The Wishing Boy

by Emma Maxwell McCone

Summary from GoodReads

Dublin, 1930s - political unrest between Republicans and the De Valera Government. An art exhibition takes place and contains an unusual painting entitled "The Wishing Boy". Catrin Kilpatrick, the daughter of a well-known business man, admires the unique painting and wants to buy it, but Devlin O'Farell the artist refuses to sell it. Determined to have her way, she travels to Galway where he lives, and plans to make the purchase. Little does she know, Devlin worked for Flan Maguire, the most powerful man in Galway, and Commander of the Galway IRA Brigade. She has walked into the Lion's Den, and will find herself in great danger. 

Thoughts on the Book

I got this one from BEA from Austin Macauley publishers.  I selected this one because I don't know much about Ireland and their fight for independence, and I really wanted to learn more.

My Review

This book didn't really seem to have a set plot, there were too many things going on.  There was Catrin's obsession with a painting, the artist, Devlin's struggle with his work and his past, as well as all sorts of other odd storylines.

Catrin, as a main character, was extremely unlikeable.  She was so self-entitled.  She would not take no for an answer and she pestered everyone she possibly could to get what she wanted.  I guess her strategy is to annoy everyone to the point where they just gave her what she wanted, so she could go home smug and relish in always getting her way.

Devlin on the other hand I liked very much.  He lived a hard life, but was kind and loyal.  I sympathized with him a lot, and of all characters to get a happy ending I wished it for him.

The fact that the heroine was unlikeable and the hero got the short end of the stick every single time made this difficult to get through, without a solid plot (other than Catrin trying to get what she wanted through any means necessary) the only one you had to root for was Devlin because the more you learned about him the more you pitied and rooted for him.  Even the 'character growth' moments I found to be lacking.  The whole bit with the soldier, what was the point?  To show that Catrin is unnecessarily lucky?  Her 'traumatizing' moments with him could have been so much worse.  Or was his point to show how awful the Galway IRA leader was?  We could have gotten that from a multitude of other ways.  The ending left a sour taste in my mouth because of this, reading the book was kind of pointless, Catrin got exactly what she set out for and the other characters?  Eh, nothing changed for them, they got the endings they were always going to get. 

Overall I give this book a 7/10.  It did hold my interest and it was cool to read about Ireland, but I just wish Catrin was a better character, it would have made the whole book so much better.

Somewhere in Between

by Katie Li

Summary from GoodReads

Two friends find a portal to another dimension and use this “in-between place” to avoid the stress of their everyday lives. What they don’t realize is that every time they enter, they alter reality.

Pseudo-punk Magnolia and underachieving gamer-geek Rom are two unlikely friends who only hang out during their walks home together after school. When they find the a portal that leads to different worlds, they use the “in-between place” as an escape from their lives in high school, then later, after college. 

Their visits through the portal bring them teetering along a tight-rope of fantasy and reality, where they don't always believe what is in front of them, not even their feelings for each other. 

The book is about changes—the ones that you can control, and the ones that you can’t. It’s about commitment and friendship. It’s about the stages in between where you have nothing but the unknown ahead of you.

Inspired by the work of Haruki Murakami and films like Eternal Sunshine of A Spotless Mind, Somewhere In Between is metaphysical coming-of-age story about defining love and finding yourself.

Thoughts on the Book

I received this book from NetGalley, I loved the cover and the premise sounded very interesting.

My Review

This book had a lot of jumping between the present - the reunion of Magnolia and Rom, and the past - when Magnolia and Rom first started to become friends.

I half loved this book and half was annoyed by it.  The jumping back and forth got very confusing, but that could have just been the formatting of the ebook.  The end bugged me though, I might need to reread it, I can't figure out exactly what happened, what was real and what wasn't, and at what point in their lives are these two?  But that could be the entire point of the story.

