The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion

This book follows Don, a geneticist, who has difficulty meeting women. To combat this, he begins The Wife Project, where he creates a questionnaire for potential mates. Questions are along the lines of when do you arrive at events and how much alcohol do you drink. Don's friend Gene sends Rosie to him after the questionnaire seems to not produce reliable results. Rosie does not know who her father is, so they begin The Father Project together. Immediately, Don decides that Rosie is not Wife Project material, so he focuses his energy on The Father Project. This takes them all the way to New York (the book is based in Australia) and slowly he begins to realize that maybe not all mates can adhere to a checklist.

Recommendations:
If you liked the adventure of Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore: A Novel.

Champion (Legend #3) by Marie Lu

Marie Lu finishes up her Legend trilogy with Champion. Day and June are back in the Republic, with June serving as Princeps-Elect and Day keeping to himself and keeping his brain tumor (?) to himself while he cares for his blind brother, Eden. However, a plague originally engineered in the Republic is taking over the Colonies, making the threat of war imminent. While the Republic is desperately trying to find a cure for the plague, Day has to help the Elector plan how to save the Republic against the Colonies if they do attack. I thought it was a really good ending to a series (unlike Mockingjay...huff).

Horde (Razorland #3) by Ann Aguirre

This book picks up where Outpost left us. Since I read it recently, I cannot accurately judge if Aguirre left me enough "breadcrumbs" to remember where the last book left off. Anyway, the Freaks have destroyed Salvation and seem to be getting smarter with each new generation. Deuce and Company go to a nearby town (Soldier's Pond) to get help to defeat the horde (group of Freaks), but when they return, it is more of a rescue mission than anything. While in Soldier's Pond, Deuce is not allowed to join their military to fight the Freaks, so she decides to make a military of her own by convincing volunteers to fight with her. She travels around the countryside, visiting other small settlements, but is often laughed out of town. Deciding that it is best to prove the worth of her small army, they stake out a forest close to Soldier's Pond and defend it from any Freaks that come into it. Word travels about how well she and her army are doing and eventually towns that originally ignored them need her help. But there are so many Freaks and not enough humans to defeat them. Will Deuce get enough volunteers and outwit the Freaks?

Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell

Eleanor and Park is set in the 80s. Sometimes the point of view is from Eleanor, others it is from Park. Eleanor is new at school and stands out because of her hair (she is nicknamed Big Red), size, and men's clothing she wears. Park, on the other hand, is the only Asian in school. They ride together on the bus after Park is the only one who offered Eleanor a seat. She reads his comics over his shoulder and eventually that starts a friendship. However, Eleanor comes from a broken home with an abusive stepfather and four younger siblings. Being in a relationship is essentially not allowed, so she has to hide her budding romance from her family.

Prodigy (Legend #2) by Marie Lu

This book picks up where Legend leaves off, if I could only remember where Legend had left me. As I have discussed in previous reviews of sequels of books, this one did not do a good job of connecting this book to the previous one and refreshing my memory of what had occurred. However, I was able to piece it together enough to still enjoy the book. Day and June are trying to escape to the Colonies, who they believe will keep them safe. Meanwhile, the new elector, Anden, is struggling to keep the Republic together and needs Day's endorsement for the people of the Republic to trust him. Will Day choose to endorse Anden or go to the Colonies to be safe with June?

The Engagements by J. Courtney Sullivan

I had previously read Maine by Sullivan and was mildly impressed by it. When I heard about this book, it sounded like a lot more interesting of a plot line and it did not let me down. The story spans over fifty years, from the beginnings of the tagline "A Diamond Is Forever," to the application to pro-marriage, anti-marriage, affairing, struggling couples. There are four couples featured throughout the book, plus Frances Gerety, who came up with the line. One couple has been married for thirty years and find out that their son has left his wife for another woman. A second couple lives in Europe and she leaves her husband for her lover. The third couple struggles to make ends meet, but love each other dearly. And the final couple doesn't believe in marriage. The story revolves around how diamonds are the connecting thread through all of the couples.

