Book: Chill Factor by Rachel Caine

Published January 2005 by Penguin Group|Pages: 352

Source: E-book|Nook Store

Series: Weather Wardens #3

Genre: Adult Paranormal

Goodreads|Rachel Caine’s Website

Summary: Weather Warden Joanne Baldwin has protected the human race from monster storms, been killed, reborn as a Djinn, and then restored to her original form. Now she’s throwing the dice to stop an infinitely powerful, deeply disturbed kid-who is holed up in a Vegas hotel-from bringing on a new ice age.

I’m totally loving Caine’s Weather Warden series!  I’ve been a fan ever since I started out with her Morganville Vampires series, and Chill Factor is just as awesome as everything else she’s written.

Joanne is a pretty awesome character.  I just love how freaking cool she is, because she always finds herself in interesting situations.  Seeing her get out of said situations is also interesting and entertaining.  And seeing her with other people is always funny but entertaining.

As much as I loved Chill Factor, I’m not sure what else to say without sounding like a broken record!  The characters are really consistent, yet I’m still surprised by some of the new additions as well as previous characters we’re still getting to know.  There’s so much going on and I really liked certain…developments that I don’t want to give away.  The rest of the series is going to be really interesting, because there are quite a few things in Chill Factor that could prove to be very interesting later on.

Right now, I’m feeling like the word interesting is a tad bit over-used.

Anyways…random flashbacks!  We see a little bit of Joanne’s past, and her connection to the Ma’at, who we meet in this novel.  I vaguely remember them from Outcast Season (I swear I’m going to finish it someday) so it was nice to see what they’re all about, and how they got started.  I hope we learn more about Joanne’s past in future books.

I love the descriptions of the aetheric plane, and I can imagine it so well when I’m reading.  I also love the connections to the weather, and while it could be a bit more vivid, I still love how Caine makes weather really different (but interesting).

I totally loved Chill Factor, which was super-fun to read.  The characters are great, and there’s always something weird going on- but in a totally good way.  Caine is such a consistent writer (which I love), and Chill Factor doesn’t disappoint.  Chill Factor gets 5 stars!

Book: Spellbinding by Maya Gold

Published April 2013 by Scholastic, Inc|Pages: 275

Series: None

Genre: YA Paranormal

Goodreads|Maya Gold’s Website

A Note: Spellbinding is an e-ARC from netgalley.com, which has not influenced my review in any way

Summary: There’s more than one way to be powerful…

It is during a routine school project that Abby Silva–sixteen and nearly friendless–makes a startling discovery: She is descended from women who were accused of witchcraft back in 1600s Salem. And when Abby visits nearby Salem, strange, inexplicable events start to unfold. Objects move when she wills them to. Candles burst into sudden flame. And an ancient spellbook somehow winds up in her possession.

Trying to harness her newfound power, Abby concocts a love potion to win over her longtime crush–and exact revenge upon his cruel, bullying girlfriend. But old magic is not to be trifled with. Soon, Abby is thrust headlong into a world of hexes, secrets, and danger. And then there’s Rem Anders, the beautiful, mysterious Salem boy who seems to know more about Abby than he first lets on.

A reckoning is coming, and Abby will have to make sense of her history–and her heart–before she can face the powerful truth.

I really liked Spellbinding!  There’s something about witches and their connections to the past, especially when that past is their family history.  I totally loved the connection to the Salem Witch Trials, and the elemental magic used in Spellbinding.

While Spellbinding has a mix of elements right out of Carrie, Mean Girls and quite possibly Sabrina The Teenage Witch (and probably a few other teen movies that I’ve missed), I still really liked it.  I loved how history played out, and while I’m not completely sure how I feel about the prom scene, I did like the connection back to the Salem Witch Trials.

I thought the whole retribution part of it was interesting.  I can understand wanting revenge for what happened hundreds of years earlier, and it made Abby discovering her powers a lot more interesting.

