Janet McNally: "Girls in the Moon"

Title: Girls in the Moon [on Amazon | on Goodreads]
Series: None
Author: Janet McNally [Site | Goodreads]
Genres: Contemporary
Year: 2016
Age: 12+
Stars: 2.5
Pros: Lyrical writing. A love letter to New York and music.
Cons: Relies on a bunch of stereotypes when it comes to characters - even those who are relatable sound too refined to ring true. Conflicts get resolved too easily, or are ultimately glossed over. Both the setting and the music scene are painted with rounded edges, which detracts from believability. Not much happens. 
Will appeal to: Those who like quiet stories with a coming-of-age angle and a cute romance.

Blurb: Everyone in Phoebe Ferris’s life tells a different version of the truth. Her mother, Meg, ex-rock star and professional question evader, shares only the end of the story - the post-fame calm that Phoebe’s always known. Her sister Luna, indie rock darling of Brooklyn, preaches a stormy truth of her own making, selectively ignoring the facts she doesn’t like. And her father, Kieran, the co-founder of Meg’s beloved band, hasn’t said anything at all since he stopped calling three years ago. But Phoebe, a budding poet in search of an identity to call her own, is tired of half-truths and vague explanations. When she visits Luna in New York, she’s determined to find out how she fits into this family of storytellers, and maybe even to continue her own tale - the one with the musician boy she’s been secretly writing for months. (Amazon excerpt)

Review: I thought this book would be the next Luna-C for me (WHICH YOU HAVE TO READ NOW, THANK ME LATER). Heck, both of them even have a main character named Phoebe (because, reasons) and a moon reference in the title/band name. Boy, was I wrong.

MEET CUTE

So, back in 2016, everyone and their dog was raving about this book. I mean, not literally EVERYONE, but those who had read an ARC were in rapture or something. The few who weren't mainly complained about the book being uneventful, which didn't sound like a big deal to me, since I can enjoy a quiet narrative, provided it's deep. And GITM seemed to qualify. This resulted in my 1) putting this book at the top of my TBR list and 2) ultimately purchasing a HARDCOVER copy, because I didn't want to wait till the paperback was released.
Now, I know part of my disappointment in GITM is due to great expectations gone sour. I can't honestly say it is a BAD book, and the writing is lyrical enough without getting purple - conversely, I would say that there's nothing overwritten or convoluted about it. But the thing is, I no longer have patience with books (or media in general) that perpetuate stereotypes or don't try to break ground in some way. For all its superficial pleasantness, GITM relies on characters and occurrences that we are very much familiar with, and doesn't seem to want to turn them upside down. So, what we ultimately get is a bland coming-of-age story, a too-cute-for-this-world romance, and a bunch of potentially dramatic (or wait, not really) situations/conflicts that either get resolved in a hour or two or are very much glossed over. [...]

Michelle E. Reed: "Life After Dez" / "Missing in Atman" (Joint Review)

Title: Life After Dez [on Amazon | on Goodreads] / Missing in Atman [on Amazon | on Goodreads]

Series: Atman City (1st & 2nd of 3 books)

Author: Michelle E. Reed [Twitter | Goodreads]

Genres: Afterlife

Year: 2013-2014

Age: 12+

Stars: 2.5/5

Pros: Fresh spin on the afterlife trope. Teen POC adopted by white parents and in an interracial relationship. A side character gets an imaginative, interesting story.

Cons: The lead has a pattern of repeating the same mistakes and is cut a lot of slack regardless. Also, in Book 2, love triangle rears its head...

Will appeal to: Those who love stubborn heroines, romance and adventures in an afterlife context.

