BOOK REVIEW | By Your Side by Kasie West

Title: By Your Side
Author: Kasie West
Pages: 346
Publication Date: January 31, 2017
Publisher: Harper Teen
Source: I checked this out from my library!

In this irresistible story, Kasie West explores the timeless question of what to do when you fall for the person you least expect. Witty and romantic, this paperback original from a fan favorite is perfect for fans of Stephanie Perkins and Morgan Matson.

When Autumn Collins finds herself accidentally locked in the library for an entire weekend, she doesn’t think things could get any worse. But that’s before she realizes that Dax Miller is locked in with her. Autumn doesn’t know much about Dax except that he’s trouble. Between the rumors about the fight he was in (and that brief stint in juvie that followed it) and his reputation as a loner, he’s not exactly the ideal person to be stuck with. Still, she just keeps reminding herself that it is only a matter of time before Jeff, her almost-boyfriend, realizes he left her in the library and comes to rescue her.

Only he doesn’t come. No one does.

Instead it becomes clear that Autumn is going to have to spend the next couple of days living off vending-machine food and making conversation with a boy who clearly wants nothing to do with her. Except there is more to Dax than meets the eye. As he and Autumn first grudgingly, and then not so grudgingly, open up to each other, Autumn is struck by their surprising connection. But can their feelings for each other survive once the weekend is over and Autumn’s old life, and old love interest, threaten to pull her from Dax’s side?

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BOOK REVIEW | Alex, Approximately by Jenn Bennett

Title: Alex, Approximately
Author: Jenn Bennett
Pages: 391
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Publication Date: April 4, 2017
Source: I checked this out from my local library!

The one guy Bailey Rydell can’t stand is actually the boy of her dreams—she just doesn’t know it yet.

Classic movie fan Bailey “Mink” Rydell has spent months crushing on a witty film geek she only knows online as Alex. Two coasts separate the teens until Bailey moves in with her dad, who lives in the same California surfing town as her online crush.

Faced with doubts (what if he’s a creep in real life—or worse?), Bailey doesn’t tell Alex she’s moved to his hometown. Or that she’s landed a job at the local tourist-trap museum. Or that she’s being heckled daily by the irritatingly hot museum security guard, Porter Roth—a.k.a. her new archnemesis. But life is whole lot messier than the movies, especially when Bailey discovers that tricky fine line between hate, love, and whatever it is she’s starting to feel for Porter.

And as the summer months go by, Bailey must choose whether to cling to a dreamy online fantasy in Alex or take a risk on an imperfect reality with Porter. The choice is both simpler and more complicated than she realizes, because Porter Roth is hiding a secret of his own: Porter is Alex…Approximately.

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Waiting on Wednesday #25

Hey everyone and welcome back to my blog! This week I will be participating in Waiting on Wednesday. WoW is a weekly meme hosted by Jill @ Breaking the Spine. Every week we showcase upcoming releases that we are excited about. Tressa @ Wishful Endings has recently taken lead in this meme, considering Jill hasn't been posting on for a while. Learn more here!

This week I chose Brave New Girl by Rachel Vincent!

In a world where everyone is the same, one girl is the unthinkable: unique. A high-stakes fast-paced series launch from New York Times bestselling author Rachel Vincent.

We have brown hair. Brown eyes. Fair skin.
We are healthy and strong and smart.
But only one of us has ever had a secret.

Dahlia 16 sees her face in every crowd. She's nothing special—just one of five thousand girls created from a single genome to work for the greater good of the city.
Meeting Trigger 17 changes everything. He thinks she’s interesting. Beautiful. Unique. Which means he must be flawed. When Dahlia can't stop thinking about him—when she can't resist looking for him, even though that means breaking the rules—she realizes she's flawed, too. But if she’s flawed, then so are all her identicals. And any genome found to be flawed will be recalled.
Destroyed.
Getting caught with Trigger would seal not only Dahlia's fate, but that of all five thousand girls who share her face. But what if Trigger is right? What if Dahlia is different?
Suddenly the girl who always follows the rules is breaking them, one by one by one. . 

 Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository | Goodreads

Top 5 Wednesday : Authors I Want to Read More From

Hey everyone and welcome back to my blog! I'm Genni, and today I am going to be participating in Top 5 Wedensday, a weekly meme hosted by Sam from Thoughts on Tomes. This week's topic is the top five authors that I want to read more from. Getting this down to five was a bit difficult, but I managed!

