Preview Post- The Tension of Opposites by Kristina McBride

The Tension of Opposites by Kristina McBride
"It’s been two years since Noelle disappeared. Two years since her bike was discovered, sprawled on a sidewalk. Two years of silence, of worry, of fear.

For those two long years, her best friend Tessa has waited, living her own life in a state of suspended animation. Because how can she allow herself to enjoy a normal high school life if Noelle can’t? How dare she have other friends, go to dances, date boys, without knowing what happened to the girl she thought she would share everything with?

And then one day, someone calls Noelle’s house. She’s alive.

A haunting psychological thriller taken straight from the headlines, The Tension of Opposites is a striking debut that explores the emotional aftermath of a kidnapping on the victim, and on the people she left behind."- summary from Kristina's site

The cover and summary are a bit misleading, in my opinion. It makes it look like a thriller and all suspenseful and stuff; it is not. Now, this isn't to say the book is bad, per se, just that it's not what I was expecting after looking at the cover and summary.

In the first chapter, which is all of like 9 pages, we find out that Noelle has been gone two years and then halfway through, we find out she's alive and is coming home the next day. This bothered me a bit because there's a difference between coming in at the middle of the story and being catapulted through a storyline. I barely had enough time to really think and care about Noelle being gone before it's revealed that she's coming back. It all happened way too fast.

After that, the book did get better for me, though again, it's still hardly the psychological thriller I'm being promised in the summary. In fact, there seemed to be only a few scenes where Noelle's kidnapping is brought up and the rest of the time, it's just usual high school drama- boys, mean girls, etc.

I honestly don't really know what to make of this book. I almost put it down because once Noelle was found and back home, it was like "What's the point?" Not much happened after that initial chapter for a while, but then things started moving again and I became more interested and invested in the characters.

A strong point of the novel was the romance. To start, I was pleasantly surprised to find out who the male love interest was since I was wrong on my first guess. The courtship between Tessa and the boy is slow and a nice change of pace from "OMG YOU'RE HOT LET'S MAKE BABIES WHO CARES WHAT YOUR INTERESTS ARE" that some YA novels tend to have.

I did enjoy the novel, and it was interesting to have the book be told from the best friend's point of view as opposed to the victim, but it just didn't really have the effect on me that perhaps the author was trying to convey.

I'm also contemplating just leaving this as a review. I don't even know why I bother doing previews when I just keep rambling, lol. So this is my review. YAY!! :D I did just kind of ramble and I'm not sure if I covered everything or made sense, so if there are any questions, feel free to ask.

Fresh New Voice of YA- The Body Finder by Kimberly Derting

The Body Finder by Kimberly Derting
"Violet Ambrose is grappling with two major issues: Jay Heaton and her morbid secret ability. While the sixteen-year-old is confused by her new feelings for her best friend since childhood, she is more disturbed by her "power" to sense dead bodies—or at least those that have been murdered. Since she was a little girl, she has felt the echoes the dead leave behind in the world . . . and the imprints that attach to their killers.

Violet has never considered her strange talent to be a gift; it mostly just led her to find dead birds her cat left for her. But now that a serial killer is terrorizing her small town, and the echoes of the local girls he's claimed haunt her daily, Violet realizes she might be the only person who can stop him.

Despite his fierce protectiveness over her, Jay reluctantly agrees to help Violet find the murderer—and Violet is unnerved by her hope that Jay's intentions are much more than friendly. But even as she's falling intensely in love, Violet is getting closer and closer to discovering a killer . . . and becoming his prey herself."- summary from Amazon

First off, I apologize profusely to Kimberly Derting and I hate that it took me this long to write my review. This was just a busy reading week and then I was gone for most of today at a signing. But let's get on with the review.

I really enjoyed this book, though I felt it dragged at some parts, but that could just be because I was in such a rush to finish it. It's definitely got a fast-paced plotline though (for the most part), and I was turning pages frantically to find out what happened next, not just because of the short amount of time I had to read it. The romance was realistic and cute, but predictable, though the other aspect of the story (the killings) made up for that by being wildly unpredictable.

Just to let you all know, this is not a typical murder mystery. I feel like in those, you get a sense for all the characters and have suspects to look at and figure out who did it. It's not the case with this book since we hardly see the murderer throughout the book so there's no looking for clues to figure it out. It does make it a bit fun because you find everything out along with the protagonist and there isn't a whole lot of sleuthing going on, but at the same time, it's frustrating because you're left in the dark completely until the end. I did enjoy the twist at the end and it had me gasping when it came up.

What I also liked was how every few chapters, we'd get a small glimpse into the mind of the killer. Those chapters were intensely creepy and I was glad that they were short and far between.

One of the things that I didn't necessarily like was the third person. I've gotten more used to it now that I'm reading a lot more, but with this, it made me feel disconnected and made it hard to really feel for the characters.

Overall though, it is a very fun, thrilling novel to read with an intriguing paranormal aspect at the center of it. It does have its flaws, but what book doesn't?


FTC: Received ARC from publisher. Amazon link is Associate link; any profit goes toward funding contests.

Fresh New Voice of YA- Forget-Her-Nots by Amy Brecount White

Forget-Her-Nots by Amy Brecount White
"Something—some power—is blooming inside Laurel. She can use flowers to do things. Like bringing back lost memories. Or helping her friends ace tests. Or making people fall in love.

