Stacking The Shelves (31/05/14)

Hosted by Tynga's Reviews

I bought books again this week and I don't even care. And no-one will even know because you're all at BEA anyway *cackles evilly*

I didn't buy the cup though. I just like to show that off.

This week I've been busy on the blog! I've read five books (yes, five!), completed/updated my review archive and planned a post discussing every sequel I need to read. It'll be a two part post, with the second being in 6 months to see if I've got the sequels read.

Read This Week (Sat 24th - Fri 30th)

I bet that when you saw I'd read 5 books this week you thought they were mostly novellas, right? I guess I have too much time on my hands...

The Program by Suzanne Young (5/5)

Sister Assassin by Kiersten White (4/5)

Easy by Tammara Webber (5/5)

We Were Liars by E.Lockhart (4/5)

Days of Blood and Starlight by Liani Taylor (4/5)

No disappointing reads this week! I reviewed them all except Days of Blood and Starlight, which I really need to do soon.

Singing Badly To This Week

I heard this (twice) on Britain's Got Talent. He sings a lot better than a lot of the bands he writes song for and this one is really catchy.

Review of The Program by Suzanne Young

Format: Hardback
Genres: Dystopia, Romance
Pages: 405
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Release Date: 30/04/2013
Find The Author: Blog ¦ Twitter
Book Depository ¦ Amazon UK/US ¦ Goodreads

In Sloane’s world, true feelings are forbidden, teen suicide is an epidemic, and the only solution is The Program.

Sloane knows better than to cry in front of anyone. With suicide now an international epidemic, one outburst could land her in The Program, the only proven course of treatment. Sloane’s parents have already lost one child; Sloane knows they’ll do anything to keep her alive. She also knows that everyone who’s been through The Program returns as a blank slate. Because their depression is gone - but so are their memories.

Under constant surveillance at home and at school, Sloane puts on a brave face and keeps her feelings buried as deep as she can. The only person Sloane can be herself with is James. He’s promised to keep them both safe and out of treatment, and Sloane knows their love is strong enough to withstand anything. But despite the promises they made to each other, it’s getting harder to hide the truth. They are both growing weaker. Depression is setting in. And The Program is coming for them.

I originally pre-ordered The Program in early 2013 and I'm ashamed to say that it took me this long to read it. After The Hunger Games effect (or perhaps before), dystopian novels seemed to be thrown at us from every publisher and at every angle and even though I have an immense love of Dystopia and always have, even I started to get a bit sick of it. I could go on about all the Dystopias that have disappointed me (*cough* Reached) but instead I'll tell you that The Program is a breath of fresh air.

There's almost a checklist when it comes to Dystopia and The Program does check more than one of the boxes. Oppressive government literally knocking on your door? Check. Smouldering man candy? Check. Some weird shady stuff the government is up to to control the population? Check. A love triangle? Ergh, check. Somehow though, The Program felt different and new, like nothing I'd read before and I think that was mostly down to the characters an the situations they find themselves in.

Sloane is older than the usual age for Dystopia, being 17. She's a complex character, she's still grieving for her brother who committed suicide not long ago. It was either months or a year or two, the exact amount of time escapes me. Which is kind of ironic when you think about it. Sloane is completely loyal to her friends and boyfriend James, and I really felt for her when everything started collapsing around her. She's tough too though and will do whatever it takes to get back at the government that has ruined her life.

Another element that I really liked is the lack of insta-love. She's already with James when we meet her and we learn how they got together through the course of the story, using flashbacks. I found them a copletely believeable couple and really rooted for them all the way though. I think that's what kept me reading and in fact, I finished the story within the course of an evening. I was pretty surprised when I found I'd read it all! I'm really looking forward to it's sequel, The Treatment and I know that this time, I will read the whole book as soon as I buy it.