I liked how normal Abby is.  She doesn’t seem to have many friends, and she’s ignored at home, which is a little sad.  But that makes it really easy to see how she gets pulled into the magical world.  I wish we got a little more of her home life and her friendships so we could really see how much things changed.  I also found Rem a very interesting character, and it’s because he’s so mysterious!

Final Thoughts:

I don’t really have anything else to say about Spellbinding!  It was a fun, quick read, and I loved how well magic, history and the present connected.  Spellbinding gets 4 stars.

Book: The Seduction Of Victor Hugo by M.J. Rose

Expected Publication is May 7, 2013 by Atria Books|Pages: 386

Genre: Adult Fiction/Historical Fiction/Paranormal/Fantasy/Mystery

Series: The Reincarnationist #5

Goodreads|M.J. Rose’s Website

A Note: The Seduction Of Victor Hugo was an e-ARC from netgalley.com, which has not influenced my review in any way

Summary: From the author of The Book of Lost Fragrances comes a haunting novel about a grieving woman who discovers the lost letters of novelist Victor Hugo, awakening a mystery that spans centuries.

In 1843, novelist Victor Hugo’s beloved nineteen-year-old daughter drowned. Ten years later, Hugo began participating in hundreds of séances to reestablish contact with her. In the process, he claimed to have communed with the likes of Plato, Galileo, Shakespeare, Dante, Jesus—and even the Devil himself. Hugo’s transcriptions of these conversations have all been published. Or so it was believed.

Recovering from her own losses, mythologist Jac L’Etoile arrives on the Isle of Jersey—where Hugo conducted the séances—hoping to uncover a secret about the island’s Celtic roots. But the man who’s invited her there, a troubled soul named Theo Gaspard, has hopes she’ll help him discover something quite different—Hugo’s lost conversations with someone called the Shadow of the Sepulcher.

What follows is an intricately plotted and atmospheric tale of suspense with a spellbinding ghost story at its heart, by one of America’s most gifted and imaginative novelists.

The Seduction Of Victor Hugo is a creepy but entertaining read.  I really liked how Jac’s story was connected to Hugo’s.  I’m not the biggest fan of stories where a person connects with a long-lost relative.  But this one worked really well, and I liked both stories equally.

There’s something very creepy and gothic about this book.  The ghosts, the past lives, the connection between the Isle Of Jersey and Victor Hugo and Jac…it was all done really well, and everything was equally interesting and compelling.  Which is nice, because I was worried that I would want to skim parts of it…and I didn’t want miss anything, so it was great that I was pulled in from the beginning.  There are a lot of secrets, and everything unfolds naturally.  There were a few things I didn’t see coming, and I liked that everything was paced really well.

I also liked the characters.  Jac was interesting, and her relationships with Malachi and Theo were interesting.  In general, the characters were all great, and they all had their own personalities.  But Hugo was the most interesting, and Rose did a great job with creating a really interesting life with him.  I know absolutely nothing about him, other than him writing Les Miserables and The Hunchback Of Notre Dame, so it was nice going in with no expectations of his life.

Another great thing about this book is that you don’t need to read the other books in the series in order to understand this one.  I didn’t even know this was part of a series until I finished it, but it was nice that I could jump right in and know what was going on.  There were a couple times where I wanted a little more explanation, but overall, things made sense- and I do want to go back and read the other books because I liked this one so much!

Final Thoughts:

I really liked Seduction and the connection between past and present.  The Isle Of Jersey was a great setting, and added to the creepy atmosphere.  Seduction gets 4 stars.

Book: The S-Word by Chelsea Pitcher

Expected Publication For The S-Word is May 7, 2013 by Gallery Books|Pages: 322

Series: None

Genre: YA Contemporary

Goodreads|Chelsea Pitcher’s Website

A Note: The S-Word is an e-ARC from netgalley.com and it has not influenced my review in any way

Summary: First it was SLUT scribbled all over Lizzie Hart’s locker.

But one week after Lizzie kills herself, SUICIDE SLUT replaces it—in Lizzie’s looping scrawl.

