Thursday, September 12, 2013

Review: Not Your Ordinary Wolf Girl



Info:

Title: Not Your Ordinary Wolf Girl
Author: Emily Pohl-Weary
Publisher:Skyscape/Penguin Canada
Publication Date: September 24, 2013
Source: I received an eARC in exchange for an honest review.



Synopsis:

Sometimes Living in the Big Apple Really Bites!

Eighteen-year-old rock star Sam Lee isn't like other girls. She's the super-talented bass player and songwriter for an all-girl indie band and an incurable loner. Then one night after a concert in Central Park, she's attacked by a wild dog.

Suddenly, this long-time vegetarian is craving meat--the bloodier, the better. Sam finds herself with an unbelievable secret and no one she trusts to share it. And so begin the endless lies to cover up the hairy truth...

When a new girl gang appears in the city--with claws and paws--Sam suspects there's a connection to her own inner beast. Trapped in a tug-of-war between her animal and human selves, forced to choose between the guy who sparked her carnal appetite and the one who makes her feel like a normal teenage girl, Sam has to unravel the mysteries of the werewolf world before her bandmates, her mother, and the media catch up to her.




Review:

 Unfortunately, this book really didn't do it for me. Which really sucks, because a book featuring a mash-up of the music industry and werewolves should have been awesome! Too bad this one was weighed down by unlikeable characters, a weak plot and a bit of a love quadrangle.

Our main character Sam is completely insane. I understand that privacy is important for celebrities, but Sam is absolutely the most antisocial character I've ever read. And she does some really weird crap that I still don't understand. And he character growth at the end felt rushed and unbelievable.

As the for the boys in our love quadrangle, well, they were all creepy and/or sleazy and I didn't like any of them. Harris, as sweet as the book sometimes tried to make him out to be, was a total slimeball. On the other hand, Marlon had his heart in the right place I think, despite his crazy stalker tendancies. And finally, Owen was downright crazy and creepy. As he's not really a viable option in this love quadrangle, I guess that's okay.

The rest of the characters were totally flat and boring. In fact, when one of them has a big reveal, I was more just relieved that her character now went beyond being "nice."

The plot on this one felt really weak to me. It felt like very little actually happened in this book. It was mostly Sam just freaking out about stuff and acting crazy, with the boys acting sleazy and/or creepy.

Overall, Not Your Ordinary Wolf Girl was a disappointment. It had a lot of potential, but I couldn't get past my dislike of every major character.




Find the Book:

Goodreads | Not Your Ordinary Wolf Girl | The Book Depository



Find the Author:

Goodreads | Web | Facebook | Twitter

Wednesday, September 11, 2013

You Had Me From Hello: The Fault in Our Stars

You Had Me From Hello is a biweekly feature where I share some of my favourite opening lines. You know, the ones that have you on the hook immediately and have you flipping the pages as fast as you can?

Today I'm featuring another unread book from my TBR list: The Fault in Our Stars by John Green. I've heard really great things about this one, with almost every review I've seen being 4 or 5 stars. And this opening line gives insight into why everyone loves this book.

"Late in the winter of my seventeenth year, my mother decided I was depressed, presumably because I rarely left the house, spent quite a lot of time in bed, read the same book over and over, ate infrequently, and devoted quite a bit of my abundant free time to thinking about death."



Wow! What a crazy first line. I'm totally sucked in and want to keep reading right now. Although from this line I can definitely see what people mean when they say the main character doesn't speak like a regular seventeen-year-old. So excited to read this one!

Tuesday, September 10, 2013

Cover Compare: Pushing the Limits

Here's another book that's sitting on my shelf that I've heard rave reviews about, but I haven't gotten around to reading yet.

I prefer the US version of this one. The Australian version (which is super similar to the UK version, but with a different font) isn't as eye catching. For some reason, I think it looks like an action book more than a contemporary romance. On the other hand, my boyfriend thinks the US version looks "dirty". What do you think?
US
Australia