Upcoming Two Week Thriller!

Exciting news! This is the first announcement for my upcoming Two Week Thriller! During these two weeks, I will only be reading Thrillers, or Thriller-esque books. A few of my followers have been wanting me to read more suspenseful books, and I thought that was a great idea! After all, I have only been running Book Believer during the Summery months, which means I have been reading a great deal of contemporaries.

Here’s some titles that I plan to read and review for The Two Week Thriller!

The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin:

Mara Dyer believes life can't get any stranger than waking up in a hospital with no memory of how she got there.

It can.

She believes there must be more to the accident she can't remember that killed her friends and left her strangely unharmed.

There is.

She doesn't believe that after everything she's been through, she can fall in love.

She's wrong.

The Evolution of Mara Dyer by  Michelle Hodkin:

The truth about Mara Dyer's dangerous and mysterious abilities continues to unravel in the New York Times bestselling sequel to the thrilling The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer. Mara Dyer once believed she could run from her past.She can't. She used to think her problems were all in her head. They aren't. She couldn't imagine that after everything she's been through, the boy she loves would still be keeping secrets. She's wrong. In this gripping sequel to The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer, the truth evolves and choices prove deadly. What will become of Mara Dyer next?

The Retribution of Mara Dyer by  Michelle Hodkin:

Mara Dyer wants to believe there's more to the lies she’s been told.

There is.

She doesn’t stop to think about where her quest for the truth might lead.

She should.

She never had to imagine how far she would go for vengeance.

She will now.

Loyalties are betrayed, guilt and innocence tangle, and fate and chance collide in this shocking conclusion to Mara Dyer’s story.

Retribution has arrived.

Three Reluctant Promises by Kierstin Marquet:

Whoever heard of a kidnapper with a sense of honor?

Illegal immigrant Tommy Ramirez takes odd jobs to make ends meet after a car crash leaves him and his sisters orphaned. A bad day becomes a nightmare, when he discovers kidnapped girls in the back of his semi-truck. A victim's mother enlists his help to free the girls, and she is mortally wounded in the attempt. Bound by honor, Tommy makes three promises to her. Dodging death, deportation, and dyslexia, Tommy knows he can’t keep his word by himself. When he makes a desperate grab for help—literally—Ashten Mason, a cop’s spitfire daughter, doesn’t come willingly.

Three Stupid Lies by Kierstin Marquet:

How could trying to do the right thing turn out so wrong?

In 'Three Reluctant Promises' stunning sequel, Ashten Mason is determined to help her magazine-cover-handsome kidnapper. Tommy Ramirez might've risked his life to save hers, but lying to her police father and the FBI about their relationship turns out to be the stupidest thing Ashten has ever done. Now the FBI think she's his accomplice, the hit men see her as bait for Tommy, and her dad thinks she has Stockholm Syndrome. If her dad finds out her secret - including how deep her feelings for the felon really are - Tommy might be safer seeking sanctuary with the hit men trying to kill him.

Staying alive is a minute-by-minute challenge Tommy is seconds away from losing. Not sure if a raging flood or hitmen working for a powerful criminal syndicate will take him out. Tommy must dig deep to find the strength to survive. Crawling through hell to accomplish that and keeping the promises he made to a dying woman turns out to be easy compared to protect the cop's daughter he can't get out of his mind.

Ruthless by Carolyn Lee. Adams:

A spine-tingling debut about the ultimate game of cat-and-mouse in reverse as a teen struggles to retain hope—and her sanity—while on the run from a cunning and determined killer.

Ruth Carver has always competed like her life depends on it. Ambitious. Tough. Maybe even mean. It’s no wonder people call her Ruthless.

When she wakes up with a concussion in the bed of a moving pickup trick, she realizes she has been entered into a contest she can’t afford to lose.

At a remote, rotting cabin deep in the Blue Ridge Mountains, Ruth’s blindfold comes off and she comes face-to-face with her captor. A man who believes his mission is to punish bad girls like Ruth. A man who has done this six times before.