Lizzie’s reputation is destroyed when she’s caught in bed with her best friend’s boyfriend on prom night. With the whole school turned against her, and Angie not speaking to her, Lizzie takes her own life. But someone isn’t letting her go quietly. As graffiti and photocopies of Lizzie’s diary plaster the school, Angie begins a relentless investigation into who, exactly, made Lizzie feel she didn’t deserve to keep living. And while she claims she simply wants to punish Lizzie’s tormentors, Angie’s own anguish over abandoning her best friend will drive her deep into the dark, twisted side of Verity High—and she might not be able to pull herself back out.

Debut author Chelsea Pitcher daringly depicts the harsh reality of modern high schools, where one bad decision can ruin a reputation, and one cruel word can ruin a life. Angie’s quest for the truth behind Lizzie’s suicide is addictive and thrilling, and her razor-sharp wit and fierce sleuthing skills makes her impossible not to root for—even when it becomes clear that both avenging Lizzie and avoiding self-destruction might not be possible.

I went into The S-Word thinking I’d really like it- as much as one could like a book about someone dealing with their best friend’s suicide.  I found that it was hard to get into The S-Word.

It didn’t feel like Angie and Lizzie were best friends during the time leading up to Lizzie’s betrayal.  It felt more like Angie and Lizzie were best friends in elementary/middle school and Angie regretted not being Lizzie’s friend in high school.  I know Angie saw her best friend and her boyfriend in bed together, but she didn’t seem upset about what she saw.  And she really didn’t seem to upset about Lizzie’s death.

It felt very much like a mystery as Angie tries to figure out who’s passing out pages from Lizzie’s diary.  However, it was Angie from the very beginning, because she didn’t want anyone to forget about what they did to Lizzie.  I can’t say I’m surprised by this turn of events, but I did find it refreshing that Angie made sure people didn’t forget about what they did to Lizzie.  Normally, with a book that is about someone who’s dealing with the suicide of a loved one, it’s them trying to move on and cope with what happened…so it’s nice to see a book where that doesn’t happen.  Angie’s “investigation” felt a little forced, and for me, it was a little too unbelievable.

As far as issues go, there was too much going on.  There’s bullying, slut-shaming (sort of), suicide, rape (mentioned), sexual assault (also mentioned) and sexuality…it was just too much, and I felt like there was supposed to be a overall message about…something.  I’m not quite sure what, because there was enough going on with “issues” that I wasn’t sure what message Pitcher was aiming for.  I felt like any message Pitcher was going for was overshadowed by Angie’s revenge.

Angie’s revenge didn’t work for me either.  She talks about how horrible people were to Lizzie before her death, and how people only seemed to care after Lizzie died…which also describes Angie, but unlike everyone else, Angie did have reason to not like Lizzie.  Of course, it’s no reason to treat someone the way they treated her, but sadly, it does happen.

Lizzie’s diary was a nice touch, because we see Lizzie through her own eyes, instead of through the eyes of everyone around her.  But even that diary didn’t completely work for me, because Lizzie came across as 13 of 14 instead of the 17 or 18 she was supposed to be.

However, I will say that the characters felt pretty realistic, and that some of the events in the book felt pretty realistic too.  I can imagine a lot of the characters/events actually happening.

Final Thoughts:

The S-Word didn’t work for me.  However, I did like how realistic the book felt.  I do like the cover, which goes really well with the book- and I like the simplicity of it.  The S-Word gets 1 star.

Book: Amity & Sorrow: A Novel by Peggy Riley

Published April 2013 by Little, Brown And Company|Pages: 249

Series: None

Genre: Adult Fiction

Goodreads|Peggy Riley’s Website

A Note: Amity & Sorrow is an e-galley from netgalley.com, which has not influenced my review in any way

Summary: A mother and her daughters drive for days without sleep until they crash their car in rural Oklahoma. The mother, Amaranth, is desperate to get away from someone she’s convinced will follow them wherever they go–her husband. The girls, Amity and Sorrow, can’t imagine what the world holds outside their father’s polygamous compound. Rescue comes in the unlikely form of Bradley, a farmer grieving the loss of his wife. At first unwelcoming to these strange, prayerful women, Bradley’s abiding tolerance gets the best of him, and they become a new kind of family. An unforgettable story of belief and redemption, AMITY & SORROW is about the influence of community and learning to stand on your own.

