Waiting on Wednesday

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event that is hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine and spotlights upcoming releases that we’re eagerly anticipating.

Extraordinary Means: Robyn Schneider 
Publication Date: May 26th

Synopsis: 
At seventeen, 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, and sneak into town, and 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.

I think this is the UK cover and I'm so jealous of it:

I think this book looks fantastic especially because tuberculosis is a very serious illness. I don't care that people say they are tired of "illness books" after TFIOS. It's just another genre and if you don't like that specific genre then don't read it. People still like dystopian books after how many hundreds of dystopian books have been published! I don't think this genre is saturated, especially with it being about a very different kind of illness. I don't think I've ever read a book about tuberculosis and I'm very excited to! 

The Infinite Sea

The Infinite Sea (Fifth Wave #2): Rick Yancey 

How do you rid the Earth of seven billion humans? Rid the humans of their humanity.

Surviving the first four waves was nearly impossible. Now Cassie Sullivan finds herself in a new world, a world in which the fundamental trust that binds us together is gone. As the 5th Wave rolls across the landscape, Cassie, Ben, and Ringer are forced to confront the Others’ ultimate goal: the extermination of the human race.

Cassie and her friends haven’t seen the depths to which the Others will sink, nor have the Others seen the heights to which humanity will rise, in the ultimate battle between life and death, hope and despair, love and hate.

I didn't like this book as much as I liked the first book. I mean I really loved the first book, so it would be hard for it to measure up to it. The first 2/3 of the book was great. The differing points of view in small doses was something I really liked in the first book, and the beginning didn't disappoint in that aspect. There was a lot of action, a little romance, and some closure between some of the characters. It was very promising. Cassie is still my favorite character. She is strong and becoming stronger by every page of the book I read. She's also headstrong and tries not to take shit from anyone, but people still try to push her around because they perceive her as weak. I think there is a tie for my second favorite characters with Evan and Ben. They both have different traits that I like and I think they really show more of themselves in this book. 

"That’s the cost. That’s the price. Get ready, because when you crush the humanity out of humans, you’re left with humans with no humanity"

I feel like this book raised more questions than it answered, and not in a good plot twist way. It was like in a "hold up this isn't making any sense" kind of way. So, the plot in the last third of the book was completely confusing. It was insinuating that all of these important questions are about to be answered and the answers are right in front of you …. but they're not. I was also very disappointed for the amount of time Ringer's point of view took up. She's not a poorly written character by any means, I just don't like her. I even tried really hard to like her. I missed Cassie when Ringer was sulking about her life. I feel like since the first book mostly revolved around Cassie, Evan, and Ben maybe this one should too. It would have been nice to see Ringer's point of view in a novella of sorts, but not like this. 

“When you look death in the eye and death blinks first, nothing seems impossible.”

I'm hoping Rick Yancey decides to go back to short installments of multiple points of view like in the first novel. Despite the last third of the novel, I still enjoyed the book and I am looking forward to the final installment of The Fifth Wave, The Last star coming out in September. I give the Infinite Sea a generous 4 stars for the first 2/3 of the book! 

Challenger Deep

Challenger Deep: Neal Shusterman
Publication Date: April 21st 

Caden Bosch is on a ship that's headed for the deepest point on Earth: Challenger Deep, the southern part of the Marianas Trench.

Caden Bosch is a brilliant high school student whose friends are starting to notice his odd behavior.

Caden Bosch is designated the ship's artist in residence, to document the journey with images.

Caden Bosch pretends to join the school track team but spends his days walking for miles, absorbed by the thoughts in his head.

Caden Bosch is split between his allegiance to the captain and the allure of mutiny.
Caden Bosch is torn.

A captivating and powerful novel that lingers long beyond the last page, Challenger Deep is a heartfelt tour de force by one of today's most admired writers for teens.

When I first read the description for this book, I just read the first line of that and I was all "deep sea exploration, I'm in!!" I guess I was having an off day or something, I don't even know. Just like I don't even know what category of YA I'd put this in. It's not quite enough "run of the mill" stuff to be contemporary. It's a story about a boy with mental illness, told from his perspective so of course it gets pretty weird a lot of the times. 

"Does it speak to you?" asks Poirot when he catches me staring at it.

"If it did you'd probably change my medication", I tell him.

