Breaking Point by Kristen Simmons

Breaking Point is the sequel to Article 5.  I enjoyed Article 5, mostly because I feel that it has a very plausible premise.  The only thing that disappointed me about the first book is that the reader gets very little background on how society evolved to this point. (Read my Article 5 review here.)  Breaking Point  began filling in many of those gaps that the first book left for us.  Like the first book, this was a fast-paced, action-packed read that was difficult to put down.  Breaking Point picks up shortly after the end of Article 5.  Ember and Chase are working with the resistance against the Moral Miltia and the government's Moral Statutes.  They are also helping Sean in his search to find Rebecca, the girl who tried to help Ember escape from the reform school early in the first book.  The government believes that Chase is dead, but they have put Ember on their most wanted list.  They suspect that she is a sniper who has been killing off soldiers.  This book leaves a lot of unanswered questions, which I hope will be answered in the final book of the trilogy.

Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl

So, I have been wanting to read this series for awhile, since it is one of the most popular series that the library has.  Now that the movie is coming out for the first book this month, I finally decided I'd better get with it and read the book.  Unfortunately, the book is always better than the movie, but I am still looking forward to seeing it. 

Ethan Wate has always dreamed of escaping his small hometown of Gatlin, but lately his dreams have taken a new turn, when he dreams of saving a mysterious girl.  As if that isn't weird enough, things get even stranger when Lena Duchannes moves in with her uncle in the town's "haunted mansion."  Ethan is strangely drawn to the new "weird" girl who doesn't seem to fit in with anyone.  He is even more intrigued when he realizes that she is the mystery girl from  his dreams.  As forces in their families try to drive the pair apart, they find that there is a darker force that is trying to destroy them both.

I really enjoyed the book and I am looking forward to reading the rest of this series.  I can definitely see why it has been so popular.

The Dead and Buried by Kim Harrington

Jade Kelley's senior year in high school is turning out to be more exciting and dangerous than she ever imagined it could be. She and her family have just moved into a much bigger new house in a big town, she is the new girl at a more advanced, big school, and she just found out that a girl may have been murdered in her home. True, it could have been accident when Kayla fell down the stairs, but no one believes the popular, athletic girl really fell on her own. Everyone in school believes she was pushed by her boyriend, Donovan, the gorgeous guy that Jade is drawn to.

As if the fact that a girl died on at the bottom of her stairs wasn't enough, strange things begin happening in her home. Her brother, Colby, begins seeing a glowing girl in his room. Jade is too sensible to believe in ghosts though. Surely if ghosts existed, her mother would have come back to her after she died of cancer. However, Jade quickly becomes a believer when Kayla contacts her through Colby demanding that she find her killer. She isn't the kind of ghost to give up easily either. She was a mean, bully in life, and death has not improved her personality! Jade knows that her family is in danger if she doesn't do what Kayla wants.

I enjoyed reading The Dead and Buried, even though it was predictable at times. The story was fast paced and kept me interested throughout. I got this book through netgalley as an uncorrected proof. I hope to add the final copy to my library soon.

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Eve and Once by Anna Carey

I flew threw these two books back to back, so I thought that I would review them together. I am anxiously awaiting the publication of Rise, the final book in this trilogy.

The series is set in 2032, sixteen years after a deadly plague wiped out the majority of America's population. In the wake of the plague, The New America has been created under the head of a King. Eve is an orphan who has been raised in a school run by the government. Eve is the top student in her class, where she attends classes that include The Dangers of Men and Boys. After graduation, she will move across the lake to the brick building where the girls learn a trade before going to the City of Sand (the seat of the new government). However, the night before graduation, Eve learns a horrifying secret about what actually happens to the girls after graduation. The truth causes Eve to escape the school and set out on a journey through the wild, dangerous ruins of America. Along the way, she learns that almost everything she has been taught is a lie.

Monument 14 by Emily Laybourne

I normally love post apocalyptic/dystopian novels. I loved The Hunger Games, Ashes, This is Not a Test, and Divergent, as well as many other similar novels, but this book still has been wavering. There are parts of Monument 14 that I loved. It is very fast paced and action packed. So much happens in the first couple of chapters, that the reader flies through them without a second thought. However, there are also parts of the novel that I could have done without. While the book is almost too realistic and graphic in parts, it is overly unrealistic in other areas. I would like to say that this book is definitely for more mature young adult readers.
The story is told from Dean's point of view. On his way to school one morning, his bus is disabled by a sudden, violent hail storm. In the process, the bus turns over, killing the driver and some of the passengers. Luckily, the elementary bus driver thinks fast and crashes her bus into a superstore to save her passengers, before using the bus to rescue the high school students. In total, there are 15 survivors of the accident, but the 14 students are left to survive on their own when the bus driver leaves to retrieve help. Shortly after she leaves, the students are locked in when the riot gates seal the store. They soon learn that the hail storm is only part of the chaos that has erupted outside. A massive volcano erupted, which caused a mega-tsunami that wiped out the entire Eastern Coast of the United States. All of these events cause an earthquake, which releases a chemical agent from a military research facility in Dean's area. The chemical compound affects people differently based on their blood types. Type A breaks out in horrible blisters that eventually result in death, while type AB becomes extremely paranoid and terrified. The compound seems to have little effect on Type B, but the kids learn from a news report, that these people will have reproductive failure and sterility. The worst side effect results for those with Type O blood. These people become extremely violent and dangerous, and begin killing those around them. The kids learn that they have a mixture of the blood types. They seal off the store from the outside world and decide to wait for help. Of course, there are more issues to deal with than they ever thought possible.

I enjoyed this book, but I think it had some issues that the author should have worked out. I am looking forward to reading the sequel though, Sky on Fire, which is due out in June.