Book 30: The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin

Sixteen-year-old Mara Dyer awakes in a hospital with no memory of surviving the terrible accident that killed her best friend, boyfriend, and weaselly frenemy. The trauma causes her family to move to Florida, but now Mara is hallucinating her dead friends, and additional inexplicable deaths are piling up around her. Also, there's a cute guy.

This book made me feel old. Poor Noah, I can see how teenage me could have found him totally swoonworthy, but mid-twenties me is just not having it. It is neither believable nor attractive when a seventeen-year-old boy orders for his date in perfect Spanish without even allowing her to look at the menu. On their first date! He doesn't know what she likes! What if she had allergies? What's with the single-minded pursuit of her, anyway? Where are his other friends, his hobbies, evidence of a life or inner monologue in existence before the new girl became his raison d'etre? I suppose this is my psyche's indication that I am moving away from teenagerhood and creeping closer to potential mother-of-teenagerhood (perish the thought!), so maybe that made me extra grumpy, but still! No teenager is this suave. No human on earth could be this suave. The romance comprises a major portion of this story, and I just couldn't believe it because this guy is more unreal than Mara's hallucinations.

I was also a little weirded out that all the warnings of playerism from platonic token-of-all-trades friend Jamie were summarily ignored and then banished from the book without further regard, along with poor Jamie himself, whose only purpose seemed to be the thankless chore of tutoring our heroine in Spanish and algebra.

It was a quick read, and I liked Mara's relationship with her family. Her struggles to deal with her recovering memories and the aftermath as well as her best friend's death were engaging.

I don't know if I can stick with this through the whole series, but I do feel compelled to read at least the sequel at some point. Damn you cliffhanger ending! B-/C.

Book 21: Split Second by Kasie West (Pivot Point #2)

I loooved Pivot Point, so I was really excited to read the sequel. I was a little disappointed that Split Second didn't follow the same format as Pivot Point, with the POV alternating each chapter between the two potential paths Addie sees while using her Divergent gift, but the chapters do alternate between Addie and her friend Laila, who totally stole the show. Seriously, Laila was awesome, and her whole storyline with her brother and father and Connor was a lot more emotionally engrossing than Addie's story this time around, although both POVs held my interest. It was also interesting getting to learn a few more of the secrets of the Compound. Not as good as the first book, but solid B.

Book 19: Body and Soul by Stacey Kade (Ghost and the Goth #3)

This is book three of Kade's The Ghost and the Goth series. I'd actually read the first two way back in 2011 when I first got a Nook, and I had no idea that a third book even existed until I looked it up for my Top Ten Tuesday post this week. Pleasant surprise! The first two books were absolutely adorable, and this one was no different. Alona is a more likable Regina George, with far more depth, and Will is just so sweet. This series is a lot of fun without being totally mindless, and it's always a good sign when the last book in a series just makes you want to immediately pick up the first one again. A

Book 16: Stranger with My Face by Lois Duncan

I hate how the ebook editions of these have been "updated" for modern readers! Just let the story have happened in the early eighties; that's much easier on my suspension of disbelief than awkwardly explaining away cell phones and e-mails. Stranger with My Face is an atmospheric, spooky book taking place on an isolated New England island (one of my favorite spooky settings). Teenage Laurie is being spotted in places she hadn't been and soon begins seeing a spectre that looks eerily like herself. Astral projection is a rare enough book topic (for me at least) that it held my interest, and I loved Laurie's family and her friends Helen and Jeff.