Barbie World
(Baby Doll, #2)
By: Heidi Acosta
Publisher: Self-Published
Release Date: ? Summer 2013
Genre: YA
Rating:
Goodreads
“One Night is all it
took to change everything between Barbie and me. One night to
potentially lose the girl of my dreams forever. How do I prove to her
that she can trust me? That all I want to do is protect her carefully
guarded heart. I need to prove to her that I want to be a part of her
world. But How? ”
Dylan lost Barbie once before, now he is determined
more than ever to win her heart and trust back. Easier said than done,
especially with the new hot guy in town who is in a rock band and is the
complete opposite of Dylan.
Barbie has been hurt beyond repair or so
she thinks. It would be easier for heart to decide if she didn’t have
to protect her little brother. And if Dylan would just put on a shirt!
Dylan is not making this easy on her. It helps to have the distraction
of the new guy in town cute bad boy Kai. But even though her heart is
damaged it still knows what it wants.
When Barbie learns she has a
family and with the help of Roxie and Kai, oh and Third and Dylan. They
embark on a journey to help bring Barbie closer to a past she never knew
existed.
Heidi Acosta brings you the heart felt story of
friendship, love and heartbreak in the second book in of the Baby doll
series Barbie World.
We
pick up shortly where Barbie Girl ends. Barbie is now under the
Guardianship of Dylan's parents. She's moving on with her life and
trying to forget about Dylan, which is kind of hard since they live
under the same roof. Dylan on the other hand is hell bent on winning
Barbie back, regardless of the fact that he has a girlfriend.
I
fell in love with these characters in Barbie Girl. I liked the rawness
of Barbie and how she opened up Dylan's eyes as far as not always
fitting in the mold when it comes to the cliques at school. So I was
really disappointed in Dylan for going after Barbie while he has a girl
friend. He would grab Barbie and start making out with her while his
girl friend was in the next room. It just left a sour taste in my mouth.
He hated being around his girl friend. Made fun of her and her friends
when with Third and really didn't care for her feelings. He
kept asking Barbie what he had to do to get her back. However, he
wouldn't break up with his girl friend because 1) his parent's liked her
and expected him to date someone like her and 2) he wasn't sure if
Barbie would take him back. How about this Dylan? You do the
right thing, and break up with the girl that you're stringing along and
then maybe approach Barbie! The fact that this takes place throughout the entirety of the story really drove me nuts.
However,
I still really enjoyed Barbie's character. She's really torn up over
everything that took place in the previous book. The person she though
she could trust, broke that trust and continues to hurt her every day.
Not to mention the new situation she's in with living with a family who
actually cares about her well being.
"I know that this is a fake sense of security that I am in. I'm
not going to fall for it anymore. No one loves me. I was abandoned by my
mother. The one boy I loved never really loved me back."
We also get more time with Roxie and Third. Third
really steps it up in this book. He seems to take Barbie's side in the
whole matter (as he should) and is there to protect her but at the same
time, if there is a chance he can help Dylan out, he does. Aside from
Dylan, the other characters in this book were a pleasure to read. Not to
mention the added bonus of Kai which is a potential love interest for
Barbie.
One other thing that detracted a point for me was the
ending. It seems a bit rushed and then the epilogue comes at you out of
left field. I felt like a lot of the back and forth between Barbie and
Dylan could have been cut out to make room for the ending.
All in all, Barbie's story was a good one. She fought her way through life and survived.
"I
want to see girls in bikinis just as bad as you, but while you are only
lugging around a six pack, I have a whole keg to get up this hill."
-Third
Previous reviews from Baby Doll series
Barbie Girl
Heidi Acosta was born on Long Island, New York. Moving around a lot when
she was younger, she has lived in New York, Arizona, New York (again),
Washington, Georgia, and Florida, in that order. Each place offered her
something special, but she will always consider New York her home.
Heidi
started writing as soon as she could spell. When she was three, Heidi’s
mother gave her a copy of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House in the
Big Woods; thus beginning her lifelong love affair with literature.
