Ash Reads Stuff

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...

All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven Publication Date: January 6, 2015 Pages: 388 (Hardcover)   Genre: Young Adult  My Goodreads Rating: 3.5 Stars Goodreads Synopsis:  Theodore Finch is fascinated by death, and he constantly thinks of ways he might kill himself. But each time, something good, no matter how small, stops him. Violet Markey lives for the future, counting the days until graduation, when she can escape her Indiana town and her aching grief in the wake of her sister’s recent death. When Finch and Violet meet on the ledge of the bell tower at school, it’s unclear who saves whom. And when they pair up on a project to discover the “natural wonders” of their state, both Finch and Violet make more important discoveries: It’s only with Violet that Finch can be himself—a weird, funny, live-out-loud guy who’s not such a freak after all. And it’s only with Finch that Violet can forget to count away the days and start living them. But as Viole...

Emmy & Oliver by Robin Benway Publication Date: June 23, 2015 Pages: 352 (Hardcover)  Genre: Young Adult  My Goodreads Rating: 5 Stars Goodreads Synopsis: Emmy just wants to be in charge of her own life. She wants to stay out late, surf her favorite beach—go anywhere without her parents’ relentless worrying. But Emmy’s parents can’t seem to let her grow up—not since the day Oliver disappeared. Oliver needs a moment to figure out his heart. He’d thought, all these years, that his dad was the good guy. He never knew that it was his father who kidnapped him and kept him on the run. Discovering it, and finding himself returned to his old hometown, all at once, has his heart racing and his thoughts swirling. Emmy and Oliver were going to be best friends forever, or maybe even more, before their futures were ripped apart. In Emmy’s soul, despite the space and time between them, their connection has never been severed. But is their story still writte...

My Sister's Secret by Tracy Buchanan Expected Publication Date: July 21, 2015 Pages:  400 (Kindle Edition)  Genre: Adult Fiction My Goodreads Rating:  5 Stars Goodreads Synopsis: Everything you’ve built your life on is a lie. Willow’s memories of her parents are sun-drenched and full of smiles, love and laughter. But a mysterious invitation to a photographic exhibition exposes a secret that’s been buried since a tragic accident years ago. Willow is forced to question everything she knew about Charity, her late mother, and Hope, the aunt she’s lived with since she was a child. How was the enigmatic photographer connected to Willow’s parents? Why will Hope not break her silence? Willow cannot move forward in her life without answers. But who can she really trust? Because no one has been telling the truth for a very long time. ADDICTIVE, GRIPPING and EMOTIONALLY POWERFUL, this is the perfect read for your summer holiday escape. My Review:...

Tiger Lily by Jodi Lynn Anderson Publication Date: 2012 Pages:  292 (Paperback)  Genre: Young Adult My Goodreads Rating: 4 Stars Goodreads Synopsis: Before Peter Pan belonged to Wendy, he belonged to the girl with the crow feather in her hair... Fifteen-year-old Tiger Lily doesn't believe in love stories or happy endings. Then she meets the alluring teenage Peter Pan in the forbidden woods of Neverland and immediately falls under his spell. Peter is unlike anyone she's ever known. Impetuous and brave, he both scares and enthralls her. As the leader of the Lost Boys, the most fearsome of Neverland's inhabitants, Peter is an unthinkable match for Tiger Lily. Soon, she is risking everything—her family, her future—to be with him. When she is faced with marriage to a terrible man in her own tribe, she must choose between the life she's always known and running away to an uncertain future with Peter. With enemies threatening to tear them apart, the l...

What You Left Behind by Jessica Verdi Publication Date: August 4, 2015 Pages: 320 (Hardcover) Genre: Young Adult My Goodreads Rating: Four Stars Goodreads Synopsis: It’s all Ryden’s fault. If he hadn’t gotten Meg pregnant, she would have never stopped her chemo treatments and would still be alive. Instead, he’s failing fatherhood one dirty diaper at a time. And it’s not like he’s had time to grieve while struggling to care for their infant daughter, start his senior year, and earn the soccer scholarship he needs to go to college. The one person who makes Ryden feel like his old self is Joni. She’s fun and energetic—and doesn’t know he has a baby. But the more time they spend together, the harder it becomes to keep his two worlds separate. Finding one of Meg’s journals only stirs up old emotions, and Ryden’s convinced Meg left other notebooks for him to find, some message to help his new life make sense. But how is he going to have a future if he can’t let go of the...

I'll Meet You There by Heather Demetrios Published: 2015 Pages: 379 Genre: Young Adult My Goodreads Rating: Four Stars This book was a random recommendation off of Goodreads and I just thought "Why not?" so I put myself on the hold list at my library. I'm trying to learn to rent instead of own just in case I don't like a book. (Please don't ask how that's working out for me.) Anyway, I got the book, downloaded the book, forgot about the book. That is, until I got the notification that my book loan was going to expire. So, of course, I didn't want to wait again  to check it out.  At first I was a little worried that I wouldn't be able to read the book in three days considering it's the last week of school and I have a ton of other stuff I should be doing, but I managed it. And by "managed it" I obviously mean that I ignored all the things I was supposed to be doing and laid on the couch all day yesterday to read....

Things We Know By Heart by Jessi Kirby Published: 2015 Pages: 304 Genre: Young Adult My Goodreads Rating: Four Stars I've never read a Jessi Kirby book, but I think this was a pretty good one to start with. Quinn is a girl whose boyfriend died their junior year of high school and, in order to gain her closure, she sets out to find the people who received his organs. This part is mainly backstory, which is good because it's terribly sad. In the process of all of this Quinn basically let's her own life go, so when we meet her in the story, over a year after Trent's death, she is really just a shadow of her old self. Out of the people who received Trent's organs, she never meets the one who has his heart- he doesn't want to be found. So, she takes the matters into her own hands.  This story seems a little far-fetched and pretty dramatic, but after you get through that part of the premise...wow. Quinn pretty much "accidentally" me...