Breathe by Abbi Glines (Review)

Genre: Contemporary Romance

Number of Pages: 166

For ages 13+

"Sadie White's summer job isn't going to be on the beach life-guarding or working at rental booths like most kids her age. With her single mother's increasing pregnancy and refusal to work, Sadie has to take over her mother's job as a domestic servant for one of the wealthy summer families on a nearby island.

When the family arrives at their summer getaway, Sadie is surprised to learn that the owner of the house is Jax Stone, one of the hottest teen rockers in the world. If Sadie hadn't spent her life raising her mother and taking care of the house she might have been normal enough to be excited about working for a rock star.

Even though Sadie isn't impressed by Jax's fame, he is drawn to her. Everything about Sadie fascinates Jax but he fights his attraction. Relationship's never work in his world and as badly as he wants Sadie, he believes she deserves more. By the end of the summer, Jax discovers he can't breathe without Sadie.

But can their love overcome the disparity in their lifestyles? Or will they have to learn how to breathe again?" -Goodreads

*I apologize in advance for the amount of caps lock sentences I have in this blog post.*

Allie had told me that I NEEDED to read this book and I was in need of a super fantabulous romance, so I decided to buy it! The cover does not give this book justice what so ever. It really doesn't.

Allie and I have become "reading texting buddies" where we text each other about almost every single little detail. And, I was definitely texting her throughout this book. In all caps, may I just say.

Sadie (Can I tell you how much I love that name?) has had a rough life. It's one of those cases where the adult responsibilities are switched and the child is taking care of the adult. Sadie has a humble personality that you just can't help but love. You connect with her right away and you WANT to jump into that book and help the poor girl out. Sadie likes to be invisible and in result had no friends. Sadie has to go to work for her overly pregnant mother as a servant. Little does she know that it's the home of Jax Stone which is a super famous rock star. (I'm descriptive, I know.) The two grow together fast, and man, is it a roller coaster.

Jax Stone is one of THE SWOONIEST GUYS... EVER. (Allie whole- heartedly agrees on this fact.) OH MY GRAVY.He may be even more swoon worthy than Etienne St. Clair and Cricket Bell, which is SUPER hard to do, almost impossible. I told Allie that if there was something more than caps lock and exclamation points to use while talking about Jax Stone and his swoon-ism I would totally be using it. FOR CEREAL. The things he would do for Sadie just to make her happy, were so stinkin' sweet. What girl wouldn't want to date a guy who WROTE A SONG FOR THEM? The fact that he tried to help her out as much as he could made me love him even more. Plus, it kinda helps that the guy is gorgeous.  They were super perfect together. I loved that Jax didn't just love Sadie for her gorgeous looks. He loved her for her. WHICH IS SO SUPER SWEET. He did everything in his power to make sure Sadie was okay, which in some cases, well, let's just say weren't the smartest decision. Some craziness happened in this book. Or as Allie and I like to say, Crust went down. (If you haven't already guessed by now, crust is my substitute word for pretty much anything. I like to keep things PG) ;)

Marcus was also SUPER SWEET, and the poor guy was pretty much dumped into the friend zone, but he did a pretty fantabulous job in that zone. When Sadie needed him, he was absolutely, one hundred percent, there. Even though I love the guy, *SPOILER ALERT!* I'm still super glad that Sadie and Jax end up together. *SPOILER OVER* He was always there and helped Sadie let out  her feelings. Marcus was Sadie's first friend, and probably the best she will ever have. And, by what I've seen, I believe the next book will be in Marcus' point of view. HOORAY FOR MARCUS AND HIS CHANCE AT LOVE!

There is definitely conflict in this book and moments where you want to either pull your hair out, scream, punch a pillow, or all of the above. I don't suggest doing those things because I'm sure you'd get more than a few looks. Any time something would happen I would immediately text Allie. I think everyone needs a reading texting buddy. It's the best way to vent your feelings over a book. Other than reviewing it, which is what I'm doing right now. ;) Some of our texts are priceless. They're all pretty much us yelling back and forth over how much we love one moment or how frustrated we are over something else. It's pretty awesome. But, even with the roller coaster of emotions that you go through, the end.... IS MOST DEFINITELY WORTH IT! Oh my word. Seriously, I read the ending of that book over 4 times. And I will most likely go back and re-read it after this review because I just reminded myself of how amazing the ending was. For the record, I totally want a Jax. I wish he were real. I really do. I feel like from reading so much contemporary romance, I'm going to have super unrealistic expectations when it comes to romance.

