Transitive Verve

This copy was provided for free from Netgalley in exchange for a fair and honest review. Thoughts at a glance:   ** (It was okay) I was initially interested in this book because the blurb reminded me somewhat of E. Lockhart's The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks  (which is a fabulous book that I highly recommend). In some ways, it was similar - Reed Larson is smart and witty, and as a protagonist/narrator, she made me laugh quite a bit. But where Frankie Landau-Banks was a mastermind, refusing to let other people dictate who she is or where she can belong, Reed was the opposite - infuriatingly passive. Let me explain: Reed got expelled from her previous school, a really conservative Christian school, because someone told the principal that she was gay (even though she isn't). At her new school, one ultra-pushy girl finds out about this fact, falsely outs Reed to the entire school (which in turn makes Reed super popular because people think it's cool th...

Thoughts at a glance: **** (I really liked it) "No one should feel this invested in a couple they aren't a part of," says Inga, the creative writing professor. She is one of the 14 narrative viewpoints in Sandy Hall's A Little Something Different,  telling the story of Lea and Gabe, two college students who apparently everyone feels should be together. The problem is, Gabe is painfully shy and is also sorting out some other issues of his own which prevent him from really opening up to Lea. Lea is shy too, and she feels like she's getting mixed signals from Gabe, so she's not sure if she should be backing off or trying harder. Considering how they like the same shows and the same Chinese food and they keep turning up in the same places at the same time, it's clear that Fate wants them together... and so do Inga, and Gabe's brother, and Lea's roommate, and all of their friends, and Maxine the waitress, and Bob the bus driver, and Frank the Ch...

This copy was provided for free from Netgalley in exchange for a fair and honest review. Thoughts at a glance: * (I didn't like it) Three chapters. That's all I got through before I'd decided that I'd had enough. The book blurb says "Lauren Saft masterfully conveys what goes on in the mind of a teenage girl," but they forgot to specify that they were talking about privileged white girls who attend private school. I'm sure there are actual teenage girls like Alex, Mollie, and Veronica, but I sure haven't come across them where I teach. (Or even at the all-girls' school that I attended.) Here's the thing: I have no doubt that teen girls dabble in sex and drinking and that they constantly throw around f-bombs. I'm not shocked by any of that, nor do I judge them on it - I am a high school teacher after all. So I'm not bothered by the "raw, honest" discussions that the three main girls have, either with each other or as a...

Thoughts at a glance: **** (I really liked it) Assassin's Blade  is a collection of five novellas that take place before the book Throne of Glass,  about assassin Celaena Sardothien before she was captured and sent to the prison at Endovier (which is where ToG begins). Individually, they were released immediately after ToG in 2012 (though the collection was finally released in 2014), so as long as you've read ToG , even if you haven't read the rest of the series, you're good. If you haven't read any of them, then spoiler alerts for you! ---------- At sixteen, Celaena is the protege of King of Assassins, Arobynn Hamel. She's the best assassin in the entire guild, notorious for her skill and arrogance. Second to her is Sam Cortland, whom she has known and worked with her whole life, and though they are rivals, he is also the person she trusts the most and he eventually also becomes the man that she loves. But as we know from ToG, things do not end well f...

This copy was provided for free from Netgalley in exchange for a fair and honest review. Thoughts at a glance: ***** (It was amazing!) Polarity Weeks is not having an easy time. In addition to being new to her small Texas town, she is bullied relentlessly for living in a trailer park and for being the soft-spoken girl who loves poetry. Her mother has borderline personality disorder, and that doesn't make things easy at home either. The only good thing in her life is her crush on a boy named Ethan. Things get worse when her classmates discover a nude picture of her on the Internet. Polarity has no idea where it came from, no memory of ever posing for such a picture, but it's definitely her all the same. Suddenly her parents are being investigated for abuse, and she's being sent to the local alternative school for violating a rule about lewd conduct. Polarity, with Ethan's help, works tirelessly to unravel the mystery of the photo, and along the way she learns v...

Thoughts at a glance: ***** (It was amazing!) This is book 3 of the Throne of Glass  series, so my post assumes that you've read the first two (or that you've at least read my posts on the first two here and here ). This review contains spoilers for both of them, and spoilers for this book will be under the cut. Okay, for real, I just cannot handle this series. It is so ridiculously epic that my heart just can't take it. When we last left off, assassin Celaena Sardothien was on a ship bound for Wendlyn, one of the last fae strongholds, and she had just revealed that she is in fact Aelin Galathynius, the lost princess. Remember how her parents had been brutally murdered when she was eight? Well, we have just learned that they weren't just ordinary people, but the heirs to the throne of Terrasen. The fact that she, Aelin, is still alive means that she is their rightful queen, and probably the only person left who might be able to take a stand against the King of ...

Thoughts at a glance: ***** (It was amazing!) This is book 2 of the Throne of Glass  series, and my post assumes you've read the first book (or, at least read my post about it). There are DEFINITELY spoilers for the first book. Spoilers for this book will be under the cut. Having won the title of King's Champion, Celaena's job for the next four years is to do the King's dirty work - to kill anyone he wants killed. But Celaena is hiding a dangerous secret - she hasn't been killing anyone (on purpose, at least). She has been offering them all a chance to flee the country with new lives and identities, and then bringing home severed heads of corpses from sickhouses to present to the King, and so far, he's been none the wiser. When he asks her to seek out Archer Finn, an old friend whom he suspects is working with the rebel forces, things get a little more complicated. Things get even more complicated as she learns that the rebels are trying to find the los...