ARC Review: The Love That Split the World by Emily Henry

Title:The Love That Split the World
Author: Emily Henry
Source/Format: First to Read, eARC
More Details: Young Adult, Fantasy
Publisher/Publication Date: Razorbill, January 26, 2016

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Synopsis from Goodreads...

Natalie Cleary must risk her future and leap blindly into a vast unknown for the chance to build a new world with the boy she loves.  Natalie’s last summer in her small Kentucky hometown is off to a magical start... until she starts seeing the “wrong things.” They’re just momentary glimpses at first—her front door is red instead of its usual green, there’s a pre-school where the garden store should be. But then her whole town disappears for hours, fading away into rolling hills and grazing buffalo, and Nat knows something isn’t right. That’s when she gets a visit from the kind but mysterious apparition she calls “Grandmother,” who tells her: “You have three months to save him.” The next night, under the stadium lights of the high school football field, she meets a beautiful boy named Beau, and it’s as if time just stops and nothing exists. Nothing, except Natalie and Beau.

Emily Henry’s stunning debut novel is Friday Night Lights meets The Time Traveler’s Wife, and perfectly captures those bittersweet months after high school, when we dream not only of the future, but of all the roads and paths we’ve left untaken...

So, I tried to read this book, and I’m a little sad that it ended up being a DNF. The Love that Split the World turned out to be a big disappointment for me. I was actually looking forward to this book. And initially, I thought that The Love that Split the World would be my kind of book. The writing was good. However, and this is a big deal-breaking kind of “however”, there were a few minor details in the beginning that I really didn’t like. After that, I kept putting the book down, and I just couldn’t get into the story even though there were numerous details that should have caught and held my interest. I did give this book the first hundred pages, even a little more—I skipped ahead to see if there was anything that would make me want to read on. Sadly, there wasn’t. At the end of the day, The Love that Split the World didn’t end up being for me. But, if it seems like something you want to read, check out other reviews, and don’t let my opinion stop you.

This copy of the book was provided by Penguin First to Read (publisher) for this review, thank you!

Musing Mondays (45) Random Weekly Questions

Musing Mondays is a weekly meme hosted by Jenn at A Daily Rhythm, that asks you to muse about something book related each week.

My Musings for the Week...

Today, I'm going to keep it short by answering some of the random weekly questions I missed.

What do you do with your books once you’ve read them?

I review them before finding a place to fit them on my bookshelf. I typically like to keep my books because there's always a chance I'll want to read them again later.

What would you say is the best children’s book you’ve ever read?

Sometimes, I hate questions like these because I have a lot of favorites. So, for that reason alone, I'm going to stick with some of my more recent reads. One of the best children's book I've ever read was probably Finding Serendipity and its sequel, A Week Without Tuesday. You can see what I thought about them HERE & HERE. Wonderstruck by Brian Selznick was another good one. Oh, and the entire Double Vision trilogy by F.T. Bradley.

What are you reading this week?

The Friday 56 (51) The Marvels by Brian Selznick

The Friday 56 is a weekly meme hosted by Freda's Voice where every Friday you pick a book and turn to page 56 or 56%, and select a sentence or a few, as long as it's not a spoiler. For the full rules, visit the the page HERE

The quote comes from page 392 since 56 is an illustration.

Synopsis from Goodreads...

Two seemingly unrelated stories--one in words, the other in pictures--come together. The illustrated story begins in 1766 with Billy Marvel, the lone survivor of a shipwreck, and charts the adventures of his family of actors over five generations. The prose story opens in 1990 and follows Joseph, who has run away from school to an estranged uncle's puzzling house in London, where he, along with the reader, must piece together many mysteries...

"Joseph was lost. Somewhere far away the headlights of a car swept through the snowy night. He stopped to rest beneath a low passageway of an ancient cobblestone street."--The Marvels by Brian Selznick


What are you reading this week?

Review: Dead is the New Black by Marlene Perez

Title:Dead Is the New Black
Author: Marlene Perez
Source/Format: Purchased, Paperback
More Details: Young Adult, Paranormal
Publisher/Publication Date: HMH Books for Young Readers, September 1, 2008
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Synopsis from Goodreads...

Welcome to Nightshade, California—a small town full of secrets. It’s home to the pyschic Giordano sisters, who have a way of getting mixed up in mysteries. During their investigations, they run across everything from pom-pom-shaking vampires to shape-shifting boyfriends to a clue-spewing jukebox. With their psychic powers and some sisterly support, they can crack any case! Teenage girls are being mysteriously attacked all over town, including at Nightshade High School, where Daisy Giordano is a junior. When Daisy discovers that a vampire may be the culprit, she can’t help but suspect head cheerleader Samantha Devereaux, who returned from summer break with a new “look.” Samantha appears a little . . . well, dead, and all the most popular kids at school are copying her style. Is looking dead just another fashion trend for Samantha, or is there something more sinister going on? To find out, Daisy joins the cheerleading squad...

It has been a long time since I picked up a book by Marlene Perez. Honestly, I kind of forgot that I had this book. It wasn't until I went looking that I remembered I had the first two books of the series. Basically, Dead Is the New Black was a short and fun mystery novel with a supernatural twist, and I can see why I found the series appealing. The story revolves around Daisy Giordano, who lives in Nightshade, California, a place where the residents were less than ordinary, well, at least some of them anyway. This fact is made clear pretty early on with Daisy’s family, who all had identifiable psychic ability. This early setup established the tone of the story. Dead Is the New Black is a supernatural whodunit. The mystery was pretty good, but it was a little easy to see through. The clues were obvious, and the pieces clicked together early on. However, I still liked the book. The supernatural elements added some much need tension to the story. All in all, Dead Is the New Black was a pretty good book.

The Friday 56 (50): Dead Is the New Black by Marlene Perez

The Friday 56 is a weekly meme hosted by Freda's Voice where every Friday you pick a book and turn to page 56 or 56%, and select a sentence or a few, as long as it's not a spoiler. For the full rules, visit the the page HERE

Synopsis from Goodreads...

Welcome to Nightshade, California—a small town full of secrets. It’s home to the pyschic Giordano sisters, who have a way of getting mixed up in mysteries. During their investigations, they run across everything from pom-pom-shaking vampires to shape-shifting boyfriends to a clue-spewing jukebox. With their psychic powers and some sisterly support, they can crack any case! Teenage girls are being mysteriously attacked all over town, including at Nightshade High School, where Daisy Giordano is a junior. When Daisy discovers that a vampire may be the culprit, she can’t help but suspect head cheerleader Samantha Devereaux, who returned from summer break with a new “look.” Samantha appears a little . . . well, dead, and all the most popular kids at school are copying her style. Is looking dead just another fashion trend for Samantha, or is there something more sinister going on? To find out, Daisy joins the cheerleading squad...

"I gestured to my borrowed finery. "This isn't going to float off my back at midnight, is it?""--Dead Is the New Black by Marlene Perez

What are you reading this week?