ARC Review: Thicker Than Water by Kelly Fiore

Title: Thicker Than Water 
Author: Kelly Fiore
Genre: Contemporary 
Source: Edelweiss 
Publisher: HarperTeen
Publication Date: January 5th 2016
Add it to Goodreads / Pre-Order it on Amazon

Summary: 

Cecelia Price killed her brother. At least, that’s what the police and the district attorney are saying. And although Cecelia is now locked up and forced into treatment, she knows the real story is much more complicated. Cyrus wasn’t always the drug-addled monster he’d become. He was a successful athlete, but when an injury forced him off the soccer field and onto pain medication, his life became a blur of anger, addiction, and violence. All CeCe could do was stand by and watch, until she realized one effective way to take away her brother’s drugs while earning the money she needed for college: selling the pills. Soon, CeCe becomes part drug dealer, part honor student. But even when all she wants is to make things right, she learns that sometimes the best intentions lead to the worst possible outcome. Thicker than Water is an unforgettable dark, harrowing look into the disturbing truth of drug addiction and the desperate love of a sister watching her brother deteriorate before her eyes.

Review: 

I finished this book a little less then 48 hours ago, and I am still trying to digest what I read. Fiore's writing was beautiful, and she took on a topic that is rough for many people. Thicker Than Water is heavy book, and I will warn you now that it is triggering. 

Thicker Than Water is book about drug addiction and denial. The denial that everything was okay. The denial that things would get better one day. The denial that it could never be someone you love in that position. Cece's family fell apart. Her mother died of cancer, her father sold their house, remarried and moved to a farm, her brother injured his knee and is now addicted to pain medications. It's killing Cece, who had a strong connection with her brother, to see him going through this. But between her father's denial and Cyrus's reluctance to get help there isn't much that she can do. Cece's dreams of going to college are slowly being crushed under the weight of the farm's foreclosure, and one day while in the library an idea comes to her. She can sell Cyrus's pills.

The book is split between now and then. Before Cece is arrested for her brother's death, and after. In the now section Cece is a behavioral rehab, something her lawyer believes will help lessen her charges. Why lessen the charges? Cece didn't murder Cyrus. But she feels responsible for his death. I don't think it is possible for your heart not to break while you read this book. It is raw, and Cece doesn't hold anything back. Fiore's writing gave you a clear image of each of her characters, and the heart breaking reality of addiction. 

 

I can talk about this book all day, but nothing I say is close to what this book deserves. Thicker Than Water is a book that I haven't stopped thinking about since the moment I put it down. With its beautiful language and a tough subject readers won't be able to put Thicker Than Water down. 

Rating:

Cover Tells All #3: Our Friend Billy!

Welcome to our third official post of Cover Tells All! This is a weekly meme that we created that we feel everyone is going to absolutely love. Here's how it works: We sit down with some of our friends and family and show them a few book covers that they've never seen before. The people we ask are not big readers and do not have any access to the internet or anything other than their own imaginations. Looking only at the cover of the book, they have to tell us (in the most detail possible) what they think that the plot is about. This is super fun because some people actually guess super correctly, and some answers are so wacky that they're just hard to believe. So on every Saturday we will be putting up a new #CoverTellsAll post with an interview with a whole new person! So the question remains - CAN you judge a book by it's cover?

*Note: The answers posted here are word-for-word what our friends and family guessed!

Today we have our friend Billy here for our third-ever #CoverTellsAll post!

Book #1: 

The Truth About Alice by Jennifer Mathieu

Billy's Summary:

Okay, from the cover I think it's about a girl named Alice who has problems about her self image and she has to find her true self.

Actual Summary:

Rumor has it that Alice Franklin is a slut. It's written all over the bathroom stall at Healy High for everyone to see. And after star quarterback Brandon Fitzsimmons dies in a car accident, the rumors start to spiral out of control. In this remarkable debut novel, four Healy High students—the girl who has the infamous party, the car accident survivor, the former best friend, and the boy next door—tell all they know. But exactly what is the truth about Alice? In the end there's only one person to ask: Alice herself. 

Our Judgement:

Billy was sort of right, because Alice has to deal with a lot of self-image problems and people have to find out what the real Alice is like - although the book is centered more around everyone else's views of Alice rather than Alice herself.

Book #2:

The Lies About Truth by Courtney C. Stevens

Billy's Summary:

I think it's about four friends who run away from their life and try to be on their own, and they all have dirty secrets and they will all in time be surfaced, and the main characters will see the ugly truth.

