Tuesday, July 26, 2016

Matt's Story by Lauren Gibaldi | Book Review

Matt's Story by Lauren Gibaldi


Reading Group Rating: High School+

Personal Rating: 4 out of 5 Stars

Given Summary: We've seen Ella's story in The Night We Said Yes, but now we'll hear Matt's tale in this e-original novella from Lauren Gibaldi.


Seventeen-year-old Matt had the perfect life in Orlando. He met the girl of his dreams, rocked out on bass in an awesome band, and partied with the best group of friends he could ask for. But then his family gets a call and he has to move back to Texas—immediately. Now stuck with no possibility of ever seeing his friends in Orlando again, Matt is ready to give up. But can he open up his heart to new friends and a second chance?
Epic Reads Impulse is a digital imprint with new releases each month.

Cover: The cover of this novella is very similar to the cover of The Night We Said Yes except it's just Matt.

My Review: This novella was a prequel to The Night We Said Yes and it was told in Matt's point of view.  It was nice to know what was going on during the few months before he came back to Orlando.  This story gave insight into Matt's family and how it was when his brother was released from rehab.  During this time Matt also was able to gain the confidence he needed to return to Orlando and face what he left behind.  His friends, Cindy and Kat, were a really important aspect of this transformation for Matt.  He allowed himself to open up to them, the way he did to his friends in Orlando, but this time he was able to remain friends with them when he left.  This novella was short, only 83 ages, and it was a nice read.  The only thing I wish was part of it was maybe an epilogue that took place after The Night We Said Yes ended, just to check in on how things were with him and Ella after school started.    

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Tuesday, July 19, 2016

The Heir and the Spare by Emily Albright | Book Review

The Heir and the Spare by Emily Albright 



Reading Group: High School+

Personal Rating:  5 out of 5 Stars

Given Summary: Going all the way to England for college--to Oxford, no less--for college would be exciting enough. But no sooner does Evie set foot on English soil than she falls for a boy who turns out to be a real prince--in fact, second in line to the throne of England. Edmund is wonderful, even though loving him can be a royal pain, from the demands of his family to the stuck-up aristocrat who thinks she should be the one to win Edmund's heart. All that is swept aside, however, when the riddle of Evie's past surfaces, and the new couple becomes obsessed with figuring out who the real Evie is, with the growing suspicion that the truth will be a shocker.

Cover: The cover of this book is the union jack design and I personally think it is very pretty.  If you look closely there are little designs in the blue parts that are kind of hard to make out.  I don't know what they all are, but there is Big Ben so maybe they represent all of the different places she visited while she was on her mother's quest.

My Review: I loved this story.  I thought it was super cute and such a nice read.  I liked how you knew that Evie was an heir but you didn't know what she was the heir of or how she would find it out.  I personally like knowing the ending or big surprise of the story, so this book was great because I knew what was going to happen, I just didn't know how it would come about.  The only thing that kind of bothered me was that Evie kind of refused to admit that she and Edmund were a thing.  I understand that he was also hesitant, but he didn't want her to be effected by his status and have to deal with the paparazzi.  I just felt like that if I was her I definitely wouldn't be going on dates with other boys, but I still liked those parts of the book it was just that I was thinking 'Come on Evie, stop being so clueless' the whole time.  For Evie this story was one transition after another I can understand how at the end she thought it was all too much and wanted to quit, but I am so happy she didn't.  The friends she made that year at school were friends she was going to have forever.  Plus, who would want to give up Edmund and her numerous properties she acquired.  Yes, there was drama and a jealous ex, but that could happen anywhere so it's not like she could just run away from that.  Life throws curve balls some times and we just have to play our best and get through it.   


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Tuesday, July 12, 2016

Like It Never Happened by Emily Adrian | Book Review

Like It Never Happened by Emily Adrian 


I got this picture of the cover off of Amazon and I don't know why the top of the cover is on the bottom

Reading Group: High School

Personal Rating: 3 out of 5 Stars

Given Summary: Stereotypes, sexuality, and destructive rumors collide in this smart YA novel for fans of Sara Zarr’s Story of a Girl, Siobhan Vivian’s The List, and E. Lockhart’s The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks.

When Rebecca Rivers lands the lead in her school’s production of The Crucible, she gets to change roles in real life, too. She casts off her old reputation, grows close with her four rowdy cast-mates, and kisses the extremely handsome Charlie Lamb onstage. Even Mr. McFadden, the play’s critical director, can find no fault with Rebecca.

Though “The Essential Five” vow never to date each other, Rebecca can’t help her feelings for Charlie, leaving her both conflicted and lovestruck. But the on and off-stage drama of the cast is eclipsed by a life-altering accusation that threatens to destroy everything…even if some of it is just make believe.