The other girls were never heard from again, but Ruth won’t go down easy. She escapes into the wilderness, but her hunter is close at her heels. That’s when the real battle begins. That’s when Ruth must decides just how far she’ll go in order to survive.

Back home, they called her Ruthless. They had no idea just how right they were.

Suicide Notes from Beautiful Girls by Lynn Weingarten:

Pitched as Gone Girl meets Thirteen Reasons Why

June barely has time to mourn the death of her best friend Delia, before Delia's ex-boyfriend convinces her Delia was murdered, and June is swept into a tangle of lies, deceit, and conspiracy.

Out of Control by Sarah Alderson:

When 17 year old Liva witnesses a brutal murder she’s taken into police custody for her own protection. But when the police station is attacked and bullets start flying it becomes clear that Liva is not just a witness, she’s a target.

Together with a car thief called Jay, Liva manages to escape the massacre but now the two of them are alone in New York, trying to outrun and outwit two killers who will stop at nothing to find them.

When you live on the edge, there’s a long way to fall.

Diary of a Haunting by M. Verano:

When Paige moves from LA to Idaho with her mom and little brother after her parents’ high-profile divorce, she expects to completely hate her new life, and the small town doesn’t disappoint. Worse yet, the drafty old mansion they’ve rented is infested with flies, spiders, and other pests Paige doesn’t want to think about.

She chalks it up to her rural surroundings, but it’s harder to ignore the strange things happening around the house, from one can of ravioli becoming a dozen, to unreadable words appearing in the walls. Soon Paige’s little brother begins roaming the house at all hours of the night, and there’s something not right about the downstairs neighbor, who knows a lot more than he’s letting on.

Things only get creepier when she learns about the sinister cult that conducted experimental rituals in the house almost a hundred years earlier.

The more Paige investigates, and the deeper she digs, the clearer it all becomes: whatever is in the house, whatever is causing all the strange occurrences, has no intention of backing down without a fight.

Found in the aftermath, Diary of a Haunting collects the journal entries, letters, and photographs Paige left behind.

I am super exciting to read these books and review them all! Unfortunately, I will not be able to review each book right away because the first week of The Two Week Thriller will be spent on the Houseboat in the middle of Lake Powell. So while excited for this vacation, it obviously means that I won’t have any way to blog. For that reason, I plan to only read while on the houseboat, and then spam you all with reviews when I get back.

If you follow my Instagram, you will soon find out that I am inviting all of you to join in The Two Week Thriller with me! You don’t need to read only Thrillers for two solid weeks with me, but if you end up reading even one Thriller then I would love to hear what you think! I will be featuring other people’s bookstagram pictures on my bookstagram as well, so definitely check out @book_believer tomorrow to get more information :)

All and all, I am ready to start! I think that it will be very fun to read some suspenseful books ;) See you all back in a week! I will miss you!

MY LIFE NEXT DOOR by Huntley Fitzpatrick

One thing my mother never knew, and would disapprove of most of all, was that I watched the Garretts. All the time."

The Garretts are everything the Reeds are not. Loud, messy, affectionate. And every day from her rooftop perch, Samantha Reed wishes she was one of them . . . until one summer evening, Jase Garrett climbs up next to her and changes everything.

As the two fall fiercely for each other, stumbling through the awkwardness and awesomeness of first love, Jase's family embraces Samantha - even as she keeps him a secret from her own. Then something unthinkable happens, and the bottom drops out of Samantha's world. She's suddenly faced with an impossible decision. Which perfect family will save her? Or is it time she saved herself?

A transporting debut about family, friendship, first romance, and how to be true to one person you love without betraying another.

When I first picked up this book, here is what I was expecting: Girl and boy meet, girl thinks boy is attractive, boy thinks girl is attractive, they get together, some dramatic happening that probably could have been solved if they had only talked, they make up finally, they kiss, and the audience screams and cries because though we have all seen it before, it was just so beautiful and so cute!

