Blackmoore by Julianne Donaldson

Kate has always wanted to go to Blackmoore and now she finally has her chance. Henry Delafield (the neighbor boy that she grew up with) has invited her to stay at Blackmoore over the summer. Kate sees this as her first step towards independence and her end goal–India. Her mother proposes a deal. If Kate can receive and reject three marriage proposals while at Blackmoore, then she will be allowed to go to India with her aunt. What Kate doesn’t plan on is the hearts she might have to break (hers included) to fulfill her end of the bargain.

I thought Kate was a great character. She’s stubborn and willful and overall just very complex. You could sense that she had a lot of things (and feelings) that she was struggling with but she wasn’t whiny about it. She just kind of did what she needed to do and moved on. Henry was also a good character but I felt like he could have had a little more depth to him. He was nice enough, and I liked him, but maybe just a little flat. Especially when compared to Kate. As for the mothers…Mrs. Worthington (Kate’s mom) and Mrs. Delafield (Henry’s mom) were seriously outrageous. Are there actually mothers out there like this?

The only thing I really didn’t like about this book was that I felt like there were a few plot holes. Small ones, but sometimes I was like, “Why can’t anyone see a solution to this?” For example, when Kate’s mother shows up at Blackmoore acting really inappropriate and such I felt like Kate should have teamed up with Mrs. Delafield. Mrs. Delafield would have been all for making Kate’s mom look like a fool so…it felt like an obvious choice to me. Maybe not though. Overall I thought this book was great (and clean!) and I can easily overlook any plot holes.

Overall Rating: 5
Violence: None
Sexual Content: None
Language: None
Smoking/Drinking: None

Hunger by Michael Grant

This is the second book in the Gone Series by Michael Grant and this post may contain spoilers if you have not read the first one. Click here for my review of “Gone” the first book in the series.

Hunger starts three months after Gone ends. The food supply at Perdido Beach is perilously low, but none of the kids will do anything about it–they all just want to sit inside and play video games. When Caine decides to take over the power plant and cut the power in Perdido Beach, things get a little messy. Sam is torn between stopping Caine and monitoring the town where a “Freaks vs. Humans” mentality is starting to take hold. With next to no food and problems cropping up left and right how are the kids going to survive?

I know I said that I was going to read this whole series…well, I’m not. This book just got way too weird for me. After I’d made the decision to not continue with the series, I went onto Wikipedia and read the blurbs for the rest of the books. I’m pretty glad that I stopped after this one because the rest of the books get even WEIRDER even though I didn’t think that was possible.

Moving on. Yes, this book was weird. More mutating carnivorous animals, more strange radioactive beasts living in the mountains, and more superhuman powers that don’t really make sense. Even though there was a lot going on in the book, I didn’t feel like there was any driving force that made me want to turn the page. I could have stopped reading at any time and been fine with it. It just lacked emotion maybe…I didn’t feel connected to or really care about any of the characters. When someone dies I’m just like, “Meh” which is really saying something because I’m a crier. Big time. My husband always has to remind me that these people aren’t real and I always say (while holding back tears) “But the EMOTIONS are real!” With this book…no emotions. The only emotion I really felt was disgust–often. Anyway. I won’t be reading any more of these, so don’t be expecting any more reviews. If you’re simply dying to find out how the kids get out, here’s the Wikipedia article.

Overall Rating: 2
Violence: Heavy. A lot of fighting and some moderately graphic descriptions of gore.
Sexual Content: Mild
Language: Mild
Smoking/Drinking: Moderate. One character is an alcoholic and there’s a scene with kids smoking pot.

The Summer I Turned Pretty Trilogy by Jenny Han

Belly (short for Isabel) has been going to the beach house every summer since she can remember with her mom and her brother, Steven. They share the beach house with her mom’s childhood best friend and her two sons Conrad and Jeremiah. The three boys have always been their own little crew and all Belly wants is to be included. Finally things start to change the summer she turns 16. For the first time she feels pretty and she thinks the boys are starting to notice that too.

I did not particularly care for these books. Obviously Belly is going to be caught between the two brothers and we’re going to see how that plays out. Blah blah blah. First of all, I guess I didn’t particularly care for Belly. In the first book she’s too immature–always on the brink of crying or getting overly embarrassed. In the second book she’s grown up a little bit, but not really. In the last book she’s just okay. Secondly, I didn’t really like either of the brothers! It’s kind of a problem when you don’t like any of the three main characters. I could never take Jeremiah seriously and Conrad was too back and forth. Just make up your mind! I will say, though, that I liked both Taylor and Susannah.

Speaking of people going back and forth…Belly drove me nuts. The. Whole. Time. Pick a guy and stick with it. I just didn’t like that this one girl was pitting two brothers against each other. How awkward. These are people you have to spend the rest of your life with! They were easy reads, but I wouldn’t say they were necessarily fun. Mostly I was agonizing over how dumb the characters were and just wanted them to make up their minds.

Overall Rating: 2
Violence: Mild
Sexual Content: Moderate
Language: Moderate
Smoking/Drinking: Heavy