Jump by Elisa Carbone

Jump by Elisa Carbone

Received from Around the World Tours

(Author Page) (Book Page)

Jump. That is what P.K. has done. A totally wild, crazy jump from a restrictive life with her family into a life of total adventure—rock-climbing out west with a guy she barely knows. At first, everything’s amazing. Not only are they climbing in awesomely beautiful national parks like Yosemite but they seem awesomely made for one another. P.K. is in heaven. And then the cops show up . . . with an arrest warrant. And P.K. has to decide who to believe: this amazing guy whom she trusts with her life—or the cops, who want her to believe that he may take her life.

What I expected from Jump I'm not quite sure. I've read so many books told in two or more points of view I've come to see some well written books, some good, and some that just ended up confusing me. Which was the boy and which was the girl again? Jump fell into the good category. With names like PK and Critter it took me a bit to remember which was which. PK is a tomboy kind of girl, independent and on her own. She takes crap from no one, and this kind of attitude, I suppose, lands her into trouble. Trouble that makes her parents want to send to her a private boarding school because, I guess, they just can't handle her. However, the longer I spent in PK's mind the I less I could understand just why her parents felt the need to send her away. She seemed adventurous, but a troubled teen? Not really. Her friends didn't choose to go with her when she asked them run away and go climbing together. So bad influences? Hardly. It seemed more to me that PK dressed and acted in ways that her parents had a hard time identifying with, but in no way did PK seem to need to be sent away anywhere.I was confused by this definitely, but for the sake of the story I suppose PK had to have a reason to run away.

The one crazy thing I could see from PK was her need to run away so badly that she takes off with Critter, a boy she just met literally minutes ago, because he's the only one that will go with her on her rock climbing trip. Little does PK know, Critter has just run away from a mental hospital and just so happens to walk into the rock climbing gym right at the moment that she needs a climbing partner. After all she promised her best friend she wouldn't go alone right?

Surprising? Yes. But then, Critter is often surprising. Shocking? Not really, but he seems to think he has shocked me. He clams up, goes to get his sleeping bag, and walks back past me with it like he's going to find his own spot to sleep. I catch his hand on the way by.

"Critter it's not that bad," I tell him.

(...)

He looks at me hopefully. "So you're not totally freaked out?"

I shake my head. "Nope."

He grins. "So... you want to make out?" (pg. 102)

Critter is eccentric, but hardly a bad person. Despite having escaped rather spectacularly from a mental hospital he seems like a regular teenager who meets a girl he thinks is hot. Gets the chance to hang out with her,  and takes it so fast he can't believe other red-blooded males aren't taking PK up on her offer. He seems perfectly fine. Between meeting PK and running off to rock climb Critter seems no more different from any other male I've encountered. I generally enjoyed his point of view. He was just eccentric enough to make me want to know more about his way of thinking, and reading PK's reactions to him was funny, and had me nodding my head in understanding.

The rocks are powerful. I feel them pulling me into their three-hundred-million-years-ago-I-used-to-be-an-ocean-floor presence. I nearly disappear into them, but Dante's chatter yanks me back. New routes to be had. Untouched rock deep in the canyon. Too cold in the winter; now the weather is perfect. His girlfriend is coming to put up a new route with him. All I can think is, Spend the day climbing those amazing rocks, spend the night with a hot girl, what could be better? (pg. 51)

Jump was funny, suspenseful, and enjoyable to read. It was a sweet romantic story about two teens who find each other under the strangest of circumstances. It made me want to rock climb, to see the sights, to be in that car with the apostates, and have a conversation with Critter and PK just to learn more about them. I really enjoyed Jump more then I thought I would, and that is always a pleasant surprise.

Virgin Territory by James Lecesne

Virgin Territory by James Lecesne

(B&N) (Author Page)
Received from Around the World Tours

Virgin Territory explores the power of faith and our need to believe in miracles. Sixteen-year-old Dylan Flack is uprooted from his cozy life in New York City by the death of his mother of cancer the night before 9/ll. He finds himself transplanted to Jupiter, Florida, and in the chaos of the move discovers that his father has lost their treasured collection of family photos. Dylan feels that he has begun to lose the memory of his mother's face, and without access to those pictures of their past together, each day stretches darkly into a future without hope. Enter: the Virgin Club, a nomadic group of trailer kids whose mostly single parents drag them all over the country in search of sightings of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Although not looking for membership in any club, Dylan falls in love with their leader, Angela, who believes that change occurs in direct proportion to desire and the willingness to take risks. In a series of misadventures and brushes with the law in what Dylan comes to think of as "virgin territory," she teaches Dylan to risk a future without his favorite parent. Miraculously his new found courage leads to a long overdue confession from his father that brings them closer together and catapults Dylan into a future that holds more promise.

While I felt that the writing was good, and the story was engaging, due to time constraints I can't honestly give any review, good or bad, to this book. I simply did not have the time to devote to reading enough of the book. Please refer to the tour page for more reviews on this book.