Review of Sister Assassin by Kiersten White

Format: Paperback
Genres: Paranormal, Sisters, Violence
Pages: 241
Publisher: HaperCollins Children's Books
Release Date: 19/02/2013
Find The Author: Blog ¦ Twitter
Book Depository ¦ Amazon UK/US ¦ Goodreads

(Sister Assassin is Mind Games in the US)

She never chose her deadly gift but now she’s forced to use it. How far would you go to protect the only family you have left?

Annie is beset by fleeting strange visions and a guilty conscience. Blind and orphaned, she struggles to care for her feisty younger sister Fia, but things look up when both sisters are offered a place at Kessler School for Exceptional Girls.

Born with flawless intuition, Fia immediately knows that something’s wrong, but bites her tongue… until it’s too late. For Fia is the perfect weapon to carry out criminal plans and there are those at Kessler who will do anything to ensure her co-operation.

With Annie trapped in Kessler’s sinister clutches, instincts keep Fia from killing an innocent guy and everything unravels. Is manipulative James the key to the sisters’ freedom or an even darker prison? And how can Fia atone for the blood on her hands?

I spotted this for just 50p during a charity shop trawl and didn't realise it was Mind Games when I bought it, now I'm really pleased a grabbed a copy because the UK, hands down, has the best cover. Why have a big face when you can have all this gothic goodness? Sister Assassin is such a cool title too.

In a world of books with dainty heroines, (this is starting to sound like a movie voiceover), Sister Assassin is a pretty brutal book with Fia frequently getting bloodied, shot, even tasered at one point. I really liked Fia, all her flaws and quirks made her a perfect character, even if she was severely damaged. She's constantly sarcastic, which is guaranteed to make me love you forever in any situation.

Annie on the other hand I never really 'got'. She felt a little... cardboard. The chapters switch from Fia's to Annie's point of view but Annie really didn't fit well in the story for me. While Fia was the beautifully flawed character with all these emotions, Annie was just... there. The blind sister who sees stuff. It might just be me but her character development didn't feel as strong as Fias.

The concept is an old one - people with supernatural abilities but the way the story was presented was quite unique. Fia and Annie are both trapped by the Kessler School who threaten to kill Annie if Fia doesn't do what they want her to. The abilities are all to do with the mind - feeling emotions, reading thoughts, that sort of thing. No flying or laser eyes, yet anyway.

The was a fun twist to the end of the story where I was thinking, is she really going to do it? It either showed just how clever Fia is or just how crap Annie's abilities are, I'm not sure which. I'm really looking forward to the sequel though, I need more Fia in my life. She puts the sass in asSASSin. (I'm proud of that don't judge me)

Review of Natural Selection by Malinda Lo

Series: Adaptation #1.5
Format: eBook
Genres: Sci-Fi, LGBT, Novella,
Pages: 80
Publisher: Little, Brown Books
Release Date: 03/09/2013
Find The Author: Website ¦ Twitter 
Amazon UK/US ¦ Goodreads

I was born on Earth, not Kurra. I'm not human,even though I try to be. My people, the Imria, think I'm a little unusual because of that. They call me an Earthsider: as if I've crossed a line, chosen a side. Gone native.
 
Before she met her girlfriend Reese, before she knew the role she would play in the fate of two worlds, Amber was a fifteen-year-old Imrian torn between two identities. Imrian by blood, Amber was forced to hide her true self to pass as human during the time she spent on earth. And even when she returns to Kurra, her human experiences, including first love and heartache, still separate her from her fellow Imrians. But when Amber undergoes kibila, a traditional Imrian coming-of-age ceremony during which Amber will choose her name and identity for the next fifteen years, she will be forced to either accept her role in both worlds or forge her own path.

Malinda Lo's digital exclusive novella companion to Adaptation and Inheritance takes readers on a journey through Amber's past, giving fans a glimpse into her life on Kurra and a deeper understanding of one of Adaptation's most compelling characters.