Writing
soon also became a form of therapy for Heidi, when she realized that no
matter what was happening in her life, she could find emotional escape
while writing. Some of her earliest stories featured her as a princess
who explored new worlds with her horse Buttercup. If it sounds romantic,
it wasn’t, there was no prince charming in those fairy lands (boys
where yucky).
Heidi now resides in Florida with her husband, very
active daughter, one hyper Chihuahua, two sweet cats, and one very
fat moody cat.
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Dare You To
(Pushing the Limits, #2)
By: Katie McGarry
Publisher: Harlequin Teen
Release Date: May 28, 2013
Genre: YA
Rating:
Goodreads | Amazon | B&N
If anyone knew the
truth about Beth Risk's home life, they'd send her mother to jail and
seventeen-year-old Beth who knows where. So she protects her mom at all
costs. Until the day her uncle swoops in and forces Beth to choose
between her mom's freedom and her own happiness. That's how Beth finds
herself living with an aunt who doesn't want her and going to a school
that doesn't understand her. At all. Except for the one guy who
shouldn't get her, but does....
Ryan Stone is the town golden
boy, a popular baseball star jock-with secrets he can't tell anyone. Not
even the friends he shares everything with, including the constant
dares to do crazy things. The craziest? Asking out the Skater girl who
couldn't be less interested in him.
But what begins as a dare
becomes an intense attraction neither Ryan nor Beth expected. Suddenly,
the boy with the flawless image risks his dreams-and his life-for the
girl he loves, and the girl who won't let anyone get too close is daring
herself to want it all.
We
finally get into Beth's head and it makes for one awesome story. You
knew her home life was messed up in Pushing the Limits but it goes to a
whole new level in Dare You To.
After being arrested, Beth finds
herself uprooted and under the guardianship of her uncle Scott. Which is
where she runs into the smug jock who tried hitting on her the other
night. Not only does he go to her school, but her uncle has asked him to
show her around town and help her get adjusted. The only problem is,
Beth and Ryan couldn't be more opposite if they even tried.
I
liked that going into the story I thought the whole thing would revolve
around the dare. At first it starts out with getting the skater girl at
the taco shop to give him his number and then when she becomes the new
girl in town, it turns to getting her to go out on a date with him. So
imagine my surprise when the dare is out of the way halfway through the
story. What else could this story possibly have left? Oh but there's
more. Once the Dare is done, we move onto more larger issues like Beth's
mother and her stance with her old life versus her new life. And that for
me, was the best part of the story. I loved that it had more than one
storyline in it.
Another thing that I enjoyed was Beth. She is a
spitfire. She harbors so much hostility and yet is incredibly
vulnerable at the same time. So her interaction with the other
characters was funny to watch. For instance when she shows up in town
and her uncle Scott introduces her to Ryan, for what he thinks is the
first time. At first the two of them play along like they didn't just
meet the other night and then...
Beth: "He hit on me."
Uncle Scott: "You just met him."
Beth: "Not now. Friday night. He hit on me and he stared at my ass while he did it."
Uncle Scott: "Is this true?"
Ryan: "Yes. No. I mean yes. I asked for her phone number, but she didn't give it to me. But I was respectful, I swear."
Beth:
"You stared at my ass. A lot." I turn and lean over a little so I can
give a demonstration. "Remember, there was a rip right here." I slide my
finger along the back of my leg. "You bought me tacos afterward. And a
drink. So I'm assuming you must have enjoyed the view."
I
think the whole character dynamic was what really worked for me in this
story versus the first novel. Beth is brutally honest, Ryan lives in a
cookie cutter world, uncle Scott managed to get out of the trailer park
and into the MLB and with taking in Beth, brings her back to her old
neighborhood and friends/enemies. Beth was by far the most interesting
character in the first novel and this story definitely did not disappoint.
"I'm
hiding in the bushes and if the police step back, they'd be on top of
me. Beth's just standing there," Rico chokes out between laughs. "Her
arm stiff at the shoulder and her forearm dangling back and forth like a
pendulum. The cop asked if she needed medical help. He thought she was
having a seizure."
