XVI by Julia Karr

Goodreads summary:
Some girls can't wait to be sixteen, to be legal. Nina is not one of them. Even though she has no choice in the matter, she knows that so long as her life continues as normal everything will be okay.

Then, with one brutal strike, Nina's normal is shattered; and she discovers that nothing that she believed about her life is true. But there's one boy who can help--and he just may hold the key to her past.

But with the line between attraction and danger as thin as a whisper, one thing is for sure..For Nina, turning sixteen promises to be anything but sweet.

My thoughts:
This time last year I was reading my first dystopian YA novel. Something about Christmas break makes me want to read about the end of civilation as we know it. :) Just kidding. I liked this book. It didn't blow my hair back but there were several parts of this book that appealed to my political science heart. I definitely could feel how the author felt about the sexualization of young girls, health insurance companies, and over bearing governments as a whole. The interesting thing about this book that other dystopian books lacked what how real the main character is. Nina is the average girl who is put into some serious and shitty circumstances. She handles what she can and fails when she can't handle them. I am looking forward to the follow up to this book which is due out in a few weeks.

I would also say that I liked that Nina was not only loyal to her family like all or most dystopian books, but Nina also valued her friends as family. I liked that Nina had strong female friendships with two very distinctly different girls. I can relate to that. Even now my two closest female friends couldn't be more different.


I would recommend this book to people who dig the dystopian trend in YA books.

Drink Slay Love By Sarah Beth Durst

Goodreads summary:
Pearl is a sixteen-year-old vampire... fond of blood, allergic to sunlight, and mostly evil... until the night a sparkly unicorn stabs her through the heart with his horn. Oops.

Her family thinks she was attacked by a vampire hunter (because, obviously, unicorns don't exist), and they're shocked she survived. They're even more shocked when Pearl discovers she can now withstand the sun. But they quickly find a way to make use of her new talent. The Vampire King of New England has chosen Pearl's family to host his feast. If Pearl enrolls in high school, she can make lots of human friends and lure them to the King's feast -- as the entrees.

The only problem? Pearl's starting to feel the twinges of a conscience. How can she serve up her new friends—especially the cute guy who makes her fangs ache—to be slaughtered? Then again, she's definitely dead if she lets down her family. What's a sunlight-loving vamp to do?

My Thoughts:
She had me at Acknowledgments. I will say that this book made me laugh at least three times from how ridiculous it is. I think it was a fun read. This book had a sense of humor about itself and by extension I don't feel the author takes herself overly serious. I will say that she almost lost me though with some of the unicorn stuff. Without spoiling anything I will say that while making fun of Twilight she unintentionally had some of the same annoying aspects to her book as Twilight. For instance I would for once like a book to show that love doesn't just happen over night but takes time to build and develop. Silly teenagers and rushing to use the love word!

That being said I would recommend this to anyone looking for an eye rolling good time. I wouldn't recommend this book if you are looking for a serious and or deep read.

While writing this review I was listening to the blissful silence that is my apartment on a quiet afternoon.

My oh My.... how time flies when you are doing math.

Tomorrow is the day....

Yep, I turn 30 tomorrow.

I am attempting to be positive about my birthday this year. I have never been a fan of them. Mostly, I like to sleep and not do a damn thing. This year I will be rocking some Thai food with my nearest and dearest. I am pretty excited to see my peeps. I haven't seen them much lately because of school. I took my final so I magically will have some free time until the second week of January.

My 30 for 30 project has been on the back burner for the last couple of months but as of tomorrow I am going to put it back in the forefront.