The Forest of Hands and Teeth

By: Carrie Ryan
Genre: Teen Paranormal Romance
Stars: 4 out 5
Mary’s world is surrounded by a fence. The fence is made to keep the Unconsecrated out and the village with the Guardians and the Sisterhood to protect them. But Mary wants to know if there is more to her world than a constant hum of moans and a fence to keep her from the rest of the world. She wants to know if there is an ocean, an ocean that her mother constantly told stories about before becoming one of them. When there is a breach of the fence, Mary discovers there is many secrets the Sisterhood kept to “protect” the people and there is more to this world than rules and a fence. But in following her dreams, Mary will lose the people that matter to her and she has to choose between the man she truly loves and the man who loves her. What will happen when Mary’s world is turned upside down and will she ever find her ocean?

I’ve been wanting to read this series for a while and since the third book came out a little while ago I thought it was time to start them. This takes place in the future where the world has become zombie infested and there is Mary’s village surrounded by a fence to keep out the flesh-eaters. It has suspense and action with secrets being revealed and a zombie breach to the village. Now Mary and her friends must survive and while trying to survive there are more pieces to the puzzle being revealed. I loved this suspense and action. This book is a little depressing as well especially towards the end; there was even a part my eyes welled up with tears. Altogether is was a fun read and surprisingly not what I was expecting. But I have the second one – The Dead Tossed Waves – on my shelf to read.

Castle Waiting

By: Linda Medley
Genre: Graphic Novel
Stars: 4 out 5
This fun graphic novel mixes old fairy tales and clever taglines for a quick, entertaining read. It starts off with a retelling of the classic Sleeping Beauty which takes place at the castle. Then after the spell is lifted the princess runs off and now the castle is waiting with a small group of people. A pregnant girl is traveling and her destination is the Castle Waiting. Once there she is welcomed with open arms and told tales of bearded nuns and a grumpy old mill owner. This is an enjoyable read that will certainly make you laugh. The artwork is fantastic as well and makes the story. One of my coworkers found it a couple years ago and lent it to me. I was not disappointed with her recommendation and cannot wait to read the second installment.

Wither

By: Lauren DeStefano
Genre: Teen Fiction
Stars: 4 out of 5
In our future, we have tried to create the perfectly genetic human beings and in doing so created a virus. This virus kills boys at the age of twenty-five and girls at the age of twenty. No one who is born now can grow old. In this world, sixteen year old Rhine Ellery wants to live her last four years the way she wants to. However that possibility changes when she is captured by the Gatherers and sold to a man to become his bride, along with two other girls. Living a life with a man she feels pity and hatred toward, and having two sister wives is not what Rhine imagined and now it is her goal to escape. But how can you escape from a place that gives you no freedom and a man who controls everything?

This book was on its own display at work and the cover lured me in. I started reading it and enjoyed the story quite a bit but thought there was more to the story line then her finding a way to escape. After figuring out for this first book in “The Chemical Garden Trilogy” it revolved simply around Rhine trying to find a way to escape from the overprotected eyes of her husband’s father and the prison that was her new home, I thoroughly enjoyed the book and I am intrigued to find out what will happen in the next installment. Also this book is definitely for older teens and not for the young twelve and thirteen year olds. It has a lot of heavy issues such as polygamy and teen pregnancy. I would recommend it to an older audience.

Tiger's Curse

By: Colleen Houck
Genre: Teen Paranormal Romance
Stars: 5 out of 5
Kelsey is a seventeen year old girl ready to start her college life. But to make some money for school, she decides to get a summer job – working for two weeks with a traveling circus. This traveling circus has a beautiful white tiger with ice cold blue eyes that compel Kelsey to become fond of the tiger. Then a mysterious man comes to purchase the tiger from the circus and wants Kelsey to accompany the tiger to India safely. While on the journey to the tiger reserve in India, Kelsey discovers her precious tiger is actually Ren an Indian prince who can only become human for twenty-four minutes a day. Shocked, Kelsey has to make a choice to either return home and pretend none of this ever happened or help Ren break the curse of being a tiger.

