Reviews written by Lauren Thoman, Listings Manager

If I Stay alternates between Mia's flashbacks of her life and her out-of-body experience after the accident, watching her friends and family react to what has happened to her, her parents, and her brother. We get to see snippets of her childhood, her interaction with her parents and brother, and...

This book took some getting used to, because of the unnatural (yet accurate for the story) use of pronouns and verb conjugations. Because there are two people sharing one body, you get paragraphs like this: "Kind of," Addie said. She managed to keep our voice bland despite...

First of all, the synopsis is misleading. It implies that there is a romance in this book between Blue and Gansey, and there is not. There is a hint of romance between Blue and one of the other Raven Boys, but not Gansey. Now, I'm pretty sure that if all...

Carnival of Souls is the story of two magical races -- witches and daimons -- that aren't exactly at war with each other, but are definitely not on good terms. Mallory is the daughter of the daimon ruler, but her daimon nature is hidden from her when her mother hides...

This review will contain some mild spoilers, but I will try to keep it as non-spoilery as possible. Magisterium starts with a sci-fi feel. It takes place in the future, there’s new technology (some of which seems a lot like an iPad a couple generations down the...

Okay, the synopsis sounds hokey. Maybe you don’t think so, but I do. Bad boy reaches out to the popular girl so that she can learn to love again? Um, no. Truth be told, I’m not exactly sure why I requested this book, because I think the synopsis sounds hokey....

Although the synopsis is written from the POV of Number Six, The Rise of Nine actually shifts between three POVs: John Smith (Number Four), Number Six, and Marina (Number Seven). I’m wondering if this is going to become a thing with this series. Book #1 had one POV, Book #2...

I have such mixed feelings about this book, I’m going to have to break it up into pieces. World Building: A+ Absolutely stellar world building. As far as the setting goes, this book is Oregon Trail meets Harry Potter. The magic was well thought...

I want to say first off that I found this book action-packed and entertaining. I really enjoyed Eleanor, even if she did seem a tad too liberated for 1876. She was fun and feisty and tried her very best to be useful instead of just reporting on what she knew...

First of all, while I was expecting Persephone, I found the plot of this book was a lot closer to Orpheus and Eurydice, although both myths were mentioned prominently throughout the book. I’m not really complaining, since both myths are definitely interesting. I just wouldn’t go into this expecting a...

Much like Clarity, Perception is an exciting, fast-paced teen mystery channeling the essence of Veronica Mars, but with psychic powers. The love triangle between Clare, Justin, and Gabriel is still a huge part of the story, even moreso than in Clarity, since the secret admirer plot line...

Clarity was kind of like Veronica Mars, if Veronica was raised by her mom instead of her dad, wasn’t actually a trained detective, and was psychic. Which kind of sounds not at all like Veronica Mars, but just bear with me here. They’re both social outcasts, sassy and sarcastic, and...

This book was totally unlike any other fantasy I’ve ever read, both in characters and in plot. I’ll talk about characters first. First, Elisa was not beautiful (and not in that “she doesn’t think she’s beautiful but guys keep falling all over themselves when she appears” kind...

One Moment is actually fairly simple, and although the revelations throughout are shocking to Maggie, they were pretty predictable for me. But that didn't keep me from enjoying the book. The story is told from Maggie's perspective, which means we are treated to the story of her...

After I finished The Girl in the Steel Corset by Kady Cross, I had mixed feelings going into the sequel. On the one hand, I really feel like the world, the story and the characters have so much potential. On the other, I was disappointed in TGitSC. It felt like...