I fell in love with Amber when I first met her in Adaptation, and I was really disappointed when she barely appeared in Inheritance. Natural Selection isn't as bad as Inheritance (3/5), but it wasn't as good as Adaptation either (5/5). It was literally inbetween. I only dropped a star because there was a little too much rehashing of stuff I've read in previous books, a trend that I've never appreciated.

Natural Selection is set in two places, Earth and Kurra. It jumps to each world each chapter and I definitely found Amber's time in Kurra more memorable. Amber doesn't really fit in in her home planet and feels more at home on earth, where she isn't treated differently. On Kurra, she's the only one of her classmates that has visited Earth and naturally they're pretty curious about it, but still treat her with suspicion as her Earth ways and clothes are different to theirs.

Something I didn't know about the traditions on Kurra was something called kibila, a tradition where every fifteen years they er... walk a lot, switch off the telepathy thing and if they want to, select a new name. It's supposed to be a pretty spiritual experience and the person or people you go on this journey with on your fifteenth birthday is the person/people you'll go with on every journey.

If you read Adaptation, I'd say that Natural Selection is a must read. You get a lot of new information about Amber and Kurra that isn't mentioned in the books, plus it's all from Amber's point of view so you get a new perspective. 

300 Books, 300 Reviews!

I HAVE READ AND REVIEWED 300 BOOKS ON GOODREADS.

I have nothing profound to say. Just gifs.

Many Covers Monday: Blood Red Road

Today we're looking at the many different covers of Moira Young's Blood Red Road and choosing a winner! Some are rejackets and others are foreign language covers.

Saba lives in Silverlake, a wasteland ravaged by constant sandstorms where her family scavenge from landfills left by the long-gone Wrecker civilization. After four cloaked horsemen kidnap her beloved twin brother Lugh, she teams up with daredevil Jack and the Free Hawks, a girl gang of Revolutionaries.

Saba learns that she is a fierce fighter, an unbeatable survivor, and a cunning opponent. And she has the power to take down a corrupt society from the inside. Saba and her new friends stage a showdown that change the course of her civilization.

Book Depository ¦ Amazon UK/US ¦ Goodreads 

I have read this one, and I rated it 5/5. It's an amazing adventure story with a few Dystopian elements and lots of fight scenes, if you like that sort of thing!

 (UK/US) My cover is on the left! These are what I would call the original covers and while I love them both, they both fell victim to the publishers whims - the sequel's cover matches neither of these, it matches a new cover released around the same time. I always find this incredibly frustrating.

 (US-UK/French) Here's the new red cover that you may be used to on the right. It's nice enough but I'm still annoyed. Meanwhile the French liked the original US cover but not it's title, so they changed that. Translated it reads 'Saba Angel of Death' which isn't creepy at all.

(German/Indonesian) I'm seriously in love with both of these covers, the German version of the original US cover is much nicer. My only fault with it is that the font makes me think of pirates...

(Czech/Dutch) Here's some weird covers now, with Czech feeling like an African story and more pirate vibes from the Dutch. It's the ripped paper look and the font on the authors name, don't judge me.

Actually, have you seen the lady's weird smoke hair on the Dutch one? That's seriously odd.

(Italian/Portuguese) It's a personal thing but I'm not a fan of the animated look on book covers... something about them seems younger than they are. I have so many issues with the Portuguese cover girl though. Why is her hair so nice? It's an apocalyptic desert! I can almost smell the make up. And is that... *gasp* earrings I can see???

(Serbian/Swedish) I know I have nit picky issues with book covers but that's why I make these posts so yeah. I hate, hate, hate, the Swedish font on the right. I judge anyone that uses it (looking at you, Name of The Star publishers). I also have no idea what is going on with the cover... OH. Blood Red Road so they... literally went with red. I do really like the Serbian cover though, especially the crow. Even if they seem to have tried to do a Hunger Games font.

Winner

 No faults at all with this one, it's got a desert, got some trees, got a crow, got a chick that actually looks like she could be Saba, yeah, I'm pretty happy!

