The Summer My Life Began by Shannon Greenland

Elizabeth Margaret—better known as Em—has always known what life would contain: an internship at her father’s firm, a degree from Harvard and a career as a lawyer. The only problem is that it’s not what she wants. When she gets the opportunity to get away from it all and spend a month with the aunt she never knew, she jumps at the chance. While there, Em pursues her secret dream of being a chef, and she also learns that her family has kept some significant secrets from her, too. And then there’s Cade, the laid-back local surfer boy who seems to be everything Em isn't. Naturally, she can’t resist him, and as their romance blossoms, Em feels she is living on her own terms for the first time.


This book was all it promised, cute, cliche and a quick read.
It was entirely predictable (apart from at one point for me).

Elizabeth Margaret. Not Elizabeth, not Margaret, Elizabeth Margaret. I know her parents were posh and all, but seriously: two long first names? I thought people only had mulitple middle names or first names that were hyphenated. And not that long.

Em wasn't my favourite of characters... I found her quite annoying. I wouldn't mind if she made me a meal though; she was a great cook.

When it came to the Cade/Em relationship I got very confused. At one point I was sure that Shannon Greenland had made it out that Cade was in a relationship with Beth, but either it was a joke or it was a different person.

Tilly's scandalous  misendeavor wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Having recently read Pretty Amy by Lisa Burstein, I was expecting her to have acted like that, you know trouble with the police and all. What she did was bad and not something I would do, but yeah, I expected worse.

About five seconds after Sid was introduced I knew who he was. That was so poorly disguised that Inspector Clouseau could have figured it out.

The book didn't really have anything that original, just a stringful of cliches tied together. It was a quick, light read that was cute and fluffy.

I'm going to give this book two out of five stars.



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The Invitation by Diane Hoh

For the high schoolers of Greenhaven, Cass Rockham’s fall party is the social event of the year. Each October, students wait by their mailboxes, praying for the gilt-edged invitation that grants entry into the inner circle of the most popular crowd. And now Cass has planned her finest party yet, with a new sauna, a hot band, and no parents for miles. But to make this party really killer, Cass tops it all off with a sinister twist.
 
Nerdy Sarah Drew is shocked when she and her friends receive invitations to Cass’s affair. For years she’s steered clear of the popular kids, and now they want her to come to their party? Sarah is wary, but her friends talk her into coming with them. But she regrets it quickly, for at Cass Rockham’s mansion, the only party favour is death.




I got this book from NetGalley in the form of an uncorrected proof. There were so many mistakes. Ellie was frequently misspelled as 'Elbe' and there was a lack of spaces between the words.


Despite the amount of technical errors, I still enjoyed the book. It was no where near as much of a horror book as I expected which was disappointing. It was obvious exactly who wasn't the culprit behind what is happening to Sarah and her friends, but I never would have guessed who was. Well I guessed who it was when they were first introduced, just not who it was. Long story.


The book was choppy in places and I'm not sure if that was because I read an uncorrected proof or just because the book was written like that in the first place. The book would switch to another scene with no indication. I got confused at one point, because people were looking for a certain character (let's call them Bob) and then on the next line of the conversation would be Bob talking. They hadn't found Bob, but Bob had been talking to someone else, it just wasn't shown very well with the layout.


All that was off-putting but the story had quite a good plot-line. I think the reason the person trying to hurt Sarah and her friends for wasn't that big of a deal. Seriously, yeah it was annoying what happened, but they had lied and warped the truth so much they were believing a lie. They deserved it and had no good reason to even want to hurt them. Well most of them.


I liked Sarah as a main character, though I think it's crazy just how much she practises her violin. Three hours every day. That's crazy. I play an instrument and practise nothing close to that time; my friend that plays violin probably practises close to that. She was the only one who seemed wary of the fact that Cass Rockham had invited her and her friends to her party. To be fair to Cass, what she planned for the night was slightly different from what actually down.


Shane's secret was disappointing. I was expecting it to be something huge, and while yes, it was totally wrong what she did, it just wasn't wrong in my books.


As far as this culprit I keep mentioning goes, there's some other characters in the book I would much have preferred to be. Someone so shocking it just wouldn't have even crossed the brain that they might be responsible.


It was a huge disappointment but I have a feeling quite a lot of the annoyance I felt towards the book was the fact of the mistakes. If I had read a proof-read copy I think I'd have enjoyed it a whole more.


I'm going to give it three stars because that's what I think it deserves if it didn't have all the mistakes.