Map To The Stars - Jen Malone

Map To The Stars by Jen Malone
Published on July 14, 2015 by Harper Collins/Harper Impulse
[This book was given to me by the publisher but that in no way affected my opinion.]

Author Jen Malone draws on her real-life experiences as a movie studio publicist to bring you an insider peek at love, Hollywood-style.

The California dream was supposed to give seventeen-year-old Annie Shelton a fresh start far removed from her dad’s unusual betrayal. But when things don’t go according to plan in La La Land, Annie’s mom snags a last-minute gig as makeup artist to a teen movie idol and finagles a spot for her daughter on his European promotional tour.

Down-to-earth Annie would rather fangirl architectural sights than an arrogant A-lister. That is, until behind-the-scenes Graham Cabot turns out to be more sweetly vulnerable than she could have imagined.

Too bad falling for a poster boy isn’t all red carpets and star treatment, especially when you factor in obnoxious fans, an overprotective assistant, a stage mom/manager, and a beefy bodyguard.

But it isn’t until the paparazzi make an appearance that things get really sticky…

Map To The Stars and me had a rough start, I didn't had very great expectations to it (I'm still to find a celebrity falls in love with a regular girl romance that makes me fall head over heels) but it seemed like a cute romance and light read. But right from the start we have shit ton of tropes trow at our faces and with very little to care it was hard to not DNFed it, still I continued and am glad for that decision since about 30% I started enjoying parts of this story.

Ok, so my problems with this one were mostly the romance and since this is a contemporary novel heavily focused on the romance that was an issue for me. My problem was that its 100% instalove and it doesn't even try to hide it, since their very first interaction Annie is already obsessing over Graham (and of course, he is obsessing over her too) and this just isn't my kind of thing. But to be fair, that was my only problem with this romance, with the time I did enjoyed their interactions and it was cute to see their plans to spend time together without the paparazzi and fangirls all over them.

But the real reason why this book never really crossed the barrier of mildly entertainment for me was its characters, they just felt too much cardboard cutouts. Annie was an extra super regular girl on the meaning that she never was boy-crazy (until Graham), her favorite clothes were jeans and shirt and she really doesn't care about all this Hollywood things. Graham is the perfect boy with the perfect looks and perfect ways, that screw up a few times but all justified with something that we can all forgive him. It just... We all have seem this before, on basically all celebrity falls in love with regular girl story, and while it didn't annoyed me it also made this book not stand out on the other million of similar stories.

We do have some other things other than Annie and Graham romance; Annie and her mom have some problems that they are running away from and oh god this annoyed, because we only see what this is all about in like 70/80% in on the book and it was a quite quickly resolution in my opinion. None of the secondary characters are all that memorable for me, Annie's best friend was cool, with her apparition at the ending (her speech to Graham was just djvidojviosdji).

So yeah, honestly this book wasn't bad but it also wasn't the exactly kind of fluff that I enjoy. I would recommend it to people that love the trope of celebrity falling in love with a regular person (also for those who still dream of finding their own celebrity!) and the younger public of YA, maybe even some middle grade readers.

Magonia - Maria Dahvana Headley

Magonia by Maria Dahvana Headley
Published by HarperCollins on April 28, 2015
Pages: 320
Genres: Fantasy, Science Fiction
Format: eARC
Source: Edelweiss

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Maria Dahvana Headley's soaring YA debut is a fiercely intelligent, multilayered fantasy where Neil Gaiman's Stardust meets John Green'sThe Fault in Our Stars in a story about a girl caught between two worlds . . . two races . . . and two destinies. Aza Ray Boyle is drowning in thin air. Since she was a baby, Aza has suffered from a mysterious lung disease that makes it ever harder for her to breathe, to speak—to live. So when Aza catches a glimpse of a ship in the sky, her family chalks it up to a cruel side effect of her medication. But Aza doesn't think this is a hallucination. She can hear someone on the ship calling her name. Only her best friend, Jason, listens. Jason, who's always been there. Jason, for whom she might have more-than-friendly feelings. But before Aza can consider that thrilling idea, something goes terribly wrong. Aza is lost to our world—and found, by another. Magonia. Above the clouds, in a land of trading ships, Aza is not the weak and dying thing she was. In Magonia, she can breathe for the first time. Better, she has immense power—but as she navigates her new life, she discovers that war between Magonia and Earth is coming. In Aza's hands lies fate of the whole of humanity—including the boy who loves her. Where do her loyalties lie?

This book is weird. Like really, really weird. And unique.

At first I didn't knew if I was able to read this because the writing was really hard to get into, it was very emo and trying to be funny-ironic but wasn't working - it also had some lyrical moments that felt really out of place but I got used to it and even found some parts beautiful and touching.

The fantastical aspects also take a while to get used to, it's extremely unique and the images that are described are as beautiful as the cover but still is really weird and it took a lot of my enjoyment and investment on the story.

But what really made this book becoming just okay was the main character, Aza, I just never connected with her making her destine being not as interesting as it should have been. I think Jason was a easier character to connect but there was so little of his POV's that it's practically impossible to know for sure.

I also feel like I missed some point of this book, of course I missed most of the feelings for my lack of connection but I still feel like there is some major plot point or coming of age point or something that makes everything here makes total sense and turn this in an amazing book but I'm not seeing it.

