perfect; Tristan may be a player but he wouldn’t mess around with someone else when he’s with her, his best friend, would he? When things take a turn for the bad and Lily has to deal with a friend who doesn’t want to be burdened with her anymore, what can she do? Get transported to an alternative universe?

The idea of Alternative Universes and there being endless numbers of the same person is quite fascinating and even more so when we meet Lillian who seems the exact opposite of Lily even though they are essentially the same person. When we first get introduced to Lillian’s character she’s someone who’s powerful, feared and hated but even though everybody says she’s evil her intentions for bringing Lily are not told; is it for something good?

At first it seems as if the plot to the book is Lily finding herself and gaining magic in order to overrule/overpower Lillian. But it’s more than that it’s Lily’s adventure at finding a way to go home. Meeting new people (and some familiar faces), becoming a witch and learning magic, getting her stones, fighting weavers, learning who to trust and learning to trust herself and her power. With all of this maybe she could defeat Lillian?

Lily and Lillian share some traits but also differences; after what Lily has witnessed and heard about Lillian’s evil, when she hears about the reason she’s here in the AU and the reason why Lillian did what she did, is the reason good enough for Lily to swap sides?

One thing I really liked about this story is the relationship between Lily and Juliet. Even though Juliet’s sister in the AU is Lillian she still cares and loves for Lily and helps to protect and save her. The sister’s bond is strong in both universes.

The romance in the story is complicated as Rowan loved Lillian before and Lily loved Tristan before.  It seems as if the romance is going to be awkward and weird but it isn’t, it isn’t perfect but the romance was the sub plot and I liked how it didn’t over take the main plotline.

The novel was written very well especially the action scenes; the world building was gripping and very visual. And this is a good start to a trilogy; it introduces the world, spirit walking, the characters and the revolt/battle sets up for the second book.

Also Lily was such a strong heroine she went through and had to learn so much and she was like that from the start, when she was in her own universe till the end of the story.

“Science is a tool, like witchcraft. It’s people that are evil.”     

★★★★★

Breathe Review

Breathe by Elena Dillon  

“Most days I can almost forget someone murdered my sister.”    

Jasmine and her family are trying to move on from her sister’s death but that’s near impossible when the murder’s roaming free.

The story starts off with Jasmine and her family moving to a new place for a fresh start.  Because of everything with her sister and the murder, Jas suffers from anxiety attacks and faints a lot. So when she’s at Walmart and she faints she’s caught by a handsome stranger called Easton. This kicks off her new start. Jasmine starts school, makes a bunch of new friends and gets a boyfriend.  

Everything was just too perfect. After two years of being anti social she automatically makes a tight friendship group of 4 girls and after being paranoid of strangers she meets one hot guy and she’s getting involved with him. And Easton was just too much; he was the perfect gentleman, caring and understanding and it was so annoying how perfect everybody was.

Though luckily Easton wasn’t a bad boy that would be worse, Jasmine wasn’t annoying at times she was oblivious to her looks but she was smart and strong, I loved the relationship between Jasmine and her family and Easton and his.

What Jasmine goes through is horrible and when she’s forced to put her family through the same thing she knows she won’t go down without a fight. It was interesting when we saw Jasmine go through what her sister went through and how it affects everybody around her. When Jasmine activates her plan she doesn’t count on how many people care about her life also because Jasmine knows about what happened to her sister she creates a plan and it’s sad to know how her sister could have done the same but no one expects for this to happen and what to do when you’re getting blackmailed.

There could have been more mystery to the novel because it focused too much on the romance and by focusing more on the mystery we could have had more insight on the murder’s character. Although the action near the end was really well written and exciting.

The ending was wrapped nicely with the letters though it would have been better if the sister was mentioned.

★★★☆☆

Top Ten Tuesday

Top Ten Tuesday

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme created by The Broke and the Bookish 

This week’s Top Ten Tuesday is Top Ten Books I Really Want To Read But Don't Own Yet

Lottie Biggs is (not) Mad Review

Lottie Biggs is (not) Mad by Hayley Long

  

“Use the blank page as my canvas and the rich vocabulary of the English language as my pallet.”  

 

Lottie Biggs is a teen who’s about to go through a whole lot of drama. For her English coursework Lottie needs to write about a key event that went on in her life for creative writing unfortunately for her there’s more than one key event going on.

