THE DARKEST LIGHT by Ashley Earley

After discovering a secret her parents have kept from her all her life, Alyssa’s life begins to unravel, and she’s thrown into a magical world she never knew existed—one that’s both frightening and intriguing to her.

While trying to discover who she really is, and who her father was, she begins to see the darkness this unknown land holds, and fears becoming part of that darkness.

Torn between this new world, and the human world, Alyssa must make the ultimate decision between the possibility of losing herself forever to become part of it, or stay behind and let the world of Föld perish.

As if her life wasn’t complicated enough, she’s falling for two guys—that live in totally different worlds. Wesley and Archer couldn’t be more different, but they both have her captivated.

A battle is coming. Will Alyssa be forced to fight against the people she loves?

Filled with action, adventure, and romance, The Darkest Light captivates from the start. As soon as you meet the protagonist, Alyssa, you fall into her life, and her world. She is fighting depression and still constantly thinking of her father, who died in a car crash, and you can’t help but feel bad for her unfortunate situation. Her mother, in an attempt to help Alyssa regain her equilibrium, brings her to Alyssa’s grandmother’s house.

Which is how Alyssa finds out about Föld.

Föld was a beautifully written world, full of elves, dragons, and other magical beings. If I could relate this to another book that I have read, I would say it resembled fablehaven in a lot of ways (which was a favorite of mine when I was younger). In Föld, Alyssa finds out all about her destiny. Being part elf, she is welcomed into Föld, but in order to be fully accepted she has to go through a choosing, where she can either be chosen by the elves that fight and strive for darkness, or the elves that fight for the light.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading The Darkest Light. The romance was innocent and adorable, and the action was intense and heart-pounding. I did, however, find the genre to be a little confusing and misleading.

While reading this book, I found that it more closely resembled a middle grade book. There were no swear words. The romance was almost as innocent as it could get (few kisses here and there, but none too intense or descriptive) and it was an easier read. Only until the last one hundred or so pages, where it started to become a little more Young Adult when some swear words started popping up(d-word, s-word, nothing too bad.) So I would say it’s an easier, relaxing YA book, or a Middle Grade for more mature readers who are okay with a few swear words.

The last thing that I would say about The Darkest Light is that it is a good book when you are looking to escape your current reality, but don’t want to invest yourself with something extreme of a book.

***GREAT BIG THANKS TO ASHLEY EARLEY FOR A REVIEW COPY***

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.

The very beginning of Suicide Notes from Beautiful Girls seemed very promising and mysterious.  There were so many twists, turns, and leads that it was almost dizzying, and I liked trying to figure out for myself just what had happened to June’s (mostly former) best friend, Delia. If there was one good thing about this book, it would be the beginning and how put together the plot seemed to be. There were a lot of different things going on, but it all seemed to fit together and make sense, creating this beautiful mystery that just begged to be solved. But then while I loved this aspect, there were just too many things about this particular book that I did not like.

Throughout the book, June has some flashbacks of her and Delia’s past together. It was here that I found out that I really don’t like Delia. For one, she is in plenty of ways a terrible friend. But June still loves her (she acted kind of like a lost puppy for the majority of the book), because she relies on Delia for everything. Delia can sabotage June all she wants, because she knows that June will just take it and still like her. Second, she was super creepy. She thought things that just weren’t right, weren’t normal, and I know that was the point but she seemed dangerous and it caused her to be the bad friend described above. For the sake of spoilers, I won’t go any further into that.

Another thing that I didn’t like about this book was all of the swearing. Especially the f-bombs. Those were out of control. I literally felt like there was one on every page, especially where Delia was concerned. So if you have a sensitivity to language, then I definitely wouldn’t recommend this read.

Overall, I mark this down as a very dark and mature read. There is sexual content - the fade to black kind without any detail, but in every case it was too weird or wrong for it to be romantic in any way. The language was already discussed above as really strong, and I didn’t find any characters to be good role models.

I give this book 2 stars.

***GREAT BIG THANK YOU TO SIMON PULSE FOR A REVIEW COPY***

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.

Yay, the first review of The Two Week Thriller! I know it’s late, but I will be getting plenty of reviews up in the next couple of days, now that I once again have internet. On to the review!

Out of Control stuck true to it’s title. There was a lot of things that were just... out of control! The story was unbelievable in it’s craziness - but in the end, it made sense and was definitely possible. It wasn’t too far fetched, but it was definitely chaotic (in the best way possible!)

We start out with meeting our main character Liva, who is in the police department as a witness to a murder. When a man dressed as a police officer comes in and shoots the department out, she helps Jay (who was in for car theft) escape safely. It becomes immediately clear that Liva is a good girl who has never done anybody any harm, even though the fact that she is being stalked and shot at says differently. Both Jay and Liva team up after the massacre, when they find out that it isn’t over for either of them - especially not Liva.

This book spans over a twenty four hour period, where all the while Jay and Liva must avoid detection until her father, who works with a government agency that focuses on human trafficking, to fly in from Nigeria in the morning. But the people after both of them are good at tracking, and they don’t go down without a fight.

This book was a great mixture of action and adventure, mystery, and romance. While being constantly scared for Liva and Jay and wondering what was going on, I was half of the time dwelling on their relationship. Jay was so attractive, and such a great guy - always looking for the good in people, and all he ever wanted in life is to help people out. Isn’t it enough that he is protecting Liva while blood thirsty murderers are on her tail? WHY WOULDN’T THEY LOVE EACH OTHER? Patience was key there, I’m afraid.

Overall, I don’t feel like I can say a lot more about this book. Going any further would probably be a spoiler. So all I will say is read it, because it kept me guessing and I never would have saw that ending coming. As for your final reason - Jay and Liva are worth it. They are both amazing characters, and made me want to be a better person. So go pick it up!

***GREAT BIG THANK YOU TO SIMON PULSE FOR A REVIEW COPY***

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 ;)