Magnolia was a very weak and insecure person, while at the same time she was fantastically unique, smart, and fun.  In trying avoid dealing with people she ended up ingraining herself with a bad group of people and she wasn't able to extricate herself from them.  Rom on the other hand was unforgivably himself even though he tended to be very shy.  He never tried to change himself for other people for any reason, either people appreciated who he was and were his friends, or they didn't and he didn't spare them a second thought.

I loved the story of the two friends despite the jumpy way it was told.  The end, when both fought their demons and realized exactly what they meant to each other was fantastic.  I love how Magnolia was back in the past of the day that she made the biggest mistake of her life, while Rom's was in the present debating whether or not he should make the biggest mistake of his life.

I give this a 8/10.  I loved it, but it was somewhat difficult to read and the ending was half awesome and half "so what happened?".

Top Ten Tuesday [26]

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish that allows bloggers to share their top ten lists for that week’s topics

Top Ten 2016 Debut Novels I'm Looking Forward To

1 - Bookishly Ever After by Isabel Bandeira - January 12, 2016

2 - The Heir and the Spare by Emily Albright - January 18, 2016

3 - The Love that Split the World by Emily Henry - January 26, 2016

4 - Revenge and the Wild by Michelle Modesto - February 2, 2016

5 - The Girl from Everywhere by Heidi Heilig - Febrary 16, 2016

6 - The Smell of Other People's Houses  by Bonnie-Sue Hitchcock - February 23, 2016

7 - After the Woods by Kim Savage - February 23, 2016

8 - Burning Glass by Kathryn Purdie - March 1, 2016

9 - Unicorn Tracks by Julie Ember - April 21, 2016

10 - Fear the Drowning Deep by Sarah Glenn Marsh - September 2016

Fans of the Impossible Life

by Kate Scelsa

Summary from GoodReads

Ten months after her recurring depression landed her in the hospital, Mira is starting over at Saint Francis Prep. She promised her parents she would at least try to pretend that she could act like a functioning human this time, not a girl who can’t get out of bed for days on end, who only feels awake when she’s with Sebby.

Jeremy is the painfully shy art nerd at Saint Francis who’s been in self-imposed isolation after an incident that ruined his last year of school. When he sees Sebby for the first time across the school lawn, it’s as if he’s been expecting him.

Sebby, Mira’s gay best friend, is a boy who seems to carry sunlight around with him like a backlit halo. Even as life in his foster home starts to take its toll, Sebby and Mira together craft a world of magic rituals and impromptu road trips, designed to fix the broken parts of their lives.

As Jeremy finds himself drawn into Sebby and Mira’s world, he begins to understand the secrets that they hide in order to protect themselves, to keep each other safe from those who don’t understand their quest to live for the impossible.

A captivating and profound debut novel, Fans of the Impossible Life is a story about complicated love and the friendships that change you forever.

Thoughts on the Book

I got this book from BEA and it's been sitting in my TBR pile for a while.  It finally made it's way to the top and I was starting to see some great reviews for it so I picked it up to give it a read.

My Review

This book is about three teens, all with some sort of issue, Mira who suffers from depression, Sebby who lives in foster care, and Jeremy who can't quite figure out who is is.

I hated every second of this book.  The only character I could semi relate to was Mira, but even she was awful.  And the chapters?  Ugh.  How quaint, each character will be told from a different point of view.  It was horrible, especially Sebby's second person chapters. 

Let's begin with Mira.  She suffers from depression, he father gave up caring about her after she completely betrayed their trust.  She doesn't do a thing for herself no matter how many people try to support her.  She latched on the the one person who was the absolute worst for her, feeding into all of her bad habits all the while not caring one bit about her.

Then there's Jeremy.  I almost liked him, he's a shy kid growing up with two dads.  Kids at his elite school start making fun of him, to the point of he had to leave school, because if his dad is gay then he must be too.  The thing that annoyed me with him was he seemingly gave in to the pressure and was like, well, everyone things I'm gay, my dads are gay, therefore I also am gay.  Imagine if it were the opposite, a gay kid feeling like he has to be straight because his parents are and everyone around him thinks he is.  Neither scenario is okay, but Scelsa felt that if he struggling to figure out who he was, him being gay would be so much more edgy and topical.

