Girls on Fire by Robin Wasserman

Girls on Fire by Robin Wasserman

Published by: Little Brown

Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary

Publication Date: May 5th 2016 

Rating: ****

A huge thank you to Little Brown for letting me have an advance copy!

Told via two perspectives, Girls on Fire is a complex book that tells the story of how strong a friendship can be between two girls. 

Hannah "Dex" Dexter is at first described as a normal girl. She's quiet and smart and just the girl not many people would recognise unless its Nikki Drummond aka the school bitch calling her out for almost anything she can. Lacey on the otherhand is the opposite. As the new girl in town, she's already caught attention that isn't precisely welcome but throughout the novel she becomes a figure that we're pushed and positioned to go from liking to disliking. Back and forth on an endless cycle. 

The book starts with the suicide of Nikki's boyfriend which triggers the book into action like a pile of dominoes falling around the two girls in a vast maze. I admit I got confused and lost a few times because my heart wasn't in it. By pushing my way past the difficult parts, the book became easier to read and follow but parts just weren't interesting. Maybe that's just me, others will probably like the book much better than I did.

A four star rating was the best I could do. 

Girls on Fire will be available from May 5th in most bookstores.

Burn Girl by Mandy Mikulencak

Burn Girl by Mandy Mikulencak

Published by: Albert Whitman and Company

Genre: YA, contemporary, romance

Rating: ****

Burn Girl is the type of book I read every summer purely because it provides a getaway from reality. It's like reading Sarah Dessen, everybody reads Sarah Dessen in their lifetime because she writes wonderful stories about characters who are different and have pasts or troubles that they need help or support with.

Arlie's scarred. Her face is disfigured thanks to her stepfather and his accomplices when they blew up a Meth lab. Her mother has just died of an overdose, yet Arlie suspects there's more to the story and to top it off, she's being forced to live with an Uncle she didn't know existed until now. 

Her new school isn't kind. What school is? But Arlie gets by through her best friend and the kindness of her newly discovered Uncle. But that isn't enough turmoil for the poor girl. Instead the dreaded stepfather returns claiming her mother owed him money and now Arlie has inherited the same debt and must pay it off.

But what can a sixteen year old do? She's got no job or access to the kind of capital that the stepfather wants. In the same time as his reappearance, she's got her own problems like school, boys and her home life. The poor girl is so traumatised that she can't even taste or smell, and it's all this idiot's fault.

It's a tough cookie of a story and maybe that's why I liked it so much. Mikulencak writes a very gritty and interesting story that put me in Arlie's perspective and admire how she overcame a lot in what could be considered a short period of time. A very strong lead indeed.

Burn Girl can be bought from Amazon UK and Amazon US.

Of Metal and Wishes by Sarah Fine

Of Metal and Wishes by Sarah Fine

I just love the cover!

Published by: Margaret K. McElderry Books

Genre: Young Adult Sci-Fi, Romance, Fantasy

I felt as if this book could have been longer or at least expanded into a series.

Following the life of young Wen whose mother recently died, the reader is transported into a factory life where things aren't good for the protagonist. Wen's father is the surgeon of the industrial estate and he's run up quite a big debt for the family of two to try and work off. So much so, that he places Wen in danger unintentionally with the recent arrival of new workers otherwise known as the Noor (think the Huns from Mulam). However one worker Melik, is educated and kind. Wen gets on with him and the two have a connection. Yet there's a catch. A ghost lurks the factory. A rumoured dead worker who haunts and protects Wen from unknown dangers but it gets too Phantom of the Opera for me.

The ghost and Wen have an understanding though Wen really really really wants to know who it is. (Curiousity killed the cat) But with the uprising of accidents involving the new Noors, Wen gets suspicious. Could the ghost have something to do with it? Or is there other elements involved?


Of Metal and Wishes can be purchased in the UK via Amazon here and readers in the USA can buy it here.

Torn Away by Jennifer Brown

Torn Away by Jennifer Brown

As a fan of Brown's novel I was immediately drawn into Jersey and related with her over her sibling issues, family life etc. The tornado was written beautifully, my attention was caught and I almost shed a tear at the way she refused to leave the ruin that was her home. I knew (Spoiler) her sister and mother had died but I thought that Jane her friend had too. I was kept guessing on that and she turns out to be alive (yay!) but Jersey's life doesn't go too well. I felt awful when I read about Clay and his family, I honestly thought Terry would make her feel better by almost being some kind of maternal figure, same with the grandparents but nothing was resolved enough to give them that chance to.

What I didn't understand was why Brown chose to drift over the passsing over of Jersey from paternal grandparents to the maternal grandparents. It was too rushed, the details breezing over my head and in the end I didn't feel satisfied as a reader. As an author I just wanted to rewrite the ending and extend the novel to give it more of a spark but one day maybe I'll write a novel like this.

Rowan Slone novels (book 1 and 2) by Tracy Hewitt Meyer

Rowan Slone novels (book 1 and 2) by Tracy Hewitt Meyer 

Seven years ago, an innocent act by Rowan Slone turned her life into a nightmare. Since the age of ten she's lived with the burden of her baby brother's death. Now she is seventeen and all she wants to do is graduate high school, go to college, and escape the loveless family she has endured all these years—the same family that holds her responsible for his death. But no one holds her responsible more than herself.

When long-time crush Mike Anderson invites her to the Prom, suddenly her future looks brighter. Rowan's younger sister, Trina, however, is determined to ruin her new-found happiness, no matter the cost. And when Rowan discovers her mother’s long-held secret, she finds herself teetering on the edge of an abyss. Can Rowan find the strength to move toward the future or is she doomed to dwell in the past?

So this series. I've sat around trying to gasp at words to describe these books so far. I liked them, there's that but they lacked a few things or something didn't add up. The main plot was good though, I enjoyed her story and how she's come out stronger through it all as most authors who write about social issues do, but I do wish they'd see their plotholes.

For instance, in the second novel Rowan's boyfriend that keeps coming and a-going, we know he's breaking up with her. Why does she even stick out that long? He's a tool. It took the last three chapters of the first book to establish a relationship. I can't even deal with that.

Can't Look Away by Donna Cooner

Can't Look Away by Donna Cooner

I went into this book predicting it to be similar to If I Stay and other atypical realistic young adult stories and it was. The protagonist Torrey Grey (named after a moutain) was the standard griefstricken teenager who's forced to carry on with her life after the recent death of her younger sister, a last memory of them also being an argument. There's a twist though. Torrey is internet famous and has previously been featured in Vogue etc. 

It's a bit sudden. You know she's going to fall for some guy, it's how the cycle goes and she does. It just takes her a while to get over appearances and what other people think of her. Still that doesn't make me thirst for more. I thought Torrey was a bitch, she was to choose the popular girls over the real and nice people, she even hurts her cousin but apologises. I get the thrill of being popular, it's what shes always been but still. 

I don't know what to say. Other people might enjoy this but I didn't that much. The ending destroyed what emotion I had for her.

Shatter Me (Shatter Me #1) by Tahereh Mafi

Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi

I had mixed feelings whilst reading this book. It was quite good, I enjoyed it mostly but at some parts I was severely confused, lost and felt some aspects were unrealistic. Stupid to say that in a fiction book but it wasn't how I'd see a post-apocalyptic world where we now have powers etc. I don't know, I will probably try to finish the series someday but for now it's a mixed emotion review