Blurb for Life After Dez: Bleeding to death on the side of a rural highway turns out to be the easiest part of Dez Donnelly’s unexpected Saturday. Swept away to Atman Station, the crossroads of the afterlife, Dez discovers her unprepared soul is trapped between worlds in a limbo existence where she’s given two choices: join the program or face the consequences. Her new reality is conduct manuals, propaganda, and unrelenting staff orchestrating a complex program designed to help transitional souls accept death and move on. To make matters worse, the beautiful and enticing Atman City - a stunning but dangerous metropolis that borders the outer boundaries of the station - is strictly off-limits to underage souls. Dez has to choose: go along to get along, or fight for the future she believed in. (Amazon excerpt)

Blurb for Missing in Atman: Dez is finally hitting her afterlife stride. She hasn’t missed a meeting or session in forty-two days, and she’s put the adventures and danger of her first days at Atman behind her. Life after death is becoming tolerable, yet nothing is quite what she’d hoped. In a missed encounter with Crosby, her prying gaze lands upon a single entry in the datebook on his unoccupied desk. These few, hastily scribbled words reveal an enormous secret he’s keeping from her. Possessed by a painful sense of betrayal, she once again sneaks off to Atman City, determined to find answers to an unresolved piece of her life. It begins as all their adventures do, but a stop in an unfamiliar neighborhood sets forth a chaotic series of events. Dez will have to fight for her very existence, and will face painful, irreparable loss in an afterlife teeming with demons wielding ancient powers. (Amazon excerpt) 

Review: First off...DISCLAIMER: I received these books from the author after approaching her on Twitter with a couple of questions about Book 3 and the series re-release (Reed put forth the new edition of Book 1 & 2 by herself, and is working on the final installment in the trilogy). She volunteered to send me Life After Dez and Missing in Atman in exchange for an honest review. That didn't affect my opinion and rating in any way. Please note: as a rule, I review all books in a series separately - except in particular instances. Since I got these two together, and most of what I had to say applied to both, I made an exception here. I hope it doesn't inconvenience you in any way.

Susan Koefod: "Naming the Stars"

Title: Naming the Stars [on Amazon | on Goodreads] 
Series: None 
Author: Susan Koefod [Site | Goodreads] 
Genres: Contemporary with a Twist 
Year: 2016 
Age: 12+ 
Stars: 2.5/5 
Pros: Interesting premise. Doesn't rely on stereotypes. Tries to convey a message about self-image and self-esteem. 
Cons: Execution is a bit confusing and not always consistent. Characters are not explored to the fullest.
Will appeal to: Those who like coming-of-age stories with an underlying mystery and without romantic undertones.

Blurb: 16-year-old Mary-Louise (note: it erroneously says "19-year-old" on Amazon) comes home from swimming lessons one day to find she is absent from family photographs, her bedroom has turned into a linen closet, and all of her possessions have disappeared. More troubling, her family goes on as if she never existed. The only person in town who can actually see her is a boy she calls Fish, a YMCA swimming instructor, but Fish is hiding from a troubled past and the person he sees is entirely different from who she thought she was. The teens discover the photo of a spirited, beautiful young woman photographed many years before - Pearl - who exactly resembles the girl Fish sees. The truth about Pearl's identity is the key to discovering why Mary-Louise has disappeared and why Fish left home. (Amazon excerpt)

Review: First off...DISCLAIMER: I received this novel from Curiosity Quills in exchange for an honest review. To be more precise, I specifically requested a review copy. That didn't affect my opinion and rating in any way. Here goes... 
This is one of those books where you recognise a potential and understand the author's good intentions, but that fall a bit flat for your tastes. We all have read at least one of those...well, more than one, I'm sure. I feel sad not to be able to rate it higher - but then again, the execution has to count for something :(. 

I'M NOBODY! WHO ARE YOU? *

It's difficult to write a review for NTS without giving away the whole twist. It's even difficult to categorise it. You can say it's a contemporary novel with magical realism elements, because that's how the story unfolds - but the ending puts something new on the table...or maybe not.
Mary-Louise is an insecure teen who entertains a couple of hobbies/interests (swimming and playing the saxophone) and has her heart in neither. She has a habit of introducing herself to anyone - even family members - as if afraid of slipping through the cracks. Which is precisely what happens to her one day. The only person her mysterious invisibility doesn't seem to affect is Fish, a boy she knows via her swimming lessons, who in turn has a couple of huge problems of his own. The biggest chunk of the story revolves around Mary-Louise and Fish's unusual interaction, and the lessons they learn from each other while they're trying to crack her mystery. I really appreciated how the author didn't weave a romantic plot around the two of them, neither did she make Fish "hot". He and Mary-Louise are indeed connected, but in a way that will only come clear in the end (BTW, this doesn't ultimately rule out a romantic connection, but doesn't affirm it either). And the path that goes there is full of mystery and philosophy, but avoids your usual girl-meets-boy scenario - of which I was grateful. 

