Dangerous Boys by Abigail Haas

Dangerous Boys by Abigail Haas
Series: No
Publisher: Simon and Schuster UK
Publication Date: August 14th 2014
Source: Bought

Three teens venture into the abandoned Monroe estate one night; hours later, only two emerge from the burning wreckage. Chloe drags one Reznick brother to safety, unconscious and bleeding; the other is left to burn, dead in the fire. But which brother survives? And is his death a tragic accident? Desperate self-defense? Or murder?

Chloe is the only one with the answers. As the fire rages, and police and parents demand the truth, she struggles to piece together the story of how they got there-a story of jealousy, twisted passion, and the darkness that lurks behind even the most beautiful of faces…

As soon as I finished reading Dangerous Girls I had to pick up Dangerous Boys. I was dying to see what Haas had in store for me next!

While Dangerous Boys didn't live up to Dangerous Girls, it was still a heart-pounding, thrilling read. 

Dangerous Boys begins with another 911 emergency call. This time three teens are trapped in a burning building and only two emerge while the other is left to die in the fire. 

Chloe's life is falling apart and she can't wait to finish school and be able to finally leave her hometown and escape. And then she meets Ethan and their friendship begins to blossom, developing into something romantic. And then Oliver (Ethan's brother) makes an appearance and Chloe's life is turned upside down.

Chloe was a fantastic main character, I completely understood why she wanted to get out and make a life for herself. Ethan was such a sweet character. He wanted to make Chloe happy and he was just so adorable. And then we have Oliver. Oliver is such a dark and intriguing character, and I couldn't help my attraction to him. He's just such a compelling character.

Dangerous Boys is a much darker read. It's so twisted and screwed up, but you just can't put it down. You have to keep reading. It was so thrilling and I had to know what was going to happen. Haas just has such a fantastic writing style that keeps you reading even when you're extremely creeped out and not sure whether you want to keep reading, you just have to. 

I don't want to say much else about Dangerous Boys because it's book you have to read to understand. There's so much that goes on and it's just so addictive.

Overall, Dangerous Boys was a dark and twisted read that I couldn't put down no matter how much it creeped me out. It was addictive and I loved every minute of it.

Better Than Perfect by Melissa Kantor

Better Than Perfect by Melissa Kantor
Series: No
Publisher: HarperTeen
Publication Date: February 17th 2015
Source: HarperTeen [Edelweiss]

Juliet Newman has it all. A picture-perfect family; a handsome, loving boyfriend; and a foolproof life plan: ace her SATs, get accepted into Harvard early decision, and live happily ever after.

But when her dad moves out and her mom loses it, Juliet begins questioning the rules she’s always lived by. And to make everything even more complicated there’s Declan, the gorgeous boy who makes her feel alive and spontaneous—and who’s totally off-limits. Torn between the life she always thought she wanted and one she never knew was possible, Juliet begins to wonder: What if perfect isn't all it’s cracked up to be?

Better Than Perfect follows a girl who has a perfect life. But after dad leaves and her mum spirals into depression and eventually ends up in hospital, she begins to realise that her perfect life may not have been as perfect as she thought. Everything in her life becomes complicated, and she begins to realise that being perfect isn't the most important thing in the world - having fun and enjoying herself is.

Juliet was a fantastic main character. She was so comfortable in her perfect life that when everything starts to fall apart, she doesn't know what to do. She's been putting on this perfect front for so long that she doesn't really know who she is or what she really wants to do. Juliet's life falling apart was probably the best thing that could have happened. If it hadn't, she would have followed the path she was on and she would have had to keep pretending. But Juliet started to discover herself and find things that she actually loved doing. She became more adventurous and outgoing, and actually started to enjoy herself.

I really didn't get why Juliet was with Jason. He was actually pretty controlling and wanted everything to follow his perfect plan. He had his and Juliet's life completely planned out and went a bit crazy whenever Juliet deviated from his plan. I don't think she realised how controlling he was because she was so focused on keeping her perfect life and Jason was part of that. But I just really didn't like him. As soon as he started getting crazy jealous over her knowing guys that weren't him I lost all interest in their relationship.

