Chelsea BobulskiRecensioni

Maybe it was just a situation of right book and right time, but I really really enjoyed this one. Despite all that is going on right now, I couldn't put it down.
The character growth was fantastic throughout the whole story. At the beginning, one is very closed off while the other is seeking 100% control over everything in her life. This slowly starts to change as the characters get to know each other.
I would have liked to see more of Beckett playing the violin (being a violinist myself) and the impact that it has on him.
The only complaint I have is the random language used throughout the book. For the most part, it didn't seem to fit the mood of the story.

Content: abusive/drug-addicted parents, language, kissing

*I received a copy of this book from the publisher. All thoughts are my own and a positive review was not required.

This book was quite interesting. I read the whole series out of order (2, 4, 1, 3) but did not feel that I missed anything and recommend that the reader choose the order as well. This book happens during the same time as the fourth without giving away any spoilers.
I have only ever seen the theme of wedding planning in a handful of YA novels so the setting felt unique. I do wish that I could have seen a bit more of the actual planning though.
August and Isla did a very good job of challenging each other to follow their dreams. I really enjoyed seeing August as he worked in the kitchen.
This may be a small spoiler, but I cannot believe that everyone acted as if August's father's behavior was normal. I was like...umm...something is wrong here.
Besides for that, this was a solid read that I would recommend to teens.

4 Stars

Content: occasional language (d***, a**), verbal abuse, emotionally involved with someone else while in a relationship, kissing

*I received a copy of this novel from the publisher. All thoughts are my own and a positive review was not required.

I loved the rest of the series. And yes, I saved the first to read last. Yet, for some reason, I could not get into this one.
I am not fond of the whole switching-lives thing that happened. The rest of the series did not have anything like that so it threw me off a bit.
I was also not fond of how once Graham becomes Sarah's boyfriend, he becomes interested in Piper. That has never been a favorite plot device of mine and nothing has changed.
I really wish I liked this one, but it was a DNF for me.

1 Star

*I received a copy of this book from the publisher. All thoughts are my own and a positive review was not required.

WOW!!!
This book was fantastic and I couldn't put it down.
I loved seeing the sidestory about the Revolutionary War couple. I really hope there will be a spinoff novel just about them, how they met and all the small details this book did not get into.
This was by far my favorite book of the series and I cannot wait to see what Chelsea publishes next.

Content: some language, references to mistakes made in past relationships, one intense kissing scene

*I received a copy of this book from the publisher. All thoughts are my own and a positive review was not required.

This book, though mostly not set during the holidays, still has the special magic that only the holiday season can bring. It is an imaginative coming-of-age story and will definitely warm your heart.

Savannah meets Jordan at the start of the semester when he offers to help her carry her mattress to her dorm room. In the days following move in, they keep running into each other and before long a friendship develops, but Jordan wants more. However, Savannah is convinced that true love does not exist. She thinks love is just a primitive response to mating. This is only reinforced by her mother and grandmother’s experiences.

Jordan is not without wanting to put off love because his career goals come first. However, as the semester progresses, Jordan and Savannah are drawn to each other. They just seem to click and Jordan becomes determined to prove to Savannah that true love does exist. When they find a collection of letters from the revolutionary war between a solider and the woman he loved, Jorden uses this as the opportunity to prove the existence of true love. The question is. will this be enough to prove to Savannah that true love exists?

The characters in this story were fabulous. They are genuine and the dialog was what I would expect from young adults. I liked how the author used Savannah’s challenges with empathy. Because Savannah is challenged, the author was able to highlight how strong and intelligent she is, with a fierceness about her that many her age don’t have.

I also loved that the tension slowly built in the story and there could not have been a better setting for this book. The historical element of the letters added a nice layer to the story and helped moved the plot along. I wanted to find out what happened to everyone and it had me rushing to finish.

This book was charming, and had a strong feel-good vibe. I highly recommend it to lovers of YA and romance. It is not only a great holiday read, but would make a great beach read because a lot of the book takes place outside of the holidays.

I received a free copy from the publisher, via NetGalley, in exchange for my honest review. For more of my reviews, and author interviews, see my blog at www.thespineview.com.

Oh man, what a ride! I’m not sure what I was expecting to find between the pages of Remember Me, but what I did find was such a pleasant surprise. This book is an excellent example of a mixture between historical fiction and horror. Nell’s story has just enough intrigue, and just enough of a creep factor, to really make things interesting. To say that I was upset every time I had to set this down is absolutely a fair statement. I had a ton of fun reading this.

First off, thank you so much to Bobulski for writing a character who is infinitely likable. Nell is kind, funny, and her love for her father shines off the page. Her past is haunted, and her present isn’t all sunshine and roses either, but she’s a strong character who makes you want her to succeed. I loved following Nell, as the Winslow Grand Hotel slowly pulled her further and further in. Even when things got darker, and her sanity was stretched to the breaking point, she was still a beacon of light. I appreciated that so much.

