Review: The Truth about Forever

Author: Sarah Dessen
Pages: 374
Format: Paperback
Release Date (of my copy): May 11, 2004
Rating: 5/5

Summery:
Sixteen-year-old Macy Queen is looking forward to a long, boring summer. Her boyfriend is going away. She's stuck with a dull-as-dishwater job at the library. And she'll spend all of her free time studying for the SATs or grieving silently with her mother over her father's recent unexpected death. But everything changes when Macy is corralled into helping out at one of her mother's open house events, and she meets the chaotic Wish Catering crew. Before long, Macy joins the Wish team. She loves everything about the work and the people. But the best thing about Wish is Wes—artistic, insightful, and understanding Wes—who gets Macy to look at life in a whole new way, and really start living it.

Review:
All of Sarah Dessen's books that I've read have a girl in a difficult situation meeting a guy and falling in love, all the while learning things about themselves.  Well, I've read like four of her books that are like that, and it never gets old.

Sarah Dessen is a genius.  That's all I can say.  The way she writes, the way she explains things, the way she tells us the story, it's  just mesmerizing.  I especially loved the way she told us readers about Wes and Macy's past, with a game of Truth.  I thought it was genius and imaginative, and it totally worked.  I have never seen any other author use that kind of thing to explain their characters, and you have to tip your hat to Sarah Dessen for even thinking about doing it.  Other than that, the story was great.  I do believe that you should be smart and driven, but what Macy was doing, it was just nuts.  I'm so glad she changed, but still stayed the same.  She's still smart, she's still going to do well.  I really, really like this book.

I love Macy.  She's smart, she's funny, and she could use some self esteem.  Like I said before, I'm glad she changed, but still stayed the same.
Will *swoon* oh Will.  I need a fire extinguisher here!!!  SMOKIN' hot.  And so artistic.
In all books you need the character that opens the main characters eyes and is funny at the same time.  In this book, that was Kristy, and I absolutely loved her.  She was funny, smart, kick-ass, I can't even describe it.  I just loved her.
I hate, hate, hate, hate the mom.  I'm sure some would feel bad for her, but I don't.  I hate what she made Macy go through, it was horrible.

All in all, one of my favorite Dessen reads.  I'm so glad I own it.

Review: XVI

Author: Julia Karr

Series: XVI #1

Pages: 325
Format: Paperback
Release Date: January 6th, 2011
Rating: 4/5

Summery:
Every girl gets one.
An XVI tattoo on the wrist--sixteen.

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.

Review:
Wow.  This book is really, really complex.  The plot is so good.  Zarr did such a good job writing this book to make it look like Nina had no way to make all the problems right, but I was really impressed with how she did it.

When I started reading it I thought, Wow, I'm not going to like this book very much, because Zarr came up with all these new abbreviations for everything, like PAVs and feLS, I had no idea what they were.  But as the story progressed and grew I finally figured them out and started to really enjoy it.  The plot is simply amazing.  There were so many elements and things going on, I don't know how Zarr kept track of it all.

When Zarr first introduced Sal I didn't really like him at all, but towards the end he started to show his sensative, caring side and he grew on me.
I love that Nina's mom was a strong, defiant woman that saw through the facade the goverment had put up.
I hate, hate, hate, hate, hate Ed.  That guy is a slime-ball.
I felt so bad for Sandy at the end (not telling what happens).  Although she was completely swept up in being a sex-teen, I kind of liked her and really hoped Nina would make her come to her senses.

All in all, a really good dystopian novel, and I can't wait to read the second one.

What do you think about this book?