ARC Review: Tin Star by Cecil Castelucci

The blurb as seen on Goodreads:

Release Date: February 25, 2014
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
240 Pages

On their way to start a new life, Tula and her family travel on the Prairie Rose, a colony ship headed to a planet in the outer reaches of the galaxy. All is going well until the ship makes a stop at a remote space station, the Yertina Feray, and the colonist's leader, Brother Blue, beats Tula within an inch of her life. An alien, Heckleck, saves her and teaches her the ways of life on the space station.

When three humans crash land onto the station, Tula's desire for escape becomes irresistible, and her desire for companionship becomes unavoidable. But just as Tula begins to concoct a plan to get off the space station and kill Brother Blue, everything goes awry, and suddenly romance is the farthest thing from her mind. 

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It's an absolute miracle that I managed to finish this novel. Because Jenn and I are incapable of letting things go, we saw Tin Star through until the end. I'm sure I can speak for both Jenn and myself when I say that this was not a good thing, but rather a major regret that resulted in frustration, disappointment and an (see: several) empty bag(s) of Milky Way Bites (though that last one might just have been me).

Tula has sworn revenge on Brother Blue, the man who almost killed her, and left her stranded on an alien space station before leading her mother and sister and the rest of their colony to their deaths. Thanks to the help of some aliens, Tula begins to thrive on the space station and continues plotting against Brother Blue. The addition of three unwelcome humans brings murder, betrayal and romance into her life and forces her to adjust to the changes so she can survive and kill Brother Blue.

There are exactly two things that I liked about this novel, which are characters that we hardly got to know: Heckleck and Tournour. Had they been given a larger presence in the story, I probably would've enjoyed it (well… it wouldn't have taken me a month to read the book, at least). Their personalities and interactions with the main character, Tula, were interesting, and they were the only parts of the story about which I had a real curiosity. They weren't fleshed out enough though. The rest of this story was just… dreadful.

Here's the thing… It's necessary to have a good idea about the background and setting of the story you are reading, especially when you are writing science-fiction and fantasy. And that's where Tin Star fails. The author puts us in a future where aliens have a large presence and then neglects to explain all that has changed the world from how we currently know it. I had absolutely no idea what was going on, why these things were happening or even the behavior of the characters. The main character's actions (all human characters' actions, for that matter) baffled me. The character interactions were infuriatingly unrealistic especially between Tula and the three other humans (Caleb, Reza and Els) that she comes across. I hate them. 

Jenn and I exchanged several shouty capitals texts over how awful the characters were. Tula is not a relatable character, and that's not just because she lives in space. The book is told through her eyes, and let me tell you that her perspective is quite dull and lacks any feeling. Can you read monotone? I really hated all of the humans in this story, and I could completely understand why the aliens loathed them as well. Caleb, Els and Reza were strange, and generally awful people. I didn't understand their motives, or ideals. I just wanted to smack them, more specially smack the heck out of Els. Throughout the story I had very little (if any) sympathy for the characters as they struggled against misfortune. They honestly deserved it.

The plot would've been fascinating had it been given the proper attention. It was very inconsistent in its pace, and like I've said before, truly lacked the detail to help the reader understand why these events were occurring. History of the world, descriptions of the planets and stations and more insight into the characters was needed, but never given. A month later and I still have absolutely no idea what happened in that 200+ pages. Tin Star was a jumbled mess with which I could not get onboard.

I expected this novel to be fantastic, but as Jenn and I read we found ourselves more and more annoyed by the poor quality of the story. I am sad to say that I will more than likely avoid this author's work in the future. Tin Star was scattered and messy. It needed more--more detail, more history, more emotion, more care. This could've been phenomenal, but it wasn't. It, in fact, was so bad that I just wanted to get it over with, but couldn't find it in me to pick it up to finish. It was a never-ending vortex of boredom from which I am so happy to have escaped.

I received an ARC of this novel from the publisher for my honest opinion and review.

ARC Review: Blue Lines (Assassins #4) by Toni Aleo

The blurb as seen on Goodreads:

Release Date: December 10, 2013
Publisher: Loveswept
384 Pages

Opposites do more than just attract in Toni Aleo’s latest Nashville Assassins novel about a very bad boy and the good girl he can’t resist.

