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Book Review: On The Fence by Kasie West

Jun 27, 2014

On the Fence by Kasie West

Pages: 320 (paperback)
Publish date: July 1st (US and Australia), July 31st (UK)
Publisher: Harper Collins
ISBN: 0062235672
Purchase: Book Depository – Amazon UK – Amazon US – Amazon AU

She’s a tomboy. He’s the boy next door…

Charlie Reynolds can outrun, outscore, and outwit every boy she knows. But when it comes to being a girl, Charlie doesn’t know the first thing about anything. So when she starts working at a chichi boutique to pay off a speeding ticket, she finds herself in a strange new world. To cope with the stress of her new reality, Charlie takes to spending nights chatting with her neighbor Braden through the fence between their yards. As she grows to depend on their nightly Fence Chats, she realizes she’s got a bigger problem than speeding tickets-she’s falling for Braden. She knows what it means to go for the win, but if spilling her secret means losing him for good, the stakes just got too high.

On the Fence:

I received an ARC of On the Fence from Harper Teen Australia, this in no way influenced my review.

First Line: ‘The engine whined against my attempt to go faster.’

I had never read a Kasie West book before I picked up On the Fence and I am hating myself for not doing it before. She is such an amazing writer, captures emotions so well.

Charlie is a tomboy, there is no denying it. She doesn’t wear makeup, she dresses without much care and she hangs out with boys and, you know what, I loved her. It’s rare that I read a book with a girl protagonist that isn’t worried about what she wears, or if she is wearing makeup. It was different, but nice.

I loved the writing style of Kasie West. It was interesting and it intrigued me to keep on reading. The book started off with a bang and just kept on getting better and better as it went on.

I thought it was be a sappy contemporary romance instead novel, but it was so much more. It turned into a mystery novel somehow, it was so good. Yes, there were still those snappy romance moments, but it made them so much more glorious.

I loved Charlie’s brothers. Yes, they may have been over protective, but, once you find out why, you kind of understand why they were protective. Each one of them were from the other, but they all related to Charlie in some way. It was different seeing sibling interaction, as again in YA there isn’t much of yet when there is they aren’t the best relationships. So it was nice seeing good sibling relationships.

Dreams are messages, things out minds want us to learn. Recurring dreams can be really important messages. they often come in the form of nightmares. Recurring dreams could represent a real-life problem that hasn’t been dealt with or resolved. Overcoming or resolving that problem could help one move past the recurring dream. – ARC pg82

She even had a pretty okay relationship with her father. I didn’t mind her father at all. Yes, he was a little strict, but I can again understand why. I normally don’t like parents all that much in Young Adult books, so that is another thumbs up to Kasie.

Branden, he is just amazing and not to mention the boy next door. Charlie and Branden’s ‘Fence’ moments were just so cute and moving and heartbreaking. Just everything all at once.

On the Fence was funny and cute as well as very moving. Charlie struggles the whole book with the death of her mother and she doesn’t know how to be a ‘girl.’ She can’t get over her mother’s death and as the book goes on we see why.

On the Fence reminded me a lot of Pushing the Limits by Katie McGarry in the sense of suppressed memories. Which intrigued me a lot. It’s an interesting concept that no matter how many times it’s done it always seem different.

I laughed, I cried and I swooned. On the Fence was simply just gorgeous. Kasie’s writing is brilliant and beautiful. It was entertaining and the banter between Charlie and her brothers and Charlie and Braden just added so much to the book. The heart-warming family moments also added so much depth to the book.

Sometimes we expect more that people are capable of giving at the moment

The romance between Charlie and Braden was simply beautiful–the true nature of friends becoming more. They were totally adorable together and the scenes on the fence were just so brilliant.

Over all On the Fence is a book of self-discovery, love, friendship and family. The tales of a girl becoming a ‘girl’, finding love and friendship. On the Fence is mesmerizing, moving and funny.

Book Review: Between the Lives by Jessica Shirvington

Jun 17, 2014

Between the Lives

Pages: 336 (paperback)
Publish date: August 7th 2014 (UK)
Publisher: Hachette Children’s Books, Orchard Books
ISBN: 140833173X
Purchase: Book Depository – Amazon UK – Amazon US – Amazon AU

The perfect life or the perfect love. You choose.

For as long as she can remember, Sabine has lived two lives. Every 24 hours she shifts to her ‘other’ life – a life where she is exactly the same, but absolutely everything else is different: different family, different friends, different social expectations. In one life she has a sister, in the other she does not. In one life she’s a straight-A student with the perfect boyfriend, in the other she’s considered a reckless delinquent. Nothing about her situation has ever changed, until the day when she discovers a glitch: the arm she breaks in one life is perfectly fine in the other.

With this new knowledge, Sabine begins a series of increasingly risky experiments that bring her dangerously close to the life she’s always wanted. But if she can only have one life, which is the one she’ll choose?

Between the Lives:

I received an e-copy of Between the Lives from Hachette Children’s Books, Orchard Books on Netgalley for review. This has in no way influenced my review.

I have wanted to read this book for ages, since it came out in Australia quite a while ago. But I never got the chance to get it so as soon as I saw it was available on Netgalley I jumped and I am so glad I did.