The Elite (The Selection #2) by Kiera Cass

The Elite is the second book in The Selection trilogy. It continues where The Selection left off: with six girls remaining trying to win Maxon's heart. However, America is still deciding if she loves Maxon or Aspen, one of the guards that she knew from before the Selection began. As she struggles, both men show her what they can give her. Aspen can give her security now that he is a 2, but Maxon offers her a princess crown and the possibility of changing their country for the better. The final installment, The One, will be released next year.

Pure (Pure #1) by Julianna Baggott

This book takes place after the Detonations, which is what occurred after the Dome was built. People who made it inside the Dome (bought their way in and whatnot) are known as "pures" since they are not liked the "fused" who live outside the Dome. Those who are fused are just that--were fused to whatever they were touching or whoever they were near or holding when the Detonations occurred. Pressia is the main character who lives outside the Dome and has a doll head for a right hand (since the Detonations occurred when she was six and holding her favorite doll) and glass in her face. Another character is Patridge, who is inside the Dome. He figures out that his mother is still alive, but lives outside the Dome. He escapes and goes on a search for her, and while outside the Dome, Pressia runs into him and protects him from Groupies (people who were fused together, so three individuals but in one connected body) and helps him in his search to find his mother. I found this book to be fairly dry for a fiction book, but I do want to know what happens. It felt like an adult version of Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins.

Gorgeous by Paul Rudnick

Gorgeous is about a girl named Becky Randle who just graduated high school. Her mother dies and while she is going through her things, she finds a jewelry ring box that has a phone number in the bottom of it. She calls the number and Tom Kelly, a famous fashion designer, answers it. Becky flies out to New York to meet him and he presents her with an offer: to make her the most beautiful woman in the world. She agrees to it and he makes it happen via three dresses: a red one, a white one, and a black one. She isn't sure how this can be accomplished since she is rather plain looking, but when she wears the red dress, she transforms into Rebecca: a taller, thinner, and more beautiful version of herself that even models are jealous of her. At the end of their first night out, he tells her that she can stay looking like this for the rest of her life if she falls in love and gets married within a year. I honestly really did not like this book. I thought it was too supernatural (something I was not expecting from it), at least for my tastes, and also pretty predictable.

Fifty Shades Freed (Fifty Shades #3) by E. L. James

Fifty Shades Darker ends with a mystery person spying on Christian and Ana at their new house that they will renovated. Fifty Shades Freed starts during their honeymoon and does weird flashbacks, so it is like honeymoon-wedding-honeymoon-earlier in the honeymoon-honeymoon...you get the idea. I was not a big fan of it and in general did not enjoy this book as much as the other ones. Anyway...immediately after they get home to Seattle after their honeymoon, they are being chased by a mystery woman for whatever reason. Ana manages to lose them, but it is soon discovered that the fire that occurred at GEH during their honeymoon was not an accident, but indeed arson. Who could be causing all these problems and why? Do they have anything to do with Charlie Tango going down? Most of this book is focused on Christian and Ana's relationship while it grows and normalizes after they are married. Other subplots occur (I will not ruin them by talking about them), but all in all, I felt like it was a weak book to end the series.

The Age of Miracles: A Novel by Karen Thompson Walker

In The Age of Miracles, we meet Julia who is experiencing the slowing of the turning of the earth. The days are gradually getting longer with interesting consequences: birds start falling from the sky, people create "earth day" communes (instead of living on 24 hour "clock time"), and gravity sickness. Things slowly dissolve into chaos with the government instituting clock time, limiting personal power use (since the crops have to have sunlamps since the nights get to be so long), and trying to figure out how to bring back the astronauts stuck in the space station. In Julia's personal life, she is experiencing the coming-of-age challenges of first bras, first loves, and keeping her father's infidelity from her mother. I thought this was an interesting premise for a book, but the ending left me wanting.