I give this book 5 out of 5 diva crowns... I seriously wish I could give it more. If there were more crowns on the scale, I would be giving this book those extra crowns. Can I give a book extra credit? I feel that I need to do this. Anyways, pay no attention to my craziness. It's late and I seriously loved this book and I'm typing super fast for no apparent reason.Hopefully, this is why some of you read this blog, for my crazy-minded reviews like this one. I recommend this to lovers of Contemporary Romance because if you're like me, and you love guys who are the swooniest of the swoon worthies, then you will definitely be left overly satisfied. I promise, I promise, I promise.

Hope your day is filled with fantabulousness and *SPARKLES*

Epic Fail by Claire LaZebnik (Allie's Review)

So this week I read a book that Jewelz recommended to me: Epic Fail. This book is amazing, the romance had me swooning, the suspense kept me on the edge of my seat, and the end definitely left me happy.

Elise was one of those characters that you just wish you could be, ya know? She was hilarious and easygoing. She made me wish I was more cynical just so I could have the same absurd look on situations. (sadly, I could never be cynical, I'm too much of a romantic... disappointing, no?) She definitely had her problems though. Such as being a little bit full of herself thinking she was above liking someone (a very hot someone..) just because everyone else did. But throughout the book she learns from that mistake, apologizes, and grows as a person because of it. Also, she had me seeing some weaknesses in her hard shell of cynicism... One in particular is my least favorite and favorite character: Derek Edwards.

Ah Derek. Despite being a mega-douche in the beginning of the book he is definitely.... Well swoon worthy and adorable. Towards the beginning of the book Elise said something about not wanting to date someone like herself... That definitely backfired on her. He's the male version of Elise except he is much much much much much more guarded. Considering everything that he goes through on a regular basis, I don't blame him. An added bonus for me and one of the reasons I loved and hated him so much was the fact that he was hot. Like eggs cooking on the sidewalk hot. Sizzling. Smoking. Whatever you want to call it, he was beautiful. And in the beginning of the book being hot was the only reason I wasn't hoping he would get hit by a bus. He redeemed himself from being a total butt-hole right around the part when he asked Elise to semiformal. He then promptly became a douche again and remained that way until the night on the field trip to the beach. That night he went from being my least favorite character to being number freaking one.

And then there was Webster. Webster Slimeball Grant. (may or may not be his actual title) It was sad because I really liked him... Up until I started questioning his motives. But in the end he was a butt-munching, crust face, who doesn't deserve to live. You'll see when you read it.

I would recommend this book to anyone who has ever been the new kid at school, wondered about what a celebrity's life is like, or ...well breathes. Yeah it was that good. 5/5 "diva" mustaches!

My English Inquiry Project: Obsession/Where I'm from Poem!

Hey, everyone! I'm in the process of finishing up the book I'm reading now, Flat Out Love by Jessica Parker and I don't think I'm gonna have enough time to review it today. Hopefully, I'll have it finished by tomorrow afternoon so I can review it for you guys tomorrow!

So, instead of a review I thought I would show you guys my video and poem I made for my final English Literature and Composition project!

In the middle of the year we were told to choose an inquiry topic where we would ask the question, "What is the nature of..." My topic I chose was obsession, making my question, "What is the nature of obsession?" We were also supposed to find a book that related to our topic. I chose Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer. For our final project we had to use our inquiry in a creative way. We could make a video, make a collage, make a diorama, have a photograph essay, stuff like that. I chose to make a photo video based on my topic. This took me FOREVER to do but I think it turned out really great. So here it is:

















For another part of our project we were to make a "Where I'm From Poem" based on a character that was in any of the novels/ short stories we read this year. I chose the little boy, Doodle from the story, The Scarlett Ibis by James Hurst. In my poem I am the voice of him. Doodle was born with a caul which makes him handicapped. I wanted to write about him because I thought it would be interesting for people to see how he deals with his struggles, especially since the story was told in Doodle's brother's view. So, here's my poem:

***********************

Where I'm From

I am from go carts,

 from Paris green, and shade from the trees. 