And lastly Sebby.  By far the worst character.  He was a walking stereotype.  Flamboyantly gay, going after whatever guy he fancied.  He's a foster kid, so he steals and runs away from home, drops out of school, has zero respect for anyone and of course, turns to drugs because his life is just so horrible.  

There were so many stupid side stories that took away from the main three stories.  Way too many things going on in this book.  There was Rose and her girlfriend/ex girlfriend with all of their alluded to drama, there was their English teacher who they all got inappropriately close to which caused him to loose his job, there was the girl who helped Jeremy out the previous year that had her own drama to deal with which sort of played a part in the main story.  It was just a jumble of too many things going on and everything was left unresolved.

I think my main problem with this book was Sebby.  His chapters were too harsh and they just made me hate him.  The most unrelatable character was done in second person, all of his decisions started with 'you' so my reaction was hell no not me.  Even his very first chapter, getting a bj from some poor schmuck in the mall, and thinking that it's okay?  Turning to drugs and totally screwing over everyone who cares about him?  Hating his foster mother who really cares about him but he's too blinded by his 'woe is me' attitude.  At the end I was almost hoping for him to O.D. then the book would have at least been a cautionary tale. 

I give this book a 1.5/10.  It was a struggle to get through it and when I finally did get to the end my only reaction was 'thank god it's over'.  

The Accident Season

by Moïra Fowley-Doyle

Summary from GoodReads

It's the accident season, the same time every year. Bones break, skin tears, bruises bloom.

The accident season has been part of seventeen-year-old Cara's life for as long as she can remember. Towards the end of October, foreshadowed by the deaths of many relatives before them, Cara's family becomes inexplicably accident-prone. They banish knives to locked drawers, cover sharp table edges with padding, switch off electrical items - but injuries follow wherever they go, and the accident season becomes an ever-growing obsession and fear.

But why are they so cursed? And how can they break free?

Thoughts on the Book

This is a BEA book, I had grabbed it because the cover looks pretty cool and concept was unique and I couldn't wait to read it.

My Review

This book is about a family who seem to have awful things happen to them during the month of October, which they dub the 'accident season'.  Near the end of October Cara realizes that a classmate, Elsie, appears in every one of her pictures.  The next day Elsie isn't at school and Cara makes it her mission to find Elsie.

I mostly liked this book.  I liked Sam/Cara dynamic, and I loved Alice.  Bea didn't come off as unique and awesome as Cara felt she was.  I think the main thing that bothered me with them is the constant drinking and smoking.  Are kids really like that in Ireland?  Or was I just a goody-two-shoes growing up and didn't do anything that I wasn't supposed to?  I also didn't like how the constant drinking and smoking was glorified, it sets a bad example for kids.  Smoking is not cool, it's awful for you and disgusting to boot.  There should have been some horrible accident involving a cigarette, rather than Sam blowing smoke rings and everybody loving it.  

The story also seemed to focus more on the drinking and partying than on the accident season or the characters themselves.  I would have loved to see Bea being super witchy, instead of just pulling out her Tarot cards whenever she wasn't imbibing.  Or more of Cara and Sam clowning around together with the underlying awkwardness, there were only a couple parts with that, but then it stopped so abruptly.  A little more on the Alice/Nick front would have been nice too, something to make the end a little more powerful.

Speaking of the end, it left me confused.  I don't get it, which I usually don't mind if it's written that way, like obviously left ambiguous to make your own conclusions.  This ended left one thing obviously ambiguous (which was cool, I liked that part) but the other stuff it explained away, but not fully, so it still doesn't make sense, there's no deliberate ambiguity.  The explanation doesn't make sense for everything, only certain things so if all the other things are just coincidences, not cool.

As awesome as this story was, it could have been so much better.  I'm expecting great things from Moïra in the future.  It's a solid debut, and a lot of authors start a little shakey before they really hone their writing and become amazing best selling authors.  I really hope she is one of these authors.

