Mini Review: These Broken Stars by Amie Kaufman & Meagan Spooner

Title: These Broken Stars
(Starbound #1)
Author: Amie Kaufman & Meagan Spooner
Length: 378 pages
Publisher: Disney Hyperion
Classification: Young Adult, Science Fiction
Release Date: December 10, 2013
Source: Hardback & e-book

Luxury spaceliner Icarus suddenly plummets from hyperspace into the nearest planet. Lilac LaRoux and Tarver Merendsen survive – alone. Lilac is the daughter of the richest man in the universe. Tarver comes from nothing, a cynical war hero. Both journey across the eerie deserted terrain for help. Everything changes when they uncover the truth. 
The Starbound Trilogy: Three worlds. Three love stories. One enemy.

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Mini Reviews: Origin and Vitro by Jessica Khoury

Title: Origin
(Corpus #1)
Author: Jessica Khoury
Length: 394 pages
Publisher: Razorbill
Classification: Young Adult, Science Fiction
Release Date: September 4, 2012
Source: e-book
Read: January 2015

Pia has grown up in a secret laboratory hidden deep in the Amazon rain forest. She was raised by a team of scientists who have created her to be the start of a new immortal race. But on the night of her seventeenth birthday, Pia discovers a hole in the electric fence that surrounds her sterile home―and sneaks outside the compound for the first time in her life.
Free in the jungle, Pia meets Eio, a boy from a nearby village. Together, they embark on a race against time to discover the truth about Pia's origin―a truth with deadly consequences that will change their lives forever.
Origin is a beautifully told, shocking new way to look at an age-old desire: to live forever, no matter the cost.

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Mini Review: The Rule of Three by Eric Walters

Title: The Rule of Three 
(Rule of Three #1)
Author: Eric Walters
Length: 405 pages
Publisher: Farrar, Straus, Giroux Books for Young Readers
Classification: Young Adult, Survival
Release Date: January 21, 2014
Source: Hardback
Read: December 2014-January 2015

One shocking afternoon, computers around the globe shut down in a viral catastrophe. At sixteen-year-old Adam Daley’s high school, the problem first seems to be a typical electrical outage, until students discover that cell phones are down, municipal utilities are failing, and a few computer-free cars like Adam’s are the only vehicles that function. Driving home, Adam encounters a storm tide of anger and fear as the region becomes paralyzed. Soon—as resources dwindle, crises mount, and chaos descends—he will see his suburban neighborhood band together for protection. And Adam will understand that having a police captain for a mother and a retired government spy living next door are not just the facts of his life but the keys to his survival, in The Rule of Three by Eric Walters.

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Mini Review: The Girl Who Was Supposed to Die by April Henry

Title: The Girl Who Was Supposed to Die

Author: April Henry

Length: 224 pages

Publisher: Henry Holt and Company

Classification: Young Adult, Mystery, Thriller

Release Date: June 11, 2013

Source: e-book (purchased)

Read: July 2014

“Take her out back and finish her off.” She doesn’t know who she is. She doesn’t know where she is, or why. All she knows when she comes to in a ransacked cabin is that there are two men arguing over whether or not to kill her. And that she must run. In her riveting style, April Henry crafts a nail-biting thriller involving murder, identity theft, and biological warfare. Follow Cady and Ty (her accidental savior turned companion), as they race against the clock to stay alive. 

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Mini Review: Dirty Little Secret by Jennifer Echols

Title: Dirty Little Secret

Author: Jennifer Echols

Length: 288 pages

Publisher: MTV Books

Classification: Young Adult, Contemporary, Music

Release Date: April 22, 2014

Source: Paperback (Won from the author. Thank you so much Jennifer for the signed copy!)

Read: May 2014

Bailey wasn’t always a wild child and the black sheep of her family. She used to play fiddle and tour the music circuit with her sister, Julie, who sang and played guitar. That ended when country music execs swooped in and signed Julie to a solo deal. Never mind that Julie and Bailey were a duet, or that Bailey was their songwriter. The music scouts wanted only Julie, and their parents were content to sit by and let her fulfill her dreams while Bailey’s were hushed away. Bailey has tried to numb the pain and disappointment over what could have been. And as Julie’s debut album is set to hit the charts, her parents get fed up with Bailey’s antics and ship her off to granddad’s house in Nashville. Playing fiddle in washed-up tribute groups at the mall, Bailey meets Sam, a handsome and oh-so-persuasive guitarist with his own band. He knows Bailey’s fiddle playing is just the thing his band needs to break into the industry. But this life has broken Bailey’s heart once before. She isn’t sure she’s ready to let Sam take her there again… 

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***I won a copy of this book from a giveaway on Twitter from the author. This does not change the way I view this book.***

Mini Review: The Collector by Victoria Scott

Title: The Collector (Dante Walker #1)

Author: Victoria Scott

Length: 352 pages

Publisher: Entangled Teen

Classification: Young Adult, Fantasy, Paranormal

Release Date: April 2, 2013

Source: e-book 

Read: May 2014

Dante Walker is flippin’ awesome, and he knows it. His good looks, killer charm, and stellar confidence has made him one of Hell’s best — a soul collector. His job is simple, weed through humanity and label those round rears with a big red good or bad stamp. Old Saint Nick gets the good guys, and he gets the fun ones. Bag-and-tag. Sealing souls is nothing personal. Dante’s an equal opportunity collector and doesn’t want it any other way. But he’ll have to adjust, because Boss Man has given him a new assignment: Collect Charlie Cooper’s soul within 10 days. Dante doesn’t know why Boss Man wants Charlie, nor does he care. This assignment means only one thing to him, and that’s a permanent ticket out of Hell. But after Dante meets the quirky, Nerd Alert chick he’s come to collect—he realizes this assignment will test his abilities as a collector, and uncover emotions long ago buried. 

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Mini Review: Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo

Title: Shadow and Bone 
(The Grisha #1)

Author: Leigh Bardugo

Length: 416 pages

Publisher: Henry Holt and Co

Classification: Young Adult, Fantasy, Paranormal

Release Date: June 5, 2012

Source: e-book 

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.
Shadow and Bone is the first installment in Leigh Bardugo's Grisha Trilogy.

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