One or two of these expectations hit the target, but My Life Next Door surprised me with it’s moments of deepness, and it’s interesting plot twists. Think Anna and the French Kiss. The only way that I can really think to explain it is that It’s one of those books that you expected a little bit less and got a lot more.

Samantha was a wonderful character to read about. Sure, she was fortunate with money (her mother was plain rich) and from the outside, her life looks pretty amazing. After all, she works two respectable jobs, and her mother is state senator. But of course, it’s harder for Samantha than it looks. Her mother isn’t all that kind, and because of work, she was never home for Samantha. (And her sister hardly even existed throughout this whole book.) So Samantha was expected to work two jobs for the summer, and when her hours were done, to hole up in her house and wait for her mom. But Samantha didn’t demand pity - she knew that she was in a pretty good situation, by the world’s standards, and that she should be grateful for it. She has a natural curiosity that I admired as well, and throughout her life, a lot of that curiosity was focused on the Garretts.

I loved the Garretts family, probably because I belong to a similar one myself. My family has three less kids than them (the Garretts have eight) but it’s still quite the handful. But while it is, as the book itself says, loud and messy, we are also affectionate and loving for one another. It is definitely ridiculous at times, but I love being part of my huge family. You never run out of things to do, that’s for sure, and you’re never lonely. I think that’s what Samantha was seeing in the Garretts. But her mother, who I did not like, does not want Samantha to ever socialize with the Garretts. There are too many of them, and their lifestyle is too much to handle. In her mother’s eyes, Samantha is better than to slum it with them, but to Samantha… there’s a certain charm to the Garretts.

And then we meet Jace. Jace was… perfect! Oh, I loved him. He was incredibly nice, and completely trusting of Samantha. He didn’t hold her back, and he loved all of her little quirks and astronomy facts she had stored in her head. To say the least, he adored her, and she adored him. Their romance was totally something to aspire to, and I loved being right there with them.

BUT THEN! The ending drama. Reading through other reviews of this book, I found that a lot of reviewers didn’t like the above mentioned drama. But I guess I am just my mother’s daughter. I love a healthy dose of drama, and it only added to the oh-so-beautiful ending. You just can’t do contemporary without drama, don’t you think?

Overall, I loved this book. Very easy, but still has it’s thought provoking moments. I give it four very cute stars!

THIS SONG WILL SAVE YOUR LIFE by Leila Sales

Making friends has never been Elise Dembowski’s strong suit. All throughout her life, she’s been the butt of every joke and the outsider in every conversation. When a final attempt at popularity fails, Elise nearly gives up. Then she stumbles upon a warehouse party where she meets Vicky, a girl in a band who accepts her; Char, a cute, yet mysterious disc jockey; Pippa, a carefree spirit from England; and most importantly, a love for DJing.

Told in a refreshingly genuine and laugh-out-loud funny voice, This Song Will Save Your Life is an exuberant novel about identity, friendship, and the power of music to bring people together.

This Song Will Save Your Life was an interesting read with a great message. Though I loved the message and honesty of the book, I wish there would have been more uniqueness in the writing, character, and sometimes, in the plot. The writing did not hit me as exceptional, but neither did I have a problem with it. Elise, on the other hand, I felt like I had met a thousand times. Not in her music obsession, it was much stronger than the majority of characters in Young Adult novels, as the book practically revolves around it (which you can probably assume by the title) but in how she acted, she definitely felt familiar to me.

Elise just wanted to have attention. Isn’t that what most teenagers want? We all want to feel loved, and we all want to feel appreciated. That was why, though my heart did ache for Elise, I felt like it was too familiar. She didn’t have any weird quirks, she wasn’t funny, she wasn’t serious, she was just...Elise. (Which maybe was the point, but I always like defining characteristics in a character.) The beginning made sure to make a point of this by taking a while (maybe a little bit longer than I would have liked) expressing this fact. And I don't mean to be insensitive by saying this. I know that it is hard to be bullied in school, but in this book I was definitely striving for her to find what she was really destined for, and to find acceptance in herself.