Without further ado, here are the five authors I picked this week (in no particular order)

1) Jenn Bennett
I absolutely loved Alex, Approximately. Alex, Aprrozimately was a You've Got Mail-esque tale where Bailey "Mink" Rydell moves to Corondo Cove in Calfiornia. Living there is an online friend she's made, Alex. However, she doesn't tell Alex she moves there. Instead, she wants to find him. Along the way she meets Porter Roth, and they don't get along very well. Little does she know that Porter and Alex are one and the same. Reading this book was such a blast and the characters were so real. I loved how Bennett put in movie quotes and references to board games, and more. She made the characters and the town really come to life. In short, her writing was spectacular. I cannot wait to read more of her, and I hope she becomes one of my favorite authors, because she has the potential to be. Be on the look out for my review!


2) Cassandra Clare
So this might be a bit of a cop out, because I have read the majority of Clare's books. I just have to read the last of TMI and TID, Lady Midnight, and all the other things like The Bane Chronicles. However, I still want to read more of her because I want to be caught all up! I am so close and yet so far away, but I'm really looking forward to catching up by the end of this year. 

3) Kasie West
So, if you didn't know, I put up a pretty harsh review of The Fill in Boyfriend in October 2015. This month though, I finally decided to give Kasie West a second chance with By Your Side, which I'll be reviewing soon! I liked the book so much more than The Fill in Boyfriend. By no means was it perfect, but I had a fun time with it. I want to read more of Kasie soon so that I can actually form an opinion of her!

4) Lesley Livingston
Livingston got a lot of attention this year for The Valiant, which was a great read. I actually reviewed the book here. The Valiant had great feminist themes and I loved everything it stood for. I had the pleasure of meeting Livingston and telling that to her, and she was such a joy to be around and she was so down to earth and hilarious. Livingston has actually published a lot of other books, so I'm interested to see what I think of them!

5) Jay Kristoff

Last but not least if Jay Asher! The only books I have read by him are Illuminae and Gemina, which are co-authored with Amie Kaufman. I want to see what his books are like just written by him, and I definitely think I'll start with Nevernight. I have a good feeling about this one, and I seriously hope that I love the book and Kristoff!

So, those are the five authors I want to read more from. Have you read any books by the authors I mentioned? What are some authors you want to read more from?

Thanks so much for stopping by and I'll see you soon with another post!

Happy Reading!

Genni @ Ready, Set, Read!

BOOK REVIEW | Stealing Candy by Stewart Lewis

Title: Stealing Candy
Author: Stewart Lewis
Publication Date: May 2, 2017
Pages: 288
Source: I received Stealing Candy via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review! Thank you Sourcebooks Fire!
Dates Read: January 20-24, 2017

Candy hates boarding school. As a junior, graduation is still eons away, and making films is the only way to survive the boredom. Until she is kidnapped.

Candy panics. Along Came a Spider, Ransom, Taken, Cellular… Candy knows how these movies end. The only reason anyone would abduct her is to get a payout from her rock star father. Except Candy and her father are estranged. There’s no way he’s going to pay.

But with every hour that passes, Candy’s fear slowly recedes. Being on the road is freeing, not to mention great material for a new documentary. And the more time she spends with her handsome captor Levon, the more she learns the whole scheme is not just about ransom. It’s about revenge. What began as a kidnapping is spiraling into a crazy road trip adventure as Candy and Levon find a lot of wrong ways to do the right thing.

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BOOK REVIEW | City of Lost Souls by Cassandra Clare

Title: City of Lost Souls
Series: The Mortal Instruments #5
Author: Cassandra Clare
Publication Date:Margaret K. McElderry Books (Simon & Schuster)
Publisher: May 8, 2012
Pages: 534
Source: I checked this out from my local library!

The New York Times bestselling Mortal Instruments continues—and so do the thrills and danger for Jace, Clary, and Simon.

What price is too high to pay, even for love? When Jace and Clary meet again, Clary is horrified to discover that the demon Lilith’s magic has bound her beloved Jace together with her evil brother Sebastian, and that Jace has become a servant of evil. The Clave is out to destroy Sebastian, but there is no way to harm one boy without destroying the other. As Alec, Magnus, Simon, and Isabelle wheedle and bargain with Seelies, demons, and the merciless Iron Sisters to try to save Jace, Clary plays a dangerous game of her own. The price of losing is not just her own life, but Jace’s soul. She’s willing to do anything for Jace, but can she still trust him? Or is he truly lost?