In a Heartbeat by Loretta Ellsworth

In a Heartbeat by Loretta Ellsworth
Reading Level: Middle Grade
Received ARC from Around the World Tours (Tour Page)
(Author Page) (Book Page)

When a small mistake costs sixteen-year-old Eagan her life during a figure-skating competition, she leaves many things unreconciled, including her troubled relationship with her mother. From her vantage point in the afterlife, Eagan reflects back on her memories, and what she could have done differently, through her still-beating heart.

When fourteen-year-old Amelia learns she will be getting a heart transplant, her fear and guilt battle with her joy at this new chance at life. And afterwards when she starts to feel different—dreaming about figure skating, craving grape candy—her need to learn about her donor leads her to discover and explore Eagan’s life, meeting her grieving loved ones and trying to bring the closure they all need to move on.

Told in alternating viewpoints, In a Heartbeat tells the emotional and compelling story of two girls sharing one heart. -From Amazon

Eagan accidentally dies in a very unusual way while figure skating. After her death Eagan is stuck between the afterlife and the life she can't seem to leave behind. Her tale is of her past, the unsaid words, the people she loved that she'd left behind, and the events in her life that shaped her. Unable to let go of her life and the people she left behind Eagan spends most of the book trying to find her way back to those memories and people she left behind.

Amelia is dying of heart failure. She is torn between wanting to live, and knowing that living means the death of someone else. Once she does get the heart transplant she desperate needs Amelia finds herself acting and being different. Where she was once shy and introverted she is now sarcastic and out going. The changes in herself causes Amelia to want to learn about her new heart, and the person that owned it before.  Amelia's story follows her need to find the donor's family and bring some sense of closure, and to learn more about her.

Wow, I wanted to literally shake Amelia. I was so infuriated with her extreme passive-aggressive attitude at the beginning of the book. She gets the call for a new heart and while her mother is running around trying to get her to the hospital for the surgery Amelia is sitting around in her bedroom picking her toes, looking at horse pictures, and playing cards with her brother. I know that the author was trying to show that Amelia is guilt-ridden from the fact that her donor has to die to give her a heart, but I was ready to just slap her. Hurry up! Do you really want to die? I kept thinking. Move it!

"I'm so happy for you, Amelia. Mom has been praying nonstop."

I wanted to get caught up in her happiness. Rachel made it sound like I'd won the lottery. The lottery of recylced hearts, and I was a lucky winner.

"I'm not ready," I confessed. "I'm not ready for this operation. I don't want to go, Rachel." I knew I sounded like a coward and a crybaby.

"Don't cry," she said, and she hugged me again, because now I really was crying. I didn't want to cry. I wanted to be happy like her, to be excited, the good kind of excitement that comes when wonderful things are happening, like when you win a new car. Not the excitement of winning a new heart. (pg. 26)

Eagan on the other hand---seriously how do you even say this girls name---I could totally relate to. Unsure of her life, fighting with her mother, dealing with the strange concept of knowing what you want. I got her immediately. I don't know what this says about me, but Eagan was me when I was in high school. Sans the parents with a troubled marriage. When she dies she realizes that there were so many things left unsaid, most especially towards her mother. Eagan cannot leave to the great beyond until she is able to find peace in the life she left behind. This character I didn't want shake, and I think we can all understand this feeling of unfinished business. If you died today what would you leave behind? Eagan is left in limbo, and it isn't until she finds another girl that she starts to understand that she needs to move on.

She's looking straight at me. A girl. She stands out because she's not pasty gray like everything around her. Like me. She's wearing a frilly dress the same shade as the marigold bushes in Mom's garden. Her black curly hair is glittery. It reminds me of the stuff we put on our hair before competitions.

"Can you see me?" I ask.

She nods and waves like she wants to come over but needs to be invited.

Finally. Someone to talk to. My heart feels lighter. Maybe she can help me find my way back to my life.

"Hey," I say.

She doesn't need more of an invitation. She's next to me in a flash.

"I'm Eagan. What's your name?" (pg. 90)

This book had an interesting concept both in Eagan needing to find peace after her death, and in the changes that occur in Amelia once she acquires a new heart. Unfortunately, while other readers of this book on the tour had mentioned how powerful and heartbreaking it was I felt it was simply good. Interesting premise, characters that evoked a reaction with me (good or bad), but it also felt like it could have been two books. I believe simply focusing on Amelia and her story then writing a companion book for Eagan could have given Ellsworth the ability to really spotlight and flesh out these two girls. In this case the dual narrative just didn't work for me. I had a hard time separating the fantasy elements from what I think Ellsworth was really wanting to focus on, the concept of cellular memory.

Despite how I feel about this book it has received a lot of great reviews. As always I encourage you to look at the tour page, and read all the other lovely opinions there.

Insatiable by Meg Cabot

Insatiable by Meg Cabot
(Author Website) (Book Extras)
Adult Paranormal
Or as Meg calls it Girl Gothic.

Kindle Version.

"Ever since I left you this morning," Lucien said, "I've had the oddest sensation that I know how almost every human I've come into contact with is going to die. And not, whatever you might think of me, by my own hands. Would you care to tell me what, exactly, is going on?"

 Meena let out a sigh. "It's me," she said. "It'll probably go away after your next feeding."

