Review: Raised by Wolves by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

Synopsis: At the age of four, Bryn watched a rogue werewolf brutally murder her parents. Alone in the world, she was rescued and taken in by the mysterious Callum, the alpha of his werewolf pack.Now fifteen, Bryn's been raised as a human among werewolves, adhering to pack rule (mostly). Little fazes her.

But the pack;s been keeping a secret and when Bryn goes exploring against Callum's direct orders, she finds Chase, a newly turned teen Were locked in a cage. Terrifying memories of the attack on her mom and dad come flooding back. Bryn needs answers, and she needs Chase to get them. Suddenly, all allegiances to the pack no longer matter. It's Bryn and Chase against the werewolf world, whatever the consequences.

Bryn is as bad ass as any female can be. She's kept to herself, mostly, her whole life while living amongst a pack of werewolves. At the beginning of the story I found myself a bit confused by the dynamics of the pack and its rules and how the humans in the book came into it, but after a few chapters I felt my confusing subside and I was absolutely delighted. Barnes brought me into a world where not only did a pack full of werewolves have laws and government, but also, that treat the humans within the pack like their own, actually more like possessions. This book was really well written and I adore Devon! *swoons* Right from the time that you meet Chase you understand why Bryn is so drawn to him and then one or two times later it makes total sense.

While the powers and things of being a werewolf don't really change much than other books,  it's unnecessary because there are other factors that are different and hypnotizing about this pack of werewolves. Bryn's world and her many relationships, strange and not so much, make this a great book all around and I will be buying the next book, Trial by Fire, on its release date, which happens to be June 14th.

Review: If I Stay and Where She Went by Gayle Forman

Synopsis (If I Stay): Choices. Seventeen-year-old Mia is faced with some tough ones. Stay true to her first love--music--even if it means losing her boyfriend and leaving her family and friends behind?

Then, one February morning Mia goes for a drive with her family, and in an instant, everything changes. Suddenly, all the choices are gone except one. And it's the only one that matters.

In If I Stay, we meet Mia, a very talented cellist, who is in love with a boy who wants to be a rock star. They find their lives being pulled in two different directions. Mia hopes to go to Juilliard and Adam, her boyfriend, hopes to take his band to the highest points in the industry. Until everything changes for both of them. Mia's family is in a car accident and then she is left in a coma. While her body lies limp in a hospital bed, she finds herself taking a journey to figure out if she should leave everything on earth behind to be with her family, who are already gone, or stay and be with those who are there praying and hoping she will return. This story isn't just about love and loss, its about impossible choices and heartbreak. No matter what Mia's choice, she feels that she loses a piece of herself. This story is painful just to read but beautifully written and really hits its mark in making you sit at the edge of your seat to see which avenue she will choose.

Synopsis (Where She Went): It's been three years since Adam's love saved Mia after the accident that annihilated life as she knew it...
           ...and three years since Mia walked out of Adam's life forever.

now living on opposite coasts, Mia is Juilliard's rising star and Adam is L.A. tabloid fodder, thanks to his new rock star status and celebrity girlfriend. When Adam gets stuck in New York by himself, chances bring the couple together again, for one last night. As they explore the city that has become Mia's new home, Adam and Mia revisit the past and open their hearts to the future--and each other.

I devoured this book in a couple of hours. Told from Adam's point of view, the reader experiences Adam's misery that he has been dealing with since the break up, which he can also thank for his last album, and his own memories that haunt him. Although Adam seems to have it all--the music, the fame, the celebrity girlfriend--he has been heartbroken and depressed since the day Mia left him behind and music isn't enough anymore. Now, in New York, he is about to leave for another tour that he really doesn't want to go on. While walking through the city, he notices Mia is performing and decides to sit in.

For one last night the two spend time together in New York, the delve into each other's lives trying to catch up but Adam is so distracted by his own questions about their break up that he pretends to be calmer around her than he feels. In a achingly bittersweet novel, the two are reunited and have to decide if this is a sign that means anything. While the narrative is in Adam's perspective, its very close in style to the narrative in Mia's perspective. Otherwise, this story will leaving you teary-eyed. An amazing sequel to If I Stay, better than I could have ever expected.

Review: Delirium by Lauren Oliver

From Goodreads: Before scientists found the cure, people thought love was a good thing. They didn’t understand that once love -- the deliria -- blooms in your blood, there is no escaping its hold. Things are different now. Scientists are able to eradicate love, and the governments demands that all citizens receive the cure upon turning eighteen. Lena Holoway has always looked forward to the day when she’ll be cured. A life without love is a life without pain: safe, measured, predictable, and happy.