Lottie is a very creative and funny character, she’s likable and relatable. Lottie alongside her best friend, Goose works at “Sole Mates” a shoe shop.  Things first start to change when Goose starts to date the hottest guy who works near them, Neil Adam or mad alien. Goose starts to change her personality and her friendship with Lottie is put second.

Lottie doesn’t know how to deal with this change and now she’s spending a lot of time by herself she’s starting to realise some personal issues. Lottie does a lot of things she doesn’t remember doing or is ashamed off and this is all because of her mental illness. Her friends and her mother start to realise something is off when Lottie starts to act out and get into trouble.

Though the novel seems like a middle grade what Lottie goes through breaches a more young adult subject. Lottie suffers from a mental illness and while going through the early stages she’s feel likes she’s all alone and she suffers from depression. The novel shows how important friendships are to people. Lottie’s and Goose’s, Lottie and the Welsh Elvis Presley, Lottie and the Sole Owner’s and Lottie and her mum’s. Throughout the novel each relationship helps Lottie in a different way and helps her through her dilemmas.

Lottie and Gareth relationship isn’t fully developed in this novel though the blossom of the relationship is shown.

The writing style was written with a diary feel because it was Lottie’s English coursework. It was funny and enjoyable and the pictures were hilarious.  

★★★★☆

Book Covers

Book Covers I Spotted This Week

The Rain Review

The Rain by Virginia Bergin  

“It was kind of impossible to get your head round it; how something so ordinary could… how they were saying it could do that, make someone sick.”  

The start of the novel is when 15 year old Ruby is at a friend’s party when the friend’s parents rush them in and blabber about “the rain.” Of course they all think the parents are crazy until Ruby’s boyfriend, Casper retrieves his stuff from the rain and his skin starts to peel and itch like crazy and he starts to bleed. And that’s how everything kick starts. It’s a good start and it sets the pace of the book.

The characters in the book were all relatable; Ruby is a teen left all alone so she’s prone to be selfish and annoying, Darius the nerd who is a know it all, the step father who’s stuck with a child who doesn’t like him and Princess a little girl who doesn’t speak because of what she went through.

The adventure that Ruby goes through is very interesting and exciting. After she’s left all alone she just can’t stay at home and die of thirst and hunger so she sets off to London to be with her Dad. Along the way she meets Darius and Princess and they become her companions alongside random dogs and cats.  I really enjoyed the plotline of the story. It was basically how Ruby survives from the contaminated water, she doesn’t have to fight zombies or vampires or even aliens it’s something as simple as water. Throughout the novel she meets various different characters and each help her/hind her from reaching her destination or surviving against the rain.

Though Ruby can be annoying and I mean seriously this girl needs to get her priorities straight; she goes straight for the makeup and clothes/shoes she can’t run in. However it’s understandable; everything’s free so you go for the stuff you couldn’t afford before. However she does change and her character does develop and all the minor characters were likable especially Darius and Princess.

The story of how the rain gets contaminated is interesting. Ruby’s stepdad has always been arguing with Ruby about their differences; one thing they disagree is on the asteroid. Ruby’s stepdad has always thought that the asteroid which hit earth (or did it miss) was important. And it is the rocks from the asteroid clogged up the atmosphere which affected the cloud and the deadly bacteria from the rocks then goes into the rock. It’s interesting to how unexpected the attack was; after nine years the asteroid’s finally comes into effect.

The romance – I can’t be the only one who was waiting for Ruby and Darius to get together. Yet I sort of knew they weren’t going to get together because of Casper and Saskia. Hopefully in the sequel they’ll be together, there’s just something about them.

On the topic of Saskia, her character wasn’t explored and the mystery for her character wasn’t explained. And then she randomly pops up near the end.

I really liked the ending, her writing the story and going through this entire journey to find her father only to find out that it might have been better if she stayed at home.

★★★★☆

The 100 Society Review

The 100 Society by Carla Spradbery

“I’ve got a feeling the madness has only just begun” 

 

The 100 Society starts of quite weirdly, it seems as if an entire chunk of the novel was missing. Mainly because in the story the main character has to tag 100 buildings and she’s in the middle of the 96^th tag when the story starts.