There were, however, some aspects that I really liked about this book. For the first thing, I loved the message. That message being that only you really know who you are, and you need to love and accept yourself. And then, after you have learned to do this, other people will, too. It is a message I believe we have all been told at least once before, but it’s one of those things we should be reminded of constantly.

Another thing that I did like about This Song Will Save Your Life was the brutal honesty of it. There were pieces of the book that you really didn’t appreciate happening, but at the same time it was a lot closer to reality than what you wanted to happen. For the sake of not giving spoilers, I will just leave it at that.

In conclusion, I give This Song Will Save Your Life three stars because it was worth the read, but I don’t put it among my favorites.

P.S. I STILL LOVE YOU by Jenny Han

Lara Jean didn’t expect to really fall for Peter.

She and Peter were just pretending. Except suddenly they weren’t. Now Lara Jean is more confused than ever.

When another boy from her past returns to her life, Lara Jean’s feelings for him return too. Can a girl be in love with two boys at once?

In this charming and heartfelt sequel to the New York Times bestseller To All the Boys I've Loved Before, we see first love through the eyes of the unforgettable Lara Jean. Love is never easy, but maybe that’s part of what makes it so amazing.

One of my very favorite contemporary books of all time is To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before. I also really enjoyed Jenny Han’s The Summer I Turned Pretty. To say I was anxiously awaiting P.S. I Still Love You is an understatement - some days, I felt like the only thing I was doing was waiting for this book. And I wasn’t disappointed.

I loved coming back to the characters. Lara Jean, her family, and her friends are all very interesting characters that I love to read about. And another plus to this book was the drama, which I feel was bigger than the first book. My life as a high schooler really isn’t like Lara Jean’s high school life, very different actually, but at the same time it was not too far fetched to believe. Her and Peter were cute as ever, though it was a little bit different because they were really together, and not just faking it. Sometimes I actually thought they were cuter when they were faking it, but of course I was rooting for them to be in a committed relationship since square one. That was, until this new boy came into the picture.

Yes, I know, it’s exasperating. JUST STAY WITH PETER. I felt this way when I first found out that it was only going to be Peter in the picture. I didn’t like the idea of having Lara Jean liking a boy while she was liking Peter, but Peter was being pretty frustrating at the time and I found that I sort of supported the relationship with this “new boy”. I maybe even started to root for them a little bit… though I always prefer when a relationship has to be worked for then just pure and happy (in books, anyway), and this boy is exactly what was needed to add in that extra tension.

The only things that I didn’t like about this book - I kind of felt like it took a little longer than I was expecting to get good. I don’t exactly know why. There were instances that should have been exciting, but I just wasn’t feeling it. I did start to get excited again after a little while, so it wasn’t like it wasn’t worth reading, but it did take a little longer than I expected it would, being the second book and all.

In the end, P.S. I Still Love You did not disappoint. I loved the cuteness. I loved Lara Jean, I loved Peter. Well, for the most part I loved Peter ;)

JOYRIDE by Anna Banks

A popular guy and a shy girl with a secret become unlikely accomplices for midnight pranking, and are soon in over their heads—with the law and with each other—in this sparkling standalone from NYT-bestselling author Anna Banks.

It’s been years since Carly Vega’s parents were deported. She lives with her brother, studies hard, and works at a convenience store to contribute to getting her parents back from Mexico.

Arden Moss used to be the star quarterback at school. He dated popular blondes and had fun with his older sister, Amber. But now Amber’s dead, and Arden blames his father, the town sheriff who wouldn’t acknowledge Amber's mental illness. Arden refuses to fulfill whatever his conservative father expects.