Next week: Gone by Michael Grant 

Review of Everything Leads To You by Nina LaCour

Format: eBook
Genres: romance, contemporary, lgbt
Pages: 320
Publisher: Dutton Children's
Release Date: 15/05/2014
Find The Author: Website ¦ Twitter
Book Depository ¦ Amazon UK/US ¦ Goodreads

A love letter to the craft and romance of film and fate in front of - and behind - the camera from the award-winning author of Hold Still.

A wunderkind young set designer, Emi has already started to find her way in the competitive Hollywood film world.

Emi is a film buff and a true romantic, but her real-life relationships are a mess. She has desperately gone back to the same girl too many times to mention. But then a mysterious letter from a silver screen legend leads Emi to Ava. Ava is unlike anyone Emi has ever met. She has a tumultuous, not-so-glamorous past, and lives an unconventional life. She’s enigmatic... She’s beautiful. And she is about to expand Emi’s understanding of family, acceptance, and true romance.

Let's not lie to each other, there's a very strong chance that if you have a copy of this or have read it, you were drawn in by it's seriously gorgeous cover. I know I was! I'd previously read Hold Still and rated that 5 stars so if that wasn't enough to push me to read it after seeing the cover, John Green (yes that one) recommended it on his vlog and I picked it up immediately. Everything Leads To You is a unique love story set in the world of movie making and set design, aimed more at older teens, the main characters being eighteen. 

Unlike a lot of books with gay relationships, this book isn't about coming out. When we first meet Emi, she's getting over yet another break-up - from the same girl that has dumped her countless times and then taken her back. Emi is a very passionate character, she's a romantic at heart and falls in love easily, which might explain why she keeps taking Morgan back. Morgan was an odd character, Emi's descriptions of her and the way she actually acted felt like two different things, the real life Morgan felt a lot older and wiser. Emi's other passion is her job as a set designer and she'll willingly travel to garage sales, estate sales, whatever it takes to find a piece of furniture or a certain chair that she's envisioned for the set.

I found the world of set design utterly fascinating. I had a vague idea that set designers existed but Emi really opened up my eyes to how much work each set must take. I loved traveling around with her looking for the perfect prints or sofa for her set and I think it must be a wonderful job, if very tiring! I'll be paying a lot more attention to the sets I see on the television from now on, this book taught me a lot.

The main focus of this book (as well as the set design), was a mystery. Emi's friend Charlotte picks up a Patsy Cline record while they're at an estate sale for one of Hollywood's most famous actors (who completely doesn't exist in our world), and when they go home to play it a letter falls out of it, addressed to a woman named Caroline. After extensive research, the girls find out that Caroline has passed away, but her daughter Ava is still alive.

I knew pretty quickly into the story that Emi would fall in love with Ava. It was a pretty predictable story, sorry. Nothing surprised me! I liked Ava, at the same time as feeling that I didn't really know her. However Emi seemed to feel the same way so maybe that was how she was supposed to be written. There were hints of her anger and despair when she found out how her mother had died, and I wish that we could have seen this side of Ava more often, as when she was around she just seemed a little... blank. I really enjoyed her story about her previous relationship though.

This story is lovely and I definitely recommend it for fans of John Green who are looking for a light read. It's filled with lots of lovely quotes and descriptions that kept me reading - I actually finished this within 24 hours! There was one particular story about a florist that was really sweet, I know I'll remember that for a long time.

Stacking The Shelves (24/05/2013)

Hosted by Tynga's Reviews

I've got to stop buying books. I might buy clothes instead! Although I'm supposed to be saving up for a Kindle Paperwhite and an Ikea bookcase. I think I must be addicted to buying things... here's what I bought this week.

I bought some shoe type things! I live in hiking boots and never buy anything girly usually but I really wanted to not be wearing thick hiking boots in the middle of summer. And vest with elephants. And nail files! I also got underwear but didn't want to weird you out. Naturally, just after I bought all these lovely summery things, it pissed down.*

*If you're a confused American, I mean it rained on my head a lot.