Overall I give this a 7.5/10.  I loved the concept and the characters, I wasn't a fan of the entire resolution and the focus on drinking really bothered me.

The Unfortunate Decisions of Dahlia Moss

by Max Wirestone

Summary from Good Reads

For fans of The Guild, New Girl, Scott Pilgrim, Big Bang Theory, Veronica Mars, or anyone who has ever geeked out about something.


The odds of Dahlia successfully navigating adulthood are 3,720 to 1. But never tell her the odds.

Meet Dahlia Moss, the reigning queen of unfortunate decision-making in the St. Louis area. Unemployed broke, and on her last bowl of ramen, she's not living her best life. But that's all about to change.

Before Dahlia can make her life any messier on her own she's offered a job. A job that she's woefully under-qualified for. A job that will lead her to a murder, an MMORPG, and possibly a fella (or two?).

Turns out unfortunate decisions abound, and she's just the girl to deal with them

Thoughts on the Book

I received this book from Netgalley.  Based off of the first line of the summary I knew I would love it.  Veronica Mars is my favorite TV series (I totally kick-started the movie) I love Big Bang Theory and New Girl, and I'm pretty much Ramona from Scott Pilgrim (trust me, cabinet full of tea varieties, I have it).  After reading that first line I knew two things for sure - I needed to read this book, and I really should watch The Guild.

My Review

This book is about a perpetually unemployed girl, Dahlia, who gets hired to find a digital weapon and gets sucked into solving a murder.

I loved this book!  It was so much fun!  Dahlia is a little crazy/neurotic and her roommate, Charice is totally bonkers.  It worked with the story though.  Everything was a bit on the crazy side, so when Charice allowed for a production of Godspell to happn in their apartment so Dahlia had to leave to go hang out with a murder suspect she thought was cute it just fit perfectly within the story.

Probably my favorite thing was all of the geeky references dropped throughout the book.  Most I got, but there were a couple that went over my head.  Two of my favorite geeky lines were:

"I put on my sexiest clothes, then, worrying that I had overshot the mark, opted for my Jigglypuff cap. It was cold, and Jiggly helped send the message I wanted to send, which was apparently that I would like Nathan to fall asleep so that I could write on his face. (This is a hardcore Pokémon reference and if you do not get it, I apologize. If you do get it, I apologize even more deeply.)"

and

“Ever read one of those old private-eye mysteries where the detective gets double-crossed?”
“I suppose.” said Nathan. “I’m really more of a sci-fi guy.”
“But you knew all of those noir words!”
“Google,” said Nathan.
“Well, it’s a thing. Sam Spade is in his office, or wherever, and some dame with great legs comes in and asks him to find her sister.”
“Did Jonah have nice legs?” interrupted Nathan.
“He had nice pants, but let me finish. The dick takes the case, and when he finds the sister, he discovers she’s dead, gets framed, and besides which it wasn’t the dame’s sister anyway.”
“And the great legs were prosthetic,” added Nathan.
“Exactly,” I told him.
“There never was a dame, she was a hologram.”
“Yes, you’re moving into sci-fi.”
“The sister was a Cylon.”
“Now you’re just being derivative.”

One character, Kurt, was described as a snorlax, how awesome is that?  Then there was the bit with viola jokes (I play violin, my best friend plays viola, so I've always enjoyed sharing the more awful viola jokes with her).  

The flirting between Nathan and Dahlia was great too, I especially loved her iPod password at the end and Nathan's reaction to it.  If I continue listing all the funniest parts of the book, I'll end up just posting the entire book, out of order, so I'm going to stop now and say - go read this book! It's so awesome and if you have a geeky bone in your body, you'll love it!

I give this a 10/10.  Such a fun read.  I really look forward to seeing what Max Wirestone comes out with next!  

