005 - Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick

Romance was not part of Nora Grays plan. She's never been particularly attracted to the boys at her school, no matter how hard her best friend, Vee, pushes them at her. Not until Patch comes along. With his easy smile and eyes that seem to see inside her, Patch draws Nora to him against her better judgment.

But after a series of terrifying encounters, Nora's not sure whom to trust. Patch seems to be everywhere she is and seems to know more about her than her closest friends. She cant decide whether she should fall into his arms or run and hide. And when she tries to seek some answers, she finds herself near a truth that is way more unsettling than anything Patch makes her feel. For she is right in the middle of a battle between the immortal and those who have fallen-and, when it comes to choosing sides, the wrong chose will cost Nora her life.

First of all, we call FALSE ADVERTISING. "...battle between the immortal and those who have fallen" OUR ASSES.

Characters There is a trend right now in YA fiction that is prevalent in a lot of the books that we've read, and that needs to be addressed in this particular review. That is, for typically smart, sensible, level-headed girls to act like complete morons when it comes to being stalked by handsome, mysterious classmates. Nora Grey in Hush, Hush is probably the worst example of this particular trope that we've seen so far.

004 - Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead

Lissa Dragomir is a Moroi princess: a mortal vampire with a rare gift for harnessing the earth magic. She must be protected at all times from Strigoi; the fiercest vampires-the ones who never die. The powerful blend of human and vampire blood that flows through Rose Hathaway, Lissa's best friend, makes her a Dhampir. Rose is dedicated to a dangerous life of protecting Lissa from the Strigoi,who are hell-bent on making Lissa one of them.

After two years of freedom, Rose and Lissa are caught and dragged back to St. Vladimir's Academy, a school for vampire royalty and their guardians-to-be, hidden in the deep forests in Montana. But inside the iron gates, life is even more fraught with danger... and the Strigoi are always close by.

Rose and Lissa must navigate their dangerous world, confront the temptations of forbidden love, and never once let their guard down, lest the evil undead make Lissa one of them forever...

Characters: Soooo this is going to be another one of those books we disagree on, mostly in terms of characters, and probably better illustrates the how subjective a book-reading experience can be. In Vampire Academy, we have two heroines, best friends Lissa and Rose. Rose is the narrator, but they share the role of protagonist, and we even occasionally get to warp into Lissa's head for a brief spell and experience events from her point of view. It's in our evaluations of the characters that we differ, and it affected both of our reading experiences pretty greatly.

Kayla: I totally connected with Rose as a heroine in many different ways. She wasn't a perfect, do-no-wrong character; she was a normal teenage girl. There were times when things were just too much for her, and instead of her slowing down and getting her head in gear to figure out just how she should act, she messes up. This, to me, makes her a flawed, legitimate character. She makes a mistake and has to learn from it to figure her way out of it. I connected in the sense that had I been in her position, I to would have made some of the same decisions she had. Also, though it was irritating occasionally, she was very selfless, which to me is very inspiring. She gives up everything, even her true love, for Lissa.

Cynthia: Personally, I almost hated Rose, and it really impacted how I ended up feeling about the book as a whole. I found her bitchy, petty, skanky, irresponsible, stupid, and immature, not to mention a boozer. Even the attempts at making her sarcastic and funny just sort of fell flat for me, because her attitude was so shitty. She embodied essentially everything I dislike about people in general, and teenagers especially. Though she showed some promise of developing out of her petty teenager-ness as the book went on, towards the middle she fell out with Lissa and reverted back almost completely to the way she was at the start of the book. Though I do admit that she was very devoted and selfless where Lissa was concerned, the overwhelming majority of her personality traits were just obnoxious as Hell to me. I couldn't relate to her as a character, but this is probably because her personality and mine are just completely different.

Despite our difference of opinion on Rose, we are in agreement about our feelings on her best friend and co-star, Lissa Dragomir. Lissa isn't so much another heroine as she is the damsel constantly in distress in this story. Rose is her hero, her white knight, and even though we like Lissa in general, her weakness and inability to do anything for herself is irritating. We do understand that this weakness and dependancy has a lot to do with her position in the book, and the powers that she wields, which take a toll on her mental stability. Rose mentions multiple times that the Lissa pre-power-discovery was a very different, vibrant person. But the Lissa in the book, the broken, self-mutilating, emo-as-shit girl ever in need of saving from herself just as much as other people, is very difficult to connect and empathize with.

003 - Evermore by Alyson Noël

After a horrible accident claims the lives of her family, sixteen-year-old Ever Bloom can see people's auras, hear their thoughts, and know someones entire life story by touching them. Going out of her way to avoid human contact and suppress her abilities, she has been branded a freak at her new high school-but everything changes when she meets Damen Auguste.

Damen is gorgeous, exotic, and wealthy. He's the only one who can silence the noise and random energy in her head- wielding a magic so intense, it says though he can peer straight into her soul. As Ever is drawn deeper into his enticing world of secrets and mystery, she's left with more questions than answers. And she has no idea just who he really is - or what he is. The only thing she knows to be true is that shes falling deeply and helplessly in love with him.

Characters: Yeah, so...this isn't going to go well. For starters, as a heroine, (the ridiculously-named) Ever Bloom is depressing. She's whiny, sullen, anti-social, selfish, insecure, angsty, and burdened with a full-on guilt complex. Reading an entire book from her point of view is extremely depressing (and reading it while it's raining? TEN TIMES WORSE!), because the girl finds no joy in anything. Some of this is understandable, given Ever has just lost her entire family, but her post-loss life isn't horrible; she has a teenage wonderland room in LAGUNA FRICKIN' BEACH CALIFORNIA, an aunt who would spoil her if she would allow her to, a gorgeous car, and even (relatively) decent friends, despite her pissy attitude, and yet none of it seems to make her happy.

I HATE MY LIFE!!!!

Even her visits with her dead sister Riley, who she can see thanks to the powers she gained in the accident, are marked with brattiness and arguments, and though Ever claims to live for them, you never really get the feeling that she really appreciates Riley's presence. A lot of this could be attributed to the style and mood of the book, which, as previously mentioned, is DEPRESSING AS HELL, but either way, it really impacts Ever as a character, and robs her of some likable traits she could have had.