The instant Piper Allen sees Erik Titov, she wants him—wants his rock-hard body, sure, but the strength and mystery that lie behind that superstar hockey jock demeanor, too. So when he sidles up to her at a bar and slinks his arm around her waist, she’s lost. What follows is the wildest night of her life . . . followed by inevitable heartbreak the next morning. And then, a few weeks later, a very big surprise: two blue lines on a pregnancy test.

Only a check to the head could make Erik fall for a nice girl like Piper. But since their crazy-sexy night together, he’s been trying to forget about her alluring body by falling into bed with every woman in Nashville, and it’s not working. So when Piper shows up at his house with a baby-bomb to drop, it doesn’t take much for Erik to suggest the nuclear option: marriage. While it’s supposed to be all for show, the second they say “I do,” the ice between them starts to melt into sizzling steam.

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This book went through four stages:

1) Erik is a manwhore, and rags on Piper for ruining his life by getting pregnant.

2) Erik wants to keep sleeping with every woman he can, but is like, "Piper, let's get married for a few months and then get divorced after the baby is born so it at least looks like I tried."

3) Erik thinks he loves Piper, but he isn't sure because he still wants to sleep with other women.

4) Erik is completely in love with Piper and is so sure of himself and blah blah blah.

This book was repetitive, ridiculous, typical and utterly infuriating. I had high hopes for this series, because hockey players are crazy sexy and I wanted to read a series that displayed that. Blue Lines was a horrible way to begin. This book did nothing but frustrate me to the point of tears. I'm actually quite appalled by some of the content of this novel. I have so many gripes about Blue Lines. I spent almost thirty minutes on the phone with my best friend complaining about the lack of class this novel has.

Piper had a fling with über playboy, Erik Titov, six months ago and is now extremely pregnant. After the fallout where he broke her heart, she's kept her pregnancy hidden, for the most part, from friends and family. Erik Titov is a ladies man. He sleeps with anyone he wants, and isn't ashamed of it, but his manager is tired of him and has decided to put him on probation until he can get his act together. When Piper comes to him with the news of their future child, he decides to use that to trick the world into thinking he's changed so he can be back on top. A few months of married life, and he'll be back where he wanted to be in the rink and with the ladies. Too bad life has a way of mucking up your plans...

I'm not used to hating the male love interest in a story, but I really, really hate Erik. He's a sexist (he thinks, and I quote, "He had banged plenty of females…" e-ARC 65%, Location 3336--he says females in a derogatory manner and he says it very often). He's cruel to Piper in ways that would have me filing divorce papers, and asking for full custody. He repeatedly questions the paternity of their child, and then tells Piper that she ruined his life because he couldn't wrap it up. The entire book is him going back and forth on whether he wants to be with Piper, whether he should be with Piper. He doesn't listen to her opinions ever. He bosses her around constantly. What's worse though is that SHE LETS HIM. He also thinks about having sex with other women all the time. In fact, when coming up with the details for their marriage, he even asks himself if he can go for several months without sex. REALLY? I usually like "alpha males," but Erik went above and beyond in a way that I could not get on board with. I'm still really, really angry about the whole thing. He and Piper deserve each other. She has absolutely no backbone. She lets him walk all over her, until she finds out he loves her and then opens her arms and lets him in again. The only minor characters that I liked were Reese, Piper's twin, and Erik's parents. I could bother myself to care about anyone else; I was too busy trying to hold back the steam from making its way out of my ear due to the idiocy of the main characters.

The plot was the same issues repeated over and over again. Erik: Should I stay, or should I leave her? Piper: Stay! Erik: But I'm going to hurt you because of my past. And I want to sleep with all the vaginas. Piper: Stay! I love you. Erik: (insert something insulting and degrading towards Piper). Rinse and repeat. It got old very quickly. Erik never seemed to grow up, and by the end, he hadn't redeemed himself in my eyes. His "change" occurred almost over night and was too good to be true. The pacing is the only thing this story had going for it. I liked the length, and the way the author paced the story. Also--I think pregnancy is great, but EVERYONE in this book is pregnant. EVERYONE. It annoyed me to no end. It didn't feel realistic in the least.

Here's the other thing: I don't like to read sex scenes unless it's the couple in which I am reading about. I understand that it's common for people to have sex with other partners before finding the one they want to be with, but I don't like to read about it. So that scene lost some points from me as well.