All Carly wants is to stay under the radar and do what her family expects. All Arden wants is to NOT do what his family expects. When their paths cross, they each realize they’ve been living according to others. Carly and Arden’s journey toward their true hearts—and one another—is funny, romantic, and sometimes harsh.

I loved Joyride! It was nothing like I was expecting - it was better than I expecting! Let me share my love on this beautiful novel with you all. Starting, of course, with the romance.

The romance was a total love hate in the beginning. And by this I mean, Arden was captivated by Carly, and Carly wanted NOTHING to do with Arden. And let me just admit it now - I love these type of romances. They add so much tension and make me root for the romance that much more. And it didn’t hurt that I was totally in love with Arden’s character either :)

Carly was an interesting character herself. Her parents had been deported back to Mexico years ago, and since then her and her brother Julio have been working hard in able to get the money needed to get them back into America. Carly puts all of her work into saving money for her parents, and studying for school in hopes of earning a scholarship. She can’t remember the last time she got up and hand fun, or did something for herself. She tries her hardest to stay under the radar, since what she is doing is illegal, but it is no longer as easy for her as soon as Arden comes into the equation.

So when Arden, one of the most popular boys in school, starts to show an interest in her, Carly isn’t too fond of the idea of getting close. In fact, she shows just how she feels about him by dumping her lunch all over poor Arden.

But as she and Arden start to talk and hang out more, things start changing. She no longer wants to punch him when she sees his face, and Arden is falling just as hard. But it will take more than attraction to get them through with a surviving romance. The pathway to a happy romance for them is full of obstacles, but together they are determined to make it happen. Because Arden feels that Carly is filling a part of him that he lost when Amber died, and he showed Carly that it’s okay to have fun and do things that YOU want to do every once in a while.

To put in my personal opinion, I loved this theme. I am often one to push myself too hard, and I think that teenagers do need to realize that there is only so much that they can do. We (and not just teenagers) all need to have fun and do things for ourselves every once in a while! It’s important to be motivated and get our tasks done, but it isn’t ever bad to destress.

Overall opinion - I loved the romance in this book, and it had a lot more action than I was expecting. Sometimes it was downright scary. I definitely recommend this book. A lot.

FOUR AND A HALF CARS!!!! (Get it, because it’s called Joyride? And that smart car is a half of a car, yes.)

**Great big Thank You to Macmillan Publishing for an ARC of this book!**

THE SUMMER OF CHASING MERMAIDS by Sarah Ockler

The youngest of six talented sisters, Elyse d’Abreau was destined for stardom—until a boating accident took everything from her. Now, the most beautiful singer in Tobago can’t sing. She can’t even speak.

Seeking quiet solitude, Elyse accepts a friend’s invitation to Atargatis Cove. Named for the mythical first mermaid, the Oregon seaside town is everything Elyse’s home in the Caribbean isn’t: An ocean too cold for swimming, parties too tame for singing, and people too polite to pry—except for one.

Christian Kane is a notorious playboy—insolent, arrogant, and completely charming. He’s also the only person in Atargatis Cove who doesn’t treat Elyse like a glass statue. He challenges her to express herself, and he admires the way she treats his younger brother Sebastian, who believes Elyse is the legendary mermaid come to life.

When Christian needs a first mate for the Cove’s high-stakes Pirate Regatta, Elyse reluctantly stows her fear of the sea and climbs aboard. The ocean isn’t the only thing making waves, though—swept up in Christian’s seductive tide and entranced by the Cove’s charms, Elyse begins to wonder if a life of solitude isn’t what she needs. But changing course again means facing her past. It means finding her inner voice. And scariest of all, it means opening her heart to a boy who’s best known for breaking them . . .

A couple years ago, I made friends with a girl in my gym class who never talked. At first I thought that she, Emily, was just shy, but I soon learned that she had a speech impediment that she was very self conscious about. She wouldn’t talk to me verbally, but I eventually I got to the point where I could read a lot of her motions and the looks in her eyes.

