3.5 Stars Archives - Page 13 of 16

Book Review: What I Saw by Beck Nicholas

Feb 25, 2016

What I Saw by Beck Nicholas

Pages: 320
Publish date: March 1, 2016
Publisher: Harlequin
ISBN: 9781760371975
Purchase: Book Depository – Amazon US – Amazon AU – Harlequin

One punch will shatter a town.

Is anyone ready for the consequences of the truth?

Callie Jones is not the kind of girl who gets drunk at school dances, and certainly not now, with her scholarship on the line. And she definitely doesn’t hang around with bad boys like Rhett Barker. Especially alone, at night. But these are the circumstances she finds herself in when she witnesses a king hit that lands the town’s golden boy in a coma.

With his reputation, no one is less surprised than Rhett when he is accused of throwing the punch. But he didn’t do it. And he knows Callie saw what really went down. He just has to convince the ‘ice princess’ to come forward and talk to the police – except, for once, good girl Callie doesn’t seem all that interested in telling the truth. Just what is she hiding, and why?

Drawn together by secrets, scandal and heartache, Callie and Rhett find themselves getting closer – even as the solution to their problems gets further away.

What I Saw:

I received an e-arc of What I Saw by Beck Nicholas via NetGalley from Harlequin Australia in exchange for an honest review. This has in no way influenced my thoughts and feelings about the book.

I have wanted to read this book from the moment that I heard about. I like novels that capture heartbreaking incidents from a different perspective. The king hit – is something quite big in Australia at the moment and a lot of I leads to death and the person that committed the crime, either getting away with it or being judged guilty for the crime.

But what happens when the person being accused of the crime didn’t do it? What if the person who was king hit is the towns darling? And what if the only person that saw what happened, wants to hide the truth? Then you have What I Saw by Beck Nicholas.

What I Saw follows protagonist Callie Jones and Rhett Barker as they go through a journey of hurt, truth, lies and questioning what would you truly do if someone you care for was in trouble.

I feel very confused about this book – it had so much potential, so much to go on and then it fell flat. The concept of the plot, intrigued me from the get go and that is what kept me reading. I wanted to know what would happen.

The romance was the biggest problem for me in What I Saw. The book went from about 3/4 days and in that time both Callie and Rhett pretty much feel in love with each other … too much instalove for me. Can it even be called that though? Since they have known each other or about each other for quite a bit.

If the book was set over a couple of weeks and the romance was building in that time – then I would have loved the romance, because Callie and Rhett are quite cute together, but it was just was too fast.

I enjoyed Rhett much more than I did Callie. I sympathised with Rhett and all I wanted to do was tell him that, somehow everything is going to be okay. Everyone pretty has hates Rhett and when is accused of the one doing the punching, it was never questioned. And gosh did it make me angry. I like these types of characters, those who are misunderstood, however I hate the situations. Rhett wasn’t who everyone thought he was, he is just this big squishy marshmallow.

In saying that, I didn’t like Callie as much. She annoyed me quite a bit throughout the novel was getting on my nerves. She wants to be ‘perfect,’ for her family and she plays guitar and just so uptight. I found her quite blank.

I also didn’t like her Callie’s parents, but when do I like parents in YA anyway – next to never.

Nevertheless, I did enjoy What I Saw but not as much as I thought I was going to, I liked the protagonists, but didn’t love them, the message of the book, stood out and I did enjoy that, because it is an important message. Something that everyone should listen to – one punch can kill.

Overall, What I Saw by Beck Nicholas shows us that sometimes the right thing to do is the hardest thing, that sometimes family isn’t everything and the importance of how a king hit can not only hurt the Victim but everyone else around them.

Have you read What I Saw? Are you going to read it? What did you think? Let’s Talk!

Book Review: In Place of Never by Julie Ann Lindsey

Jan 29, 2016

In Place of Never by Julie Ann Lindsey

Pages: 269
Publish date: Febuary 2nd 2016
Publisher: Lyrical Press
ISBN: 160183487X
Purchase: Book Depository – Amazon UK – Amazon US – Amazon AU

Can the truth set her free?…

A part of Mercy died the summer her sister tragically drowned. Now Mercy has a chance to discover if Faith’s death was an accident—or murder. Her first step is to confront the lead suspects: a band of traveling gypsies—the last people who saw her sister alive. But Mercy finds an unexpected ally in Cross, the soulful musician in their ranks. He’s a kindred spirit, someone who sees into her heart for the first time in, well, forever. Yet stirring up the past puts Mercy in danger…

Suddenly someone is shadowing Mercy’s every move, making her even more determined to uncover the facts. With Cross by her side, she is ready to face it all, even if that means opening up to him, knowing he may one day leave her. What she discovers is a truth that rocks the foundation of her small river town—and a love worth risking everything for….

In Place of Never:

I received an e-arc of In Place of Never by Julie Anne Lindsey from Lyrical Press, Kensington Books via NetGalley. This has in no way influenced my thoughts and feelings about the book.

I don’t know what I was expecting when I started this book. I hadn’t heard much about, I read it on a whim as the synopsis intrigued me and I am glad I did.

