Kiss Cam by Kiara London

Author: Kiara London
Publisher: Swoon Reads
Expected Publication: October 18, 2016
Pages: 201

Introduction

       Juniper, Jasper and Lenny make up the popular vlogging channel WereVloggingHere on the vlogging site VlogIt. With as many subscribers as they have, they are constantly getting "shipped" together. The most popular ship being Juniper and Jasper or "Jasiper" as the fans like to call it. After years of the fans begging to see some concrete Jasiper action, they give in, and kiss once on a dare. The fans go crazy, and soon the Kiss Cam is born, where they surprise each other with kisses, or they plan them out. The only catch is that it can only continue if there are no feelings involved.

       What's a little harmless kissing between friends?

Cover

       The cover is very cute. I like all the contrasting colors going on. The white titles stand out nicely against the black background and the bright colors of the lips against the black almost makes it look like the lipstick kisses are glowing.

Brief Review

       This was a pretty short book, one of only 201 pages, so I think I can fit everything I need to say into a paragraph or two without sectioning it off like I usually do.

         I had no problem with any of the characters, they were all what I expected them to be. This entire book was pretty much what I expected it to be, cute and quick and fun.

       The plot moved pretty quickly which is pretty much a given due to the length of the book, there isn't a lot of room for build up.

       This book goes with the cliche of two best friends falling for each other trope, so if that's not what you want to read about, then I wouldn't bother if I were you, because that's all this is. I enjoyed it though, it is exactly what I wanted it to be.

The Cabin by Natasha Preston

Author: Natasha Preston
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Expected publication: September 6, 2016
Pages: 336

Introduction

       Mackenzie's weekend away with her six friends was supposed to be fun. They expected to wake up in the morning with a nasty hangover, not with two of them dead on the kitchen floor. 

       The police put Mackenzie and her remaining friends on the top of the suspect list, since there was no sign of forced entry.

        Mackenzie launches her own investigation, knowing that her friends would never murder someone. But as time goes on, she might just have to accept that there is a killer lurking among her childhood friends.

Cover

       It's a good cover. The cabin, for some reason, isn't how I imagined, but it's spooky enough, so I'll let it slide this time.

Mackenzie

       I didn't like Mackenzie at all. I know her tendency to look for the best in people is part of her personality, and is supposed to be one of her quirks, but she was way too naive. I also feel like as a side note, she was probably a very sheltered child, seeing as what her reaction was when one of her friends admitted to getting high on occasion.

Blake

       So here we have Blake. The-mysterious-older-brother-that-nobody-has-ever-met-who-everybody-is-going-to-blame-for-the-killings, bank character. If not for the huge trope that is his entire purpose for being in the novel, he was okay. At the very least he was a bit smarter than Makenzie.

The Rest of the Gang

       The other characters in the cabin with Mackenzie were very stereotypical teenagers. All of them were very uninteresting, which is a shame because I really wanted to like them.

Motive & Ending

       I pushed through reading about characters I didn't like because I was interested in knowing why the killings took place. Sadly, I think the motive behind the killings wasn't strong enough. I know people get killed over all sorts of reasons that would be deemed "weak motives" but I was definitely hoping for a better ending than what was offered.

        As for the ending itself, it only makes sense if there's a sequel coming eventually. So far I see no mention of one, which right now is okay because technically this book isn't published yet.

Conclusion

       This book was okay. I wanted to like it more. I was so excited to start reading this, and I wish that the excitement had stayed with me throughout reading, but it's hard to stay excited about what's happening when you don't like any of the characters and you don't really care about what happens to them. I wouldn't read this book again, and if a sequel does come, it won't be high on my TBR.

Hello September!

       Well autumn is soon to fall upon us, and I'm excited! It's absolutely my favourite season, the one I wait all year for, and it is always a particularly productive time for me.

       In August, I wasn't very active with posts, and I know that. I have been reading though! The reviews are just yet to be published. I'm happy to say that there are going to be some very good reviews coming in the months ahead, which is nice, because I feel like for a long time, the books I've been reading have been spurring only negative reviews. I'm always happy when I get to publish some positive ones!

       Apart from the blog, I've had a busy summer, but it's been fun! My most favourite part was probably when I got a tattoo. My first one! I was really nervous to do it but I'm so glad I did, because I love it!

       This summer treated me pretty well, and I hope September has nice things in store for me, and this blog.

  

Unnatural Deeds by Cyn Balog

Introduction

       Victoria Zell doesn't fit in. She doesn't have a lot of friends, but she's okay with that, because she's got her boyfriend Andrew. He's homeschooled, but he's the only thing that makes her stupid Catholic school bearable. That is, until Z comes along. He's captivating and confident and fun. Everything Victoria isn't, He makes her want to do things that she could never bring herself to do before, and suddenly Victoria feels like a completely different person than she was before he came along.

Cover

       I'll admit, the first thing that drew me to this book was the cover. It's absolutely beautiful.

Characters

       I didn't really like the characters in Unnatural Deeds but in it's defense, I don't really think the author intended for the characters to be likable, and even though I didn't like  them, they did make me feel for their situations, which is good.

 Mystery

       Unnatural Deeds is written sort of backwards. We start at the ending and Victoria recounts the story from the beginning. The mystery I'm talking about opens as soon as you start the book. At the beginning of each chapter, there are little snippets of things like police and coroner reports, as well as interviews from characters you read about. As you read, you are left wondering who these pieces of information are about, and what caused them to happen. It's all very suspicious. An example would be:

Duchess-Police are investigating an apparent homicide after a body was found in a wooded area early Tuesday morning. Authorities have not yet released the name of the victim or the person(s) they are questioning in connection with the investigation.

-Central Maine Express Times

       I loved reading these. Obviously, you can guess who's involved, but I think this is a very creative way of communicating a mystery.

Ending

       The ending really surprised me, just like I was hoping it would. There were times where I wasn't that into the book, but the ending redeemed the book for me.

Conclusion

       I struggled with this book at the beginning, which you would know if you're my friend on Goodreads, but I started enjoying it more once I hit about halfway. Despite the slow start for me, I would read this book again. I would recommend this book to fans of The Lonely by  Ainsile Hogarth, and fans of The Memory Game by Sharon Sant. I would be cautious if giving this book to a younger reader as there is some sexual content.