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October 14, 2017

Girl Without a Face by Medeia Sharif ~ #bookreview @NetGalley

October 14, 2017



Title: Girl Without a Face
Author: Medeia Sharif
Publication Date: March 3, 2017
Publisher: Evernight Teen
Source: Publisher via NetGalley

Purchase: Amazon | B&N



My Rating:





Synopsis


Destiny awakes with amnesia. She'd been driving on a wet road, about to leave flowers at a memorial marker of a deceased classmate, when she almost met that same fate.

Her mother, Mildred, is beyond restrictive, and she doesn’t want Destiny to have her cellphone back. A nurse sneaks it into her room, but it’s useless without the passcode. After her hospital stay, her mother becomes physically abusive.

Destiny and the boy she’s developing feelings for decide to drive around to spark her memory. She’s positive she crashed near a memorial marker. When they find the place in question, and when Destiny remembers her phone’s passcode, nothing is as it seems—and Mildred is crazier than she first thought.



I'm torn on this one because while Girl Without a Face's plot was so very good, the way it was delivered wasn't. 

What killed the book for me was when much of the story was given away in the beginning, and at that point I was disappointed the suspense had disappeared. The story could have been very creepy and had me on the edge of my seat had this not happened.  

The dialogue between characters and Destiny's thoughts were written woodenly without emotion. I get that she has amnesia, but her thoughts repeated themselves endlessly. She also trusted the neighbor boy, Gabriel, way too much too soon for someone who can't remember who she is or anything from her past, not to mention the complete lack of chemistry between them. 

The ending was too over-the-top unbelievable with a cartoonish antagonist. Plus things just worked out a little too neatly at the end. 

Overall, Girl Without a Face is a quick read that could have been spectacular had it been completely fleshed out. I look forward to Medeia Sharif growing as a writer and will try out more of her work in the future.  

October 3, 2017

13 Minutes by Sarah Pinborough ~ Blog Tour: #BookReview & #Giveaway

October 3, 2017



Hey guys! Welcome to my stop on the 13 Minutes Blog Tour hosted by the FFBC. I have a review and giveaway for an ARC (US only) so check it out! 



Title: 13 Minutes 
Author: Sarah Pinborough
Release Date: October 3rd 2017 
Publisher: Flatiron Books
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary, Thriller, Crime, Mystery, Fiction


Buy the Book: Amazon | B&N | Book Depository | iBooks | Kobo | Indiebound  





 Synopsis 


"Mean Girls for the Instagram age." --The Times (London)
The New York Times bestselling author known for her thrilling twists is back: 

They say you should keep your friends close and your enemies closer, but when you're a teenage girl, it's hard to tell them apart.

Natasha doesn't remember how she ended up in the icy water that night, but she does know this--it wasn't an accident, and she wasn't suicidal. Her two closest friends are acting strangely, and Natasha turns to Becca, the best friend she dumped years before when she got popular, to help her figure out what happened.

Natasha's sure that her friends love her. But does that mean they didn't try to kill her?

13 Minutes is a psychological thriller with a killer twist from the #1 internationally bestselling author Sarah Pinborough.




First of all, let me just say my teenage years were spent in the 90's, and thank God there was no such thing as social media. I can't imagine how much worse high school could have been with Facebook and Twitter. The girls in 13 Minutes, however, don't have the luxury of the absence of social media.   

I love YA SO MUCH and really enjoy mystery/thriller books, so this was the perfect combination for me and very well written. I was hooked from page one, and as the layers of the characters and events began unfolding, I realized there was so much more to this story than meets the eye. 

The way 13 Minutes is told is different from most books I've read, and I appreciated this because of the unique way it allowed the reader to be taken along with the characters in figuring out what happened to Natasha, the girl who was found in an icy river which kicked off the novel. 

I highly recommend 13 Minutes and am looking forward to reading more from this author. If I could give it ten stars, I would! 

My Rating: 

 



 ABOUT THE AUTHOR

                  

Sarah Pinborough is a critically acclaimed adult and YA author based in London. 

Sarah was the 2009 winner of the British Fantasy Award for Best Short Story and also the 2010 and 2014 winner of the British Fantasy Award for Best Novella, and she has four times been short-listed for Best Novel. She is also a screenwriter who has written for the BBC and has several original television projects in development.

Her next novel, Behind Her Eyes, coming for HarperFiction in the UK and Flatiron in the US (January 2017) has sold in nearly 20 territories worldwide and is a dark thriller about relationships with a kicker of a twist.

 You can follow her on Twitter @sarahpinborough






1 ARC of 13 MINUTES by Sarah Pinborough
US Only