Laurel suspects her newfound ability has something to do with an ancient family secret, one that her mother meant to share with Laurel when the time was right. But then time ran out.

Clues and signs and secret messages seem to be all around Laurel at Avondale School, where her mother had also boarded as a student. Can Laurel piece everything together quickly enough to control her power, which is growing more potent every day? Or will she set the stage for the most lovestruck, infamous prom in the history of the school?"- summary from Amazon

Let me start off by saying I loved this book. It had such an original twist to it with the whole Flowerspeaking aspect in what could have been just a usual run-of-the-mill boarding school book. Learning more about that and how Laurel used it made me keep turning the pages and I was done with it so quickly. It was fun to read about flowers and all their different meanings, and how they were applied to Laurel's classmates when they needed or wanted something.

Laurel is an amazing character and I loved how White included soccer as another hobby of Laurel's- it definitely provided a good contrast to the Flowerspeaking. The occasional snarkiness in the dialogue throughout the story was another fun aspect. The romance was built up well and ended up being very realistic in how it was written and portrayed.

The emotional aspect was handled really well too. Laurel's deep connection to her mother was interesting to read about and it was hard at times to get through scenes where she was upset because I felt so bad for her.

I do actually have a small negative about the book though. I thought at times the dialogue felt a bit off and occasionally it bothered me a lot, like when words were elongated (such as "Yesss" and "Whaaat?") where it wasn't needed. It's such a minor thing though and it didn't affect my reading too much, as I got over it quickly.

Overall, a great book with an original story and one that everyone should read. Go to the bookstore now!!

2010 Debut Challenge

So I saw on The Story Siren's blog that she's hosting the 2010 Debut Author Challenge. I don't think I've participated in any challenges before, except for the 100 book challenge each year (which I've already beat this year; my list will come in early January) but that's just for me and not something I post on my blog or anything. This however will be different; I am going to take part in this and I'm way excited for it! Read all about it below, and find my beginning list after that.

What is the 2010 Debut Author Challenge?

The objective is to read a set number of YA (Young Adult) or MG (Middle Grade) novels from debut authors published this year.* I'm going to challenge everyone to read at least 12 debut novels! You don’t have to list your choices right away, but if you do feel free to change them throughout the year. I will also be focusing on mostly Young Adult novels.

Anyone can join, you don’t need a blog to participate. If you don’t have a blog you can always share your views by posting a review on Amazon.com/BarnesandNoble.com/GoodReads/Shelfari, or any other bookish site.

The challenge will run from January 1, 2010- December 31, 2010. You can join at anytime!

* I would like to limit the novels to those released in 2010.

You’ll have to do all the research to make sure a novel meets the criteria for the challenge. I do have a few sites that can help with your search; 2010: A Book Odyssey, AuthorsNow & The Class of 2k10 (website to be launched).

More Challenge Guidelines:

Novels must be read between the dates of January 1, 2010 - December 31, 2010 to count toward your challenge total. (this means if you've read a 2010 debut novel in 2009, it doesn't count..... but!)

Reviews posted in 2010 will count toward the monthly prize packs, even if you read the novel in 2009. Does that make sense? For example I've read debut author Jennifer Hubbard's novel The Secret Year, in 2009. But I will not be posting my review until closer to its release date in 2010. So, even though it can't be counted as one of my "challenge" books, I could still use its review for a prize pack entry.

Please do list the 2010 debut novels you've already read in your challenge lists. That way other participants can find out about a book they might not have otherwise.

For information on how to join the 2010 Debut Author Challenge, see the post below.


So since I read two debut novels every month for Fresh New Voice of YA, that's a total of 24 so I'm going to up it to 30 and see how that goes. Books I've read will be in bold and probably will have a link to the review whenever it's posted, books I own but haven't read will be in italics, and books I don't have will be in regular font. Here's my beginning list:

Dirty Little Secrets by C.J. Omololu
Bleeding Violet by Dia Reeves
Cinderella Society by Kay Cassidy
The Dark Days of Hamburger Halpin by Josh Berk
Brightly Woven by Alexandra Bracken
Magic Under Glass by Jaclyn Dolamore
The Body Finder by Kimberly Derting
The Line by Teri Hall
Hex Hall by Rachel Hawkins
Numbers by Rachel Ward
Guardian of the Dead by Karen Healey
The Iron King by Julie Kagawa
The Snowball Effect by Holly Nicole Hoxter
The Secret Year by Jennifer Hubbard
The Deathday Letter by Sean Hutchinson
All Unquiet Things by Anna Jarzab
Sea by Heidi Kling
Princess for Hire by Lindsay Leavitt
The Mark by Jen Nadol
A Match Made in High School by Kristin Walker
Forget-Her-Nots by Amy Brecount-White
The Naughty List by Suzanne Young
Shadow Hills by Anastasia Hopcus
Hearts at Stake by Alyxandra Harvey
Tell Me A Secret by Holly Cupola
Nightshade by Andrea Cremer
Restoring Harmony by Joelle Anthony
Siren by Tricia Rayburn
Tension of Opposites by Kristina McBride
Whisper by Phoebe Kitanidis
Matched by Ally Condie
The Replacement by Brenna Yovanoff
The Iron Thorn by Kaitlinn Kittredge