One thing I didn't expect was how FUNNY it was. Then I feel bad for thinking it's funny, right? I mean he has a mental disorder and I'm sitting here laughing at what he's saying and perceiving to be real. It's almost like I forgot he was sick and he was just having an overactive imagination. So then I'm all "no more laughing, these are serious matters and his condition isn't funny." I end up smiling anyway. I was never making fun of him, I was just laughing at what was going on in the book because it was some funny stuff. I think Caden is just an extremely likable character, and aside from being sick has a fun personality. 

"Your MRI came back clean. It means you don't have a brain tumor, or anything like that."

Until they mentioned it, it had never occurred to you that you might have had one. And now that it's been mentioned, you don't believe the results. 

I loved his book SO much, and I loved Caden. Caden is now one of my favorite book characters ever. I don't want to spoil anything, so I can't say too much about it because I feel like the characters surrounding Caden led up to a much bigger picture. I will say this: I recommend this book to everyone, not just genre specific lovers. I feel that everyone will like and interpret this book in their own way, and come out of reading it a very big Neal Shusterman fan. You will love this book! I give it all the stars!

 I will miss Caden Bosch immensely. 

"Those who speak of having seen the bottom lie"

Feature and Follow

It's Feature & Follow Friday hosted by Parajunkee & Alison Can Read! You can join in and/or see all the blogs participating here.

This week's question:

Have you ever read a book you thought you’d hate but loved? Or vice versa?

Yes Yes Yes, a thousand times YES. I thought that I was going to hate Ugly Love. I ended up loving it, just like everyone else said I was going to! Leave a link to your Feature & Follow! :)

Waiting on Wednesday

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event that is hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine and spotlights upcoming releases that we’re eagerly anticipating.

Lois Lane: Fallout by Gwenda Bond 
Publication Date: May 1st 

Synopsis: 
Lois Lane is starting a new life in Metropolis. An Army brat, Lois has lived all over—and seen all kinds of things. (Some of them defy explanation, like the near-disaster she witnessed in Kansas in the middle of one night.) But now her family is putting down roots in the big city, and Lois is determined to fit in. Stay quiet. Fly straight. As soon as she steps into her new high school, though, she can see it won’t be that easy. A group known as the Warheads is making life miserable for another girl at school. They’re messing with her mind, somehow, via the high-tech immersive videogame they all play. Not cool. Armed with her wit and her new snazzy job as a reporter, Lois has her sights set on solving this mystery. But sometimes it’s all a bit much. Thank goodness for her maybe-more-than-a friend, a guy she knows only by his screenname, SmallvilleGuy.


THIS BOOK LOOKS SO AWESOME. FIRST of all.. I love superheroes, ESPECIALLY DC comic superheroes. This book was apparently on Netgalley and I missed it! And SECOND of all SmallvilleGuy … haha we all know who that probably is, right? *Nudge, nudge. Wink, wink*. I'm thinking a spin on DC comics is probably one of the best ideas in the history of ever.  

The Eye of Minds

The Eye of Minds: James Dashner 

Michael is a gamer. And like most gamers, he almost spends more time on the VirtNet than in the actual world. The VirtNet offers total mind and body immersion, and it’s addictive. Thanks to technology, anyone with enough money can experience fantasy worlds, risk their life without the chance of death, or just hang around with Virt-friends. And the more hacking skills you have, the more fun. Why bother following the rules when most of them are dumb, anyway?

But some rules were made for a reason. Some technology is too dangerous to fool with. And recent reports claim that one gamer is going beyond what any gamer has done before: he’s holding players hostage inside the VirtNet. The effects are horrific—the hostages have all been declared brain-dead. Yet the gamer’s motives are a mystery.

The government knows that to catch a hacker, you need a hacker.
And they’ve been watching Michael. They want him on their team.
But the risk is enormous. If he accepts their challenge, Michael will need to go off the VirtNet grid. There are back alleys and corners in the system human eyes have never seen and predators he can’t even fathom—and there’s the possibility that the line between game and reality will be blurred forever.


So, I am a long time fan of the Maze Runner series. I read it way back when I was just a freshman in high school, it is probably one of the first YA books I've ever read. With that being said, I knew James Dashner recently had a new series published and I've been meaning to read it but I just didn't know how interested I'd be in it. The whole technology and computer hacking thing didn't really appeal to me. BUT I had this book on my bookshelf for awhile because I'm a fan of James Dashner (I  obviously had to buy it) and so I just decided to read it anyway to see it what it was like! 

