Buy Spoiled on Amazon

16 year old Molly Dix has just discovered that her biological father is Brick Berlin, world famous movie star and red-carpet regular. Intrigued (and a little terrified) by her Hollywood lineage, Molly moves to Los Angeles and plunges head first into the deep end of Beverly Hills celebrity life. Just as Molly thinks her life couldn’t get any stranger, she meets Brooke, her gorgeous spoiled half-sister who welcomes Molly to la-la land with a smothering dose of ‘sisterly love’. But in this town nothing is ever what it seems.

Set against Redbull-fueled stylists, tiny tanned girls, popped-collar guys and blackberry wielding publicists, Spoiled is a sparkling debut from the writers behind the viciously funny celebrity blog Gofugyourself.com

Discovering that your father was rich and famous and, therefore, you are. It’s a story that’s been told since the time of princesses. Unlike most people, though, the Gofugyourself girls tell it well.

Here are the facts:

-Molly Dix is a tomboy.

-Her step-sister, Brooke Berlin, is a spoiled girly-girl.

-Brooke had never heard of her father’s illegitimate child before and is furious at her for suddenly stealing the spotlight.

-Brooke is viciously manipulative and a great liar.

-Brick Berlin, the father, is oblivious.

-Molly is having boy trouble.

-Brooke is very observant.

-Molly knows how to make friends with Brooke’s enemies.

So, let me ask you: Is this going to go well? No. It is not. It is going to go horribly, horribly wrong.

Will anyone come out of this savage, wicked, battle unscathed? No. They will not. They will all be terribly socially harmed.

Will simple drama lead to horrendous repercussions?  Yes. Horrendous repercussions.

Are you going to enjoy it? Yes!

Considering the marshmallow fluffiness of this type of book, I was pleasantly surprised. At first I thought that Brooke, being the selfish spoiled brat that she is, was completely superficial. But as the novel progressed and the secrets of Brooke’s past unraveled, she began to prove to me that she has depth.

Molly was equally likable. I imagined that after her mother died and revealed that Molly’s father was none other than the A-list actor Brick Berlin, Molly would be in shock and sniveling. However, she turned out to be a strong heroine who fought against Brooke’s drama with some tricks of her own.

Light, hilarious, delicious, and complete with a yummy cover, Spoiled is a Hollywood-set contemporary that, if you loved Mean Girls and The Clique, you do not want to miss. 4/5 stars.

I’ll keep you posted,

Buy City of Bones on Amazon

When fifteen-year-old Clary Fray heads out to the Pandemonium Club in New York City, she hardly expects to witness a murder—much less a murder committed by three teenagers covered with strange tattoos and brandishing bizarre weapons. Then the body disappears into thin air. It’s hard to call the police when the murderers are invisible to everyone else and when there is nothing—not even a smear of blood—to show that a boy has died. Or was he a boy?

This is Clary’s first meeting with the Shadowhunters, warriors dedicated to ridding the earth of demons. It’s also her first encounter with Jace, a Shadowhunter who looks a little like an angel and acts a lot like a jerk. Within twenty-four hours Clary is pulled into Jace’s world with a vengeance, when her mother disappears and Clary herself is attacked by a demon. But why would demons be interested in ordinary mundanes like Clary and her mother? And how did Clary suddenly get the Sight? The Shadowhunters would like to know. . . .

Exotic and gritty, exhilarating and utterly gripping, Cassandra Clare’s ferociously entertaining fantasy takes readers on a wild ride that they will never want to end.

Clary Fray is like most of the girls you know (knew?) from high school; loves to draw. Has an awkward best friend whom she spends all her time with. Sort of pretty. Nothing much.

Or is she?

Welcome to City of Bones. Hold onto your hats, ladies and gentlemen, ’cause it’s going to be one Hades of a wild ride.

By ‘wild’ I mean packed-full of sarcastic hilarity, mysterious Shadowhunters, and completely unpredictable plot twists that you never even saw coming.

When Clary discovers the world of Shadowhunters, her life changes. Who are these unfathomable people who hunt demons, tattoo mysterious runes on themselves, and have angel blood? What is the role of Downworlders, races of mystical creatures including vampires, werewolves and fairies, in this crazy parallel world? And, most importantly, why can she, unlike all mundane humans, see them?

And then there’s  Jace. *Dreamy sigh* Thank you, Cassie Clare. Thank you for the beauty that is Jace Wayland, City of Bones’s main male protagonist. Jace is sarcastic, endearing, amusing, and I can say with absolute honesty that he is the wittiest character I have encountered. Ever.

The only downside of City of Bones: your head will spin with questions until you either: A) buy and read the sequel, City of Ashes, or B) throw up.

I so, so, so badly want to give City of Bones 5 stars. But a 5 star book changes the way that you think. And although this book isn’t that, it’s the next best thing.

So: 4.999/5 stars. Perfect for you if you’re literate and possess a brain.

I’ll keep you posted,

Buy Delirium on Amazon

They say that the cure for love will make me happy and safe forever.

And I’ve always believed them.

Until now.

Now everything has changed.

Now, I’d rather be infected with love for the tiniest sliver of a second than live a hundred years smothered by a lie.

Amor Deliria Nervosa. Plato was the first to introduce the idea of love as a disease. Lauren Oliver takes this idea and transforms it into a strict, infuriating, frustrating, wonderfully dystopian world.