But with ninety-five days left until her treatment, Lena does the unthinkable: She falls in love.

When love has a mandatory cure and is known to lead people to death when left uncured, there is nothing Lena wants more than to lead a normal life. Living in the US, surrounded by borders to protect it's inhabitants from the Invalids and Sympathizers that live in the Wilds, she is safe and can live a life of happiness after the cure with the husband chosen for her and the career she is appointed to. She has always followed the rules and trusted her elders that the cure is the only way to avoid the deliria because she was told that it had made her mother commit suicide. Lean is counting the days until she will be safe from the sickness that took her mother away--until the day she falls in love herself. Lena goes through significant changes throughout the novel and is as strong a heroine as I've ever seen. Once she falls victim to the deliria, she stands up against what she feels is wrong, even when it means breaking all the rules. Even when she knows that she is sick, she doesn't care because love is worth the worst kind of sickness. Lena discovers that she can finally see through the fog that everyone living within the borders lives with.

This dystopian story is beautifully written and will make you keep turning pages. Oliver is descriptive and makes you fall in love with Lena and cast, makes you hate the government and the cure, and makes you swoon over and over. I wanted to cry for Lena, I wanted her to take chances for love because she was finally happy. I will be very impatiently awaiting the next novel in this trilogy and would recommend it to anyone and everyone. This is definitely one of my favorite books EVER! Lauren Oliver has worked her way onto my list of favorite authors.

Review of Afterlife by Claudia Gray

Synopsis: Destiny awaits Bianca and Lucas...

Bianca and Lucas have always believed they could endure anything to be together. When a twist of fate not only transforms Bianca into a wraith but also turns Lucas into a vampire--the very creature he spent his life hunting--they are left reeling.

Haunted by his powerful need to kill, Lucas can turn to only one place for help... Evernight Academy. Bianca is determined to remain with him. But with the vampire leader of Evernight waging a war against wraiths, her former home has become the most dangerous place she could be, despite the new powers her ghostly transformation has given her.

A battle between wraiths and vampires looms, and Bianca and Lucas face a terrifying new reality. They've overcome every obstacle life has thrown at them, but is their love strong enough to survive the challenges after life?

First I would like to mention that I do not have reviews up yet for the first three books in this series (Evernight, Stargazer, and Hourglass, in that order). In time they will come and I will post a link for them here as soon as those posts become available.

When we finished Hourglass, Bianca had transformed into a wraith, her only other option to becoming a vampire, which her parents had never warned her about. Lucas was also about to awaken from his own transformation-becoming a vampire. We left Bianca sick and scared of the options that faced her. She had made the choice to let Lucas rise from the dead to become the one thing he never wanted to be and now, in the beginning of Afterlife, we are only minutes from his awakening. Bianca is in the company of Vic, Ranulf, an Balthazar, in the place that Lucas had lost everything-the place that Charity had killed him. Bianca blames Balthazar for Lucas being undead and for that she struggles with even being in his presence.

When Lucas awakes, cold to the touch and bloodthristy, Bianca is the only person who can get his to see through his blood hunger. Lucas, although eventually gaining control, struggle with this through the whole book; the insatiable need to drink from something living. Lucas battle with himself is not the only one that he must face. He also has to face his mother, who he believes to love him enough to look through the monster that he has become and see the son that she loved and cared for all the years of his life.

Bianca has a similar battle to overcome, she has to learn to be a wraith and understand what that means for her future with Lucas and the other people that she loves so much. This becomes harder when everyone decides that the best place for Lucas is at Evernight Academy. Because Mrs. Bethany cannot refuse to help any vampire in need of sanctuary and protection, she lets Lucas stay. But, at Evernight, Bianca is in danger because Mrs. Bethany is in a war against the wraiths, and she has no intention of giving this up.

There is no way that they could make it through this on their own and Balthazar, Ranulf, Vic and a few others are beside them all the way trying to make this time as easy as possible for both of them. When Lucas and Bianca discover the real reason behind Mrs. Bethany's war with the wraiths, they realize that they must take action immediately because she is willing to destroy everything, and everyone, in her way to have what she desires most.

Both Bianca and Lucas struggle in this book with their new identities, their fears of disapproval of their loved ones, and the question of whether their love can withstand their new transformations. This story is raw and emotional, with many twists that I never would have expected but was delighted to discover. Never disappointing, Claudia Gray has made this final book perfect to end the series and there is never a point in the story where you stop and feel like you are missing something. The voice of Bianca is special and makes you want her to make it through because you begin to love her and her friends more and more with every turn of the page. As always with the Evernight series, the story is a page-turner that will keep you up late into the night to finish it because you will not rest until you reach the end.