Lost Voices by Sarah Porter review

Lost Voices by Sarah Porter
Source: NetGalley
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Fourteen-year-old Luce is practically all alone in the vast, cruel world she lives in. Luce used to travel around with her dad - the thief - all the time, until Luce's uncle talked her father into moving back to his hometown to become a fisherman and provide Luce with as stable of a life as he can. But when her father never comes home one night, Luce is left all alone with her alcoholic, abusive uncle. One day after she saves a little girl's corpse from being lost in the sea and nearly drowning herself, her uncle gets drunk beyond repair and mistakes her for his true love - Luce's mother, who was stolen from him by Luce's father. He starts to hurt her in an unthinkable way, but runs away at the last minute, leaving Luce there abandoned on the cliffside.

Without realizing it, she undergoes a transformation that hurtles her over the edge of the cliff and just out of the way as a ship hurtles toward her. She hears wonderful music, such a powerful voice, not knowing it comes from her very lips. Just as she's been under for longer than she thought she'd be able to stand, she finally starts to drown, only to be saved by a mermaid Queen. The mermaid Queen, named Catarina, takes Luce under her wing and lets her join her tribe of mermaids. Just when Luce feels like she has an actual home again, Catarina and the rest of the tribe tell her a big part of being a mermaid - mass murder through lovely singing voices. They sing to passing ships - just like Luce unknowingly did - and kill every last one of them by drowning them.

If that weren't bad enough, a new mermaid joins them soon after and is highly cunning and manipulative and she's out for the crown. Luce has to find the courage to protect her new home, even if that means being kicked out of it.

This novel starts out by telling the reader about Luce's life in an Alaskan fishing village and how she has to deal with daily life in the house of her abusive Uncle with the mentally handicapped boy that lives next door as her only friend. I loved Sarah Porter starts by telling you Luce's back story, before diving - pun intended - into the life of a mermaid. I, as the reader, started feeling for Luce and grew an attachment to her. I didn't want to see her hurt at all.

In fact, I felt for a lot of the mermaids, and each one had their own unique personality. Luce was the innocent, sort of naive girl that just needed a home. Catarina was the elegant Queen, that was slightly neurotic at times. Samantha was the one not very good at singing, so she struggled with trying to prove herself, falling into the follower position. You could feel each girls' personality and grew to like, dislike, or hate them.

There were two mermaids I didn't like. First was Jenna. She was the first antagonist introduced to the story and she was just mean and unaccepting of anyone but her foster sisters for a little bit of the story. She especially didn't like Luce, despite Luce being nothing but a friend to her. I did feel very sorry for why she became a mermaid, though. Second was Anais. I felt nothing but contempt for Anais. This was a good thing, because she was perfectly concocted by Porter as the antagonist. She was downright nasty and manipulative and I actually wanted one of the girls to go against the timahk - the mermaid's code of conduct - and slap her right across the face, maybe even drowning her or throwing her up on the beach. But I was grateful no one did, otherwise where would the story be able to go?

This novel was beautifully written with so many descriptive paragraphs about the sea, the sky, the cliffs, just everything. Sarah Porter has such a way with words that resonate with you long after you finish reading the last page of the book. I couldn't stop thinking about this book when I was away, wanting nothing more than to finish it so I could see what happened next. She painted out this slow and steady picture that leaves you wanting more after she ran out of paint. Don't waste anytime in getting your hands on this book, you're in for a wonderful read.

I give this book a 5 out of 5.


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Cryer's Cross by Lisa McMann review

Cryer's Cross by Lisa McMann
Source: PulseIt!
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Having just finished the book, its story fresh in my mind so I could review it, I find myself staring at the blank canvas of the text field. What to say about this novel?

Kendall Fletcher is a teenager growing up in the small town of Cryer's Cross. She has a best friend named Nico. Boyfriend, he'd say. She can't bring herself to call him her boyfriend, she doesn't like the commitment of the word. The reason is because Kendall has OCD. Counting her steps, racing thoughts, checking and rechecking locks, rearranging desk, making sure the markers in the one room high school are arranged the Roy G Biv way. This year would be a different one for Kendall, as a fellow student had disappeared May of that year. Tiffany Quinn. The town Sheriff lead a search party to no avail. Tiffany wasn't found.

Enter stage left as two transfer students move to the small town just before Tiffany disappeared. Jacian (Hah-see-AHN, not JAY-se-un!) and Marlena. Rumors start spreading that Jacian might have had something to do with her disappearance. He is afterall, not friendly to anyone. Marlena passes that off as teenage angst in responce to moving. So which is it?

Now, when suddenly Nico disappears after acting really strange, people start wondering if it was Nico that had to do with Tiffany's disappearance. But when Kendall starts getting messages on Nico's desk - which was coincidentally Tiffany's desk the previous year - she realizes something much more sinister might be going on.

I want to start off saying that this was overall a very good book. Most of the characters had personalities - even some of the smaller ones - which usually doesn't happen in a book. Lisa McMann does well in making her characters have voices. And when she writes romance, boy does she write it. Seriously, Jacian was hot!

However, the reason this book doesn't merit a 5 out of 5 are some small nitpicky things that add up for me. First, some of the dialog was just kind of awkward, almost rushed. It felt like filler conversations to push the page count of the book, not to further the story. Second, although Kendall's OCD was apparent sometimes, I wish it would have been made more apparent. There were times I'd get done reading a chapter and then Kendall would go back to school and do her "school routine" involving rearranging the desk, turning the waste basket just so, and arranging the markers, and I'd remember that she had OCD. There'd be a lot of Kendall thinking about how much her OCD consumes her, yet that wasn't made as apparent as I would have liked.

Don't let the previous paragraph or the semi-slow middle of the book throw you off from reading this book though, once you hit the final count down of the book, Lisa McMann pulls you in and doesn't let you up for air until she's done with you. She then leaves you in a speechless sort of haze, not quite knowing what to think yet while you still digest the end of the book you read in a hurried slurr, because you couldn't get enough. Once I took a step back from this book after reading it, I found it was a very enjoyable read with some minor bumps in the road. Another satisfying read from Lisa McMann.

I give this book a solid 4 out of 5 stars.

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Waiting on Wednesday - Never Have I Ever (The Lying Game series #2) by Sara Shepard

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event to showcase what you're waiting for to release hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine.

Book: Never Have I Ever
Series: The Lying Game series #2
Author: Sara Shepard
Publisher: HarperCollins
Publishing date: August 2, 2011

No where has a summary on this book, so I'll just include a summary from the first book:

I had a life anyone would kill for.

Then someone did.

The worst part of being dead is that there’s nothing left to live for. No more kisses. No more secrets. No more gossip. It’s enough to kill a girl all over again. But I’m about to get something no one else does—an encore performance, thanks to Emma, the long-lost twin sister I never even got to meet.

Now Emma’s desperate to know what happened to me. And the only way to figure it out is to be me—to slip into my old life and piece it all together. But can she laugh at inside jokes with my best friends? Convince my boyfriend she’s the girl he fell in love with? Pretend to be a happy, carefree daughter when she hugs my parents good night? And can she keep up the charade, even after she realizes my murderer is watching her every move?

From Sara Shepard, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Pretty Little Liars books, comes a riveting new series about secrets, lies, and killer consequences.

Let the lying game begin.