Rage: A Love Story by Julie Anne Peters

Rage is a love story, as the title suggests. But this isn't your ordinary boy-meets-girl love story. First of all, it's a girl-meets-girl love story. But it is so much more than that. As the story begins, we meet Johanna, the patient, reliable, go-to heroine. She's in love with Reeve. Reeve is the opposite of Johanna. She's dangerous, alluring, and mysterious. The story proceeds, and we find ourselves learning about Reeve's abusive family, which leads her to abusing Johanna.

I wanted to love this story, I really did! And I did love it in a way. I don't know what it was about the writing, but there was just something that made it hard for me to get into the story. I found Johanna to be a bit weak, because of all the shit she puts up with. All her friends and family try to warn her to keep away from Reeve, because they don't want to see her get hurt. Johanna ignores them, and chooses Reeve over them. She abuses Johanna, but Johanna claims that Reeve really loves her, she's just scared. Johanna is blind, and loves Reeve. She'll do anything for her, whether it's losing the people and things that are important to her, skipping school, or losing her job. I also don't know how much she sees into Reeve's character. All the time she describes Reeve, it seems mostly physical, not about what's inside. I personally think she's in love with the idea of Reeve, not Reeve herself. You have to understand that the situation that she lives in majorly influences this though. Her life is hard, and it's understandable that this is the type of person she is. The characters are very realistic though. It's easy to understand them and see that they're not perfect at all.

I liked the idea of the book, how it was a love story, but it was a lot more than that. It's about relationships, abuse, loss, and family. There were moments I liked, but I found this book a bit difficult to read because I didn't find myself relating with Johanna very much. I liked it because it was unique. Honestly, how many books about abuse are there? And how many of those have LGBT protagonists? And how many of them are teen girls? So this book fills that little spot.

The ending was a bit of a let-down, but I'm glad it was how it was because it was realistic. I wouldn't really classify this book more as a LGBT book, but more as an abuse book. It's about both, but I think it's more the latter.

Rage isn't a happy book, it's a darker one. It's about abuse. Everyone is either the victim or the abuser, or both. It's painful and sad to think about, but possibly a necessary read.

I also felt a bit confused with the end, like I was missing some parts. Such as what was in Robbie's case and the hospice. Everything just seemed a little bit cut off, with no folow up.

I really wanted to like this story, but I'm going to have to go with 2.5 out of 5 stars on this one.

Possession (Possession #1) by Elana Johnson

"Vi knows the rule: Girls don't walk with boys, and they never even think about kissing them. But no one makes Vi want to break the rules more than Zenn... and since the Thinkers have chosen him as Vi's future match, how much trouble can one kiss cause? The Thinkers may have brainwashed the rest of the population, but Vi is determined to think for herself."

Interesting enough right? This novel is about a futuristic society where there are the Goodies and the Baddies. But are the Goodies really good and the Baddies really bad? Or is that just what the Thinkers (the people in charge) want you to think? And then the Thinkers are also called the Greenies (which I failed to realize why after reading all 400 pages) and Freedom, which isn't really freedom at all. Confusing right?? I agree! This is definitely one of those books you find yourself scratching your head, but if you were to read it a second time a year later, you would probably like it a lot more because you finally understand it.

Vi has broken rules her whole life, and finally gets in REAL trouble for walking in the park late at night with a boy. After that she's thrown in jail and meets Jag, where they escape and then go on their little adventure. Or at least I think that's how it happened, because I was there scratching my head lol.

I disliked the romance between Vi and Zenn and Jag. Vi is torn between Zenn, the guy she was matched with and was supposed to marry and has always loved, or Jag, the "bad boy" she has met and also loves instantly. I personally dislike romances with characters who are torn between two people because I don't understand them. How can you love two people? Just when you think she's made up her mind to be with Jag, Zenn comes back and then she realizes she loves Zenn. Whaaat? Someone needs to tell this girl to make up her mind! Lol :) Also, half the story she spends saying "I love Jag" and the other half she's saying "I hate Jag. He needs to die." How's that for romance? I didn't really find myself relating with the romance or with any of the characters, except for the fact that Vi is indecisive.

