Serial Hottie Review

I just finished Serial Hottie by Kelly Oram, so it’s time for the review. (Well, actually when this review comes out, I’ll have been done with the book for a while now, but whatever.)

Ellie Westley is just one of the guys. She loves hockey and isn’t afraid to lash out with her fists when a guy gets on her nerves, but the new kid, Seth, that just moved in across the street is going to make the summer a whole lot more interesting. He’s beyond hot – more like Elle’s sister, Angela’s, type – and he’s only got eyes for Ellie. However, his strange behavior and creepy ways come at the same time that girls (that look very similar to Ellie start) showing up dead.

I really enjoyed this book. I’m quickly becoming a fan of Kelly’s books and this one didn’t disappoint. I really loved the characters and the plot.

Ellie was definitely a tough-as-nails tomboy and Kelly Oram did a great job writing her. With girls as tough as Ellie, it can sometimes be hard to write their love story and not lose sight of who they actually are. Even though Ellie did start changing throughout the book (which should happen for any good character in a book), she still was the same tomboy at heart by the end.

Now, getting to the real topic of this book: Seth. He was so creepy! (In a good way.) I really disagree with anyone who doesn’t like this book because of Seth. He’s supposed to be weird a little psyco because the whole book centers around Ellie thinking he is the serial killer! He has issues and I like the explanation that Kelly Oram creates for them. I think she did an excellent job writing Seth’s character.

I also really loved how Ellie and Angela’s relationship changed throughout the book. Normally stories like this don’t have nearly as much sister bonding, but I really loved it for a change from the typical. I love to see a good relationship between siblings, especially when they start out how Ellie and Angela’s did.

Lastly, my only regret for this book is that I wish there was a bit more to the ending. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a great ending. (Spoilers, sorta) I just wish we got to see more of the relationship between Ellie and Seth after she knows he’s not a serial killer. (Spoilers, I’m really serious this time.) Seth spent so much of the book being creepy, that I wanted to see just a bit more of him once all the secrets are out and we know that he was just trying to solve the serial killings. I loved that the extras from his point of view were at the end and it helped satisfy some of my want for more of Seth’s post-craziness. They definitely made me love Seth as a character more than before by seeing his POV. (I’m done with the Spoilers.)

Overall, I really enjoyed this book. Kelly Oram really has a knack for writing amazing characters, especially ones that aren’t your typical character, which is refreshing.

Fireflight - Lightning

The Avery Shaw Experiment Review

Today I am going to review The Avery Shaw Experiment by: Kelly Oram.

Avery Shaw is dealing with a broken heart in the only way she knows how – through science. With the help of the brother of the guy that broke her heart, Grayson, she will go through the seven stages of grief to prove if it applies to a broken heart and can get her over it. Little does she know that Grayson has another experiment in mind – winning her heart.

Once again, this book is another great one by Kelly Oram. So far she has not disappointed me with any of her books. Like all the rest I’ve read by her, I could not put this one down. Sure, it was a bit shorter than her other books (and I would have loved it to last even longer), but it was really good.

I absolutely loved reading the chapters from Grayson’s point of view. He’s definitely a guy, though, so his mind wasn’t quite ever out of the gutter, but he was funny and really cared about Avery. Underneath the playboy exterior, he had a heart of gold.

I did enjoy Avery, but sometimes I almost just wished it was Grayson’s point of view again. Don’t get me wrong, I definitely enjoyed her sections, but they just weren’t Grayson’s. I also really like that Kelly Oram didn’t create her perfect like so many authors tend to do. Avery has social anxiety and I think Kelly did an excellent job representing it and allowing Avery to move past it.

Libby was also a great character. She had no filter and I couldn’t help but laugh at everything she said. I can’t wait till the next book, so we can get to know her even more.

The ending was great, especially Grayson’s extra Epilogue, which really made me happy and satisfied with the book. Even though it will soon be part of a series, there was no cliff-hanger ending to drive you mad.

I really recommend this book to anyone who’s a fan of the fun, lighthearted teen dramas/romance. I can’t wait to read more of Kelly Oram’s books, she’s easily becoming one of my favorite authors.

From Savannah, Georgia

The Offering Review

This time I am going to review The Offering by: E.R. Arroyo (it’s the second book in the series).

