Lock and Key

Lock and Key
by Sarah Dessen

Summary

 Ruby, where is your mother?

Ruby knows that the game is up. For the past few months, she's been on her own in the yellow house, managing somehow, knowing that her mother will probably never return.

That's how she comes to live with Cora, the sister she hasn't seen in ten years, and Cora's husband Jamie, whose down-to-earth demeanor makes it hard for Ruby to believe he founded the most popular networking Web site around. A luxurious house, fancy private school, a new wardrobe, the promise of college and a future; it's a dream come true. So why is Ruby such a reluctant Cinderella, wary and defensive? And why is Nate, the genial boy next door with some secrets of his own, unable to accept the help that Ruby is just learning to give? 

Best-selling author Sarah Dessen explores the heart of a gutsy, complex girl dealing with unforeseen circumstances and learning to trust again.

My Review

I’ve been hearing a lot about Sarah Dessen’s books for quite a while now, and the good reviews got me really interested. I had little spare time to read, so when a satellite library was set up at our school and someone brought in Lock and Key, I jumped at the opportunity to take it. Our reading sessions were only about ten minutes each, though, so I decided to bring it home instead. All I can say is that I’m really glad I chose to read this book, because it’s absolutely beautiful. 

I love Ruby’s character; she has experienced so many things in her life. It’s moving how much she loves and cares for her mom despite the parental neglect she received in return. Although Ruby started off always dwelling on the past and being stubbornly individualistic, she was able to realize things for herself in the end and change for the better. She learned that there’s nothing wrong with relying on others. She realized the importance there is in family, and how that bond goes far deeper than just blood. Amongst all that, what I found really amazing about her was how she ended up being the one to help others avoid experiencing all the pain she had. It’s the sweetest form of love, and I admire her so much for it. 

The character development was excellent, and you will find yourself caring for them in spite of their being fictional. I was able to understand that even though there are always going to be a lot of locks and not enough keys, it remains up to us to break those locks and free ourselves from our boundaries. This is definitely a book that would appeal to those who like contemporary and young adult novels.

Quotes I Like

“It's a lot easier to be lost than found. It's the reason we're always searching and rarely discovered--so many locks not enough keys.” 

“What is family? They were the people who claimed you. In good, in bad, in parts or in whole, they were the ones who showed up, who stayed in there, regardless. It wasn't just about blood relations or shared chromosomes, but something wider, bigger. We had many families over time. Our family of origin, the family we created, and the groups you moved through while all of this was happening: friends, lovers, sometimes even strangers. None of them perfect, and we couldn't expect them to be. You can't make any one person your world. The trick was to take what each could give you and build your world from it.” 

“Family isn’t something that’s supposed to be static, or set. People marry in, divorce out. They’re born, they die. It’s always evolving, turning into something else.” 

“Everyone has their weak spot. The one thing that, despite your best efforts, will always bring you to your knees, regardless of how strong you are otherwise.” 

“My point is, there are a lot of people in the world. No one ever sees everything the same way you do; it just doesn't happen. So when you find one person who gets a couple of things, especially if they're important ones... you might as well hold on to them. You know?”

Waiting on Wednesday

The girl with straight As, designer clothes and the perfect life-that's who people expect Rachel Young to be. So the private-school junior keeps secrets from her wealthy parents and overbearing brothers...and she's just added two more to the list. One involves racing strangers down dark country roads in her Mustang GT. The other? Seventeen-year-old Isaiah Walker-a guy she has no business even talking to. But when the foster kid with the tattoos and intense gray eyes comes to her rescue, she can't get him out of her mind. 

Isaiah has secrets, too. About where he lives, and how he really feels about Rachel. The last thing he needs is to get tangled up with a rich girl who wants to slum it on the south side for kicks-no matter how angelic she might look. 

But when their shared love of street racing puts both their lives in jeopardy, they have six weeks to come up with a way out. Six weeks to discover just how far they'll go to save each other.

They say that the higher you climb, the harder you fall - and Madison Clarke will do anything to keep her new life from crumbling to pieces. Moving from a small town in Maine to Florida, Madison grasps the opportunity to reinvent herself, to forget about those days of being a lonely, loser outcast, and jumps at the chance when the popular kids decide to take her under their wing. A hot boyfriend, parties, friends... If only there wasn't the slight problem by the name of Dwight, a cute, funny and totally nerdy guy in Madison's physics class who she can't help but enjoy spending time with. Running from her past and stumbling through the present, who knows what lies ahead in this new life in Florida?

For as long as she can remember, Wren Gray’s goal has been to please her parents. But as high school graduation nears, so does an uncomfortable realization: Pleasing her parents once overlapped with pleasing herself, but now... not so much. Wren needs to honor her own desires, but how can she if she doesn’t even know what they are?

