Review: Shut Out by Kody Keplinger

Title: Shut Out

Author: Kody Keplinger
Release Date: September 5, 2011
My Rating: 4/5

Synopsis: “Most high school sports teams have rivalries with other schools. At Hamilton High, it’s a civil war: the football team versus the soccer team. And for her part,Lissa is sick of it. Her quarterback boyfriend, Randy, is always ditching her to go pick a fight with the soccer team or to prank their locker room. And on three separate occasions Randy’s car has been egged while he and Lissa were inside, making out. She is done competing with a bunch of sweaty boys for her own boyfriend’s attention

Then Lissa decides to end the rivalry once and for all: She and the other players’ girlfriends go on a hookup strike. The boys won’t get any action from them until the football and soccer teams make peace. What they don’t count on is a new sort of rivalry: an impossible girls-against-boys showdown that hinges on who will cave to their libidos first. But what Lissa never sees coming is her own sexual tension with the leader of the boys, Cash Sterling…“


I had been holding off reading Kody Keplinger books for a while, they just didn’t seem like my kind of thing.  For one, I like to judge books by the covers, and they didn’t quite pass the test. But with A Midsummer’s Nightmare being released and looking intriguing, I thought it was time.  It has been a long time since I’ve been surprised by how much I’ve enjoyed a book, but Shut Out did just that.  I really enjoyed it, and proceeded to read her other two right away.

It starts with a fun concept, the girls who are dating the school’s football and soccer players decide to go on a sex strike to end their long standing feud.  What Kody Keplinger does with the story is spotlight the way girls are perceived when it comes to sex.  On one hand girls are judged negatively if they are virgins, but on the other hand, if they do have sex, they’re called sluts or whores.  Regardless of their stance on sex, they can be judged an criticized.  These are judgements that I think everyone holds in one direction or another, it is hard not to have certain ideas about what people’s attitudes should be towards sex.  It is nice to see a book that shows that different attitudes are okay and normal.

On top of that we have a very cute love story, with some enjoyable characters.  Lissa has been through a lot in her life, and she remains a strong girl who takes a lot of responsibility for her family.  On the boy front we have Randy, a jerk of a quarterback, who despite claiming to love Lissa, seems to be totally self absorbed and only interested in one thing.  On the other hand we have the completely adorable and crush-worthy Cash, who despite being a hot jock and having girls try to throw themselves at him, is holding out for the right girl.  I doubt such a combination of traits exists in real life, but I’ll take it in book form if that’s all that’s available.  I really enjoyed him, and relationship development is seriously sweet.

Shut Out is a great combination of fun and thoughtfulness, and incredibly impressive as a book written by an 18 year old.  I didn’t know how young she was until I had finished, and I never would have guessed.  It will be fun to see how her writing evolves over the course of her career.  So if you haven’t read Shut Out yet, it is definitely worth a shot.

Review: Unbreak My Heart by Melissa Walker

Title: Unbreak My Heart

Author: Melissa Walker
Release Date: May 22, 2012
My Rating: 4/5

Synopsis: “Sophomore year broke Clementine Williams’ heart. She fell for her best friend’s boyfriend and long story short: he’s excused, but Clem is vilified and she heads into summer with zero social life. 

Enter her parents’ plan to spend the summer on their sailboat. Normally the idea of being stuck on a tiny boat with her parents and little sister would make Clem break out in hives, but floating away sounds pretty good right now. 

Then she meets James at one of their first stops along the river. He and his dad are sailing for the summer and he’s just the distraction Clem needs. Can he break down Clem’s walls and heal her broken heart?“

Unbreak My Heart is a sweet and insightful story about the heartbreak and guilt of damaging a friendship.  Melissa Walker does a great job of taking an issue and making readers see a different side of it than what is normally portrayed.

Usually when we see a story about “boyfriend stealing”, it is from the perspective of the girl who has been cheated on.  In Unbreak My Heart, we see the heartbreak that comes when Clementine crosses some lines and hurts her best friend.  I like it when an author can take a moral issue that is usually seen as black and white, and show the shades of grey that lie between.

On top of all of this, we see a unique setting when Clem spends her summer sailing on a boat with her family.  This creates a very active involvement of the family in the story, which is also nice to see.

I think the most important part of this story is Clem’s realization of the importance of friendship and how nothing should have been worth damaging such an important relationship in her life.  As the story is pieced together bit by bit, it is easy to see how Clem got so wrapped up in things for a boy who, in the end, was clearly not worth it.  Luckily, as she heals herself over the summer, a much sweeter, more worthwhile guy is there to help her along the way.

I love the characters in this story, especially Clem’s family.  She has such understanding parents, and a wise little sister, who put up with a lot from her.  It is nice to see a main character who is able to appreciate her family, and open up to them when she needs it.

On a completely random note, I love the name ‘Clementine’ for a YA heroine, but everytime I hear ‘Clem’, I think of this guy:

Clem, a particularly friendly, kitten gambling demon from Buffy the Vampire Slayer.  A strange visual to get when reading a about a 16 year old girl on a boat.  