Declan on the other hand was one of the sweetest guys ever. I felt bad for him because Juliet was slightly leading him on and hadn't mentioned that she had a boyfriend. Throughout the whole book you can see she clearly has strong feelings for him, but she doesn't want to mess up her life anymore, which was a shame since they were really good together.

Juliet started to grow close to her father again after everything that happened with her mother. It turns out that her father and brother had been protecting her from how bad her mothers problem was and it had apparently been going on for years. So obviously Juliet wasn't happy about being kept in the dark, but she eventually began to repair her relationship with her father and grew close to her brother again.

 I loved seeing Juliet discover herself and actually have fun for once. She's experimenting and hanging around with her new friends more instead of locking herself away and studying. Obviously Jason didn't like this because of his perfect plan, but it was so nice to see Juliet realising what was important in life.

The ending was fantastic and left me with a huge grin on my face. It was such a perfect ending.

Overall, Better Than Perfect was a brilliant read. It focused on a character discovering herself and finding out what's really important in life. It had a fantastic message and a brilliant romance, I really enjoyed it.

BLOG TOUR: Rebound by Noelle August & GIVEAWAY

Rebound by Noelle August
Series: Boomerang #2
Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks
Publication Date: February 10th 2015
Source: William Morrow Paperbacks [Edelweiss]
Links: Amazon US; Amazon UK; Book Depository

Adam Blackwood has it all. At twenty-two, he’s fabulously wealthy, Ryan Gosling-hot and at the top of the heap in the business world. His life is perfect, until a scandal from his past resurfaces and knocks the tech wunderkind down, throwing his company, Boomerang, a hook-up site for millennials, into chaos.

Three years ago, Adam married his high school love—and then lost her in a tragic accident. Now, the heartbreak and guilt he’s tried to bury with work and women begins to take over his life.

Alison Quick, the twenty-one-year-old daughter of a business tycoon—and the very ex-girlfriend of Boomerang’s former intern, Ethan—has a problem of her own. She’s got one chance to prove to her father that she deserves a place in his empire by grabbing control of Boomerang and taking Adam down.

But as Alison moves in on him, armed with a cadre of lawyers and accountants, she discovers there’s much more to Adam and Boomerang than meets the eye. Will earning her father’s approval come at the price of losing her first real love? It appears so, unless Adam can forgive her for wrecking his life and trying to steal his livelihood. But Alison hopes that old adage is right. Maybe love can conquer all.

Boomerang was such a fun and sweet book that I really enjoyed, so obviously I was super excited for Rebound when I heard about it. I was slightly apprehensive about the characters since I disliked Alison in Boomerang, but I was still intrigued to find out her side of the story and also find out more about Adam. 

So from Boomerang, we knew that Alison had cheated on Ethan but we didn't get to know much else about her or hear her side. So getting to hear from Alison and find out what went on with her was very interesting. I'm in no way condoning Alison cheating on Ethan, but she had her reasons and a lot of stuff going on in her life that had messed up her view of love. Her father was a complete dick. He was a controlling asshole and he basically condoned cheating and didn't particularly care. Alison really regrets what she did to Ethan and she always will. Alison is a very strong and determined character. She pushes herself to get praise from her father because he never seems to be happy with her. She's also quite vulnerable and scared sometimes. She just wants his approval.

Adam is an extremely mysterious character. We don't know much about him from Boomerang, and it takes him a while to open up in Rebound. Adam lost the girl he loved in a tragic accident, and he doesn't talk about it. Ever. He's harboring guilt over the accident which is why he never brings it up. I loved Adam. He could be a bit of a dick sometimes, but it's because of his guilt over the accident. He doesn't want anyone to know about it. But he's such an intriguing character and I loved seeing him open up.