I am from a cautious home. 

(paranoid, worry-some, it smelled like grave yard flowers.)

I am from the wild violets, 

the wire grass, 

that me and Brother would use to weave into necklaces. 

I am from walking celebrations and signs of rain frogs, 

from my doubtful Mama and my pessimistic Daddy 

and over-religous Aunt Nicey.

I am from the frequent doctor visits 

to my every wobbly step being watched. 

From he won't live and being invalid.

I am from strict Christian beliefs, 

where I am believed to become a saint.

I am from North Carolina and cotton fields,

iced tea and fried chicken.

From Daddy building me a little coffin,

and keeping it in the barn loft,

to Brother teaching me to walk.

I am from the Old Woman Swamp,

where I could do and believe in anything.

I am from those memories- 

knowing that I would be gone before I could enjoy life to the fullest,

but still trying anyways. 

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I hope you liked both of my pieces for my projects! Let me know in the comments what you think about them! I'd love to hear your feedback!

Hope your day is filled with *SPARKLES*!

Big Big Big News!!

I'm super super super fantabulously excited to announce that we will be adding on a permanent guest reviewer to YA Book Diva Reviews!

I thought it would be a good idea  to add a guest reviewer because it would be better for you guys, so you got more reviews out of my blog, and better for me so I wouldn't have to worry about not reading enough to review!

So I bet you all are wondering who's going to be the newest guest reviewer to the YA Book Diva team, right??

Welcome our new Diva....

ALLIE! 

Yay! Allie has been my friend since about 7th grade! She joined my book club I made in eighth grade for some girls who wanted to beta read my Momma's book. Allie was always asking for book recommendations and borrowing books from me and always giving me her opinion on the books, so I thought she would be the perfect person to become the new member of this blog! I'm super excited that she's joined and now I wont be the only person who is always talking about books now. ;) Sorry Allie, you're gonna get sucked in.

Allie will be guest reviewing every other week so you guys can get another opinion every once in a while! SO, instead of 1 review a week, there will be 1 review one week and then 2 reviews the next and then so on!

Here's Allie's bio:

"Wellll, I'm Allison. I like making people laugh, acting, and well obviously reading. I'm a sucker for accents. Big time. I hope to someday get a degree in Theatre and travel the world. I loove nature, fishing, and hiking. I would love to climb a mountain one day and go skydiving(:" 

Well, doesn't she just sound delightful? ;D

I "interviewed" Allie so you guys could get to know her a little more!

J: What's your favorite genre? 

A: Contemporary Romance.  

(We have VERY similar taste when it comes to books. ;) )

J: What's your favorite book?

A: Stealing Heaven by Elizabeth Scott

J: What do you like to do when your not reading?

A: Act and hang out with my friends!

J: Do you ever want to write a book someday?

A: Nope, I just like reading them! 

I pretty much guessed half of these answers.. ! Not only do Allie and I have similar taste in books we also have some similar qualities! We both love acting, we both love reading, and sarcasm is our second language. ;) But, we are also VERY opposite when it comes to things.. Such as, I would choose a crown for my signature whereas Allie would choose a mustache... I would choose PINK, Allie would choose blue. I have a slight over obsession with sparkles and Paris, Allie does not. With those differences aside, we still seem to get along quite nicely. We both have very strong personalities so watch out! ;)

I asked Allie if she could write a quick review so you guys could see what she thought. I told her she HAD to read The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight and she whipped up a review in no time! I thought it would be cool for you guys to see what she thought about the book compared to what I thought. If you haven't read my review of it you can find that here!

Here's Allie's first review! 

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Oh my. Oliver. If I could, I would talk about Oliver for this whole review. However, that might be slightly annoying to all of you. So here's all I'm gonna write about him: he is British. There you should already be in love with him.