* from a poem by Emily Dickinson [...]

Graham McNamee: "Beyond"

Title: Beyond [on Amazon | on Goodreads]
Series: None
Author: Graham McNamee [Site: none so far (including Facebook and Twitter) | Goodreads]
Genres: Supernatural, Horror, Afterlife, Thriller/Mystery
Year: 2012
Age: 12+
Stars: 2.5/5
Pros: Interesting premise. Lead you can empathise with. Peculiar sidekick. Family plays a big role.
Cons: Main characters lack depth. Their friendship feels a bit unlikely. Massive use of colloquial/informal speech (understood subject).
WARNING!: Kid abuse is implied. There's tension and psychological horror, and the ending is pretty intense. Nothing terribly scary though.
Will appeal to: First-time horror/supernatural readers.

Blurb: Jane is not your typical teen. She and her best friend Lexi call themselves the Creep Sisters. Only Lexi knows why Jane is different from anyone else: her own shadow seems to pull her into near-fatal accidents. Jane is determined to find out why these terrifying things happen, and to overcome her shadow enemy. Her sleuthing with Lexi connects her own horrors to the secret history of a serial killer. (Amazon)

Review: Premise...despite my rating, this is not a bad book. I had a few problems with it, but in all honesty, I think that, as a horror/supernatural novel for beginners, it delivers. I'd recommend it to young teens who are dipping their toes in the genres.

BIZARRE FRIENDSHIP

First off, the blurb is not accurate. Jane would, indeed, be a fairly typical teen, if not for her shadow trying to kill her since she was a kid. She's a nice character...only, you know, a little bland. Now, her best Lexi is definitely the not typical half of their small team, with her goth appearance and her penchant for shooting videos that, more often than not, revolve around dead and decomposing animals. Mind you, I enjoyed the descriptions of Lexi's photography and videomaking, because the author was able to convey both her passion for those artistic media and her "vision". What I didn't buy was Lexi's friendship with Jane to begin with. It sounds like Lexi originally went after Jane because she was a freak in some respect, courtesy of one of her "incidents" that had left her hands burned. Yes, Lexi is protective of Jane, and helpful when it comes to investigate her scary situation, but still I was never able to get a real sense of their friendship.

PECULIAR SHADOW

The mystery behind Jane's predicament was what kept the book going for me. I do believe it's an original spin on the "killer shadow" myth. The connection between Jane and such shadow, the reason why it tries to kill her, the reason why it has a life of its own to begin with - it was fascinating to read. If the Goosebumps or Point Horror series still existed, Beyond would make for a solid addition to both...even more sophisticated than some of their original books, I can safely say. [...]

Stacy Stokes: "Where the Staircase Ends" (Blog Tour and Giveaway)

Title: Where the Staircase Ends [on Amazon | on Goodreads]
Series: None
Author: Stacy Stokes [Site | Goodreads]
Genres: Afterlife, Contemporary
Year: 2015
Age: 12+
Stars: 3/5 2.5/5 (Note, Sep. 8 2016: it's been a year and a half since I first read this book, and I've ended up feeling like I overrated it, if slightly. Of course, I could have opted out of the blog tour, but at the time I thought that a 3-star rating was fair. Now I have many more books under my belt, and I've come to realise that I enjoyed some of my 3-star ones more than WTSE. Having said this, it's a great concept for a story, and the author is super nice!).
Pros: Staircase, while serving as a tool for revisiting real life episodes, is full of surprises of its own. Story provides a life lesson.
Cons: Characters are pretty flawed - lead included. Also, all the fuss about Taylor's supposed shameful secret sounds a bit over the top to me.
WARNING! Casual (and unprotected) sex is mentioned; underage drinking and smoking are featured.
Will appeal to: Those who love character-driven stories (even if such characters are damaged). Those who like high-school drama. Those who are intrigued by a mystery setting.