I was really intrigued by Amity & Sorrow, but it turned out to be an okay read.

I like the whole concept of the novel.  2 girls who grew up in a cult, and unable to imagine a life outside of that, and seeing them try to make sense of a world different than the one they grew up in…definitely intriguing, but it was also hard to get into this world.  I liked the traditional-ness of everything…but they world they left had just enough similarities to the one they found made it less interesting because there wasn’t enough of a contrast.

One thing I was trying to figure out was the timeline.  It felt like it was happening in present time…but something about the rural setting made it seem like it was happening in times past.

The narration didn’t work for me- it seemed like it alternated between Amity and Amaranth.  We see Sorrow through their eyes, although there were times when it felt like we just saw Sorrow.  It always took a couple pages to adjust to whoever was narrating, because there wasn’t anything to indicate that there were several narrators in terms of chapter headings.

I did like the flashbacks of Amaranth’s past, and I wish we saw more of her life in the cult and what drew her to it.  They all had intriguing stories, especially Sorrow and Amity.  Sorrow because of her role as Oracle, and Amity because things seem to be all about Sorrow.  As interesting as the characters seemed to be, nothing really stood out to me, and while interesting, they weren’t as interesting as they could have been.

Also, while it’s a fairly straightforward story, something about Amity & Sorrow seems jumbled and confusing.  I did want a little bit more about their lives before leaving because as it is, it was hard to care about their life after when I didn’t know much about their life before.  Being able to see how different their lives really were before and after would have made the novel a little more interesting for me.

Final Thoughts:

I don’t have much to say about Amity & Sorrow.  I liked the concept, and found that there’s a lot of potential for the characters.  For me, it was hard to connect with the characters, and I wanted them to be a little more developed.  Amity & Sorrow just wasn’t the book for me.  Amity & Sorrow gets 2 stars.

Book: My Soul To Steal by Rachel Vincent

Published January 2011 by Harlequin|Pages: 304

Source: E-book|Nook Store

Series: Soul Screamers #4

Genre: YA Paranormal

Goodreads|Rachel Vincent’s Website

Summary: Trying to work things out with Nash—her maybe boyfriend—is hard enough for Kaylee Cavanaugh. She can’t just pretend nothing happened. But “complicated” doesn’t even begin to describe their relationship when his ex-girlfriend transfers to their school, determined to take Nash back.

See, Sabine isn’t just an ordinary girl. She’s a mara, the living personification of a nightmare. She can read people’s fears—and craft them into nightmares while her victims sleep. Feeding from human fear is how she survives.

And Sabine isn’t above scaring Kaylee and the entire school to death to get whatever—and whoever—she wants.

I really am glad I liked My Soul To Steal.  Things are certainly interesting for Kaylee and Nash because they’re not together and because of Sabine, who I really didn’t like.  I get that Kaylee is having trouble with the whole dragon’s breath thing, and I don’t blame her.  But…her not wanting Nash to be with Sabine and yet not wanting to let him go…it was frustrating to read.  She needs space and time, loves Nash while not being there when he needed her, and not wanting him to be with anyone else while she makes up her mind.

Kaylee definitely was not a goody-goody and she was all paranoid.  I totally get her paranoia and her struggle with trying to forgive Nash.  Part of me was frustrated (like I just said) but part of me wanted her to have the chance to work through it on her own with no distractions.  So, naturally, there are distractions- like Sabine, who Nash apparently never really broke up with, and Avari working with another hellion and them taking over the school to get to Kaylee and to Sabine, who is, literally, a Nightmare.  And it was rather smart of the hellions to set it up so that Kaylee blamed Sabine for everything.  I should have seen that one coming.

