What YA' reading

Check out my reviews of young adult (YA) books. I have loved reading YA for a long time. YA books have a unique style, they are usually pretty easy reads and take on new story ideas. These particular stories are ones that struck me as interesting reads, either because the story was so good or because I was so disappointed in the story. Here's my take on a few YA novels.

Prep School Confidential (Prep School Confidential, #1) by Kara Taylor

I am a big mystery fan, particularly when they aren’t really gruesome. I’m not a blood and gore person, so Prep School Confidential was a good choice for me. This book features Anne Dowling, who has the bad habit of getting into trouble and is kicked out of her boarding school after almost burning it down. Her parents send her to Wheatley School, one of the only schools that can be convinced to take her in. She meets her new roommate, Isabella, and is starting to settle in when Isabella’s body is found in the woods near the school.

I enjoyed this book overall. Anne is a likeable character. She is a bit boy-crazy and her focus on the guys around her feels a bit much when you think about the fact that her roommate just died. There’s a love triangle that felt a little hollow and forced.

I give this book 4 stars out of 5.

Into the Dim (Into the Dim, #1) by Janet B. Taylor

Into the Dim was a fun read. Hope Walton is invited to stay with her aunt following her mother being declared dead. Hope discovers that her aunt, her mother and others are time travelers. Her mother is not actually dead, but trapped in the past. Hope travels into the past to save her mother, but unfortunately, rival time travelers want to prevent her success.

Hope is an interesting with flaws that make her believable and relatable. An unexpected twist comes late in the book that made this book much more interesting and sets up the cliffhanger for the second book.

I really enjoyed how the author, Janet B. Taylor, introduces Elinor of Aquitaine, a real historical figure, which made me interested in learning about her as an actual person. I had heard of her as a part of history, but I loved the personality the author gave her and the people around her that gave this book depth and made it fun to read.

I give this book 5 stars out of 5.

As Old As Time (A Twisted Tale, #3) by Liz Braswell

There are some occasions when I want a book to be really amazing and it falls flat on its face. Enter As Old As Time, a retelling of the Beauty and the Beast story. I need to preface this with the fact that I have loved Beauty and the Beast since I was a little girl. I had such high hopes and this book dashed them. This book adds a twist that Belle’s mother is the enchantress who places the spell on the Beast.

This book moved at a snail’s pace, particularly in first few chapters, which was mostly a re-telling of the story everyone knows. I really wanted to get to the part of the story that was new. Once I did, I enjoyed it a bit more, but it just couldn’t salvage the story. There was what was supposed to be a twist at the end of the book, but it was very strongly hinted at earlier in the book so I saw it coming a mile away. Overall, the storytelling was stilted. I walked away from this book bitterly disappointed.

I give this book 1 star out of 5.

What are some of your favorite young adult books?