The characters weren’t really introduced properly, as a reader we didn’t see their personality and instead a trait of which the main character labelled them by. So the characters were just likable and nothing more. However at some points Grace was really oblivious and whiny but she soon gets over that.

The love triangle was bearable at first because you know Grace was going to choose Trick and not Pete but after the kiss the relationship between the three characters turned more desperate and drama induced.

What I really liked in the novel was the thriller and mystery part. The suspense was built to see what was going to happen to the characters. Who was going to die or get injured and were they innocent? This book had more death than I expected and it was a good surprise. I also enjoyed the mystery part and how you think you know who the culprit is because everything is pointing at them and yet when you find out who really is behind everything it’s a shock.

I love the element of art in the book and how it actually has an effect in the book and the ending. The book was a really enjoyable and fast paced read although I found the hospital scene at the end unnecessary.  

★★★★☆

Blonde Ops Review

Blonde Ops by Charlotte Bennardo and Natalie Zaman

“Sometimes justice was too sweet”  

Rebecca Jackson or Bec just got expelled from boarding school for hacking into the system to change her grade, her parents are too busy to take care of her so her mother ships her of to Rome to be with Parker, a friend. Parker is an editor for some fashion magazine and Bec will be an intern there.

Before every chapter there’s like a little section telling you different fashion statements or styles which not only relates to the basis of the book but also the main character. Bec has her own sense of style and is quite engrossed with the fashion industry which is unusual with female main characters.

Throughout the entire book Bec sneaked around and hacked into files and yet she had no clue to who was behind the accident. Just when the culprit is about to tell her how he did it does she guess everything. What a mystery novel.

Can Bec catch the person who's after the First Lady, solve the mystery of Parker's accident, and juggle two cute boys at the same time? 

No, no she can’t. This books focus isn’t on the mystery, solving the crime, fashion or Rome it’s on the romance. Our poor heroine is left with the choice of choosing between two guys, oh what a tragedy!

“Dante was fair, Taj, dark. Smiling came easily to Dante, smirking to Taj. Dante  was warm and safe. Taj felt dangerous. And I liked them both.”

Wait a minute; a good guy vs a bad boy. Now it’s gonna be impossible for her to choose.

But all that aside I surprisingly enjoyed the novel; I don’t really know why but it was a fun read and I do sort of want a sequel.

★★★☆☆

Waiting on Wednesday

Waiting on Wednesday

 A weekly meme hosted by Breaking the Spine that spotlights upcoming releases that people are eagerly anticipating.

My choice for Waiting on Wednesday this week is: 

Seeker

by Arwen Elys Dayton

Publication: February 10th 2015 by Delacorte Press, 448 pages

The night Quin Kincaid takes her Oath, she will become what she has trained to be her entire life. She will become a Seeker. This is her legacy, and it is an honor.

As a Seeker, Quin will fight beside her two closest companions, Shinobu and John, to protect the weak and the wronged. Together they will stand for light in a shadowy world. And she'll be with the boy she loves--who's also her best friend.

But the night Quin takes her Oath, everything changes. Being a Seeker is not what she thought. Her family is not what she thought. Even the boy she loves is not who she thought.

And now it's too late to walk away. 

Mechanica

by Betsy Cornwell 

Publication: 2015 by Clarion/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Ash by Malinda Lo meets Marissa Meyer’s Cinder: A YA retelling of Cinderella about an indomitable inventor-mechanic who finds her prince but realizes she doesn't want a fairy tale happy ending after all. Fans of Libba Bray's The Diviners and Cassandra Clare's Clockwork Angel will find much to love here.

Top Ten Tuesday

Top Ten Tuesday

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme created by The Broke and the Bookish 

This week’s Top Ten Tuesday is Top Ten Books People Have Been Telling You That You MUST Read 

Branded Review

Branded by Abi Ketner and Missy Kalicicki

“At what point do they believe what’s been branded on their skin instead of just knowing who they are inside?”  

The Good

. The novel was very fast paced which suited the story and plotline.

. Lexi was such a likable heroine in the first half of the story she was incredibly strong and went through so much without whining and breaking down. 

. There are many action scenes in the novel and they were written really well

. Throughout the book there were flashbacks of Lexi and what happened to her in her past and though normally this would irritate me they added a lot of tension and excitement to the story.