Actual Summary:

Sadie Kingston, is a girl living in the aftermath. A year after surviving a car accident that killed her friend Trent and left her body and face scarred, she can’t move forward. The only person who seems to understand her is Trent’s brother, Max. As Sadie begins to fall for Max, she's unsure if she is truly healed enough to be with him — even if Max is able to look at her scars and not shy away. But when the truth about the accident and subsequent events comes to light, Sadie has to decide if she can embrace the future or if she'll always be trapped in the past.

Our Judgement:

Billy was really, really off with this one. XD But he definitely came up with a very creative answer based off of the cover alone!

Book #3:

Crewel by Gennifer Albin

Billy's Summary:

Okay, I definitely think it's an action book about a girl who has the power to save the world in a short amount of time.

Actual Summary:

Incapable. Awkward. Artless. That's what the other girls whisper behind her back. But sixteen-year-old Adelice Lewys has a secret: She wants to fail. Gifted with the ability to weave time with matter, she's exactly what the Guild is looking for, and in the world of Arras, being chosen to work the looms is everything a girl could want. It means privilege, eternal beauty, and being something other than a secretary. It also means the power to manipulate the very fabric of reality. But if controlling what people eat, where they live, and how many children they have is the price of having it all, Adelice isn't interested. Not that her feelings matter, because she slipped and used her hidden talent for a moment. Now she has one hour to eat her mom's overcooked pot roast. One hour to listen to her sister's academy gossip and laugh at her dad's jokes. One hour to pretend everything's okay. And one hour to escape. Because tonight, they'll come for her.

Our Judgement:

Billy actually nailed this one! The summary may not fully describe it, but Adelice does go on to realize that she has the power to save the world -- with not a lot of time to spare. And it's definitely an action book. So this one can be chalked up to a definite win!

Book #4:

Emancipated by M.G. Reyes

Billy's Summary:

I think it's about teenage or college kids that cause trouble in the neighborhood and have to deal with drama.

Actual Summary:

The good girl, the bad boy, the diva, the hustler, the rock star, and the nerd. Six teens legally liberated from parental control for six different reasons, all with one thing in common: something to hide.  Now they’re sharing a house in Venice Beach, acting like a family, and living their lies. No parents. No limits. No alibis. One witnessed a crime, another might be a murderer—and one’s been spying on them all. As they cling to a fantasy of freedom and slowly let down their guards, the past creeps up on them. And when one of them gets arrested, everyone’s carefully constructed facade comes crumbling down. 

Our Judgement:

Billy was actually kind of right with this one! They all did cause some drama...

Book #5:

Falling into Place by Amy Zhang

Billy's Summary:

I have to guess that it's about like someone's life who was bad and everything falls into place and it becomes better.

Actual Summary:

On the day Liz Emerson tries to die, they had reviewed Newton’s laws of motion in physics class. Then, after school, she put them into practice by running her Mercedes off the road. Why? Why did Liz Emerson decide that the world would be better off without her? Why did she give up? Vividly told by an unexpected and surprising narrator, this heartbreaking and nonlinear novel pieces together the short and devastating life of Meridian High’s most popular junior girl. Mass, acceleration, momentum, force—Liz didn’t understand it in physics, and even as her Mercedes hurtles toward the tree, she doesn’t understand it now. How do we impact one another? How do our actions reverberate? What does it mean to be a friend? To love someone? To be a daughter? Or a mother? Is life truly more than cause and effect? 

Our Judgement:

...Yeah...more like the complete opposite happens...

Overall, Billy was a pretty good guesser! We were very impressed! We're also super exciting to be doing this every week, so comment down below with who you think we should ask next! Our sisters? Parents? Teachers? What do you guys want to see? Let us know, and thank you so much for taking the time to check out our third Cover Tells All post! What did you think of it?

ARC Review: The Love That Split the World by Emily Henry

Title: The Love That Split the World
Author: Emily Henry
Publisher: Razorbill
Rating: 4/5 Stars
Hardcover, 390 Pages
Publication Date: January 26th, 2016
Add it on Goodreads!

Summary: Natalie Cleary must risk her future and leap blindly into a vast unknown for the chance to build a new world with the boy she loves. Natalie’s last summer in her small Kentucky hometown is off to a magical start... until she starts seeing the “wrong things.” They’re just momentary glimpses at first—her front door is red instead of its usual green, there’s a pre-school where the garden store should be. But then her whole town disappears for hours, fading away into rolling hills and grazing buffalo, and Nat knows something isn’t right. That’s when she gets a visit from the kind but mysterious apparition she calls “Grandmother,” who tells her: “You have three months to save him.” The next night, under the stadium lights of the high school football field, she meets a beautiful boy named Beau, and it’s as if time just stops and nothing exists. Nothing, except Natalie and Beau.