I love the concept of falling in love in a world where love is illegal. I love Lena (the main character)’s mother, who supposedly committed suicide because she’d rather die loving her daughters than live loving no one. I love that, because of her family history, Lena is, at first, ridiculously excited to get Amor Deliria Nervosa’s cure. I love the Portland town that Lena lives in. I love how the futuristic U.S. is organized; the goverment decides who marries whom, where and if people go to college, where people work. I love the little quotes (from books in Oliver’s world) that introduce each chapter, and the effect they have on me.

I’ll give you an example of one that I found especially shiver-inducing:

Mary keep your oars a-steady

Sail away on the rising flood

Keep your candle at the ready

Red tides can’t be told from blood.

~ “Miss Mary” (a common child’s clapping game, dating from the time of the blitz), from Pattycake and Beyond: A History of Play

~ Chapter eighteen

In spite of this, I didn’t enjoy Delirium as much as I could have. I blame my prejudice towards this dystopian world (love being a disease). I mentioned that Lena’s mother apparently committed suicide to avoid being cured from love. Lena strongly disagreed with her mother for the majority of the book, which put me and her at odds. I, of course, see life without love as life not worth living, so for most of the book I fought with Lena. I tried to understand her point of view, but I couldn’t. At all.

Furthermore, how Amor Deliria Nervosa’s cure works is not explained. What part of the brain does the cure’s operation’s 3-pronged needle fiddle with? How does messing with one emotion not affect other emotions? Do the cureds even feel emotions at all? If not, what makes them human? And, most importantly, how could you just switch off an emotion as heartfelt as love? Oliver’s world would be more realistic if the scientific portion of it were explained.

And then there’s Delirium‘s ending. Oh, the ending. Prepare to be complete and utterly dissatisfied. And save up for the sequel.

In the end, Delirium merits a whopping 3.5/5 stars. A great dystopian, if you’re not a scientist.

I’ll keep you posted,

Buy Eon on Amazon

For years, Eon’s life has been focused on magical study and sword-work, with one goal: that he be chosen as a Dragoneye, an apprentice to one of the twelve energy dragons of good fortune.

But Eon has a dangerous secret. He is actually Eona, a sixteen-year-old girl who has been masquerading as a twelve-year-old boy. Females are forbidden to use Dragon Magic; the penalty is death.

When Eona’s secret threatens to come to light, she and her allies are plunged into grave danger and a struggle for the imperial throne. Eona must find the strength and inner power to battle those who want to take her magic… and her life.

Wow.

For the most part, this book was amazing. I don’t think that the summary (above) does it justice. Eon isn’t just about Eona trying desperately to keep her secret and fighting for the imperial throne. It’s about sexism, struggling for peace with one’s self, political alliances, war, and living as a cripple, which is a sign of evil in Goodman’s fantasy world (not to mention painful).

Alison Goodman delved so deeply into such controversial subjects as eunuchs (castrated men), men living as women, women living as men, gay love and slavery that my mind was blown.

Not to say that there isn’t room for improvement. As soon as one of the plot’s main mysteries was introduced, I guessed the solution, and proceeded to scream at Eona for the next hundred pages, trying to shake some sense into her. It didn’t work. And I could tell you that its predictability didn’t hinder my enjoyment of Eon at all, but it really did.

Also, there is absolutely no romance whatsoever in Eon. So, if you are a reader who is terribly fond of romantic relationships, crushes, kissing and all that drama, and cannot stand a book without them, do not waste your money or your time. However, based on the summary of Eona (Eon #2), there is romance to come. So if you can stick it out for the first book, you will be grateful while reading the second.

My final statement: Eon is the book for you if you appreciate fantasy and controversial topics and you don’t mind predictability and lack of romance. 4.8/5 stars.

I’ll keep you posted,

Buy Gossip Girl on Amazon

Welcome to New York City’s Upper East Side, where my friends and I live, go to school, play, and sleep–sometimes with each other.

S is back from boarding school, and if we aren’t careful, she’s going to win over our teachers, wear that dress we couldn’t fit into, steal our boyfriends’ hearts, and basically ruin our lives in a major way. I’ll be watching closely…

You know you love me,
gossip girl

Maybe it’s the fact that Gossip Girl was turned into a hit TV series. Maybe it’s the fact that I read Cecily von Ziegesar’s other series, The It Girl, and loved it. It may even be the fact that Gossip Girl is mentioned in other YA books, such as The Clique. Either way, this book really disappointed me.

Blair Waldorf, the main character, has a very unattractive personality. She is an ignorant, cowardly, selfish control freak, and I couldn’t relate to her at all. Maybe the drama of Blair’s life is supposed to entertain readers, but I found myself scowling at the book while I was reading her parts.

Serena van der Woodsen, on the other hand, is your typical Mary Sue. Tall, blond, beautiful, and perfect in every way. She is written about as if readers are supposed to sympathize with her because she has few friends, but her lack of faults really turned me off.

The plot of Gossip Girl was juvenile and ordinary; The characters are rich. They can drink without being carded. They have cat fights. We get it.

However, I can’t say that Gossip Girl was all bad. I really liked Jenny, the determined, I-wish-I-were-popular, big-boobed freshman, and Vanessa, the bald, I-hate-the-world-but-at-least-I-have-the-unrequited-love-thing-going-for-me character. Additionally, Gossip Girl (the character), was a big mystery, and I can picture teenage girls reading the whole series just to find out who she is. I might.

All in all, Gossip Girl is great book if you need a light read and have low standards. 1/5 stars.

I’ll keep you posted,