Cover: The cover of this book show a boy and a girl sitting on bleachers.  This doesn't really have anything to do with the actual book except that the boy and girl could be Rebecca and Charlie and the bleachers may represent high school, but they didn't even go to a normal high school so I think it would have made more sense if they were sitting auditorium seats.
My Review: I gave this book 3 out of 5 Stars because I didn't hate it and I thought it was really well written, but it didn't do a whole lot for me.  I didn't find myself wanting to sit down and read it all in one go.  To me it felt like everything happened and was dealt with very quickly and it could have been drawn out a little bit more and maybe had a few more plot twists in it.  It also creeps me out when people have actual crushes on their teachers.  Like acknowledging that your teacher is attractive is one thing, but a planning on kissing him is weird to me, especially if he was in school with your sister.  There's an age gap between me and my siblings and the idea of kissing one of their friends or even someone in their grade is so weird to me.  But I know that's a personal preference thing, so I understand how people could give this book a 5 out of 5.  I really wanted Charlie and Rebecca to work out and I was so sad when he turned out to be a jerk.  However, I did enjoy the storyline with her sister, but again I wish there was more to it.  There was so much Rebecca could have learned about her sister and her life in New York and California before she came back home.  Obviously there was the twist with her running away to be with her girlfriend, but that's why she went to New York.  She went to California when they broke up, but it's been ten years since Mary's been back.  I wish her artwork was talked about a little bit more.  Part of me felt like Rebecca could have been an only child and the story wouldn't have changed much.  Mary's story was interesting, but it didn't really have a huge effect on the actual storyline.  So in general, I liked this book, but I think there could have been more to it to make it more interesting. 


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Friday, July 8, 2016

Cheap, Thoughtful Gifts for the Grad

July is here which means you probably have a few graduation parties to attend this month.  And I'm going to bet some of those parties are for people that you're friends with, but you're not super close.  Maybe you played a sport together or you were in the same math class, and because you really like this person you want to get them a thoughtful gift, but you don't know them well enough to know what kind of jewelry they might like and you don't want to break the bank.

I was invited to a few grad parties this year for girls that I played tennis with and came to that exact circumstance.  So I decided to get them practical gifts that I thought would be useful for their freshman year of college.


I decided to make them each a little survival box of items I found helpful to have during my freshman year.  I got everything from Target except the Yankee Candle fragrance spheres and each one cost around $15 total.  *This gift is aimed for High School Graduates as it contains things useful for the dorm room.


I wrote each girl a card and explained the purpose of each item. Band-Aids because accidents happen, from razor cuts while shaving to hang nails, to bug bites.  Yankee Candle Fragrance Spheres because most colleges don't allow candles and these are a really easy way to keep your dorm room smelling nice and clean.  Kleenex's because when you go to college you are exposed to new air and new germs.  I never got sick (aside from allergies) until I got to college and lost my voice around Thanksgiving.  Also, being away at college can be sad and sometimes you're just going to need to clean yourself up after a good cry.  You should definitely bring a normal sized box of tissues to college with you, but these are nice to keep in your backpack.  The tweezers and nail clippers I bought because I found it incredibly helpful to have a "home set" and "dorm set" of whatever I could.  This includes tweezers, nail clippers, razors, shampoo, conditioner, brushes, nail polish remover, and whatever else you don't want to bring back and forth every time you go home for a break.  Q-Tips because there useful in so many different ways.  You can use them to clean your ears (which I think is the most common, but you're actually not supposed to do that), clean your keyboard, remove nail polish, and so many other things where Q-Tips are a great size for.  And some Chapstick, because like the kleenex's, a new environment means new air and it's usually very dry so it's important to keep your lips hydrated.  Also, I put everything in a small bin instead of a bag so that the bin could be used as a storage container because storage is everything in college.


Another friend of mine is going to be attending school in Arizona so I decided to make her kit a little bit differently.

  

I decided to make hers more of a flight kit instead of a dorm kit because when you go to school so far away you're going to be on a plane a few times a year.  So I got her Kleenex, hand sanitizer, Chapstick, and hand cream because airplanes are kind of gross since everyone is breathing the same air and it's not uncommon to feel sick a few days after being on a plane.  I also got her a sleep mask for the flight incase she's on the red eye.  I'm not going to lie, the Band-Aids and Q-tips were mostly because I was already buying them, but you never know whats going to come in handy on a plane.  I did wrap this by putting it in a bag because I didn't want to give her anything that would be annoying to travel with like a bin.

I wanted to personalize these gifts somehow to show the girls that I knew it was for them and I didn't find all this stuff lying around my house.



I did this by buying a wooden letter of their first name and painting it rose gold.  But you could personalize the gift any way you wanted.  If you had a good picture with the grad, that would be nice or maybe a small piece of jewelry.

I liked this gift because it was thoughtful, but useful and you could have easily added a gift card or something else to it if you wanted to or were willing to spend more money.  Good gift cards for Grads would be Amazon, iTunes, or Coffee.  Money is also greatly appreciated by Graduates.  This gift was also a little bit more than just a gift card, because even though gift cards are great, I sometimes feel like gift cards can say, "I had no idea what to get you and you might as well be a stranger to me so here you go" so personally I don't like to give them (But I like to get them.  I don't know why I'll like this) if I can help it.

How would you feel if you got this gift for your graduation?  What was the best graduation gift you ever got?  What was a thoughtful gift that you gave?  Let me know! 

