Review: Extraordinary Means by Robyn Schneider

Title: Extraordinary Means

Author: Robyn Schneider

Publication: May 26th 2015, Katherine Tegen Books

Format: e-ARC, 336 pages

Source: Edelweiss (Thanks to the publisher!)         

Buy it on: Amazon | Barnes and Noble | iBooks | The Book Depository | Kobo | National Bookstore /Fully Booked (PH)

SYNOPSIS:

From the author of The Beginning of Everything: two teens with a deadly disease fall in love on the brink of a cure.

At seventeen, overachieving Lane finds himself at Latham House, a sanatorium for teens suffering from an incurable strain of tuberculosis. Part hospital and part boarding school, Latham is a place of endless rules and confusing rituals, where it's easier to fail breakfast than it is to flunk French.

There, Lane encounters a girl he knew years ago. Instead of the shy loner he remembers, Sadie has transformed. At Latham, she is sarcastic, fearless, and utterly compelling. Her friends, a group of eccentric troublemakers, fascinate Lane, who has never stepped out of bounds his whole life. And as he gradually becomes one of them, Sadie shows him their secrets: how to steal internet, how to sneak into town, and how to disable the med sensors they must wear at all times.

But there are consequences to having secrets, particularly at Latham House. And as Lane and Sadie begin to fall in love and their group begins to fall sicker, their insular world threatens to come crashing down.

Told in alternating points of view, Extraordinary Means is a darkly funny story about doomed friendships, first love, and the rare miracle of second chances.

Misfit Review:

To be honest, I don't know what words to say. I always do. At times when I feel entirely overwhelmed with a book, I just want to sit and stare at the corner of my room, cry and stalk the author and ask for guidance, forgiveness coz I have screamed at the book many times, and just ask, WHY???? WHY YOU DO DIS?

Crushing on Authors

I've been told as a kid that having a crush on someone is completely normal and should not be deemed weird or out of this world. You can have as many crushes as you like, my Mom said.

To be honest, I've never been vocal about my crushes, unless they were animated characters or people from the telly who I may never even meet IRL. I'm also quite vocal about my crushes over at social media.. well, unless it's not awkward and stuff. What am I even saying? Jayvee, you're such a dork.

{BLOG TOUR} Review: We All Looked Up by Tommy Wallach

Title: We All Looked Up

Author: Tommy Wallach

Publication: March 26th 2015, Simon and Schuster UK

Format: Trade Paperback, 384 pages

Source: Pinoy Book Tours (Thanks again, Dianne of Oops I Read A Book Again)

Buy it on: Amazon | Barnesand Noble | iBooks | The Book Depository | Kobo | National Bookstore / Fully Booked (PH)

Synopsis:

Before the asteroid, we let ourselves be defined by labels:

The athlete, the outcast, the slacker, the overachiever.

But then we all looked up and everything changed.

They said it would be here in two months. That gave us two months to leave our labels behind. Two months to become something bigger than what we'd been, something that would last even after the end.

Two months to really live.

Misfit Review:

Many times, I find contemporaries tiring and repetitive in formula, while some just go beyond my expectations. We All Looked Up proved that it will definitely go beyond my expectations indeed, but it did bring up some casualties.

So the plot goes around as an apocalyptic few months left for the world because an asteroid called Ardor is going to fall from the sky and presents distress among people, especially the focus of the story, the teens in Seattle, who try to make the coming of the end worthwhile by throwing a party and making sure that they didn’t leave the world with any regrets.

DNF Review: The Night We Said Yes by Lauren Gibaldi

Title: The Night We Said Yes 

Author: Lauren Gibaldi

Publication: June 16th 2015, HarperTeen

Format: e-ARC, 304 pages

Source:  Edelweiss        

Buy it on: Amazon | Barnesand Noble | iBooks | The Book Depository | Kobo | National Bookstore / Fully Booked (PH)

Synopsis:

A fun, romantic read, perfect for fans of Sarah Dessen and Susane Colasanti!

Before Matt, Ella had a plan. Get over a no-good ex-boyfriend. Graduate from high school without any more distractions. Move away from Orlando, Florida, where she’s lived her entire life.

But Matt—the cute, shy, bespectacled bass player who just moved to town—was never part of that plan. And neither was attending a party that was crashed by the cops just minutes after they arrived. Or spending an entire night saying “yes” to every crazy, fun thing they could think of.

Then Matt abruptly left town, and he broke not only Ella’s heart but those of their best friends, too. So when he shows up a year later with a plan of his own—to relive the night that brought them together—Ella isn’t sure whether Matt’s worth a second chance. Or if re-creating the past can help them create a different future. In alternating then and now chapters, debut author Lauren Gibaldi crafts a charming, romantic story of first loves, lifelong friendships, uncovered secrets, and, ultimately, finding out how to be brave.

