This Is Not a Test by Courtney Summers

Zombie Apocalypse...again...trapped in a high school...again....

I don't know what to say about this book.  It was just OK.  I liked the premise, but I really, really didn't like any of the characters, at all, so I wasn't invested in whether they live or die. 

Book Description via Amazon

Release Date: June 19, 2012

It’s the end of the world. Six students have taken cover in Cortege High but shelter is little comfort when the dead outside won’t stop pounding on the doors. One bite is all it takes to kill a person and bring them back as a monstrous version of their former self. To Sloane Price, that doesn’t sound so bad. Six months ago, her world collapsed and since then, she’s failed to find a reason to keep going. Now seems like the perfect time to give up. As Sloane eagerly waits for the barricades to fall, she’s forced to witness the apocalypse through the eyes of five people who actually want to live. But as the days crawl by, the motivations for survival change in startling ways and soon the group’s fate is determined less and less by what’s happening outside and more and more by the unpredictable and violent bids for life—and death—inside. When everything is gone, what do you hold on to?

Bared to You by Sylvia Day

So I pretty much hated the 50 Shades of Grey series...not in a judgemently kind of way...just hated the writing, story line and don't get me started about the characters.  I am not quite sure I feel compelled to go through the "read alikes" list we created but I am *hoping* to find one gem in there...

This is not that gem.  While it is marginally better written and the characters make me slightly less nauseous, I still didn't love it.  This whole theme of girl trying to save wounded rich man is just blech.  The naughty bits (and if by some weirdo chance that my father is reading this - please for the love of god stop now) are better but nothing earth shattering. 

So I will go back to the list and see if I can find that gem.

Book Description via Amazon

Publication Date: June 12, 2012 | Series: A Crossfire Novel

"If I were to recommend any book today to readers who enjoyed 50 Shades...this would be the first one I would offer....scorching love scenes."--Dear Author

THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

Gideon Cross came into my life like lightning in the darkness...

He was beautiful and brilliant, jagged and white-hot. I was drawn to him as I'd never been to anything or anyone in my life. I craved his touch like a drug, even knowing it would weaken me. I was flawed and damaged, and he opened those cracks in me so easily...

Gideon knew. He had demons of his own. And we would become the mirrors that reflected each other's most private worlds...and desires.

The bonds of his love transformed me, even as I prayed that the torment of our pasts didn't tear us apart...

Monument 14 by Emmy Laybourne

I really need to be careful what I read...I am seriously going to become a hoarder.  These post-apocalyptic books are just so intense and I LOVE it.  It really makes me sit and wonder what would I do...how would I handle such a volatile situation.  Part of me thinks I would go all Katniss and be kick ass but in reality well....

I am not giving anything away when I say it ends with a total cliff hanger.  So if you are the type of person that hates that...wait to read this closer to next summer....but definitely read it! This is Emmy Laybourne's first book, with the sequel due out next summer, I think she has a long writing career ahead of her.   As an aside, she tweeted me so now were, like, best friends (lol).  For my four readers...did you know I tweet....@AnnMar4...follow me...maybe?

Book Description via Amazon.com

Publication Date: June 5, 2012

Your mother hollers that you’re going to miss the bus. She can see it coming down the street. You don’t stop and hug her and tell her you love her. You don’t thank her for being a good, kind, patient mother. Of course not—you launch yourself down the stairs and make a run for the corner.

Only, if it’s the last time you’ll ever see your mother, you sort of start to wish you’d stopped and did those things. Maybe even missed the bus.

But the bus was barreling down our street, so I ran.

Fourteen kids. One superstore. A million things that go wrong.

In Emmy Laybourne’s action-packed debut novel, six high school kids (some popular, some not), two eighth graders (one a tech genius), and six little kids trapped together in a chain superstore build a refuge for themselves inside. While outside, a series of escalating disasters, beginning with a monster hailstorm and ending with a chemical weapons spill, seems to be tearing the world—as they know it—apart.

Flat-Out Love by Jessica Park

I saw this on sale at Barnes & Nobles...$3.99...so I thought, why not?  It sat on my Nook for a couple of days and then I was between books and desperate for *something* so I gave it a whirl...and two days later I was done (if I didn't have a job and four kids and life it would have been even quicker.) 

 

This was such an unexpected surprise - the characters are quirky and ridiculously smart - in a cool geeky chic kinda way.  Matt made me think of a cuter version of Leonard from the Big Bang Theory, nothing against Johnny Galecki or anything...  I literally LOL'd when Matt mentions Large Hadron Collider...and I knew what that was...well kinda...from The Big Bang Theory...yup that just makes me feel smart.  The love story is perfect and literally made me sigh at the end...what can I say, I am a sucker for a good romance. 

