The Sound of Drowning by Katherine Fleet

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Amazing writing and storytelling!
Mer loves Ben and they’ve been best friends forever. She’s never felt confident in herself but Ben makes her feel loved and perfect. Mer keeps referring to a lie that hurt her family and Ben and his family, so I was left wondering about that for a while. A new guy, Wyatt, moves to town and Mer saves him from the cold and wet weather when he desperately needs a ride. They strike up a friendship with boundaries and sarcastic wit and honesty. They are good for each other. The story unfolds through Mer’s memories and the present happenings in Mer’s life. Katherine Fleet has proven herself as an author and I’m impressed with the way she has woven everything together seamlessly in this book that took me on an emotional roller coaster, 5 solid stars!

The Afterlife of the Party by Marlene Perez

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The Afterlife of the Party by Marlene Perez
Tansy is a witch with a crush on Vaughn, one of her best friends. The three of them go to a party with their mutual friend Sky because she’s dying to see a new band perform. She’s supposedly dating one of the band members and wants Tansy and Vaughn to meet him. Once they arrive at the party, he doesn’t treat Sky any differently than any other girl and seems overly interested in Tansy, to the point where he bites her neck. Vaughn and Tansy freak out and Sky seems to be in some kind of trance that they can’t snap her out of. They manage to get Sky and leave the party and go to Tansy’s home to get help and advice from her grandmother. Sky is missing the next morning, so Tansy and Vaughn leave to find her. They’ve infiltrated a vampire cult and, with Tansy and her grandmother being witches, they have some power to use against the bloodsuckers. When Travis bit Tansy, he unknowingly created a striga Vie which gave her more powers against the vampires. Tansy also learns things about her mother that have been kept secret from her. I like Vaughn’s character and the values he has. The strong relationship between Vaughn and Tansy warms my heart. We all need true friends like that. 4 stars for this witch/vampire story combo!

Love Spells and Other Disasters by Angie Barrett

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Love Spells and Other Disasters by Angie Barrett
Rowan lives with her ghost-whisperer mom in an old family mansion that belonged to Rowan’s deceased father’s family. Her mother is famous for her abilities and Rowan is slightly embarrassed by it all, since she doesn’t believe in any of that stuff. At school, she’s paired with a snobby Abby who isn’t nice to Rowan. Their assignment is to create a lucrative business together. Abby comes up with the idea of making love spells and has Rowan write them up and fold them into origami hearts. Luca is helping with the renovation of Rowan’s home. Luca and Rowan talk and begin dating and everyone seems surprised by this because Luca is popular and was a star athlete until an injury ended that and everyone thinks Rowan is odd. The love spells were supposed to be harmless fun but Abby finds a real love spell and Rowan uses it on her mom because she seems lonely. Afterward, Rowan notices that some of the couples are unhappy and her mom has gone loopy. She finds a reversal spell that undoes the real spells, causing angry customers. She deals with the backlash through acts of kindness that seem to appease and calm people down. 4 stars for this romance with a bit of magic!

Verify by Joelle Charbonneau

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Meri misses her mother every day since an accident took her life. She also tries to emulate and understand her mother’s artwork. Meri wants to become an artist too. Her friend Rose was able to help her get an interview to be considered to participate in the City Art Program that Meri’s mother was such a big part of before her death. Meri has a successful interview but notices strange and suspicious things happening around her. Among them, she sees someone drop paper, a traitorous and wasteful act. Her curiosity gets the best of her and she thinks she’s figuring out some of her mother’s painted clues, so she goes to sights that she believes her mother meant for her to go to. She’s given a piece of paper with the word verify written on it and talked to by a young man. She eventually learns what truly happened to her mother and the underground she was a part of in the last eighteen months of her life. Meri falls down the rabbit hole! Action, intrigue and friendship pull the story along, 4 stars and I’m ready to read the sequel, Disclose.

All This Time by Mikki Daughtry and Rachael Lippincott

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Thanks to Simon & Schuster and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review All This Time by Rachel Lippincott!
A long-lasting relationship broken. A conversation harshly interrupted. A devastating reality. Those are the beginnings of this story. Kyle and Kim have broken up seven times over the course of their relationship. Now Kyle wishes he could go back and let her go and give her the freedom to be happy. He realizes how self-absorbed he’s been since his football accident and his relationships suffered because of it. He moves on and feels accomplished after his loss until he receives another eye-opener! Great writing and a unique storyline and if I give details, I will spoil it for future readers. Fantastic book full of hope, perseverance and love, 5 stars!

  • I received an arc in exchange for voluntary review consideration and all opinions and thoughts are my own.

