THE MAY QUEEN MURDERS by Sarah Jude

Published May 3rd 2016 by Harcourt Brace and Company 
Read: May 2016
How I Got It: Ebook (approximately 288 pages) from NetGalley 

Rowan’s Glen is an isolated farming town that lives by its own traditions. Ivy Templeton loves living in the Glen despite its shady past and its secrets. The May Queen, of the May Day celebration, was murdered many years ago, and legend has it her murderer, Birch Markle, still lurks in the woods. When animals are found all around the Glen brutally slaughtered, the Glen folk believe Markle may be back. When Ivy suspects her cousin, who is also her best friend, Heather, is sneaking around after dark, she becomes worried. Her worry escalates when Heather is crowned the new May Queen, and then subsequently disappears. The town goes on hunts for Markle, but it's Ivy who will find out what really happened to Heather. 

The plot of the May Queen Murders is fresh and intriguing, however the execution is lacking. The dialogue is inconsistent as some dialogue is well articulated but other parts are presented in broken slang and stuttering. Readers will cringe with every stutter or mention of the word “a’int”; these character choices by the author do not add to the story but instead serve to distract the reader. Also, the story is rather slow moving until the reveal in the last several pages. The ending is almost worth working through reading the whole book, but readers would better off skipping this one. Or perhaps, they should watch M. Night Shyamalan’s The Village, the story line isn’t the same at all, but Rowan’s Glen certainly brings that vibe to mind.

*Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with  an advanced electronic copy in exchange for an honest review. 

WINK POPPY MIDNIGHT by April Genevieve Tucholke

Published March 22nd 2016 by Dial Books
Read: April 2016
How I Got It: Purchased Hardcover (256 pages) from Amazon

Midnight had a fling with Poppy, but realized she’s a bully with feelings for someone else. So when he moved two miles away from Poppy (across the street from Wink), he thought he could finally be free of her. But, when he starts to fall for the “strange” girl across the street, Poppy gets jealous. Wink becomes a target for Poppy, and is picked on and plotted against. However, Wink and Midnight decide to turn the tables on Poppy, but at what cost?

The book’s tagline regarding a hero, a villain, and a liar keeps readers guessing and making predictions throughout. However, readers will find that it is not that simple, and a person is never just one thing. The mystery aspect is alluring and admittedly entertaining, and April Genevieve Tucholke’s writing is lyrical and fitting to the world she has created.

The book has been talked about a lot throughout the YA community, but it did not live up to the hype. Wink, Poppy, Midnight made a good effort but was ultimately unsatisfying. Readers would be better off reading the comparisons of E. Lockhart’s We Were Liars or Michelle Hodkin’s The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer.

THE ART OF NOT BREATHING by Sarah Alexander

Expected Publication April 26th 2016 by HMH Books for Young Readers 
Read: April 2016
How I Got It: Ebook (approximately 288 pages) from NetGalley 

Elsie’s family has not been coping well with the loss of her twin brother, Eddie. Her father has moved out, her mother can’t get out of bed, and her older brother is losing more weight every day.  Elsie thinks she has found solace with the boy she met at the diving club, but even he has secrets. Ultimately, freediving is what will save Elsie from her grief. Eddie drowned five years earlier, and freediving allows Elsie to remember parts of that day previously blocked out from her memory. How deep will Elsie have to dive to get her answers? And will her family, and her relationship, survive what she finds out?

The Art of Not Breathing is a deep (pun intended) novel about grief and what it does to families. Sarah Alexander also captures the intricacies of the emotion that involve guilt, anger, and numbness. The novel keeps the reader intrigued with character’s secrets, and it ends with a twist that will make the reader want to flip back to the first page immediately after finishing.   

*Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with  an advanced electronic copy in exchange for an honest review. 

FLAWED by Cecelia Ahern

Published April 5th 2016 by Feiwel & Friends 
Read: April 2016
How I Got It: Ebook (approximately 368 pages) from NetGalley 

Series: Flawed (subsequent book to be released in 2017)

Celestine North lives a perfect life… that is, until she doesn’t. No one suspects that Celestine, whose boyfriend is the son of one of the Guild’s most powerful judges, would aid a Flawed, but Celestine’s world of black and white and logic require her to show compassion to sick man no matter his societal status. Because of Celestine’s act she is forced to go on trial so that society can determine whether her act of helping a Flawed man means that she is Flawed as well. People who are found to be Flawed must be branded and forced to live a bland life. The Flawed are mocked, ridiculed, and treated like criminals even though their flaws may have been minimal offenses like infidelity or lying. Celestine’s case may be the turning point for the entire system, however. She will turn into the poster girl for a movement that is trying to overturn some of the rules of the Guild and change a system that is, in itself, flawed.

