Dangerous Lies by Becca Fitzpatrick
Publication date: November 10th, 2015
Published by: Simon & Schuster Australia
Genre:Young Adult, Suspense, Mystery
Rating: 3/5
Stella Gordon is not her real name. Thunder Basin, Nebraska, is not her real home. This is not her real life.
After witnessing a lethal crime, Stella Gordon is sent to the middle of nowhere for her own safety before she testifies against the man she saw kill her mother’s drug dealer.
But Stella was about to start her senior year with the boyfriend she loves. How can she be pulled away from the only life she knows and expected to start a new one in Nebraska? Stella chafes at her protection and is rude to everyone she meets. She’s not planning on staying long, so why be friendly?
Then she meets Chet Falconer and it becomes harder to keep her guard up, even as her guilt about having to lie to him grows.
As Stella starts to feel safer, the real threat to her life increases—because her enemies are actually closer than she thinks…
I will start off by saying that I was pleasantly surprised by Dangerous Lies right from the start. Fitzpatrick's previous books were not among my favourites I must admit, but this one I liked straight away.
Apart from the unputdowanable element that exist in all of Fitzpatrick's books regardless whether you enjoy them or not, Dangerous Lies does not really depend upon mystery and suspense aspects but more on character development, and that is what I think was missing from Fitzpatrick's previous work. We could see Stella's transition to a mature and grown up individual throughout the whole book. Her relationship with Carmina, who I must say was my favourite character, was very well written without resorting to cliches and the inevitable sappiness.
The romance element was still present, this time featuring a male character so different from Fitzpatrick's Patch or Mason. Chet is as casual and chilled as they come and that's what I loved about him. He was not over the top or dominating in any way. He is just a good looking guy who falls in love with a girl he meets over the summer. It may sound plain but if you ask me, normality was a breath of fresh air compared to all the over exaggerated romantic relationships in YA I'm so tired of.
Secondary characters were not left in the background either, each one of them different and distinct, playing an important part in the story (see Carmina).
What I would have liked however was a better ending. I felt a bit unsatisfied in the end and slightly disappointed at how everything wrapped up so quickly. I would have preferred the bad guys to be as bad as advertised and not just some run of the mill thugs who just popped in to finish the story.
Those of you who are sceptical about Fitzpatrick's books, don't be: Dangerous Lies will definitely appeal to you. I really hope Fitzpatrick will write more books like this in the future.
*This book was provided by Simon & Schuster Australia and NetGalley
Daughter of Deep Silence by Carrie Ryan
Publication date: May 26th, 2015
Published by: Dutton
Genre:Young Adult, Revenge, Mystery
Rating: 2/5
I’m the daughter of murdered parents.
I’m the friend of a dead girl.
I’m the lover of my enemy.
And I will have my revenge.
In the wake of the devastating destruction of the luxury yacht Persephone, just three souls remain to tell its story—and two of them are lying. Only Frances Mace knows the terrifying truth, and she’ll stop at nothing to avenge the murders of everyone she held dear. Even if it means taking down the boy she loves and possibly losing herself in the process.
What a disappointment! I was so looking forward to reading this because a)Carrie Ryan b)revenge, and I feel so let down and actually kinda sad.
Plot holes in this book were the size of my head (and that says a lot!). Apart from the original back story which is completely non-believable by itself, there were other separate small parts that added even more to its unbelievability. First, why Frances changed her identity and became Libby? To save herself? Um Libby was on the ship as well. So what difference does it make if she is Frances or Libby? If the bad men coming after her was the problem, they would come after either Frances or Libby. Also, when Frances was saved everyone on the rescue team saw Cecil crying over his daughter's dead body. It didn't occur to either of them that so many people have been witnesses to the actual Libby dying? Lawwwww-gic!
As far as the revenge part is concerned, let me clarify: there was none. What Frances wanted was to get back with Grey, a guy she met on the ship. She only knew him for 4 days (maybe less) but Frances felt an all consuming love for him, even though, according to her, he was responsible for the attack on the ship. But really, what do 300+ lives matter in the face of true love eh?
We get to read about how Frances wanted him even after all these years and how excited she got when she felt him naked on the other side of a bathroom door (eye roll).
Also, for a girl whose family was murdered and who is so hell bent on revenge preparing herself and doing extensive research for 4 years, she full on sucked at it. From the moment she returned from Europe she kept making these stupid mistakes in an effort to hide her true identity that you had to be really stupid not to notice. Important facts would come up and she would sound surprised that none of that came up on her research. Well, did you do any? Like, at all?