We received an ARC copy of this book from Razorbill, and I was super excited about it. Not only is the cover of this book absolutely beautiful and fantastic and it draws you in right away, but the actual summary was something different that I've never heard of before. Also, that title - The Love That Splits the World - lets you know that whatever story you're about to delve into has a pretty epic love component.

So as the summary explains, this book is about a high school senior named Natalie who has been plagued with night terrors and visions and some mental issues for most of her life. Therapists refuse to believe that the things that she sees are actually real, and the fact that nobody takes her seriously doesn't help matters by any stretch. In addition to those problems, Natalie was also adopted when she was only eleven days old, so she has to deal with the existential crisis that is actually pretty common for many adopted children - the whole Who am I and where do I fit in in this world? dilemma.

And on top of that stuff, Natalie also meets a super-hot guy named Beau (more like BAEu ;-) -- that was a terribly terrible joke and I feel like a suburban dad now and I'm sorry ), and there's only a slight dilemma with their budding relationship...but I won't tell you what it is! You have to read the book yourself to see!! ;D

I actually really enjoyed this book. It took me quite a while to read because I picked it up right as I was finishing up the two most important college applications I had to do, so I didn't get much reading time. But just the other day I forced myself to sit down and make time to read, and I tore through this book because it's just so awesome! 

I really liked Natalie as a character (and the same with Beau whenever they were having conversations together). She was witty and funny, and her banter between other characters in the book reminded me a lot of Emily Henry herself, which was pretty cool. I love when an author's personality starts to shine through in their writing!

Now it's time for me to dedicate this entire paragraph to Beau Wilkes because he's funny and super attractive and sweet and I definitely was shipping him and Natalie the entire time. Some of the things he said to her at times just made my heart want to explode and I was like oh my gosh this is just so adorable I want a love like this I can't take it!!!!!! So yeah. (I'm still cringing over my "BAEu" joke and now I'm embarrassed and just want to throw my laptop - and myself - out the nearest window.) 

Okay so this paragraph is about to have MAJOR spoilers so I don't recommend reading it if you haven't read this book yet! Skip to the next paragraph if you don't want things spoiled for you! Okay so first of all, once you actually find out what's going on with Natalie and Beau and their whole split-between-two-worlds thing, it's pretty mind-boggling. When Alice is trying to explain stuff to Natalie (and then in the end when Grandmother is explaining the entire thing to Natalie), I felt my eyes glaze over a few times in confusion. I definitely had to go back to reread some things because it was a lot of science talk about wormholes and time slips and looking forward and backward and the tugging of time and just so much stuff that I was definitely a little confused. I would definitely have been able to understand a lot more of what the actual scenario was if there was a lot less of an explanation - if that makes any sense. Sometimes less is more, and that's the only problem I had with this book.

Skip to the next paragraph because there's still a major spoiler or two in this one! Okay so now it's time to talk about that ending - WHAT THE HELL?!?!?!?!?!?!?! Emily Henry definitely nailed the art of a successful sucker-punch ending and a massive cliffhanger. Natalie just chooses to die - and then what? You can kind of tell that she ends up with Beau, but I feel like a lot my questions went unanswered that I'm just dying to know the answer to. What world do they end up in? What happens to Natalie's family in her world and everyone that knew her? How the HECK did a new world get born because Natalie got hit by a car and how did she become the Chosen One that would help the new world be born?! Why did Matt die?!?! Oh my god I was left with so many questions but the ending was still epic so that was totally okay.

All in all, The Love That Split The World was a riveting read about love, loss, and a little bit of awesome fantasy/science fiction that may be a little hard to wrap your brain around. I enjoyed every second of this book and I'll definitely be reading more books from debut author Emily Henry in the future! This is definitely a great 2016 debut to start the year off with, so I recommend grabbing yourself a copy ASAP! :-)

Rating: 

ARC Mini-Review: The Killing Jar by Jennifer Bosworth

Title: The Killing Jar 
Author: Jennifer Bosworth 
Genre: Fantasy 
Source: NetGalley 
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Publication Date: January 12th 2016

Summary: 