I just don't even know where to start with this review because when I finished it, I'm thinking "what the hell did I just read?" Not in a bad way though. In a good way. I guess in the beginning because that's always a good place to start… 

There is this virtual reality game where your actual self lies in a coffin thing while your off in the VirtNet doing well whatever you want to do. The VirtNet is a whole other world! They have news reports, restaurants, everything. You have to spend actual money though. People play games in the VirtNet and don't have to worry about dying they just wake up in their little coffin. BUT if they pull out their little core which I guess is similar to a computer core… you will actually die or slip into a coma-like state and never wake up. So along comes this terrorist guy Kaine who makes people decode their own cores and kill themselves. And the book summary tells the rest.
Oh yeah I found a picture of the coffin thingy: 

The main characters are Michael, Bryson, and Sarah. Can I just say that I ship Michael and Sarah all over the place? She is super smart, tough, and nerdy. Michael is really sarcastic and his mouth is always getting him in trouble. The book mostly follows Michael, by the way. Sarah and Bryson are just his friends in the VirtNet, not the actual world. Bryson was kind of dull and I could take him or leave him. 

Everywhere Michael looked, he saw perfection. Perfect hair, perfect clothes, perfect muscles, perfect legs. 

Not my cup of tea he thought with a smile. He preferred dorky girls with messy hair and potato chip crumbs on their shirt. 

"Michael," Sarah whispered.

 She seemed to reconsider what she'd been about to say. "Just…." She raised her voice. 

"Just make sure you kill him quick when you do it. Break his neck nice and clean" 

The last few chapters were like a plane flying right over my head. Why didn't I see that!?! It's literally insaaaaane. The premise was so cool though. I have to admit I was really hesitant at first. I was never a hardcore gamer and I never tried to hack anything… so I didn't think I was going to even understand this. It just so happened that there was this entire new world that James Dashner created and it would be so freaking cool if it was real. But the ending was crazy as heck I literally need someone to talk to about  this. 

So, I give this book 4 stars because It is a little similar to the Mazer Runner series. I heard it is also similar to Ready Player One? I've never read. I recommend it if you like plot twists. Like a ball coming out of right field and hitting you in the jaw or something. Also just a random thought, I'd like to see James Dashner try the paranormal genre. I bet it would be great! 

The Truth About Us

The Truth About Us: Janet Gurtler
Publication Date: April 7th 

The truth is that Jess knows she screwed up.
She's made mistakes, betrayed her best friend, and now she's paying for it. Her dad is making her spend the whole summer volunteering at the local soup kitchen.

The truth is she wishes she was the care-free party-girl everyone thinks she is.
She pretends it's all fine. That her "perfect" family is fine. But it's not. And no one notices the lie...until she meets Flynn. He's the only one who really sees her. The only one who listens.

The truth is that Jess is falling apart – and no one seems to care. 
But Flynn is the definition of "the wrong side of the tracks." When Jess's parents look at him they only see the differences-not how much they need each other. They don't get that the person who shouldn't fit in your world... might just be the one to make you feel like you belong.

So, what really made me interested in reading this book was the whole wrong side of the tracks thing like West Side Story lol. Ok so not exactly like West Side Story…. but their families didn't want them to be together so close enough. When I first started reading this I'm not gonna lie I was disappointed. I felt like I could map out how this story was going to go, and none of the characters seemed to have a connection with each other. Not just the two main characters, but like anybody. 

"'Is he a criminal? Married?' She takes her coffee and sips it. She drinks hers black.

'Worse'. I tell her. 'He's poor.'"

Even though I thought the characters didn't connect with each other in the beginning, I always really liked them. They were really intricate and had very different personalities. I really liked Flynn! When I was reading other reviews, I saw that a lot of people didn't really like him at some points. I liked him at all points, though! I can see why he did the things he did, plus I like characters that mess up. I never really like perfect characters because they're boring. 

"'My son is quite taken with you' she says softly. 

'He's a good kid', I say watching in run away. I like him too 

She blinks slowly. 'That isn't the son I was speaking of.' she says" 

Then, a little over halfway, the book just heated up so much in a thousand different ways. There were things I didn't see coming and people's personalities started revealing themselves. I'm not one to get teary over books but there were parts that I was like damn… It seemed that SO much was put into such a little portion that it was so exciting. One crazy thing was happening after another, it was like the grand finale of fireworks. 

Overall, even though the beginning was disappointing, the second half made up for a lot of it by telling me that I obviously didn't know what was going to happen! Some stories ran in parallel with each other, which made it pretty beautiful when it came together. I would recommend this book to those who like contemporary romance novels. 

**Thank you to Sourcebooks and NetGalley for providing this arc in exchange for an honest review!**