Prepare yourself because I have a list of excuses so long I had to bullet point them.

• They were really cheap! I visited a few charity shops this week and I got most of these for 50p each, some even 25p. I think the most I spent on one book was £1.50 for Code Name Verity
• I've read two of them! I have a different cover of Code Name Verity but didn't like it. And that edition of Oliver Twist is gorgeous, I needed it.
• I've started reading Sister Assassin! It's known as Mind Games in the US and I'm happy to say that for the first time in forever, I used Disney lyrics in a post we got the better cover.
• Two of them were for review! Easy and Breakable were for review so that doesn't count right.
• I collect Chris Riddell art! I really will buy any book with Chris Riddell's art in it or on it, I'm obsessed. I'm the proud owner of both Alice in Wonderland and Peter Pan with his designs on the covers.

Read This Week

I actually read books this week! I didn't read anything last week and I blame that 500+ page tome that is The Quick, which I finally finished. I was so disappointed in Inheritance after rating 5/5 to Adaptation, that was a bit of a downer. Everything Leads To You and Prisoner Of Night And Fog were so, so good though! You can find reviews for these on my blog, except Everything Leads To You, which is up tomorrow.

Humming This Week

OH. ALSO.

I started a Tumblr for my blog! It's filled with bookish things, quotes an images of libraries and books I've read and bought and if you wanted to follow it I'd cry a little with happiness. Especially as the last person to follow me was called sexyblackbutts.

That's it from me this week! Don't forget to leave your links and I'll try and visit you, if I don't forget like I usually do... (at least I'm honest)

Vickie x

Review of The Quick by Lauren Owen

Format: Hardback
Genres: Victorian, Gothic, Horror,
Pages: 528
Publisher: Jonathan Cape
Release Date: 03/04/2014
Book Depository ¦ Amazon UK/US ¦ Goodreads

You are about to discover the secrets of The Quick...

But first, reader, you must travel to Victorian England, and there, in the wilds of Yorkshire, meet a brother and sister alone in the world, a pair bound by tragedy. You will, in time, enter the rooms of London's mysterious Aegolius Club - a society of the richest, most powerful men in England. And at some point - we cannot say when - these worlds will collide.

It is then, and only then, that a new world emerges, a world of romance, adventure and the most delicious of horrors - and the secrets of The Quick are revealed.

You only need to look at my bookshelves to know that I'm not usually a reader of 500 page hardbacks, especially when they're not marketed towards teenagers. However I spotted a review of The Quick in a magazine that gets shoved at people in the street (Shortlist, you either know of it or you're lucky) and it sounded so cool and gothic that I immediately wanted a copy. I've been known to stray from my main genre for gothic books before and enjoyed them, so I grabbed a copy as soon as I heard that there was going to be a signing in my local Waterstones. Actually I reserved a signed copy and then forgot to pick it up for over a week because I'm a terrible person.

The Quick is a book of two parts, before you know The Big Secret and after. The shorter, before section, was so much better than the larger second for me. I felt that the characters were so much more likable. The first section is mostly focused on James, who moves down to London from Yorkshire in order to pursue some sort of writing career. I loved this because he moved in with a guy and they fell in love and everything was sweet and lovely and perfect and I just wanted to read about that for the rest of the book to be honest.

The second section creeped up fairly quickly but before I was allowed to go back to James, I was forced to read nearly 20 pages of a diary owned by a man named Augutus Mould, who was about as pleasant as his name suggests. It's here where we learn what's going on in the story and I was a little disappointed, as I felt it was a bit of an overdone topic for Victorian England.

It was during the second section I started to get a little confused. There are a lot of characters introduced and I forgot half of them, then sometimes we would hear their point of view too. Some seemed a little unneeded, especially when we heard their backstory. The main character in this section is Charlotte, Jame's sister, who travels down to London after she doesn't hear from James for a while. My favourite new character in this section was Liza, a younger girl who reminded me a little of Gavroche in Les Miserables. It really started to drag along here though.