Will I continue this series? No. I don't like the way this author writes her male love interests. I get that this is fiction, but Erik's behavior made me sick to my stomach. There is a difference between a wounded puppy, and someone that treats you like absolute crap and never really proves that he changed. I also can't, in good faith, recommend this book. I wish I had loved this, as I usually am a fan of romances that involve pregnancy, but this just rubbed me the wrong way.

I received an e-copy of this novel from the publisher for my honest opinion and review via Netgalley.

ARC Review: Blackout (Blackout #1) by Robison Wells

The blurb as seen on Goodreads:

Release Date: October 1, 2013

Publisher: HarperTeen

432 Pages

Laura and Alec are trained terrorists.

Jack and Aubrey are high school students.

There was no reason for them to ever meet.

But now, a mysterious virus is spreading throughout America, infecting teenagers with impossible powers. And these four are about to find their lives intertwined in a complex web of deception, loyalty, and catastrophic danger—where one wrong choice could trigger an explosion that ends it all.

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Goodness me, Blackout was not what I was expecting, and I must say that is not a good thing. This was my first book by Robison Wells and I had high hopes. The synopsis was pretty intriguing and original. Too bad it fell flat for me. I had seen some mixed ratings for this novel, but I try not to let my opinions on books be affected by others until I can form my own so I ignored them and decided to give Blackout a shot. I really wish I hadn't.

Blackout follows the lives of four teens, Alec, Laura, Aubrey and Jack, during the start of a reign of terror. All four of these kids suffer from a new virus that has caused them to manifest powers. Each of them as their own background that causes them to react differently to the manifestation and the journey that follows could be the start of the end of the world. 

The background of the "virus" and the mutations that this teens had formed was severely lacking in depth. I had no grasp on why this was happening, how it was happening or really even what was happening. There wasn't enough detail for the reader to get a good grasp on the events of this novel. Maybe they will be explained further down the road, but I can't do that. I struggle with a book when I'm not completely in the know. I think that readers that are good with some intrigue will enjoy this--but that's not me.

I also loathed the characters. Do you know how difficult it is to read, and try to enjoy, a novel when you can't stand the characters about which you are reading? In case you didn't realize, it's extremely difficult. Not only did I not like them, I felt like I didn't know them. I couldn't tell you their motivation for anything. I didn't understand where they were coming from. Some of the changes in these characters seemed spontaneous and didn't tie in well to the story. It just didn't fit. Due to my struggle to form a connection to them, I contemplated putting the book several times, but there was the nagging voice in my head that kept saying, "What if it is about to get good?" Spoiler alert: It didn't. By the end, I sort of liked Aubrey and Jack, but as bad as this is to say, I really want someone to kill Laura and Alec, or at least lock them up and never talk to me about them again. They were utterly infuriating and I could hardly stand it.

Every once in awhile, I come across a book where I think, "What's the point?" Blackout was one of those book. It was too jumbled, like the author was having trouble mixing these ideas together. It dragged a lot, but at the same time… It moved too quickly. Does that even make sense? The author definitely should have explain the situations, the virus and the terrorism a lot more to make the story feel more believable. I don't think I'll be picking up the sequel, and honestly, I am a bit hesitant to read anything else by this author.

I received an e-copy of this novel from the publisher for my honest opinion and review via Edelweiss.

Book Review: Indigo Awaking (The Hunted #1) by Jordan Dane

The blurb as seen on Goodreads:

Release Date: December 18, 2012
Publisher: Harlequin Teen
304 Pages

Because of what you are, the Believers will hunt you down.

Voices told Lucas Darby to run. Voices no one else can hear. He’s warned his sister not to look for him, but Rayne refuses to let her troubled brother vanish on the streets of LA. In her desperate search, she meets Gabriel Stewart, a runaway with mysterious powers and far too many secrets. Rayne can’t explain her crazy need to trust the strange yet compelling boy—to touch him—to protect him even though he scares her.

A fanatical church secretly hunts psychic kids—gifted “Indigo” teens feared to be the next evolution of mankind—for reasons only “the Believers” know. Now Rayne’s only hope is Gabe, who is haunted by an awakening power—a force darker than either of them imagine—that could doom them all.