Everyone including me, bursts into laughter.
Rico composes himself to spit out the rest. "And she breaks her
self-imposed silence and says, 'I'm a mime, you moron. Why do you think
I've been doing all these retarded moves?'"
Previous reviews from Pushing the Limits
Pushing the Limits
Catching Jordan
(Hundred Oaks, #1)
By: Miranda Kenneally
Publisher: Sourcebooks
Published: Dec. 1, 2011
Genre: YA
Rating:
Goodreads | Amazon | B&N
ONE OF THE BOYS
What
girl doesn't want to be surrounded by gorgeous jocks day in and day
out? Jordan Woods isn't just surrounded by hot guys, though-she leads
them as the captain and quarterback of her high school football team.
They all see her as one of the guys and that's just fine. As long as she
gets her athletic scholarship to a powerhouse university.
But
everything she's ever worked for is threatened when Ty Green moves to
her school. Not only is he an amazing QB, but he's also amazingly hot.
And for the first time, Jordan's feeling vulnerable. Can she keep her
head in the game while her heart's on the line?
This
is the first book by Miranda that I've read and I honestly cannot wait
to read the other books in the Hundred Oaks series. The characters were
fun to read, even the secondary characters were very engaging. I
honestly thought that all the build up of the secondary characters meant
that the other books in the series would be based off of the other
characters in this book but that's not the case. The author really took
the time to develop everyone in the story whether they were major
characters or not.
I loved Jordan's character. She is a total
tomboy. She hates wearing dresses, so much so that when she goes to Ty's
place for the first time, his little sister gushes about Jordan's dress,
so Jordan swaps out of the dress into workout clothes and gives his
sister the dress. She is totally oblivious to the way guys react to her.
I must say that even though I knew what was happening and what was
coming, I was still a little surprised by the ending. I didn't really
see it coming until about halfway through the book.
I also
really enjoyed how true the author kept to the teen lifestyle. Jordan
had her head on straight and didn't go to all the parties her
friends/teammates went to and she didn't hook up with people throughout
the book like them. However, she did question herself when it came to
boys. Because of her tall frame, she was self conscious that guys
wouldn't like her because she was bigger than them. She'd never kissed a
boy and when the opportunity comes up she panics and is unsure what to
do. I really liked that the author didn't make her teens innocent
angels.
Like I said, I really look forward to reading more work from this author. She's right up there with Koby Keplinger for me.
"As
uncomfortable as I feel, I keep the girly underwear on anyway. Who
knows? Provided they stay the hell out of my butt crack, they might make
me feel sexier later on today." -Jordan
Sea of Tranquility
By: Katja Millay
Publisher: Atria Books
Published: Nov. 13, 2012
Genre: YA
Rating:
Goodreads | Amazon | B&N
Former piano prodigy
Nastya Kashnikov wants two things: to get through high school without
anyone learning about her past and to make the boy who took everything
from her—her identity, her spirit, her will to live—pay.
Josh
Bennett’s story is no secret: every person he loves has been taken from
his life until, at seventeen years old, there is no one left. Now all
he wants is be left alone and people allow it because when your name is
synonymous with death, everyone tends to give you your space.
Everyone
except Nastya, the mysterious new girl at school who starts showing up
and won’t go away until she’s insinuated herself into every aspect of
his life. But the more he gets to know her, the more of an enigma she
becomes. As their relationship intensifies and the unanswered questions
begin to pile up, he starts to wonder if he will ever learn the secrets
she’s been hiding—or if he even wants to.
Nastya
was killed one day while walking the neighborhood in the daylight. The
doctors were able to bring her back but life has never been the same
since. For a while she couldn't remember anything about that day but the
moment she does, she completely shuts down. She decided to stop talking
because she can't bring herself to say the things that everyone wants
to hear, "who did it" and "what happened". So instead of trying to come
up with lies for the answers, she decides to stop talking until she can
bring herself to talk about it. Only, minutes turn into hours, hours
into days, days into months... you get the idea. All she knows is the
boy who attacked her kept calling her a Russian whore and when she's
given a second chance at life, that's exactly the persona she takes on.
