Point of Retreat by Colleen Hoover

     Layken and Will have proved their love can get them through anything; until someone from Will’s past re-emerges, leaving Layken questioning the very foundation on which their relationship was built. Will is forced to face the ultimate challenge…how to prove his love for a girl who refuses to stop “carving pumpkins.”

     FIVE FIVE FIVE!!!!! Reading Nicholas Sparks books have scarred me. I was almost extremely traumatized by what I thought might happen in this book, because of how his books have hurt me (he’s good, but he hurts my heart with his books). Thankfully, I was reading Colleen Hoover who always manages to make me happy after causing me to leak profusely from my eyes. This book was the perfect follow up to Slammed. I loved getting to read more of Will’s and Layken’s story. There were quite a few sad/shaky/terrifying parts in this book, and I wasn’t sure what was going to happen. I’m not sure if this is a spoiler, but Layken doesn’t get amnesia (see what I mean about Nicholas Sparks ruining me?!). That is all I will say about that. I love how they’re really just the perfect parents, especially considering their situation, and I love the family of friends that they’ve built. I wish I could read more about Eddie and Gavin, but I am so happy with what I got, and I loved every second of what was there for them. I have to start carving pumpkins about this book, or I’ll be giving it all away, but leave this review knowing the book is a butterflying good read. 

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Slammed by Colleen Hoover

     Following the unexpected death of her father, 18-year-old Layken is forced to be the rock for both her mother and younger brother. Outwordly, she appears resilient and tenacious, bit inwardly, she’s losing hope.

     Enter Will Cooper: The attractive 21-year-old new neighbor with an intriguing passion for slam poetry and a unique sense of humor. Within days of their introduction, Will and Layken form an intense and emotional connection, leaving Layken with a renewed sense of hope.

     Not long after an intense, heart-stopping first date, they are slammed to the core when a shocking revelation forces their new relationship to a sudden halt. Daily interactions become impossibly painful as they struggle to find a balance between the feelings that pull them together, and the secret that keeps them apart.

     This book is getting a five. Colleen Hoover is a sadist who loves making me cry (I don’t really mean that. I love her books, and if you follow her on facebook you’ll see that she is too awesome for words). This book was extremely hard to read, mostly because I’m a cry baby and there were a great deal of times I had to read through the tears. The reasons Layken and Will can’t be together are completely and tragically legitimate, which makes it even worse. They both have had, and have to deal with entirely too many things for people their age. This was definitely an emotional read that makes you grateful for what and who you have, as well as a book likely to give you a headache from ugly crying so hard. You would think that by this point I would be more prepared for her books to have that effect on me, but every time I read one of her books I’m not. As an added bonus in this book, all of her chapters start with The Avett Brothers lyrics. If you don’t know them you should probably check them out. I was pleasantly surprised by this, and have been on an Avett Brothers kick since starting it. 

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Dust to Dust by Tami Hoag

     The death of internal affairs investigator Andy Paxton is a potential political bomb for the Minneapolis Police Department….Andy Paxton was gay and he was investigating a possible cop connection in the brutal murder of another gay officer. But Andy’s death looks like suicide, or an unfortunate and embarrassing accident, and the pressure is on from the top brass to close the case as soon as possible. But the investigation’s lead detective Sam Kovac is not convinced the case is as straightforward as it appears. As he digs deeper, it is looking very much like Paxton discovered something that got him killed. And he might not be the final victim.

     I have to give this one another 4. It got pretty intense from middle to end, and there was so much going on I never even tried to guess who the killer was (good thing too, considering I would have been wrong many times over). I want to read the next book just because I want to see Kovak happy (if such a thing is possible, we may never know). We got to see a whole lot more of him in this book, and actually see into his head a good deal (a pretty depressing place to be). I also really want to see Liska's ex to be a good man and start to stick around, or at least let her find someone good. This book wasn't as big a thriller as it was a cluster of death and murder/suicide that was a little too gruesome at times. It kept me on my toes, and I really didn't know what was gonna happen next; nor could I have even begun to predict the ending. Overall I think it was a good story that kept my attention, but it wasn't quite the thriller I was anticipating.
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Ashes to Ashes by Tami Hoag

     He performs his profane ceremony in a wooded Minneapolis park, anointing his victims, then setting the bodies ablaze. He has already claimed three lives, and he won’t stop there. Only this time there is a witness. But she isn’t talking.

Enter Kate Conlan, former FBI agent turned victim/witness advocate. Not even she can tell if the reluctant witness is a potential victim or something more troubling still. Her superiors are interested only because the latest victim may be the daughter of Peter Bondurant, an enigmatic billionaire. When Peter pulls strings, Special Agent John Quinn gets assigned to the case. But the FBI’s ace profiler of serial killers is the last person Kate wants to work with, not with their troubled history. Now she faces the most difficult role of her career-and her life. For she’s the only woman who has what it takes to stop the killer-and the one woman he wants next.

     Gahhhh. This book was pretty terrifying. I have no idea why, but I just had a sudden urge for a good thriller. This one is well worthy of a four. I absolutely loved that I was completely wrong about the killer. I was so far off base it wasn’t even funny. They never even suspected the guy I thought it was. The suspense was great, especially towards the end, but the beginning was a little harder to get into. I’ve read a few of her other books (which gave me nightmares), and I’ve found that I love the way she starts the book like she did in the others I’ve read, from the killers perspective. This book is mildly gruesome, and if you have a really weak stomach, you’re probably going to want to hurl a few times. While it may get graphic, it isn’t as bad as it could be, and I definitely count that in the plus column. I guess this is the first in a series, kind of, mostly surrounding Kovac and Liska, two detectives that I really liked in the story, even if the story wasn’t based around them. I’m interested in seeing where they go, and apparently a glutton for nightmares that are sure to come in the next few books.