Adam and Alison had some serious chemistry from the word go. They met at a costume party dressed as Catwoman and Zorro, and obviously things got a bit heated. I loved the two of them together from that moment. But both Adam and Alison had a lot to work through, and their business relationship also made things slightly more complicated. But the chemistry between these two practically sizzled off the page.

I loved everything about Rebound. It was a lot more complicated than Boomerang because Alison is the daughter of the guy buying into Boomerang and he wanted Alison to get all of Adam's secrets so he could use them against him. But Alison never wanted to do it and was always trying to find a way to stall her father - which was hard because he's extremely overbearing. I also really loved the relationship that grew between Alison and Mia (and the fact that Mia and Ethan made more than one appearance!). But the best thing about the book was anytime Adam and Alison were together. I just adored the interactions between the two of them and they helped each other a lot.

The ending was fantastic and I wanted to applaud Alison's mother for being amazing and standing up for herself. And also Alison because she was equally amazing. It was such a brilliant ending and I completely adored it.

Overall, Rebound was amazing! I loved it even more than Boomerang and it just completely blew me away. I can't wait for book 3 - Bounce - because it's about Adam's brother Grey! Grey has a lot going on and I think his book will be slightly darker, but I can't wait for it!

About the Author

Question: What do you get when friends pen a story with heart, plenty of laughs, and toe-curling kissing scenes? Answer: Noelle August, the pseudonym for renowned editor and award-winning writer Lorin Oberweger and New York Times bestselling YA author Veronica Rossi, the masterminds behind the Boomerang series. 

You can visit them at NoelleAugust.com and @Noelle_August on Twitter and facebook.com/NoelleAugustBooks.

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Showcase Sunday #95

Showcase Sunday is a weekly meme hosted by Vicky at Books, Biscuits and Tea. This meme allows book bloggers to show off the books they collected over the last week!

Hi everyone! This week has been a super, super busy week for me. I've hardly been in the house and when I have, I just haven't had any energy to do anything. So next week I refuse to leave the house except to go to work. I want to have a nice, quiet, relaxing week because I'm absolutely shattered.

I went to an author event this week in my local library. Mason Cross (the author of The Killing Season) was doing a talk about his second book The Samaritan. I keep meaning to get around to starting his books and after his excerpt from The Samaritan, I think I'll be reading them soon!

Bookwise, this week I've only got two books to show you guys. One of my kindle pre-orders was released this week and I also got a book from Netgalley! Both of which I devoured as soon as I got them.

Bought

• kindle

The Return (Titan #1) by Jennifer L. Armentrout

Netgalley

All That Glitters (Geek Girl #4) by Holly Smale

What books did you get this week?

Just One Day & Just One Night by Gayle Forman

Just One Day by Gayle Forman
Series: Just One Day #1
Publisher: Speak
Publication Date: August 20th 2013
Source: Bought

Allyson Healey's life is exactly like her suitcase - packed, planned, ordered. Then on the last day of her three-week post-graduation European tour, she meets Willem. A free-spirited, roving actor, Willem is everything she's not, and when he invites her to abandon her plans and come to Paris with him, Allyson says yes. This uncharacteristic decision leads to a day of risk and romance, liberation and intimacy; twenty-four hours that will transform Allyson's life.

A book about love, heartbreak, travel, identity and the "accidents" of fate, Just One Day shows us how sometimes in order to get found, you first have to get lost... and how often the people we are seeking are much closer than we know.

Just One Day has been sitting on my bookcase for over a year now and I always meant to get to it sooner since everyone seemed to love it. So when I was in the mood for a contemporary last week I finally decided to pick this one up.

Just One Day follows our main character Allyson who completely plans her life. She's organised and doesn't enjoy doing things outside of her comfort zone. On the last day of her post-graduation Europe tour, she meets a guy called Willem. Willem loves travelling and hates to have something tying him to one place - he wants to explore. Willem invites Allyson to spend a day with him in Paris, and she surprises herself by saying yes.