I don’t think Sabine is going anywhere, and it’s interesting that Kaylee is the only one who doesn’t like Sabine.  They don’t get along to the point that Nash refuses to talk to both of them because of how they were acting.  Sabine definitely has a lot of issues, so while I’m not her biggest fan, it’ll be interesting to see where her story goes in the rest of the series.  I didn’t like her methods, but I did understand where she was coming from.

We see Nash, but it’s not a lot of him, so while we hear Sabine’s side of what he’s going through. we don’t actually see it for ourselves.  We do see a lot of Tod, which was actually really nice.  I’m not sure if Vincent iss headed in the direction of a love triangle, but right now…if it were to happen…I think I’d be Team Tod.  As much as I like Nash, I’m kind of liking Kaylee and Tod.  Kaylee’s still trying to figure out the whole Nash thing, so something with Tod might not even happen.

What’s interesting is that Tod tells Kaylee to let Nash go, because he’s hurting and to let him be with Sabine.  I’m interested in seeing where this goes, and what Kaylee decides to do.  In all honesty, I get why Nash’s friendship with Sabine picks up where it left off several years earlier.  He needs a friend, and Sabine’s there for him to talk to, which is more than you can say for other characters.  And while I’m being slightly hard on Kaylee, I get that her feelings are being heightened by what’s going on at school with the hellions.

And Alec!  That was definitely an interesting part of the book, and I sort of liked having him around.  I can’t wait to see if he makes another appearance!

Final Thoughts:

I don’t have much to say about My Soul To Steal, but I did really enjoy it.  I definitely enjoyed it a lot more than My Soul To Keep, and overall, I can’t wait to see where things are headed.  My Soul To Steal gets 4 stars.

Book: The Last Echo by Kimberley Derting

Published April 2012 by HarperCollins|Pages: 368

Source: E-book|Nook Store

Series: The Body Finder #3

Genre: YA Paranormal Mystery

Goodreads|Kimberly Derting’s Website

Summary: In the end, all that’s left is an Echo.

Before, Violet’s morbid ability to sense the dead led her to uncover dark murders and long-buried secrets in her small town. Now that she’s working with a special investigative team, Violet hopes she can help even more people—whether by saving a life or catching a killer.

Although she’s relieved to finally be honest about what she can do, her instant connection with her mysterious partner, Rafe, is both confusing and unsettling, and their unique bond creates tension with her boyfriend, Jay. When she discovers the body of a college student murdered by “the collector,” Violet refuses to give up on the case. With her own relationship on the line, Violet doesn’t realize that the serial killer is looking to add to his collection and that she may have caught his eye. Will the life Violet has to save be her own?

I am totally liking this series!  We finally see Violet working for Sara’s team, and there’s certainly an assortment of characters she has to work with.

The thing I thought was interesting was the group that they work for- they are a very mysterious group of people that we never meet but know exist.  Violet gets kidnapped by a serial killer, and needs a break from working with the team…and is told by her therapist that she needs to work with the team, because the people they work for want her to.  And naturally, if she doesn’t, she’ll be risking the lives of her friends and family.  Like, on the one hand, I’m not surprised, and I kind of feel like they’re up to something.  There’s definitely something shady going on there.

Violet’s connection to Rafe was interesting, and I totally get the tension that it causes.  But, like, Violet has finally found some people who can do what she does, and even though she doesn’t seem to completely fit in, she finally has a group of people who know what it’s like to have a special ability.

I love how there’s so much mystery in this series, and in The Last Echo, we have a serial killer who takes a liking to Violet!  Naturally, he kidnaps her (as previously mentioned) and naturally, she gets away…with an imprint of her own, because she kills him in self-defense.  So, it’s no wonder she wants a break, and she has no idea how to explain it to her parents.  Because what I didn’t mention was that she has a meeting with her therapist, who tells her to stay with the tell or else, even though Sara said to take all the time she needed.  So…yeah…there’s something shady going on, especially since we see Violet take some pills to help her sleep and how they make her ability to find dead people less effective.