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Captive Films Season 1 by Jillian Dodd

     Season One, the first entire book in the Captive Films series, was fantastic.This series follows the Keatyn Chronicles with a lot of the same characters, just quite a few years later. They run Captive Films. They are extremely successful. They are extremely hot. You can buy these by the season (there are six), or if you're smart (which I hope you are) you'll just buy the entire first season and read it like a novel. There is a whole lot of drama, but not like what was in the Keatyn Chronicles. It's not anxiety attack city, it's "Hey, we're older now, still partying, but we have jobs and sex and stuff." These are definitely more new adult than young adult, but still have the magical feel of the previous series.
      This series is well worth the five it's getting. There are so many stories in this novel surrounding the characters, and while it could get confusing if you hadn't read the Keatyn Chronicles (you need to), the different lives these stories follow are done wonderfully well. So many sad and surprising things happened in the years that have passed, and the author does a great job of giving you an overview, while leaving a lot of stuff out at the same time. This basically means that I'm dying for the next book to come out (DYING!!!!)!!!! You don't get any answers about Riley and Ariela, or Dawson and Vanessa, or Knox and Jennifer, but you do see a surprising marriage between Annie and someone I won't mention, and a love affair that lasted between two other characters I won't mention either. March can't come soon enough for the start of the next "season" and you can currently only pre-order it on iBooks (which didn't stop me from pre-ordering it, so I suggest you get on that).
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The Keatyn Chronicles by Jillian Dodd

     Keatyn has a life most girls would dream of. She’s the daughter of America’s favorite actress. Has a closet full of designer clothes. A Malibu beach house. The hottest boyfriend at school. But the girl who seems to have everything isn’t happy with the direction of her life, so she makes a wish on the moon.

     This series, in its entirety, was well worth the 5 I am giving it. It was exciting and thrilling throughout the whole thing (I constantly felt on the verge of an anxiety attack). This book was funny, creepy, thrilling, sexy, and just twenty different kinds of awesome. The summary above does it no justice at all. It is definitely a cool twist on a fairy tale romance type of story, except the heroine is a total badass, and not the whiney brat you would expect her to be. I loved reading about her and all of the characters in this series. Things were complicated in a way that made it interesting and kept you on your toes. The suspense was real throughout the whole series, and it wasn’t one of those books where you want to yell at the character and tell her what she’s doing wrong (except for telling Aiden the truth). The dialogue was funny and modern, and everything you want from a young adult book. It also had the perfect ending. You all know how much I love a good epilogue, and this one gave you a damn good one. I know there’s another series with these characters, and I am totally excited to start reading it tonight, but this series ended absolutely perfectly. There was nothing I would have changed about these books, and if you don’t just buy the box set so you can keep reading after the cliffhanger ending in each book, you’re doing something wrong. 

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Just One Year by Gayle Forman

     Just One Year, by Gayle Forman, was almost the opposite in feeling that Just One Day was. In Just One Day, is was strangely happy, this one though, felt really sad. Just One Year starts us off with Willem in the hospital, the morning when we thought he just left. He has a concussion, a pretty big cut on his face, and is slowly trying to remember everything that happened. When he finally gets it, and goes back to the squat to find Allyson (whose name he doesn’t remember), she’s gone. He goes through the same emotional problems that she does with depression and needing to find himself, and eventually sets off to find her. There is one part where he comes frustratingly close to finding her, and it is honestly really hard to read. You kind of want to scream at the book in frustration and tell him “SHE IS RIGHT THERE! DON’T YOU DARE STOP LOOKING!” (Maybe I did this)

     I have to give this one a four. I really liked the strangely happy first one, but this oddly sad second one was sometimes hard to read. I honestly didn’t feel like Willem loved her as much as she loved him. It didn’t feel like he cared as much. It’s obvious that I am wrong, but it’s just how it felt, and maybe that’s what made it oddly sad. I liked a lot how he needed to change himself, and work on things a lot. I think that made him a much better character, and that was important to me, because for some reason I felt really protective of Allyson (it’s weird, I know). In the end, they find each other, I feel like you need to know that, because not being sure in the first book almost drove me crazy. I won’t tell you what happens when they actually do meet, but you do need to make sure you read Just One Night, the novella. That doesn’t give me nearly as much as I wanted, but it also gave me more than I expected, and I can live with it. 

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Just One Day by Gayle Forman

     Allyson Healey's life is exactly like her suitcase-packed, planned, ordered. Then on the last day of her three-week post-graduation European tour, she meets Willem. A free-spirited, roving actor. Willem is everything she's not, and when he invites her to abandon her plans and come to Paris with him, Allyson says yes. This uncharacteristic decision leads to a day of risk and romance, liberation and intimacy: 24 hours that will transform Allyson's life. 

    This book was beautiful. It gets a five, a very deserving five from me. The ending wasn't at all what I expected, and I was beyond grateful for that. I was mentally preparing myself to ball my eyes out and hate everyone (because I was maybe planning on finishing this one at work); luckily this was not necessary. If you didn't believe in love or the power of a lost-love story before this book, you're definitely going to change your mind after. I can honestly say that I might die if I don't someday find myself in Paris eating a macaroon. The stories of the people she met, especially those involving the macaroons, were some of my favorites. It made me like people, in general, a little bit more. This is strangely a feel good book, and if you read it you'll understand why it's strangely that it is a happy book.
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