Smile!  I'll talk to you soon!xxx
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Tuesday, July 5, 2016

The First Time She Drowned by Kerry Kletter | Book Review

The First Time She Drowned by Kerry Kletter



Reading Group: High School+

Personal Rating: 4 out of 5 Stars

Given Summary: The beautiful struggle of a girl desperate for the one relationship that has caused her the most pain

Cassie O'Malley has spent the past two and a half years in a mental institution--dumped there by her mother, against her will. Now, at 18, Cassie emancipates herself, determined to start over. She attends college, forms new friendships, and even attempts to start fresh with her mother. But before long, their unhealthy relationship threatens to pull Cassie under once again. As Cassie struggles to reclaim her life, childhood memories persist and confuse, and Cassie must consider whose version of history is real, and more important, whose life she must save.

A bold, literary story about the fragile complexities of mothers and daughters and learning to love oneself, The First Time She Drowned reminds us that we must dive deep into our pasts if we are ever to move forward.

Cover: The cover of this book has a girl hugging herself and it seems like she's either underwater or there is a picture of water overlaid on it.  I don't know why, but I think the girl on the cover looks a little bit like Taylor Swift.  

My Review: I almost don't know how to react to this book.  I thought it was a really interesting storyline and I really liked Cassie's character, but I absolutely loathed her mother and every time she was in the book I just wanted to move past it.  And I understand that she was supposed to be the villain in the story and she was almost incapable of loving Cassie, but she was just so annoying and I wanted to shake Cassie every time she talked to her.  I don't need every character to love each other in the books that I read, but I at least prefer if there is something close to an argument between them were everything gets hashed out and that didn't happen in this book.  Cassie just comes to the conclusion that her mother must have something mentally wrong with her and it wasn't worth trying anymore.  I guess I just don't understand how someone can treat her kids the way Cassie's mom did and it made me sad that even after everything Cassie still wanted her approval.  Also, one of Cassie's friends from the mental hospital ended up killing himself and I really want to know what happened.  He seemed to be one of those people who wanted nothing more than to get out and when he did it was clear something changed in him, but I wish I knew what happened that night he ran away.  Maybe Kletter is working on something now.  I thought this book was very well written and I liked that Cassie would remember new things from her past because I find it so interesting how our brains suppress certain memories in order to protect us.  This book made me frustrated, but I would definitely recommend it to a friend.  


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Friday, July 1, 2016

Illuminate by Ashley Tisdale BH Cosmetics

I'm not sure if I told you guys here on the blog, but towards the end of the school year Urban Decay brought out the Alice Through the Looking Glass Eyeshadow Palette and I told myself that as a reward for completing the year I would buy it for myself.  As time went on I kept looking at it and even though it's absolutely gorgeous I kept going back and forth where I wanted to spend $60 on 20 shades, of which I probably would only use 10-12 regularly.

Around the same time I started following Ashley Tisdale on Snapchat (@ashleymtisdale) and saw that she was coming out with a makeup line with BH Cosmetics.  So the other day I went on the website and decided to buy $60 worth of products off of the Illuminate collection instead of Urban decay.


For about $62 I was able to get so many more things than if I bought a single palette.  I bought both of the palettes "Beach Goddess" and "Night Goddess" which each have 12 eyeshadows, 1 blush, and 2 bronzers/highlighters.  I also got two Enhancing Lip Glosses in "Skinny Dipping" and "Tan Lines" and one Cream Cheek & Lip Tint in Cabana.


Above I swatched glosses and tint on my arm.  I was going to do the two palettes as well, but because I'm so pale some of the colors couldn't be seen in the photograph, as you can see it's even difficult to make out "Cabana" on my skin tone.  I am in love with all of the colors and used the "Beach Goddess" Palette when I went to a birthday party the other day and all of the shades looks great.  

The packaging on all of the products are beautiful, even the cardboard packaging they came in were pretty.  I love that the palettes are a great size to put in your bag if you were going away for the weekend, they have magnets in them to keep them closed so you don't have to worry about the products getting destroyed during travel or opening up your bag to gina a huge mess.  The prices are also amazing.  The palettes are $18 each and the glosses and tint are $9 each.

The only thing I don't like about the palettes is that the names of the colors are on a plastic insert and I really wish they were printed next to the color on the packaging.  I know the name of the color may not seem that important, but I like to know what they're called.  Plus, I imagine Ashley Tisdale put in some time and effort coming up with the names so it would have been nice if they weren't on a throw away, plastic insert.  I also wish that a brush came with the palette so that it was really all you had to carry with you, but I know that's hard because it's not just eyeshadows in the palette so you would need a shadow and face brush.


I am so exciting to continue using the products I bought and even before I used them I knew I wanted to buy more.  Not sure when I'm going to be able to pull off another make up splurge, but when I do I intend on getting more from this collection.  I highly recommend that if any of you are looking for some makeup to check out Illuminate by Ashley Tisdale on the BH Cosmetics website (http://www.illuminatecosmetics.com) because I think they're great, a totally manageable price, and they ship worldwide.  If any of you do have a product or want a product from the collection comment down below and let me know which product you have/want and what you think about it!  

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