Review: Ember by Jessica Sorensen

Ember
(Death Collectors #1)

Author: Jessica Sorensen

Publication Date: August 29, 2012

Publisher: Borrowed Hearts Publishing

Genre: Paranormal/Fantasy

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Synopsis:

What if you knew when someone was going to die?
For seventeen-year-old Ember, life is death. With a simple touch, she knows when someone will die. It’s her curse and the reason she secludes herself from the world. The only person who knows her secret is her best friend Raven.
Then she meets Asher Morgan. He’s gorgeous, mysterious, and is the only person Ember can't sense death from. So when he pushes into her life, she doesn’t mind.
But when unexplained deaths start to haunt her town, Ember starts questioning why she can’t sense Asher's death and what he may be hiding.

My Thoughts: This is one of the books that once I started reading I didn't stop until I finished.  I simply couldn't stop until I found out what was going on!

Ember's life is complicated.  She can't touch anyone, not even her own family, without knowing how they will die.  Not only that, insanity runs in her family and she has to do everything she can to keep it together while her mother and brother act strangely.  Couple that with the fact that everyone believes that she is responsible for her own father's death/disappearance and you pretty much have Ember.

I sympathies with Ember throughout the whole book.  She has a good head on her shoulders (so far) and, quite frankly, she is surrounded by people who are absolutely nuts and lives in a community where she is completely ostracized. No wonder she spends her time hanging out in cemeteries!

Now, I am a little bit disappointed that the summary above only includes Asher Morgan because Cameron is also an integral part of this story (and just as yummy!).  Both Asher and Cameron move to Ember's small town from New York around the same time and both lavish attention on Ember - something she has never had before. Cameron is cocky and sometimes abrasive while Asher is sweet, protective and caring.

But when both Asher and Cameron seem to know what is going on with her "gift" and bodies start piling up, Ember has to decide which one, if either, she can trust.

I just have to say here, I am in love with Cameron.  He made me really mad sometimes, but he is just the kind of guy I float towards in the Young Adult novels.  A bad boy with a little mystery is totally someone to get the blood flowing!  I just felt like Ember had more of a connection with him too.  But, who knows until the end of the series (other than Jessica!)?

Overall, I really enjoyed this book.  It had a lot of plot twists and really kept me on my tows.  This book almost always managed to stay one step ahead of me and I like that.  It also introduced a new kind of Supe (supernatural creature) which means it wasn't overdone.  It was a pretty awesome read and I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys paranormal/fantasy YA novels!

Review: Cemetery Street by John Zunski

Cemetery Street

Author: John Zunski

Publication Date: May 16th, 2011

Publisher: Smashwords

Genre: YA/Contemporary/

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Synopsis:

In a world where dreams are possible and nightmares come true, can you romance a memory? James Morrison thinks so. In a snowy cemetery, James reenacts a childhood ritual, unleashing an avalanche of memories. Laugh, cry, and blush with James as he recounts a late twentieth century American life.

My Thoughts: This isn't a YA book, and there isn't anything fantasy or paranormal about it. Yet, it was a really great read that I would absolutely recommend.

Cemetery street is a story about so many things. Mainly, it is the story of James Morrison's life. It is told so beautifully, and with such detail and explicit emotion that it is not even slightly boring. This books gives us such a spectacular view on the commonplace complexities we face constantly in life. Zunksi breathes life into everyday occurrences and shows them to us in a brand new light. While reading this, you will get a startling insight on life, love, loss, hate, anger, joy, family, friends, growing up, and most importantly, death. Death is a major theme in this book, making the name of the book and street James grows up on pretty relevant. Death is something we all have to deal with way more often than we would prefer. Sometimes, hearing about others' experiences helps us with our own. You may find this story does just that for you. I would say love is the next most important theme is this book. James has grown up with his best friend, love of  his life, Shannie, living next door. They literally do everything together, they are as close as two people can possibly be without being together. But oh how James wishes they could be. Shannie will forever be the yardstick that everyone else is measured against for James, but I doubt anyone will ever come close to measuring up.

This book definitely has it's mature moments, there is a little sprinkling of sex here and there. But, the intimate scenes in this book were not placed merely for sex's sake. Each scene is a major plot/character developing moment and is very tastefully written. The sex scenes play a very important role in the unfolding of this story and they are not in any way vulgar or over the top. I found them to be wonderfully placed and detailed perfectly.

