Review: Finding Paris

Finding Paris
Author: Joy Preble
Published: April 21st, 2015
Hardcover, 272 pages
4 Gold Stars

(summary from Goodreads

Sisters Leo and Paris Hollings have only ever had each other to rely on. They can’t trust their mother, who hops from city to city and from guy to guy, or their gambler stepfather, who’s moved them all to Las Vegas. It’s just the two of them: Paris, who’s always been the dreamer, and Leo, who has a real future in mind—going to Stanford, becoming a doctor, falling in love.

But Leo isn’t going anywhere yet… until Paris ditches her at the Heartbreak Hotel Diner, where moments before they had been talking with physics student Max Sullivan. Outside, Leo finds a cryptic note from Paris—a clue. Is it some kind of game? Where is Paris, and why has she disappeared?

When Leo reluctantly accepts Max’s offer of help, the two find themselves following a string of clues through Vegas and beyond. But the search for the truth is a not a straight line. And neither is the path to secrets Leo and Max hold tightly.

The book intrigued me from the start. I love a good mystery and Paris certainly knows how to send her sister on one. Leo wants nothing more than to get out of Las Vegas and go to school in California. She doesn't love that her mom moves from city to city and guy to guy and her newest stepfather is no exception. The only person she loves is her older sister Paris and will do anything to protect Leo from the world. So when Paris leaves Leo alone in a diner, Leo doesn't understand it all there. There must be a reason why Paris only left her a small note and is suddenly sending her on a wild goose chase. Thankfully Leo has just met Max, a physics student who is willing to help Leo find Paris as soon as possible, even willing to drive her across the country to do so. Together, Leo and Max make their way through the Vegas evening into casinos, attractions and track down clues that Paris has left them in hopes of finding her.

This was such a quick read. It was fast paced and less than three hundred pages and I loved every minute of it. I wanted to find Paris just as badly as Leo did and the twists and turns along the way kept me guessing as to how this story would end. I can honestly say I did not expect the ending until it was too late and I was shocked in a good way. It took the world book to a new level and turned this into such an important book. I won't say a lot about it because the mystery behind this book is what drew me in, but I will say that Preble did a fantastic job conveying tension, mystery, and fear. There was also just enough romance to keep this somewhat light and I loved Max. He was full of just as much mystery as Paris was, as Leo knew very little about him and he didn't share that much info with her throughout the night. He was fun, flirty, and didn't leave her behind, even when she was fearing for her life at the top of a ferris wheel. 

This book had everything I was looking for and it was a thrill ride from beginning to end. The mystery aspect combined with how it all ended made for a great read. There are secrets everywhere in this book. Paris has them, Max has them and even Leo has them. I loved the sister relationship, I always love a good sibling relationship and this one was interesting. Paris would do anything to protect her sister and vice versa and that quality in a relationship can be great and dangerous. It's worth a read to me and if you can figure out the ending faster than I did, than kudos to you. 

Review: Vanishing Girls

Vanishing Girls
Author: Lauren Oliver
Published: March 10th, 2015
Hardcover, 357 pages
5 Gold Stars

(summary from Goodreads)

Dara and Nick used to be inseparable, but that was before the accident that left Dara's beautiful face scarred and the two sisters totally estranged. When Dara vanishes on her birthday, Nick thinks Dara is just playing around. But another girl, nine-year-old Madeline Snow, has vanished, too, and Nick becomes increasingly convinced that the two disappearances are linked. Now Nick has to find her sister, before it's too late. 

In this edgy and compelling novel, Lauren Oliver creates a world of intrigue, loss, and suspicion as two sisters search to find themselves, and each other. 

Lauren Oliver has a way with words. I would read her grocery list and she forever keeps me guessing. Since the beginning, I haven't been able to predict the endings of her books. They are never easy, they are never an escape and they rarely have the kind of happily ever after I strive for. She has a thing for ghosts and unhappy families, and Vanishing Girls took everything I've learned about her writing and pulled me into so many opposite directions that there was no way for me to know how it would end. Sisters Dara and Nick were the best of friends until an accident scarred Dara's face. Dara hides out in her room now as Nick tries to continue on with life, getting a summer job at the local amusement park. But when a young girl goes missing in town and suddenly Dara is gone on her birthday, Nick knows there must be a connection between the two and she won't stop until she finds her sister.

