Book Review: Don't Even Think About It by Sarah Mlynowski

A tainted batch of the flu vaccine gives an entire homeroom (minus two students who did not get the vaccine) the ability to read minds.

There's not much to the story.  There's no depth and really no character development.  There are a lot of characters being that this is about what happens to an entire 10th grade homeroom.  There are a few that we focus on more than others, but it's a still a number that doesn't allow us to get that close to them.

It's a cute story that I could see made into a cute teen-made-for-TV-movie, but it lacks depth. The issues these kids have to deal with aren't explored very much.  All the reader sees is there is a problem and either it's caused or enhanced by their ability to read minds.  And even the ESP thing isn't focused on in great depth, either.

The ending was also a dissapointment.  That's not to say I am unhappy with what was decided, but again, it just lacks that depth.  It just happens.  Decisions are just made.  It seems very superficial and on the surface.  I really feel there is a lot that could have been explored.

I read this book as a review request from Netgalley.  All opinions are my own.  I was not compensated for this review in any way.

Book Review: Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell

Eleanor was the new girl in school and Park was just the boy sitting alone on the bus.

Set in 1986 this is the story of two, I don't want to say outcasts, that unexpectedly fall in love.  Eleanor returns home after being thrown out of the house by her stepfather.  She's a bit overweight with red hair and freckles--a combination that doesn't help her make friends at her school.  Park is half Asian with a few friends but he's not a majorly popular boy or anything.

Eleanor has her own troubles aside from Park to get through, not that Park is a trouble.  She had been thrown out of the house by her stepfather and now returns home to a life where her siblings like or pretend to like him.  She can't stand him and he can't stand her.  She feels creepy due to situations in the house.  Park is her escape.

The book is not a clean read.  There is cussing.  In the beginning it was a lot and I was afraid every page would be littered with dirty words, but fortunately they died down quite a bit.  I'm against cussing, but I'm not going to turn a book away because it has in it.  I read for the story and the story here was really good.

I read this book for pure pleasure.  All opinions are my own.  I was not compensated for this review in any way.

Book Review: Dark Eyes, Deep Eyes by T. Neal Tarver

I finally finished this book.  It's not so much the book's fault.  It got caught in that time period where I took a break before Christmas.

Wayne and Nick.  Father and son.  Heaven and Hell.

Described the book right there and that's pretty much my problem with it.  The story has nothing.  No depth. A story like this could really have depth.  It could really focus on the characters and how they got to where they are.  But, I never found that.  They're just there.  There's a little explanation to why they're where they are, but in the whole grand scheme of things it's nothing.   I was not impressed with this book.

I read this book as a review request for Book Look Bloggers formally known as Book Sneeze.  All opinions are my own.  I was not compensated for this review in any way.

Book Review: The Book Thief by Mark Zusak

A story of Nazi persecution in Germany as told by an interesting narrator...death.

Liesel Meminger is an orphan going to live with her foster family.  Her brother dies along the way.  At his burial she comes across a book, The Gravedigger's Handbook.  This book helps to save her.  She does not know how to read, but her new father helps her learn and together they make to the end of the book. Liesel is in search of more books.  She wants to read.

This story is not just about a girl wanting to read.  It's about living in Germany in 1939 after they hosted the Olympics and Jesse Owens won his medals, after he became a hero to a young white boy named Rudy.  It's about hiding someone in the basement.  It's about Nazi Germany, Heil Hitlers, and the Hitler Youth.

I've read a few Holocaust stories.  This story is different.  While not the narrator, it is told from the view of a Jewish sympathizer.  But, it's not like Anne Frank or Number the Stars.  It's not about hiding and all that stuff.  It's about discovery.  I wish we could have gone deeper into Liesel's head, but I was intrigued by death being the narrator, so maybe the story would not have been so good if he wasn't.

I read this book for pure pleasure.  All opinions are my own.  I was not compensated for this review in any way.

Book Review: Whispers (Glenbrooke #2) by Robin Jones Gunn

The second book in the Glenbrooke series follows Teri, a character we met in the first book as a Spanish teacher at the Glenbrooke high school. This book is different from the rest of the series in that it is set in Hawaii and not Glenbrooke. It is easy to find that Robin Jones Gunn is in love with Hawaii with how many stories she has set there.

Teri travels to Hawaii for summer vacation to spend a few weeks with her sister and with the hopes of rekindling a relationship she had with a man named Mark from the previous summer. When she gets to Hawaii she finds things are not as she planned. She does find romance, but it is not the one she's looking for. Is it the one she needs?

As I've found so far all RJG books are good. I just wish this book had kept its self more in Glenbrooke as this is part of that series. It is attached because of Teri being a Glenbrooke resident and she was an important character in the first book, but the only part that is "in" Glenbrooke is talking to Jessica.

I read this book for pure pleasure. All opinions are my own. I was not compensated for this review in any way.

Book Review: The Here and Now by Ann Brashares

From the author of The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants comes a story of time travel, romance, and saving the future.

With a plague overtaking their time, Prenna James and her family join a group of people who travel back in time to 2012.  On this travel, her father didn't make it and as her brother was a victim of the plague, it left only Prenna and her mom among the others.

The time travelers have many rules to follow, two of them being not telling anyone who they are and not allowing them to get close (especially physically) with anyone of the current time.  Unfortunately for Prenna she becomes close with one Ethan Jarves.

The story isn't about romance.  That's a side plot to what's really going on.  A supposedly homeless man wants Prenna to change the course of the future.  Something bad happens on a certain date and he knows if it can be stopped the dystopian future that awaits them will not be so messed up.

This story is technically science fiction but it feels like it goes along with the realistic fiction I liked to read and I think that's what helped me enjoy it more.  I have read The Traveling Pants series and this book is the first thing outside that of Brashares that I have read.  It shows me she is able to write successfully about other characters.  I'm going to have to check out other stuff by her.

I read this as a review request from Netgalley.com using the Kindle app on my phone.  All opinions are my own.  I was not compensated for this review in any way.

Teaser Tuesday

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading.  Anyone can playing along!  Just do the following

Grab your current read

Open to a random page

Share two (2) "teaser" sentences from somewhere on that page

Be careful not to include spoilers! (make sure that what you share doesn't give too much away!  You don't want to ruin the book for others!)

Share the title and author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR lists if they like your teasers.

"Anita slapped Teri's leg, and Teri bit her lip.  'I don't mean, going out with the whales, I mean going out to sea to see the whales.'  She rolled her eyes at Anita.  This was not going well."
P.75 Whispers (Glenbrooke #2) by Robin Jones Gunn