The last few chapters were really good. I enjoyed reading what became of the characters that survived (and for two of them, pretty much reading about their whole lives). Sadly by this point I no longer cared for James, the main character that kept me reading in the beginning. I'm not sure if it had a happy ending but I do think it ended in the right place, with enough to keep me wondering what happens next. I think it's a standalone novel but if there were a sequel, I do think I would read it, especially if Liza made an appearance.

Review of Prisoner Of Night And Fog by Anne Blankman

Format: eBook (for review)
Genres: historical, ww2, romance,
Pages: 352
Publisher: Headline
Release Date: 22/04/2014
Find The Author: Website ¦ Twitter
Book Depository ¦ Amazon UK/US ¦ Goodreads

Gretchen Muller has, as best she can, dealt with the horrors of her family's past. Her father, a senior Nazi officer, died to save the life of their leader, Adolf Hitler. And now Germany has the chance to be great once more. Swept up in the excitement and passion of life in Munich in 1931, seventeen-year-old Gretchen has embraced the life laid out for her by that leader, her 'Uncle Dolf'.

But the secrets of the past cannot be silenced forever. When Gretchen receives a letter from an anonymous sender claiming to have more information about her father's death, she becomes swept up in a desperate and dangerous search for the truth. With the full might of the ever-powerful Nazi party on her tail, it is a race that will risk everything she has and change her life forever...

Adolph Hitler is a bit like an onion... he has a lot of layers. (Inappropriate Shrek reference). I thought I knew Hitler pretty well by now, I know of his art and his love of Eva Braun and of course, all the horrors that he created. After reading Prisoner of Night and Fog however, I feel like I know him a lot more. Creepily a lot more. Writing about Hitler, about someone who knew him, was always going to be a tough subject and I feel that Anne Blankman was the perfect person to attempt this feat. 

The naiive female character may seem overdone, however in this Gretchen seemed almost needed, as she gave us an insight into what the non-Jewish residents of Germany were thinking the Jews were at the time and I learnt a lot from her. Gretchen doesn't stay naiive however, she's a very strong character that won't hold back from finding out the truth about her father's death, no matter what lengths she had to go to. She gets battered and bruised physically and mentally a lot of times but never gives up. I really admired her!

There is some romance in this, which I enjoyed. It didn't get in the way of the story and I think it helped the story, if anything. Peter, being Jewish, adds a lot of suspense and it's him that makes Gretchen see that all that she's been told by Hitler about Jews is a complete lie.

Speaking of Hitler, you really get to know him in this story. He appears a lot in this, Gretchen being one of his pets after all, and there's a few scenes about him that were seriously creepy and made me feel uncomfortable at times. This book covers his origins, before he really came into power so I'm looking forward to the sequel in a way but also worried for a lot of the characters in the story, particularly the Jewish ones.

You learn a lot of the history of the beginnings of the second world war, however, I didn't feel that there were any info-dumps. I've been the subject of historical info-dumps in the past (there's a joke there somewhere) and I was not appreciative of them at all but I don't ever remember feeling bored at any point during this book.

Prisoner of Night and Fog was researched thoroughly, and it really paid off. A lot of characters that are in the book were real people and Anne's research into Hitler's life and Germany at that time really helped me believe the story and I could almost believe that this was a real story, not a work of fiction. There were some other things I wanted to happen in the story that didn't, but I'm sure that these will all be mentioned in the sequel - mostly what happened to the characters during and after the war.

Review of Inheritance by Malinda Lo

Series: Adaptation #2 (may contain spoilers for book 1)
Format: eBook
Genres: Sci-Fi, Romance, LGBT,
Pages: 474
Publisher: Little, Brown Books
Release Date: 24/09/2013
Find The Author: Website ¦ Twitter
Book Depository ¦ Amazon UK/US ¦ Goodreads

Reese and David are not normal teens—not since they were adapted with alien DNA by the Imria, an extraterrestrial race that has been secretly visiting Earth for decades. Now everyone is trying to get to them: the government, the Imria, and a mysterious corporation that would do anything for the upper hand against the aliens.

