Book Review: The Way I Used to Be

Title: The Way I Used to Be
Author: Amber Smith
Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry Books

Publication Date: March 22, 2016
Format: Hardcover
Source: Margaret K. McElderry Books for Review Consideration

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Eden was always good at being good. Starting high school didn’t change who she was. But the night her brother’s best friend rapes her, Eden’s world capsizes.

What was once simple, is now complex. What Eden once loved—who she once loved—she now hates. What she thought she knew to be true, is now lies. Nothing makes sense anymore, and she knows she’s supposed to tell someone what happened but she can’t. So she buries it instead. And she buries the way she used to be.

Told in four parts—freshman, sophomore, junior, and senior year -  this provocative debut reveals the deep cuts of trauma. But it also demonstrates one young woman’s strength as she navigates the disappointment and unbearable pains of adolescence, of first love and first heartbreak, of friendships broken and rebuilt, and while learning to embrace a power of survival she never knew she had hidden within her heart.

Stacking the Shelves (11)

Stacking The Shelves is a weekly feature hosted by Tynga on her blog, Tynga's Reviews. This book meme is all about sharing the books you are adding to your shelves - physical or virtual. This means you can include books you buy in any physical store or online. You can include all those e-books that you've picked up. You can include the ARCs (both physical and digital) you've been approved for. You can also include books that you may have borrowed from a friend or the library, and you can include books that you've acquired through trading! Seriously... if it's a book, you can include it in your post.

If you want to find out more about Stacking The Shelves, please visit the official launch page on Tynga's Reviews!

ARC Review: Hit

Title: Hit (Hit#1)

Author: Delilah S. Dawson

Publisher: Simon Pulse

Publication Date: April 14, 2015

Rating: ☆☆
Source: ARC from Simon & Schuster

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NO ONE READS THE FINE PRINT.

The good news is that the USA is finally out of debt. The bad news is that we were bought out by Valor National Bank, and debtors are the new big game, thanks to a tricky little clause hidden deep in the fine print of a credit card application. Now, after a swift and silent takeover that leaves 9-1-1 calls going through to Valor voice mail, they’re unleashing a wave of anarchy across the country.

Patsy didn’t have much of a choice. When the suits showed up at her house threatening to kill her mother then and there for outstanding debt unless Patsy agreed to be an indentured assassin, what was she supposed to do? Let her own mother die?

Patsy is forced to take on a five-day mission to complete a hit list of ten names. Each name on Patsy's list has only three choices: pay the debt on the spot, agree to work as a bounty hunter, or die. And Patsy has to kill them personally, or else her mom takes a bullet of her own.

Since yarn bombing is the only rebellion in Patsy's past, she’s horrified and overwhelmed, especially as she realizes that most of the ten people on her list aren't strangers. Things get even more complicated when a moment of mercy lands her with a sidekick: a hot rich kid named Wyatt whose brother is the last name on Patsy's list. The two share an intense chemistry even as every tick of the clock draws them closer to an impossible choice.

Delilah S. Dawson offers an absorbing, frightening glimpse at a reality just steps away from ours—a taut, suspenseful thriller that absolutely mesmerizes from start to finish.