Fifty Shades Darker (Fifty Shades #2) by E. L. James

In this sequel to Fifty Shades of Grey, Ana and Christian reunite at Jose's art gallery opening. They realize how much they care for each other and Christian will do anything to keep Ana, even give him his Red Room of Pain. Ana then starts a job at SIP, the publishing house. Her manager is Jack and he keeps making passes at her and hinting that they need to go get drinks. Christian is very aware of Jack's past history with his assistants, with none lasting longer than three months and is concerned the same will happen to Ana. Eventually, Jack corners her in the kitchen and makes his proposition quite clear. But Ana, whose dad Ray is ex-army, knows how to defend herself. Jack loses his job and Ana takes it, elated. Meanwhile, Christian and Ana grow closer, with Ana meeting with Dr. Flynn to find out more about why Christian is the way he is. The book continues to reveal snippets of Christian's past, making the reader understand more about him. I am so glad that Fifty Shades Freed is waiting for me at the library since the ending leaves you hanging!

Fifty Shades of Grey (Fifty Shades #1) by E. L. James

With all the hype around this book, I knew I had to read it. Ana, a soon-to-be college grad from WSU-Vancouver, interviews Christian Grey for her sick roommate, Kate. From this interview, they become quite taken with each other, but Christian tries to resist, since he knows he has problems that Ana probably can't handle. They find each other anyway, and Ana gets introduced to his alternative BSDM lifestyle. I thought that the book would be heavy into the BSDM (maybe that comes in the next book?), but it seemed quite gentle in that regard. More focus was given to Christian and what sort of past he has and why he doesn't do the "girlfriend thing." He is an awful hard nut to crack, but will Ana do it with gentle prodding? Will he be able to have a relationship that includes the "girlfriend thing"?

Reached (Matched #3) by Ally Condie

This is the third book in the Matched trilogy. The Rising has come and to win followers, they released a deadly flu virus into the Society's water. They have a vaccine and everyone who gets it is healed, but soon the virus mutates and they do not have a vaccine against the mutated form. It becomes a race against time to find a cure and it becomes even more urgent when Ky falls ill. But there are people working against the Rising to make sure as many people as possible die. Will a cure be found in time to save Ky?

Half Broke Horses by Jeannette Walls

I read this book in pretty much 26 hours, from when I began to when I ended since it is very much similar to Walls' Glass Castles book. Unlike Glass Castles, which is Walls' memoir, Half Broke Horses is about Walls' grandmother, Lily Casey Smith, and her life living in west Texas and Arizona. Smith's life begins in west Texas, where her family is stuck taking what the weather will give them, in terms of flash flooding and drought, until their house is destroyed by a tornado. Then they move to Arizona onto a ranch they had been renting. There, Smith learns to break horses and has all sorts of adventures, such as going to boarding school and teaching 500 miles away from home when she was 15 years old. How did she get to her job? By riding solo on horseback for almost a month. She eventually moves to Chicago to experience life in the big city, where she meets her first husband, who, after six years of marriage, she discovers is a bigamist who had a wife with three children before marrying her. She leaves him and moves back to Arizona, trying to carve out a life for herself teaching. She has many adventures, such as learning to drive a car and fly a plane and even gets her bachelor's degree and teaching certificate when she was 40 years old. I definitely recommend this book if you want to get a real glimpse of living on a ranch in the early- to mid-1900s.

Cinder (Lunar Chronicles #1) by Marissa Meyer

This book is about Cinder, a cyborg, who is living in New Beijing after World War IV. She has a stepmother and two stepsisters (much like Cinderella) who are getting prepared for a ball for Prince Kai. One day, when she is at her shop in the market square, Kai approaches her and wants her to fix his robot. She agrees to it, and meanwhile, her stepsister Peony comes down with letumosis, something similar to the Black Plague and has no known cure. With Peony sick, Cinder's stepmother Adri enlists Cinder to be tested for a cure for letumosis, knowing full well that all those tested never live to tell about it. While in the lab, it is discovered that Cinder is immune. She finds out that she is really Lunar, from a colony on the moon, but it is illegal for Lunar to live on earth. Knowing that this must be kept a secret, and despite Kai's persistent courting of her, she decides to run away, but then finds out imperitive information that Kai must know. Will she be able to get to Kai in time or will she go through with her plan to run away to Europe?

