Lengths by Steph Campbell and Liz Reinhardt Review

Lengths 

by Steph Campbell and Liz Reinhardt

Published on August 10th 2012

CreateSpace, 170 pages
Find the title on Goodreads - Amazon

Nineteen-year-old Whit Conrad leaves her conservative Pennsylvania home for sunny California, looking for independence, a fresh start, and a place to stash her grief. She promptly finds a job at a tattoo parlor, a craptastic first apartment, and one friend—Ryan—who is a little less friend, a little more benefits. 

Deo Beckett is a soulful surfer with a passion for tattoos and beautiful women. On the eve of his twenty-second birthday, he finds himself living with his grandfather, recently unemployed, and seriously adrift. He doesn’t know much about what he wants out of life, but he does know his current situation isn't cutting it. 

When Deo meets Whit, she’s all sexy makeup and fierce, smart-ass fun. It doesn’t take him long to see past her tough shell. And when he gets a good look at what's under all the superficial stuff that usually gets his attention, it leaves Deo wondering if there might be more to life than living fast and free. 

Too bad Whit has a past she doesn't plan on sharing—no matter how hot Deo is. She might want him, but she knows better than to let her guard down. 

Deo falls for Whit, and falls hard. But everything about her, down to that mysterious tattoo and the way she thrashes in her sleep, tells him that the girl he loves is hiding something. And the more he pushes for answers, the more Whit pulls away. 

Having your guard up is one thing, but are the lengths Whit goes to to protect her secret worth throwing away the second chance she has at happiness with Deo? 

- Goodreads.com description

So, everybody is talking about this new genre - New Adult. I was very intrigued by it and happy. College novels could be that thing that I was missing between YA and Adult novels. So, I decided to give it a shot.

Lengths was a good read. There is this college girl named Whit and she moved from home to study in California. She has many issues with her past and that's the reason she ran away. I must admit though, I found it very difficult to connect with her. Sometimes I did, sometimes I didn't. 

Deo. OMG he was such a sweet. From the first impression you think he's a bad boy, but really, he is not. He really cares about Whit and my heart was breaking for him because she didn't appreciate it as much as he deserved.

Lengths was written in dual POV, which was in a way good, but in the other not so much. I hate it when it happens, because I tend to put myself on the line with the guy, instead of the girl. Which is funny, but I rather say "What a bastard!" than "What a bitch!" Lol. I know, crazy. But in this book I felt just that, because Whit was just, well, Whit. And I felt sorry for Deo.

I didn't like the writing in this book. I am known for swearing a lot. I admit it. But in this book it was too much of it even for me. Which is saying something. But there were some quotes I've really liked. And the hot scenes were written good ;)

Overall, Lengths was a good book. It deals with loss, grief, sadness and coping with your fears and guilt. So, if you're searching for a book that deals with this kind of emotions, Lengths is the perfect book for you!

“No shit.” Deo plucks the license from my hands. “Wow, your hair was so long. Doesn’t even look like you.” 

That’s because it’s not me. It’s just a girl I used to know. Someone who didn’t understand how complicated and unfair life could be.

I resist the urge to laugh at my stupid luck.The girl I can’t get out of my head just waltzed back into my life, looking like every fantasy I’ve never been creative enough to dream up, told me how much she’s wanted to call me and how much she likes me…and dumps me right in the fucking friend zone.

Fantastic.

“I guess some relationships are just like that.” Whit pulls her hair back like she’s making a tiny ponytail, then releases it so it swings back around her chin. “I get you, though. If someone is going to suck you in and wring you out like that, is it worth it to be with them? I’d rather just keep things casual and keep a handle on who I am than fall so completely in love and lose myself.”

Article 5 by Kristen Simmons Review

Article 5
Article 5 #1
by Kristen Simmons
Published on January 31st 2012
Tor Teen, 362 pages
Find the title on Goodreads

Book Depository - Amazon

New York, Los Angeles, and Washington, D.C., have been abandoned.

The Bill of Rights has been revoked, and replaced with the Moral Statutes.

There are no more police—instead, there are soldiers. There are no more fines for bad behavior—instead, there are arrests, trials, and maybe worse. People who get arrested usually don't come back.