Everyone
that Josh has ever loved is dead. His mom and sister were killed in a
car accident when he was 8, his father died of a heart attack later on
and his grandfather, who is the only one left, is not looking like he's
got too much longer to live. So at the age of 18 he is alone. He keeps to himself
and only has one friend, and he's perfectly fine with that. He doesn't
want anyone else in his life who is just going to leave him heartbroken.
I loved their story. You get bits and pieces of Nastya's story
as the story progresses but it isn't until the end that all the pieces
fall together. I liked that this wasn't one of those teen angst books
where the girl falls in love with the bad boy. Josh is a loner and even
though he's not looking to make friends, he isn't rude to Nastya. It
isn't until his best friend, Drew, decides to pursue the new girl,
Nastya, that the two characters start to interact.
Now normally I
don't talk about the cover because a lot of the time it's not always
relevant to the story. However, this cover deserves some spotlight for
how amazing it is. The Sea of Tranquility is actually the lunar mare
(dark part we see on the moon) that is located in the Tranquillitatus
basin on the moon. Why is this relevant? Well, there's a part of the
book when Nastya and Josh are laying in the bed of his truck looking up
at the stars and the moon. They start talking about the Sea of
Tranquility and how Nastya has a picture of the moon on her room wall.
She used to think that the Sea of Tranquility was a beautiful and
peaceful place that you'd want to go to when you die but has since
learned that the name is all a lie.
The ice cream is actually
presented a lot in the story. Nastya has this addiction to sugar. Her
food groups consists of, candy, cookies, cake and ice cream. She once
tells Josh that if she goes too long without ice cream she gets really
irritable. And since then he either has ice cream in his freezer or he
takes her out for ice cream.
"We put a pretty big dent in every one of those containers,
and she's definitely more Sunshine and less Nasty afterward. I make a
mental note for the next time she gets pissy that, in lieu of mood
stabilizers, ice cream will do the trick."
I'm so glad that I read this book. The author has a
wonderful way of weaving two stories together to create a seamless
masterpiece. This is an unforgettable story about two characters who
find peace in each other and with the bond that they create, start to
heal. It will keep you up until all hours of the night, until you
finally pass out, only to start reading again the second that you wake
up. I will definitely be keeping an eye out for more work from this
debut author.
"At
the age when most kids are trying to figure out who they are. I was
busy trying to figure out why I was. I didn't belong in this world
anymore. It's not that I wanted to be dead. I just felt like I should
be. Which is why it's hard when everyone expects you to be grateful
simply because you're not." -Nastya
Me, Him, Them, and It
By: Caela Carter
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Published: Feb. 26, 2013
Genre: YA
Rating:
Goodreads | Amazon | B&N
ME is Evelyn Jones, 16, a
valedictorian hopeful who's been playing bad girl to piss off THEM, her
cold, distant parents. HIM is Todd, Evelyn's secret un-boyfriend, who
she thought she was just using for sex - until she accidentally fell in
love with him. But before Evelyn gets a chance to tell Todd how she
feels, something much more important comes up. IT. IT is a fetus. Evelyn
is pregnant - and when Todd turns his back on her, Evelyn has no idea
who to turn to. Can a cheating father, a stiff, cold mother, a
pissed-off BFF, and a (thankfully!) loving aunt with adopted girls of
her own help Evelyn make the heart-wrenching decisions that follow?
My thoughts...
Hmm...
I really had trouble rating this book. It wasn't that it was poorly
written because it's not but I just wasn't a fan of the main character. I
found her to be spoiled and extremely childish over everything. Which
may have been the idea since she is only a teen but I would hope most 16
yr olds know that having unprotected sex NUMEROUS times will eventually
result in a pregnancy. I was hoping that as the story progressed that
Evelyn would grow and mature as a person but apparently she just
spiraled down and got worse.
