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Shiver
Maggie Stiefvater
Beauty Queens
Libba Bray

Where You Are

Where You Are - J.H. Trumble Horribly bad grade school stereotypes abound! I liked the overall plot, but the characters were just so nasty and mean. Homophobic (look at Nic) and sexist (look at Maya and Jennifer). I'm still really surprised at all the hate that was packed into this book.
Same Page - Lily Velden Hey I just met youand this is crazybut I've developed a stalker like obsession and I really want to be your friend (lies I just want to love you because one brief conversation where you clearly did not like me is enough to justify my creepy obsession with you)Did not finish.
Jumpstart the World - Catherine Ryan Hyde I would not classify this book as queer fiction because it's not about LGBT people. It's about using LGBT people as a prop to teach a heterosexual girl that being different is okay.Elle gets booted out of her home and into an apartment because her mother's new boo does not want her to be around. Elle meets neighbor Frank, crushes on neighbor Frank, freaks out when she discovers neighbor Frank is trans, learns some lessons, becomes a better person.Elle also does not want friends, at all!, yet she makes a solid group of friends that are outcasts because of their sexuality (and a birthmark, but this book didn't feel like fetishsizing birth defects, only sexuality and a man's trans identity.) She treats them rather cruely in the beginning, and they just take it. Ugh.Throughout the book Elle thinks, and vocalizes, a lot of hurtful things and only gets called on it once, by Molly, who then later apologizes for it. The book focused so much on Elle's pain and barely even touched on the hardships that Frank and everyone else had to go through.A completely unsatisfying read.

Play It Again, Charlie

Play It Again, Charlie - R. Cooper This... is such a hard book to read. It's difficult to understand where the characters are coming from and the dialogue felt impossible to follow sometimes. There were moments where I had no idea what was going on and the mood whiplashes between Charlie and Will were insane. They argued, a lot, and half the time I didn't know what they were arguing about.By the end I had no idea what kind of story the author was trying to tell. This book was a mess.
Tell the Wolves I'm Home - Carol Rifka Brunt This book does an excellent job of weaving together different family dynamics. Sisters and parents and an out of place uncle, they're all trying to get along. However, something bothered me.June was interesting. I liked June. But I couldn't help but feel there was so much more to this story outside of her scope. The story is told from her POV, so that's all we get, her point of view. So I can't help but wish the author had gone in a different direction.Finn and his sister's story. Finn and Toby's story. I wanted more of that. The lack of depth outside of June's world made it feel like AIDs and dealing with homosexuality was just a backdrop for June's growth as a young adult, and that bugged me. It cheapened my experience with the book and Finn (as well as Toby) ended up feeling like a prop used for June's own self discovery.Also, I get it's a story set in a time where there was shit all you could do in regards to AIDs, but I'm tired of stories about dead gay men. Especially when their death is being used as a catalyst for a straight protagonist.I did cry at the end, which is rare for me, but I'm still really disappointed with this book.
Snakes & Earrings - Hitomi Kanehara, David James Karashima If this book interests you, watch the movie instead.Bad translation? I'm not sure. I admit, I'm a humongous fan of the film. I love it to pieces. The book? Not so much. There were moments when I could almost get down with the prose, but altogether, it was not fun to read.

Tempting Danger (Lupi Series #1)

