The Bursting Bookshelf

I'll be honest with you guys, the reason I bought this book was because it was three dollars at my favorite book store. I was also a little curious after seeing one episode of the TV show (would highly recommend you don't waste your time with the TV show) whether I would enjoy the book more. 

I've lost it. :( The only thing in the world I wasn't supposed to lose. My engagement ring. It's been in Magnus's family for three generations. And now, the very same day his parents are coming, I've lost it. The very same day. Do not hyperventilate, Poppy. Stay positive!! :)

A couple of glasses of bubbly with the girls at a charity do and Poppy's life has gone into meltdown. Not only has she lost her engagement ring, but in the panic that followed, she's lost her phone too. As she paces shakily round the hotel foyer she spots an abandoned phone in a bin. Finders keepers! Now she can leave a number with the hotel staff. It was meant to be!


Except the phone's owner, businessman Sam Roxton, doesn't agree. He wants his phone back, and doesn't appreciate Poppy reading all his messages and wading into his personal life. As Poppy juggles wedding preparations, phone messages and hiding her left hand from Magnus and his parents, can things get any more tangled?

Review:
Ever have one of those days that you just need a cute book to unwind after a long day? If you're at all a fan of rom-com books, you've definitely heard of Sophie Kinsella. If you're looking for a super fast, light, beach read, this is your book.

This book follows Poppy as she stumbles through her engagement to Magnus: her appealing, if not boring, fiance. After she loses her engagement ring (firmly cementing her as a ditsy and sometimes nitwit to the point of being obnoxious), she finds a cell phone in the trash. Turns out the owner is a mysterious business man, Sam, whom she ends up striking a deal with: Poppy keeps the phone as long as she helps out Sam with his emails.

As you can imagine, the texts these two exchange inevitably lead to a cute will-they-won't they. Their journey from tense strangers to tentative friends is adorable, and I really enjoyed watching them both develop into that relationship. Their dynamic together is nothing special: pick any other rom-com book from the 2000s and you will get the same cutesy dynamic between the two leads.

Let's talk about Poppy. She's a career woman desperate to get married. All she seems to care about is getting hitched to Magnus and making literally every situation she encounters ten times harder for herself. She loses her ring, and instead of being honest about it, she takes a long and convoluted path of deception. After realizing how poorly matched her and her fiance are, she decides to go through with the wedding anyways despite ample warning signs. Every time I found myself rooting for Poppy, she would do something aggressively stupid and I would find myself getting a bout of secondhand embarrassment. I know she was meant to be flawed, but all I saw was a character who was not believable and very hard to root for.

Other characters in the book were not very well fleshed out. Poppy's coworkers were inconsistent and ill defined. Poppy insisted that they were her closest friends, but one showed up for all of five minutes, and the other was actively trying to seduce Magnus (the bland fiance). Honestly, the book would have been better without these two characters. All they made me do was question why a person would ever consider them friends.

So, would I reread this book? Absolutely not. I've had my fill of meddling Mary Sue characters. Would I recommend it? If you can catch this book at a used bookstore or on sale in the iBooks/Kindle/Google Play store, go for it. Otherwise, you're best to pass this book up in favor of a more interested rom-com read.

In the City of Lights, two star-crossed lovers battle a fate that is destined to tear them apart again and again for eternity.

When Kate Mercier's parents die in a tragic car accident, she leaves her life--and memories--behind to live with her grandparents in Paris. For Kate, the only way to survive her pain is escaping into the world of books and Parisian art. Until she meets Vincent.

Mysterious, charming, and devastatingly handsome, Vincent threatens to melt the ice around Kate's guarded heart with just his smile. As she begins to fall in love with Vincent, Kate discovers that he's a revenant--an undead being whose fate forces him to sacrifice himself over and over again to save the lives of others. Vincent and those like him are bound in a centuries-old war against a group of evil revenants who exist only to murder and betray. Kate soon realizes that if she follows her heart, she may never be safe again.

Review:
This one has been tempting me since I first saw it's cover a while back. I hadn't heard too much about it review-wise, but I decided to dive in regardless. Unfortunately, I probably should have read more reviews before going into this book, the heads up would have been nice. I really felt that the quality didn't stand up to what I would have hoped it would be. The story was bland and predictable without many twists or exciting events. The story wasn't bad, but it was fairly boring in ways that could have been fixed fairly easily. Vincent was rather boring and a tad bit creepy, he was just not developed at all. Kate was a stereotypical protagonist, making few mistakes and finding her Romeo before the halfway point in the book. The relationship between Kate and Vincent was too much of an instant love for my taste. Their relationship was too 'magical' for me, they were just too perfect for each other for never having met before this book. The secondary characters were even less developed than the main characters and the villain wasn't anything to be afraid of.

