Extraordinary Means

Extraordinary Means by Robyn Schneider

     Lane lived a pretty predictable life, until he finds himself at Latham House, a sanatorium for an untreatable strain of tuberculosis. he finds a insular world full of paradoxical rules, med sensors, and a girl named Sadie that becomes his utterly compelling, confidant, friend. And his life will never be the same
     Loved that the whole untreatable tuberculosis was completely made up. there is no such thing as total drug resistant tuberculosis. The story was about living your life while you still have time to. It can relate to so many people.
     This was an amazing story and I would definitely recommend it.

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An Ember in the Ashes

An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir

Laia lives with her grandparents and brother in a medieval world where they barely eek out an existence until her grandparents are slaughtered by the Martials and her brother is captured by the Empire. Laia must find a way to survive on her own and free her brother from prison.

Elias is one of the best soldiers in the Empire, but he is yearning to be free of their tyrannical reign. His only goal is to escape and live a life where fighting and killing are not mandatory.

Their story is told in alternating views between Laia and Elias. Sometimes the violence and brutality were a little hard to take, so I ended up skipping some of it. The story captures your attention quickly and never slows down. There always seems to be a love triangle in the young adult books, but this one has a love "square"and it did grow a little tiresome.

Overall, I did enjoy the book and plan on reading the sequel.

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Ashes on the Moor

Ashes on the Moor by Sarah M. Eden

Evangeline is raised in a high-class Victorian family. She is sent to live in a small mill town in Northern England where she is faced with sudden poverty and a heart-breaking separation from her sister. She desperately tries to prove herself able to be reunited with her sister, but is met with constant challenges, one of which is her unfeeling aunt who is determined to see Evangeline fail. Her only friend is her neighbor Dermot, an Irish immigrant who feels just as out of place as she does.

The author does a good job immersing the reader in the culture and environment of an English factory town in the late 1800s, including the Yorkshire vernacular that the locals used.  The story is a bit slow moving at first, but is a pleasant read with well developed characters and an enjoyable "proper romance".

received 4 stars on Goodreads

Surface Tension

Surface Tension by Mike Mullin

I really enjoyed the first half of this book. It was exciting and there was lots of fast paced action and Mullin did a great job with the writing. We know that there is some sort of terrorist group whose members speak Arabic and dress up as Muslims, but are just trying to place the blame of the attack onto Muslims. You always had enough information to be interested in the mystery, without the author giving too much away. The story is told in the style of alternating chapters between Jake and Betsy’s point of view and I found that it worked really well. The characters were well developed and you were invested in their well being.

And then, about two thirds of the way through, the book took a sudden shift. I don’t want to reveal any spoilers but the whole thing just became so unrealistic. The actions didn’t seem true to character, there were too many unbelievable things happening, almost like the author decided that the storyline wasn’t enough and he had to add in a bunch of extra stuff in to keep it exciting. I didn’t really respond to the ending and how the whole storyline resolved itself.

Overall I enjoyed the book, except for the wild turn and some parts of the ending. I think that YA’s might enjoy it. One thing I got out of it - Jake made me take out my bike and go for a spin!

Amazon Review