In Place of Never follows protagonists, Mercy as she tries to come to terms with the death of her sister. Even though it happens years before, something died in Mercy when her sister did. So when the last people that saw her alive comes back to town – she has to confront them, however everything isn’t all it seems. She finds an expected ally is Cross who sees her for her for the first time and not someone from the outside.

Mercy is a troubled one. Her life has been school and boys. She had to suffer through the terrible drowning of her sister Faith and then the suicide of her mother, leaving her with her overprotective father. And herself. Mercy suffers with depression and heartache, all I wanted to do was wrap her in my arms and hug her. Everyone treats her differently and all she wants is answers. So when the traveling gypsies come back to town she knows where to get them. Everything isn’t what it seems and then she meets Cross.

I loved Cross, he was such a loveable character that you couldn’t help, but smile every time he was mentioned. Maybe it was because of Mercy and how she felt about Cross or maybe it was since Lindsey was such beautifully written. I normally hate when characters are musicians in novels simply as I think it’s so cliquey and I have seen it so many times before, but there was something about Cross, that it didn’t matter.

The storyline of In Place of Never was truly intriguing, I wanted to know what happened to Faith. As each step into the novel, we find out stuff that leads us in one direction and then boom! We are in another. It was thrilling and I couldn’t get enough of it. I liked how everything unfolded slowly and not until the end. However, I felt the ending was rushed and wasn’t intense enough for the situation at hand.

The writing was beautiful. Julie Anne Lindsey is captivating and brings the reader on the journey with both Mercy and Cross.

The family dynamics. True, but upsetting. I didn’t like Mercy’s dad, at all. I know that he behaved that way because he already lost his wife and daughter and couldn’t lose what he had left. However he was obsessed and not in the way that Mercy was, he was determined that the traveling gypsies were to blame, but he didn’t ask the questions. He didn’t have much character development

In Place of Never is a heartbreaking novel about finding the truth, death, depression, sacrifice and what it’s like to live when everything else is falling apart. Julie Anne Lindsey writes a beautiful novel that lets the reader pond upon life and what it’s truly like to live. It’s about love, faith and finding all the little things that count.

Movie Review: The 5th Wave spoiler free

Jan 14, 2016

I got the chance to watch The 5^th Wave early from Penguin Teen Australia and Dymocks.

First, I want to say that I have not read the books. So I went into the movie blind – I knew things that happened because I did a little research, but other than that I didn’t know all too much.

I liked The 5^th Wave. I didn’t love it, but I didn’t hate. It was a pretty okay movie. I really didn’t know what to expect, nevertheless I wanted more. It rather lacked and I was just waiting for something to really happen and it didn’t happen until the last 15 minutes or so of the movie.

The 5^th Wave, directed by J Blakeson adapted from Rick Yancey’s novel The 5^th Wave, with the screen adaptation by Akiva Goldsman, Susannah Grant, and Jeff Pinkner.

The movie follows Cassie Sullivan (Chloë Grace Moretz) as she tries to get back to her brother Sam (Zackary Arthur) after 4 waves of alien turmoil have hit the earth. As the 5^th wave is looming on everyone’s head, Cassie teams up with Evan Walker (Alex Roe) who may be her final hope – if she can trust him.

The start of The 5^th Wave reminded me a lot of The Hunger Games, a girl running in the woods. The way that the camera angles were shot, the fast movement. It seemed familiar – until she had her gun hoisted in her arms. That was what shot me out of reality.

It starts off with the running scene in the forests and then flashes back to when it all started. The day before the first wave. Cassie is behaving like a normal teenager with a cup of beer in her hand instead of Gun. This is where we first meet Ben Parrish (Nick Robinson), Cassie long time crush. The scene was “very awkward teenager”.

As the movie goes through the waves – many people die including some close to Cassie, on the other hand it all happened quite fast that it was hard to process what was happening.

There are quite a few graphics used in these scenes and well, I was disappointed. They kind of fell flat for me. I thought they were going to be so much better, however at parts it really did look fake.

The was also far too many close up camera angles that put the character right there in front of your face. Over time it was starting to get annoying, when they could have gone back a few steps.

The acting was pretty okay. When working with younger cast members it’s really hard to get it perfect. But I thought that all the side characters were done well. Zackary Arthur was a cute little Sammy. While Moretz highlighted her sheer determination as Cassie to get back her little brother back.

However, let’s talk about the bear. Sammy’s little bear. It is going to get Cassie killed. I don’t know why she doesn’t keep it in her backpack or strapped around her or something. Why was she carrying it a lot of the time? Put it in your backpack and you won’t drop it.

The romance – oh the cheese. The romance was cheesy it was making me cringe so much. It wasn’t even the chemistry between Moretz and Roe. It was the lines and the looks – I just wanted to turn away. Hopefully in the next movie, they get rid of the cheese.

I did like humour though. It might not have meant to be funny, nonetheless there were scenes that you couldn’t help, but laugh at. It was those really teenager scenes. Where everything is awkward and weird, it felt like it was like real teenagers.

Overall The 5^th Wave was full of laughs, cheesy romance and a little bit of action. I do wish that there was a little more action. The graphics could have been done better, however, the acting of the younger cast member’s stood out. I hope that the second movie can do better.

The 5^th Wave is out in the cinemas now in Australia. 22nd of January in the USA and UK

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