And Jay and Violet are absolutely adorable together, and I so want them to stay together!  I’m hoping that there isn’t a love triangle because of how long it took for Jay and Violet to get together.

Final Thoughts:

I love the mystery and how there’s a different villain in each book.  I didn’t love it, and I think a little bit of it might be because of her therapist telling her to come back or else.  There’s so much I really like about this series, and The Last Echo is a great addition to the series.  I’m definitely looking forward to the last book to see how everything resolves itself.

Book: Outside In by Maria V. Snyder

Published March 2011 by HarlequinTeen|Pages: 304

Source: E-book|Nook Store

Series: Insiders #2

Genre: YA Science-Fiction/Dystopic

Goodreads|Maria V. Snyder

Summary: Me?

A leader?

Okay, I did prove that there’s more to Inside than we knew. That a whole world exists beyond this cube we live in. And finding that led to a major rebellion—between worker scrubs like me and the snobby uppers who rule our world. Make that ruled. Because of me, we’re free. I thought that meant I was off the hook, and could go off on my own again—while still touching base with Riley, of course. He’s the one upper I think I can trust. But then we learned that there’s outside and then there is Outside. 

And something from Outside wants In.

So, like, every single time I read a Maria V Snyder book, I’m always impressed with how much I like her stuff!  Outside In is the 2nd book in the Inside series, and even though it’s been months since I’ve read Inside Out, I jumped back into this world with no problems.

While we don’t get a lot of history in Outside In, I liked seeing how the characters dealt with Outsiders taking control of their ship.  The Controllers do exist, and we see how they may have ended up Outside.  It wasn’t until I started writing this review that (and looking over my review for Inside Out) that I realized we never learn how they ended up Inside, or why they’re on the spaceship floating along, or how they got to be so self-sustaining.  I was wrapped up with Trella’s story and if they’d be able to get control of their ship back that I didn’t really pay much attention to anything else!

Things weren’t what they seemed, with people who acted suspicious but weren’t involved with the controllers, and people who we didn’t suspect being involved with the whole thing.  I liked how Trella didn’t want to be part of the Committee, and how she didn’t trust herself or her voice until the end, when she realized how horrible the Outsiders were and what they were up to, and managed to organize everyone into saving Inside.

Another great thing is how there’s still the divide between the Uppers and the Lowers, and how there was rebellion amongst the lowers because of old habits dying hard.  I was quite glad to see Trella convince them that they are all Insiders, and not just an upper or a lower, and that they need to unite and work together if they want to save Inside.

The characters are great, and I love that they all have their own personalities.  I didn’t like Trella in this as much as I liked her in the first one, but she’s still a great character.  She was a little bit harder to like in this one, but overall, I still liked her.  Logan and Riley and all of the others were also unique characters that I liked reading about.

While there wasn’t as much exploring in Outside In, I still like that they’re on this ship floating through outer space.  I like that we actually meet the Outsiders and get some of their story and how we’re not sure which story to believe.  I like the little details of Inside  and Outside and the mystery of why they’re Inside and how they got to be Inside.

Final Thoughts:

A lot of my questions from Inside Out weren’t answered, and I have even more questions about the world of Inside!  I really like the world of Inside and how it’s full of different and interesting characters.  While I didn’t love Outside In, I still think it’s a book full of awesome!  Outside In gets 4 stars.

Book: Belonging by Karen Ann Hopkins

*Expected publication is April 30, 2013 by Harlequin Teen|Expected Number Of Pages: 414

*Belonging is an e-ARC from netgalley.com*

Series: Temptation #2

Genre: YA Contemporary

Find out more on Goodreads

Summary: I left everything I knew behind. 

But it was worth it. He was worth it. 

No one thought an ordinary girl like me would last two minutes living with the Amish, not even me. There are a lot more rules and a lot less freedom, and I miss my family and the life I once had. Worst of all, Noah and I aren’t even allowed to see each other. Not until I’ve proven myself.