Blurb: After her best friend orchestrates the lie that destroys her reputation, Taylor wants more than anything to disappear from her life. But when an accident turns this unspoken wish into reality, instead of an angel-filled afterlife, Taylor must climb a seemingly endless staircase into the sky. Instead of going up, the journey plunges her into the past. As she unravels the mystery behind her friend’s betrayal, she must face the truth about life and find the strength to forgive the unforgivable - unless the staircase breaks her first. (Amazon)

Review: First off...DISCLAIMER: as the banner above states, I'm taking part in this novel's blog tour. You know how picky I am - I signed up just because WTSE appealed to me. Also, I've talked to the author more than once (we are mutual followers via GFC and Twitter, too...not to mention we're both Christopher Pike fans!). Regardless, what you're about to read is my honest take on this book.
Being the afterlife and mystery buff that I am, I couldn't pass the chance of reading a book whose blurb promised an eerie staircase climbing into the skies and a supposedly dead character revisiting her own past. It turned out that this book wasn't all that I had anticipated (and I don't mean it in a bad way), but elaborating further would amount to a giant spoiler. Also, the ending may lead to different interpretations, though we're probably supposed to take it at face value. Sorry to be vague, but you know my policy...NO SPOILER :). Suffice to say, regardless of how you choose to read the ending, at the core of the book lies the path (or the staircase) that leads our main character there...
In an interview, the author stated that the idea for WTSE came to her in a dream. And what happens on the staircase has, indeed, a dreamlike quality, though it retains aspects of the harsh reality. Is it the afterlife? is it the fabrication of a dying mind? or is it a dream itself? Whatever it is, it's intriguing. While Taylor climbs the apparently infinite flight of steps, with no choice but to go and look ahead, the mysterious staircase and its all too vivid visions merge with scenes from her past, that not only serve the purpose of telling her story, but also force her to come to terms with her own faults. Besides, it's only near the end that we're revealed a vital piece of the puzzle - though it doesn't change what happens on the actual staircase and the reason behind it. [...]

Kate Larkindale: "An Unstill Life"

Title: An Unstill Life [on Amazon | on Goodreads]
Series: None
Author: Kate Larkindale [Site | Goodreads]
Genres: Contemporary
Year: 2014
Age: 14+
Stars: 2.5/5
Pros: Honest depiction of first love/sexual orientation awareness. Synesthesia episodes make for a different, creative prose. 
Cons: Some convenient (if not often agreeable) occurrences piling up.  Inconsistencies with the side characters (they seem to change their opinion/stance too easily). Requires some suspension of disbelief.
WARNING! Underage sex (though not overly graphic). A couple of sexual harassment episodes. A self-harm instance. Book also features a terminally ill character.
Will appeal to: GLBTQ+ romance lovers. Fans of coming-of-age stories.

Blurb: Things at home are rough for fifteen-year-old Livvie. Jules, her beloved older sister, is sick again after being cancer free for almost ten years. Her mom becomes more frantic and unapproachable every day. Just when she needs them most, her closest friends get boyfriends and have little time for Livvie - except to set her up on a series of disastrous blind dates. Livvie seeks refuge in the art room and finds Bianca, the school ‘freak’. Free-spirited and confident, Bianca is everything Livvie isn’t. Livvie finds comfort and an attraction she never felt before with Bianca. When their relationship is discovered, Livvie and Bianca become victims of persecution and bullying. School authorities even forbid the pair to attend the Winter Formal as a couple. At home, her mother’s behavior escalates to new levels of crazy and Jules is begging for help to end the pain once and for all. While searching for the strength to make her life her own, Livvie must decide how far she’s willing to go for the people she loves. (Amazon excerpt)

