If I Stay by Gayle Forman

Synopsis:

Choices. Seventeen-year-old Mia is faced with some tough ones: Stay true to her first love—music—even if it means losing her boyfriend and leaving her family and friends behind?

Then one February morning Mia goes for a drive with her family, and in an instant, everything changes. Suddenly, all the choices are gone, except one. And it's the only one that matters.

If I Stay is a heartachingly beautiful book about the power of love, the true meaning of family, and the choices we all make.

I am not sure what I was really expecting out of this book, but it did not live up to my expectations.

Most of the book was spent living in the past telling the story of Mia’s life through flashbacks. This helped to show the relationships between her and the people in her life, but it got dragged out and boring at times.

The characters were pretty well written. I felt like I knew them all pretty well by the time I was done. The dialogue flowed really well between them as well. Character development was the best part of the book.

The story itself is interesting before you get into it. The execution comes up a bit short. I felt that there should have been more about the accident and maybe her condition instead of all of the flashbacks. A good majority of them served a purpose, but a few could have been left out for a more relevant story-line.

I thought there would be more drama surrounding her decision. I didn’t feel emotionally tied to it or her character at all. Maybe that is why I wasn’t as into it as the next reader.

That said, I want to read the sequel.

4/5 stars. I did really enjoy it, I was just expecting more.

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Confessions of a Murder Suspect by James Patterson

Synopsis:

James Patterson returns to the genre that made him famous with a thrilling teen detective series about the mysterious and magnificently wealthy Angel family... and the dark secrets they're keeping from one another.

On the night Malcolm and Maud Angel are murdered, Tandy Angel knows just three things: She was the last person to see her parents alive. The police have no suspects besides Tandy and her three siblings. She can't trust anyone -— maybe not even herself.

Having grown up under Malcolm and Maud's intense perfectionist demands, no child comes away undamaged. Tandy decides that she will have to clear the family name, but digging deeper into her powerful parents' affairs is a dangerous -- and revealing -- game. Who knows what the Angels are truly capable of?

When this book first came out, I was really excited to get my hands on it. It took awhile, but I finally read it.

I must say – I was pretty disappointed.

It seemed pretty cheesy to me most of the time. I didn’t take a liking to any of the characters, and it was just pretty hard to connect with. I get that it was targeted to a young adult audience, but in a way it just seemed almost childish.

It never really hooked me at any time. The plot was interesting, but the execution just didn’t really do it for me. It was okay enough to get through and finish, but it wasn’t great by any means and didn’t live up to what I hoped it would be.

I was also expecting some great twist at the end when everything was revealed, but we didn’t even get that.

2/5 Stars

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Double Cross by James Patterson

Synopsis:

Just when Alex Cross's life is calming down, he is drawn back into the game to confront a criminal mastermind like no other. The elaborate murders that have stunned Washington, DC, are the wildest that Alex Cross and his new girlfriend, Detective Brianna Stone, have ever seen. This maniac adores an audience, and stages his killings as spectacles in public settings. Alex is pursuing a genius of terror who has the whole city on edge as it waits for his next move. And the killer loves the attention, no doubt-he even sets up his own Web site and live video feed to trumpet his madness.

And in Colorado, another criminal mastermind is planning a triumphant return. From his supermaximum-security prison cell, Kyle Craig has plotted for years to have one chance at an impossible escape. If he has to join forces with DC's Audience Killer to get back at the man who put him in that cell--Alex Cross--all the better.

Kyle Craig is like an annoying gnat that will not go away. It is kind of nice to have the continuity of one of Alex’s enemies throughout the series, but he is just so annoying. So, I cannot really tell if keeping him around is a pro or a con, but he did make this book pretty interesting.

The continuous guessing game throughout the book keeps you guessing until the end. There are so many little pieces that go into the crimes that are being committed, that it becomes really interesting when it is all revealed.

There was less family time in this one. Over the past few books, Alex has been with his family almost as much as he has been solving crimes. It was nice to go back to Alex just working on cases. I do love his family, but I think a book like this was a needed break.

I feel like I still don’t really know the reasons behind all of the murders, the first one in particular. I feel like it was starting to get explained and then never did aside from the murderers wanting to be famous. I wanted a better explanation of their connection to Kyle Craig as well.

Overall, it was a good read and kept me turning the page until the end. I wish there would have been a bit more explanation, but it was entertaining and I liked how it was more about the crimes/criminals than about Alex and his life outside of work.

4/5 Stars

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