As soon as I started reading Just One Day, I fell in love with it. Allyson and Willem were fantastic characters, and they were so different. Allyson is extremely organised and never does anything out of character. She feels like she has to please her parents and be a specific kind of person for them to be proud of her. Willem is a free spirit. He likes to leave everything down to chance and fate and spend his time discovering the world.

Just One Day followed Allyson and Willem's twenty-four hour trip to Paris and the changes that Allyson went through after. I adored the Paris setting. I've never been to Paris, but it's always been one of the top 5 cities that I desperately want to visit. I could visualize everything and reading about Willem and Allyson exploring Paris made me want to go even more. I wanted to try macarons and pick a random tube station and just go with the flow. It was such a fantastic way to discover Paris. After the Paris trip, Allyson begins to notice a change in herself. She misses the person she was in Paris and she's determined to get that feeling back. She tries her hardest to please her parents, but she begins to realise that making herself happy is more important than making her parents happy. 

The romance in Just One Day did escalate very quickly during their day in Paris, but they were both caught up in the moment and wanted to enjoy themselves. Throughout the rest of the book, there was a huge amount of time for both characters feelings to develop and for them to work out how they felt about each other.

The ending of Just One Day left me desperate to know what was going to happen between Willem and Allyson, so obviously I started reading Just One Night straight away. I was slightly disappointed with Just One Night. It had a completely different feel to it and didn't really flow that well considering there were so many other characters being spoken about as well (that I really didn't care about). I got to see what happened with Willem and Allyson, but Just One Night was a bit of a let down.

Overall, Just One Day is an adorable contemporary about love, travel and self-discovery. I loved every minute of it and would highly recommend it. Just One Night, however, was a bit of a disappointment, but I'm glad I know how everything worked out in the end. I can't wait to get around to reading Just One Year and see Willem's side of the story.

Showcase Sunday #94

Showcase Sunday is a weekly meme hosted by Vicky at Books, Biscuits and Tea. This meme allows book bloggers to show off the books they collected over the last week!

Hello everyone! I apologise for being pretty absent this week comments wise, but my internet has been down for just over a week and it's been hell. It was only connecting for about 10 minutes at a time for an hour, and then it'd completely disappear. But, thankfully it's working now so I'll be spending next week visiting blogs and catching up on commenting!

Bookwise, I've only got a couple of books to show you guys. I'm doing quite well with my book buying this year (so far) and since I'm saving up for my holiday to Rome in May, I definitely can't spend all of my money on books. So I have two physical books, a kindle book, a review book from Netgalley and a sneak peek from Netgalley.

Bought

• physical

The Ruby Circle (Bloodlines #6) by Richelle Mead

Talon (Talon #1) by Julie Kagawa

Both bought from Waterstones. I managed to get The Ruby Circle for about £1.70 because I used all of the points on my Waterstones Card and Talon was an impulse buy - that I've already read - because my sister is getting me book 2 for my Birthday so I had to have a physical copy (also, it's just so pretty).

• kindle

Doon (Doon #1) by Carey Corp & Lorie Langdon

This one was only £0.99 on amazon and I couldn't resist. I've been wanting to read it for ages!

Netgalley

Every Last Word by Tamara Ireland Stone

Saint Anything (SNEAK) by Sarah Dessen

I was surprised to get an email saying I'd already been approved for Every Last Word, but it sounds fantastic so I can't wait to read it. I couldn't resist the sneak peek of Saint Anything. I adore Sarah Dessen's books and I'm really excited for this one. Thanks to Disney Hyperion & Penguin!

What books did you get this week?

Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard

Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard
Series: Red Queen #1
Publisher: Orion
Publication Date: February 12th 2015
Source: Orion [Netgalley]

This is a world divided by blood - red or silver.

The Reds are commoners, ruled by a Silver elite in possession of god-like superpowers. And to Mare Barrow, a seventeen-year-old Red girl from the poverty-stricken Stilts, it seems like nothing will ever change.

That is, until she finds herself working in the Silver Palace. Here, surrounded by the people she hates the most, Mare discovers that, despite her red blood, she possesses a deadly power of her own. One that threatens to destroy the balance of power.

