Beautiful Nightmare: Some Dreams Become Your Reality by Ashley Marie Nestler

Long ago, the world suffered a terrible war, leaving behind only a select few hundred people. Believing that strong emotions fueled the war, those who survived created a town named Lunamoon, where each new human would be altered to be unable to feel emotion. 

They decide to choose only one man in each generation to be named the dream maker, and he would create dreams for everyone to tell them what their jobs and life outcomes would be.

The dream maker is able to live in solitude for the duration of his life, but the moment that the current dream maker is born, everything changes. Shawneleigh, a premature child was born with narcolepsy on the same day as the dream maker, lives on her own in the hospital. Through her sporadic sleeping spells and the connection they made at birth, she and the dream maker are able to connect through her dreams. They become friends, and then, fall in love.

Beautiful Nightmare is a tale of love and faith, showing how we can stand up for ourselves, while standing against those who want others to fail. For through it all, in the end, there is love.

First-time author, Ashley Marie Nestler, grew up in Westminster, Colorado. "I have lived right by the mountains all of my live, and the beauty really inspired me with this novel. 

Publisher's website: http://sbpra.com/AshleyMarieNestler

Review: 

I have to point this out before  I say anything about the book. I found this out shortly before I started reading it. This is the author's debut novel, and she wrote it during her senior year of high school. Let that sink in for a minute. Think about what you were doing during high school. In my case, I was a super boring honor's student, scared about graduating high school and going to college. I have always loved to read and have, on occasion, fantasized about writing a book someday. However, I couldn't imagine my 17 year old self sitting down, putting pen to paper and finishing a whole novel, much less having the courage to publish it myself. Needless to say, I was super impressed before I even read the first sentence.

Now on to the book: the story has an interesting and unique premise - the people of Lunamoon's brains are altered when they are born, removing their emotions. While this is a great concept, I think the follow through could have been better. It seemed like there were too many inconsistencies and contradictions, and things that didn't make much sense. For example, for people that are supposed to be devoid of emotions, they sure are prone to experiencing some pretty strong emotions, like jealousy, rage, and for some, love.

Also, I don't understand at all why a sex scene was included in this book. The world as they know it is turned upside down, and they sneak into an empty hospital-ish room for a quickie, when she wasn't even aware what kissing was earlier in the book? I thought that this was kind of tasteless and am not sure what the point was. This could be just me, though.

The ending of this book totally threw me for a loop. There were some aspects thrown in there that I didn't think really fit in with the rest of the story. I don't want to give away an spoilers, but the ending seemed like a completely different book. To me, it seems like too many different plot lines were popping up that didn't mesh with the rest of the story.

However, overall, I definitely respect the author for writing this book and putting it out there. If this is what she accomplished during her senior year in high school, I would definitely like to see what she can do later in life. Although this book wasn't my favorite, I would definitely read another book that she writes!

I received a copy of this book for free, in exchange for an honest review.

The Reader by MK Harkins

Hunted, shot and without her memory, eighteen-year-old Ann Baker wakes in a shallow water on a deserted Pacific Northwest island. She is soon approached by two young men claiming to be her friends. Something isn't right, but when gunshots sound, Ann is left with little choice but to allow Devon and Archer to help her escape. Soon she finds herself in their North Bend mountain compound, where the higher evolved humans claim to be mind-readers. While Ann heals, she realizes that they believe her to be one of the last and most powerful of all - The Lost One.

She's welcomed by most with opened arms, but  not everyone is happy about her arrival. A jealous adversary has plans for Ann, which spirals the entire Reader community into chaos.

As lies, murder and betrayal threaten to rip apart the once harmonious mountain dwellers, Ann is thrust into making a decision that could save or devastate not only The Readers, but all of mankind. But there is just one glitch: by doing so it may require her to make the ultimate sacrifice.

I really enjoyed this book, but it seemed a little obvious what was going to happen at some points. Sometimes, I was worried that it wouldn't be very suspenseful and it was going to be predictable.

However, I was very pleasantly surprised! There were twists and turns that I could never have predicted! It turned out to be a great book!

With the way it ended, I am hoping that the author writes a sequel. I felt like this one could have been longer and could have benefited from some extra details in some places and elaboration on some parts of the story, but overall, it was a great concept. I look forward to reading more from MK Hawkins!

I received a copy of this book from the publishers, via NetGalley, in exchange for my honest opinion.

Wolf Road by Beth Lewis

True Grit meets The Road in this post-apocalyptic psychological thriller--narrated by a young girl who has just learned that her adopted father may be a serial killer, and that she may be his next victim.

In the remote wilds of a ravaged land, Elka has been raised by a man who isn't her father. Since finding her wandering in the woods when she was seven, he has taught her how to hunt, shoot, set snares and start fires--everything she needs to survive. All she knows of the world outside if gleaned from whispers of a cataclysmic even that turned the clock back on civilization by a hundred and fifty years and reduced governments and technology to shambles, leaving men at the mercy of the elements--and each other.

Everything changes when Elka learns that the man she has been calling father is harboring a terrible secret. Armed with nothing but her knife and her wiles, she decides to escape his clutches and sets out on a long journey to the frozen north in the hope of finding her long-lost parents.

