"Lessons From a Dead Girl" by Jo Knowles

I squeeze my hand shut and hold our secret in it. Any time I start to wonder why on earth Leah Greene wants to be my best friend, I tell myself not to think about it.

Leah Greene is dead.
Laine doesn't know what to think, or how to feel. Should she be sad, for losing her F.F., friend forever? Should she feel relieved, because she wished Leah would die? Should she feel freed, from her past, from the doll closet, from Leah herself?

Laine hated Leah. Hated her for everything she made Laine do, for all the times in the doll closet. She didn't understand Leah, didn't understand why she did the things she did or said the things she said. And yet, Laine wonders how different the two really are, and who Leah really were.

As Laine tries to understand Leah and the tragedy of her death, she tries to also understand the lessons that Leah taught her, find their meaning, and find out if she can forgive the unforgivable.

"It will come off," I say, scrubbing harder. But even when my hand is almost raw, I still see some of the red marker.
I go back to my room and hug George again.
"We won't be friends forever," I whisper into his fur. "We won't."
But he keeps smiling, like he knows better.

First of all, I do not recommend this book to anyone under the age of fifteen. A lot of the themes are quite mature, and I don't think that I could handle this if I were any younger than I am now.

Moving on, however, I have to say that this was a very interesting book. It had different story themes than I've ever read before, and I really liked the complicated relationship between Leah and Laine. I actually thought that all of the relationships in this book were interesting, complicated, and well developed, except for possibly the ones with Web and Jess (which were well developed, but not as interesting.)
I liked how all the characters had their own motives and personalities, and how all of them acted like real human beings.

I have to say that the writing style was also quite amazing, and it really absorbed me. I liked how it was written in sort of a hopeless way, and at the end you're sort of handed a bittersweet and hopeful ending.  It's also nice because you don't have to wait too long to get to the ending- I read this book in probably about 45 minutes.

Overall, it was an excellent book for older readers.

"I'm not afraid of you," I lie. "I just think I should get back."
And I don't want to play your games.
"I think you're afraid."
"Why do you always do this?" I ask.  I don't know why I bother. I should just step off the gazebo and disappear.
"Do what?" she asks innocently.
"Act this way. Like you're playing some game. Like you're out to get me." I pause as the familiar fear courses through me. My heart pounds so hard in my chest it hurts. But instead of running away, I take a deep breath. "Why do you hate me so much, Leah?"
"Me?"

"Between Shades of Gray" by Ruta Sepetys

Release: March 22nd
"Lina is just like any other fifteen-year-old Lithuanian girl in 1941. She paints, she draws, she gets crushes on boys. Until one night when Soviet officers barge into her home, tearing her family from the comfortable life they've known. Separated from her father, forced onto a crowded and dirty train car, Lina, her mother, and her young brother slowly make their way north, crossing the Arctic Circle, to a work camp in the coldest reaches of Siberia. Here they are forced, under Stalin's orders, to dig for beets and fight for their lives under the cruelest of conditions.
Lina finds solace in her art, meticulously—and at great risk—documenting events by drawing, hoping these messages will make their way to her father's prison camp to let him know they are still alive. It is a long and harrowing journey, spanning years and covering 6,500 miles, but it is through incredible strength, love, and hope that Lina ultimately survives. Between Shades of Gray is a novel that will steal your breath and capture your heart." -from Goodreads

This book was amazing. It was touchingly emotional and beautifully written; as well as painfully realistic and with terrifying circumstances, situations, and other details. The characters were as deep as the story. The characters in this book go through so many terrible and awe-inspiring things that it's incredible, as well as terribly upsetting and heart breaking because the situation under Stalin happened. Author Ruta Sepetys even says that a lot of the things that happened in the story are based on real survivors' accounts. It was scary at times, depressing, encouraging, depressing, and all of those elements just made it so authentic. This beautiful book is not an easy book to read, at times I wanted to cry or put the book down or something when I read more about the journey Lina was on, because it was just that emotional, but all of those things that made the book are just so important I think because so much of it is true. A must-read if you're into historical fiction, finding out more about history, or just a dramatically amazing story, you'll adore Between Shades of Gray!

If you would like to find out more about Between Shades of Gray go to the website here or Ruta Sepetys's website here.

ARC through program at my library! Thanks! 

"The Replacement" by Brenna Yovanoff

"In the story, Emma's four years old. She gets out of bed and pads across the floor in her footie pajamas. When she reaches her hand between the bars, the thing in the crib moves closer. It tries to bite her and she takes her hand out again but doesn't back away. They spend all night looking at each other in the dark. In the morning, the thing is still crouched on the lamb-and-duckling mattress pad, staring at her.
It isn't her brother.
IT'S ME." -the back of "The Replacement"

I got interested in this book because it's part of Penguin's "Breathless Reads" campaign, which I came across because of my love for "Matched" by Ally Condie (which is also, obviously, part of the campaign). I saw it on the list, so I looked it up and added it to my TBR list, and got it from the library a couple of days ago. I'm glad I did get interested in this book, because it I did like the story! It was very interesting, the whole 'creature' being swapped for a baby every 7 years in the town of Gentry. It was a really creepy spooky story.  The problems I had with it, is the story was really kind of complicated to the point of being quite confusing sometimes. Other then that it was enjoyable (in a really really creepy kinda way). I also enjoyed reading of Mackie's rather dysfunctional family (not in a humorous kind of dysfunctional, just that), and thought his mother's relationship with the replacements and his father's seeming ignorance towards Mackie, then there's Emma, who was cool. I give it 4 stars. Also, the cover is pretty cool, and if I'd seen it without knowing anything else about the book, that probably would've intrigued me enough to pick it up and read it- I love awesome covers.

"Kindred" by Tammar Stein

"Miriam is an unassuming college freshman stuck on campus after her spring break plans fall through. She's not a religious girl--when pressed she admits reluctantly to believing in a higher power. Truth be told, she's about as comfortable speaking about her faith as she is about her love life, which is to say, not at all. And then the archangel Raphael pays Miriam a visit, and she finds herself on a desperate mission to save two of her contemporaries. To top it all off, her twin brother, Mo, has also had a visitation, but from the opposite end of the good-evil spectrum, which leaves Miriam to wonder--has she been blessed and her brother cursed or vice versa? And what is the real purpose behind her mission" (Actual Description)

This book sure was interesting. I did like it pretty well. I think it gets, hm... 3.75 stars? I think I'll just get over myself and round that to four stars!! It was good! I can definitely say I've never read a book with a story and plot quite like this one. Miriam's journey and life after her visit from Raphael is a complex, good one. Although, on that note, the book I think is really like Miriam's personal journey in life (after her visit from the angels), and struggle with her faith and relationships, not quite just about visits from the angels and her brother and such. That said, it's also a very religious book, which was interesting, I'd never really read a YA book with a lot of religious focus, so that was kind of new, I didn't mind though. Anyway, this is a good one. I would recommend this if you're into books with a theme of religion, angels, and also if you like a good book where the protagonist overcomes a personal struggle- which I do. Also, this book is probably more for the older end of YA, just because I don't think younger less mature readers would even really get what's going on...

To learn more about "Kindred" go to it's bit on the Random House website here, and Tammar Stein's website here.

Thank you very much Random House/Knopf for the review copy. Also, readers, receiving a review copy does not cause my to alter my review, I am unbiased, these are my real opinions people!