Reviews written by Tara Gonzalez

The Hunt by Andrew Fukuda is a seriously intense and mind-screwing book. I spent a good 50 pages or so trying to decide WHAT paranormal creature I was dealing with in The Hunt. I mean, vampires – they drink blood, hang from ceilings, fear sunlight, etc. But...

I have such COMPLICATED feelings on The Princesses of Iowa by M. Molly Backes. For some reason, even after reading the summary, I didn’t expect The Princesses of Iowa to be as heavy and emotional as it was. I read the prologue of The Princesses of Iowa...

There were aspects of Purity by Jackson Pearce that I really enjoyed and others that ended up feeling a bit meh to me. I felt like Purity ended on a good note, but there were parts in the middle that felt a bit forced. For one thing,...

HOLY WHAT. That was kind of my reaction the ENTIRE time I was reading Unraveling by Elizabeth Norris. There are so many freaking twists throughout Unraveling and I was SO TENSE the entire time I was reading it, and I literally could not put it down. First...

Masque of the Red Death by Bethany Griffin is a little hard to put into words. It's a dark and intense book with contagions and Victorian times and slightly steampunkish and gothic themes. Basically - Masque of the Red Death isn't a book that's usually something I'm into. So if...

I'm a sucker for mystery solving, sleuthing teenagers. No matter how unrealistic the circumstances are, I love to read about teens looking for clues and interrogating witnesses. The first book in this series, Deadly Cool by Gemma Halliday, was fun and enjoyable, but there were a few little things that...

Storm by Brigid Kemmerer is one of those books that I thought looked interesting, that I thought I would like, but totally took me by surprise not only in story but also without how much I genuinely loved it. Storm starts off with a bang. There's enough...

Review originally posted here http://bookalicious.org/2012/04/review-the-mapmaker-and-the-ghost-by-sarvenaz-tash/ The Mapmaker and the Ghost by Sarvenaz Tash is filled with fantastical adventures and map talk galore! It’s entertaining and imaginative and sure to suck the reader in right away. Goldenrod Moram is a wonderfully done protagonist – she’s...

Ripper by Amy Carol Reeves started out pretty rocky for me, I must say. I felt sort of dropped into Abbie’s world and there were new characters thrust at me left and right, and I was just so confused by what was going on in Ripper. That...

I really enjoyed Kiss the Morning Star by Elissa Janine Hoole. I’ve read a bit of Kerouac, and while I certainly won’t be running off to emulate his adventures, I do love books featuring road trips and oodles of self discovery, which basically describes Kiss the Morning Star to a...

Storybound by Marissa Burt is the perfect book for lovers of middle grade fantasy and adventure. From the first few chapters, the reader will be sucked into the land of Story, just as Una Fairchild is. Marissa Burt did a great job building the characters in Storybound....

The List by Siobhan Vivian is one of those books that made me so freaking angry while I was reading it, and yet I couldn't make myself put it down. I hated 90% of the characters in The List. They were all so messed up and obnoxious...

Take a Bow by Elizabeth Eulberg was my first book by Elizabeth Eulberg, although I have desperately been pining to read her others. And I loved Take a Bow! It was one of those books that you put down with a huge grin on your face and a feeling of...

Child of the Mountains by Marilyn Sue Shank is a beautifully honest and heartbreaking coming-of-age historical fiction. From the very first page of Child of the Mountains, I was immediately there with the main character, Lydia. She’s from the mountains and her dialect and English isn’t very...

I was hoping that the reason I couldn't really get into The Goddess Test by Aimee Carter was because of my mood while reading it. However, after reading Goddess Interrupted, I think I've finally come to the conclusion that the series isn't for me. I enjoyed Goddess...