REVIEW; Metamorphosis (Book Boyfriend #1), by Erin Noelle

Rating: ★★☆☆☆

Genre: Romance, Young Adult, Drama

Recommend: No

SPOILERS

Summary:

Scarlett MacGregor finally moves to university with her best friend, Evie, away from living in a prison set by her overbearing parents. Having attended an all girls school and never being allowed any social life, Scarlett doesn't know much about partying, dating or boys, other to what she has read in her much loved novels. 

After making a deal with Evie that they would source out her "type" by experiencing her different type of book boyfriends; the gentleman to the player to the tattooed musician, Scarlett is thrown into a dating whirlwind. 

She soon finds herself involved with Ash, Dylan and Mason, and realises choosing between them is not as easy as she has read in her romance novels. 

My Thoughts:

One word; overkill.

I am really fed up of YA/Romance novels in general involving an innocent, inexperienced girl who attracts the main guys and is the one to "change" them. It's a scenario that's written about in 99.9% of YA books and is so unoriginal. 

1. Errors; There were numerous typos and errors which just go so frustrating. All the text messages were in bold but there were in-between sentences that were bolded within all the texts. "He" was used instead of "his" etc.
2. Pace; Pacing was all over for this novel. Random conversations or events dragggggged on way too long and I ended up skipping so much; especially the crap that came from Ash.
3. Characters; I didn't "fall" for any of the characters in this. I thought I'd like Scarlett but nope. Even Evie didn't really seem credible, she wasn't whole or complete like a best friend in a novel should be. Even at the ending, I was completely unaffected by the events that unfolded. She seemed to be a character of convenience and only showed up when necessary. 
4. Plot; I loved the back story of Scarlett and Evie and how she experienced a lot through her books. But the "love at first sight" thing happened not once, not twice, but THREE TIMES!! And of course with three super-hot model like men! Snooze. Maybe that type of theme is loved by a lot of YA readers, the 21st Century Fairytale - but COME ON! It just came across as unoriginal and lazy writing that they all fell in love with Scarlett at first glance. It was all too easy and boring. 
5. Scarlett; I liked her to begin with. I thought she had an interesting life and the sheltered upbringing would really come into psychological play. I can understand how she was sexually frustrated from being so sheltered but she showed no apprehension! She was so contradicting, especially when meeting Mason and doing what she did! She wanted Ash. From. The. Very. Beginning. And naturally he was a player but deep down a "good guy." But she got with Dylan. And then bad boy Mason, who every girl wanted, but she got him too... and chose him... even though she claimed Ash was the one. What. The. Hell. To be honest though I just wanted the book to end. I didn't care who she chose. And from having a sheltered lifestyle it seemed odd that it was just sex/boys she wanted to experience. Surely there were other things she hadn't done and now had the freedom to explore... 
6. Ending; the end of the novel as a whole didn't work. Could predict what was going to happen with Evie from the beginning but I didn't even care as she wasn't developed into a fundamental character. Scarlett let me down for the last time with how she reacted; okay, it was a fair reaction to everything that had happened but it was cruel! When someone puts their heart on the line, I don't care what you've been through, you. do. not. just. leave. and do what she did. Talk about extremes and a drama queen. Someone hit her with a brick and send her back to her parents.

I think the only thing I liked about this book was that Scarlett and Evie read books so we could relate to that one teeny tiny aspect of their characters. The BB references from other novels sort of worked but they were kind of just thrown in haphazardly as if the author had just remembered she was tying them in.

Would not recommend this to anyone that reads a lot of YA as most likely you've read similar and better 30+ times already. Didn't connect with the characters and considered DNFing at one point and for some reason persevered... at least it was free.

Goodreads 

REVIEW; Gravity, by Abigail Boyd

Rating: ★★★☆☆

Genre: Romance, Young Adult, Suspense, Paranormal

Recommend: Yes

SPOILERS

Summary:

In a town called Hell, Michigan, Ariel is coping with the loss of her best friend Jenna, whom she believes to be dead but everyone else is convinced she has run away. As a result of Jenna's disappearance, Ariel is given little freedom in an attempt to keep her safe. 
Then enter the mysterious Henry Rhodes who chases after Ariel and soon befriends her. But meanwhile Ariel is being haunted by nightmares and disturbed by paranormal events and believes there is more to discover about Jenna's disappearance. 

Ariel befriends Theo, a girl who lives next door and the daughter of her art teacher, and together they investigate the haunted house and plan to delve into the supernatural world. Other girls are beginning to go missing and Ariel wonders if it's related to Jenna's incident.
All the while Henry has secrets of his own and Ariel gets swept up into his drama whilst trying to save herself from dangers she never knew even existed.

My Thoughts:
I ultimately have mixed thoughts about this novel; I found it hard to even settle on a star rating between 3 or 4. 

Positives; 

• Ariel: I really loved her character. She was headstrong and didn't give up her investigations simply due to the adults around her believing she was imagining things or that Jenna's disappearance was not suspicious.  She investigated the orphanage after dreaming about the abandoned building and proved herself as a great friend consistently throughout, both to Jenna and Theo. 

• Theo: Theo was my favourite character in Gravity. She was so unique and didn't fall into a specific stereotype teenager. I loved reading about her friendship with Ariel and it was clear that they both needed and helped each other through everything. She believed in Ariel and stuck by her as she delved into her investigations which was extremely admirable.

• Supernatural: The paranormal element of the novel was quite subtly included. It wasn't full on supernatural but a gradual inclusion of unexplained noises and Ariel performing a seance so it was written and portrayed quite cleverly as it was believable and read as reality. I find writing about paranormal events can be the hardest thing to get across in a fashion that'll make the reader truly believe it but everything that occurred to Ariel was subtle and cleverly depicted. There was also the perfect level of suspense and mystery wrapped around the events, such as the noises that Ariel could hear in her room but them not be explained by the end of the first novel.

Negatives;

• Errors: I generally overlook the occasional spelling mistake or punctuation error, but when the novel is over-run with errors it really disrupts the read and flow of the whole story. The wrong written version of words were used where they didn't make sense and there were just too many typos that ruined the read. 

• Henry: He definitely won't be going on the list of Book Boyfriends. He didn't seem to bad to begin with but the whole "Stay away from me if you want to live" thing that permeates YA novels really turned me off him. He wasn't presented in a great fashion that got you emotive about him or wanting him to notice Ariel or be friendly to her. His whole character and involvement with Ariel was just too cliché for a novel that seemed to be original. 

• Ending: I did like the ending so far as Ariel's near death experience and discovering the dead bodies. However there were no subtle hints that Mr Warwick could not be trusted or was in any way involved. Ariel's initial suspicions occurred too late on for it to seem realistic. One thing that bothered me throughout the book was how drawn out the suspense was at times but then by the end the last few scenes were rushed as if there was a hurry to complete the novel- It just didn't sit right. 

• Romance: The romance element of Gravity didn't fit. Ariel fell for Henry and he supposedly had interest too as he chased her to start with but it fell apart too quickly. In most YA novels the romance faces a few obstacles, but there is good reason. But yet it felt like Ariel and Henry didn't get anywhere together before it all ended between them and he ignored her. (Not going to start on the fact Ariel fell in love with him so quickly after so little even happened.)

Overall though, despite there being a few negative points, Gravity was an enjoyable read but it just felt a little unpolished. The pacing needed some more ironing out to not be so dragged out at certain times but then at pivotal points not be so rushed. As a paranormal read though it was so well executed and I am intrigued as to how the story continues in the next installments.

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Amazon UK
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