Sixteen year-old Cheyenne Wilder is sleeping in the back of a car while her mom fills her prescription at the pharmacy. Before Cheyenne realizes what's happening, their car is being stolen—with her inside!
Griffin hadn’t meant to kidnap Cheyenne, all he needed to do was steal a car for the others. But once Griffin's dad finds out that Cheyenne’s father is the president of a powerful corporation, everything changes—now there’s a reason to keep her. What Griffin doesn’t know is that Cheyenne is not only sick with pneumonia, she is blind. How will Cheyenne survive this nightmare, and if she does, at what price?
A few months ago my friend Julie came over for my husband's birthday party and brought a book she wanted me to read with her. It took me longer than I wanted to actually sit down and read April Henry's Girl Stolen but when I finally did last week, I flew through it.
I'm not really sure what to say about this book. I really enjoyed it while I was reading it but the more I think about what I want to blog about, the more questions I have. This is a hard post because everything I want to say is SO spoilery!
I think I'm just going to leave this one at I read it, I enjoyed it for what it was, I liked the concept of accidentally kidnapping a blind girl, and I would read more from April Henry.
Have you read Girl Stolen? What did you think?
Jane, Victoria, and Natalya. Together, they are the Darlings. Best friends forever. They have matching necklaces, their own table at Ga Ga Noodle, and even a shared motto: May you always do what you’re afraid of doing.
When the friends begin freshman year at three different high schools in distant corners of New York City, they promise to live by their motto and stay as close as ever. The Darlings know they can get through anything as long as they have each other. But doing scary new things is a lot easier with your friends beside you. And now that the girls aren’t spending all their time together, everything they took for granted about their friendship starts to feel less certain. They can’t help but wonder, will they really be the Darlings forever?
To be honest, I hadn't heard about this Melissa Kantor's The Darlings Are Forever prior to being asked by the publisher if I'd be interested in reviewing it. I'm glad I got that email because I REALLY liked this book. Plus, anything that references Harry Potter is a win in my book.
I read this book in two nights and would have read it in one if I didn't have an early morning (which if you know me, it's TOUGH to get me out of bed when the first digit is a 6 on my clock). I kept thinking "one more chapter" and continued that thought from about 10:30pm to about 12:30am.
The chapters are alternating between Victoria, Jane, and Natalya and I really felt like I got to know them better this way. My favorite girl was Victoria but there were things I liked about each girl.
Victoria: I thought she was the one who grew the most from beginning to end. By the time I was done reading, I had more than one "you go girl" moments from her portion of the book and I just wanted to see her bloom into a confident young woman. Victoria also got the hot photographer guy so that's a bonus. I literally laughed out loud (and almost woke my husband up) during a scene with her, Jack, a banana, and a condom.
Jane: Jane was the cool thespian. I was surprised that Jane seemed to be the one that had less going on compared to the others. She had her story but I guess Victoria and Natalya's just seemed busier. I liked Jane a lot though because she wasn't afraid to speak her mind and call out Natalya when it called for it.
Natalya: My least favorite of the three girls. A BIG part of this has to do with her conforming to what the rich, popular girls wanted her to be and she just wasn't true to herself. I liked the fact that she played chess and liked the Biology teacher that everyone hated but I wanted to slap her at times.
I really enjoyed this book because it was more about the friendship between the girls instead of anything else. Yes, there were the parties, boys, school, and more in the book but it focused on how they dealt with all the new stuff being thrown at them and how there were still there for each other and were able to put aside their differences when it came down to it.
It was a fun book that showed the sister-like bond between three best friends and it did it well.
The writing was good and left me wanting more. I was expecting another chapter when it ended but it turned out to be a sneak peak of the next book, The Darlings in Love and I can't wait to read that when the time comes.
Thank you Disney-Hyperion for turning me on to a book I might not have known about otherwise.
Have you heard of The Darlings Are Forever? Do you think it would be something you might enjoy?
A terrible secret. A terrible fate.
When Brie's sister, Faith, dies suddenly, Brie's world falls apart. As she goes through the bizarre and devastating process of mourning the sister she never understood and barely even liked, everything in her life seems to spiral farther and farther off course. Her parents are a mess, her friends don’t know how to treat her, and her perfect boyfriend suddenly seems anything but.
As Brie settles into her new normal, she encounters more questions than closure: Certain facts about the way Faith died just don't line up. Brie soon uncovers a dark and twisted secret about Faith’s final night...a secret that puts her own life in danger.
I wanted to read
Losing Faith by Denise Jaden for a few different reasons and they are as follows:
Reason 1: Losing Faith is part of the Contemps Challenge and this is something I'm really happy about participating in. This was my fifth book read for the challenge and so far I have loved all five of them.
Reason 2: The cover and title. You HAD to know this was coming. There are so many aspects of this cover that I love. The girl holding the flowers is just so subtle and I didn't even notice what was going on with it before I actually LOOKED at it. I love the flowers because they are representing death and mourning but the butterflies make me think of Brie's quest to find out what what happened and free her sister's name. I also really loved how the title had double meaning. I can be such a dork when it comes to stuff like that, I just think it's neat.
Reason 3: My friend Shana is friends with Denise and I'm just all about support. I love supporting authors and all the ones I have come in contact with (in real life or through Twitter) are just people I genuinely want to see do well. They make it so easy though because their work, Denise's include, is just fantastic.
Going into this book, I wasn't really sure what it was about. All I knew about it was what was printed on the back and that Shana's friend was the author. I started reading one night before bed (which is when I get most of my reading done nowadays) and didn't want to put it down. I didn't get much read for a few days but once I did, I stayed up til after 3am reading. The only reason I stopped? My eyes were burning so bad and it actually hurt to keep them open.
I was worried that the religion aspect might get too preachy* but was happy it didn't. I had my ideas of what was going to happen but that just made me want to read faster to see if my theories were valid; they weren't. I found myself invested in these characters, especially Brie and her parents. Denise really showed the grief well and it was heartbreaking.
The writing was beautiful and I really liked Brie. She was relentless in trying to find out the truth and she made a few great friends in the process. I liked that Brie, Tessa, and Alis all had the same common bond and that they were able to open up to each other when they felt they couldn't talk about it with anyone.
Tessa was my favorite character because she was supposed to be this hard gothy person but she wasn't any of that. Well, ok. Maybe she was a little but she is the perfect example of why you shouldn't be quick to judge people. She was a great friend and was there when Brie needed her the most. Also, I loved Brie's poem about her at the end. Alis was cool but I had a hard time pushing Alistair from Supernatural out of my head. Somehow, I don't think this was who I was supposed to be imagining.
Great debut by Denise and I look forward to reading quite a bit more from her.
Have you read Losing Faith? Will you?
*I have nothing against religion. I grew up in a Christian household and have the utmost respect for it. The last book I read that contained religion was way preachy and I felt like things were being shoved down my throat. Not cool.
