Pivot Point 
By Kaise West
Genre: Young Adult Paranormal
Personal Rating: 10/10

Since I haven't read anything worth reviewing for a while, I'm reviewing another one of my all time favorites. Pivot Point is about Addison Coleman, who has the ability to see two futures. Whenever she has to make a big decisions, she can look into the future and see both outcomes. So, when Addison's parents ambush her with their decision to get a divorce, and she has to decide which parent to live with, she does a search into her two possible futures. Every chapter in this novel switches off between what would happen if she lived with her mom, and what would happen if she lived with her dad. In each future, Addison finds herself in the center of danger and murder. In the end, it all come down to what reality she wants to live, and who she can't live without.

This book is all about choices, loss, and sacrifice. And it completely captivated me. It was so interesting seeing two different version of the same person arise from one decision. Pivot Point is the first in a two book series. The sequel, Split Second, came out last February and is a duel perspective between Addison and her friend, Laila. A series definitely worth reading.

These Broken Stars 

By Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner
Genre: Young Adult Sci Fi
Personal Rating: 9/10

First off, how gorgeous is this cover? I think I can honestly say that his is my favorite cover of any YA book I've read so far. What's wonderful about it is that it perfectly depicts the characters of the novel--right down to the color of Lilac's dress. Definitely a book you should judge from the cover.

To me, this book is a nice mix between Star Treck and Titanic. Part outerspace adventure/survival, and part forbidden love.  Lilac LaRoux and Tarver Merendsen come from two completely different worlds. He's a decorated war hero, she's the daughter of the richest man in the universe. When the luxury spaceliner Icarus suddenly plummets from hyperspace into the nearest planet, Lilac and Tarver are the only survivors. They crash land on a seemingly deserted planet, and are forced into survival mode in order to stay alive long enough to send out a distress signal. But the planet they've landed on is full of secrets neither of them where prepared for.

This entire book in incredibly unpredictable. The world Kaufman and Spooner created is thrilling, complex, and wonderfully unique. The book is written in duel first-person perspective, so the reader gets a good look into Lilac and Tarver's minds and into their pasts. I adored these two characters. They evolved a lot through out the novel but not so much that their personalities where lost. I loved the exciting survival aspect, the alien/space exploration, and of course the love story.

This is the first novel in the Starbound Trilogy. The second novel--This Shattered World --came out this last December and the third is yet to be released.

Uninvited 
By Sophie Jordan
Genre: Young Adult Sci Fi
Personal Rating: 9/10

I read this book a few month back but it is definitely on the list of my top ten favorite books,so I had to write about it.This may be science fiction, but you've never seen a world quite like that of Davy Hamilton's. In Uninvited scientists have discovered what they call the "killer gene." Or Homicidal Tendency Syndrome (HTS).  Davy Hamilton's perfect life is shattered when she testes positive for HTS. She's kicked out of her private school, her friends are terrified of her, and Julliard revokes her acceptance letter. In the eyes of society, Davy is already a killer, because genes don't lie. Only Sean, a fellow HTS carrier, can relate to Davy's knew life, and only he treats her like she's still a person. Even though Sean carries the black H tattoo on his neck--a sign that he has already acted out and been punished--Davy can't see him as the killer society has made them both out to be.

Uninvited is an amazing book with a very potent theme about labeling, and how we push people into becoming what we tell them they are. A modern twist on The Scarlet Letter. The plot is riveting and I couldn't put it down once I started. It is the first book in a two book series and the second book, Unleashed, comes out on February 24th of this year.

Delirium 
By Lauren Oliver
Genre: Young Adult Sci Fi
Personal Rating: 7/10

Delirium was one of those books I tried reading a few years ago but gave up on, then suddenly all my friends where reading it and loving it, so I figured I'd give it another try. I just finished it this last week and I honestly enjoyed it. It's one of those books that starts out really slow--which is most likely why I couldn't get through it the first time--but it does pick up pace and actually gets very interesting.

In Lena's world, love is a disease. As deadly and terrifying as cancer, love is to be feared. At the age of eighteen, all citizens in the U.S undergo a procedure that destroys their ability to feel love. It's a cure Lena cannot wait for...until she meets Alex. Alex is from the Wilds, a place outside the protected walls of the city, a place where all the "Invalids" live--people who refuse the cure. And despite all reasoning, Lena begins to care for Alex. With her procedure day moving closer and closer, Lena has to decide what she believes about her society, and what she would sacrifice for love.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed the plot of the story and the characters where well rounded and likable. Lauren Oliver has a very smooth writing style that sort of just flows effortlessly and it makes it easy for you to get lost in the story. My only complaint is that there is a lot of unnecessary fluff. Meaning that there's a lot of over explaining and scenes that don't enhance the story at all. I feel like a lot of the first half of the book could have been cut out and the story wouldn't have been affected.

Between Shades of Gray 

By Ruta Sepetys 

Genre: Young Adult Historical Fiction 

Personal Rating: 10/10

What a better book to start off a book blog with than Between Shades of Gray? I read this book as assigned reading for my Young Adult Literature class this last semester, but once I finished I was kicking myself for not reading it earlier. This book follows the story of Lina--a Lithuanian girl in 1941. Her life is like that of any other fifteen-year-old girl, until the night her entire family is taken from their home by Soviet officers. Lina, her mother, and younger brother are separated from their father, forced into a crowded train car, labeled as criminals, and transported north to a work camp. They live in fear and freezing cold, trying to survive their heavy work loads on meager food rations.

What I found so intriguing about his book is the new and unique perspective it gives. It's a book about concentration camps, but an entirely different kind of concentration camp. We hear a lot about what it was like being as Jew during Hitler's reign, because Hitler liked to publicized his gruesome deeds. Stalin, on the other hand, liked to keep his mass killings under wrap, so we don't hear as much about the things he did to his own people. This part of history was kept a secret for so long, and one of the most heartbreaking parts of this book is that while these people are being worked and starved to death they hold on the the hope that the Americans will save them. When, in reality, we had no idea this was happening to them. 

Lina is an outstanding character. She keeps herself sane through all this by drawing the things that happen to her and her family--an act that could have gotten her killed. This novel is full of incredibly diverse characters that shows how people survived--or tied to survive--in different ways. This book is an incredible story about survival and the worth of human life. A must read!