Crow's Row by Julie HockleyGoodreads Summary: For college student Emily Sheppard, the thought of spending a summer alone in New York is much more preferable than spending it in France with her parents. Just completing her freshman year at Callister University, Emily faces a quiet summer in the city slums, supporting herself by working at the campus library. During one of her jogs through the nearby cemetery while visiting her brother Bill's grave, Emily witnesses a brutal killing-and then she blacks out. When Emily regains consciousness, she realizes she's been kidnapped by a young crime boss and his gang. She is hurled into a secret underworld, wondering why she is still alive and for how long.
Held captive in rural Vermont, she tries to make sense of her situation and what it means. While uncovering secrets about her brother and his untimely death, Emily falls in love with her very rich and very dangerous captor, twenty-six year- old Cameron. She understands it's a forbidden love and one that won't allow her to return to her previous life. But love may not be enough to save Emily when no one even knows she is missing.
My Thoughts: My book club (aka two friends I like to read and drink wine with) picked this book to read this week. While my library didn't have a copy, I was thrilled to be able to get it for just $3 on Kindle! Woo! At first, I was totally hooked and sucked into this story. It was exciting and intriguing. However...I quickly became more and more APPALLED the more I read! I truly feel like there is something wrong with this character. I'm sorry, but it is not normal to be kidnapped, not have any desire to escape, and fall in love with your kidnapper. The killer is that this is NOT a Stockholm Syndrome story--the character really just falls in love with her kidnapper, a 26 year old mob boss and gang leader. Another thing, I couldn't shake the thought that this book bears a striking resemblance to Twilight. No, there are no vampires, but the whole innocent girl falling in love with a dangerous guy with unlimited money and a strange "family" who wants to protect her...it was all very EdwardBellaWeird. Anyways, I flew through the book, but it was definitely not a favorite.
2.5/5 stars
2.5/5 stars
Cinder by Melissa Meyer
Goodreads Summary: Humans and androids crowd the raucous streets of New Beijing. A deadly plague ravages the population. From space, a ruthless lunar people watch, waiting to make their move. No one knows that Earth’s fate hinges on one girl. . . .
Cinder, a gifted mechanic, is a cyborg. She’s a second-class citizen with a mysterious past, reviled by her stepmother and blamed for her stepsister’s illness. But when her life becomes intertwined with the handsome Prince Kai’s, she suddenly finds herself at the center of an intergalactic struggle, and a forbidden attraction. Caught between duty and freedom, loyalty and betrayal, she must uncover secrets about her past in order to protect her world’s future.
My thoughts: It took me a few chapters to get hooked on Cinder--in fact, I kept falling asleep every time I sat down to read for awhile! But about 50 pages in, I got into the story, and it really picked up for me at the end. Initially, the whole idea of a "cyborg" Cinderella story didn't appeal to me, but I love a good "fractured fairy tale," and once I got used to the whole world in this book, it did not disappoint. I liked Cinder's character as well as the Prince, and I thought the retelling of Cinderella was super creative and unique. It left me hungry to find out what happens next, though, because the ending of this book is nowhere near the expected "happily ever after"! I read that Meyer will be retelling a different fairy tale in each book in this trilogy (at least I think it's part of a trilogy), which I'm really excited about. Looking forward to reading Scarlet, book 2!
3.5/5 stars
What are you reading this week?
As always, cover art and italicized summaries are courtesy of goodreads.com!
What are you reading this week?
As always, cover art and italicized summaries are courtesy of goodreads.com!
Cinder has been on my list for awhile...glad to hear you liked it! After this Friday I'll be able to enjoy books like I usually do during the summer. As soon as I'm done reading Drinking and Tweeting I'm reading Trash...a middle grade novel that is dystopian fiction.
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