There was absolutely no character development. Shepard and Cecil's character were like non existent, no point being in the book. We got no background on Senator's or Grey's lives and the "revelation" about some eco group something or other was ridiculous.
I just can't believe that Carrie Ryan of The Forest of Hands and Teeth wrote this. Bummer.
Black Iris by Leah Raeder
Publication date: April 28th, 2015
Published by: Atria
Genre:New Adult
Rating: 3.5/5
It only took one moment of weakness for Laney Keating’s world to fall apart. One stupid gesture for a hopeless crush. Then the rumors began. Slut, they called her. Queer. Psycho. Mentally ill, messed up, so messed up even her own mother decided she wasn't worth sticking around for.
If Laney could erase that whole year, she would. College is her chance to start with a clean slate.
She's not looking for new friends, but they find her: charming, handsome Armin, the only guy patient enough to work through her thorny defenses—and fiery, filterless Blythe, the bad girl and partner in crime who has thorns of her own.
But Laney knows nothing good ever lasts. When a ghost from her past resurfaces—the bully who broke her down completely—she decides it's time to live up to her own legend. And Armin and Blythe are going to help.
Which was the plan all along.
Because the rumors are true. Every single one. And Laney is going to show them just how true.
She's going to show them all
This book is quite different than anything I've read before. I don't think it fits into any defined category: YA-impossible, New Adult-close but still no, Adult-not quite. So where does that leave Black Iris? Nowhere and everywhere.
Black Iris was a really dark, sexy, intense book which I found myself thinking about long after I finished reading it. If I'm being honest, I didn't think I'll like it 100 pages in. I found the writing pretentious and over the top, only to realise later that that's exactly how it's supposed to be and that writing style fits this book perfectly.
I must admit I found the different timelines a bit confusing, at the point where I had to write down the years and put the events in chronological order to make some sense of them. As for the writing, yes it was definitely over the top, but once you got used to it there were some scenes in the book that just left me breathless. And I'm not talking about the steamy sex scenes which were ridiculously well written.
This book is about Laney's revenge against the people she thinks wronged her and their struggle (not hers) with her sexuality. Laney just couldn't understand why something that came so natural to her, was so hard for so many people she didn't even know to realise and accept and eventually it started eating away at her. All that rage and anger started to get hold of her mind and heart and led her actions. I know that part of Laney's struggle reflects Raeder's own personal experience as she explains in the Acknowledgments part of the book, so I don't think I have any right to criticize and express my opinion on what is basically someone's own soul and heart on the paper. I won't even pretend to understand what she went through so I'm finding it impossible to judge Laney's feelings and dark thoughts.
However!
SPOILER those that hurt Laney did not kill her mom. They did not force her to take the pills. They did not force her to change her mom's medication. That was all Laney. She did it for semi selfish reasons (she did it for her brother too, so she was not entirely selfish) and because there was something innately wrong with her. She hang around with her worst enemy, who she asked to get her the pills to use on her mom and then almost beat him to death because it was somehow his fault. I'm not saying Z was innocent, far from it. And I know that Laney admits that what happened to her mom was her fault but does she really believes it? Or is she so wrapped into "everyone hates" me world that she thinks that whatever happens to her is always someone else's fault? SPOILER END
That's what I didn't like about the book. How Laney continued to live in a world of hate even after everything that happened to her and even after she started to feel love from someone she loved herself. Unfortunately, that did not quenched her thirst for violence and hurt not even a little. She said from the beginning that she is "no heroine" and "fuck forgiveness". See, I am not ok with that. Violence against violence is never the solution no matter how much you have been wronged and no matter how much your whole body wants to hurt someone bad. That much hate will only leave you hallow and destroyed, and in the end there will be nothing left. Apparently, that doesn't bother Laney at all or Blythe for that matter. But if we are not to care for the main character what was the point of the story with her mom and her lovely brother if not to feel even a little bit of sympathy for Laney, some hope? I particularly disliked how very appealing and exciting this "eye for an eye" way of dealing with things was presented, like as long as we can get away with it, we'll hunt down and mess up any mother *ucker that hurt us. Nope, completely opposed to that.
I recommend Black Iris to readers bored of the same cookie cutter NA college reads, who want something completely different, fresh and exciting. For those that have read Unteachable and want to read something similar, this is not the book for you.