The first in a trilogy with the second book coming out in June and the third in December, this is a fun adventure and romance. Think Indiana Jones with the curse and trying to figure out how to break it while venturing into caves with traps and goddesses. It’s intense and compelling. Plus add a little romance with a strong independent teenager and a hopeless romantic Indian prince and you get an awesome novel. I highly recommend this book to anyone and everyone and cannot wait for the second book to come out so I can find out what will happen next.

Ink Exchange

By: Melissa Marr
Genre: Teen Paranormal Romance
Stars: 2 out of 5

Now that the Summer Court has its King and Queen it is strong again. With a new Winter Queen there is no longer an alliance between the Winter and the Dark Faery Court. The Dark Court’s king Irial has to find a new way to keep his court powerful and happy or rebellion will strike up and cause bloodshed not only among the fey but the humans as well. To avoid conflict, Irial comes up with a plan to be tied to a human and feed the court with his or her emotions. Leslie, one of Aishlinn’s friend, needs a change to regain her body back. She decides on getting a tattoo but not just any tattoo – this tattoo will bind her to Irial. Once the ink exchange is made, Leslie falls victim to this new world she never knew existed and this dark intriguing fairy. But can she get out of this menacing world and return to her normal life or does she stay bound to Irial feeding his court until she withers.

After reading the first book in the Wicked Lovely series I could not wait to read the next one. Then I read the back of this book and totally wanted to skip the second installment and move onto the third because this book does not continue Aishlinn’s story. But I was told to just suck it up and read them in order and so I did fearing I could miss something important. While this second novel does continue the story, Marr has done it in a different way. Instead of focusing on Aishlinn, the main character throughout the series – Marr picks up with her best friend and entwines her in the fairy world. I was extremely disappointed. I wanted to read about Aishlinn and here I was reading about Leslie. I finished the book because I wanted to make sure I did not miss anything but I was not thrilled by it. Leslie’s character towards the end when she is bound to Irial is not relatable and truly weird. I did not like the part when they were bound at all. There were too many sexual references about Leslie being addicted to Irial that I did not care for. I kind of wish I did skip this book and went on to the third book since I like Aishlinn’s story and her love interest the most.

Wicked Lovely

By: Melissa Marr
Genre: Teen Paranormal Romance
Stars: 4 out of 5

Aishlinn has a secret gift. She can see fairies. They have been playing nasty tricks and roaming free amongst us for centuries but only a few have the Sight. Aishlinn is one of the unlucky few who can see these horrifying creatures. Until now she has lived with a set of rules to ignore them so they will not bother her and she can live what normal life she can. That is until the Summer King fairy starts stalking her. Eventually Aishlinn is sucked into their world and she can no longer ignore the fairies that have haunted her all of her life. Now Aishlinn must make a choice between her mortal life and her best friend Seth or spending eternity ruling the Summer Court as Keenan’s queen. Will she choose mortality or immorality or does she even have a choice at all?

Since I started school back up this year I have not had much time to read for pleasure. I have picked up a few books over the past few months but could not focus to finish them. Then I picked this teen book up because my friends who recommend and read teen fiction as I have been lately, have not read this series yet. I could not put the book down. I loved the romance and the relief from vampires for fairies. Usually when you think of fairies you think cute, little winged creatures. But Marr’s portrait of a fairy is intriguing. She portrays fairies as horrifying creatures who walk among us without us knowing. They are terrifying and will even cause the death of humans. Then when the Summer King becomes interested in Aishlinn and Aishlinn’s best friend becomes more than a friend, I could not wait to see how this love triangle turned out. And the ending was so exciting that I had to read the next one right away. If you enjoyed Twilight –which I know there are some closet fans out there – or if you enjoy a fun easy teen romance story then I recommend to pick this book up.