You Are Here by Jennifer E. Smith | Book Review | Spoiler Free

Title ; You Are Here

Author ; Jennifer E. Smith

Genre ; Young Adult, Contemporary, Travel-Road Trip, Romance, Realistic Fiction

Pages ; 251

Publisher ; Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers                          

Synopsis ; Have you ever felt like something was missing? Well Emma feels like that all the time, she doesn't fit in with her family and she doesn't make any friends. One day she discovers a birth certificate for a boy, on the same day she was born, a twin brother, but following that she finds a death certificate. Now Emma knows why she's always felt like something was missing and she sets out to find something she lost years ago that she never even knew she had. For Peter, it's always been his dream to escape his small town, his love for maps doesn't help the urge to leave. His father want's him to stay, go to college here, he never could understand why Peter was so obsessed with maps and travel when his mother had loved their small town. Can Peter escape or will he be stuck there forever? Emma and Peter are complete opposites, so they think, but they end up together on a trip of self discovery but they run in to a lot of problems on the way, will they reach their destination or be sent home before their even halfway there?

First Impression ; I'm a sucker for contemporary novels so I was excited to read this book. The blurb seemed interesting and I've never read a Travel-Road Trip book so I figured this book would be great. From the blurb I figured this book would be pretty emotional.

Rating ; 

Review ; This book was emotional but not a book I needed tissues for. I loved that even though this book was classified as romance, there was very little romance and the story focused more on the two teens discovering themselves while also learning more about each other. I liked the details in their traveling. it made me picture their situations better and long for a trip myself.

 This was a pretty fast read, I finished it in around 3 days, it definitely was a sweet and short read. I enjoyed both characters and how different they were yet so much alike, even their lives were different. Emma grew up in a family full of geniuses which she never could relate to so she always felt out of place. Peter grew up with just his father and while Peter always dreamed of traveling his dad just didn't see the point, Peter got along with Emma's family more than his own but both teens still felt alone.

Cover Rating ;

Judging a Book by it's Cover ; The cover is pretty simple and goes with the story. I like that all of my Jennifer E. Smith books look pretty similar minus the fact that this cover is glossy while the others are matte which is why this cover gets a 3 star rating, it's not horrible but it bothers me.

Quotes ;

“But how could she tell him that the reason she always acted so disinterested in everything was because of the worry that she herself wasn't all that interesting?”  

"and there was nothing more to be done except kick herself for always choosing the wrong time to be silent and the wrong times to make a fuss"

The Convenient Escape by Robert Downs | Book Review Suspense Mystery

I received this book from a Goodreads giveaway, while this book was free, Goodreads doesn't expect me to leave a book review although authors do offer books in hopes of getting reviews. My opinion is my own.


Judging a Book By It's Cover ;

I like the look of this book, the cover goes with the book but it is lacking in quality, I'm not sure if they done this on purpose or not but it's nothing major.

First Impression ;

To me this book seemed very interesting, I was wanting to read more suspense/mystery books and this one seemed perfect to read. After reading the blurb I was eager to see how Veronica's story went and how Pete tied into the story.

Rating ;

Review ;

This book follows Veronica Baird's story as she escapes from being held captive for 2 days in an underground dungeon. She doesn't know who took her or why but she knows she has to escape but escaping isn't so easy when the person that abducted you is still at large and you have no idea who they are, you can't trust anyone but you have to run. Upon escaping the dungeon Veronica runs into Pete, a former classmate from high school, even though she's not sure she can trust him she doesn't have much of a choice and so their story begins.

This book started off pretty fast paced with a lot of action and I really liked that but soon to follow I ran into some problems.

1. Some parts seemed unbelievable, after Chapter 4 I started to dread reading the book because I just couldn't believe Veronica didn't go to the police after escaping and I also didn't see this woman overpowering/tricking a grown man that also happened to be in the military. Both of these problem for me were explained way later in the book but it was so close to the end that it ruined the book for me.

2. I didn't like a few characters, mainly the bad guys which makes sense but I found Anthony's character was portrayed quite unrealistically. The fact that he could seduce a woman into being with him just for sexual favors and have her almost kill someone seems completely far fetched. I also didn't see him hiring the hitmen that he hired, they were both pretty dumb and not someone I would see someone hiring for the task.

This book gets 3 stars from me because it wasn't as great as I'd hoped it would be but it was still a good book. The author did an amazing job describing each scenario in this book so that you could literally picture it.

Recommended For ;

Adults that like suspense and mysteries. Also Young Adult but there are some rated X moments I the book, very little but still to be noted.

After You by Jojo Moyes | Book Review | Me Before You Book 2

 Judging a Book By It's Cover ; My opinion for this book was pretty much the same as for Me Before You, because they are a set and match pretty well. The difference is the colors were switched. So I loved this cover as well.

First Impression ; I was still a little upset with the ending of the first book when I started this book and I knew this was continuing Lou's story which I was both happy and curious about. The blurb made me more interested in her story because of "Reluctantly she joins a support group and meets Sam Fielding" who is this Sam and will he replace Will!? How could she be over him in such a short time!? And then there's this "Then a figure from Will's past appears and hijacks all of Lou's plans, propelling her into a very different future" who is this person!?

Rating ;

Review ; I loved that Lou's story got to continue. I was eager to see how her life changed and I wasn't disappointed. There was so much action in this book and I got to see into everyone's life a bit more after Will. I loved that Jojo tied in the rest of Will's family in this book so that we got to see how they coped with Will being gone. You saw how things ended and how some things began. You also got to see Lou's family grow as well, her sister in college and her mom stepping out of her comfort zone. This book had it all, action, romance, and a bit of mystery. I want to read more into Lou's life, I saw in the back interview where Jojo Moyes talked about leaving room for another book if the readers wanted and yes, yes we do!

The way the book ended I can definitely see this being turned into a trilogy and I'd love to see Lou growing more.