Seventeen-year-old Ember Miller is old enough to remember that things weren't always this way. Living with her rebellious single mother, it's hard for her to forget that people weren't always arrested for reading the wrong books or staying out after dark. It's hard to forget that life in the United States used to be different.

Ember has perfected the art of keeping a low profile. She knows how to get the things she needs, like food stamps and hand-me-down clothes, and how to pass the random home inspections by the military. Her life is as close to peaceful as circumstances allow.

That is, until her mother is arrested for noncompliance with Article 5 of the Moral Statutes. And one of the arresting officers is none other than Chase Jennings—the only boy Ember has ever loved.

- Goodreads.com description 

Article 5 is an awesome dystopian book. The society people live in is completely awful and people are literally being killed everyday and noone can do anything about it. The book is filled with action, loss, people struggling to survive and good romance.

Ember. Wow, how much this character grew in the span of 350 pages. I was stunned. She grew form a normal teenager with low profile to a warrior girl fighting to save those she loves. And she was completely awesome! Though in the beginning I hoped she would have fought some more for herself, but she totally did it in the end of the book and I was proud!

Chase. Geez, this guy was completely unreadable in the beginning. I couldn't figure him out. But not for long. When he opened up a little, he became a gorgeous character. He was amazing and the force and will he had to protect Ember from the whole world, was so beautiful. 

The writing was very good as well. Kristen Simmons did an amazing job with Article 5. You could practically picture every word she written. Though, I wanted to know more about the Moral Statutes and understand better the articles. But I think there will be more word of it in Breaking Point ;)

I hadn't realized how fragile I was until that moment, when all the fear and anxiety slammed into me with the force of a sledgehammer and I cracked. 

"I got in a fight," he said with a small smile. "With a tree," he added when he saw my distress. My eyes widened. "I guess you lost." "You sh-should have seen the tree."

I wondered what he'd done that had been so terrible that he wouldn't accept even an ounce of kindness from another person. It seemed impossible just then that I could ever hate him more than he hated himself.

Insurgent by Veronica Roth Review

Insurgent

Divergent #2
by Veronica Roth

Published on May 1st 2012

HarperTeen, 525 pages
Find the title on Goodreads
Book Depository - Amazon

One choice can transform you--or it can destroy you. But every choice has consequences, and as unrest surges in the factions all around her, Tris Prior must continue trying to save those she loves--and herself--while grappling with haunting questions of grief and forgiveness, identity and loyalty, politics and love.

Tris's initiation day should have been marked by celebration and victory with her chosen faction; instead, the day ended with unspeakable horrors. War now looms as conflict between the factions and their ideologies grows. And in times of war, sides must be chosen, secrets will emerge, and choices will become even more irrevocable--and even more powerful. Transformed by her own decisions but also by haunting grief and guilt, radical new discoveries, and shifting relationships, Tris must fully embrace her Divergence, even if she does not know what she may lose by doing so.

- Goodreads.com description

Oh my freaking God. You know that feeling when you have about 15 pages left and you just want to wait a couple of minutes because you have a feeling you'll be loosing a friend in any moment so you want to savor it a little while longer? That's Insurgent. 

This book reminded me why I love books so so much. Because it is incredible. A roller-coaster full of emotions, action, love and so much more. Veronica Roth did it again. I thought Divergent was pure awesomeness, and Insurgent didn't disappoint one little bit. It was magic.

Tris was even more amazing in this second instalment. She grew a lot as a character and she was totally baddass! How she managed not to break will always be a mystery to me. She is so brave, and she doesn't even know it. 

Tobias. Awww, a special place in my heart will always belong to him. He's so sweet and caring and still fierce and strong and he keeps trying even when the world looks like it has arrived to its end. He's amazing.

The writing was so beautiful and I couldn't put the book dawn! I am so tired because of work, but I couldn't go to sleep because I needed to read. Yes, this book is that compelling. And I loved every second of it. So, if you are searching for a fast paced book filled with great-amazing-incredible-pure bliss action, a love that it's so great that can defeat anything, with a strong female baddass character, Insurgent is the perfect book for you!

What's wrong with you? I shake my head. Pull it together. And that is what it feels like: pulling the different parts of me up and in like a shoelace. I feel suffocated, but at least I feel strong.

