I picked this book up a few years ago, when I transferred from community college to a university in pursuit of my bachelor's in library science and media. It's incredibly fitting that I finish it during my last week of my last class of the program. I have to say, I didn't have high expectations. I thought it would be funny and cute.

I also didn't think much of the author because I didn't know who she was (sorry Michelle). When I looked her up, I was shocked. I've read many of her books to my younger patrons when I was a library paraprofessional (Library Lion was one of the most popular).

First, let's talk about the cover and atmosphere of the book. The cover of Evil Librarian is overlapped with a different book cover. The spine even has a different title and author, which is blocked out by Evil Librarian's marks. The spine has a spine label on it and the front inside cover even has a printed card slot, with a card inside with the main character names scrawled on it. Five stars on presentation.

Knudsen's humor reminds me of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Strong and believable (for a fantasy novel) plot, littered with intellectual humor. I hate to agree with Stephenie Meyer, but it does have a great balance of romance, drama, and... yes, evil. I laughed out loud so many times while reading this book.

I loved Cyn's character. She's sarcastic and quippy, but she changes and grows like a character should throughout the novel. Despite it being satirical and making fun of the genre, it was well developed on all accounts. I could picture the settings clearly (amazing descriptions), the plot had twists and turns to reduce predictability, and there's an apparent theme. The characters, I feel, were not as well developed as I like in my novels. I'm a big character person--I need to feel as though I know these people and love them, best friend status. I didn't get that from this book and it's disappointing because everything else was amazing.

I also want to touch on the musical theater bit. I loved how the book centered around a high school production of Sweeny Todd. Let that sink in there for a second. Beautiful choice of musical. It's difficult to write scenes that involve the arts because of the descriptions. It's not easy to describe the way someone's voice sounds. Knudsen does it gracefully and allows us to get sucked into the production with Cyn.

I admit that was worried about the writing when I purchased this book and I can promise you that the writing is top-notch. She's an amazing writer and I do plan on reading the sequel.

Young Adult is a tricky genre because the of the age range. Opinions vary, but generally YA fiction is intended for individuals between the ages of 14-30. Fourteen-year-olds have different needs than thirty year olds in their fiction. So, you come across these brilliant ideas, but they're written for a younger bracket of that age group, which leaves a lot of the older brackets shrugging.

Condie did a great job with balancing both sides of this vast age range. It's not easy to find quality YA books that fit both the needs of a fourteen-year-old and a thirty-year-old, but Condie does a fairly good job (I'm 26 if that makes a difference). It's still a light read and it goes slow in some places, good for the younger people of that age group. However, the idea is captivating for all audiences that like books based on post-apocalyptic societies. It's not an action-packed book, but the world that Condie creates makes it worth the read by itself.

This book is about rebellion and opening your eyes to the world around you, refusing to be blinded because people higher up are believed to be right. It's about questioning things and thinking with your own brain. In a post-end-of-the-world scenario, The Society made decisions to make things "ideal," but taking away the right for people to make their own choices. Individuals are okay with this because they'd rather be directed safely than watch their world crumble around them because they made the wrong decisions. The Society took away the decisions they would have to make.

The characters are well developed and I can picture them each distinctly in my mind, each with their own physical characteristics and personalities, complete with quirks. The setting is brilliantly designed and vivid. The plot has a clear arc and many twists and turns. Condie's word choice is amazing and her descriptions allow clear representations in the readers' mind's eye. The only thing I fuss about is the ending. I don't want to spoil anything, but I do not like how open-ended the conclusion of this story is. It's obviously setting up for a sequel, but the book should have closed this part of the story more elegantly.

I would recommend this book for middle schoolers and up. There isn't cursing in it (that I could remember) and no adult themes. As for tastes and interests, it's a lighter read with romance being at a for-front, but not the whole plot. Anyone that craves a different way of living (without the twist of the fantasy genre - there are no dragons in this book) and likes to read some light teen-friendly romance would enjoy this book.

It's unusual, but the second book in the series is better than the first. Not that Matched was bad, but Crossed was much better. The first book was slow-paced and took its time to unravel the characters, of what we know about them, anyway.

Crossed was fast-paced, action-focused, romance-driven, and revealed a lot about Cassia and Ky, and Xander for that matter. Xander had a very little role in this book, but we learned a lot about him from the other characters. Crossed is broken up into point of view changes; we see the story from both Ky's and Cassia's perspectives.