The story pretty much consists of Evie deciding should I or shouldn't I. Should she abort the baby or shouldn't she? If she doesn't abort, should she keep the baby or give it up for adoption? She never makes up her mind until the very last possible second. Looking back, maybe the author wrote the character like that because
she didn't want to seem "pro" anything when it came to teen pregnancy.
Either way, I found the wishy washy thoughts of a spoiled (borderline
stupid) girl a bit tiresome. I wish something had come of the book by
the end but alas I didn't feel sorry for her, for her actions, or for the
decisions she made in the end.
The one good thing that can be
taken away from this book is the consequences of having sex, when you
are not prepared to start a family. She made some poor choices both
before conception and after that not only affected her and the baby but
the father, his family and Evie's family as well.
Favorite quote...
"It's
true. I don't want to have to make this decision. I don't want to have
to face my parents, or the nuns or Todd or anyone. I want to abort
myself." -Evie
Pushing the Limits
(Pushing the Limits, #1)
By: Katie McGarry
Publisher: Harlequin Teen
Published: July 31, 2012
Genre: YA
Rating:
Goodreads | Amazon | B&N
No one knows what
happened the night Echo Emerson went from popular girl with jock
boyfriend to gossiped-about outsider with "freaky" scars on her arms.
Even Echo can't remember the whole truth of that horrible night. All she
knows is that she wants everything to go back to normal.But when Noah
Hutchins, the smoking-hot, girl-using loner in the black leather jacket,
explodes into her life with his tough attitude and surprising
understanding, Echo's world shifts in ways she could never have
imagined. They should have nothing in common. And with the secrets they
both keep, being together is pretty much impossible.
Yet
the crazy attraction between them refuses to go away. And Echo has to
ask herself just how far they can push the limits and what she'll risk
for the one guy who might teach her how to love again.
My thoughts...
At
first I was going to give this story 3 stars. I found it entertaining
but it didn't seem to pull any emotion from me... that is until the last
quarter of the book. I balled my eyes out so much that had I read it at
work or when my husband was home, I would've been extremely
embarrassed.
Echo and Noah were very complex characters. There
was a huge tragic situation with Echo and her mother where Echo's mother
tried to kill her and almost succeeded. After years of therapy, Echo
still doesn't remember what happened to her that day but the scars on
her arms are a constant reminder from her past. To make matters worse,
Echo's brother was killed in action in Afghanistan when he stepped on an
IED. Echo's nanny became her new step-mom who is pregnant with what
Echo considers the "replacement". All Echo wants to do is to remember
what happened to her and to get the chance to talk to her mother.
Noah's
parents were killed in a house fire. Noah was able to get his brothers
out of the house but unfortunately his parents weren't as lucky. Which
in the end resulted in Noah and his brothers going through child
services. His brothers were taken in and fostered by a couple while Noah
seemed to go from one crappy foster home to the next. He rarely gets
the chance to see his brothers and when he does, its a supervised visit.
Considering his experiences with foster families, he's not convinced
his brothers are in a safe environment and intends to file for full
custody when he graduates from high school.
Considering all the
problems that these two characters face, could you imagine the mess that
takes place when they get together? Echo used to be popular.
She dated the jock, had her friends and was prom queen material but when
everything happens with her mother, Echo soon becomes a recluse. I
think for me, I found myself exasperated with the "clique" scene. Her so
called friends drop her the second that the whispers start. One girl in
particular, Grace, was the most annoying for me. She tried to mold Echo
and push her towards her ex-boyfriend (who was a jock) so that Echo can take back
her spot in school and be the popular girl again. To me that was a bit
much. I guess I just don't understand authors obsession to create
cliques? Yeah in high school there were popular kids and the stoners but
there wasn't any crazy animosity between people... of course, unless
you pissed one of them off. They would become like a hive of bees, you mess
with one and you get the wrath of them all. Otherwise, we all coexisted
nicely. So I guess I just don't understand the crazy whispers and
outright hatred when it comes to these cliques.