. The beginning of the novel started off really good; it was gripping and intriguing.

. In the first half I really enjoyed the romance because there wasn’t any instant love; once Lexi and Cole started to get to know each other then they did slowly start to fall in love. I also liked how because their love was forbidden they did try to hide their feelings.

. Zeus! I really like how loyal and guarding Zeus was towards Lexi long before Cole was.

. Throughout the second half a lot of suspicion was put upon Cole. Was he a traitor or not? And it was interesting as a reader to see Lexi gather all these clues to see if Cole was good or bad.

. I loved the twist in the ending.

. There were so many deaths that in the ending there was hardly any minor characters left however the way it was written made it seem more realistic.

. I really liked the setting of this book, the Hole was such a horrid place but it was created and described really well.  When the action was happening you see more of the Hole and what kind of place it really is. It was interesting.

The Bad

. Though the story was fast paced certain subplots were too short; Alyssa and her story was important to Lexi’s character development but I wasn’t emotionally attached to her and when something bad did happen to Alyssa I couldn’t feel sad because her story was way too fast and short.

. The biggest let down in this story was the writing style and dialogue.  The writing style did not suit the book or its pace and the dialogue was awkward and weird. Basically the plotline was really good but it wasn’t written well.

. Though I did like Lexi’s personality she was the typical “special” main character with her turquoise eyes and her being the prettiest girl in the Hole.

. So many things happened in this story, too much. This book really should have been split into two so some parts didn’t drag on whilst others were way too quick.

. Adding to the point above an entire uprising happened in the second half which is normally second book material.

. Lexi’s brother was so unlikable. The worst thing was Lexi was idolising him and portraying him to be this great tough leader when her was just a jackass.

. Though there wasn’t a love triangle there was tension and anger between Cole and Lexi’s brother which was worse than a love triangle. Also there hatred towards each other was never explained.

. Lexi changed a lot in the story she went from being awesome and strong to being whiny, a person who cries every other chapter, forgives way too easily and gets treated like a possession and does nothing to change that. Basically she get on my nerves.

. There were some very predictable parts.

. When the flashbacks were explained you realise that the information given is too vague. The stepfather who becomes more important near the end – his character is developed through these flashbacks and it wasn’t enough information to actually create or picture a character.

. In the second half Lexi starts to train on becoming a fighter and one second she can’t even throw a punch and then a couple of days later she’s fighting against the best fighter in the resistance and holding out. Real believable.

. There was also the stereotype of her having a family member which started the revolution. Original!

★★☆☆☆

Book Covers

Book Covers I Spotted This Week

Fangirl Review

Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell

“To really be a nerd, she'd decided, you had to prefer fictional worlds to the real one.” 

Fangirl is a mix between Young Adult and New Adult; there are topics in the book which are mainly in YA like parent issues, growing up, fangirling and having crushes. There are also new adult topics like drinking problems, mental issues and progressing relationships. I think Cath is a typical YA main character and Wren is a typical New Adult main character.

Cath and Wren are twins – I really like their names – Cath + Wren = Catherine. From the start of novel their relationship is rocky because of their differences; Cath wanting to stay in and not socialise and Wren wanting to party and get drunk. Their relationship gets worse as their differences tear them apart until they’re avoiding each other. Cath has to deal with being the less pretty and geeky twin compared to her outgoing pretty sister. However that being said when there is no drama their relationship is really close and they do have similarities.

I love the idea of this book being based on a girl who writes fanfiction. As a reader you can be part of many fandoms and you can do a lot of things in fandoms like reading fanfics, seeing fanart, obsessing about the characters, fancasting and more. So the theme is relatable for many readers and it’s interesting to see people’s views on what Cath does.

Reagan has a moody/harsh personality and I’m surprised she’s not portrayed as a bully in the book. There’s this awkwardness between Cath and Reagan when Cath starts dating Levi but Reagan was a decent friend, she helped Cath meet new friends. And compare her to Wren’s friend who’s a bimbo and portrayed negatively all because she’s Wren’s new friend. 

After every chapter there was either a page from the Simon Snow series or fanfiction from Wren and Cath or just Cath. The world of Simon Snow was interesting and I liked the plotlines and relationships between the characters, even though you can see the links between Simon Snow and Harry Potter. I also really liked how it showed the differences between the real books and the fanfiction.