It's bad enough that I killed Will, that I didn't think fast enough to come up with another solution. Now I have to live with everyone else's judgement as well as my own, and the fact that nothing - not even me - will ever be the same again. 

The Candor sing the praises of the truth, but they never tell you how much it costs.

I do trust you, is what I want to say. But it isn't true - I didn't trust him to love me despite the terrible things I had done. I don't trust anyone to do that,but that isn't his problem; it's mine.

What's wrong with people? Damn, just chill out or something.

OMG this situation at home is so pissing me off. Really. I don't even know how to react or for the fact, act anymore in this fucking house. Yesterday my dad was pissed of because I called a friend to ask for Uni stuff just when he decided he wanted to start make lunch. And he was pissed off because I wasn't there asking if they need any help. Whatever. 

My mom completely freaked out these past days. I can't believe I was so stupid to tell them about my thesis - stupid, stupid, stupid. Should have kept my mouth shut. Now she wakes (tries to) up everyday at around 10AM saying stuff like "Wake up, you have your thesis to write down." Oh my God, and it's pissing me off. What I want to say to her is something like "Where have you been all my University life for the past 4 years? N-O-W-H-E-R-E. The only thing you've told me was that anyway I was going to fail. And now at the last step you want to take some credits of God knows what?" Fuck that mom, no. I don't need you to stress me even more.

I mean, I am stressed enough with myself. I have 2 weeks left and I've been trying to work something in the past three days and all I've managed was being on facebook and youtube for hours. I have no motivation and no will to start. I know I need to hurry a bit but hell, it's difficult to put my shit together and start writing it down. I have enough stress from myself, I don't need other's too.

Today at lunch I just ask why are we preparing lunch 1 hour and a half earlier and she's pissed off. And I am like "you know what, whatever. Be pissed, I don't care."

But the whole point is.. what the hell is wrong with these people?! They are all pissed off all the time, or angry at the whole world, and God forbid I am in a good mood. Wtf? I hate this. 

Anyone still wonders why I want to leave the county? 

Don't you know? Wonder dies.

Top Ten Books That Make You Think About the World, Life, People

It's Top 10 Tuesday (hosted at The Broke and the Bookish) and the topic is: 

Top 10 Books That Make You Think About the World, Life, People.

The Sky is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson

“My sister will die over and over again for the rest of my life. Grief is forever. It doesn't go away; it becomes a part of you, step for step, breath for breath. I will never stop grieving Bailey because I will never stop loving her. That's just how it is. Grief and love are conjoined, you don't get one without the other. All I can do is love her, and love the world, emulate her by living with daring and spirit and joy.”

“All her knowledge is gone now. Everything she ever learned, or heard, or saw. Her particular way of looking at Hamlet or daisies or thinking about love, all her private intricate thoughts, her inconsequential secret musings – they’re gone too. I heard this expression once: Each time someone dies, a library burns. I’m watching it burn right to the ground.”

“I gasp, because isn't that just exactly what I've been doing too: writing poems and scattering them to the winds with the same hope as Gram that someone, someday, somewhere might understand who I am, who my sister was, and what happened to us.”

Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta

“What do you want from me?" he asks. What I want from every person in my life, I want to tell him. More.”

“It's funny how you can forget everything except people loving you. Maybe that's why humans find it so hard getting over love affairs. It's not the pain they're getting over, it's the love.”

“And life goes on, which seems kind of strange and cruel when you're watching someone die.”

Before I fall by Lauren Oliver

“That's when I realized that certain moments go on forever. Even after they're over they still go on, even after you're dead and buried, those moments are lasting still, backward and forward, on into infinity. They are everything and everywhere all at once. They are the meaning.”

“Maybe you can afford to wait. Maybe for you there's a tomorrow. Maybe for you there's one thousand tomorrows, or three thousand, or ten, so much time you can bathe in it, roll around it, let it slide like coins through you fingers. So much time you can waste it.
But for some of us there's only today. And the truth is, you never really know.”

