What I'm Reading Wednesday

I have one really great book and one trashy Twilight-wanna-be series to share with you this week!  Get excited. :)

How to Build a House by Dana Reinhardt
Summary from goodreads.com: HARPER’S DAD IS getting a divorce from her beloved stepmother, Jane. Even worse, Harper has lost her stepsister, Tess; the divorce divides them. Harper decides to escape by joining a volunteer program to build a house for a family in Tennessee who lost their home in a tornado. Not that she knows a thing about construction.  Soon she’s living in a funky motel and working long days in blazing heat with a group of kids from all over the country. At the site, she works alongside Teddy, the son of the family for whom they are building the house. Their partnership turns into a summer romance, complete with power tools. Learning to trust and love Teddy isn’t easy for Harper, but it’s the first step toward finding her way back home.


My thoughts: I did not expect to love this book.  The concept wasn't all that interesting to me actually, and I only had it laying on my coffee table because a friend suggested it to me when we were at the library together last month.  However, I found myself last week with nothing to read and picked it up.  I didn't really put it down until the next morning when I finished it!  This book was wonderful.  The premise is one that got me thinking.  Harper's mom died when she was very young, so her step mother is the only mother she ever knew, and her step sister is like a blood sister to her.  Divorce is always hard, but how awful would it be to be "divorced" from your sister too?  I loved reading about Harper's time with the work group building the house, and loved the sweet summer romance even more.  This book was definitely worth reading!

The Revenants Series: Die for Me & Until I Die by Amy Plum
 Summary of Die for Me from goodreads.com:  In the City of Lights, two star-crossed lovers battle a fate that is destined to tear them apart again and again for eternity.  When Kate Mercier's parents die in a tragic car accident, she leaves her life--and memories--behind to live with her grandparents in Paris. For Kate, the only way to survive her pain is escaping into the world of books and Parisian art. Until she meets Vincent.  Mysterious, charming, and devastatingly handsome, Vincent threatens to melt the ice around Kate's guarded heart with just his smile. As she begins to fall in love with Vincent, Kate discovers that he's a revenant--an undead being whose fate forces him to sacrifice himself over and over again to save the lives of others. Vincent and those like him are bound in a centuries-old war against a group of evil revenants who exist only to murder and betray. Kate soon realizes that if she follows her heart, she may never be safe again.

My thoughts: As I read Die for Me a few months ago, I couldn't escape the feeling that I was reading a SLIGHTLY better written but equally irritating Twilight.  So many similarities...first, a teenage girl is new in town and has absent parents.  (In this case, they're dead.)  She is awkward and plain, but somehow a mysterious, attractive, and inexplicably rich man enters her life and the two fall "irrevocably" (to use a SMeyer word) in love.  However, there is a problem.  The male lead is actually a supernatural being, and to be with him is to be put in extreme danger.  Soon both of their lives are so codependently intertwined that they're unable to imagine life without the other, despite the fact that they've known each other a shockingly short amount of time.  Sound familiar???


That being said, I couldn't put either of these books down.  I KNOW.  I don't even LIKE books like this!  They are so addictive though!  I stayed up all night reading the sequel, Until I Die, as soon as I got my hands on it last week.  These are not quality literature, but if you liked Twilight, go check them out.  The heroine is SLIGHTLY less annoying than Bella, so that's always a plus. :)

*As always, italicized summaries and cover photos are from goodreads.com

What have you been reading lately?

Do you find yourself unable to stop reading certain books even though the intelligent part of your brain knows they are trash?  No?  Just me?  :)