Stone Rider

by David Hofmeyr

Summary From GoodReads

"Intense, original, compelling . . . bristles with attitude. So cool. Just read it."--Michael Grant, New York Times bestselling author of Gone and BZRK

In the vein of The Outsiders and the early Western novels of Elmore Leonard, this inventive debut novel, a cross between the cult classic Mad Max movie series and Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, blends adrenaline-fueled action with an improbable yet tender romance to offer a rich and vivid portrayal of misfits and loners forced together in their struggle for a better life.

Adam Stone wants freedom and peace. He wants a chance to escape Blackwater, the dust-bowl desert town he grew up in. Most of all, he wants the beautiful Sadie Blood. Alongside Sadie and the dangerous outsider Kane, Adam will ride the Blackwater Trail in a brutal race that will test them all, body and soul. Only the strongest will survive.

The prize? A one-way ticket to Sky-Base and unimaginable luxury.

And for a chance at this new life, Adam will risk everything.

Thoughts on the Book

Yet another BEA pick. There were three YA book piles, each with a different book, by the time I got to it (there was a line leading up to table) only two of the three books remained, this was one of them so I grabbed it.  This past weekend I finally organized my BEA loot in order of when I should read things.  This made it to the top of the list since it was published earlier this month.

My Review

This book is about a kid, Adam, who is orphaned and friendless.  He lives in a society that relies heavily on bykes.  If you don't race with the byke you're forced to work in the mines, which is a horrible existance, alternatively if you do race and you survive you are allowed to work anywhere.

I started reading this book knowing nothing about it, so when I just looked at the summary posted at GoodReads I had to laugh.  My first thought after opening the book was "wow, this is a lot like The Outsiders".  It definitely started with that same feel, but Stone Rider is so much better.  It's a YA book that is definitely more geared towards boys, riding bykes (fancy mind-melding motorcycles that run on sun-power)and  minimal romantic entanglement, there's a girl, Adam has a major crush on her, he's incoherent when she's around, he races and writes her off until she joins him.  

I really enjoyed this book, which is surprising because I wasn't expecting to, it didn't seem like my type of book at all.  The race was kind of predictable, even the horror of it, setting things up so kids would die while the Watchers from the sky watched for entertainment and made bets.  The characters really made the book.  Adam was great, he's your average kid, not really wanting to be part of anything, to scared to risk his life in the race, but knowing that he was an excellent rider.  His personal growth throughout the book is great, I absolutely loved his decision at the end.  Sadie was a great character too, a bad ass girl who didn't take shit from anyone, especially her brother.  She knew exactly what she wanted and she made sure she got it.  Sadie's also really smart, kind, and open-minded.  She was definitely my favorite character.  Then there's Kane, he was by far the most interesting character, you have no clue about anything about him until the very end of the book.  You learn bits along the way, but it's not until shortly before the finish line that you really find out exactly who he is.  It's almost out of left field, unless you're very imaginative and pick up on the smallest hints dropped throughout the book. 

Overall I give this book a 8/10.  The race was a little predictable (although the order of the finish I was slightly surprised at), and I wish Hofmeyr spent a little more time describing things, like the wolf attack.  And an explanation for Adam's blackouts, why he suddenly stopped having them, what exactly happened when he did have them.

Charming

by Elliott James

Summary From GoodReads

John Charming isn't your average Prince...

He comes from a line of Charmings — an illustrious family of dragon slayers, witch-finders and killers dating back to before the fall of Rome. Trained by a modern day version of the Knights Templar, monster hunters who have updated their methods from chainmail and crossbows to kevlar and shotguns, he was one of the best. That is — until he became the abomination the Knights were sworn to hunt.

That was a lifetime ago. Now, he tends bar under an assumed name in rural Virginia and leads a peaceful, quiet life. One that shouldn't change just because a vampire and a blonde walked into his bar... Right? 

Thoughts on the Book

I got this book as an ARC from BEA a few years back and finally got around to reading it.  It wasn't at all what I thought it would be, I was expecting some sort of fairy tale retelling, it wasn't that at all.

