Ash Reads Stuff

ⓡⓔⓐⓓⓘⓝⓖ ⓡⓔⓒⓐⓟ  I'm trying to expand and try new things, so I thought I might do a monthly recap to talk about my favorite books of each month. It's a new year and a new time, so, why not? This year I set my Goodreads Reading Challenge to 200 books. Now, that's a lot for me because I get pretty busy during the school year, but I figured I'd give it a try. So far I've read 24 books of the month of January! I have some comics as well as one or two DNF (Did Not Finish) because one of my reading resolutions was to not force myself to read a book I didn't like. I'm pretty proud that I've held up that resolution so far.  Okay, so here are the highlights (my faves!) from my January reads.       There you have it: my favorites from January. These are mostly my Four Star ratings (Torn Away was a Five Star) and I loved them all a lot a lot. If you're interested in what I'm reading you can friend me on Goodreads or follow

I'm always happy and/or excited when I remember to participate in The Broke and the Bookish' s weekly Top Ten Tuesday . This week was a freebie, so I chose my favorite sequels. Here we go! I pretty much read The Lost Hero  thinking "WHERE'S PERCY?" the entire time.  So many answers! I loved it.  I loved hearing Adam's story. (I also apparently love Gayle Forman.)  Like I could have a list without Harry on it?  These words. The best.  Three words for you: MORE. LOGAN. ECHOLLS.  I know it's not really a sequel, but I loved seeing St. Clair and Anna again.  Swoons.  No, I didn't skip a book. It never existed.  Can I have the third one now?  Anywho, thanks for checking out my list and be sure to check out these books! Only you should probably read the first ones...first. 

Torn Away  by Jennifer Brown Publication Date: May 6, 2014 Pages: 288 (kindle) Genre: Young Adult  My Goodreads Rating: 5 Stars Goodreads Synopsis: Jersey Cameron has always loved a good storm. Watching the clouds roll in and the wind pick up. Smelling the electricity in the air. Dancing barefoot in the rain. She lives in the Midwest, after all, where the weather is sure to keep you guessing. Jersey knows what to do when the tornado sirens sound. But she never could have prepared for this. When her town is devastated by a tornado, Jersey loses everything. As she struggles to overcome her grief, she's sent to live with relatives she hardly knows-family who might as well be strangers. In an unfamiliar place, can Jersey discover that even on the darkest of days, there are some things no tornado can destroy? In this powerful and poignant novel, acclaimed author Jennifer Brown delivers a story of love, loss, hope, and survival. My Review:  This book kind of wr

Above  by Isla Morley Publication Date: October 7, 2014 Pages: 384 (paperback) Genre: Fiction My Goodreads Rating: 3.5 Stars Goodreads Synopsis:  “Reeled out with the chilling calmness of a Hitchcock film,Above haunts as it illuminates. Deftly told, this tale of human resilience in the face of madness is a horror classic for our times” (Lynn Cullen, bestselling author of Mrs. Poe). Blythe Hallowell is sixteen when she is abducted by a survivalist and locked away in an abandoned missile silo in Eudora, Kansas. At first, she focuses frantically on finding a way out, until the harrowing truth of her new existence settles in—the crushing loneliness, the terrifying madness of a captor who believes he is saving her from the end of the world, and the persistent temptation to give up. But nothing prepares Blythe for the burden of raising a child in confinement. Determined to give the boy everything she has lost, she pushes aside the truth about a world he may never see for

The Way Back to You  by Michelle Andreani & Mindi Scott Publication Date: May 3, 2016 Pages: 384 (kindle) Genre: Young Adult  My Goodreads Rating:  4 Stars Goodreads Synopsis: In this witty, heart-tugging novel, two teens take a spontaneous road trip across the Southwest to meet three strangers who received the life-saving organs of their late best friend—charting a journey of loss, hope, and love along the way. Six months ago, Ashlyn Montiel died in a bike accident. Her best friend Cloudy is keeping it together, at least on the outside. Cloudy’s insides are a different story: tangled, confused, heartbroken. Kyle is falling apart, and everyone can tell. Ashlyn was his girlfriend, and when she died, a part of him went with her. Maybe the only part he cares about anymore. As the two people who loved Ashlyn best, Cloudy and Kyle should be able to lean on each other. But after a terrible mistake last year, they're barely speaking. So when Cloudy discovers that Ashlyn’

Love Letters to the Dead by Ava Dellaira Publication Date: September 29, 2015 Pages: 352 (paperback) Genre: Young Adult  My Goodreads Rating: 3.5 Stars Goodreads Synopsis:  It begins as an assignment for English class: Write a letter to a dead person. Laurel chooses Kurt Cobain because her sister, May, loved him. And he died young, just like May did. Soon, Laurel has a notebook full of letters to people like Janis Joplin, Amy Winehouse, Amelia Earhart, Heath Ledger, and more -- though she never gives a single one of them to her teacher. She writes about starting high school, navigating new friendships, falling in love for the first time, learning to live with her splintering family. And, finally, about the abuse she suffered while May was supposed to be looking out for her. Only then, once Laurel has written down the truth about what happened to herself, can she truly begin to accept what happened to May. And only when Laurel has begun to see her sister as the person