His grip on her tightened. "What are you talking about?" he rasped.

"You drank my blood," she reminded him. "This should teach you to be more careful. You are what you eat, you know." -From author website.

 Meena Harper is a dialouge writer for the number one soap opera, Insatiable, that is until the competitor, Lust, starts it's own vampire storyline. Now Insatiable is getting its butt kicked in the ratings, and Meena is asked to write in a vampire storyline for ratings.

Meena hates vampires, and she hates how vampire crazed the world has become, because we all know that vampires always seek out the pretty, sexy girls. Or as Meena sees it, monster misogyny.

Then, Meena is asked attend a party her neighbor is hosting for her husbands cousin, the Prince, which she really, really doesn't want to do. But, how can she say no to someone that clearly won't take it for an answer? Meena attends the party reluctantly with her brother Jon, and in the span of one night Meena's whole world is changed forever. Those monsters she hated so much? Turns out they exist, and her new boyfriend, Lucien, is one. Not just any vampire either. He's the prince of darkness. Lucien is in New York to investigate recent murders of young women, but when he meets Meena things change.

Did I mention that Meena also has a special gift of her own? She can tell you exactly how you're going to die, and once other vampires realize this she becomes the next big thing in fine dining.

 I can't tell you how much I really loved this book. Out of all of Meg's books that I have read--and I've read nearly all of them--this book will probably become my favorite. To me, it's one of her better written books, and she takes a point of view that she normally doesn't use, third person with an alternating point of view between Meena, Alriac, Lucien, and Jon, Meena's brother. To me this really enhanced the book wonderfully and just brought so much of what was going on to life in a way that first person just can't do.

Honestly I can't speak highly enough about this book. It was funny, scary,  monstrous, and deliciously sexy when it needed to be. Meg did not give up her very funny and sometimes description heavy writing style in order to write about a subject I have to say is getting a bit overdone. Despite becoming quite tired of vampires and vampire books I still loved how Meg brought about the older mythology of vampires while still making fun of itself and a certain other vampire series.

I gotta say that if you love paranormal vampire books or even if you're just plain tired of them pick up this book. I'm getting burnt out on them, and I still loved it. I'm totally buying the hardback. Insatiable is out now with a sequel following next year.

And once you're done reading the book visit the Insatiable website to read deleted scenes, extras, and learn about the cutest muse for this story. Jack Bauer, the dog.

Summer of Skinny Dipping by Amanda Howells

The Summer of Skinny Dipping by Amanda Howells
(Author Page)
ARC received from Around the World Tours

Summer of Skinny Dipping is currently released and available for purchase. 

After getting dumped by her boyfriend, sixteen-year-old Mia Gordon is looking forward to spending a relaxing summer in the Hamptons with her glamorous cousins. But when she arrives, her cousins are distant, moody, and caught up with a fast crowd. Mia finds herself lonelier than ever. That's when she meets her next-door-neighbor, Simon Ross. Simon isn't like the snobby party boys her cousins seem obsessed with; he's funny, artistic, and utterly adventurous. And from the very first time he encourages Mia to go skinny-dipping, she's caught up in a current impossible to resist. (Source)

I don't remember signing up for this book at all. I've been trying to keep a record of all the books I'm signing up for so I can keep up with them, but I obviously didn't do a good enough job. As a result I ended up not realizing I had this book on the way, and it was nice change from all the paranormal I've been reading to read a fairly normal romantic YA.

Mia is normal teenage girl who thought she was in love with her boyfriend, until, that is, he dumped her for a girl that was sticking around for the summer. (Ugh, men, am I right?) Mia is devastated, but when her family travels to an old family vacation spot on the beach with her favorite cousin, Corinne, Mia thinks things are looking up. It isn't until she arrives at Indigo Beach that she realizes just how much Corinne has changed since she last saw her. Apparently, Mia is uncool, and Corinne lets her know it with her snotty actions.

Corinne is snobby and trying to be more grown up than she is, smoking and talking like she's seen and done it all. Mia thinks she's got a psychological problem the way Corinne's emotions bounce back and forth. Corinne just wants to party and Mia feel small town and lost trying to be on par with her cousin. Then she meets Simon, and things change. Simon becomes Mia's summer love, and she's blissfully happy in her bubble with him. The only question left now is what Simon and Mia will do once the summer is over.

First off, the writing was really good. I wasn't totally in the mood for a romance, especially when I wasn't anticipating this novel, but I found this book to be a lovely summer read. I honestly don't believe I read a lot of romance novels since I believe that I can find romance in almost any novel. It doesn't necessarily have to be all the book is about, but this book was sweet and set during a time like summer where all you could do is live in that romance...well I liked it. I think most teen girls will too. The book dragged a bit in places, but I could totally relate to Mia being lost even in the company of family.

Most reviewers are split when it comes to the ending. It seems like they either hated or loved it. Personally it was okay, for me, but again I think all readers will just have to make a decision for themselves. I like books like this in that they spark a conversation. I can't wait to read more reviews.

Visit the ARC Tour page to read other reviews on Summer of Skinny Dipping.