This is a novel about moving on. The accident left everything in ruins and neither sister is brave enough to do something to make it better. It starts out slow, like a contemporary novel just about two sisters trying to move on from a terrible accident. Told in both Dara and Nick's point of views, in both the present and the past, we get to see how the sisters used to be and what's going on in each of their heads now that things are different. Dara is the reckless sister, the one that puts on too much makeup and goes out to party late at night. Nick is the older, more responsible sister. She is calm in the face of panic and ready to go after Dara and bring her home. Then there's Parker, the boy who comes between the two sisters. But once Dara disappears, this quickly becomes a mystery book, where the ending is unknown and suddenly all the problems these sisters had didn't matter. Dara has let clues to help Nick find her, and the more digging Nick does, the deeper she gets into what Dara was really involved in. I loved that Nick worked at Fanland, a somewhat normal part of her life that gave her something to focus on instead of Dara. I liked that it brought her closer to Parker, their friendship not quite how it was since he got involved with Dara. And I especially loved that everything I thought was true was wrong and there was no telling how everything would end when or if Nick ever found Dara.

Oliver is a trickster and everything leading up to that ending couldn't have prepared me for it. It was fast, crazy and completely unpredictable and I must say this is the most she's surprised me yet. Her writing still amazes me and the relationship she built between Nick and Dara will stay me long after I've closed this book. I can't wait to see what she'll have in store for us next.

"Funny how things can stay the same forever and then change so quickly."

"Sometimes people stop loving you. And that's the kind of darkness that never gets fixed."

Review: Imaginary Girls

Imaginary Girls
Author: Nova Ren Suma
Published: June 14, 2012
Paperback, 348 pages
4 Gold Stars

(summary from Goodreads)

Chloe's older sister, Ruby, is the girl everyone looks to and longs for, who can't be captured or caged. When a night with Ruby's friends goes horribly wrong and Chloe discovers the dead body of her classmate London Hayes left floating in the reservoir, Chloe is sent away from town and away from Ruby.

But Ruby will do anything to get her sister back, and when Chloe returns to town two years later, deadly surprises await. As Chloe flirts with the truth that Ruby has hidden deeply away, the fragile line between life and death is redrawn by the complex bonds of sisterhood.


This book gave me the chills from beginning to end. The opening chapter promises mystery, lush settings, and possibly even murder. Even the cover haunts me as I still try to get this story out of my mind. It begs not to leave, it promises to stay with me in the dark, under the water, in the woods, and in my dreams. Ruby and Chloe are characters I've never encountered before and don't think I ever will again. There's nobody like them out there, no one with quite the same bond that these sisters share, a bond that threatens to suck me in with them and never let go.

Ruby is the kind of girl everyone loves. She rules the small town her and her sister, Chloe, have grown up in. Ruby raised Chloe and would do anything for her. Chloe is cool by association, invited to parties because her sister will be there, and looked at by boys because she has the long almost black hair like her sister. When Ruby tells her friends that Chloe can swim across the town reservoir one night, a blackened pool of water that seems to have no end and holds the mystery of the sunken town of Olive, Chloe jumps in without hesitation, knowing her sister will take care of her. When her swim finds her in the middle of the reservoir looking at a dead body in a rowboat, Chloe's life is suddenly ripped apart. She is sent to live with her dad, separated from Ruby. The chapters she spends there are the saddest in the book. It's clear Chloe loves Ruby and doesn't feel like the same person without her. Two years later, Chloe returns to town and things  are certainly not what they seem. Suddenly Chloe is deep in a world she's never known, keeping secrets from Ruby and feeling a strange pull to the town of Olive. Only Ruby knows the truth and Chloe is determined to seek it out.

