Review: Love & Other Theories by Alexis Bass

Love & Other Theories by Alexis Bass

• Pub. Date:December 30, 2014
• Publisher: Harper Teen
• Pages: 384
• Rating:1/5 
• Goodreads/Amazon/Book Depository

If you want more, you have to give less.

That’s the secret to dating in high school. By giving as little as they expect to get in return, seventeen-year-old Aubrey Housing and her three best friends have made it to the second semester of their senior year heartbreak-free. And it’s all thanks to a few simple rules: don’t commit, don’t be needy, and don’t give away your heart.

So when smoking-hot Nathan Diggs transfers to Lincoln High, it shouldn’t be a big deal. At least that’s what Aubrey tells herself. But Nathan’s new-boy charm, his kindness, and his disarming honesty throw Aubrey off her game and put her in danger of breaking the most important rule of all: Don’t fall in love. 

First Line:"There's one major reason I'm ready to be done with high school and it's all culminating now, the first day back from winter break, in Senior Drama.

Review:This book was difficult for me to get through. I wanted to mark it as a dnf several times but kept reading thinking that maybe it will get better, the characters will eventually become likable at some point. Well none of that happened, instead I'm annoyed at myself for even trying.

I hated every single character in this book. They were the stereotypical mean girls we see in movies times three, the book was entirely from their perspective and it was frustrating. It seems all the girls did were party, drink, slut shame constantly, hook up, and they have these theories that they lived by...the rules about love and dating they created which trust me were the most painfully ridiculous list of theories I have ever read. Aubrey and her friends were just infuriatingly stupid the decisions they made, the way they treated each other they weren't even true friends to each other. Then these girls were bullies to the extreme what they did and how they treated Chiffon a former friend of theirs was despicable, how the heck am I supposed to even remotely care about any of these characters.

As for Nathan and Aubrey there were a couple of cute moments between the two but believe me when I say it all went downhill after that.

Overall there is nothing about this book that I liked. The behavior of these girls were cruel and hateful and there wasn't one redeeming thing about any of them. 

Review: Spellbinding by Maya Gold

Spellbinding by Maya Gold

• Pub. Date: April 1, 2013
• Publisher: Scholastic Point
• Pages:272
• Goodreads/Amazon/Book Depository

     There's more than one way to be powerful . . .

It is during a routine school project that Abby Silva--sixteen and nearly friendless--makes a startling discovery: She is descended from women who were accused of witchcraft back in 1600s Salem. And when Abby visits nearby Salem, strange, inexplicable events start to unfold. Objects move when she wills them to. Candles burst into sudden flame. And an ancient spellbook somehow winds up in her possession.

Trying to harness her newfound power, Abby concocts a love potion to win over her longtime crush--and exact revenge upon his cruel, bullying girlfriend. But old magic is not to be trifled with. Soon, Abby is thrust headlong into a world of hexes, secrets, and danger. And then there's Rem Anders, the beautiful, mysterious Salem boy who seems to know more about Abby than he first lets on.

A reckoning is coming, and Abby will have to make sense of her history--and her heart--before she can face the powerful truth

Review: I love books that revolve around witches but Spellbinding just did not grab me in the way I thought it would.

Spellbinding is about a girl named Abby who has some insane nightmares that haunt her and eventually she discovers she is more then just an ordinary girl. Via a class project at school Abby discovers her link to Salem and the witch trials that occurred there in the 1600's along with discovering her new found magical powers.

When I first started reading I was semi-hooked because the prologue did have me a little curious but soon after that everything just kind of spiraled downwards from there. I found way too many cliches such as the mean girls who loved to bully Abby, then there was Abby who thought of herself as nothing special looks wise etc and she lusted after the popular guy at school who barely noticed her and was dating the mean girl. Then the love triangle that was just annoying because it was thanks to the selfishness of our main character that one of them even was so madly in love with her.

Another problem I had was that Abby is supposed to be sixteen so you think she would sound and act like one but instead you would think she was a middle grader. I just found her actions to be way too immature even for a sixteen year old. The plot was also predictable nothing happened that I didn't already see coming. And also the way she came about her powers were just too easy all of a sudden she can just do magic not even a little struggle of any sorts.

I usually have some positive things to say about a book but this one just rubbed me the wrong way. It's hard to enjoy a book when you have character who's action frustrates the hell out of you to where you can't stand her anymore and actually really come to hate the character. The romance that did occur between Abby and Rem (where no love potion was involved...thank goodness) well it didn't feel real at all. And then I started questioning Rem and how he was all ready to be with her even though he knows she casted a love spell on another guy.

Overall this book was not something I enjoyed nor could I recommend.