Okay so adorable British boys aside, I LOVED this book. I really connected with the main character, Hadley. When Jewelz recommended this book to me, I thought it would be a light, fluffy read. (there is totally nothing wrong with that, I live for those books!) But it was SOOO much more than that. It was such a deep story. And although the books main conflict wasn't about Oliver at all, I was not disappointed. The author, Jennifer Smith, really captured the feelings of anger towards Hadleys father perfectly!! The resentment, the struggle to talk with him about it, their trip to Aspen, everything was perfectly timed and executed.

But um, back to whole boy situation... BOYS LIKE OLIVER: Y U NO GO TO MY SCHOOL?! I'm not really a believer in "instalove" but even I was completely sold by the time the plane took off to London. They just had this instant connection and every time they were together I was literally swooning. SWOONING. Full-out. Complete with an "AWWW!" every three pages. The only reason I didn't want to totally steal Oliver from Hadley was because they were just SO DARN CUTE! 

The only thing I wasn't completely and totally sold on (other than it ending to quickly;)) was the third person narration. I don't know, it made me slightly confused as to whether something was a flashback or not.. But other than that a GREAT book!!! A must have if you love contemporary romance and British accents! 4.5 diva mustaches! 

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Isn't she fantabulous?! I hope you all are just excited as we are. Yay for more reviews! 

And....

The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight by Jennifer E. Smith (Review)

Genre: Contemporary Romance

Number of Pages: 236

For ages 12+

"Who would have guessed that four minutes could change everything?

Today should be one of the worst days of seventeen-year-old Hadley Sullivan’s life. She’s stuck at JFK, late to her father’s second wedding, which is taking place in London and involves a soon to be step-mother that Hadley’s never even met. Then she meets the perfect boy in the airport’s cramped waiting area. His name is Oliver, he’s British, and he’s in seat 18C. Hadley’s in 18A.

Twists of fate and quirks of timing play out in this thoughtful novel about family connections, second chances and first loves. Set over a 24-hour-period, Hadley and Oliver’s story will make you believe that true love finds you when you’re least expecting it." -Goodreads

I was just browsing through contemporary romance on Goodreads and found this little gem! I needed a little refresher from so many paranormal/ dystopian books and what better way to do that than by reading contemporary romance! 

On a side note... the title is definitely a mouthful! ;)

The story takes place in the span of 24 hours. You would think that since it had at least 200 pages the events would just drag on, but it definitely didn't. It was fun knowing that so much could happen in one day. Especially so many eventful things!

I loved Hadley. I loved her personality, I loved her flaws, and I loved the way she thought. Plus, she loved to read. Who wouldn't like that in a main character? She wasn't one of those main characters who made a whole bunch of stupid decisions. Her decisions actually had reason behind them, and even though some were on a whim, I couldn't help agreeing with her. Hadley has to go all the way to London for her father's wedding where he will be getting married to a woman Hadley has never even met. Talk about difficult. And on top of that, she's just missed her flight. Fortunately, without her missing her flight, there would pretty much be no story to tell! While waiting, she meets a fantabulous and may I say, SWOON WORTHY boy named Oliver.

Oliver was super duper sweet and had loads of charm. Plus, he was quite the gentleman! The chemistry between him and Hadley was absolutely there and you couldn't help rooting for them to work out. I'm not usually one who thinks that someone can fall in love or even realize that they have really strong feelings for someone in the span of 24 hours, but by the end I was on board! Of course, under the circumstances it could be a tad different than other situations. You got to learn a lot about Oliver and his life in America and in London. You saw what problems he had to deal with and some of his flaws. Both he and Hadley both uncovered each other's true personalities.

Something else that I really liked was the way the author used those 200 pages. There's only so much you can write over something that happens in the span of 24 hours in 200 pages. She had lots of flashbacks that gave you a great background on Hadley's life and why some of these problems in her life occurred.

This book definitely had a little flair of Anna and the French Kiss, and there was definitely an English boy in there too. ;) I couldn't help sharing all of my comments to my friends nearby and I'm sure they got annoyed at times..