Not all the information in the book is new, which is good for a sequel as a reminder of the main events of the first book. However, Condie shows this previously mentioned information from the opposite perspective, making it interesting. I loved when she brought in old scenes, but showed them from Ky's point of view instead of Cassia's. We see much more of the story line that way and it's a great window into Ky's personality.

I rated the book 4/5 stars because, while it's a strong book, it still seems to lack the depth of a higher-caliber young adult book. It's still a light read, considering the nature of the book. It came a long way from the first, so I'm excited to see what Condie has in store for us for the finale.

This book is focused on adventuring through a series of canyons called The Carving to find the rebellion. We learn so much about the characters and get introduced to new ones that we learn to love. As with the first, the descriptions of the settings are vivid and I feel as if I'm there with them. Ally Condie has an amazing writing style and she uses dialogue to her advantage. I love the way she doesn't put in unnecessary scenes. Every line she writes has a distinct purpose.

Onto the next one!

I love this series. When people see the cover of the first book, they see this stereotypical brunette sitting in the middle of a green orb, dressed in a beautiful green gown. They think, "Oh... it's one of /those/ books." What they fail to realize is that Condie doesn't let stereotypes happen. This series is about love, yes (the real kind, not fairy tale versions), but it's about standing up for what's right in a society (hehe) that doesn't let you function on your own.

The first book was about getting to know The Society and its customs.
The second book is about the whiplash of running away from those customs and survival.
The third book is about creating a new life out of a ruined one.
It's about finding a cure to something that shouldn't exist.

I love this book because it brings in a lot of medical scenes, which means we have to introduce another character to the point of view switches. Not only are we seeing, hearing, and feeling things from Cassia's and Ky's point of view, but also from Xander's. We get to see what goes on medically because of his profession, but we also get to see how he feels about Cassia and Ky. We get to feel everything he's feeling and truly get inside his head as a character.

The plotting in this entire series is beautiful, twisted, and clever. The settings are vivid and picturesque. The characters are well developed and witty. The only thing I would've liked to see more of is individualizing characters. We see out of their perspectives, but I don't feel as though they're individualized enough. I notice what Cassia is a dreamer, speculating about things that could happen (or things that she wants to happen), while Ky is analytical and critical of everything around him. What about Xander? I don't feel as though Condie gave his point of view changes enough thought, but overall, it's an amazing book and I'm a proud fan of hers moving forward.

Oh, Angie Thomas. Your books kill me. I was a fan of The Hate U Give and I was thrilled when I heard about On the Come Up.

It took me a while to see all of the themes that were represented in this book. There's the racism pieces it in, while not as dominant as The Hate U Give. There were pieces about not being heard and about assumptions. However, the strongest theme that really hit home for me was probably one of the smallest ones.

The theme that hit the hardest was knowing that you could make it big, at a cost. You COULD do great things, however, there's only so much you can go for when "[m]y family doesn't have heat." When you wake up in a cold house because you can't afford to turn on the heat, there's only so many risks you can take. You have to make sure you're good and set before risking higher things. Bri didn't have a choice but to risk herself because she thought that by "selling" herself to Supreme, she would help her family become stable again.

This book is about getting a career as a rapper and how it really works. About how rappers sell themselves, create new personalities for public entertainment, just to make a buck. It shows us about independent artists. I have a whole new respect for artists that go without the label after reading this book.

I want to thank Angie Thomas for creating these deep characters for me to fall in love with, setting this story in Garden Heights (the setting for The Hate U Give), and for showing her depth of creativity through the lyrics she wrote. Her plotting was magnificent, characters were dynamic, and the topic was enlightening. I learned so much about rap by reading this book. I declare myself an Angie Thomas fan and I cannot wait to read what else she comes up with!

On the front cover of this book, there's a testimonial from Rainbow Rowell that reads, "Anyone can break your heart--Jeff Zentner can also make you laugh out loud!"

I laughed out loud more times than I can count. Zentner's humor bleeds through the book, making the story line much more interesting. Now, I must confess... I did not choose to read this book. Rayne & Delilah's Midnite Matinee came in my Uppercase Box this month. I would not have chose to read this book if I saw it on a shelf at Barnes & Noble. I'm extremely glad I read it, though. At first, the book looks boring and the inside jacket didn't really entice me. The cover is beautiful and the pages smelled good, so I opened it and began to read. About fifty pages in, I was hooked.