If you have ever seen the movie Stand By Me, which happens to be one of my all time favorite movies, you will understand what I mean when I say that this book has an atmosphere much the same as that movie. If you haven't seen it, I recommend you do. It's based of a short story called The Body by Stephen King. This book and that movie just do such an amazing job of capturing the essence that is life and growing up and dealing with life's blows one by one. This was a really great read and you should probably read it ;).

Review: Fracture by Megan Miranda

Fracture

Author: Megan Miranda

Publication Date: January 17th, 2012

Publisher: The Walker Childrens

Genre: YA/Paranormal/Romance

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Synopsis:

Eleven minutes passed before Delaney Maxwell was pulled from the icy waters of a Maine lake by her best friend Decker Phillips. By then her heart had stopped beating. Her brain had stopped working. She was dead. And yet she somehow defied medical precedent to come back seemingly fine. Everyone wants Delaney to be all right, but she knows she's far from normal. Pulled by strange sensations she can't control or explain, Delaney finds herself drawn to the dying. Is her altered brain now predicting death, or causing it? Then Delaney meets Troy Varga, who recently emerged from a coma with similar abilities. At first she's reassured to find someone who understands the strangeness of her new existence, but Delaney soon discovers that Troy's motives aren't quite what she thought. Is their gift a miracle, a freak of nature-or something much more frightening?

My Thoughts: I really wanted to read this book since the moment I discovered it on goodreads shortly after it's release. It did not fail to please!

This is the kind of story where I really can't talk much about the story line at all, I don't want to give anything away. I went into this story with a rough idea of what I thought would take place, and I was completely, and pleasantly, surprised instead. The story carries some great unexpected details that I would hate to spoil, it  is much more fun to discover them on your own. I will, however, say that I really enjoyed Megan Miranda's writing style. Everything was pretty to the point, like every line spoken, and every event had a direct relation to the story line. I find a lot of stories carry lots of filler, meaningless dialogue or unimportant events, this story has none of that. Everything that happens, happens for a reason, it's 100% great story line.

The story is told by Delaney, the main character, and may I just say that I really love her name! In fact I found that the 3 most important characters in the story had pleasantly unique names, them being Delaney, Decker, and Troy. Decker is Delaney's best friend since childhood, they've done everything together, he is also the one who pulled her out of the lake and saved her life. Upon almost losing her, Decker realizes just how important she is, and what his feelings toward her really are, and in comes our love story, or in this case, more like a love battle, but again I won't splurge details, you will have to read for yourself to see what I mean. Troy, is a very mysterious, seriously creepy, guy that shares Delaney's near death experience, and also shares the same results. That being that they are literally pulled towards death, they can feel when people are going to die. Things are a roller coaster with Troy, at first Delaney is pretty pleased to find someone she can talk to about this un-explainable craziness, of course she has told no one about what is happening to her. But after some time, she discovers that they don't really see their abilities in the same light...

I think that Megan Miranda did a great job personifying a teenager, Delaney, in this story. Her thoughts, and outlook, and mannerisms, and actions, are all bang on. It doesn't feel forced, she's a very real character is the best word I can find to describe her. As well, Decker was a pretty strong character, I would say I could almost feel his presence, his emotions concerning Delaney or almost a force to be reckoned with, I could feel his energy, like a solid, protective presence, coming off the pages. Then there is Troy, he was a tricky character indeed, at times I couldn't tell  if he was the good guy, or the bad guy, someone to be pitied, or just a certifiably crazy person. It all comes together in the end, and we discover what kind of person he really is, but I'm not telling! There were times in the story that I was seriously creeped out, this book definitely has it's eerie moments, and I really enjoyed them!

You hear all the time about people having near death experiences and they come back with this renewed vigor and lust for life, and they perceive everything as just so wonderful. That is definitely not the case for Delaney, it's pretty much a downward spiral for her as soon as she wakes up from her coma. This story is like a great example of, you don't know what you got until it's gone, as Delaney starts to lose everyone and everything that was a big part of her life, and all because of what happened to her. There were times when I'm sure if I was her I would have given up, but she definitely has determination, and strength!

Sometimes when reading a book, I come across a line that really jumps out at me, it's either meaningful or I just really like/ find it well written. And I will sit there and read it a couple times and just think about how awesome it is. I usually write them down and save them. I found one in this book that I thought was just plain great, I'll share it with you as a little excerpt/taste test/sneak peek.

"He dragged me through the house, and I let him, because I wasn't sure who I was scared of most at the moment. The stranger I was learning about to quickly, or the woman I'd known my entire life who was quickly becoming a stranger."