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Indigo Awakening is the first Jordan Dane novel that I've ever read, but a lot of people I follow rave about her and this cover is absolutely phenomenal so I was like, "Gimme, gimme, gimme." The synopsis also really intrigued me. Basically, I believed this to be a "Emily Must Read You" from the get go. I was bouncing when I was downloading the galley onto my kindle to read for a blog tour. Too bad it was actually pretty horrid.

Fifteen-year-old Lucas Darby has always heard voices, that's what got him sent to Haven Hills Treatment Facility, a private mental hospital. When he realizes his life is in danger, he runs away in search of some random girl, who tries to mentally communicate with him. Rayne, his older sister, seems to have pretty much forgotten about her brother until their older sister, Mia, who is an absolute wack-job, contacts her asking if she's seen Lucas. She hasn't, but she does receive a voicemail from him that leads her on a weird and unbelievable journey that will change everything she's ever believed in - or something to that effect.

Indigo Awakening dives face-first into the story. You immediately see into Lucas's mind and his fears, then you switch to Rayne's point-of-view where she is determined to save him from their sister, from the hospital and from those who have him running away in terror. Then you see five thousand other points-of-view and get utterly confused because the author starts off some passages by saying "Downtown LA, seconds later…" Over how long does this book take place? Don't ask me. I lost count of the seconds/minutes/hours. I wanted to bash my head against a wall because I immediately noticed that and hoped the author would go lax as the story continued. False hope, guys. False. Hope.

I'm honestly surprised I finished this novel. From the very beginning, I noticed several things that bothered me. I should've known this would be trouble when the author mentioned that Rayne, one of the main character's uses MySpace, which has been on the decline since 2008, and another flag was thrown when the author mentioned Rayne finding joy in picturing Mia, her evil older sister, with a zit ready to harvest. …I will never think of the fall harvest the same way. What makes it worse is I've been told that the author has used this description before, in another novel. WHY. PLEASE. WHO SAYS/THINKS STUFF LIKE THAT. There are many points-of-view and there doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to the change in perspective. It's so random and I lost track of who I was reading about several times.

This has such a great premise, but the execution of it was terrible. It's like the author took every cliche she could think of a meshed it into a three-hundred-something page book. There is a nasty case of insta-love. There is somewhat of a love-triangle. There's a mysterious and misunderstood "bad boy." There is a main character with serious "women are feeble creatures, who can't decide for themselves who they love" complex. COME ON. There is almost no originality - besides the unique abilities of the characters… which still don't make sense to me.

I was left with too many questions to even want to continue. Especially - whatever happened to Mia? She just like dropped off the face of the Earth… And I could've sworn that Rayne had an iguana… Is it dead? It had to of died from neglect because it, like Mia, just disappeared. The end of the novel had me laughing because everything about it was so obvious. The "cliffhanger" could be seen from miles away. This book was just a hot mess. I, personally, won't be continuing the series, nor will I read anything else Jordan Dane has written. I can't in good faith recommend it to anyone. Indigo Awakening left me with a bad taste in my mouth.

Book Review: In His Command (Don't Tell #1) by Rie Warren

The blurb as seen on Goodreads:
Release Date: August 6, 2013
Publisher: Forever Yours
363 Pages

In the dystopian future, two men discover attraction isn't just dangerous, it's deadly.It is the year 2070. Generations ago, the world was annihilated by catastrophic environmental events. The survivors were driven to live in big city centers ruled by the Company. To rebuild the world’s population, the oppressive Company had one rule: all homosexuals must be exterminated.

Commander Caspar Cannon has a stellar military reputation—and a life-threatening secret. When a revolution rips through the territories, Cannon is ordered to escort Company executive Nathaniel Rice to a secure location. For months, the commander has harbored illicit desire for Rice, knowing he cannot act on his attraction. Privileged, polished, and groomed to one day take over the Company, Rice is drawn to the rugged, military man. Yet Rice has his own mysterious agenda, and he knows their love can be as dangerous as the wasteland they must traverse.

Now leaving the besieged city behind, the two men embark on a journey that becomes a minefield of sabotage, betrayal—and forbidden passion. But when danger catches up to them, can Cannon trust the secretive man who holds his heart—and his fate?

WARNING: THIS BOOK CONTAINS MATERIAL UNSUITABLE FOR CHILDREN UNDER THE AGE OF 18. 