That Time When I Got Too Lazy to Write Actual Reviews #1

Hey guys, so lately I had not had the time to write actual reviews and when I do have the time I just want to watch Netflix and be lazy, so now I'm gonna be lazy here too! Mini reviews is something very common among book blogs and I'm sure you already know the drill - I review some books that I didn't had that much to talk about but that I did had some opinions on. This time around it will be all about the paranormal gender, so if you like this gender be sure to check out these two reads:

Missing You by Meg Cabot
Series: 1-800-Where-R-You #5
Published by HarperTempest on December 26, 2006

Okay, so for those who don't know 1-800-Where-R-You is a series about Jess, who was a normal girl until she got hit by a lighting and started finding people and this is the last book of the series.

The first thing that put me off on this book was the fact that it had passed so much time since the last one! On the fourth one Jess isn't even finished with high school or old enough to officially date Rob but them we start this one and years had passed, Jess had went to the army (!!) and was all messed up and I didn't even knew why she was messed up (I mean, in theory I knew, but I would have liked to read about that time too).

Taking that away I had a great time with this book, as I always have with the books on this series (or just Meg Cabot books in general, really). We have a new case and Jess has a lot of things to over but most important, SHE IS FINALLY OLD ENOUGH TO DATE ROB!!! So yeah, lots of interesting things, super recommended to lovers of this series or of Meg Cabot books.

White Hot Kiss by Jennifer L. Armentrout
Series: The Dark Elements #1
Published by Harlequin Teen on February 25, 2014

Layla is a normal seventeen-years-old except for the fact that she lives with Wardens since she was a little girl, and also she is half a demon, half a gargoyle who can  "mark" demons to make them easier for the Wardens to hunt them. So yeah, not normal at all actually.

This was my first Armentrout book but I'm for sure reading her other stuff because damn this was a fun read! Layla is sorta of a snowflake character but she also isn't at all - she struggles and has a lot to go from the beginning till the ending, also the boys and the whole love triangle - it was kind of unnecessary for me (and weird), Layla and Zayne where raised together since kids I just can't help but feel that their feelings should be more brother-sister like than romantic, Roth was okay, he was totally the bad boy type that turns into not so bad after all but yeah, at least he was funny.

As much as I liked the paranormal aspects I did get a bit bugged by the fact that everyone knows that the Wardens exist but no one seems to question why, suddenly a bunch of gargoyles came to life, no one even suspects the existence of demons, I mean like seriously?? Everyone just accept that gargoyles are real and moved on?? I just don't buy it. There is one religious group that does question the existence of the Wardens but it was such a small part of the plot overall.

Other thing that I didn't enjoyed was the fact that the regular friends of Layla only showed up when plot necessary, I mean I know this is a book but it was so not done on a subtle way, they would go chapters and chapters without showing up and them Layla needed something and BOOM! There they were. But I did said that I enjoyed this one, and it's true, despite these nitpicks this was a fun paranormal romance read and I do love some paranormal romance from time to time, there was some action scenes that let me very anxious and I think the overall plot was well done. so if this is one of your favorites genders don't go without picking this one up!

Under the Never Sky - Veronica Rossi

Under the Never Sky by Veronica Rossi
Series: Under the Never Sky #1
Published by HarperCollins on January 3, 2012
Pages: 374
Genres: Science Fiction, Dystopia, Romance
Format: Paperback
Source: Purchased

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In a world of danger
an unlikely alliance
breathtaking adventure
and unforgettable romance...
Aria has lived her whole life in the protected dome of Reverie. Her entire world confined to its spaces, she's never thought to dream of what lies beyond its doors. So when her mother goes missing, Aria knows her chances of surviving in the outer wasteland long enough to find her are slim. Then Aria meets an outsider named Perry. He's searching for someone too. He's also wild - a savage - but might be her best hope at staying alive. If they can survive, they are each other's best hope for finding answers.

Characters: Aria was a really good lead for this book, she started the book very naive and even kind of... Dumb in certain situations, but I really enjoyed reading her grow, she isn't the kind of character that commit the same mistake twice. On the other front we have Perry, he was definitely a different character, coming from a tribe with different costumes & values was interesting to see his way of thinking - also about the POV's I really enjoyed them, and the funny thing is that their voices aren't particularly different but their personalities are, kind of hard to explain but basically it was easy to differ their POV's. Others characters also deserve a say like Roar (which is my fave 'cause he makes me laugh <3) & Cinder (that I really want to read more about).

Romance: I was kind of "meh" with it, eventually on the book Aria & Perry enter a romantic relationship, but despite I having saw their development and it was nothing like instalove, it still was weird how easy they moved from their hate dynamic (or at least Aria did) to lovers, also there are a LOT of scenes of just the two of them thinking (& mopping) about each other - even before they got together - and just, normally I don't mind romance but this book had a lot of things to do so the romance seemed to have weight it down.

World building & pace: I think the strongest thing of this book is the world building, we have the virtual world kind of matrix-y that Aria lived all her life but also the "savage" world where Perry lives, that has its own magic thanks to the Aether. I really wish we would see more of Aria world because I love this idea of created worlds that you can go but I think this series will always focus more on the real world, but also this whole setting the world & characters made the beginning of this book really slow for me, more towards the middle/end it picked up  but still it isn't exactly a fast paced book.

Overall this book had a lot going for it but ended up being just a little more than an average read, I did enjoy it and want to follow with the series right away so that's good but it missed something.

Recommended to: readers looking for a new take on the whole dystopian world, readers that like matrix, readers who like to read books about people with power, readers looking for something fresh & unique inside the dystopian and sci-fi gender.