Charlie Parker, on the other hand, is painfully aware of his heart’s desire. A gentle boy with a troubled past, Charlie has loved Wren since the day he first saw her. But a girl like Wren would never fall for a guy like Charlie—at least not the sort of guy Charlie believes himself to be.

And yet certain things are written in the stars. And in the summer after high school, Wren and Charlie’s souls will collide. But souls are complicated, as are the bodies that house them...

Sexy, romantic, and oh-so-true to life, this is an unforgettable look at first love from one of young adult fiction’s greatest writers.

Stacking the Shelves

      

Hopeless

Hopeless
by Colleen Hoover

Summary

Sometimes discovering the truth can leave you more hopeless than believing the lies… 

That’s what seventeen-year-old Sky realizes after she meets Dean Holder. A guy with a reputation that rivals her own and an uncanny ability to invoke feelings in her she’s never had before. He terrifies her and captivates her all in the span of just one encounter, and something about the way he makes her feel sparks buried memories from a past that she wishes could just stay buried. 

Sky struggles to keep him at a distance knowing he’s nothing but trouble, but Holder insists on learning everything about her. After finally caving to his unwavering pursuit, Sky soon finds that Holder isn’t at all who he’s been claiming to be. When the secrets he’s been keeping are finally revealed, every single facet of Sky’s life will change forever. 

My Review

At first, I was a bit hesitant to read this book, because the title made me feel like the story would be all negative and sad, but as I read through it, I found out what it actually meant, and I thought it was really cool. So for anyone thinking that it’s a depressing novel, it’s not (for the most part). 

I think that Hopeless, despite not exactly being original, is a great book. It’s nicely written, and it describes the emotions of the main character so well that I actually felt like I was in her body feeling all those things with her. I love how the characters developed throughout the book, especially Sky. At the beginning of the novel, she wondered why she couldn’t feel any connection with others, but as the story went on and she met Holder, she started realizing how much she was really missing out on. She and Holder really complemented each other in their relationship, too, because through it they were able to help each other grow into better people. Holder kind of started out as this bad boy type, but when he’s with Sky, he’s gentle and caring, and it was really nice to see Sky bring out that side of him. 

The book mainly focuses on Sky’s past, and it opened up my eyes to the horrible things that parents could do to their children. I adore Sky’s bravery, because it takes a lot of courage to get past something that scarring and still turn into a person as strong as she is. I’m really glad that Karen was able to help her, and it made me see that sometimes, the best thing to do may not necessarily be the right thing. 

The plot is pretty intense, with so many tragic things happening. I also felt like the ending didn’t give me a sense of closure. Overall, was a tragic and painful story, but there was still beauty in all of that. It taught me that bad things can happen to anyone, and it is important that we stay strong amidst anything that life throws our way. As they say, you can’t have a rainbow without a little rain.

Quotes I Like

“The sky is always beautiful. Even when it's dark or rainy or cloudy, it's still beautiful to look at... it'll be there no matter what... and I know it'll always be beautiful.” 

“Its real, Six. You can't get mad at a real ending. Some of them are ugly. Its the fake happily ever afters that should piss you off.” 

“I'm not a sucker for happily ever afters, but if these two characters don't get theirs I might climb inside this e-reader and lock them both inside that damn garage forever.” 

And while I could sit here and feel sorry for myself, wondering why all of this happened to me... I'm not going to do it. I'm not going to wish for a perfect life. The things that knock you down in life are tests, forcing you to make a choice between giving in and remaining on the ground or wiping the dirt off and standing up even taller than you did before you were knocked down. I'm choosing to stand taller. I'll probably get kicked down a few more times before this life is through with me, but I can guarantee you I'll never stay on the ground.” 

“Sometimes you have to choose between a bunch of wrong choices and no right ones. You just have to choose which wrong choices feels the least wrong.”

Slammed Series

Slammed Series

by Colleen Hoover

Summary

Slammed

Following the unexpected death of her father, 18-year-old Layken is forced to be the rock for both her mother and younger brother. Outwardly, she appears resilient and tenacious, but inwardly, she's losing hope.

Enter Will Cooper: The attractive, 21-year-old new neighbor with an intriguing passion for slam poetry and a unique sense of humor. Within days of their introduction, Will and Layken form an intense emotional connection, leaving Layken with a renewed sense of hope.

Not long after an intense, heart-stopping first date, they are slammed to the core when a shocking revelation forces their new relationship to a sudden halt. Daily interactions become impossibly painful as they struggle to find a balance between the feelings that pull them together, and the secret that keeps them apart.

Point of Retreat

Hardships and heartache brought them together…now it will tear them apart.

