I got a loooot of new releases on my to buy lists and I got some of them:

1. Wink Poppy Midnight - April Genevieve Tucholke 
2. Summerlost - Ally Condie 
3. Fool Me Once - Harlan Coben 
4. Seven Ways We Lie - Riley Redgate 
5. Lady Midnight - Cassandra Clare 
6. The Queen's Poisoner (The Kingfountain Series Book 1) - Jeff Wheeler 
7. Flawed - Cecelia Ahern 
8. A Study in Charlotte - Brittany Cavallaro 
9. Girl Last Seen - Heather Anastasiu,Anne Greenwood Brown 
10. In Real Life - Jessica Love 

Tomorrow I'm flying back home -  a midterm break and I might finish some of my currently reading list. I have a few reviews to write and do the march wrap-up.

Did you get any new releases? Or any other books you are excited about?

The idea of this novel was quite an appealing one - two best friends who have talked to each other for years after meeting on line finally meet in real life. Exciting premise. The idea was a good one, can't fault the writing. I just didn't like this book. My biggest problem with it was that I simply just could not stand the main character, Hannah.

I found her to be a controlling, self centred, slut shaming pain in the ass. I liked all the other characters, but I didn't like Hannah one little bit. May be spoilery because there are some things I have to rant about. Other than that, don't have a whole lot to say about this one.

Hannah has been talking to Nick via the internet, text, phone for several years after her older sister Grace met his older brother Alex at a concert and they thought Nick and Hannah would be great friends. Turned out they were right. Nick and Hannah become very close on line friends. Hannah has friends and boyfriends in real life. She talks to Nick on a daily basis and they tell each other everything. They really seem to click and get each other. Hannah comes from a very controlling environment, she's the good girl who studies, follows the rules and does everything right. She dates, figuring she's saving her wild girl experience for college. Her older sister Grace is something of a wild child.

 The novel starts, it's spring break, Grace is home from college and Hannah's plans pretty much revolve around hanging out with real life BFF Lo and Grace, watching Netflix and hanging by their pool. Their parents are on vacation. So Grace and Lo convince her it's time she meets Nick in Person. Nick is in a band, he lives in Las Vegas, and he has a big show opening for someone at the House of Blues in Vegas. So after finding out Grace and Hannah come up with the idea of going off to Vegas for a few days to meet Nick and see his band play. Surprise him.

Not the smartest idea, but a fun one and after some humming and aahing Hannah finally agrees to go. She's a bundle of nerves. We learn a little more about her relationship with Nick and how things have developed between them. Is it actually turning into something more than just friendship. By the time they arrive in Vegas Hannah has realised yes, of course, she is madly in love with Nick after all. But once they get to Vegas and to the House of Blues (after getting fake IDS) everything goes downhill from there.

And so the night progresses. Hannah does spent time with Nick, and much to her annoyance, Frankie. Frankie has a teen blog which is really popular in Las Vegas, about all the places to go and people she meets. Hannah does get to spent time with Nick and they talk but again, over and over it’s the fact that he has a girlfriend that comes up in Hannah’s mind, even though he’s tried apologising and explained why he lied about the band thing, and his explanation even makes sense.

Grace and Lo have both hooked up with guys from the band and disappeared to spend time with them. Hannah is not thrilled to be left alone with Nick and Frankie. She’s pissed at her sister and her friend, but they’ve only got one night in Vegas and don’t want to spend it sat moping in a motel room. Which in a way, even though I can understand Hannah’s frustration, I can see it from Grace and Lo’s point of view as well.

Of course Hannah finally gets Nick alone as she sorts out her feelings. And we get another moment where I want to punch Hannah.  

Problem for me as reader as I just hated Hannah so much by then I found it impossible to have any sympathy for her. Though at the same time, I can understand why she’s irritated. It’s just one of those things I don’t even know why I dislike this girl so much. To make things worse, she has several chances to tell Nick how she really feels. And every time she chickens out. Meanwhile Grace and Lo are having the time of their lives, and while they appear to be sympathetic with Hannah, neither want to be dragged down by her mood and bratty behaviour. Hannah’s cowardice is really annoying. Doesn’t help when Frankie seems to show so much respect for her as Nick’s friend, even asking Hannah’s advice when she has a few problems with Nick she doesn’t know how to deal with.

It all wraps up in a mad dramatic rush in the last 5% of the novel, more eye rolling than anything else.

Apparently, I had more to whine about on this one that I thought. It’s a fairly quick read and like I mentioned earlier, it was a really good idea, and the other characters were great. They had lots of depth and personality and it was completely easy to understand their motives and actions. I just didn’t like the main character and that really spoiled the book for me. Certainly an author I would read again, this book just wasn’t for me.