I found the
story entertaining and even though I found some parts eye roll worthy,
there was a good story underneath. And like I said, when I got to the
end that had me crying like a baby, I knew the author had me. I may not
have thought so but, only when you are invested in a story do you get
that caught up in their story and I must admit, McGarry fooled me. I'm
glad I picked this book up because I plan on reading more from this
author and I am ecstatic to read that the next book in the series deals
with Beth, who was sort of Noah's pothead Gothic "I don't give a sh*t
about no one" foster sister.
Favorite Part...
Noah
is meeting Echo's father and step-mother for the first time. Echo's
always been conscious to keep the sleeves of her shirts and sweaters
pulled down to her fingers to hide the scars that her mother gave her.
However, when Noah is getting the father talk, Echo unconsciously rolls
up the sleeve of her sweater.
"Noah's strong hand slipped over my
wrist before he entwined his fingers with mine. The sensation of warm
flesh against an area I allowed no one to see, much less touch, caused
me to shiver. My eyes widened, realizing my mistake. This was what had
freaked Ashley out. What had come over me? I never pulled up my sleeves.
I spent all my time pulling them down. When had I become comfortable."
Anna and the French Kiss
By: Stephanie Perkins
Publisher: Dutton
Published: Dec. 2, 2010
Genre: YA
Rating:
Goodreads | Amazon | B&N
Anna is looking forward
to her senior year in Atlanta, where she has a great job, a loyal best
friend, and a crush on the verge of becoming more. Which is why she is
less than thrilled about being shipped off to boarding school in
Paris--until she meets Étienne St. Clair. Smart, charming, beautiful, Étienne has it all...including a serious girlfriend.
But
in the City of Light, wishes have a way of coming true. Will a year of
romantic near-misses end with their long-awaited French kiss?
My thoughts...
I
enjoyed this book, I did but I found the the characters to be a bit
annoying. You see, after Anna is shipped off to Paris, she starts
balling her eyes out in her new room. The girl in the room next door
(Mer) comes over to make sure she's okay and pretty soon they become
friends and spend a lot of time talking in Mer's room over hot
chocolate. They are disturbed by a knock on the door which turns out to
be one of Mer's friend/crushes, St. Clair and Anna immediately falls
into lust with him. Too bad he's been dating another girl for a year
now. Oh well, Anna can get over her attraction and just be his friend...
or not.
This could have been a 5 star if it weren't for two
things. One of which was grammar problems. There were a couple of
instances where I had to reread the sentence a few times to try to
figure out what it was supposed to say. The second would be Anna and St.
Clair. Now don't get me wrong, their teen angst relationship was fun to
read but Anna whined far too much and St. Clair wanted to have his cake
and eat it too. But I guess you can't blame him because who has cake
and doesn't want to eat it? Either way, St. Clair was sweet at
times but then would drop Anna for his girlfriend when he felt like it
and that I couldn't excuse. Yes, he's confused and doesn't want to be
alone but that is no reason to string someone along like that. I'd have
liked it better if he broke up with his girlfriend at the beginning and
maybe didn't tell anyone throughout the book and therefor the thing that happens during Thanksgiving break when everyone in the dorm went
home for the holidays wouldn't feel like such a betrayal for Ellen. I
sort of felt bad for her.
However, I enjoyed their love story and
reading about how Anna tried to adapt to a foreign world. I liked that
these two characters even though everyone seemed to be attracted to them
had visual flaws, Anna has a major gap in her front teeth and St.
Clair's bottom teeth are crooked. I also liked getting to explore Paris
with Anna, since I've never been there.
Favorite quote...
"I
don't understand why he couldn't send me to Australia or Ireland or
anywhere else where English is the native language. The only French word
I know is oui, which mean "yes," and only recently did I learn it's spelled out o-u-i and not w-e-e."
I
thought this was pretty funny and accurate since I didn't take French in
school and until the part where she says "oui" means "yes" I was
pronouncing in my head as "Oy!". HaHa Which wasn't correct either, not
to mention I'd have though it was spelled "wí" like with Spanish. So
Anna and I were totally on the same page and out of our element for a
lot of this book.