Book Description via Amazon.com

Publication Date: September 11, 2012

He was tall, at least six feet, with dirty blond hair that hung over his eyes. His T-shirt read Nietzsche Is My Homeboy.

So, that was Matt. Who Julie Seagle likes. A lot. But there is also Finn. Who she flat out loves.

Complicated? Awkward? Completely.

But really, how was this freshly-minted Boston transplant and newbie college freshman supposed to know that she would end up living with the family of an old friend of her mother's? This was all supposed to be temporary. Julie wasn't supposed to be important to the Watkins family, or to fall in love with one of the brothers. Especially the one she's never quite met. But what does that really matter? Finn gets her, like no one ever has before. They have connection.

But here's the thing about love, in all its twisty, bumpy permutations—it always throws you a few curves. And no one ever escapes unscathed.

 

 

The Book of Blood and Shadow by Robin Wasserman

One review I read referred to it as "the DaVinci Code meets National Treasure" - cool right?  And it was, in parts, and then other parts just made me want to tear.my.hair.out.  The writing was very disjointed and at times hard to follow, and the historical letters interspersed throughout got to be too long and tedious.  I really liked the initial premise of the book but I felt it got lost in the narrative.  There were times when the author was overly descriptive (a la Elizabeth Weston's letters) and by the end,  she was flying through details to bring everything to a tidy close.  I know that I am in the minority...this book was *very* well reviewed by people in the know so it may just be a taste issue...that's why there is chocolate and vanilla.

Book Description

Publication Date: April 10, 2012

It was like a nightmare, but there was no waking up. When the night began, Nora had two best friends and an embarrassingly storybook one true love. When it ended, she had nothing but blood on her hands and an echoing scream that stopped only when the tranquilizers pierced her veins and left her in the merciful dark.

But the next morning, it was all still true: Chris was dead. His girlfriend Adriane, Nora's best friend, was catatonic. And Max, Nora's sweet, smart, soft-spoken Prince Charming, was gone. He was also—according to the police, according to her parents, according to everyone—a murderer.

Desperate to prove his innocence, Nora follows the trail of blood, no matter where it leads. It ultimately brings her to the ancient streets of Prague, where she is drawn into a dark web of secret societies and shadowy conspirators, all driven by a mad desire to possess something that might not even exist. For buried in a centuries-old manuscript is the secret to ultimate knowledge and communion with the divine; it is said that he who controls the Lumen Dei controls the world. Unbeknownst to her, Nora now holds the crucial key to unlocking its secrets. Her night of blood is just one piece in a puzzle that spans continents and centuries. Solving it may be the only way she can save her own life.

The Inn at Rose Harbor by Debbie Macomber

This book is sweet, overly sentimental, predictable, formulaic...and I loved it.  Debbie Macomber brings us back to the familiar town of Cedar Cove...this is a new series but some of the old characters make a brief appearance.  For those who cringe at the sweeter side of romance (bordering on diabetic shock) this book is not for you.  But for those who want to hang onto the last lingering days of summer with a quick, light read...this is perfect.

Via Amazon.com

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Debbie Macomber comes a heartwarming new series based in the Pacific Northwest town of Cedar Cove, where a charming cast of characters finds love, forgiveness, and renewal behind the doors of the cozy Rose Harbor Inn.

Jo Marie Rose first arrives in Cedar Cove seeking a sense of peace and a fresh start. Coping with the death of her husband, she purchases a local bed-and-breakfast—the newly christened Rose Harbor Inn—ready to begin her life anew. Yet the inn holds more surprises than Jo Marie can imagine.

Her first guest is Joshua Weaver, who has come home to care for his ailing stepfather. The two have never seen eye to eye, and Joshua has little hope that they can reconcile their differences. But a long-lost acquaintance from Joshua’s high school days proves to him that forgiveness is never out of reach and love can bloom even where it’s least expected.

The other guest is Abby Kincaid, who has returned to Cedar Cove to attend her brother’s wedding. Back for the first time in twenty years, she almost wishes she hadn’t come, the picturesque town harboring painful memories from her past. And while Abby reconnects with family and old friends, she realizes she can only move on if she truly allows herself to let go.

A touching novel of life’s grand possibilities and the heart’s ability to heal, The Inn at Rose Harbor is a welcome introduction to an unforgettable set of friends.