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I wish I could just post a bunch of quotes from this book as a review. If you could get a glimpse, you'd understand how… difficult it was to finish this. I'll just leave you with my top five reasons for not enjoying this book and then give you a couple of quotes to accentuate my thoughts.

1) The author tried way too hard to make the narrator sound like a man, and her back-and-forth prose (between poetic and callous) did not work for me in the least. I could not picture the main character as a male. No matter how hard the author tried, the perspective felt very feminine. With the hardships the two main characters go through, Caspar (our narrator) did not seem to accurately represent the man he was supposed to be. He was a contradiction through and through. I sincerely disliked him, and his wishy-washy personality. His inability to trust was understandable at first, but over time, it bored me and the constant reiteration was tiresome. 

2) I didn't like the main characters, Nathaniel aka "Blondie" and Caspar, nor did I understand their insta-lust relationship. They were awkward and unrealistic to the era of which they are a part, and the author was never able to give me a real emotional connection--to any of the characters, even the minor ones, for whom we, as the readers, were supposed to feel sorry. I left this book scratching my head, wondering which characters should've left their mark on me. The interactions were also extremely uncomfortable, and unbelievable. Everything about In His Command was completely .

3) The book went on f-o-r-e-v-e-r. And I still didn't understand what was really going on by the end. The plot was nonsensical in my opinion and though there were some very intriguing ideas put forth, they were never given the proper attention. In His Command was one big ol' jumbled mess.

4) What could've been. There was a really good story buried underneath the flaws of this book. I'm a big fan of M/M romance novels, so when I found out a big name publisher was giving one a go, I was immediately on board. The dystopian side of this story is almost realistic based on the (sadly) common views of homosexuality today, and I was interested to see the author's take on this futuristic society. It was not well done in my opinion. It was actually quite bizarre, and it only got worse as the book went on. Nothing made sense, each event was piled one on top of the other until you were too overwhelmed to understand what the hell was going on. Cue the frustration. 

5) The awkward sex. Oh boy. It was awkward. There was dirty talking (them) and horrified laughter (me). There was absolutely nothing erotic about this erotica. I was actually rather turned off by the displays of intimacy between these characters. I skimmed almost all of the sex scenes, because no. The sex between the minor characters was almost unbearable. I'm making weird faces just thinking about this. 

Okay. I have to admit though. Something about the book compelled me to finish. Most likely it was because this book was a train wreck: horrible, but impossible to look away from. The author could've had something great, but it was the overly dramatic point-of-view and the plot that was in shambles did nothing for In His Command. It is more than likely that my journey with this series, and probably this author ends here. I'm no longer interested.

I received an e-copy of this novel for my honest opinion and review from the publisher via Netgalley.

ARC Review: Snap Decision: Maybe, Tonight? by Bridie Clark

The blurb as seen on Goodreads:

Release Date: August 6, 2013

Publisher: Roaring Brook Press

224 Pages

Maybe Tonight? opens as the reader is getting ready for the most exciting party of the year—Midwinter’s Night Dream, set in the frosty woods just off campus—with her roommates and best friends Annabel Snow, Spider Harris, and Libby Monroe. Choices unfold quickly and the reader must decide which risks to take in pursuit of social status, adventure, success, and love.

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Maybe, Tonight? was not the book for me. While the cover caught my eye, the content lost my interest and never was able to pull me back in.

Have you ever played a galge video game, or ever read a magazine that gives you situations and based on which you choose, you go to answer a specific question after that? (Did that sentence even make sense?) This book is like that. We are put in the life of a character, who has just entered a prestigious boarding school, and we the readers get to decide what decisions she makes. The main character is basically a puppet on a string who life is decided by the choices we make. Maybe, Tonight? is unlike anything I've ever read before, and that's not necessarily a good thing.

It's… interesting, but I found it difficult to read because I had to flip around so much and miss entire sections of the books. It felt… wrong just skipping around and leaving so many pages unread. I'd never read anything like this! I had no idea that books like this even existed, so that may be from where much of my struggle developed. It was very different for the normal of literature today, and it wasn't written well enough to truly engage me as a reader. It was sloppy--the situations were unrealistic, over-the-top and extremely romance focused.