Cecelia Ahern writes an intriguing story about a dystopian society. The concept of the book is great, however, the execution was lacking. There is so much information introduced, so many characters, and almost too many separate events occurring for Celestine that it’s hard to keep up. It is important to the story to see what Celestine is going through, but there were so many annoying little things to read through as well like Celestine’s reliance on her boyfriend, a flat character that only seems to be written so that Celestine could have a tie to the judge (oh, and he has to be jealous of another character for a minute because what’s YA lit without a love triangle?). Also, after all of that build up, this may be viewed as a spoiler, but there is zero resolution. This book will be a part of a series, but even knowing that fact, the ending of this book was still disappointing. 

Possible Read-Alike: Uninvited by Sophie Jordan (The branding especially is similiar to this dystopian novel about a gene that determines whether a person will become a murderer). 

*Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with  an advanced electronic copy in exchange for an honest review. 

WHEN WE COLLIDED by Emery Lord

Expected Publication April 5th 2016 by Bloomsbury USA Childrens
Read: April 2016
How I Got It: Ebook (approximately 352 pages) from NetGalley 

Emery Lord (The Start of Me and You) has written yet another poignant YA novel. Vivi and Jonah meet at a pottery shop and from that moment on Vivi becomes part of Jonah’s family (along with his five brothers and sisters). Jonah’s family is going through a rough time of loss and financial issues, but Vivi brings life back into them. What isn’t obvious to the family though is that Vivi has her own dark issues that she’s dealing with. Vivi and Jonah create a sweet relationship, but their respective ailments, Jonah’s grief and Vivi’s depression, cause rifts. There are many elements of suspense that make readers wonder not only will Vivi and Jonah’s relationship survive, but will the characters survive the challenging lives they’ve been given?

When We Collided is a beautifully written love story, but, more than that, it is a well-articulated explanation of mental illness. All of the characters have difficulties, and although Vivi states that she cannot properly define her disease, Lord’s writing expresses it very well. In the midst of the seriousness, Lord introduces many quirky “townie” characters, and the town itself, Verona Cove, becomes a character too. It is important to open a dialogue about mental illness, and Lord has done that with her incredibly moving writing. 

*Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with  an advanced electronic copy in exchange for an honest review. 

THE PASSENGER by Lisa Lutz

Published March 1st 2016 by Simon & Schuster
Read: March 2016
How I Got It: Ebook (approximately 304 pages) from NetGalley 

Tanya Dubois’s husband is dead. It was an accident, but Tanya decides to run anyway. She acquires a new identity (a few actually) and begins a life on the run… on the run from police, hit-men, jealous ex-husbands (not her’s), but ultimately, on the run from an event in her past. Throughout Tanya’s life as a fugitive, she commits or is an accomplice to multiple crimes and she meets some interesting characters including a bartender named Blue and a possible romantic interest- a cop- named Dominic. Throughout the story, the past event is hinted to with old emails and some foreshadowing comments from Tanya’s omniscient narration.

This was a hard story to get into; it had a really long timeline. Because the story takes place over a period of months, Lisa Lutz does more telling rather than showing. The emails and the need to know why Tanya was on the run keeps the reader engaged, but the ending was a bit of a letdown. The event that caused Tanya to run initially did not justify the things she did or the person she became. Lutz succeeded in keeping the reader engaged in the mystery, but if you’re looking for a better written mystery stick to books more like the novels of Gillian Flynn or Tana French. 

*Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with  an advanced electronic copy in exchange for an honest review. 

FIND HER by Lisa Gardner

Published February 9th 2016 by Dutton
Read: February 2016
How I Got It: Ebook (approximately 416 pages) from NetGalley 
Series: Detective D.D. Warren Series ( # 8)

Flora Dane was kidnapped and forced to live in a pine box. It has been five years since her terrifying final days with her kidnapper, and she is not adjusting well to the life of a survivor. When she hears about the recent abduction of Stacey Summers, she cannot help but turn into a vigilante. This is where her path crosses with Detective D.D. Warren. Just as Flora’s having trouble adjusting, D.D., on restricted duty due to a shoulder injury, doesn’t like being chained to a desk either. Both women take their own paths to find Stacey, but both also have a lot to learn if they are to find her alive.  

Lisa Gardner writes an intriguing mystery that hooks the reader from the very first sentence. Not only is the story a genius concoction of past and present crimes, it is a story that makes the reader feel. Annoyance, fear, and disgust are just a few of the emotions the reader will inhabit while switching between the perspectives of Flora (both past and present) and the detective. Gardner’s writing devices, the perspective switch as well as her repetition of phrases (“nobody wants to be a monster”) work well to add suspense. Readers who love mystery will speed through the pages of D.D. Warren’s latest case. Although this is the eighth novel of Garner’s Detective D.D. Warren series, it works as a standalone, and readers should not shy away from entering D.D.’s world now. 

*Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with  an advanced electronic copy in exchange for an honest review.