Cori’s life took a turn after escaping Antius and rescuing some of those left behind. Disease spreads through the survivors and they take their anger out on Cori for those dead and sick. Her boyfriend asks her for the impossible and she runs to The City (the city in ruins that is near the colony, Mercy) to escape. But Antius isn’t ready to stop causing problems for Cori.

Oh my. I don’t even know where to begin with this book. It was so intense! I could not put this book down for anything and it was excellent. The only downfall is the love triangle that is presented in this book because I totally wanted her to end up with the other guy.

My only problem with this book was what I just mentioned. I also didn’t like how Dylan changed so much. The more he interacted with Cori, the more I wanted to punch him. I just felt like she loved him more than he loved her. (Spoilers) I didn’t like that after their big fight and when they see each other again, that she immediately decides she loves him (when she really hadn’t been moping over leaving him). (End Spoilers) That and I just loved Tyce. When he was introduced in the first book, I thought him an interesting character, but I didn’t really get to see him enough to really have an opinion. I definitely didn’t understand Cori’s reaction to him kissing her in the first book, but I loved the possibilities it created for this book.

After finishing this book (and staying up way too late to do so), I was an emotional wreck. The book was so intense and there were so many ups and downs. Towards the end, the book handed out one blow after the other. This made it crazy good. E.R. Arroyo did an amazing job packing so much emotion and action, which makes for a great writer.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone who likes a good dystopian book. It has easily become one of my favorites of that genre.

Sure, I had some issues with who she ended up with and a few other things, but that is more due to personal preference. The writer did an excellent job crafting a believable and satisfying plot. Yes, the ending may be slightly cheesy with everything being happy again, but it was just what the book needed after the roller-coaster ride it took me on.

Just so you know my state of mind right after reading this book, here are the tweets from the moment after finishing…

And cue the moment right after finishing a super intense book & so many emotions are raging inside, but there's no outlet for them #GoodBook

— Savannah Rohleder (@smrsis248) June 9, 2015

I stayed up too late because I couldn't put my book down, now I can't sleep because of the emotional turmoil it caused. #GoodBook

— Savannah Rohleder (@smrsis248) June 9, 2015

Can exhaustion overcome my book withdrawals? We shall see... Or, I'm just going to have a terrible night sleep as my mind digests the book.

— Savannah Rohleder (@smrsis248) June 9, 2015

Family Force 5 - Sweep The Leg

How Can It Almost Be Over?

And here goes my last week of work in Florida…

I can’t believe that my time here is almost up. It feels like it was just last week that I was bidding Savannah goodbye. I feel like time has just sped by and I haven’t done enough.

Last week, I made some great progress, but it still doesn’t feel like I worked hard enough. One of my projects for this coming week is to scan all the information about my great aunts and uncles. My aunt has made a binder for her and each of her siblings. This will be what I’m scanning next.

Now I realize that I haven’t quite explained the Rahenkamp family. My grandmother was one in ten. She had three brothers and six sisters! Their names in the order of their birth are: Paul, Geneva (who I’m staying with), Ray (Vivian, she goes by Ray), Phebe, Naomi, Lois, Jimmy, Miriam, Eunice (my grandma, who I never got to meet), and Joe.

(Left to Right:)
Back Row: Ray, Paul, Geneva
Middle Row: Lois, Phebe, Naomi, Jimmy
Front Row: Eunice, Miriam, Joe

Phew. That’s a mouthful. I can’t even imagine having that many siblings, or even being the parents of that many kids. That would get exhausting.

Currently, only Geneva, Ray, Phebe, Lois, Jimmy, Miriam, and Joe are alive. We lost my grandma, Eunice, in 1984 (right before my parents got married), Paul in 2010, and Naomi in 2014.

I’ve gotten to hear so many stories about everyone. Mostly little pieces of information are shot my way. Segments that I’m slowly trying to piece together to make a more complete image. Scanning all this stuff is also really helping to give me background on everyone.

The letters are my favorite to scan. I don’t have much time to read them as I’m scanning, but I can’t wait till I get the chance. Sadly, they are all a bit one-sided. So many times I see the reply letters hinting at something, but I have nothing else to tell me what that something was.

All this information is turning into small scraps that I’m trying to finagle together to form a quilt, but they don’t all fit perfectly. I have a huge project ahead of me to try to organize and make something of all this information. I’m excited about it, but it can sure be daunting at the same time.