Tempting Danger (Lupi Series #1) - This book has a slow start, that's for sure. A really slow start. I was about halfway through the novel before I finally started to connect with the characters and the story.My biggest complaint, however, is how the author went about world building. Despite dealing with common occurances in supernatural fiction (werewolves, empaths, etc.) everything was named different and there is a lot of new vocabulary in this book that is never quite explained. The werewolves (or, Lupi) have this whole language set up to describe things that don't really need special words for. There's no explanation as to where these words come from (and you'll be lucky to get an actual explanation for what those words are!) and I just found myself scratching my head throughout the book. It's sloppy.The whole "Chosen" thing felt gimmicky. I felt it didn't really bring anything to the story.But, I did grow to like the main cast. Mostly Lily, her grandmother and Cullen, but I grew quite fond of others by the end. The bad guys never felt like bad guys. I get there was a whole whodunit throughout the beginning, but I never got a clear view of just who was up to all those shenanigans.Overall, I'm going to continue on with the series because I want to see what direction the characters will go in, but I can't say I have high hopes.
Of Poseidon  - Anna Banks If a woman says no, she really means yes.Other people have done an excellent job of reviewing this book and pointing out the problems within it. To sum it up: forcing a girl to marry you is okay (because she secretly loves you, but you'll have to play some high school level mind games in order to reveal this), physical abuse is okay (because of weird thick mermaid skin???), and if a guy is controlling and refuses to clarify life important issues to you? It's okay, he knows better. :|
The Painting of Porcupine City - Ben Monopoli I love stories that give you real people and a protagonist that you can't stand at the beginning, but absolutely love by the end.Character growth is something I love to witness, yet it's hard to find. The characters in The Painting of Porcupine City meet and interact and change so much throughout the course of the book, yet it strangely comes full circle in the end. I loved that Mateo and Fletcher were their own people, although they met and interacted and ultimately changed one another, they did so while still remaining themselves. They remained two unique individuals that, although they had a profound impact on one another, they ultimately had two different paths to walk in life.It took me a while to get into this book, mostly because of Fletcher, but I'm so glad I stuck with it. It scratched all the book itches that have been bugging me lately and was such a fulfilling experience.
The Wolf at His Door - Adrian Lilly 2.5 starsThings I liked: -Lucy and Geraldine, bless their hearts.-a werewolf story taken in a new direction, mystery and intrigue!-an enjoyable plot, I'm looking forward to the next book so I can see what happens.Things I didn't like:-chemistry between Jared and Alec? I didn't see any. -the writing was clunky. Short sentences that felt more like info dumping than telling a story.-oh gosh that cover. That poor, poor book cover.Despite all the good points this book has going for it, to me, it felt very unforgettable and not all that enjoyable to read. I wanted to like it, I really did, but there were a lot of little things that just got in the way of that. I found myself connecting more with the side characters and less with Alec and Jared. I'm hoping Lucy plays a bigger part, because I don't care much for her brother and his creepy boyfriend.

After the End

After the End - Alex Kidwell And the award for most boringly perfect boyfriend goes to... Brady!Perfect love interests that swoop in and fix up everything do nothing for me. If a story is going to be centered around a relationship I expect a bit of give and take, love's a two way street and all. Brady and Quinn's romance is heavily unbalanced and boring. Brady is perfect in every single way and he comes in, fixes Quinn and they live happily ever after. Brady is successful, smart, good looking, patient and he does all the right things. He has no faults, none and because of that it makes his relationship with Quinn unbelievable. Also, Quinn was hung up on his dead partner for two years (understandable), but then he moves at lightning speed once he meets Brady. Sure, he had his hangups and guilt trips, but it was all dealt with so quickly and he accepted Brady into his life like they had been in love for years.Unrealistic. Boring. Predictable.
Social Skills - Sara Alva I'd give this three stars if it weren't for one thing: Veronica. :(The first half of the book she's presented as the stereotypical 'skank'. The narrative paints her horribly, which is such a overdone and tasteless trope, especially in gay fiction. Then in the second half of the book she's going off the deep end and eventually sent off to the hospital for vague mental health related reasons. Which came out of nowhere, really, and I have no idea why the author felt the need to go in that direction. Perhaps it'd be more believable if Veronica was fleshed out or if the whole situation was handled with care and respect. But Veronica was a shallow character presented to the reader only to stand in the way of our two main guys. That's it. It's a shame, because Connor's growth (and even Jared's) was handled well. The type of dynamic they hold, the popular jock brining the shy guy out of his shell, is often done poorly, but Social Skills managed to do it much better than other stories I've read. But, then again, the whole Veronica situation just soured my experience with the story.
You Slay Me - Katie MacAlister Aisling Grey is a wonderful mix of impulsive ditziness and surprising competence. She's a lovable heroine and it makes for an enjoyable and light read. The characters are all very colourful and my only real complaint is that Drake doesn't truly grow in the first book and there are moments that seem lacking. Some bits could have been fleshed out, overall, but it is what it is.
Tattoos & Teacups - Anna  Martin This book was very... boring.Robert and Chris meet, then they pretty much dedicate their whole lives to one another. Any conflicts they had were superficial and solved in a few pages. Their relationship had no base to me, it didn't feel genuine and the book kept on stressing just how different they were, yet they were remarkably the same throughout the whole novel. There was also several instances of "ewwwww girls" that just rubbed me the wrong way. My eyes nearly rolled out of my head when Robert mentioned he picked up using "skank" from his teenage daughter and used it to describe a woman that might hit on Chris. (Yet he had no problems with other men hitting on Chris, whut?)Overall, meh.
Faun - Trebor Healey If you want to read about a fifteen year old's gigantic hairy genitals, then this is the book for you.
A Game of Thrones  - George R.R. Martin I enjoyed it, but I would have needed a spreadsheet for all the characters if I hadn't have watched the show beforehand.