Review: Uses for Boys by Erica Lorraine Scheidt

Uses for Boys by Erica Lorraine Scheidt

• Pub. Date: January 15, 2013
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press
• Pages:240
• Goodreads/Amazon/Book Depository

Anna remembers a time before boys, when she was little and everything made sense. When she and her mom were a family, just the two of them against the world. But now her mom is gone most of the time, chasing the next marriage, bringing home the next stepfather. Anna is left on her own—until she discovers that she can make boys her family. From Desmond to Joey, Todd to Sam, Anna learns that if you give boys what they want, you can get what you need. But the price is high—the other kids make fun of her; the girls call her a slut. Anna's new friend, Toy, seems to have found a way around the loneliness, but Toy has her own secrets that even Anna can't know.

Then comes Sam. When Anna actually meets a boy who is more than just useful, whose family eats dinner together, laughs, and tells stories, the truth about love becomes clear. And she finally learns how it feels to have something to lose—and something to offer. Real, shocking, uplifting, and stunningly lyrical,  Uses for Boys  is a story of breaking down and growing up.

First Line: In the happy times, in the tell-me-again times, when I'm seven and there are no stepbrothers and it's before the stepfathers, my mom lets me sleep in her bed.

Review: I have no idea why I read this the whole way through when I clearly wanted to mark it as a dnf and never look at this book again. Uses for Boys was not my cup of tea, the plot sounded promising but it was nothing that I expected, the writing was pretty basic there were some very explicit sexual content that seemed it was there only for the shock factor and nothing more.

Anna is just really a sad depressing character in my opinion, she doesn't get any affection from her mother who changes men several times throughout the book and so Anna seeks that attention elsewhere...boys. She has sex alot with many different boys and doesn't care about how any of them treat her. Normally a character who is so emotionally damaged makes it easier for me to connect with them in some way or feel some form of sympathy for them that sucks me into the book but not Anna I really disliked her character.

Overall this was just an odd book, I'm not sure how else to describe it. I'm still trying to figure out what was the point of this book, I can see what the author might have been trying to accomplish with this book but it could have been done in a more tasteful manner. Also I don't think the cover really goes well with the words inside the book at all. Personally I can't recommend this book but I do recommend checking out other reviews because there were some who really did like it.

Review: Love Unscripted by Tina Reber

Love Unscripted by Tina Reber

• Pub. Date: First Published March 6, 2010 /Ebook- Sep. 12,2012 / Paperback Jan 1,2013.
• Publisher: Atria Books
• Pages: 592
• Series: Love #1
• Amazon/Goodreads

Ryan Christensen just wanted to be an actor. Never in his wildest dreams did he ever think that accepting a role in an unknown film would toss his career into overdrive. His new fame has cost him dearly; anonymity is no longer an option. His fans stalk him, the paparazzi hound him, and Hollywood studios all want a piece of him. Despite all of that, Ryan Christensen craves the most basic of human needs - to have love in his heart and privacy in his life.

Taryn Mitchell, the story's protagonist, is a realist. She's been feigning contentment, running the family pub in Seaport, Rhode Island, while quietly nursing her own internal heartaches. Her feet are fairly glued to the ground and she doesn't buy into all the hype that has descended on her tiny, coastal town. In her world, men are safe if they're kept at a distance.

Fate has other plans for these two when their paths cross one sunny afternoon. A group of female fans has attacked him, leaving his shirt torn, his face cut, and Ryan in obvious distress. Bonds between them form from the most dramatic of circumstances while jealousy, insecurity, and the stress of his celebrity life try to tear them apart.

Through all the tabloid lies, secrecy, and pressure, can Taryn's peace and Ryan's high-profile insanity live together in harmony?

First Line: " You never know which way the wind blows" was on of my fathers favorite expressions.


Review: I am obviously going to be the odd one out in my opinion on this book seeing how it got so many incredible five star ratings on goodreads, one of the main reasons why I picked it up also I had to know what all the hype about this book was and well...I didn't see what the hype was about. I sadly did not see what others saw in Love Unscripted and really just did not like the book at all. 

The book is close to 600 pages it was actually more but I guess it got edited down since I'm reviewing the version I got from netgalley. Anyways it's like the climax didn't even happen until about the eighty percent mark until that point not much was happening. Now I did like the book and was interested in the characters until Taryn and Ryan hooked up. Once they got together the book went downhill for me, it was the same thing over and over, Taryn wondering why Ryan is with her since he is so famous and can have anyone he wants, and then the crazed fans stalking them. It was all just so repetitive, they could have easily taken another 200 or so pages out of the book.

Not to mention the two main characters just felt so unrealistic to me, their conversations bugged me it was so cheesy and corny, and I didn't feel the chemistry between the two. I guess if the writing was better, with believable dialogue, and characters who didn't annoy me so much I might have given this book a better rating. Overall I just had a bad experience with Love Unscripted and it bugs me even more because obviously I didn't see what so many people loved about this book. Anyways just because I didn't like it I'm not going to sit here and tell you not to pick it up because I'm the minority when it comes to this book and my feelings for it, more then likely you will enjoy it.