Review: First off...DISCLAIMER: I received this novel from the author in exchange for an honest review. Here goes...
This novel touches many bases. First love. Sexual orientation awareness. Coming out. Bullying. Friendship. People drifting apart. Mental issues. Family issues. Sibling love. Terminal illness. Death. And of course, synesthesia. All packed into 220 pages. Maybe that's why I found it a bit difficult to suspend my disbelief about some of the events occurring here. Sometimes it sounds like too much is going on all at once. On the other hand, I can feel the author is striving for honesty about the love story and the people involved in it. And if you're looking for a first love tale where the sex element is only part of the equation, and the characters involved do, indeed, have more compelling reasons to be together, you have come to the right place :).
Livvie doesn't have a clue about being a lesbian. To be more precise, she doesn't seem interested in having a love life of sorts - she simply acknowledges that she's pretty invisible to the boys at school, but doesn't make much of it. She's not your typical loner though, because she's been friends with Hannah and Mel for years. Livvie's first crisis arises when the two of them suddenly get boyfriends and drift apart from her, while, at home, her sister Jules relapses into cancer after ten years. From here, all hell breaks loose. The girls' mother dotes on Julia, but is pretty uncaring when it comes to Livvie. And when Jules' doctor finds out that Livvie can't even donate her marrow this time, because of a tattoo that might have given her hepatitis, her mother crosses the line from indifferent to maddened. It doesn't matter to her that Jules is refusing treatments this time, aware that she won't make it anyway (while the mother herself refuses to admit it). In the meantime, Hannah and Mel obliviously try to drag Livvie into the dating game, pairing her with the worst specimens of the male gender. And in the middle of all this, Livvie finds herself drawn to Bianca, the school freak, who seems to be the only one who genuinely cares for her.
Now, I have some issues with this part. All the characters who play a part in Livvie's life at this point (except for Jules) seem to suddenly follow a rigid pattern in a way. Her mother hates (or, at best, resents) her; her friends are so totally engrossed in their love lives, they can't even see what's in front of them anymore. Bianca is always there when Livvie needs help (and she always seems to need it in a big way), like a deus ex machina. No wonder the poor girl ends up clinging to her. Undoubtedly, there's more than that to their relationship. Livvie and Bianca share a passion for art (and I really like what Larkindale did here), and Bianca is protective of Livvie, which is sweet; also, the attraction between the two of them is believably depicted. I only wish that Livvie had met at least a decent guy in the dates her friends set up for her, and that she weren't so helpless and dependent from Bianca. That would have added depth and (more) believability to their romance, making us feel like Livvie had chosen to be with Bianca, as opposed to falling in her lap, so to speak. One thing I did appreciate a lot, though - Livvie doesn't immediately identifies with a lesbian just because she's in love with a girl. She's aware that it may be this particular girl she wants to be with. Since she hasn't questioned her own sexuality for fifteen years, this sounds like reasonable and mature thinking. [...]

Kate Harrison: "Soul Fire"

Title: Soul Fire [on Amazon | on Goodreads]
Series: Soul Beach (2nd of 3 books)
Author: Kate Harrison [Site | Goodreads]
Genres: Afterlife, Thriller/Mystery
Year: 2012
Age: 12+
Stars: 2.5/5
Pros: As with Book 1, peculiar, potentially killer idea. Book 2 benefits from being more rooted in reality though. Also, there's more action and more mystery.
Cons: As in Book 1, execution of said peculiar, potentially killer idea ends up being stretched beyond believability. Also, some things don't add up.
WARNING! Some underage drinking.
Will appeal to: Hardcore romantics who also happen to be ardent supporters of social networks and virtual reality.

Blurb: Alice Forster regularly talks with her dead sister, Meggie, in the virtual world of Soul Beach - an online paradise where dead teenagers are held in limbo. Alice has learned that if she can solve the mystery of someone's death in the real world, then that person is released from the Beach. Meggie needs Alice to solve her murder so she can be free, but as Alice is getting closer to discovering the murderer, the murderer is getting closer to Alice! (Amazon excerpt)

Review: The second installment in the series is more focused on Alice's search for Meggie's killer - and on her attempt at freeing Javier from the Beach. Surprisingly enough, this makes for a better book in my opinion. Or maybe not so surprisingly, since 1) I wasn't able to suspend my disbelief at the next level of experience that Alice was granted when on the Beach (see end of Book 1); and 2) her love story with a dead guy really turned me off, so I was happy to have other things on my hands ;). A statement like "Danny isn't the first boy I kissed, but this is the real thing" ends up being unintentionally comic, in her predicament. 
The book opens a few months after its predecessor, and almost a year after Meggie's death-day (which, coincidentally, is also the day Alice will turn 17). A couple of major things happen...the main suspect for Meggie's murder appears on the Beach, and a website called Burning Truths starts campaigning for his innocence, claiming that he didn't commit suicide out of guilt, like most people (and the police) think. Also, Alice's mother, fed up by her Internet addiction (though she still doesn't know what her daughter does on there...), ban her from going online. Just a couple of remarks here. 1) Alice's parents realised that she has been spending an awful lot of time on the net, but apparently, they never actually walked up on her talking with the dead kids in all those months...2) In Book 1, Alice's mother was spending the whole weekends online herself, logged into a site for mourning relatives...so her attitude sounds a bit out of character now. Also, I found both Alice's parents a bit dysfunctional (especially her mother). They grieve, they leave the house giggling for a restaurant dinner; they (well, the mother) are big on Alice coming to terms with what happens when the supposed killer is found dead, they (well, the mother again) don't even leave their bedroom the day after... [...]