Also, I seriously am incapable of reading the title of this book without mentally bursting into song  à la  Toni Braxton.

But, back to the point, Unbreak My Heart is a nice summer read for any lover of contemporary YA.  Great for dreaming about being on a boat, and getting away from those everyday troubles.  It is everything a summer read should be, though I kind of went crazy at the lack of resolution in the end.  

Review: We’ll Always Have Summer by Jenny Han

Title: We’ll Always Have Summer

Author: Jenny Han

Release Date: April 26, 2011

My Rating: 4/5

Synopsis: ” It’s been two years since Conrad told Belly to go with Jeremiah. She and Jeremiah have been inseparable ever since, even attending the same college– only, their relationship hasn’t exactly been the happily ever after Belly had hoped it would be. And when Jeremiah makes the worst mistake a boy can make, Belly is forced to question what she thought was true love. Does she really have a future with Jeremiah? Has she ever gotten over Conrad? It’s time for Belly to decide, once and for all, who has her heart forever.”


I definitely enjoyed this book more than the other two despite the craziness of the two teenagers being engaged.  I kind of wish that it had jumped forward a few extra years to make that aspect a little more plausible, but that would have excluded some important elements of the plot.

In the previous two books, it felt like Jeremiah was the good boy and Conrad the more womanizing bad boy.  But in this book Jeremiah just came off as an annoying frat boy type, and it became clear that Conrad was ready to commit to Belly and be the right kind of guy.

I loved seeing things from Conrad’s point of view and seeing directly how he felt about Belly.  And I did love the ending.  It was very satisfying.  I feel like this book would be nice as a stand alone.  It is good to have the back story from the other two, but I would probably read this one again without the other two.  I would like to get my hands on a paperback copy of this one to see the bonus letters from Conrad to Belly.

Overall I didn’t love the series as much as everyone else, but it was very enjoyable to read, and quite addictive.  Good entertainment value.  

Review: Delirium by Lauren Oliver

Title: Delirium
Author: Lauren Oliver
Release Date: February 1, 2011
My Rating: 4/5

Synopsis: “Before scientists found the cure, people thought love was a good thing. They didn’t understand that once love — the deliria — blooms in your blood, there is no escaping its hold. Things are different now. Scientists are able to eradicate love, and the government demands that all citizens receive the cure upon turning eighteen. Lena Holoway has always looked forward to the day when she’ll be cured. A life without love is a life without pain: safe, measured, predictable, and happy.
But with ninety-five days left until her treatment, Lena does the unthinkable: She falls in love.”

So I busted out of my serious reading rut a few weeks ago. Thanks to Delirium or timing.  Now, it is time to bust out of the blogging rut.


This was a solid dystopian that really made me think.  Imagine being told to believe that love is a disease, something that should be fought and cured.  It is so different from what we think in our world that is hard to imagine, but Delirium shows the complexities of the idea beautifully.  It is a confusing idea to wrap your head around, knowing that it isn’t true, but what if you had been brainwashed your entire life to believe that love is bad and the root of all evil?  You’d probably have a tough time challenging it.  That is what Lena is faced with.

Lena is a solid character, Lauren Oliver writes her in a way that you can really feel what she is going through.  It takes her some time to come around to the idea that maybe her society is corrupt, and not everything that they do is in the best interest of people. Hanna and Alex each help her change her ideas in their own unique ways.  Both Hanna and Alex are likeable, strong characters, who keep the book interesting and exciting.


This is a beautifully written story, which sets the next in the series up nicely, so I am very excited to get my hands on Pandemonium.

Review: Variant by Robison Wells

Title: Variant

Author: Robison Wells

Release Date: October 4, 2011

My Rating: 4/5

Synopsis: “Benson Fisher thought that a scholarship to Maxfield Academy would be the ticket out of his dead-end life. He was wrong. Now he’s trapped in a school that’s surrounded by a razor-wire fence. A school where video cameras monitor his every move. Where there are no adults. Where the kids have split into groups in order to survive. Where breaking the rules equals death. But when Benson stumbles upon the school’s real secret, he realizes that playing by the rules could spell a fate worse than death, and that escape—his only real hope for survival—may be impossible.”

I didn’t know what to expect from this one, I hadn’t heard too much about it. It’s nice to go into a book without any preconceived ideas.  I was drawn in pretty immediately to this one, there are lots of questions thrown out in the beginning as to what is really going on at the school.  I felt very uneasy about the situation that these kids were put in, and I wanted to see how it would resolve. It kept me interested, up until the cliffhanger ending, so I definitely plan on reading the sequel when it is released.

The concept of the book kind of reminded me of the Stanford Prison Experiment, which if you don’t know was a psychological experiment done by Stanford University in the 1970s. They saw how people would act when divided into roles as prisoners and guards.  In Variant, you can see the roles that the students take on, some playing roles  that keep others from escaping, are quite plausible given the situation they are in.  Of course, there is more to it than just that.

Variant was a very enjoyable read that kept me hooked all the way through.  It had elements of dystopia, but if you read it you will see that there are other elements involved. It wasn’t over the top fantastic, but it was entertaining, and good enough for me to want to read book two asap.