Across the Universe by Beth Revis

Summary

A love out of time. A spaceship built of secrets and murder.

Seventeen-year-old Amy joins her parents as frozen cargo aboard the vast spaceship Godspeed and expects to awake on a new planet, three hundred years in the future. Never could she have known that her frozen slumber would come to an end fifty years too soon and that she would be thrust into a brave new world of a spaceship that lives by its own rules.

Amy quickly realizes that her awakening was no mere computer malfunction. Someone—one of the few thousand inhabitants of the spaceship—tried to kill her. And if Amy doesn’t do something soon, her parents will be next.

Now, Amy must race to unlock Godspeed’s hidden secrets. But out of her list of murder suspects, there’s only one who matters: Elder, the future leader of the ship and the love she could never have seen coming.

Number of pages: 398

Review

**WARNING REVIEW MAY CONTAIN A SPOILER OR TWO** (sorry I usually try to leave out any spoilers but this time I cant help it, no worries though I don’t give out anything major)

Wow.

This book was... incredible. So intense. This was just the kind of book I have been craving for lately. The whole book was so powerful; I had no control to put it down. I heard a lot about Across the Universe and the great reviews it got and I completely understand why.

The entire story is divided between Elder’s point of view and Amy’s point of view. I love when books are like that. I don’t know why, I guess it’s because it feels more personal when you get both sides of the story. Anyway, Amy is frozen and put as cargo in the super spaceship, Godspeed. They hope that 300 years into the future Godspeed will reach this new habitable planet. Well would that be perfect except for the fact that she is woken up waaaaaay to early in the most horrific of ways. Elder is there to help her along the way as they try to discover who is waking up the frozens and stopping the spaceship leader from stealing free will from the people aboard. If this alone doesn’t show you how intense this book is then I seriously think you should find this book somewhere and read for yourself how strong this book is. From the first page to the last page I was kept in full suspense. Some points in the mystery seemed obvious but not in an obvious way… did that make sense? It was like you knew the puzzle pieces, and you had no way of know how those pieces fit together. It drove me crazy at night trying to see how this piece and that piece had anything to do with this one. I loved it.

I do have to warn all of you out there who are suckers for happy endings and don’t like anything less than a happily ever after, this book will not satisfy your thirst for a happy ending. It’s not going to happen. Personally, to me, the ending was the most logical one to end this story, but I can’t help wishing that after everything those two went through they had to end like that. It was sad. But all around I enjoyed racing through the ship with Amy and Elder so from 1-10? It has to be an 8.

On cover news I have to say that it looks amazing! The picture on the cover came out so incredible, but what put it over the top was the blueprint of the spaceship on the inside part of the hard cover’s slap. It made everything seem more realistic. I loved it! I’m kind of upset right now because I took off the cover so I wouldn’t damage it at the beach a couple of days ago, and now I can’t find it!!! Grrrrreat -.- . . . oh! never mind I found it! :D

I went on the author's website and read that Across the Universe is part of a trilogy! Looks like this is far from the end . . .

Dark Visions by L.J. Smith

Summary

Kaitlyn Fairchild has always felt like an outsider in her small hometown. Her haunting eyes and prophetic drawings have earned her a reputation as a witch. But Kait’s not a witch: She’s a psychic. Tired of being shunned, Kait accepts an initiation to attend the Zetes Institute, where she can have a fresh start and study with other psychic teens. Learning to hone her abilities with four other gifted students, Kait discovers the intensity of her power—and the joy of having true friends. But those friendships quickly become complicated when Kait finds herself torn between two irresistible guys. Rob is kind and athletic, and heals people with his good energy. Gabriel is aggressive and mysterious, a telepath concealing his true nature as a psychic vampire, feeding off of other’s life energy. Together, Rob and Gabriel’s opposing forces threaten the group’s stability. Then one of the experiments traps the five teens in a psychic link. A link that threatens their sanity and their lives. And Kaitlyn must decide whom to trust . . . and whom to love.

• Number of pages: book one: 1-252

: book two: 253-488

: book three: 489-732

My name is Camila, and I freely admit to being a huge L.J. Smith fan. This woman is an incredible writer! I’ve been reading her series for quite some time now and each one is completely unique and amazing. This is actually the second time I’ve read Dark Visions.