The Vanishing Game by Kate Kae Myers

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The story feels a bit scattered because Jocey is relaying information that way. The more I read, the more I wondered what is holding Jocey together. She received a letter coded in a way that only herself, Noah and her deceased brother knew about so she’s bound and determined to find her brother alive. Jocey, Jack and Noah lived in a foster home together when they were younger. The three of them were best friends and stuck up for each other and trusted no one else. Joecey’s latest discovery has her traveling to the Peace Tower to hopefully find her brother or at least another clue. With Noah’s help, Jocey decodes and chases clues, tries to avoid danger and hunts for anything to do with Jack. If I say anymore, I’ll spoil the storyline. This story is a riddle with a unique and unexpected ending. The twist is mind-boggling and the author did a fantastic job pulling everything together, 5 stars for a wonderfully twisted mystery thriller.

Fable by Adrienne Young

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Fable is on her own, trying to survive long enough to get off the island her father left her on years ago. Her mother died in a shipwreck and her father deserted her and left her to survive completely on her own. She’s tough and has gained survival skills all by her wits. She manages to get off the island by buying passage aboard the Marigold, a ship that she later discovers is one of her father’s. She finally reaches Saint and he’s just as cold to her as she expected, even though she hoped for more. He does give her the inheritance her mother would have left her but nothing is given easily or with any help when Saint is involved. She also figures out why Saint carved into her arm all those years ago. Fable bargains cleverly and becomes a true part of a crew and she finally feels like she has a place where she belongs. I thoroughly enjoyed this story, a pirate adventure with strong characters, great character development and dangerous setting, 5 stars!

A Northern Light by Jennifer Donnelly

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A Northern Light by Jennifer Donnelly
Mattie is the eldest of her three sisters and helps her father take care of everything, farm and family, since their brother Lawton left and their mother is no longer with them. Mattie loves words and treasures the dictionary she inherited from her mother. She teaches her siblings new words every day. Mattie loves to read and write and she’s attending school as often as she can to earn her high school diploma. In 1906, women didn’t have voting, purchasing, or really any legal rights. Men decided pretty much everything. There wasn’t really any birth control except abstinence so that changed the course of many lives. Mattie observes others and analyzes their actions to understand their behavior better and empathize with them. So much around her is complicated and more than the eye, or gossip, can see. She also listens to the judgmental gossip and realizes how selfish the gossiping people are and how they see that people need help but they don’t help at all, instead they just enjoy talking about them. The grit, roughness, grief, joy, hardwork, and the everyday living details are included in this story and that makes a wonderfully, realistic historical fiction read! I love Jennifer Donnelly’s writing style and have read all of her books except one, Tea Rose is on my to-be-read pile. 5 stars for a satisfying historical read!

To Whatever End by Lindsey Frydman

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Quinn has inherited a curse that follows the females in her family. This curse shows the future but each female’s version is a bit different from the others. Quinn’s mom saw choices and Quinn sees the death of each person she touches. She meets Griffin at the museum and then discovers he’s her new neighbor. He’s moved from states away for a fresh start. Quinn’s vision of Griffin shows his death by a gunshot, in the near future. Quinn struggles to change his fate and the two of them go on a relationship roller coaster. In the meantime, someone is doing cruel things to Griffin and Quinn and she’s determined to get to the bottom of it all. Someone breaks into Griffin’s apartment and smashes his guitar into pieces and later cuts the brake line on his car. The pranks don’t end there. The problem is revealed and Quinn is devastated by what she finds out. The story is an interesting mystery with a touch of romance, 4 stars!

Crave by Tracy Wolff

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Fun supernatural read for young adults.
Grace has recently lost both of her parents. She’s now becoming a resident of Alaska so she can live with her extended family, her uncle and her cousin Macy. She’s in a bit of a culture shock from the small population and extremely cold weather, since she’s just traveled from San Diego. But when she arrives at Katmere Academy, her new home, she’s astounded. It’s an elegant castle where students reside and her uncle is the headmaster. Grace feels out of place and she can tell which students “run” the school. It seems to be run by the Order, with Jaxon Vega as the leader. Jaxon helps Grace more than once and she starts falling for him. Strange and dangerous things keep happening around and to Grace. She believes that she’s getting to know her fellow students and who she can trust until information is revealed about her parents. The danger surrounding Grace increases to the point where her life is in danger. The book started out cheesy with the silly chapter titles and the almost instant swooning but it’s still a fun read. The depth occurred through character development and a bit of mystery. I enjoyed Jaxon’s perspective at the ending because it helped me understand the situation better. I am curious about and anxious to read the sequel and unravel more of the background of the fun characters. 4 stars for this young adult supernatural fantasy!