The Fault in our Stars by John Green

“I'm in love with you," he said quietly.
"Augustus," I said.
"I am," he said. He was staring at me, and I could see the corners of his eyes crinkling. "I'm in love with you, and I'm not in the business of denying myself the simple pleasure of saying true things. I'm in love with you, and I know that love is just a shout into the void, and that oblivion is inevitable, and that we're all doomed and that there will come a day when all our labor has been returned to dust, and I know the sun will swallow the only earth we'll ever have, and I am in love with you.”

Hallowed by Cynthia Hand

“Our purpose on this earth is not one single event, an accomplishment we can check off a list. There is no test. No passing or failing. There's only us, each moment shaping who we are, into what we will become.”

“I’ve learned that a storm isn’t always just bad weather, and a fire can be the start of something. I’ve found out that there are a lot more shades of gray in this world than I ever knew about. I’ve learned that sometimes, when you´re afraid but you keep on moving forward, that’s the biggest kind of courage there is. And finally, I’ve learned that life isn’t really about failure and success. It’s about being present, in the moment when big things happen, when everything changes, including myself.”

If I stay by Gayle Forman

“Sometimes you make choices in life and sometimes choices make you.”

“I realize now that dying is easy. Living is hard.”

“And that's just it, isn't it? That's how we manage to survive the loss. Because love, it never dies. It never goes away, it never fades, so long as you hang on to it. Love can make you immortal.”

Saving June by Hannah Harrington

“I still go to bed sad, and wake up sad, and it still hurts like hell, but there are moments during the day when it hurts less. Sometimes I can think of June and not want to burst into tears or put my fist through a wall. Sometimes I'm close to happy and it doesn't even hurt. Much. I'll never be the way I was before, but maybe that's okay. Life goes on, I'm going on, even without her. Not every day hurts. Not every breath hurts.
Maybe that's all we can really ask for.”

“I want to stop running away from everything.
I want to find something to run toward.”

“Now I'm counting up the days, counting all the ways
I never said what it means, but it's too late 'cause
June is over and so are we
And I'm the one left, with nothing to save”

The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight by Jennifer E. Smith

“What are you really studying?"
He leans back to look at her. "The statistical probability of love at first sight."
"Very funny," she says. "What is it really?"
"I'm serious."
"I don't believe you."
He laughs, then lowers his mouth so that it's close to her ear. "People who meet in airports are seventy-two percent more likely too fall for each other than people who meet anywhere else.”

“Did you know that people who meet at least three different times within twenty-four hour period are ninety-eight percent more likely to meet again?”

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

“You don’t forget the face of the person who was your last hope.”

“I realize, for the first time, how very lonely I've been in the arena. How comforting the presence of another human being can be.”

“You’re not leaving me here alone,” I say. Because if he dies, I’ll never go home, not really. I’ll spend the rest of my life in this arena, trying to think my way out.”

Divergent by Veronica Roth

“Becoming fearless isn't the point. That's impossible. It's learning how to control your fear, and how to be free from it.”

“Sometimes crying or laughing are the only options left, and laughing feels better right now.”

“Somewhere inside me is a merciful, forgiving person. Somewhere there is a girl who tries to understand what people are going through, who accepts that people do evil things and that desperation leads them to darker places than they ever imagined. I swear she exists, and she hurts for the repentant boy I see in front of me.
But if I saw her, I wouldn't recognize her.”

Woow. Love this list so much! And I love all these books. I kind of think that books that actually make you think about the world, life and people are the most memorable books ever. I can picture myself from months ago while I first read some of these quotes and the feelings I've been feeling. And it feels amazing.

What's your Top 10 list this week? :)

Blogspiration #21

Blogspiration is a Brand Spankin' New weekly meme hosted by both GrowingUp YA and Saz101. The meme was created to help spark inspiration among bloggers, readers and writers alike. An inspirational quote/picture/video is posted weekly, on the day of the author's choosing, so that it may inspire creativity, conversation, and just a little SOMETHING.

Hi!! 
Today I've been watching Sex and the City the whole day. I was cuddling with my cat on the couch and eat ice cream and it was amazing! I loved it!

I really like Carrie and her columns. They make sense and they are great. I've found this quote and decided to share it with you!

I think it's really beautiful. We should always keep it in mind ;)

What's your blogspiration this week? :)