Though in the book there was some predictable parts; like Nick’s character who was introduced as a might be love interest and to get rid of that idea he had to do something bad, the problems with her mother and sister and what Levi did before they became a couple.

I also liked Levi and Cath’s relationship; from him being the first person she met at uni to him becoming a regular face she saw in her dorm room. As their relationship progresses, it was really sweet with Cath reading her fanfiction to Levi and helping him with his reading however their relationship was built slowly so near the ending it was quite weird when everything started to go really fast and rushed.

Cath did grow in character a little bit; she met new people, co wrote stories, got into a proper relationship and wrote fiction that wasn’t fanfiction.   However too much time was spent on Cath just writing fan fiction to the point in which when she actually tried writing her piece for class it was all rushed and boring.

The other things I liked was how her dad didn’t push her to make amends with her mother, Levi and Cath’s fights practically nonexistent and Cath and Art’s relationship.   

★★★★☆

Eleanor and Park Review

Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell

“You saved my life, she tried to tell him. Not forever, not for good. Probably just temporarily. But you saved my life, and now I’m yours. The me that’s me right now is yours. Always. “

Eleanor and Park is a love story of how two people from different backgrounds find something in common and become friends.  And slowly they become more than friends even though there are people pulling them apart.

All the characters had flaws; Eleanor isn’t nice, Park was too embarrassed to be different, Park’s mum was judgemental, Eleanor’s mum was purposely ignorant, Tina was a bitch towards Eleanor and Steve was an idiot. But throughout the book they changed and it was mostly through Eleanor and Park’s relationship. Eleanor learns the difference between being nice and being respectful, Park learns that doing what you want is far more better than doing what is expected of you, Eleanor’s mum cares for her children but hides it from Richie, Park’s mum realises her son doesn`t have the perfect girlfriend but that’s okay and Tina and Steve’s relationship has similarities to Eleanor and Park’s.

The story starts of on the School bus so our first impression of the Eleanor is taken from Park’s pov and vice versa. Eleanor isn’t skinny nor is she beautiful, she’s a mess. She’s just come back home after being kicked out and everything’s awkward between her siblings and Richie. Park is beautiful but he wants to blend in and sitting next to “big red” isn’t helping. But sitting next to someone and not talking to them is awkward so very slowly Eleanor and Park develop their relationship by swapping their views on comics and music. It’s like watching a movie, you see their relationship grow and with the multi povs you see the story from both sides.

When they do finally end up together it’s incredibly cute, theirs this awkward and nervous tension alongside excitement and fear of being caught.  I love how the story focuses on the development of the relationship and not just the intimate love parts. Eleanor and Park’s story is different because in most typical love stories following the same themes in this book it would be Park in Eleanor’s situation and he would be classified as a “bad boy” or both of them would be considered “bad kids”.  I also like how Park’s the beautiful one in the relationship and Eleanor isn’t - “Eleanor was right. She never looked nice. She looked like art, and art wasn't supposed to look nice; it was supposed to make you feel something.”

Eleanor keeps referring to the past – before she got kicked out and the tension brought from this makes you think that something happened between them. And it’s disappointing to know that what happens isn’t even tension worthy. Though there was a strain in her relationship with Richie there’s isn’t really a past story there. Before Eleanor leaves her and her siblings are close and they have a mutual hate for Richie and so when Eleanor comes back she’s surprised to find that siblings don’t hate him anymore. Without anybody to protect them from Richie they’ve decided that making him happy will protect them.

Park goes through a lot of changes throughout the book, at first he deals with hating himself because he’s embarrassed to be with Eleanor and then it’s because he starts to wear eyeliner because he likes how it looks on him and his father stops talking to him.

One thing I really enjoyed in this book is when Eleanor saved herself from Richie, she didn`t wait for him to make the move and maybe sexually abuse her she instead chose to get herself out – away from danger.  Also the people who helped Eleanor escape from Richie wasn’t her mother like you’d expect but Tina and Steve.

