ocie's Reviews (413)

5 very different people are thrown together in detention one afternoon under suspicious circumstances. When one of the teens experiences an allergic reaction and dies, the remaining 4 immediately become murder suspects.
I started this book with my usual wariness of high-school centered YA books. But seeing as it's a murder mystery, I decided to give it a shot.
One of Us is Lying reads a lot like a whodunit. There are plenty of clues throughout the book that point to the killer. And yet the book confuses the reader by giving each suspect a point of view, leaving you wondering just how in the world any of them could have committed the murder.
This constant switching of POVs was at first a little annoying, but I got used to it and even came to appreciate how every POV switch left me with more questions than answers, compelling me to keep reading to find out what happened next.
My favorite thing about this book is the character development. While each student is introduced as your stereotypical nerd, dumb blond, athlete, and bad boy, they each have their own story and each one develops character depth I don't get to see in many YA books.
Bronwyn is your typical preppy, all-As student who's expected to get into Yale. She's a natural leader, and easily steps into her role of (unofficial) lead investigator on the case. Cooper is a Jock who throws a wicked fastball and is expected to make the majors after college baseball. Addy is at first an air-headed, pretty girl who will do anything her boyfriend asks, until they break up and she begins to develop her own personality, which turns out to be pretty empowering. Nate is the black sheep, the troubled kid, the natural scapegoat. Already on probation for drug-dealing, he's the natural lead suspect in the case.
It was fun to try and solve the mystery, but I was a little disappointed when one clue was revealed about 2/3 of the way in that pretty much gave away who the murderer was.
Aside from that, though the book was pretty entertaining. I'd recommend it to everyone. It's YA, high-school, mystery, it discusses family problems and other matters that I won't say here because of spoilers. Basically it's worth it. Check it out.

The second book in the Weregirl trilogy is just about as good as the first.
Now Nessa's mom has been arrested for reasons I believe are considered spoilers. ;)
Nessa discovers her dad is still alive--and the head of a scientific research center. But he has his secrets, and as Nessa tries to figure out how to keep her mom from going to prison, she must also figure out whether or not she can trust her dad, and find out what he's hiding.
There's still quite the element of Sci-fi and mystery to this book, but it's not as riveting as the first book. Still, it held my attention so that I almost couldn't put it down.

As a junior fiction novel, I didn't expect much of a real story here. Just a kid with a deformity who has to go to middle school, gets bullied, blah blah...
I was soooooooo wrong. I have no idea what caused me to think that. I'm actually kind of ashamed for thinking that at all.
ANYWAY, I loved Wonder from start to finish. It reads kind of like a journal. And yes, Auggie does have to brave middle school where he knows he'll be bullied (and is), but there is just so much more to the story than that. Everyone is given a personality. Pretty much all the characters are well-rounded, since many of them have their own points of view. The story is mainly about Auggie's struggles with Treacher Collins Syndrome, but it's also about his friendships, his classes, and how the others deal with their acceptance of him.
It was a quick read, but I still thoroughly enjoyed it.
As a side note, one of the things I liked most about it is that Auggie and Summer's relationship isn't romanticized. They're just friends, which I believe is just perfect for a middle grade novel.

Ohhhhh where do I start?
Be warned, this is a very negative review with spoilers.
I knew this wasn't going to be a very good book. But I just got so frustrated with almost everything that happened.
The beginning wasn't bad. Chase Logan is tasked with delivering the news of Nathan Strong's death to his 18-year-old widow, Jesse. The news couldn't come at a worse time. Jesse is expecting an orphan to arrive any day, and she needs her husband there to complete the adoption. Guess what, she ropes Chase in to pretend to be her husband (I love the pretend partner trope).
So she gets her little girl and a teenage boy to take care of, and Chase leaves. Only thing is, he forgot to deliver Nathan's bankroll to Jesse. So he goes back. But for some convoluted reason he doesn't tell Jesse about the bankroll right away, giving him an excuse to stay a little longer until the orphanage director leaves. This leads Jesse to believe that Chase came back solely out of the goodness of his heart.
But then Chase gets injured, and ends up staying at Jesse's for the next few days, distracting him from the bankroll. Now, there's not really anything they could have done about this. The dude is INJURED. Plus no one knows he's out there.
When the (really irritating busybody) owner of the local mercantile hears of this, she's quick to organize a shotgun wedding (groan). I mean really? She could have just kept her trap shut and Chase could have left and no one would be the wiser. Or better yet, if they really wanted to up the romance, he could have left and then come back later.
Jesse and Chase agree that once it's over and they've had a few days to appease Mrs. Hollyhock, he'll ride out and she never has to hear from him again.
Then they decide to move to Logan Medows, where Chase has a ranch. He'll give them the ranch and still leave her alone.
And all this while there's a disturbing dude following them, wanting revenge on Jesse because his brother was hanged for attempting to rape her. So he comes in later.
Once the family arrives in Logan Medows, everything is nice and fairy-tale like...for about a week. Then Jesse learns of the bankroll and her entire image of Chase changes.
But before anything can happen, the little girl, Sarah, is kidnapped by afore-mentioned Bad Guy. Chase rescues her no problem, but Jesse still takes the kids and leaves. She does this without telling him that she's pregnant with his kid. It's this decision that made me hate Jesse. Chase deserves to know he's got a kid.
But there's really no trouble getting her back, and very little romance involved.
And they all live a boring happily-ever-after. The End.