The Selection (The Selection #1) by Kiera Cass

Cass writes a story about America, who lives in a post-World War IV United States, now known as Illea, where there is a caste system in place ranging from Ones to Eights. America is a Five, which is the artist caste, and is in love with Asper, who is a Six, and would be a union that would be frowned upon if it came to fruition. The prince if Illea, Maxon, has come to age where he must find a princess. Any girl aged 16-20 can enter their name into the Selection. Thirty-five finalists are chosen, America being one of them, even though she has no intention of becoming a princess and is only doing it to help her family and because she promised Aspen she would, before he broke up with her after realizing that he could never provide the life for her that he thinks she deserves. America makes it known to Maxon on the first night in the palace that she is not interested in him, but does not want to return home to face the heartache left by Aspen. Maxon keeps her in the Selection and they become friends, with America serving as his insider with information on the other girls. Slowly, America takes a liking to Maxon, who is falling for her hard. But rebel forces keep attacking the palace, leading to a draft. Aspen is drafted and is stationed at the palace, which reignites their romance. Who will America choose?

 

Book 2, The Elite, will be released on April 23, 2013.

Crossed (Matched #2) by Ally Condie

This is the sequal to Matched. Crossed is told from a different point of view than Matched: it goes from third person to first person, alternating between Ky and Cassia's stories/POVs. I found that hard to get used to since the tone is so similar between the two, but whatev.

It starts (and goes) fairly slow compared to its predecessor, but still a lot happens in the book. Cassia is on the hunt for Ky because she loves him and wants to be reunited with him, while Ky is on the hunt for Cassia for the same reason. Ky is bent on getting back to Society, while Cassia is on a mission to get to the Outer Provinces. Cassia beats Ky to the punch and ends up finding him before he finds her. Then the story goes on and on about the Carving, a giant Grand Canyon-eque landmark thing. Cassia is searching/following Ky in it, Ky leaves it, Ky returns into it, Cassia finds him, they go back into the Carving, they meander in the Carving, they leave the Carving, blah blah blah Carving this, Carving that, zzzzz! ANYWAY, they finally make their way out of the Carving and they are on a mission to get to the Rising (an anti-Society outfit). Ky doesn't want to be a part of the Rising, but Cassia wants to be a part of something bigger than herself. Will Ky find it in himself to follow Cassia wherever she decides to go. Will she choose Ky or the Rising?

Nail-biter to the end!

Thankfully, the third installment of this trilogy comes out in November!

Matched (Matched #1) by Ally Condie

Matched is very similar to the Hunger Games trilogy. It is about a girl named Cassia and how her Society has everything rigged set up. Everything is based off of predictions and control of variables. Everyone is poisoned dies on their 80th birthday, those who chose to be Matched (thus the title) are on their 17th birthday and all sign a marriage Contract on their 21st in the hopes that they start popping out kids when they're 24. They don't even have the ability to choose their jobs, everything is what they test in to and also what they are predicted to be. And when I say predicted, I don't mean tarot card, I mean it is what they are most likely to do or become or to match with. ANYWAY, Cassia gets Matched with her close friend Xander. Later when she looks at the microcard that everyone gets with their Match, she sees Xander and then for a split second she sees Ky, another boy she knows. Of course, then she must explore and find out more about Ky and it leads to her to question the Society and how everything is set up and there are no free choices.

This is the first book in the trilogy, the second one came out November, 2011, and the third will come out November, 2012.

Legend (Legend #1) by Marie Lu

So I thought that this was a cute book, but very a la Hunger Games and Matched. The plot was fairly simple. It is a story woven around two main characters, Day and June, and the quest for truth about their country, the Republic (which Day knows more about than June, even though June has been top-ranked in the Republic's military for forever). Of course, it is a love story, with June originally pitted against Day and out to capture him because she believes that he is responsible for her brother's death, but when she does meet him (however, she does not know it is Day since his name is never said), she finds him to be a very kind boy. (They are both 15. This is a YA book.) As to be expected, romance blooms and June must either trust Day and what he says, or believe what the Republic tells her is true.