There were also too many twists for me. Some of them were predictable, but I like stories that aren't too over-the-top and you're not like "Come on, again?". They always seem to get captured, and brainwashed, and thrown into new situations and battles, and then discovering old family members (this happened like a million times). "Oh, hi Dad! I thought you were dead. But now you're the bad guy, so I'm going to run away from you." And then of course there's Ty, the sister, but she's not called Ty anymore. Now she's called Gavin, and so all the characters call her Gavin, except Vi still calls her Ty.

The ending however, was a somewhat annoying one. You know there's a sequel planned but it was just frustrating that after all 400 pages, what you don't want to happen happens. Arghh! haha

I think this story could have used more details on the past so that it sets up the present better because I found myself confused by a lot of the story haha.

On the bright side, I did like the cover. It's a pretty butterfly stuck in an ice cube. It's intriguing, simple, and very interesting.

I might read the sequel, if I get the chance.

Also, Possession reminded me a lot of the Uglies series by Scott Westerfeld. There's brainwashing, escape, adventure, betrayal, futuristic-technology, and two boys! One's a good boy, and one's a bad boy. Kinda similar if you ask me!

I wouldn't recommend this book. If someone had read the cover flap and asked me "Should I read this?", I would say "No, but if you found it interesting, read the Uglies instead." I think that you would get the same story out of it, but the Uglies is much more exciting, better written, and easier to relate to.

**Side note, although I haven't read it yet, Possession also seems to have a similar story to Matched by Ally Condie.**

I would give it 2.5 out of 5 stars because it was just an okay book for me. :)

The Lucky Kind by Alyssa B. Sheinmel

I recently finished reading The Lucky Kind by Alyssa B. Sheinmel the other day.

This novel is about Nick Brandt, a high school junior, who is faced with a family secret that has been kept from him his whole life. He feels betrayed and angry that his parents kept this secret from him. Enter Eden Reiss. Eden is the girl he's always lusted after, and eventually works up the nerve to talk to. Basically, they fall in love and he tries to balance his relationship, his friendship with Stevie (his BFF who he's known forever), and his family problems. These different things all intersect and I found myself wrapped up in Nick's problems. I felt I could relate a LOT with Eden and Nick, because their relationship reminded me a little bit of me and my boyfriend. I liked this book, because it had quite a few very tender, touching moments.

As I was about halfway through this, I found myself almost angry with Nick, because he was just being a little too dramatic. He had always been pretty close with his parents, and after this one incident, he closes them out for months. Now come on, the secret really isn't even THAT bad. I think he just needed less time to just get over it because he was being a little close minded about his parents reasoning and such.

He is also a really big a-hole to Eden at one part in the story. She's pretty much perfect to him (as far as we know) and he just ruins everything with her. It just makes you angry with him for messing things up with "the girl of his dreams" when he was confusing the fact that he didn't love her anymore with confusion about his family problems. Eden doesn't deserve that, and Nick's quick thinking doesn't do them any good.

Sam (who I won't spoil and say who he is) is probably my favorite character besides Eden. Even though he only appears for a few chapters, I really liked him. He's smart, funny, a nice guy, and just someone I can relate to.

Something I did like about this novel was the title. It is called The Lucky Kind and though I can't find the quote right now, Eden says something about her and Nick being "the lucky kind" when it came to love. I loved how that was the title because I thought it fit the book perfectly. There's also another mentioning of "the lucky kind" at the end of the story (I think by Sam and Nick when they were talking). Also, the cover is just TOO cute!

I did like most of this book, but there were also some of Nick's choices that I disagreed with. But we must also realize that he was going through a difficult time in his life. It was really just an okay story, not something I would find myself reading again anytime soon. I would give it 2.5 out of 5 stars.