You Were Here  by Cori McCarthy  Publication Date: March 1, 2016 Pages: 400 (kindle) Genre: Young Adult  My Goodreads Rating:  4 Stars NetGalley Synopsis: Jaycee is about to accomplish what her older brother Jake couldn't: live past graduation. Jaycee is dealing with her brother's death the only way she can- by re-creating Jake's daredevil stunts. The ones that got him killed. She's not crazy,okay? She just doesn't have a whole lot of respect for staying alive. Jaycee doesn't expect to have help on her insane quest to remember Jake. But she's joined by a group of unlikely friends- all with their own reasons for completing the dares and their own brand of dysfunction: the uptight, ex-best friend; the heartbroken poet; the slacker with Peter Pan syndrome; and...Mik. He doesn't talk, but somehow still challenges Jaycee to do the unthinkable-reveal parts of herself that she buried with her brother. Cori McCarthy's gripping narrative

Signs Point to Yes  by Sandy Hall  Publication Date: October 20, 2015 Pages:  288 (paperback) Genre: Young Adult  My Goodreads Rating:  3.5 Stars Goodreads Synopsis:  If only Jane’s Magic 8 Ball could tell her how to get through the summer. With her “perfect” sister, Margo, home for her “perfect” internship, Jane is not going to be able to spend the summer writing fan fiction, as she had planned. And her emergency babysitting job requires Jane to spend the whole summer in awkward proximity to her new crush, Teo, a nerdy-hot lifeguard with problems of his own. With his best friend out of town, Teo finds himself without anyone to confide in…except Jane. Will Jane and Teo be able to salvage each other’s summer? Even the Magic 8 Ball doesn’t have an answer… but signs point to yes. My Review:  I've been craving fluffy reads this weekend, so I was pretty happy when I finally picked this one up. I don't really think the summary paints a clear picture of what the

The Way We Fall  by Cassia Leo Publication Date:  February 20, 2015 Pages:  309 (kindle) Genre: Romance/Women's Fiction My Goodreads Rating:  2.5 Stars Goodreads Synopsis:  Five pages. A letter holding a secret buried for more than five years. A secret neither of them wanted to know. Five years after their messy breakup, Houston and Rory are forced to work together opening up a new wine bar. Despite their tragic past, they find themselves once again drawn to each other, unable to deny their potent attraction. But the secret of the letter hangs like a guillotine over their heads. And soon, Houston finds himself in the same position he was in five years ago, choosing between the truth and the only woman he’s ever loved. My Review:  I picked this book up as a freebie and was looking for something short and fluffy to read this weekend, just to get my mind off the work week. Well, I chose wrong because this book is anything but fluffy.  Rory is a college

Hooray the first Top Ten Tuesday of 2016 (a weekly feature you can find at The Broke and the Bookish ). This is a fun post because I don't actually make resolutions about my life, so maybe I'll stick to books ones. Probably not, but we'll see. 1. Read books I already own.  It's been really fun getting into reviewing and receiving ARCs, but I've got books on my kindle and on my shelves. I should start on those, huh? 2. Don't impulse buy.  This goes with #1. I'm really bad about buying books for $.99 or something ridiculous like that. 3. Build my community.  Basically I want to read more blogs and make new friends. 4. Write better reviews. I'm pretty new to the whole reading/reviewing thing and sometimes I feel like my reviews are just a lot of thoughts thrown together. I want to be better at organizing them. 5. Keep track of purchases. I really wanted to do this last year, but I fell off the wagon of "not buying books". I'

Liars, Inc. by Paula Stokes Publication Date: March 24, 2015 Pages: 268 (kindle) Genre: Young Adult/Mystery My Goodreads Rating: 4 Stars Goodreads Synopsis: It all starts with one little lie… Max Cantrell has never been a big fan of the truth, so when the opportunity arises to sell lies to his classmates, it sounds like a good way to make a little money and liven up a boring senior year. With the help of his friends Preston and Parvati, Max starts a business providing forged permission slips and cover stories for the students of Vista Palisades High. Liars, Inc. they call it. Suddenly everybody needs something and the cash starts pouring in. Who knew lying could be so lucrative? When Preston wants his own cover story to go visit a girl he met online, Max doesn’t think twice about hooking him up. Until Preston never comes home. Then the evidence starts to pile up—terrifying clues that lead the cops to Preston’s body. Terrifying clues that point to Max as the murderer. Ca