This Shattered World 
By Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner
Genre: Young Adult Sci-Fi
Personal Rating: 5/10

 This is the second novel to the Starbound trilogy. I absolutely adored These Broken Stars (you can see my review of that book below) but unfortunately the second book didn't have the same appeal to me. I gave it a 5/10 because I really only enjoyed half of the book. All the intense sci-fi action and mystery was there, but I felt like it took awhile for the real problems to arise. For most of it I just felt like we were getting a long set up. I think the biggest reason I couldn't get into this book like I did the first one is because I didn't like the two main characters that much. I adored Lilac and Tarver from the first novel. I understood them and they felt real to me. But Jubilee and Flynn didn't interest me that much. The authors put in a lot of back story--especially for Jubilee--but it still didn't make them seem real. Actually, my favorite part of this book would probably be when Lilac and Tarver made an appearance.

I wish I had more good to say about this book, but it didn't live up to my expectations.

Lola and the Boy Next Door 
By Stephanie Perkins
Genre: Young Adult Contemporary
Personal Rating:7/10

This is Stephanie Perkins second book and the companion novel to Anna and the French Kiss. Lola is a budding costume designer, and in her life, it's all about being bigger and flashier. Everything seems pretty perfect for her, until Calliope and Cricket Bell move back into town, and Lola is forced to reconcile her feelings for the boy next door.

I didn't like this book as much as I did Anna and the French Kiss, but it's still an incredibly fun and witty contemporary. Just like with her first novel, Stephanie Perkins is a master of character development. Lola and Cricket really jump off the page. I really enjoyed this book and there is a ton more to it than the synopsis lets on. A really fun, fast Valentines Day read.

The Paris Wife 
By Paula McLain
Genre: Adult Historical Fiction
Personal Rating: 6/10

This book is a historical fiction based of the true events of Hadley Richardson's life--the first wife of Ernest Hemingway. This book follows the couples first meeting in 1920, their short courtship, and married life in Paris--where Hemingway's writing career started taking off. Though madly in love, the couple struggles living in the Jazz Age where morals where loose, and where traditional family values were considered inconvenient. Soon, everything Hadley believed about her own marriage is tested, as Ernest struggles to to find the voice that will give him a place in history.

Everything about Hemingway's life was tragic in it's own sense, and made that way through his own bad decisions. Though that misery inspired some of the worlds most beloved novels, it destroyed him and those he loved. I adored having the opportunity to see these events unfurl though Hadley's eyes--the eyes of someone who loved him unconditionally from the start. I also loved seeing the development of Hemingway's writing career. While reading this book I got to see a little of the thought process behind two of my favorite Hemingway novels: The Sun also Rises and A Farewell to Arms. All the characters from The Sun Also Rises where taken directly from Hemingway's life in Paris. They were people he actually met and drank with, people who amazed and appalled him all at once. Also,  A Farewell to Arms is about a wounded solider who falls for his nurse, and Hemingway actually was wounded in WWI and actually did fall in love with his nurse. A few other famous authors made an appearance in this book as well--such as F. Scott Fitzgerald.

I would recommend this book to any Hemingway fans. It makes you love him a lot, it makes you hate him a lot. I loved being in his wife's head, and seeing how she would have handled being married to a man like him, what it was like being a wife as well as a muse. I real worth while read.

Pandemonium 
By Lauren Oliver
Genre: Young Adult Sci-Fi
Personal Rating: 3/10

This is the second book in the Delirium series, so I can't say very much about this book without giving away what happens in the first one. But I can tell you that this book was a big disappointment to me. I really did like the first Delirium novel and I wanted to continue with the series, but this book just made me feel like I was taking steps backwards rather than forward.

A whole crop of new characters are introduced throughout this novel and I did not like a single one of them. There where so many wonderful, rounded characters in the first book, but instead of keeping these great characters, we get a bunch of new ones that really got on my nerves for some reason. I didn't feel like the story line was moving fast enough and when something finally did happened, I felt like it was predictable. The chapters in this book switch back between then and now--two different points in the character's life. But the switching back and forth really took me out of the moment. Overall, I was just bored the entire time I was reading it. I wish I enjoyed it more than I did.

Anna and the French Kiss
By Stephanie Perkins
Genre: Young Adult Contemporary
Personal Rating: 7/10

This is a book that's been around for a while but one I've avoided reading until now. It never seemed like it would be my type of book, though, honestly, I was probably just  judging it based of it's title.This book kept getting recommended to me, especially lately, so I finally broke down and checked it out from the library last week. And, let me tell you, I did not regret it. This book is fun, lighthearted, and basically the chicklit of all chicklits. I haven't laughed out loud while reading this much since I read...well, nothing. I can't think of a single novel that made me laugh more than this fantastic contemporary.

Anna and the French Kiss is the story of Anna's senior year. Her senior year in Paris! Anna's father, against her wishes, sends her off to spend her senior year in an American boarding school in the city of lights. Anna isn't thrilled about the situation, until she meats Etiennne St. Clair. Etienne is a French/American boy with an English accent, a charming personality, great sense of humor and, of course, dashing good looks. He is Stephanie Perkins' gift to the female race. (Yes, he is that dreamy.) So, although Etienne has a serious girl friend, and Anna swears she will never try to be more than a friend to him, she can't help but fall for him.

This book did not sound that interesting to me when I first picked it up, but I started loving it by the time I had finished the first chapter. The details in the book--details about Paris, and boarding school, and everything in between--are so real and vibrant, you can't help but get sucked into character's world. Stephanie Perkins really did her homework on Parisian lifestyle, and it shows. I feel like I could move to France right now and be totally prepared.

The thing that really makes this story are the characters. They are all so dynamic and diverse, and just so lovingly real. The authors gives little details about the characters through out the book that just really set them apart from characters in other novels--details like the gap between Anna's two front teeth, or how Mer wears rings on everyone of her fingers. She did a fantastic job of showing us who the characters are instead of telling us.

All in all, this is a fantastic book. The perfect thing to read when you just need a getaway. Normally, this would get a solid 10 in my book, but I did knock is down a few points for language and some vulgar comments. There wasn't anything graphic or excessively vulgar, but I do feel the need to point out that it would definitely be higher on the PG-13 scale.