Lately I’ve realized how all paranormal books have been getting very clichéd and similar to one another. Boy meets girl. Girl falls in love. Boy turns out to be something freaky. That’s the usual quota for these books, but L.J. Smith always seems to bring out something unique in her books. I don’t know how she does it, but she does! And its not just in Dark Visions, her Night World Series was one of my favorite series.

So Kait is a psychic who can see into the future whenever she starts drawing something. She is sent to the Institute to meet with other psychics and test her abilities to learn how to control them. There she meets her new friends. I am in love with the entire cast of characters. They were all so different from one another and each one was special to me. Anna is the calm, quiet girl that doesn’t miss a thing. Oh, yeah, she can also communicate with animals. Lewis is the quirky guy with telekinesis power. Then comes Rob and Gabriel. More polar opposites they can’t be. Rob is golden boy from the south with the power to heal. Gabriel is all dark shadows and he is a dangerous telepathic. These two guys hate each other with their entire being. And they are both in love with Kait. Typical, right? Well it’s not. This love triangle was very interesting from the beginning. (I was secretly rooting for Gabriel from the beginning.) All the characters in their own right were witty. Their adventure was exciting but there was a sort of lagging on their trip that kind of slowed down the story. The love stories were cute too. Really there isn’t much else to say because it was so good that there’s nothing that I would really change.

One thing that did really bother me was the cover. I HATED the cover because it has nothing at ALL to do with the book. The girl on the cover is the farthest thing that Kait looks like and the only other girl in the book was Anna and she has black hair and dark skin, and isn’t the main character. The cover is blonde and Kait is red headed. It always bothers me when the cover on the book has a person because it leaves little for the imagination to do. So when they put a person that doesn’t look or have anything to do with the characters or the story, it bothers me a lot. But don’t worry, the cover doesn’t affect the book in any way. So from 1-10? I give Dark Visions a 9.

Wild Child by Mike Wells

Summary

Briana Fox is the wildest girl in school. She and Kyle have been friends for a long time...almost lovers. When Briana challenges Kyle to a swim across the lake, she's injured in a horrific accident, but also discovers a mysterious substance in an underwater cave. What seems to be a magical yet harmless "power drug" turns out to have unexpected properties. Briana soon becomes dependent on it for her very survival. When two government agents get wind of their discovery, they will stop at nothing to force Kyle and Briana to reveal its source.

Number of pages: 51

Review

Do not let the number of pages stop you from reading Wild Child. When I first got the book sent to me from the author I thought that I hadn't been sent the entire story. Turns out it was sent completely, it's just a very quick read.

This is Brie and Kyle's story, and it was so intriguing and capturing that I really do wish the story had been extended a little bit. It started off with a bang and ended with one. Everything was in perfect detail, it was as if I was there with Kyle when he witnessed the speed boat run right over Brie, and his pain and his confusion when she at last appeared back on the boat as if nothing. Or when they’re in the cave and you can see the green glow from this “magical” water. It was all very vivid. Personally I didn’t really like Brie very much, not how she was created, just as a person. If she were someone I knew then she would really be a pain. Maybe I am just saying that because she’s very out there, and I’m more conservative. Whatever the reason I think Kyle was a much better character. He seemed like a total goody-goody at first, but he sure knew how to get things done in the end.

What I did find really interesting is the part where the water is described like a drug. When you read it you can tell that its not the wisest of ideas to be drinking it. This book just showed me even more why drugs are bad, and to never, ever take them. I don’t know if it was the authors intention to have a message like that in the story, but that’s the message that I got. That sounds a little cheesy, but it's true. Now the ending was . . . wow. It was so unexpected and so unbelievable that I’m not even sure if I mean that in a good or bad way. It was so shocking that I really I had no idea it was coming which is good, but I like endings where I know how everything ended off with the characters.This was the type of book that leaves you wondering how things turned out for the characters. I’m still reeling from the surprise ending.

This is the first ebook story I’ve read, and I was thoroughly impressed. I don’t think there was one part in this story that really had me bored. Not one dry moment. I guess that’s why the book was left short, because it really didn't need anything more. I think it takes great skill to make a very big book that keeps a reader captivated throughout the entire book, but now I feel it must also be just as hard to write a short story that doesn’t give a reader a chance to be bored. So from 1-10? I give Mike Wells’ Wild Child an 8.5!