Pairing Nell’s story with her former counterpart, Lea, was a brilliant move as well. I loved flipping back and forth between the two of them, while the connection between these women was slowly revealed. It was so easy to picture the Winslow Grand Hotel in my mind, in both time periods. The inclusion of little snippets of history, and descriptions of the building, really helped me achieve falling right into the story as progressed. Lea and Nell. Nell and Lea. They led me on a thrilling adventure, complete with illicit love, and I ate up every bit of it.

So why a four star, rather than a five star rating? My only qualm was the ending. This book swept along so grandly for the first three-quarters. It built things up to a breaking point, and amped up the tension to the point that I couldn’t stop thinking about this book when I set it down. Then the ending just flew by in a few chapters, and felt a little anti-climactic overall. I would have loved just a bit more time with Nell as she fought for the life she wanted. She was so brave, and I just wanted her fight to be a bit more worth it.

Still, this was a solid read and I highly recommend it!

Student Review:
Review by: Heather R(11th Grade)
Grade Range: 7th Grade and up
Genre: Horror/Fantasy
Literary Merit: Excellent
Characterization: Good
Review:
The Wood is a tale of decision making that revolves around a girl named Winter Parish. Winter, as a young girl, knew that the woods outside her house were more than what meets the eye. Her dad, tasked as the guardian for the woods, would always go on patrols into the woods that normal people could not and should not see. Winter was destined to take his role, but she was not supposed to take it at the early age of sixteen. Everything in her life seemed fine until the day her dad went into the woods and never came back. She could hear his words echoing in her head: “Do not travel from the paths. Do not linger after dark. Do not ignore the calling.” To Winter, it seemed like the answers she was getting about her dad’s “death” were not entirely true. As time moved on, she kept up the role of guardian that had been given to her rather quickly. Day after day and threshold after threshold became the daily pattern. Protecting humans from the hallucinations and delirium of the Wood seemed to become second nature to her until the day she met the one human that refused to go back into the threshold from the timeline that he belonged to. On top of that, he knew more than he should have known. That was the moment when she realized that something was not right, at all. Someone was telling lies and she needed to find out who for the hopes that the information from that breakthrough would lead to her dad. It was a long shot, but there were limited ways that she could go about the situation. It clearly seemed like she was going to have to ignore the warnings of her dad and the authority above her if she was going to break through all the lies.

The first element of The Wood that drew me in to it was the simplicity and uniqueness of the cover. One side of the cover had a coloured leaf with liquid dripping off of its edges. The other side of the book had that same leaf on it, but the colour was leached from it to model a significant moment from the book. Overall, the cover did do the book justice for accurately reflecting the content that took place in the book. The book had elements of both fantasy and horror. The pace of the book was set perfectly and there were not any unnecessary events or details added into it. The two main characters of the book, Winter Parish and Henry Durant, were great characters, yet they had some flaws to them. The two of the characters did not seem to develop much throughout the story, but it is very hard for an author to show true character development when the book is not a part of a series. Throughout the book there was a message that working alone does not accomplish what teamwork can accomplish. Overall, the author did a marvelous job at conveying this message.

Librarian Review:
“Do not travel from the paths. Do not linger after dark. Do not ignore the calling.” Winter is the guardian of the Wood behind her house, and she has been trained to follow those rules. She is the latest in a long line of her ancestors to have this responsibility. After her father disappears during a patrol, it’s up to Winter to take responsibility as the sole guardian of her family’s territory of the Wood. Her main objective is to patrol for “travelers” who have accidentally stumbled through a portal from another time and place and ended up in the Wood. One day she meets a traveler who has come to the woods intentionally. He is searching for his parents, and he believes that their disappearance may be related to whatever happened to Winter’s father. In order for them to investigate, Winter must break another rule by allowing Henry, who is from 18th century England, to cross over into the present time.
I have to preface this by saying that books set in modern times that have fantastical elements are not really my jam, so some of my issues with the book might have more to do with personal preference and an unwillingness to suspend disbelief. From the outset, I had a hard time buying into the premise of a magical Wood in Columbus, Ohio. (If there is a magical forest in Ohio, I don’t think it would in or near Columbus...someone would have plowed it over to build a “community” of houses that all look the same). Winter leads a double life: one as a magical guardian against time traveling (in a sentient Wood that becomes bloodthirsty after dark) who answers to a council of immortal beings and another as a high school student with a truancy issue. The mythology of the Wood was just not enough for me to be pulled into the story. A villain from centuries ago conveniently pops up halfway through the book to provide a conflict, and it just seemed contrived and not fleshed out enough. As a time traveler, Henry (unsurprisingly) is astounded by electricity, television, the fact that women wear pants. He also is fascinated by the Rubik's cube and the tv shows Saved by the Bell and Three’s Company. At first, I thought, maybe this is set in the 80s or 90s? But no, there are smartphones and computers, so...I don’t know. I will be interested to see what my student review thinks of this one. Right now, I’m calling this an optional purchase, but her opinion may sway me.

3.5