 The story starts with a cliff-hanger (ish) and it seems as if Eleanor is dead. Thankfully that’s not what happens – Eleanor is forced to let Park go when she moves away and as the ending was coming everything started to get rushed and crammed together and even though there isn’t a proper happily ever after there’s hope for one. The ending is quite shocking because throughout the story you’re so engrossed in their story, you’ve read about how they’re relationship has grown and then suddenly you’re pulled right out. You don`t know what’s going to happen next. In the ending Eleanor finally makes her move and knowing she’s done that you know things are going to be pretty good.

★★★★★

Waiting on Wednesday

Waiting on Wednesday

 A weekly meme hosted by Breaking the Spine that spotlights upcoming releases that people are eagerly anticipating.

My choice for Waiting on Wednesday this week is: 

The Brilliant Light of Amber Sunrise

by Matthew Crow

Publication: March 10th 2015 by Simon Pulse, 240 pages

Life threatening cancer brings two teens together in this funny, honest, and heartwrenching novel in the tradition of The Fault in Our Stars.

Francis is determined to forge his own way in school and life despite his loony, awkward, broken family...and noticeable lack of friends. Then he is diagnosed with leukemia. It wasn't part of his strategy, but there are moments when he can see the upside. After all, people are nice to you when you're sick.

While in the hospital, Francis meets Amber. She’s outspoken and sarcastic, and Francis falls for her almost immediately. Hard. Together, they take on the other cancer ward patients, overbearing mothers, and treatments with lively wit.

But Francis's recovery is taking a different path from Amber's. He's actually getting better. And although he knew who he was before cancer, before Amber, now he has no idea how to live—or how to let go…

I Remember You

by Cathleen Davitt Bell

Publication: February 10th 2015 by Knopf Books for Young Readers, 320 pages

For fans of THE FUTURE OF US and IF I STAY comes an engrossing story of two teens, whose love for each other is tested by time and fate.

Lucas and Juliet couldn’t be more different from each other. But from the moment Lucas sees Juliet, he swears he remembers their first kiss. Their first dance. Their first fight. He even knows what’s going to happen between them—not because he can predict the future, but because he claims to have already lived it.

Juliet doesn’t know whether to be afraid for herself or for Lucas. As Lucas’s memories occur more frequently, they also grow more ominous. All Juliet wants is to keep Lucas safe with her. But how do you hold on to someone you love in the present when they’ve begun slipping away from you in the future?

Top Ten Tuesday

Top Ten Tuesday

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme created by The Broke and the Bookish 

This week’s Top Ten Tuesday is Top Ten Books I'm Not Sure I Want To Read

Apple and Rain Review

Apple and Rain by Sarah Crossan  

“I saved up my hopes, Like little pennies in a jar.” 

This review contains spoilers

Apple and Rain is essentially a story of change and what neglect can do to a person.  Apple has waited for her mother to come back since the day she left; to come and take her away from her strict Nan and then one day she does. And everything is perfect; her mum takes her shopping, invites her crush to their party and most importantly her mother is finally there for her. Though there is the case with Rain, her sister who she never met until now and Rain’s not exactly normal.  

Apple has always looked up to her mum because she never knew her and because her Nan is over protective. After her Nan hinders her chance at being popular and being the reason to her losing her friend, her mum comes and saves her from total embarrassment and Apple starts to idolise her mum. She protects her mum with lying and skipping school till the point it comes naturally to her and she can’t reach out to others to help her.

Apple is thirteen but she’s quite naïve in the beginning; she views her Nan as the bad person for not welcoming her mum, Del the boy next door is seen as a weird kid who she’s embarrassed to be seen with, Pilar is her safe/secure best friend and Mr Gaydon is an unusual teacher. Apple has to learn quickly that there are people who are close to you that will leave you because their selfish and others who will help them because they care.

An aspect of this story that I really liked was the Poetry, it was really important to Apple and it was the only way she couldn’t lie to herself. She wrote poems on what was going on in her life even if she didn’t want to admit it out loud.

Then there’s Rain, the unwanted child. Rain uses Jenny as her cry for help, to make her mother notice her. She wanted to have a mother who treated her like she treated Jenny and yet there was no one there for her.

In the second half of the book there was this tension building and it was shown through the stress put upon Apple and her covering up for her mum. And when things do explode Apple has no one to turn to but Del, the amount of pressure put on two thirteen year olds.

One thing I really loved was Del, he was so optimistic and sweet and just what Apple and Rain needed.

★★★★☆