Rena Rocford

If I wasn't paying too much attention, this book could have been solid; however, there were a lot of things that really irked me about it and made it unrealistic.

I was excited to have a character with a disability, with only one arm. I was excited to see her resilience. However, I was really confused by the backstory. For most of the book, I assumed that she had simply been born with a birth defect; however, it later comes out that she lost it an accident that also killed her father and her sister. Yet this is completely skipped over. People worry about her arm, but they don't ever consider that it might be slightly traumatic to lose half of one's family? She doesn't talk about this at all. Not even when a friend dies. This seriously bugged me, and was a completely lost opportunity for character development.

Don't get too invested in Cyra's fencing, because this book turns out to be much more about the boy. The first half showed a lot of how hard the sport is and how dedicated Cyra was, and made me feel as though we might actually have an Olympian on our hands. However, the book deteriorates into a romance, and by the end, the only thing that matters is the boy.

It seems that Cyra's only friend is the one she's being paid to tutor. She seems to be pretty cool; she's very resilient and she works very hard to achieve her goals. Yet there's no best friend sitting around supporting her, and barely even other girls in homeroom that she can gossip with. There's not even a mention of Cyra wanting friendship or being too busy for friendship, that's just not even a thing that crosses her mind.

There's also a little too much angst for me to buy the plot. In reality, Christine wouldn't have done what she did, but would have been mad; she wasn't that selfless. The nemesis character, Sara, turned Cyra into a totally horrible person, and even when there was a golden opportunity to bury the hatchet, Cyra ends up attacking. I wanted to see more growth and maturity,

The twist that happens near the end in regard to said friend to me was just weird. There was very little real emotion afterwards, and the way that our main two characters just move forward was really inappropriate to me.

I really wanted to like this one, but it fell quite flat for me.

I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.… (més)

When I found this on NetGalley, I immediately fell in love with the title, the cover, and the synopsis of the story. I remember reading somewhere that books with long titles are usually a huge "if" when it comes to readers choosing their next book, but, this title proves that's only so if it's not as compelling as Acne, Asthma, and Other Signs You Might Be Half Dragon. I was really excited to start reading this book because it had a character you would see in everyday life; she wasn't some insanely gorgeous person, she was a normal teenager battling acne and asthma, which could help with readers relating to the main character. I don't read enough books with characters like that.

I know I should stop expecting things of books I take on to read, but I never learn my lesson. With the promise of realism in the story, I expected amazing things, but unfortunately, there were more flaws than anything.

When first starting the book, you expect the first few chapters to help you get to know the characters of the story as well as the very beginning of a building plot (the reveal, as I like to call it). However, the book... (more via website)… (més)

Teenage drama mixes with adventurous magic, sending this story into a whole new twist in the world of fairy tales, dragons and maybe getting that date for prom.

When Tessa's high school crush breaks her heart by shoving a note in her hand and asking her to give it to her best friend, so he can ask her to prom, she's sure life has turned into a disaster, but she has no clue how bad things are going to get. Not when the new boy in town takes an interest in her. Not only is the guy the son of a powerful wizard, but his father has put his sights on Tessa and plans to kill her for a power she didn't know she possessed.

Tessa is a senior, the third in a group of three girls and not exactly the most popular of her friends. Her dreams are similar to many girls of her age, making her easy to relate to. She can hold her own if forced to, but rather gives her all to support her friends. It's this mixture of spunk yet heart which makes her fun to cheer for the whole way through.

While starting out with a normal, high school scene, this tale quickly plunges into imagination pure. The first chapters fall along the dating high school drama line with the addition of Sean, who comes across awkward at best. His character was hard to get a handle on most of the book, which becomes more understandable as the plot unfolds, but still, left for an odd relationship even through the end. But then, this story embraces odd and quirky with a magical flare, creating an intriguing world which is easy to get lost in and feeds the desire to see where all of it will go next.

This fast-paced plunges into a strange balance between high school romance, magical fantasy and fairy tale re-tellings with addictive fun. And it grows stronger the more the story progresses, despite some stumbles early on. Not all questions are answered and not all aspects are clearly explained, but it is only the first in a series. and I'm looking forward to see where it goes next.

I received a complimentary copy and enjoyed reading it, so I wanted to leave my honest thoughts.… (més)