Layken and Will have proved their love can get them through anything; until someone from Will’s past re-emerges, leaving Layken questioning the very foundation on which their relationship was built. Will is forced to face the ultimate challenge…how to prove his love for a girl who refuses to stop ‘carving pumpkins.’

This Girl

Layken and Will’s love has managed to withstand the toughest of circumstances and the young lovers, now married, are beginning to feel safe and secure in their union. As much as Layken relishes their new life together, she finds herself wanting to know everything there is to know about her husband, even though Will makes it clear he prefers to keep the painful memories of the past where they belong. Still, he can’t resist his wife’s pleas and so he begins to untangle his side of the story, revealing for the first time his most intimate feelings and thoughts, retelling both the good and bad moments, and sharing a few shocking confessions of his own from the time when they first met.

In This Girl, Will tells the story of their complicated relationship from his point of view. Their future rests on how well they deal with the past in this final installment of the beloved Slammed series.

My Review

Slammed

There aren’t a lot of books I’ve read that I can consider good, but I think that Slammed is one of those few. Honestly, I started out without much interest in this book. A friend recommended this book, but the first time I tried it, I stopped at chapter two. It wasn’t that the story was bad, it was more that I felt like it was just going to be another one of those love at first sight things, and for me that’s just completely unrealistic.

I don’t remember how I got around to giving it another shot, but I’m glad I did, because it only got better from that point. The main characters, Layken and Will, were interesting enough, and their struggle to keep their relationship amidst all the drama that threatened to pull it apart. I found Kel and Caulder undeniably adorable. I would have to choose Eddie as my favorite character, because I love her strength in how she doesn’t let the complications in her life dictate her feelings. She had this bubbly and fun personality that just made you want her to be your best friend, too.

Now, the book became more engaging with the introduction of Will’s passion – slam poetry. I thought it was great that the author was able to incorporate something unique despite the story being a bit typical. Without the slamming, I don’t think I would have loved this book as much I do. It was just the perfect way for the characters to express their feelings completely and let go of their fears. I loved that the plot also focuses on family aside from romance, because I’m a huge sucker for touching stories about familial love. It was good to see Layken’s family being brought closer after the death of her father and the discovery of her mother’s big secret. I thought Will’s relationship with his younger brother was sweet as well – how he would give up anything to keep Caulder happy.

The writing was pretty good, eliciting some laughs and a few tears from me, and I liked the song quotes that preceded every chapter. Slammed is definitely number one in my list of must-read new adult novels right now; I give it a full 5 stars!

Point of Retreat

The sequel to Slammed is just as good as the first book, if not a little bit better. The love story continues, but it’s from Will’s point of view this time. Kel, Caulder, Eddie, and Gavin are all back, and we are introduced to the new characters of Kiersten, a weird new neighbor whom Kel’s got a crush on, and her mom, Sherry, who’s equally as weird. But don’t get me wrong; it’s sort of an endearing kind of weirdness. Here we have Will and Layken as a couple, but soon enough, there’s drama yet again, and it prompts them to reevaluate their whole relationship and what it means to them. And then just when things seemed all right again, I was caught way off guard by a second incident, and it just felt like I was riding an emotional rollercoaster the whole time. Of course, it didn’t fall short of poems from the characters, which were as amazing and touching as ever. This book certainly didn’t disappoint!

This Girl

The third installment to the series is more or less just a narration of the events in Slammed from Will’s perspective, with just a few extra scenes. It was an okay book; I didn’t really feel much for it. Maybe it’s because there was not much that was new. I don’t know. Either way, I found Will’s thoughts amusing, and it was nice to read both sides of the first book’s story. There were some funny and cute moments, like Layken’s reactions to information that Will was just then revealing, and also this poem at the very end that I thought was really sweet. I think that Colleen Hoover ended the book nicely, and for me, this series is not one that can easily be forgotten.

Quotes I Like

“The points are not the point. The point is the poetry.”

“So you keep your ocean, I'll take the Lake.”

“I got schooled this year by a boy. A boy that I'm seriously, deeply, madly, incredibly, and undeniably in love with. And he taught me the most important thing of all... To put the emphasis on life.”

“Push your boundaries, that's what they're there for.”

“Choose your battles, but don't choose very many.”

“Sometimes two people need to fall apart to realize how much they need to fall back together."

“Sometimes things happen in life that you didn’t plan for. All you can do is suck it up and start mapping out a new plan.”

“I’ll never be able to give you everything you deserve, but I’ll definitely spend the rest of my life trying.”

“Love is the most beautiful thing in the world. Unfortunately, it’s also one of the hardest things in the world to hold on to, and one of the easiest things to throw away.”

“I just wanna make sure that you don't miss out on the things in life that are happening when you're not thinking. Because believe me, those are the best things in life.”