This small town is just as much a character as Ruby or Chloe. The way that everything seems to revolve around Ruby is enough to send a shiver up my spine. And Olive, the sunken town under the reservoir, is even more haunting. Ruby tells stories of the people who still live down there, gils instead of lungs, and hoping for people to go swimming so they can pull them under. At any mention of Olive, I gripped the pages tighter, knowing there was no way for me to be prepared for what could happen next. Every setting stood out: The house that Ruby and Chloe live in, unfinished and strategically placed by the reservoir. The old cemetery where the people of Olive are buried, and the reservoir itself, black and endless with more secrets than you can count. 

Chloe is the perfect narrator for a tale like this. She is unreliable, a girl obsessed with her sister and willing to do whatever it takes to be with her. And Ruby, a mysterious girl full of secrets and magic, even more unreliable than Chloe. Both girls leave haunting words on every page. They have a relationship unlike anything I've ever read, almost obsessive, but full of love. They only know each other, they know there is no one else that can be counted on, and they go through life needing each other. The further into the book I got, the less I knew about these two girls. Shrouded in mysteries, the girls are just as obscure of the town of Olive; it was hard to know if they actually really existed. Most of the time, I wasn't sure if they were real. I wasn't sure if any of the story was real or if it was all in Chloe's head. That's the beauty of this book. It tightroped along the line of reality and fantasy just enough to make me question everything I read. Who existed and who was just in Chloe's head? Was the town of Olive real? Is it still under the water just like Ruby says it is? None of these questions are answered, like I knew they wouldn't be. The story went in a direction that I couldn't have imagined, but in the end made perfect sense. 

The mysterious and haunting nature of this book  keeps me thinking about it days after finishing it. It's the kind of book I could read four times and still not have answers to my burning questions. Just like the girls in this book, this book is unreal and chilling, leaving me breathless and scared to go near dark waters at night. Suma is a brilliant writer, someone who can make me believe everything she wrote even though I was confused and scared most of the time. I hope the people of Olive enjoy this review and stay away from me when I'm swimming.

“The story you choose to tell isn't always the story you believe.” 

Review: Truly, Madly, Deeply

Truly Madly Deeply
Author: Hannah Jayne
Published: July 2, 2013
Paperback, 262 pages
2 Gold Stars

(summary from Goodreads)

They Said It Was An Accident...

Sawyer Dodd is a star athlete, a straight-A student, and the envy of every other girl who wants to date Kevin Anderson. When Kevin dies in a tragic car crash, Sawyer is stunned. Then she opens her locker to find a note:

You're welcome.

Someone saw what he did to her. Someone knows that Sawyer and Kevin weren't the perfect couple they seemed to be. And that someone—a killer—is now shadowing Sawyer's every move...

I had really high hopes for this book. The description sent an eerie chill up my spine. A car accident kills Sawyer Dodd's boyfriend, Kevin, but when she gets a note in her locker that just says "you're welcome", she's not so sure it was an accident anymore. I was eager to see what else would happen to Sawyer after she got the note in her locker. A few more things happened to her that could have been scary and should have been, but somehow just didn't give me the thrill I was hoping for.

There wasn't much character development. Sawyer feel flat and did not really it the description set for her on the back cover. Yes, she did track, but I saw nothing saying that she was a star athlete, and nowhere did it mention hoe great her grades were. Perhaps this is who she was before the accident, but there is no indication of that anywhere in the book. Some more background history on her and her life would had made me like her more. I found there wasn't much to like. We discover early on that she was in an abusive relationship, but I didn't feel her pain, I didn't feel how scared she was to be around other people. Not that I've been through  anything like that, but in books I've read before, there has always been an emotional and physical change after a character goes through distress. There wasn't much feistiness to her, and I think that could have benefitted her in the situations she got herself into.

There were a lot of characters amped up as suspects. I had fun trying to guess who the culprit was and enjoyed having new suspects come into play. I think if I had read this book in one sitting, I may have enjoyed it more. The suspense may have been more evident to me and I might have jumped if I read it during a thunderstorm. I wouldn't tell anyone not to read this. A lot of reviews I've read have said very good things, but I guess it just wasn't the book for me. I haven't read many thrillers and maybe that's just not a genre I'm into. I'd say read it and judge it for yourself. It's a quick read and there is a lot of emotional struggles. I'm curious to see what you guys thought of it, and don't get me wrong, I won't be spreading hate for this book or anything, it just wasn't for me.