My Review

This story is about a half-werewolf knight who meets a Valkyrie and they end up working together with a small group of other humans, psychics, and a Naga to eliminate a dangerous vampire hive.   

This book was a lot of fun. It was told from John's point of view, which was interesting.  He's not your typical protagonist.  I love how he would be relating events, dialog especially, then all of a sudden you're like no way he/she said that! Then John immediately follows it up with something like "well, that's what I wanted to say" or "well, that's what she meant, but she really just glared at me".

There were twists and turns, some unexpected, some completely expected but you couldn't believe the character was actually that dumb to go through with it.  There was a lot of lore mixed into the story, and some interesting other supernatural creatures.  It was just enough of a taste of the world to get you sucked in and wanting to know more about other creatures, not so typical creatures like vampires.

I also loved some of the pop culture references too.  They weren't obvious at all, but if you were in the know they were pretty great.  At one point John referenced Vampire Diaries and their use of vervain against vampires.  He said that they called it that instead of its proper name of verbena, but that's not entirely correct, the French for verbena is vervain, it wasn't a name change for the show.  There were a couple other things here and there that I knew to be incorrect (like how the Vietnamese war tunnels actually look - they did not describe them correctly at all, and the verbena/vervain thing) but it didn't take away from the story.  And to be fair, normal people wouldn't pick up on those.  I mean seriously, how many western tourists have ventured to Vietnam to crawl through one of the Viet Kong's tunnels?  Not many (if you are in any way shape or form claustrophobic I don't recommend it! The tunnels that they enlarged for the Russians barely fit a normal sized westerner, and they're twice the size of the normal untouched tunnels).  And how many Vampire Diary fans actually looked up what vervain was?  I'm guessing I'm one of the few complete nerds who even cared what it was to go through the trouble.

All in all I give this book an 8/10.  Great story, great characters, some non-believable parts, and it took a little bit to really get into it.

Mr. Puffball: Stunt Cat to the Stars

by Constance Lombardo

Summary From GoodReads

In this hilarious illustrated adventure meet Mr. Puffball, a medium-size feline with a big dream! With amazing humor that appeals to both kids and adults as well as funny illustrations throughout the story, Mr. Puffball: Stunt Cat to the Stars is perfect for dreamers, movie buffs, and fans of Timmy Failure and Stick Dog.

He's a hero for today. Or possibly tomorrow. He's a cat. He's awesome. And . . . wait for it . . . he's going to Hollywood to become a famous movie star! Follow Mr. Puffball on his trip cross-country. (Look at all the postcards to Mom!) See him stumble upon Hobowood! (Not as glamorous as Hollywood, but full of beans.) Watch him land at last in Hollywood, where he meets a cast of thousands (or at least half a dozen) and catapults himself into the next best thing to being a famous movie star: working as a stunt cat to his movie star hero, El Gato!

Thoughts on the Book

This is another ARC I had grabbed at BEA.  I had walked by the table and my friend showed me a different book she had grabbed from the table so I ran back to get that one and saw Mr. Puffball next to it and just couldn't resist grabbing a copy, so glad I did!

My Review

This story is about a kitten, Mr. Puffball, who dreams of being an actor.  At the age of 14 months (he's no longer a kitten and old enough to make his own decisions!) he leaves his New Jersey home travel to Hollywood.  The trip is detailed in postcards that he sends back to his mother.  Then once he arrives in Hollywood it's all about him trying to make it in the business and meeting his heroes.

This book was really cute, and I absolutely loved the illustrations.  The story itself was funny, but adding in the silly illustrations just made it that much better.  I loved the postcards that were sent to his mother, the address cracked me up, Little Yellow House, NJ, USA, it's amazing that his mother received the postcards.  How Mr. Puffball wrote her name changed with each postcard too, some were just My Mom, others were more along the lines of Mom of Mr. Puffball.

I also loved all the pop culture references turned cat, like Hairy Purrer, Catsablanca, The Sound of Meowsic, and Tabby Gaga to name a few. 

