Review: That Time I Joined the Circus by J.J. Howard

 
Synopsis: 

Lexi Ryan just ran away to join the circus, but not on purpose.

A music-obsessed, slightly snarky New York City girl, Lexi is on her own. After making a huge mistake--and facing a terrible tragedy--Lexi has no choice but to track down her long-absent mother. Rumor has it that Lexi's mom is somewhere in Florida with a traveling circus.

When Lexi arrives at her new, three-ring reality, her mom isn't there . . . but her destiny might be. Surrounded by tigers, elephants, and trapeze artists, Lexi finds some surprising friends and an even more surprising chance at true love. She even lucks into a spot as the circus's fortune teller, reading tarot cards and making predictions.

But then Lexi's ex-best friend from home shows up, and suddenly it's Lexi's own future that's thrown into question.

With humor, wisdom, and a dazzlingly fresh voice, this debut reminds us of the magic of circus tents, city lights, first kisses, and the importance of an excellent playlist.

Publisher: Scholastic

Page Count: 272

Edition: Kindle (A galley from NetGalley)

Rating: 3/5 stars

Review:

First of all, can we all just take a second to just stare at the GORGEOUS cover? It is so beautiful.

This book is about a girl named Alexandra/Lexi/X/Xandra Ryan whose father recently passed away. He left her no money, so she goes on a search for her mother. A clue leads her to a circus in Florida. After finding out that her mother isn't there, she decides to stay in order to make some extra money. She goes through a few jobs before she finally chooses to be a tarot card reader.

I thought this story was going to be amazing. I mean, the cover is to die for, the plot is so unique and different, I love me a good coming of age story, and it just sounded good to me. This book, sadly, did not meet my expectations.

Lexi was an okay character in the start of the book. I could really relate to her because I love to read and I don't have many friends. Lexi loves to read and she only has(had)two friends. But when you get further along into the story you find her changing. While Lexi does change in a good way, I thought that she also took a turn for the worse. She became selfish and let people push her around. I know her dad just died and I wouldn't be the same either. But she was crying in almost every chapter. Death is a hard topic for a lot of people. People grieve in different ways. Sometimes Lexi's emotional break downs were too much. Also, I hated how she quickly jumped from friend to friend to friend. In the beginning, Heather(I think that's her name)was so nice to Lexi. She showed her the ropes and had meals with her. Lina was a complete jerk to her while Heather was so nice. But the second that something better comes along, Lexi quickly goes to Lina, leaving Heather in the dust. Heather is mentioned in the first five chapters then never mentioned again. What's up with that? And when she starts hanging out with Jake and Lina gets "angry" with her for hanging out with him. She just blows him off for Lina. Then Nick comes into the picture. Don't even get me started on that.

I also hated the freaking love square. First it was Jake, then it was Nick, then it was Eli. Nobody has that many love interests in the course of a few months. Especially a girl who is "socially awkward". Lexi was not "socially awkward".

The last thing I wasn't too keen on in this book was how fast everything went. I know that it's not even 300 pages, but it didn't need to be rushed so much. The author had so much that she wanted to put into one book. I think it would have been better if it was longer and more drawn out. We'd go from one thing to another so quickly and I'd get confused. The flashbacks didn't help at all.

Enough ranting from me. Despite the very lengthy rant above, I really enjoyed this book. It was fun and light, which was just what I wanted. It didn't meet expectations, but wa still an enjoyable read.

I would reccomend this to middle school kids who want to start going into YA and anyone who wants a light read.

Review: The Nightmare Affair by Mindee Arnett

Synopsis: Sixteen-year-old Dusty Everhart breaks into houses late at night, but not because she’s a criminal. No, she’s a Nightmare.

Literally.

Being the only Nightmare at Arkwell Academy, a boarding school for magickind, and living in the shadow of her mother’s infamy, is hard enough. But when Dusty sneaks into Eli Booker’s house, things get a whole lot more complicated. He’s hot, which means sitting on his chest and invading his dreams couldn’t get much more embarrassing. But it does. Eli is dreaming of a murder.

Then Eli’s dream comes true.

Now Dusty has to follow the clues—both within Eli’s dreams and out of them—to stop the killer before more people turn up dead. And before the killer learns what she’s up to and marks her as the next target.

Publisher: Tor/Forge

Page Count: 367 pages (US hardcover)

Edition: Kindle galley (Kindly provided by NetGalley)

Rating: 4/5 stars

Review:

Dusty Everhart is a sixteen year old Nightmare. No, she isn't bad. She's an actual Nightmare. One night while out feeding, Dusty realizes that she's feeding on her former classmate, Eli Booker. While in his dream, some things happen. She gets taken back to her school by werewolf police after almost being caught by Eli and his father. At the school, Dusty realizes that the dream Eli was having came true. So the rest of the story is her and Eli trying to figure out who the murderer is and why they killed.

This is a very fun, action packed, mystery. I enjoyed it from beginning to end. Dusty was an all right main character. She was funny, smart and witty. But sometimes I felt like her humor was a little too forced. There were some parts in the book where the author was trying to make Dusty overly funny and it didn't work for me. I also thought Dusty was a little too trusting to most people. But I overall did enjoy her character. Dusty was very strong and stubborn. When she knew she was right, she went with her gut. She never let anyone sway her opinion.

As for her side kick, Eli Booker, I thought he was average. We never saw much of him until the second half of the book. In the first half, he hated Dusty. For a good reason, I guess. But I didn't see why we were supposed to be rooting for Eli and Dusty to be together. There was never any real chemistry between them. I hope in the next book we are able to see more of him. I liked Eli and Dusty's friendship too. They were really good friends.

Dusty also has a best friend, Selene, who is a siren. I loved Selene. She was in the whole book and that was a nice change. In most YA books when the main protaganist meets the love interest, they drop their friends and be with the love interest. But I liked that Selene was a main part of the book. She was very funny and I loved how she was a femenist of some sorts. Selene hates that sirens are objectified as sex objects, so she dresses horribly. That was a nice touch to the book. I want to see more of Selene in the next book. Maybe something to do with her past and Lance? :D

The other side characters were good as well. None of them really stand out to me any way. The characters in this book were pretty average to me.

As for the plot in this book, I loved it. The whole Nightmare thing was SO unique and I loved it. I was really confused in the beginning, but I grew used to it after about fifty to eighty pages in. Mindee Arnett kept explaining the Will more than once and I liked that. I still have a few questions that I hope are answered later on in the series. The mystery aspect of this book really made this book good for me. I was guessing the whole time right up until the end. I sort of suspected the side kick to the villian, but I didn't guess who the villian was.

All in all, THE NIGHTMARE AFFAIR by Mindee Arnett is a great start to what I hope is going to be a great series. It's very Hex Hall-esque, so if you've been missing the Hex Hall world, I suggest you pick this book up when it comes out on March 5, 2013. THE NIGHTMARE AFFAIR is different enough from Hex Hall that it won't be repetitive. I gave this book four out of five stars because to me it wasn't enough for a five stars.