Jeri Smith-Ready: "Lust for Life"

Title: Lust for Life [on Amazon | on Goodreads]
Series: WVMP Radio (4th of 4 books, but there's also a free-download novella that is book 3.5 in the series. See Jeri Smith-Ready's site)
Author: Jeri Smith-Ready [Site | Goodreads]
Genres: Urban Fantasy
Year: 2012
Age: 18+ (though Jeri's site actually says 16+, but I think the whole series would be better handled by more mature readers.).
Stars: 2.5/5
Pros: Original take on the overused vampire theme. Right amount of action and drama.
Cons: The final resolution is a bit too convenient and over the top for my tastes...though there were hints in the book (that I apparently decided not to take. All my fault, I suppose). There's an unlikely love story - which, on top of that, lacks real closure - and some of our old vamp friends get too little screen time.
Will appeal to: Those who crave for a happy ending more than yours truly does...

Blurb: Ciara’s con-artist parents taught her three keys to survival: keep low, keep quiet, and most of all, keep moving. But managing WVMP, the Lifeblood of Rock ’n’ Roll - not to mention becoming a vampire herself - has kept her in one place long enough to fall madly in love, adopt an undead dog ...and make more enemies than she can shake a stake at. To protect Ciara, her fiancé, Shane, has traded his flannel shirt and guitar for a flak jacket and crossbow. If she survives to walk down the aisle, will she recognize the man waiting at the altar?  (Amazon excerpt)

Review: I'm perfectly aware that I tend to have very high standards when it comes to...well, pretty much everything LOL. Don't get me wrong, I can stomach cheesy stuff, and even like it more than "sensible" one. [That's why I'd choose Haven over Under the Dome anytime. Also, Duke is fun ;) - which is a bonus]. But there are two things that irritate me to no end: 1) sappy romances; 2) contrived happy endings. I wouldn't go as far as saying that Smith-Ready incurred in both these (for me) unforgivable sins while writing Lust for Life, because she's too intelligent for that. Nevertheless, she came fairly close.
Not that there weren't clues about said ending, so I suppose it shouldn't have sounded as outrageous as it did to me. Heck, the first clue is even incorporated into the introductory playlist... 

The Police: "Rehumanize Yourself"

...Not to mention a few hints here and there in the dialogues (though they are apparently supposed to work in reverse, planting the opposite suggestion in our minds). And not to mention that Smith-Ready has been slowly driving Ciara into a corner, first with the vampire thing, then with a peculiar effect that such vampiric condition has on her. So, it's not like there are tons of ways out of all that. Upon closing the book, and especially after rereading it, I could see a clear, deliberate pattern, spun since the very first installment of the series. But this didn't prevent me to feel partly cheated. To me, it's like Smith-Ready played with a huge card slipped into her original deck when we weren't looking. Magic I can deal with - but what happens with Ciara and Shane is like a whole new rule has been added to their game just in order to let them win. Because even with their respective powers woven together, what happens is too much for me to swallow - it sounds like they have to get a happy ending at all costs. Also, said ending has a sappy flavour I've never tasted all the series through. On the other hand, I don't know how else the saga could have ended - but again, I'm not the author, so it's not like I should have an alternate finale myself. (Though the thing-that-shall-go-unnamed crossed my mind of course, only I thought it could happen in a more...plausible? way). What I know is, I feel cheated.
Also, with the grand dénouement, most of the characters sort of freeze and hardly get screen time anymore. It feels rushed, though it probably isn't, given the time and dedication Smith-Ready gave to this novel. But it's like they aren't important anymore, after Ciara and Shane get their happy ending.
So yes. I feel cheated. [...]