Beyond the web of conspiracies, Reese can’t reconcile her love for David with her feelings for her ex-girlfriend Amber, an Imrian. But her choice between two worlds will play a critical role in determining the future of humanity, the Imria’s place in it, and the inheritance she and David will bring to the universe.

Adaptation was the first of Malinda Lo's books that I've picked up to read, even though I own a copy of Ash. It blew me away! Lots of action, lots of sci-fi, but not over-complicated, you could easily wrap your head around what was going on. And! A bisexual main character, something I don't think I've ever seen in a young adult story.

So went happened to Inheritance? It just went so, so wrong in so many places I'm not sure where to begin. There wasn't as much plot as there was in Adaptation, so I would hope that this would leave more room for the smaller characters to become more fleshed out and new friendships to begin. This didn't happen however and if anything, I felt that Reese lost a lot of her personality and David almost became the cardboard cut-out boyfriend, I didn't understand why he and Reese were together.

Cardboard would be a good word to use, in fact, for a lot of the book cliches that happened in here, some I didn't even feel were necessary. People treating Reese like a child constantly really got on my nerve. I didn't notice this with David however, because he never really spoke all that much. It seemed to be Reese driving most of the conversations. I was also disappointed to see much less of Amber and her presence during the last 25% seemed to be thrown in to help finish the story.

In fact, a lot of things felt thrown in, just to move the story along but it never really added to it and I never found myself wanting to continue reading to find out what happens next, like I did with Adaptation. It's an okay read, just not particularly memorable. I'm glad I read it so I can find out the ending but it didn't live up to the standard of Adaptation by a long shot, sadly.

Review of Dangerous Girls by Abigail Haas

Format: Paperback
Genres: Mystery, Horror, Murder,
Pages: 388
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Release Date: 01/08/2013
Find The Author: Twitter
Book Depository ¦ Amazon UK/US ¦ Goodreads

Elise is dead.
And someone must pay.

Anna, her boyfriend Tate, best friend Elise and a group of close friends set off on a debaucherous Spring Break trip to Aruba. But paradise soon turns into a living nightmare when Elise is brutally murdered.

Soon Anna finds herself trapped in a foreign country and fighting for her freedom. As she awaits the judge's decree, it becomes clear that everyone is questioning her innocence. To the rest of the world, Anna isn't just guilty, but dangerous. As the court case unfolds the truth is about to come out, and it's more shocking than you could ever imagine...

This book was so freaking intense, it's been 10 days and I still can't get my head around it. This book was just... so... I can't even. It wasn't perfect but it kept me reading until the very last page and then blew my mind with the last two pages. Two pages!

I originally picked up this book because I love court cases. I follow a few, more notably the Jodi Arias case and I think they're really interesting. Every case is different because you have different people each time - different judges, different lawyers, different motives.

With this case, we follow a person, Anna. She's locked up in prison for the murder her her best friend, Elise. Elise was stabbed to death on holiday and now Anna is stuck in a foreign country while her friends are back home, discussing if they think she did it or not and why she might have done it.

We get to read what happened on holiday and before the holiday from Anna's point of view and for me, this is where it gets a bit confusing. The chapters are clearly labelled as to where they are so you know the time frame, but the constant jumping back and forth wasn't pleasant, particularly as I never knew where we were going to go. Sometimes we went to the first time Anna met Elise, sometimes to a party and sometimes to after a murder.

I really, really liked Elise so it was kinda a shame that she, you know, got brutally stabbed to death. Her and Anna's relationship was clearly not a healthy one and I do think they made each other worse in the end.

However, I was left questioning everything I'd previously read by the end of the book. There's such a perfect twist to the tale that I was left half wanting to praise the author and half wanting to strangle the author for leaving it like that. I want more! I guess I'll have to settle for reading more of her books.