Love. Blood. Betrayal. Revenge. Darkness threatens to claim the Shadowhunters in the harrowing fifth book of the Mortal Instruments series.

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Waiting on Wednesday #24

Hey everyone and welcome back to my blog! This week I will be participating in Waiting on Wednesday. WoW is a weekly meme hosted by Jill @ Breaking the Spine. Every week we showcase upcoming releases that we are excited about. Tressa @ Wishful Endings has recently taken lead in this meme, considering Jill hasn't been posting on for a while. Learn more here!

This week I chose There's Someone in Your House by Stephanie Perkins!

Scream meets YA in this hotly-anticipated new novel from the bestselling author of Anna and the French Kiss.

One-by-one, the students of Osborne High are dying in a series of gruesome murders, each with increasing and grotesque flair. As the terror grows closer and the hunt intensifies for the killer, the dark secrets among them must finally be confronted.

International bestselling author Stephanie Perkins returns with a fresh take on the classic teen slasher story that’s fun, quick-witted, and completely impossible to put down.

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AUDIOBOOK REVIEW | Better than Perfect by Simone Elkeles

Title: Better than Perfect
Series: Wild Cards
Author: Simone Elkeles
Pages: 352
Publication Date: August 5, 2014
Publisher: Dreamscape Media
Source: I checked this out via my online local library!

After getting kicked out of boarding school, bad boy Derek Fitzpatrick has no choice but to live with his ditzy stepmother while his military dad is deployed. Things quickly go from bad to worse when he finds out she plans to move them back to her childhood home in Illinois. Ashtyn Parker knows one thing for certain - people you care about leave without a backward glance. A football scholarship would finally give her the chance to leave. So she pours everything into winning a state championship, until her boyfriend and star quarterback betrays them all by joining their rival team. Ashtyn needs a new game plan, but it requires trusting Derek - someone she barely knows, someone born to break the rules.

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BOOK REVIEW | Clockwork Prince by Cassandra Clare

Title: Clockwork Prince
Series: The Infernal Devices
Author: Cassandra Clare
Publication Date: December 6, 2011

Pages: 500
Source: I bought this via Book Depository!

In the magical underworld of Victorian London, Tessa Gray has at last found safety with the Shadowhunters. But that safety proves fleeting when rogue forces in the Clave plot to see her protector, Charlotte, replaced as head of the Institute. If Charlotte loses her position, Tessa will be out on the street—and easy prey for the mysterious Magister, who wants to use Tessa’s powers for his own dark ends.

With the help of the handsome, self-destructive Will and the fiercely devoted Jem, Tessa discovers that the Magister’s war on the Shadowhunters is deeply personal. He blames them for a long-ago tragedy that shattered his life. To unravel the secrets of the past, the trio journeys from mist-shrouded Yorkshire to a manor house that holds untold horrors, from the slums of London to an enchanted ballroom where Tessa discovers that the truth of her parentage is more sinister than she had imagined. When they encounter a clockwork demon bearing a warning for Will, they realize that the Magister himself knows their every move—and that one of their own has betrayed them.

Tessa finds her heart drawn more and more to Jem, but her longing for Will, despite his dark moods, continues to unsettle her. But something is changing in Will—the wall he has built around himself is crumbling. Could finding the Magister free Will from his secrets and give Tessa the answers about who she is and what she was born to do?

As their dangerous search for the Magister and the truth leads the friends into peril, Tessa learns that when love and lies are mixed, they can corrupt even the purest heart.

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Waiting on Wednesday #23

Hey everyone and welcome back to my blog! This week I will be participating in Waiting on Wednesday. WoW is a weekly meme hosted by Jill @ Breaking the Spine. Every week we showcase upcoming releases that we are excited about. Tressa @ Wishful Endings has recently taken lead in this meme, considering Jill hasn't been posting on for a while. Learn more here!

This week I chose Nyxia by Scott Reintgen!

Emmett Atwater agrees to leave Earth behind when Babel Communications offers him a fortune. The catch? He has to launch into deep space to get it. One of ten selected recruits, Emmett boards the company's spaceship and sets course for a planet that Babel has kept hidden from the rest of the world.

Before long, Emmett discovers that all of Babel's recruits have at least one thing in common: they're broken. Broken enough that Babel can remold them however it pleases.

Every training session is a ruthless competition where friendships are tested and enemies are made. Each recruit must earn the right to travel down to the planet of Eden-- where they will mine nyxia, a substance that has quietly become the most valuable material in the universe.