Sovereign Review

Today I’m going to review Sovereign by: E.R. Arroyo.

Cori wasn’t born into the colony, but to a world where chemical warfare had reigned and destroyed most of America. At the age of seven, her father was killed by the savages, who were negatively affected by the toxins exposed to the world and they have gone insane to the point of cannibalism. At the same time her father bled to death, the colony, Antius, ‘rescued’ Cori, but she longs to be free and escape the rules and controlling nature of the colony.

This dystopian novel really gripped me and I couldn’t put it down. The characters were so amazing and I really loved to hate Nathan (the son of the colony’s leader). He made my skin crawl and he was just a great evil guy. I also really liked Dylan in this novel (the love interest). He was a genius and just the right amount of protective, but also he let Cori be herself, which meant he had to let her run head-long into danger because it was her nature.

This book had many twists and turns that kept me so intrigued. Even though it is part of a two-book series, I felt satisfied with it and almost considered waiting to read the second one. (I’m glad I did because I thought the second one was even better than the first.)

This book really felt like a mesh of a few other things that are out there right now, but it didn’t bother me at all because it was different enough. There were parts that felt like Divergent or the TV show The 100. I couldn’t stop envisioning the environment and some of the characters from The 100 when I read this, but it just made me enjoy it more since I have really liked that show. The savages I also imagined them to be kind of like the Reavers from Firefly. If none of those references mean anything to you, then you should not have a worry about feeling this book was inspired by multiple sources.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book. The action was intense. The romance was sweet. The main character, Cori was not quite like any character I’d seen in this genre. She was reminiscent of Tris from Divergent (when Tris stopped being weak/whinny) because she is tough and built to be a soldier, but she was different at the same time. From the very beginning, she was strong and wouldn’t let anyone break her. She broke the rule and wouldn’t let anyone get in her way to freedom. She was a survivor from the beginning, which was refreshing because so many of the main characters in this genre start out weaker and they have to adapt, which can sometimes make the things they do unrealistic.

I was very pleasantly surprised by this book. It’s so much deeper and better than the synopsis let on. The writing was great and grabbed me from the very first.

My Grandma When She Was Young

Ticker Review

Today, I’m going to review Ticker by: Lisa Mantchev.

Penny has a heart condition that nearly kills her. To save her, the brilliant surgeon Calvin Warwick implants a clockwork heart into her. However, soon after, he becomes a fanatic and starts augmenting (replacing parts) for many people, which ends with most all of them dead. He becomes known as a terrorist, escapes jail and his execution, and kidnaps Penny’s parents. Penny teams up with her friends and the dashing Marcus Kingsley, who is the army general and will stop at nothing to capture Warwick to see him receive justice for his crimes.

I had such high hopes for this book. I was so disappointed. There was some amazing content in this book and I could easily have loved it, if it just had a bit of work. The action was gripping and I loved the story behind Warwick’s insanity, but there were parts of this book that really bothered me.

I enjoyed the chemistry between Penny and Marcus, but they seem to fall in love so suddenly that while reading this book, I kept looking up the author to figure out if this book was the second in a series. Sadly, it’s a stand-alone with nothing to precede it. I felt so confused by how serious they both were in the relationship – so suddenly – that I really felt like I’d missed something.

I thought the elements focusing on contacting the dead were interesting, but they I almost felt like the book could have not had that and been totally fine. If they played a bigger role in the whole book and been completely vital for the overall story, it would’ve been better.

There was also the slightly hinted animosity between the Penny and her brother Nic that ended up exploding. I didn’t fully understand why he would be so upset with her for the reasons he was. A rift was created in their relationship that seemed misplaced by how they interacted and loved each other the rest of the book.

Overall, I just tried to get through the book. Like I said before, I was so disappointed. This was one of those books I had on my TBR (To Be Read) list for a while and I’d always looked forward to it. If not for the main characters’ sudden relationship and a few other issues, I would have absolutely love this book. It had great content, but poor execution.

With that said, the writing was still excellent. There were sometimes lines that just felt so profound and really stuck with me, such as this one:

“I can’t see where I’m going if I only look where I’ve been.”

We Are Leo - Epic (Love This Song!)