This book was just so good. I didn’t know what to expect reading this, as I had never really read anything like it before, and I enjoyed it so much. Like Sabine, I struggled with what world I thought she would live in. There were so many faults in both, that it was hard to decide which world she belonged in.

In one world she was rich, had the ‘perfect’ boyfriend and friends. She was doing pretty okay, but she wasn’t happy. She didn’t have the best family.

You said you wanted someone to know you. Maybe I just want to have someone know me too. Without you in this world, the memories of every moment we’ve shared together will be gone. We only exist because others see us. Part of my existence…an important part, only exists because you are here to see it.

In her other life, her family is just doing the best they can. They are making it work and she have very few friends. But she has a loving sister and, even though she doesn’t have that many, she has good friends.

Going back and forth day by day. Living one day in one world then living the same in the next, was a really interesting concept to read about and defiantly kept me reading.

I really enjoyed Sabine. I found her very interesting. She was strong in a different way than other characters that I read. She was strong mentally and she didn’t even realise it. She had to live these two lives, two very different lives and keep up with everything. After something big happens with one family she feel betrayed by them, and you know what I would do, I would feel angry. I really felt Sabine’s emotions a lot throughout the novel. They just gave me this connect to the book that was really intense of sorts.

I enjoyed Jessica’s writing. It was really emotional, real and just straight to the point. It didn’t go on pages upon pages explaining something. She creates such an interesting storyline that you cannot put the book down.

Falling in love with you only made those choices more complicated and I feared that you might choose to stay for me and then, after I was gone, change your mind. I couldn’t let that happen.

I really enjoyed Ethan. He was mysterious and so charming at the same time. I just couldn’t stop smiling at the things he said, especially towards the end of the book. Ethan and Sabine were just so cute.

Sabine’s rich life in Between the Lives? Yes, she got things, but she wasn’t happy. I didn’t like her so called ‘perfect’ boyfriend from the start. He just got on my nerves so much throughout the book.

The ending of Between the Lives was just so powerful. It definitely left a mark. Between the Lives was bursting a punch with its beautiful characters and moving story that will leave you like it did me: with a permanent impression.

The beautiful writing style of Jessica Shirvington and the characterisation of her characters Between the Lives unravels you in such a compelling way that you will be hanging for more. You will want everyone to read it. It is just simply beautiful and breathtaking.

Have you reading Between the Lives? Did you like it? Are you looking forward to reading it?

Book Review: Tease by Amanda Maciel

Jun 9, 2014

Tease by Amanda Maciel

Pages: 338 (paperback)
Publish date: April 29th 2014
Publisher: Hachette Children’s Books , Blazer + Bray
ISBN: 9781444918717
Purchase: Book Depository – Amazon UK – Amazon US – Amazon AU

Emma Putnam is dead, and it’s all Sara Wharton’s fault.

At least, that’s what everyone seems to think when Sara, along with her best friend and three other classmates, has been criminally charged for the bullying and harassment that led to Emma’s shocking suicide. But Sara is sure she hasn’t done anything wrong, because Emma brought it on herself. Sara is adamant that she was the victim – not Emma.

Inspired by a true story, TEASE is a thought-provoking must-read that will haunt you long after the last page.

Tease:

I received an e-copy of Tease from Hachette Children’s Books on Netgalley for review. This has in no way influenced my review.

I have tried to write this review many times before but I just couldn’t seem to do it. Not because it wasn’t good, — I think Tease was an amazing book but because it dealt with a topic that is just so hard to read about.

Tease is from Sara Wharton perspective, one of the bullies of Emma Putnam who by the time we are reading has already committed suicide. Let me tell you it was really hard reading a book from a bully’s point of view, from their life. But I learned while reading Tease that bullying doesn’t just effect the victim but effect so much more.

I am not condoning bullying or bullies in any way but Tease is able to make the reader see not just victim’s perspective but from the perspectives of everyone else.

Sara is, well, I think manipulated. Yes, she does bully Emma on her own account, but I think that deep down, she is actually being bullied herself by the manipulation of her ‘best-friend.’

Tease was a very hard book to read, but, like I said before, not because it was a bad book, but because of the subjects it deals with. There were a couple of times where I had to put the book down and just recapture my thoughts and feelings because sometimes it was a lot to take in.

I felt bad for Sara. What she did was horrible, but she had to deal with the consequences on her own. I felt like she was a pawn in a chess came. She was used as the mover. She did everything, but with the influence of others. Yes, no one can make you feel something, but they can change your feelings towards something.

Sara’s best friend wow, now she is a bully through and through. She was the puppeteer and Sara was the puppet.

A lot of people don’t like Sara at all, but I think there is much more to this story than what is really displayed. She is just so ‘weak,’ you could say, she doesn’t understand that what she says hurts people.

I like how Tease went back and forth from the present to before Emma’s suicide. It gave me an insight on who the real bully was. Not just what is on the outside. It also gave us an idea of who Emma was and how she acted. What happened to her was horrible, but she also did some pretty bad things herself.

The language used in Tease is a bit out there and, from other young adult books that I have read, it’s one of the few that uses that sort of language. But then I realised that the language that is used by almost every teen and it’s normal. It may not be nice in anyway, but it’s real. And that is exactly what Tease is: real and raw

Tease was hard to read, but it is so powerful. How one little thing can lead to another little thing and then something big. How one mistake cannot just ruin your life, but the lives of those around you.