The writing was a big reason why I couldn't bring myself to enjoy this book more. It was very cookie cutter and lacking of any specific style to it, it wasn't highly descriptive or eye catching in any way. Because of that, the characters seemed to not be as developed as they should have been. I hate making comparisons in my reviews, but this book is really comparable to Twilight in the sense that it is very simplistic. I'd only recommend this book to someone who's looking for a very fluffy book containing a paranormal element. I give Die for Me by Amy Plum a 2/5. I don't think I'll be continuing this series unless I can find it at the library at some point.

For thirty-five girls, the Selection is the chance of a lifetime. The opportunity to escape the life laid out for them since birth. To be swept up in a world of glittering gowns and priceless jewels. To live in the palace and compete for the heart of the gorgeous Prince Maxon.

But for America Singer, being Selected is a nightmare. It means turning her back on her secret love with Aspen, who is a caste below her. Leaving her home to enter a fierce competition for a crown she doesn't want. Living in a palace that is constantly threatened by violent rebel attacks.

Then America meets Prince Maxon. Gradually, she starts to question all the plans she's made for herself- and realizes that the life she's always dreamed of may not compare to a future she never imagined.

Review:
As everyone in the book blogging community knows, this is a book with a pretty cover and not a lot of substance with a lot of drama surrounding it. Author vs. blogger drama aside, I went into this book prior to hearing about the conflict about it and having just read the summary and seen the cover. As you can clearly see, the cover is gorgeous and the summary sounds interesting enough, likening it to both The Hunger Games and the Bachelor. In hindsight, that should have set off warning lights as the Hunger Games is one my favorite  books and the Bachelor is, well, the Bachelor. The writing was where most of the faults in this book, it just lacked any sort of finesse. It was very ordinary, boring writing that didn't aid in keeping my interest in the slightest. The story was predictable and dull, just a typical teenage fodder book featuring a lot of angst over nothing in particular. I didn't understand why America was so against being a part of the competition, why she put up such a fight over everything. She was just too whiny for my tastes, she never stopped and looked at what she was gaining from the situation versus what she was uncomfortable about. Not many of the other were fully developed and explored, they seemed like they were there just to fill the background.

The end wasn't very eye catching, in my opinion. It was really predictable and set up what was going to happen for the next book fairly obviously. It's this predictability that really sealed this book's fate as mediocre at best. Almost the entire time I was able to accurately guess what was going to happen, really taking away from any suspense or gripping factors of the book. I'll probably finish this series off, but probably from the library instead of buying them. I give The Selection a 2/5. That score is without considering all the drama around this book.

Thirteen-year-old Lacey wakes to a beautiful summer morning excited to begin her new job at the library, just as her mother is supposed to start work at the grocery store. Lacey hopes that her mother's ghosts have finally been laid to rest; after all, she seems so much better these days, and they really do need the money. But as the hours tick by and memories come flooding back, a day full of hope spins terrifyingly out of control... 

Review:
Miles from Ordinary was an odd little book, it had a good premise, but it just didn't deliver on it. It didn't really flow well for me, and I found it to be too short for it's own good. To start off, the writing was where my main issue lied, was not as descriptive as I would have hoped. Most of the writing was focused on the character's emotions and I found the setting was neglected because of it. Another point I didn't enjoy about the writing was the way the flash backs were brought into play; they just started abruptly without letting the reader know what was happening very well. Going back to my earlier comment on the book being too short for it's own good, I simply felt there wasn't enough time to properly introduce the characters, I didn't ever feel much for the characters, even in the most dramatic parts of the book because of the lack of connection. The rest of the story line, apart from the flashbacks, was good, but not very eye catching. When events occurred, I didn't feel the crucial emotion off the characters that should have drawn me in. Overall, I give Miles from Ordinary a 2/5 for being a bit of a let down after having such a great idea.

 
Harmony has spent her whole life in Goodside, a religious community, preparing to be a wife and mother. She believes her calling is to convince Melody that pregging for profit is a sin. But Harmony has secrets of her own that she is running from.

When Melody is finally matched with the world-famous, genetically flawless Jondoe, both girls’ lives are changed forever. A case of mistaken identity takes them on a journey neither could have ever imagined, one that makes Melody and Harmony realize they have so much more than just DNA in common.

Review:
This is a book that I have been meaning to get to for quite some time. When it initially came out there were a lot of mixed reviews, you either loved it or hated it. I finally dug into when HarperTeen announced their 10 eBooks for 99 cents deal, I couldn't resist the opportunity to finally get to read it. I read it fairly quickly, but when I had finished I was very disappointed with it. To start off, there was so much slang used that it really took away from the story because not much of it was explained to the reader. Another point that was not good for the story was the lack of parents or people who were against the teenage pregnancies, only those obsessed with making money off of them were featured. The story was a little too fast, not ever really getting into the details of things or the society, not providing the reader with necessary information. The book was set in two points of view, that of Harmony and Melody, the twins the story follows. I found both to be rather indecisive and never quite sticking to their beliefs. Overall I give Bumped a 2/5 for being a book that did not hook my attention very well at all.