This book reminded me a lot of that experience. Though unlike Emily, Elyse didn’t have a speech impediment. She completely could not talk. I felt bad for her for a lot of the book, but it definitely made the book new and interesting. Sometimes I feel that authors put too much faith into the characters dialogue to show you who the character is. It works most of the time, but sometimes the emotion that also helps to tell a character's story is left out to make room for more dialogue. With Elyse, I felt like I got to know the deepest parts of her because all I could read were her emotions, actions, and thoughts. Another person who did that for Elyse was Christian.

Christian was a lovable character - charming and attractive, but much more caring and understanding than one would expect from the Cove’s “Scoundrel”. He was wholly sweet to his brother, and was basically a father to the young Sebastian. After all, their biological father wasn’t very good to them, and Christian felt the need to step in.

I loved Christian, but I did have a slight problem with him -  sometimes Christian would pass that point of legally perfect. He could read practically everything Elyse mouthed and the looks in her eyes (and come on, that’s hard to do) and he never got mad, along with a lack of weakness. Sometimes he was just too perfect to be real for me, and I always like to have a healthy dose of “real” in my characters.

But overall, it was a wonderful story of broken hearts and healing, finding your voice, and expressing yourself. Elyse showed me that while painful things happen, it can always get better, and that we always need to express ourselves and not let ourselves go unheard. Sarah made a beautiful speech in her acknowledgments about this. If you want to read this book, I would definitely recommend reading that last note in the acknowledgments as well.

The Summer of Chasing Mermaids was definitely worth the read! I give it four stars and recommend it, especially to you ocean lovers ;)

***GREAT BIG THANK YOU TO SIMON PULSE FOR AN ARC OF THIS BOOK***

THE HEIR by Kiera Cass

Princess Eadlyn has grown up hearing endless stories about how her mother and father met. Twenty years ago, America Singer entered the Selection and won the heart of Prince Maxon—and they lived happily ever after. Eadlyn has always found their fairy-tale story romantic, but she has no interest in trying to repeat it. If it were up to her, she'd put off marriage for as long as possible.

But a princess's life is never entirely her own, and Eadlyn can't escape her very own Selection—no matter how fervently she protests.

Eadlyn doesn't expect her story to end in romance. But as the competition begins, one entry may just capture Eadlyn's heart, showing her all the possibilities that lie in front of her . . . and proving that finding her own happily ever after isn't as impossible as she's always thought.

The very first thing that comes to my mind when somebody mentions The Heir is how bratty Eadlyn is. She’s entitled, self centered, and pretentious. Basically, the opposite of what I was expecting when I thought about what sweet Maxon and America’s baby would be like (their other children, however, were a lot closer to what I imagined). But Eadlyn was always complaining about how she has to be the queen in the future and not her brothers, and that she has it the worst. She also likes to constantly remind us that she is the most powerful person in the country. But I guess after you get over her character, there are some things to like about this book...

Something that I liked more about this book than the rest of The Selection series - it wasn’t incredibly predictable. There were parts in the first books where Cass would try to throw me off, but the whole time I knew what was going to happen. In this book, I didn’t have a clue for even a minute. I still don’t know. And while I like it more when it isn’t predictable, I think that it springs from a lack of romance (This book is mostly a build up for the next, I believe) there were hinting clues to a romance, but Eadlyn is dead set on not falling in love. I love an independant woman, but she needs to let people help her - she was always contradicting herself. She has too much on her shoulders and she can’t handle all the pressure on her own, but she doesn’t want to have help because ‘she can do it herself.’

I only give this book for 3.5 stars, but only because I wasn’t all that entertained by it. However I do recognize that this is mostly a build up for the second book, so I’m not discouraging anybody from reading it. I do have higher hopes for the next book in the series. I understand that it isn’t that fun going through books that are just a build up for a later installment, but I encourage all to read it for that sole purpose.