It doesn't help that none of the choices are ones that I would make myself. There are two options at the end of each chapter. When you make a decision, that will lead you to the next chapter of your "situation." Of the two options, I chose ones that I was more likely to make, but they still were not ones that I would act on and that annoyed me a lot. Readers could find it difficult to connect to this novel because they don't agree with, and can't relate to, any of the actions of the main character. The options are the extreme of both options: go out to dinner with the nerdy boy and his cousin, or hit on her best friend's ex-boyfriend? Either way, you are led into a crazy adventure that made little sense, and seemed almost impossible.

The characters in this novel were also very vapid, shallow beings. They are all rich (besides the main character), boy obsessed, looking to be famous, scandalous, etc. I didn't enjoy reading about them, I didn't care what happened to them and they really did not feel realistic. None of them were formed well enough to three-dimensional, not even the main character. The book moved too quickly for anyone to fully develop. Each full story is maybe one-hundred pages, so there is no time to really bond with the characters, or get a feel for the setting. It's in and out faster, making Maybe, Tonight?  more of a teaser than a full story.

Books of this nature are not for me, I've discovered. I'm pretty shocked that there is going to be a sequel--at least, it definitely left off at a point where a sequel seems inevitable. I most likely will not be reading it. This book felt very messy to me, and didn't leave the mark that I had hoped it would. This kind of novel would suit younger teenagers very well, though this novel has some pretty mature themes like drinking, drugs and hints at sexual abuse so I recommend treading with caution.

I received an ARC of this novel from the publisher for my honest opinion and review.

ARC Review: Transparent by Natalie Whipple

The blurb as seen on Goodreads:

Release Date: May 21, 2013
Publisher: HarperTeen
368 Pages

Plenty of teenagers feel invisible. Fiona McClean actually is.

An invisible girl is a priceless weapon. Fiona’s own father has been forcing her to do his dirty work for years—everything from spying on people to stealing cars to breaking into bank vaults.

After sixteen years, Fiona’s had enough. She and her mother flee to a small town, and for the first time in her life, Fiona feels like a normal life is within reach. But Fiona’s father isn’t giving up that easily.

Of course, he should know better than anyone: never underestimate an invisible girl.

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Transparent was honestly not a book that immediately drew my attention. I decided to read it because getting insight into the mafia is always interesting, and I'm a fan of the X-Men movies. After reading this, those are the very last two comparisons I would make toward this novel. There isn't mind-blowing action like that which occurs in X-men, or what we stereotypically believe the mafia is like.

This is the story of a girl named … Holy crap. I forgot her name. Emma? No… Katie?

Two minutes later…

It's Fiona, I looked it up. I don't know how I forgot. My stepmom used to have a dog named Fiona. It was the ugliest thing ever and spit everywhere. How could I forget? We called her Fifi, which is one of book Fiona's nicknames… Hah. But all of this is beside the point. The point is Fiona (the main character of Transparent, not my dog) is invisible. But don't worry. She wears clothes and glasses so you can see her. Or something. Fiona's dad wants to use her to steal money and kill people, so to protect her, Fiona and her mother sneak away in the night. They hide in this tiny town and try to live normally, but there are a lot of obstacles they must overcome to truly be free.

For some reason, as I read, I could not get onboard with the fact that our main character is invisible. Something about the way she speaks made me forget, until she reminded me--which she does… A lot. The world-building and the lack of clarity annoyed me. She's invisible and wears clothes to be seen, but to hide, she doesn't take off her clothes? Alrighty then… The book is also extremely repetitive. There was so much that could've been done with the story, but everything interesting was forgone and instead it was a pretty typical teen romance, with a few atypical details.

The writing was pretty awkward. When I first started the novel, I really enjoyed it! Something about it kept pulling me in and pushing me to keep reading. The unique ideas that Whipple puts together seemed to really work for awhile. But as the novel progressed, the book really went downhill. I just wanted to finish the book and get on with a new book, something I would enjoy. 

The characters were overall pretty unlikable, the main character, especially. Fiona constantly berates her mother, who has been abused, and manipulated by the man she loved for years. There's a line and Fiona crosses it a lot. She's extremely selfish to the point where I just wanted to smack her for her behavior. There's a difference between being cruel and being angry. What makes it worse is by the end, it felt like we'd gotten nowhere. Fiona's character development was seriously lacking. She was the same character by the end that she was in the beginning. Her judgmental attitude never waned. Plus, the way she bounced from one interest to the next made me extremely uncomfortable. (And the fact that they are brothers… Whut.)