Fearful of Mare's potential, the Silvers hide her in plain view, declaring her a long-lost Silver princess, now engaged to a Silver prince. Despite knowing that one misstep would mean her death, Mare works silently to help the Red Guard, a militant resistance group, and bring down the Silver regime.

But this is a world of betrayal and lies, and Mare has entered a dangerous dance - Reds against Silvers, prince against prince, and Mare against her own heart...

The closer it got to the release date of Red Queen, the more fantastic reviews I saw. I  was saving this one for closer to it's release date - since I had tons of other review books to read - but trying to resist picking it up a lot sooner was extremely hard. Red Queen was a fantastic read. As soon as I picked it up I was hooked. I didn't want to put it down and kept trying to find half an hour to fit in another chapter or two during my busy week - I couldn't get enough!

Red Queen takes place in a dystopian fantasy world that is divided by blood. The Reds are commoners. The work hard and are very poor. They're ruled by the Silvers who are like royalty and have powers. Seventeen year old Red girl Mare Barrow is doing everything she can to help her family. Her older brothers have all been shipped off to war and on her eighteenth birthday, Mare will be next. One night when pick-pocketing, Mare comes across a strange and intriguing guy who helps her. The next morning she's taken to work at the Silver palace and discovers that the guy who helped her is Prince Cal, the heir to the throne. An accident at the palace causes Mare - and everyone else - to realise that she's special. Mare may be a Red, but she has a Silver power. The Silvers hide Mare in the spotlight and she's instantly betrothed to Prince Maven. Mare soon finds herself part of a resistance group working to bring down the Silver regime. Mare is playing a dangerous game and she must try to figure out who she can truly trust.

I completely adored Red Queen. I didn't have a lot of spare time when I picked it up, but I found myself bringing my kindle with me everywhere trying to squeeze in a couple of minutes of reading or a chapter or two - it was just so good!

Mare was a brilliant main character. I admired how much she wanted to protect her family. She stole for them and wanted to make sure they were comfortable before she was conscripted. Mare could be a strong, determined, powerful and fierce character, but she also had moments of weakness and naivety which made me love her more. She follows her heart a lot which gets her into quite a bit of trouble.

While there were three sort of love interests, I only really cared about two - the two Princes Cal and Maven. Cal and Maven are completely opposites - Cal is more outgoing, determined to prove himself while Maven is a lot softer and more caring. But all is not as it appears with the Princes, there's a lot more to them both. Kilorn - Mare's old friend from her village - was love interest number 3, but in all honesty, I don't think he stands a chance with her. Not one bit. He's more of a friend to Mare, but he seems to have more romantic feelings towards her which I don't really think Mare will reciprocate (I really hope not).

The story line was fantastic! I loved finding out about both the Silvers and the Reds and the world they live in. I was completely fascinated by it. I loved Mare's involvement in the resistance group. She's determined to bring down the Silvers and save her people, but she also starts to form relationships with some of the Reds and realises that not all of them are terrible. But she does what she has to do for her people. I adored seeing Mare train with her power - she was a complete bad ass with all that electricity - and seeing some of the different powers that other Silvers have was also extremely fascinating.

The main thing I adored about this book was the ending. The twist! I may have had to re-read a certain scene over and over again around 5 times because I just couldn't believe it and I was extremely heartbroken! I may have teared up slightly because I really wasn't expecting that and I'd became extremely invested in something that completely broke apart when the twist happened. It was definitely a killer twist, but it let to even more awesomeness right at the end of the book. A big face off at the end full of Silver's and Mare fighting and showing off their fantastic powers again - I need more fight scenes because they're awesome! I need book 2 after that ending because I'm dying to know what's going to happen next!

Overall, Red Queen was a fantastic debut novel full of twists, surprises, betrayal and some of the most awesome fight scenes you'll ever read. It completely lives up to all of the hype and the wait for the second book will be a hard one.