But Babel's ship is full of secrets. Secrets about the volatile substance they're hoping to mine, about the reclusive humanoids already living on Eden, and about the true intentions for the recruits.

Emmett will face the ultimate choice: win the fortune at any cost, or find a way to fight that won't forever compromise what it means to be human.

Author Q&A | Kieran Scott

Hey everyone and welcome back to my blog! I'm Genni, and today I'll be doing an author Q&A with Kieran Scott to promote her newest release, Pretty Fierce. I had the pleasure of reading Pretty Fierce for review via Netgalley and I really liked it! If you want to know more of my thoughts, check out my review! 

Title: Pretty Fierce
Author: Kieran Scott
Pub Date: April 4, 2017

An action-packed, edge-of-your-seat novel about a teen who, when backed into a corner, fights back, from the author of What Waits in the Woods

Kaia has been on the run her whole life. The daughter of professional assassins, she knows danger—and she’ll do anything to survive. After her parents vanished during a job gone bad, Kaia’s spent the last year in hiding, trying to blend in as an ordinary teenager, and there’s no one who makes her feel more normal, more special, than her boyfriend, Oliver.

But when she's attacked by someone from her mother's past and Oliver catches her fighting back, Kaia's secret is exposed. In a split-second decision, she flees the small town, taking Oliver with her. Stalked at every turn, Oliver and Kaia must protect each other...or die trying.

1) What inspired you to write a thriller YA novel?

Thrillers have always been my favorite stories to read, to watch and to write. When I was a kid I used to watch classic thrillers with my mom like REAR WINDOW and FRANTIC and I always just loved the way they made me feel—like I had to hold my breath because something or someone was about to jump out from behind that curtain or fling themselves off a train. I’ve also read a lot of great adult thrillers over the years and felt like, while there are some great YA novels in the genre, there weren’t any fun, humorous thrillers. I always think the best ones have those moments of comedic relief, which is what I tried for here.

2) If you could only write one genre for the rest of your career, what would it be?

I’d like to write mystery/thrillers. There’s just something exciting about coming up with all the twists and turns, trying to keep secrets from the reader, and challenging myself to come up with cliffhangers to end each chapter. Plus, plotting is my favorite part of the writing process, so I really enjoy plot-driven narratives. I’ve never been great with the flowery descriptions and settings. I like to write dialogue and action.

March Wrap Up!

Hey everyone and welcome back to my blog! Today I'll be wrapping up all the books I have read in March.


Much like all of 2017 so far, I didn't read as much as I wanted to. Thankfully, my spring break is this month and I'm getting my wisdom teeth out, so I'll have plenty of downtime to read. As of right now, I am 7 books behind my schedule. Earlier I was 9 books behind, so it is a slight improvement!

Without further ado, here are the books I read in March, from worst to best.

5) Not His Girl

Not His Girl doesn't have an author name because I can't find anything at all! The book is written via wattpad, and is essentially a story where a girl kisses a mystery boy, and the mystery boy eventually moves in with the girl because he's the son of a family friend. Just less than a week later, and I barely remember any details of the book. While I had fun reading the book, it wasn't memorable at all. I wish that the characters were more expanded on so that they didn't feel one-dimensional. 

4) Black Ice by Becca Fitzpatrick

Black Ice was my first audiobook of this year! Let me tell you, I am so glad that I got back into audiobooks this year. Becca Fitzpatrick was one of the first YA authors I have read, but i know that what I loved four years ago is not what I would love now. So I set my expectations very, very low, and they were met. The book was silly and predictable, but I had fun. There was a for sure case of Stockholm's syndrome though, and I wish that the romance took a back-burner or was nonexistent. Why does the main character even need a man? 

BOOK REVIEW | Pretty Fierce by Kieran Scott

Title: Pretty Fierce
Author: Kieran Scott
Publication Date: April 4, 2017
Date Read: December 10-11, 2016
Pages: 320
Source: I received  Pretty Fierce via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you!   

Kaia has been on the run her whole life. The daughter of professional assassins, she knows true danger—and she’ll do anything to survive. After her parents vanished during a job gone bad, Kaia’s spent the last year in hiding, trying to blend in as an ordinary teenager, and there’s no one who makes her feel more normal or more special than her boyfriend, Oliver. But when she’s jumped by a hit man, and Oliver catches her fighting back, Kaia’s secret is exposed. In a split-second decision, she flees the small town, taking Oliver with her. With professional killers stalking their every move, can Oliver and Kaia protect each other long enough to uncover the mysteries of her past?