I loved the format of the book: it switches from Josie's perspective to Delia's. I love seeing situations from their two very different personalities. Zentner does a fantastic job with characterization. You can see the characters crystal-clear and even hear their voices in your head. His descriptions are in-depth, but not overpowering. He also has amazing pacing in this book. There are scenes that should drag, but his pacing skills push the reader through the boring parts (if that makes sense).

As a testament to Zentner's sense of humor and characterization, I questioned my own opinions on some weird ass topics (if you're offended by the "ass," there are a few choice words in this book). For example, **minor spoiler alert** there's a question that gets thrown into the mix where a few characters go around answering it: would you rather fight a horse-sized duck or fifty duck-sized horses?

Now, I sat (in the bath tub) staring at the ceiling for about ten minutes pondering my own answer before reading the character's responses. I would rather fight a horse-sized duck because it's one being. It's one animal you'd have to defeat. I thought of video games at this point. Would you want to be surrounded by fifty smaller monsters or one big one to defeat? One big one, right?

Anyway, you'll have to read the book for the "real" responses. This is just one of those types of questions that come up. The girls in this book are absolutely hilarious and are extremely blunt. Like I mentioned before, I laughed out loud so many times that I felt glances and glares from strangers when I read in public. At one point... I snorted. Yes, I laugh-snorted. That doesn't happen to me very often.

One more thing: I didn't know what a horror host was before reading Zenter's work. I had no clue horror host TV show things were a thing. I went out of my way to look some of them up on YouTube. I'm going to dive into it a bit deeper and maybe watch a few episodes.

So, if you're looking for a light-hearted read with amazing characters you will fall in love with... a book that will make whatever you're drinking come out of your nose... a touch of authentic, giggle-inducing romance... give this book a read. You won't regret it.

I would have given this book two or three stars, at most, if the ending wasn't as amazing. If you've read her "Matched" series, you need to read this book. Seriously. It's a must. I'm not going to spoil anything in this review, but Condie is brilliant and the ending of this book was absolutely amazing.

I finished "The Last Voyage of Poe Blythe" behind the library circulation desk where I work. I had to close the book, close my eyes, and try to slow my heart rate when the connection was made (you'll understand when you read it). My mind was blown to shreds.

That being said, there were a lot of things I would change about this book. The first half of the book was incredibly boring. I was hooked by Call's loss and what it did to Poe. After that, Condie lost me. I would've stopped reading if I didn't love Condie so much. I wanted to continue reading for the sake of the author, not the story.

Turns out, the story line was incredible... just super slow. It really picks up a little over half-way through the book. From that point, it has consistent action and develops the page-turning nature that we readers crave in a book. You just have to get past the first half of the book. As a writer, I know that the first bit is supposed to show you what the "day-in-the-life" looks like for the characters. Condie took that a little too far, in my opinion.

However, I can definitely see Condie's maturity as a writer flourish compared to the "Matched" series. Great books, definitely recommend them, but "The Last Voyage of Poe Blythe" was better written. Plotting could've been designed better (as mentioned), but the writing itself was superb.

Okay, so let's talk the first half of the book. The characterization was overemphasized. We understand the Brig is strong, Poe has severe trust issues, Naomi is stoic, and Tam is young and eager. We get all of that. The emphasis makes sense because you see the characters change, as we should, through the book... but, we didn't need that much guidance to come to those conclusions. We could see through character's actions; we didn't need to be told what the characters were like.

All of that being said, I was going to give this a two-star review... until things sped up. It earned its third star for the middle-to-end-of-the-book plotting and the fourth star for the connectivity to the "Matched" series.

I am an Ally Condie fan and look forward to her next release.

Five Sentence Summary: Childs and Deebs created a powerful (hehe) book about superheroes and villains. Kenna is deemed powerless in a superhero world. She tries to make up for her powerlessness by developing her own powers in a lab with her mother. Her world gets flipped upside down when she realizes that the villains are the good guys and the superheroes have twisted secrets. With a team of villains and heroes (the good kind), Kenna storms the castle that was her life.

I have to say it. This book is cheesy. But I like cheese (not feta). I honestly thought this book was intended as a parody of superhero stories, which it still may be... who knows? This book is packed with humor and cliches, which is why I didn't think it was to be taken seriously... but it surprised me. Powerless is a lighthearted book that will boil your blood at the end.