Seventeen-year-old Kenna Marsden has a secret. She’s haunted by a violent tragedy she can’t explain. Kenna’s past has kept people—even her own mother—at a distance for years. Just when she finds a friend who loves her and life begins to improve, she’s plunged into a new nightmare. Her mom and twin sister are attacked, and the dark powers Kenna has struggled to suppress awaken with a vengeance. On the heels of the assault, Kenna is exiled to a nearby commune, known as Eclipse, to live with a relative she never knew she had. There, she discovers an extraordinary new way of life as she learns who she really is, and the wonders she’s capable of. For the first time, she starts to feel like she belongs somewhere. That her terrible secret makes her beautiful and strong, not dangerous. But the longer she stays at Eclipse, the more she senses there is something malignant lurking underneath it all. And she begins to suspect that her new family has sinister plans for her…

What I liked:

• The idea was interesting and new. The whole sucking out someones soul to feed yourself had its appeal to me. 

What I didn't Like: 

• The characters weren't very well developed. I feel like we knew very little about Kenna and the other characters. There were a few memories thrown in, but it just wasn't enough to get a feel for her as a character. 
• There wasn't a lot of information on what Kenna is, Bosworth has opportunity to expand on a whole species and she left it very vague.  
• The love triangle was strange. She barley thought about Blake while she was at Eclipse. Then we are introduced to Cyrus who was kept a huge mystery the entire book. 
• The climax was disappointing. I expected something much bigger to happen then what did. There was all this build up and then it fell flat. 

I think The Killing Jar would have benefited to be more then one book. Development was a big problem, and it is where most of my frustration with the story lied. Initially when I first finished reading I gave this book four stars. But that rating doesn't seem to fit it now. 

Rating: 

Let's #TackleYourTBR! Kickoff Day & Weekly Topics

The last month of the year is finally here, and it's time to #TackleYourTBR! We teamed up with Ana from Ana Loves to bring you guys an awesome and engaging challenge that will make finishing out the year with a bang super fun! 

#TackleYourTBR is a month long challenge dedicated to readers and bloggers. The goal is to complete any challenges or goals you set up at the beginning of the year before 2015 ends. Just some examples of this include your towering ARC/TBR stacks or your Goodreads 2015 Reading Challenges! If you've participated in ARC August before, think of this challenge like that - but instead of challenging yourself to finish your ARCs, you're just challenging yourself to finish any challenges you signed up for throughout the year that still need to be completed! 

At the beginning of every year, thousands of bloggers and readers sign up for a wide variety of challenges (Goodreads, NetGalley/EW challenge, etc.), involving both reading and blogging. With the year coming to the close many of you may be scrambling to finish these challenges and we’re here to cheer you along!

By participating, all you have to do is complete your challenges and share your successes and struggles on Twitter & Instagram with #TackleYourTBR and, if you’re a blogger, post weekly on your blog. We'll be doing the same so everyone will be having lots of fun!

For those of you who want an extra challenge, starting today we will post challenges and topics of the weeks for every week of December for you to somehow to incorporate in your reading or blogging for that week! The challenge spans the entire month of December and we will all be cheering one another along to finish our reading and blogging goals (along with Ana!), so it's going to be loads of fun. 

Although #TackleYourTBR is dedicated to just finishing up any challenges you set at the beginning of the year we are providing you with two more opportunities to challenge yourself! 

The first challenge is geared towards bloggers (although bookstagrams and bookish-Twitters are welcome to join in as well), in this challenge we provide a topic that you can talk about as you do your weekly update or if you just need some inspiration to post that week. It makes finishing out your challenges super fun!

The second challenge is created for participants who have bookstagrams and bookish-Twitters (once again, everyone is welcome to join). In this challenge you have to find a way to incorporate that week’s theme into your reading, picture or caption. For example, Week 4’s theme is Ugly Holiday Sweater so you can take a picture of your book with an ugly holiday sweater OR you can find a book  that reminds you of a holiday sweater (ugly on the outside but warm and cozy on the inside).

So here are your topics for each week:

Week 1: TBR & Goals
Week 2: Top 15 of 2015 (events, books, etc) 
Week 3: Favorite moments of 2015
Week 4: Holiday Wishlist


For the ambitious, an additional challenge:

Week 1: Snow
Week 2: Naughty and Nice List
Week 3: Fruit Cake (something that requires an acquired taste)
Week 4: Ugly Holiday Sweater (ugly on the outside, warm and cozy on the inside)

So it's time to crack down and get started on finishing off those reading challenges! On Sunday's upcoming post we're going to talk about the challenges we're vowing to finish out, and we encourage you all to do the same! 

Let's have an awesome month filled with a lot of success and good times, everyone!