Review of When I Am Through With You
Review: The Secret History of Us
The Secret History of Us by Jessi Kirby
To be published on August 1, 2017 by Harper
Source: eARC from publisher for possible review
Synopsis adapted from Goodreads: When Olivia awakens in the hospital following a car accident, she figures the brain fog is just a symptom of being in a week-long coma, but as time goes on, she realizes she’s lost more than just the last several days of her life—she’s lost her memory of the last four years.
Gone is any recollection of starting or graduating high school; the prom; or her steady boyfriend Matt. Trying to figure out who she is feels impossible when everyone keeps telling her who she was. As Liv tries to block out what her family and friends say about who she used to be, the one person she hasn’t heard enough from is Walker, the guy who saved her the night her car was knocked off that bridge into the bay below.
Walker is the hardened boy who’s been keeping his distance—and the only person Olivia inexplicably feels herself with. With her feelings growing for Walker, tensions rising with Matt, and secrets she can’t help but feel are being kept from her, Olivia must find her place in a life she doesn’t remember living.
My Review of The Secret History of Us by Jessi Kirby:
I’ve read most if not all of Jessi Kirby’s books and was excited to read this one …. until I started it and found out that it was about a character with amnesia.
In the past few weeks, I’ve read (or started to read) four YA books about main characters who’ve been in car accidents, three of whom had amnesia.
If there was such a thing as book-amnesia that could make me forget that I’d read those others, I’d be fine.
That said, I actually liked the amnesia element of this one. Liv wakes up in a hospital and is told she’s been in an accident. Good news: she’s going to be fine. Bad news: she can’t remember much about the past few years, including anything about her boyfriend, Matt, or about the accident itself.
As I read, I could definitely figure out exactly where this story was headed. I think anyone who has every read YA and reads the synopsis and title of this book can probably figure out where the story is headed. But predictability in a book is not necessarily a bad thing. I didn’t mind watching Liv and waiting for her to put the pieces together. And I loved Liv’s relationship with her parents and her brother.
Overall I enjoyed The Secret History of Us and recommend it to those who like YA contemporaries. The only drawback of this book for me was that the ending felt rushed, which I thought made the romantic element of the story not terribly satisfying. I often complain about overly long YA contemporaries, but at a slim 288 pages, I think this book could have benefited from a few more chapters to wrap things up.
Have you read this or any other Jessi Kirby book? Are you up for another amnesia story?
Review of Lucky in Love
Review: Lucky in Love
by Kasie West
To be published on July 25, 2017 by Point
Synopsis from Goodreads: Maddie doesn’t believe in luck. She’s all about hard work and planning ahead. But one night, on a whim, she buys a lottery ticket. And then, to her astonishment — she wins!
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In a flash, Maddie’s life is unrecognizable. No more stressing about college scholarships. Suddenly, she’s talking about renting a yacht. And being in the spotlight at school is fun… until rumors start flying, and random people ask her for loans. Now, Maddie isn’t sure who she can trust. Except for Seth Nguyen, her funny, charming coworker at the local zoo. Seth doesn’t seem aware of Maddie’s big news. And, for some reason, she doesn’t want to tell him. But what will happen if he learns her secret?
My review of Lucky in Love:
Kasie West has written a cute contemporary that’s an ideal summer read. While I didn’t find it perfect, there was a lot to like.
Maddie is a (supposedly) responsible girl who’s laser- focused on college and her future. But then, on her eighteenth birthday, she impulsively buys a lottery ticket, and her whole life is changed – and not necessarily for the better.
I think my favorite part of Lucky in Love was the way it showed how Maddie’s life gets turned upside-down after she wins the lottery.
One minute, she’s volunteering at the zoo with Seth, her cute co-worker, and the next, she’s gifting huge amounts of money to friends and family. Can money buy happiness? Does money change relationship dynamics in sometimes unexpected and unpleasant ways? No and yes. I felt bad for Maddie because she seemed to be the only adult in her family, and when she won the money, she didn’t really have anyone to give her solid advice. I also loved the scenes of her working at the zoo. All West’s comtemporaries feature romances that are PG-rated, making her books a good pick for tweens as well as older YA readers. On the negative side, the romantic connection in this book between Maddie and Seth was a little underwhelming – maybe there was just too much else going on?
In short: Lucky in Love is a cute contemporary that’s on the fluffier and more PG side, but still worth a read if that is what you are looking for.
Looking for more YA rom coms? Here are all my favorites in one place!
Review of What Goes Up
What Goes Up by Katie Kennedy
To be published on July 18, 2017 by Bloomsbury
Source: ARC from publisher
Synopsis from Goodreads: Rosa and Eddie are among hundreds of teens applying to NASA’s mysterious Multi-World Agency. After rounds of crazy-competitive testing they are appointed to Team 3, along with an alternate, just in case Eddie screws up (as everyone expects he will). What they don’t expect is that aliens will arrive from another dimension, and look just like us. And no one could even imagine that Team 3 would be the only hope of saving our world from their Earth-destroying plans. The teens steal the spacecraft (it would be great if they knew how to fly it) and head to Earth2, where the aliens’ world and people are just like ours. With a few notable exceptions. There, the teens will find more than their alternate selves: they’ll face existential questions and high-stakes adventure, with comedy that’s out of this world.
Review of What Goes Up
I really enjoyed Katie Kennedy’s first book. Learning to Swear in America, and I loved this one as well. At first, What Goes Up felt like a crazy astronaut version of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, with a group of teens competing for spots on the Interworlds Agency, a division of NASA that deals with the exploration of parallel universes with intelligent life. The competition was fierce, filled with psychological tests and intelligence tests and logic tests and stress tests.
Then, just as the testing is winding down and a final two candidates are about to be chosen, something dramatic happens. (I was going to be vague so as not to spoil it, but as the synopsis suggests, aliens from an alternate earth arrive and things get complicated. ) Then the three finalists, aided by their instructor, have to band together and figure out how save the world in a crazy, funny, suspenseful sequence of events.
I’m not a huge fan of books set in space, but I still found a lot here to love.
The characters are scary-smart and hilarious, a Scooby Gang of nerds with a lot of heart. You have Rosa, the daughter of a Los Alamos scientist, and Eddie, the son of a mean drunk who’s recently out of prison, plus Trevor and Reg, their instructor. Parallel universe stuff always freaks me out, and that aspect of the book was no exception. But this story also leveraged the humor behind the freakiness.
If you are a genius or space nerd, this is the book for you. I’m neither but loved trying to keep up and appreciated the book’s emphasis on the value of friendship and teamwork.
Have you read this or do you have a favorite book about space travel?