YA is an interesting genre because you get a little bit of everything: adult themes, cursing, twisted plots, deep characters (despite most of them being in high school), among others.

This book teeters on the edge of lower-grade fiction and higher-grade fiction because of the cursing. The plot is more like lower-grade, but there are a few choice words sprinkled in. No adult themes, though. This book was not balanced correctly. The writing was lower level and the authors told us rather than showed us too much for my liking. Again, I think it's that YA genre balance that was off-putting.

However, once you get past the cheese and the predictability of the general plot, you get to know the characters and feel their situation as your own. If you're able to look past that stuff; I know a lot of readers that can't. The ending definitely set up for the sequel.

I borrowed this book from a coworker, whom borrowed it from the library. Luckily, she was able to snag the sequel when she checked out Powerless. I'll be reading that one next! Despite its cheese, I'm eager to find out what happens with our characters.

I would recommend this book to anyone that likes superhero-type books. I would feel comfortable allowing middle school-age readers to pick it up. It has a few choice words (as mentioned), but other than that, it's completely clean.

Cheesy and predictable, but better than the first. The book is well written and the plot line is clear. Still, I am unimpressed with the characterization. The plot in this book is much better than the plot in the first book and the descriptions are better. However, I was expecting to have my heart beating along with Kenna's and that didn't happen. Maybe I'm too difficult to please, but it left something to be desired.

I received these books from the library, so I didn't lose anything by reading them. It's a light read and I'm sure that many people would love these books. I recommend this two-book series to superhero fans. It's funny, the plot is desirable, and the writing is well done. I wish the characters were outlined a little better and that it wasn't so predictable. I wanted the settings to be a little clearer, too.

Altogether, would I recommend this book? Yes. To the right person.

Would I re-read this book? No.

There's not much left to say... this has been a short and sweet review.

If you're not a fan of YA, this book is not for you. You have to be interested in superheroes and powers, as well as be tolerant of the YA writing style.

Read this review and others at sarahthebooknerd.home.blog!

I honestly thought Landline was one of her first books. It was her fourth. I was using that as an excuse not to read it, well that and that it's not really a young adult book. It's classified as general fiction at my local public library. Anyway! I was shocked that Landline was written after Eleanor and Park. I'm a huge Rainbow fan. Attachments is the only one that I haven't read yet (not including the sequel to Carry On, which is coming out later this year!!).

Okay, so as cheesy as the plot line was, this is an amazing piece of fiction. I almost didn't want to read it because it sounded stupid. The plot sounded weak. A magic phone that calls the past? That didn't really hook me, but the characters did. I read it because I am a Rainbow loyalist. I'm so glad that I did.

From a writer's perspective, the way this story was put together was genius! It was slow-paced, which was going to be in my negative column at first. Not anymore. It needed to be slow-paced. Think about it. A phone that calls a past-version of her husband... we need to know what that past-version husband was like. There were a lot of scenes that happened in the past, which I typically don't like. I don't like books that flash between past and present scenes, but Rainbow did it beautifully. She took a half-assed plot line (in my humble opinion) and polished it into something that we could easily binge-read.

If you're looking for an easy, humor-filled novel to read through, this is your book! I would classify this as a great summer read, but it's set around Christmas, so that just seems wrong. So, I dare you to read it this summer!

Again, my negatives for this book are double-edged swords. I didn't like the slow-pacing (even though it was necessary) and I don't like the name of the main character (which is ridiculous and personal) and I didn't like how sucked in I got.

Her name. I hate the name Georgie. I think it's because every time I hear it, I think of Pennywise's creepy voice whispering it. Irrational and personal. I also didn't like one of her kids. Again, irrational. The "meow" thing (you'll get it if you read it) was annoying.

Then there's the intensity of the book. I got sucked in. This is usually a good thing. I didn't like it because I felt Georgie's pain. I felt the strain between her and her husband and I read a lot. I read between 50-150 pages each day. By the end of my reading "session," I felt as though my boyfriend and I were having relationship issues. How crazy is that? I would have to text him while he's working with an "I love you" or a heart emoji, just to bring myself back into my own life and out of hers.

Bottom Line: I love this book and I love her books. Reading this book makes me want to re-read her other ones. Or maybe I'll jump into Attachments, and then read her other ones!

Bravo Rainbow!