Misfit Review:

35%

I love my sweet, romantic stories with music and cute guys but with The Night We Said Yes, it just felt too formulaic. This is going to be a very short DNF review, and if you guys haven't noticed, I have never done a DNF review. So this is the very first. Sad to say that it lead to this.

{BLOG TOUR} Review: Denton Little's Deathdate by Lance Rubin

Title: Denton Little's Deathdate

Author: Lance Rubin

Publication: March 26th 2015, Simon & Schuster Children's UK

Format: Paperback, 352 pages

Source: Pinoy Book Tours! (Special thanks again to the lovely Dianne of Oops I Read A Book Again)        

Buy it on: Amazon | Barnesand Noble | iBooks | The Book Depository | Kobo | National Bookstore / Fully Booked (PH)

Synopsis:

Fans of John Green and Matthew Quick: Get ready to die laughing.

Denton Little's Deathdate takes place in a world exactly like our own except that everyone knows the day they will die. For 17-year-old Denton Little, that's tomorrow, the day of his senior prom.

Despite his early deathdate, Denton has always wanted to live a normal life, but his final days are filled with dramatic firsts. First hangover. First sex. First love triangle (as the first sex seems to have happened not with his adoring girlfriend, but with his best friend's hostile sister. Though he's not totally sure. See: first hangover.) His anxiety builds when he discovers a strange purple rash making its way up his body. Is this what will kill him? And then a strange man shows up at his funeral, claiming to have known Denton's long-deceased mother, and warning him to beware of suspicious government characters…. Suddenly Denton's life is filled with mysterious questions and precious little time to find the answers.

Debut author Lance Rubin takes us on a fast, furious, and outrageously funny ride through the last hours of a teenager's life as he searches for love, meaning, answers, and (just maybe) a way to live on.

Misfit Review:

What if you know when your deathdate will be? What if it's the most apparent thing that you have in your life, and let's say you are dying at the age of seventeen? What would you do by then? What will be the thing you'll say and what things will you do that'll be different? And what if there's more to your deathdate than you've actually known.

Misfit Talks: How The "Beauty Talk" Changed Me

Hi there Misfit booknerds! I'm gonna talk about something way too personal for me and in a sense might turn off some of you but seriously, I just wanna put it out there at least. I'm hoping this doesn't get too serious coz you all know how I hate that, honestly. I just want everything to be fun and quirky. Okay. Here I go.

Earlier this week, a Mom of a classmate I had in elementary (who I don't know if she had any major gas issues but she was, well, she had issues.), and I didn't exactly remember her at first glance. I was in my PJs and there's this huge group of women talking to my Mom because she's a councilor at these parts of my far, far away land. I decided to stroll downstairs, away from my hub, and get food and as I was making my way upstairs, my Mom calls upon me and tells me to say hi. Without even brushing my hair, and of course in PJ's, I said hi to everyone. My old classmate's Mom then said. "Mas maganda sya compare sa dati." which translates to "She's prettier compared to before."

{BLOG TOUR} Review + Excerpt + Giveaway: Made You Up by Francesca Zappia

Title: Made You Up

Author: Francesca Zappia

Publication: May 19th 2015, Greenwillow Books

Format: ARC

Source: Pinoy Book Tours! (Thank you soooo much, Dianne! <3)        

Buy it on: Amazon | Barnes and Noble | iBooks | The Book Depository | Kobo | National Bookstore / Fully Booked (PH)

Synopsis

Reality, it turns out, is often not what you perceive it to be—sometimes, there really is someone out to get you. Made You Up tells the story of Alex, a high school senior unable to tell the difference between real life and delusion. This is a compelling and provoking literary debut that will appeal to fans of Wes Anderson, Silver Linings Playbook, and Liar.

Alex fights a daily battle to figure out the difference between reality and delusion. Armed with a take-no-prisoners attitude, her camera, a Magic 8-Ball, and her only ally (her little sister), Alex wages a war against her schizophrenia, determined to stay sane long enough to get into college. She’s pretty optimistic about her chances until classes begin, and she runs into Miles. Didn't she imagine him? Before she knows it, Alex is making friends, going to parties, falling in love, and experiencing all the usual rites of passage for teenagers. But Alex is used to being crazy. She’s not prepared for normal. 

Funny, provoking, and ultimately moving, this debut novel featuring the quintessential unreliable narrator will have readers turning the pages and trying to figure out what is real and what is made up.

Misfit Review:

Here I am, somehow contemplating how I can actually talk about this novel and then halfway into it, I’ll be talking and talking and somehow I’ll surprise myself. Anyway, what I’m saying is, Made You Up left me speechless, wishing for more, and believing more in what is real.