Review and Apology

You know, February sucks. It's too short, and I always forget my entire life during it. I get sidetracked by the smallest things (SHINY!!).

And also, it really took me like, a week, to remember my password to the email linked to this blog. I fail. Bigtime. So. Here's a review!!

Title: Where I Belong

Author: Gwendolyn Heasley

Copyright date: February 8th, 2011
Publisher: Harper Teen
How many pages: n/a (read on Kindle)
How long it took me to read: 3 days
Category: Fiction
I learned about this book from: Debut Author Challenge!

This book was purchased at: Amazon.com (Kindle site)
This book is: a fish out of water kind of book

Other books by this authors: n/a.
Favorite characters: Corrine, I guess?
When and Where the story takes place: New York City and Texas, present time

Plot in a nutshell: Because of the recession, Corrine's family becomes 'poor' and she moves to Broken Spoke Texas to stay with her grandparents until things settle.
Main characters: Corrine mostly.
What I liked best: It was cliche without being too cliche.
What I liked least: It's hard to make a very annoying non-love interest into a love interest. I'm already really not liking said guy (no names to avoid spoilers) so why does he have to get together with the main character? Because that's how the cliche goes? Also, Corrine really was a bit of a brat.

Overall rating: It was an okay read. It felt a bit disjointed at times, and Corrine's changeover from NYC bitch to okay with her surroundings was believable in that she didn't completely change. But at the same time, it seemed to happen way too fast. And I couldn't stand her 'best friend' Waverly.  

Title: Other Words for Love
Author: Lorraine Zago Rosenthal
Copyright date: January 2011
Publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers
How many pages: n/a (read on Kindle)
How long it took me to read: 3 days
Category: Fiction
I learned about this book from: Debut Author Challenge!

This book was purchased at: Amazon.com (Kindle site)
This book is: a kind of coming of age, set in the 80s
Other books by this authors: n/a.
Favorite characters: Ari, Leigh
When and Where the story takes place: New York City, 1980s
Plot in a nutshell: Ari finds herself at a new school, with a new friend, and dealing with her life at home.
Main characters: Ari, Leigh, Summer, Evelyn.
What I liked best: It was nothing like I expected. I'd read two reviews and a plot summary, and they still didn't really do the book justice.
What I liked least: Evelyn was a hateful, selfish bitch of a sister, and everyone seemed to cater to her. She drove me nuts, and she just... ugh. I didn't want to read about her and I was hoping that, when you read that Ari has a crush on Evelyn's husband (no spoiler there, you know by the first chapter) that she sleeps with him and successfully takes him away from that whiny brat.

Overall rating: I really liked this story, but it wasn't what I thought it would be. I thought it was a drama about a girl falling in love with the wrong guy. Then I read another review and thought it was about a girl dealing with AIDs in the 80s. It wasn't that either. I'm going to give it an A because it stood up to what I wanted even though it wasn't anything anyone said it would be. That said, it did drag in parts, and sometimes I just got SO ANGRY with the other characters.

2011 Debut Author Challenge

Now like I said before, I took the idea of this blog from The Story Siren. What the Story Siren has, which is awesome, is a Debut Author Challenge.

And I've decided to join it!!
Here's my starting list of 2011's debut authors and their books.

1. XVI - Julia Karr
2. Choker - Elizabeth Woods
3. Other Words for Love - Lorraine Zago Rosenthal
4. The Visconti House - Elsbeth Edgar
5. Where I Belong - Gwendolyn Heasley
6. Darkness Becomes Her - Kelly Keaton
7. The Subrosa Semesters - Alissa Grosso
8. Like Mandarin - Kirsten Hubbard
9. 10 Miles Past Normal - Frances O'Roark Dowell
10. The Liar Society - Lisa and Laura Roecker
11. The Lipstick Laws - Amy Holder
12. Saving June - Hannah Harrington
13. Moonglass - Jessi Kirby
14. The Sweetest Thing - Christina Mandelski

If you wish to participate too, you can do so here! Happy Reading!