Review: Epic Game by William Kowalski

 

Read: March 24-26, 2016
Rating: 4 of 5 stars
Pages: 144
Genres: realistic fiction

Blurb from Goodreads:

"Kat is a tough, independent woman who makes her living as a professional poker player. She is single, childless and happy about it. But when her best friend, Josie, commits suicide, she names Kat as the temporary guardian of her ten-year-old son, David, until his father can come for him. In the few weeks that David is with her, Kat finds herself changed in ways she had never thought imaginable. With the old poker adage "bet with your head, not your heart" ringing in her head like a warning bell, Kat nevertheless finds that all the money and success in the world don't mean a thing unless you have someone to share it with...and that maybe there is more to life than winning after all."


This...was surprisingly good.

Review: The Way I Used to Be by Amber Smith

Read: Feb.19-26, 2016
Rating: 4 of 5 stars
Pages: 384
Genres: contemporary, realistic fiction (abuse)

Blurb from Goodreads:

"Eden was always good at being good. Starting high school didn’t change who she was. But the night her brother’s best friend rapes her, Eden’s world capsizes.

What was once simple, is now complex. What Eden once loved—who she once loved—she now hates. What she thought she knew to be true, is now lies. Nothing makes sense anymore, and she knows she’s supposed to tell someone what happened but she can’t. So she buries it instead. And she buries the way she used to be.

Told in four parts—freshman, sophomore, junior, and senior year."

Review: Poet Robot by E.I Wong

Read: Feb. 2-8, 2016
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
Pages: 124
Genre: humour
Expected publication: April 20th 2016

Blurb from Goodreads (okay...not really a blurb, just some information I found about the book...):

"a collection of humor, poetry and short stories from E.I. Wong's blog, "A Narcissist Writes Letters, to Himself." "

Review: House Arrest by K.A. Holt

Read: Nov. 24-30, 2015
Rating: 3 of 5 stars
Pages: 304
Genres: Realistic fiction, poetry, health, family

Synopsis from Goodreads:

Stealing is bad.
Yeah.
I know.
But my brother Levi is always so sick, and his medicine is always so expensive.

I didn’t think anyone would notice,
if I took that credit card,
if, in one stolen second,
I bought Levi’s medicine.

But someone did notice.
Now I have to prove I’m not a delinquent, I’m not a total bonehead.

That one quick second turned into
juvie
a judge
a year of house arrest,
a year of this court-ordered journal,
a year to avoid messing up
and being sent back to juvie
so fast my head will spin.

It’s only 1 year.
Only 52 weeks.
Only 365 days.
Only 8,760 hours.
Only 525,600 minutes.

What could go wrong?"

Review: Black Moon by Kenneth Calhoun

Read: Feb. 3, 2014-Oct. 18, 2015
Rating: 2 of 5 stars
Pages: 277
Genres: Science Fiction, fantasy, apocalyptic, dystopia                  

Synopsis from Goodreads:

"Insomnia has claimed everyone Biggs knows.  Even his beloved wife, Carolyn, has succumbed to the telltale red-rimmed eyes, slurred speech and cloudy mind before disappearing into the quickly collapsing world.  Yet Biggs can still sleep, and dream, so he sets out to find her.

He ventures out into a world ransacked by mass confusion and desperation, where he meets others struggling against the tide of sleeplessness.  Chase and his buddy Jordan are devising a scheme to live off their drug-store lootings; Lila is a high school student wandering the streets in an owl mask, no longer safe with her insomniac parents; Felicia abandons the sanctuary of a sleep research center to try to protect her family and perhaps reunite with Chase, an ex-boyfriend.  All around, sleep has become an infinitely precious commodity. Money can’t buy it, no drug can touch it, and there are those who would kill to have it. However, Biggs persists in his quest for Carolyn, finding a resolve and inner strength that he never knew he had."     

Review

I won this book through a giveaway on Read it Forward, a year ago, I think. I was so excited when I knew I won, because the synopsis sounded so interesting. When the book came, I tried reading it, and it didn't work out. A year later, I decided it was way past time I read it.

Review: Finding Paris by Joy Preble

Rating: 4 of 5 stars
Read: Oct.6-13, 2015
Pages: 272
Genres: action, contemporary, mystery

Synopsis from Goodreads:

"Sisters Leo and Paris Hollings have only ever had each other to rely on. They can't trust their mother, who hops from city to city and from guy to guy, or their gambler stepfather, who's moved them all to Las Vegas. It's just the two of them: Paris, who's always been the dreamer, and Leo, who has a real future in mind—going to Stanford, becoming a doctor, falling in love. But Leo isn't going anywhere right now, except driving around Vegas all night with her sister.

Until Paris ditches Leo at the Heartbreak Hotel Diner, where moments before they had been talking with physics student Max Sullivan. Outside, Leo finds a cryptic note from Paris—a clue. Is it some kind of game? Where is Paris, and why has she disappeared? When Leo reluctantly accepts Max's offer of help, the two find themselves following a string of clues through Vegas and beyond. But the search for the truth is not a straight line. And neither is the path to secrets Leo and Max hold inside."

Review

I received this book as a galley (ARC) and it was signed by the author, and she even included this super cool bookmark that had the cover on it.  Anyways, I was reading this in school one day in English and guess what? 

Review: Jane Unwrapped by Leah and Kate Rooper

Read: September 9-13, 2015
Rating: 4 of 5 stars

Synopsis from Goodreads:

"Some tombs should never be opened...

Fluorine uranium carbon potassium. Jane’s experiment really went wrong this time. After a fatal accident, teen scientist Jane becomes the first modern-day...mummy. Waking up in the Egyptian underworld without a heart certainly isn’t the best—especially when it means Anubis, god of embalming, has to devour her soul. Yuck. But when Jane meets the drop-dead gorgeous god, suddenly she's thinking this might not be the worst thing to happen. And then she is pushed to do the impossible—just time-travel and kill King Tut. Well, every experiment has variables which can end in disaster... Jane just wishes she could decide whether she wants to strangle Anubis or kiss him."

My Review

Peoples!  Guess what?!  This is the first book where I was required to leave a review in exchange for getting my hands on this copy!  I usually don't read books that require a review because I'm too insecure about reviewing, but this book was way too interesting to let the opportunity pass.  Thank you so much Entangled Publishing for providing me with this wonderful book.  I'm so excited to share my review with you! 

ARC Reviews

Oooookay...so.  For those of you who are unfamiliar with what an ARC is, it's an abbreviated form of Advanced Reader's Copy, or Advanced Reviewer's Copy.  They're not exactly the same, but that's a minor technicality I'm not going to worry about at the moment.  The below reviews were for books I've won from Goodreads' giveaways.  Most of them have taken forever for me to read, but nonetheless, I read them.  Some of them were a complete bore, and some turned out to be all right.  Needless to say, these were not the best books I've ever read.