If I can find a way to make it work, we’ll be NOAH & ROSE 

together forever. 

But not everybody believes this is where I belong.

For pretty much the entire book, I found myself rooting for Noah and Rose…while being so freaking irritated with her family, particularly her dad and her older brother!

Rose lasted several months longer in the Amish community than anyone ever expected, and while it was a hard adjustment for her, she did make the effort to try to fit in.  She finds some new friends- Miranda, Suzanne and Summer, and I like her friendship with the three girls, as well as the relationships she forms with her foster family.

I loved seeing Noah and Rose narrate the novel, which still works so well, because you see their interactions with those around them and their thoughts on what’s going on.  You really see how different their beliefs are, much more than in Temptation.  We also have a new narrator in the form of Sam, Rose’s older brother.  For a good chunk of the book, I wasn’t sure about Sam as a narrator, but by the end I warmed up to it.  He does add the perspective of what it was like for him to have his younger sister gone and what he thought about it.

So.  The irritation with her family.  It was really well-done, and while I totally wanted to punch them in the face or something, I get why they acted the way they did.  I HATED how they went about it.  They assume that Rose won’t go with them if they show up at the house where she’s living, so they come up with this plan that involves getting Rose to Wal-Mart, where they plan to…surprise her with their presence, and having a police officer on hand, and drag her home.  Then they have her younger brother write a letter to Noah (because Justin’s hand-writing is similar to Rose’s) and when Noah arrives at Rose’s house, he gets a letter from Rose saying she doesn’t want to see him again.

I get that they thought she’d be home sooner, and I get they want her to make sure that she wants to be Amish, and to live in the English world a little longer.  But the entire time, they’re totally dismissive of what Rose wants.  They don’t like this particular Amish community because her dad and Sam think they’re backwards and they think the entire thing is stupid and ridiculous.  They tell her she can do whatever she wants when she’s 18, but in the meantime, she’s cut-off from the Amish world.  I feel like they do everything in their power to make sure she NEVER joins the Amish community.  I don’t want to speculate on whether that’s intentional on Hopkins’ part, but that’s the vibe I got from her family.  You see her and Noah move on- Noah even becomes engaged to a girl who is the polar opposite of Rose, and Sam’s reaction is so frustrating!  He’s all annoyed that Noah moved on, but what does Sam expect when he broke up Noah and Rose?  You don’t get to break them up and be all happy when Rose moves on but all mad when Noah also moves on.  He did think that Rose broke up with him, after all.  In the end, he feels bad, and tells Noah he had Justin write the break-up letter- and all because of Summer being upset with what they did.

In my review for Temptation, I mentioned that her family’s reaction to her decision was one reason why the novel worked so well, and I wasn’t quite sure why.  But in Belonging, I realized that it’s BECAUSE her family thinks it’s stupid and are totally dismissive of the whole thing.  The whole time, I definitely understood their concern with Rose making such a huge decision at the age of 17, because she hasn’t experienced a lot of life.  It’s just…as much as their reaction irritated me, I could see it.

Something that I didn’t mention in my review of Temptation was when Noah suggested that Rose pretend to be pregnant so that they’ll have to get married.  Initially, she balks, because her dad’s a doctor, and she feels like she wouldn’t be able to fool him.  It becomes irrelevent in Temptation because of the accident Noah has…so imagine my surprise when Noah and Rose sleep together and she gets pregnant!  We have yet to see her dad’s reaction, or what Rose thinks, but we see that Noah hopes she’s pregnant, because it will ensure that he will marry her…I mean, there are rules to follow in the Amish community.

Final Thoughts:

I know this review is mostly me talking about things that happen as opposed to my really scattered thoughts, but those events are huge in terms of why I like the book.  I really enjoyed Belonging, and I LOVE the contrast between Rose and Noah.  Rose’s family was definitely irritating, and while I disagree with how they went about things, I can also understand.  Their reaction to the Amish way of life makes the novel work, because you see how much they don’t want that life for Rose.  Belonging gets 4 stars.