Thank you to Netgalley and St Martin’s Press for approving my request to view the title.

As I finished reading this novel, I had to come to grips with what I had just read, this book was simply breathtaking. My heart was pounding as I closed the final pages for I had just witnessed something amazing. This book was dramatic, beautiful and one of my hair-dryer novels. The anticipation stretched from scene to scene, the tension building and I hoped for the best but as reality kicked in the characters had to come to grips with what their reality really was. I loved how the author set up the story, Nick and Hannah built their relationship on disguised concepts. Four years they had been responding to each other daily without one physical contact. Living over 250 miles apart they had not once seen each other in person. Four years! They allegedly labeled their relationship as a friendship yet inside their emotions were saying something else. You could feel it in the writing; their connection appeared to be something more as the author shares some of their personal feelings.   They struggle to understand their relationship and its future. It was these emotions and tensions that encompassed this novel that I loved, I was fueled by them and the pages of the novel turned more quickly then I wanted.

Nick and Hannah had a perfect friendship, marked by 274 miles between them. Hannah decides to surprise Nick during her spring break and catch his band’s performance with her older sister and her best friend. This will be Nick and Hannah’s first physical encounter since their relationship began four years ago. Talking every day, they never run out of things to say and the two of them know more about each other than anyone, they are a perfect match. They each want to move their relationship further, yet they still remain friends. The anticipations build immediately as there Hannah starts to have second thoughts and she begins to reflect of how this encounter will transpire, if she goes.   Words cannot explain how excited and how nervous I start to feel for Hannah at this moment. There are no do-overs and this moment will change their relationship forever, if she goes. I was not expecting what occurred during the rest of the novel, I was captivated and felt totally in love with the novel. It was real; it brought out the worse and the best in people. I will definitely be reading this novel again for I loved it for its originality and for allowing me to climb inside its pages and escape for a while. This is definitely a great read!

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for sending me this novel to read in exchange for an honest review.

Her words cannot seem to leave her lips, they tumble around inside her mind forming sentences that never go anywhere. Her important words remain guarded.  Yet now, she's done it.  She's unleashed a fire within him and his words fill up the room.  Oh, if I could only be her and have his words unleashed upon me.  Where will her words fit in now?

- loving this novel

Okay, so this book is a bit tough to review. I can't hate on it too much because, truth be told, I loved the idea of a book about a friendship that was created over social media and the telephone. To be friends with someone who you've never actually met isn't so much of an anomaly anymore. I love that! I have two amazing friends, both of whom I've spoken with countless times via email, Skype and the telephone, but never met in person. There's just as much validity to that type of relationship as any other, in my eyes. Despite any other qualms I may have had with this book, I'm happy it spotlights this topic.

The other reason I'm torn, is that I still don't know why I don't like Hannah. Our main character isn't easy to love, that's for sure. She's super reserved, overly whiny at times, and afraid to make her own decisions. The problem is, that it's well explained. It's the way she was raised, and so I can't hate her for her personality, despite how much I wanted to. I was Hannah when I was a teen. Straight laced, rule follower, sometimes stick in the mud. It took me until college, and being away from my parents, to loosen up. Do you see my dilemma? I admit I never grew to like her much. Still, I understood her.

Now here's where this book and I didn't see eye to eye. First off, I can't say enough how I dislike the whole "I had him/her first" mentality. Look, if you passed up a relationship with someone, they're not yours anymore. If they're taken now, too bad. Put on your big girl panties and deal with it. Hannah's reaction towards Nick, once she met him in real life, drove me absolutely crazy. The worst part is that she knew she was the reason they weren't together. She knew her words had clinched that status. Yet she kept playing the victim. There was no love lost between us.

The other big issue I had was the depiction of the girls once they arrived in Las Vegas. Okay, I know that underage girls and guys party in Vegas. I do. Is it necessarily okay to make that a centerpiece of a story written for the YA set though? Hannah's sister, and her friend Lo, are absolutely terrible. I liked them okay at the beginning, but once they flitted off to hook up with random guys, abandoning Hannah in favor of booze and sex, I was over them. Not okay.

Honestly, the scenes I loved the most were the ones where it was just Nick and Hannah. Nick laughing on the phone at stupid jokes that Hannah makes. The two of them together, in person, finding that same chemistry. That part was adorable. That part I loved. That was the part that had the least amount of screen time. I guess, for once, I wanted more romance in my contemporary.

Long story short, I settled on 3 stars for this book. It's a little formulaic, but it's a quick read. I know there are tons of readers out there who won't have my same issues, and will eat this book up. So, there you have it.