I know a lot of people liked it, but I just didn't see the attraction. Even the ending wasn't satisfying, but very abrupt. It felt unfinished. Transparent didn't win me over liked I'd hoped it would.

I received an e-copy of this novel from the publisher for my honest opinion and review via Edelweiss.

ARC Review: Mind Games (Mind Games #1) by Kiersten White

The blurb as seen on Goodreads:
Release Date: February 19, 2013
Publisher: HarperTeen
256 Pages

Fia was born with flawless instincts. Her first impulse, her gut feeling, is always exactly right. Her sister, Annie, is blind to the world around her—except when her mind is gripped by strange visions of the future. 

Trapped in a school that uses girls with extraordinary powers as tools for corporate espionage, Annie and Fia are forced to choose over and over between using their abilities in twisted, unthinkable ways… or risking each other’s lives by refusing to obey.

In a stunning departure from her New York Times bestselling Paranormalcy trilogy, Kiersten White delivers a slick, edgy, heartstoppingly intense psychological thriller about two sisters determined to protect each other—no matter the cost.

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Review:

When I first heard about Mind Games, I was immediately fascinated. The synopsis added in with the gorgeous cover made me desperate for this book. I thought I would love it and even when the negative reviews started to pour in, I wasn't phased. If I'm being totally honest, I probably should've been. Mind Games had the premise of a real winner, but was too short, too cliche and too predictable to make a mark. 

There is so much that I didn't like about this novel. I should probably start off by saying what I did like. I liked ferocity of the love these sisters had for each other. Familial connections are often downplayed in young adult fiction, so it was nice to see a novel that was centered around that. I, also, liked the idea of the story. Two girls being trained to be high end assassins with special abilities? Sounds great, right? I thought so, too. And I liked the way Ms. White left her readers wanting to know what happened next. I may not have enjoyed the book, but the ending left me curious. So curious that I will probably continue with the series.

Now, what I didn't like? Pretty much the rest of it. I didn't really like the characters. I loathed Fia almost one-hundred percent of the time. Her perspective and her actions make her seems more like a four-year-old than a young adult. It was hard to read from and even harder to care about. She made no sense to me and I still am befuddled by her actions at the very end of the book, a week after finishing it. I did not like the point-of-view switch, because there were also quite a few flashbacks. It was hard to distinguish a true timeframe and was extremely difficult to keep up with. I must be honest and say that I have no idea what the timeframe of the story actually was because of the disorder of the layout.

The characters… I don't know what to say about them. Besides Fia and Annie, we don't get much insight into the characters' lives. That being said, even though Fia and Annie are the main characters they still felt like strangers to me by the end of the novel. In both cases, they were strangers that I did not care for in the least. In fact, I didn't like most of the characters. Adam was one of the two that I was genuinely curious about. James was the other who intrigued me, but their parts in this story felt so minor and unimportant. The way the author tried to make it seem like they were pretty key players was extremely forced. It was as though we were supposed to be truly enamored by them, and I almost was, but when I sat down to think about it, I had no idea why because I had no idea who they were. The readers will really only know Adam in name because he's barely in the story, though most of the conflict has to do with him. Reading Mind Games felt like reading a sequel because it felt like only the surface was skimmed and the reader was just supposed to automatically understand. That's why reading this book felt more like a chore than a pleasure.

The plot would've been thrilling, if I had any feelings for the characters, or if almost everything hadn't been utterly predictable. Fia and Annie are orphan sisters, with special abilities. They, unwilling, attend a school that is catered to those with abilities similar to theirs. (Though we only really ever meet one other student…) They are stuck there, stuck being used because they are trying to protect each other from what those who run the school threaten upon the other sister. Then one boy does something to muck it all up. Thus Mind Games was born.

I think the main problem with this book was the length. It had a ton of potential. Really, Mind Games could've been epic, but the author rushed everything and didn't delve deep enough into a world that needed to be seen so that they rest of the story could be enjoyed. It's pretty obvious that the first draft was written in nine days and it seemed like the author didn't add much too it since then. This novel was a real disappointment and I'm actually upset about it because I thought it was going to be fabulous. The amazing idea behind this story wasn't done justice. That's not to say others won't enjoy the book. I'm sure that many people will like Mind Games. It was an interesting story, it just wasn't for me.

I received a copy of this novel for review from the publisher via Edelweiss.