Despite all of the silliness of the book the story was told beautifully, the boring parts were cut from being in prose and a picture or two (or several) outlined what had happened.  Lessons in form of a game board, cross country travel in form of a few postcards, the course of filming detailed in brief  descriptions and illustrations of stunts.

The only thing I wasn't completely enamored with was how Mr. Puffball never realized how truly horrible El Gato was to him, his friends saw it, but Mr. Puffball never did, even after he realized that El Gato wasn't as nice and wonderful as he first thought.

The morals of the book were also really good, especially for the age group it's aimed for.  Mean people have a reason why they're mean, give them a chance before completely ruling them off.  Heroes don't always live up to the pedestal we put them on, but that doesn't mean that they're not worthy of being our hero.  Just because something is difficult, or seems impossible, or you fail after a brief success don't give up, keep trying and you just may make it.   

All in all I give this book a 9/10.  This book was great, everything you could want out of a kids book, humor, good lessons, and a lovable cast.  

We'll Never Be Apart

by Emiko Jean

Summary From GoodReads

Murder. 

Fire. 

Revenge. 

That’s all seventeen-year-old Alice Monroe thinks about. Committed to a mental ward at Savage Isle, Alice is haunted by memories of the fire that killed her boyfriend, Jason. A blaze her twin sister Cellie set. But when Chase, a mysterious, charismatic patient, agrees to help her seek vengeance, Alice begins to rethink everything. Writing out the story of her troubled past in a journal, she must confront hidden truths.

Is the one person she trusts only telling her half the story? Nothing is as it seems in this edge-of-your-seat psychological thriller from the debut author Emiko Jean

Thoughts on the Book

I picked this ARC up at BEA and grabbed it from by bag to start reading while eating lunch.  This was a huge mistake, it was too good to put down, and the rest of the day was torturous having to socialize instead of finish it.

Review

This book takes place in a mental hospital following Alice, who was committed after her twin sister, Cellie, starts a fire that kills Alice's boyfriend, Jason.  The entire story revolves around Alice, who seems completely sane, having to deal with being in the mental hospital.  In the hospital she meets a boy, Chase, who helps her try to seek revenge on Cellie.

Right from the start of this book I was hooked.  It was nothing like what I expected, the prologue is from Cellie's point of view as she starts a fire in the barn which nearly kills Alice and does kill Jason.  Chapter one switches to Alice's point of view with her leaving the hospital and being transferred to the mental hospital.  While reading I had no idea where the book was going, I couldn't even guess at the resolution of the story.  By the end of the book I was shocked, this rarely happens for me, I never thought that the ending that happened was even a possibility.

Alice and Cellie's background was filled in by Alice's entries in her journal which her psychiatrist gave her as a type of therapy.  I really enjoyed getting background information this way, it wasn't a flashback, it was just the entry which Alice wrote.  The twin's past is so tragic, and the absolute worst part about it is knowing that there are kids going through similar tragedies and having to deal with the same horrors of the system, with foster homes and child services.

Sometimes books get dealt the crap hand with covers, this book is not one of them.  I absolutely love the cover, it captures the book completely.  The title written in ominous lettering which blends into the trees.  The trees themselves are both a little spooky, but also a beautiful winter sky.  Winter and cold are a huge theme within the book too. The more I think about the cover and how it relates to the book the more I absolutely love it.  I think it's rare to have a cover, especially in YA books, that so accurately lends itself to the themes and symbolism of the book.  YA covers are usually girly covers that tend to grab attention.  This book could have easily gone that way, Jason holding Alice with fire swirling around them, Alice and Chase facing Cellie and the flames, or even something eye catching with origami.  But instead they went with the most perfect cover for the book.

I give this book a 10/10. It's so dark, yet so optimistic, it's such a beautifully written book.  I hope this book finds its way into required reading, it would lend itself perfectly to sociology or psychology classes.  It's such an amazing book that is a lot of fun to read and contains so much to learn from.  Jean made a fantastic debut with this novel and I can't wait for more from her.