After reading this book I had realized that contemporary romance may be my favorite genre. Surprising, I know! I LOVE dystopian romance and paranormal romance and fantasy romance and all that jazz, but when I've read a whole bunch of those different genres, it's nice to be able to read a book where the main aspect is romance and there isn't any huge aspects to digest.

This book was a super fast read for me, it had amazing romance, and super fantabulous characters! 5 out of 5 diva crowns! :)

Insurgent by Veronica Roth (Review)

Genre: Dystopian

Number of Pages: 525

For ages 12+

"One choice can transform you—or it can destroy you. But every choice has consequences, and as unrest surges in the factions all around her, Tris Prior must continue trying to save those she loves—and herself—while grappling with haunting questions of grief and forgiveness, identity and loyalty, politics and love.

Tris's initiation day should have been marked by celebration and victory with her chosen faction; instead, the day ended with unspeakable horrors. War now looms as conflict between the factions and their ideologies grows. And in times of war, sides must be chosen, secrets will emerge, and choices will become even more irrevocable—and even more powerful. Transformed by her own decisions but also by haunting grief and guilt, radical new discoveries, and shifting relationships, Tris must fully embrace her Divergence, even if she does not know what she may lose by doing so." -Goodreads

Sorry, everyone, for not writing my review yesterday. I was totally planning on writing it and then we went to go see The Avengers, (SUPER GOOD!) and then we came home and cleaned, (Super fun... I know you're feeling the sarcasm.) and then I had to read a whole bunch more of Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury because that's my assigned reading for English Literature and Composition. YAY. So, anyways, long story short, I didn't have any time to write my review yesterday. And I SO WANTED to write it yesterday, because I knew it was going to be a long one. So here we are! Going on....

I was extremely excited for this book to come out. SO STINKIN' EXCITED. And I came home and there it was in its cardboard beauty in between my screen door and my front door, when I came home from school. I immediately started reading it when I got it. 

The book starts right back up where it ended which causes SUPER tension right in the beginning. I loved that there was no "easing into the action." We were right there in a matter of pages. Tris is one tough girl. Which I guess, of course, she should be considering she transferred to Dauntless. But seriously, she just saw *SPOILER ALERT FOR THOSE WHO HAVEN'T READ DIVERGENT!*

both her mom and dad die, and now she has to move on quickly in order to save her life. *SPOILER OVER!*

Four/ Tobias is still AWESOME. I had re-read Divergent about a month ago, and one thing that kinda irked me was the fact that Tobias agrees with the fact that Tris isn't "the best looking." Yes, looks aren't everything. I whole-heartedly agree with that fact. But the fact that this guy who really cares for Tris is agreeing she isn't beautiful kind of made me mad. I just brought that up, because I guess I never realized that until the second time I read the book. BUT WHATEVS. Back to the fact that I still think Tobias is FANTABULOUUS. He was still super (Have you noticed I say super a lot?) sweet, and was always there for Tris. What is different about this love story, is that Tris isn't the "damsel in distress." Tobias knows how strong Tris is, and he isn't going to comfort her when he knows she can do better. Now, of course, I've just made it sound like he's some kind of jerk that doesn't care about his girlfriend, but he really does care for Tris. So, don't let my explanation turn you off. I loved the romance between these two because they weren't always lovey- dovey "I'll never be mad at you" kind of thing. They had their fights and got over them. Their arguments had reason and it was as realistic as a romance in a dystopian novel can be!

I can not tell you how many times I just wanted to SCREAM AT TRIS. Goodness gracious. That girl did so many things that I would never ever ever ever ever ever (did I mention ever?) do. She also did some pretty stupid stuff. I can't really say what she did, but lets just say she should have listened to Tobias in some situations. 

In Insurgent you get to meet a whole bunch of new characters and you get to reconcile with some old ones! There are twists and betrayal and all that fun stuff. So you HAVE to read this book. It was just as good as the first and maybe possibly even better. Which is really hard to do in a sequel. Especially a sequel! So, I give this book 5 out of 5 diva crowns. LOVED IT! 

Note: I love how I spent most of my time talking about the romance in the book. Sounds like something I would do. ;)

Hope your day is filled with *SPARKLES*