But as the trail of blood and bodies grows in her path, Elka realizes that daddy won't be letting his little girl go without a fight. If she's going to survive, she'll have to turn and confront not just him, but the truth about what he's turned her into.

Not 5 minutes after I finish writing about how well the author of Spontaneous wrote about high school students spontaneously combusting without making it too icky, I started reading Wolf Road. The first paragraph of the book describes a man that has just killed a boy and still has blood on his knife and his scalp hanging from his belt. The irony was not lost on me, and I seriously wondered what I was getting myself into.

Let me first say (well, first after the lovely disclaimer above, warning you that this book may contain some gore), if you do not like reading books written in the dialect of the characters, you may not enjoy this book. The book is written in first person, and the main character was raised in the wild and talks like a hillbilly from way back when. Here is an examples from the first chapter:

Nana let out one a' her big signs. Seen other folks from Ridgeway sign like that, like they weren't just sick a' the person giving 'em ire, but sick a' the whole world what was full a' them.

The rest of the book follows suit, but I think it adds to the story. The dialect kind of reminded me of The Knife of Netter Letting Go (awesome book btw). Not using Elka's dialect would have made for a completely different reading experience, though. It would have taken away from the story and we would not have been able to get as clear of a picture of her and the world she lives in. 

I really enjoyed this book! I do have to admit that the last chapters were a little slow, but necessary to wrap everything up.

Overall, it was a GREAT book! It was well-written and had a wonderful story, and I hope to hear more from Elka, very soon!

I love that Elka is a strong, independent woman, and the book doesn't focus on any romantic relationships. She's got much more important things to worry about! You do not have to read about her falling in love with an unlikely choice or her conflicting feelings about two boys that are total opposites but equally compatible with her. I'm not knocking those books. I like some of them, but I hate that it seems to be the recipe for waaaay too many YA books nowadays. 

This book is not like any other YA book that I've ever read. It is completely original and definitely work a read!

I receive this book from the publishers, via Blogging for Books, in exchange for an honest review.

Check out my GoodReads review!

Spontaneous by Aaron Starmer

A darkly funny and spectacularly original exploration of friendship, goodbyes - and spontaneous combustion.

Mara Carlyle's senior year is going as normally as could be expected, until-wa-bam!-a fellow senior, Katelyn Ogden, explodes during third period pre-calc.

Katelyn is the first, but she won't be the last teenager to blow up without warning or explanation. As the seniors continue to pop like balloons and the national eye turns to Mara's suburban New Jersey hometown, the FBI rolls in and the search for a reason is on.

Whip-smart and blunt, Mara narrates the end of their world as she knows it while trying to make it to graduation in one piece. It's an explosive year punctuated by romance, quarantine, lifelong friendship, hallucinogenic mushrooms, bloggers, ice cream trucks, 'Snooze Button™,' Bon Jovi, and the filthiest language you've ever heard from the President of the United States.

Aaron Starmer rewrites the rule book with Spontaneous. But beneath the outrageous is a ridiculously funny, super honest, and truly moving exemplar of the absurd and raw truths of being a teenager in the 21st century...and the heartache of saying goodbye.

Let me first say that this book grabs your attention, right off the bat. The first sentence describes a girl blowing up in her pre-calc class and how the janitor "probably figures he's only have to scrub guts off one whiteboard this year."

I requested this book a few months ago. However, there was an issue with the download link that took a while to resolve and get a new one. So, it inevitably got pushed way back on my TBR list, and by the time I started reading it, I'll admit that I forgot what it was supposed to be about

The book starts with Katelyn, the super-smart, weed-smoking senior blowing up in the middle of class. The news blames terrorists, at first, because she was Turkish, even though both of her parents were born in the US and no one else was hurt and nothing else even remotely explosive was found.

It wasn't Mara's "year to blow things up. It was her year to blog things off, perhaps her last change in her lie to say 'f*** it.' It was a lot of people's last chance to say 'f*** it,' as it turns out."

This book is written in first person, as if the main character is speaking directly to the reader. Here is how her senior year starts out: Once Katelyn blows up in pre-cal, another student blows up in the therapy group intended to make the students who saw the first "explosion" feel better. Needless to say, therapy was cancelled indefinitely.

This book was hilarious!  Even things that would usually be mundane details are funny in this book. The author had me cracking up through the whole book!

I really enjoyed this book, but I'm not sure what I think about the ending. I get what the author was going for, but I'm not sure how I feel about it. It wasn't that I didn't like it, I just thought it should end differently, not that I can tell you how it should have ended differently... Maybe I just wanted everything wrapped up nice and tidy, with a pretty bow. Maybe he's leaving an option for a sequel... That, I would be happy with. 

While it might not have been the ending I would have chosen, I totally wasn't expecting it, and I do love a surprise ending!

Overall, this book was awesome and funny and super creative. I would encourage anyone who wants to laugh*, but isn't afraid of a little spontaneous combustion, to read this book!**

*Disclaimer: If you do not like reading books with curse words, this book will probably upset you. I think it added to the humor, but it will probably piss some people off. 

**Also, I must clarify that although the book talks about some occurrences that are pretty icky, it doesn't go into explicit detail about the gore that goes along with spontaneous combustion. Compared to the Library at Mount Char, this might as well be a Disney story. The gore in that one really sticks with you... Is it strange that I ABSOLUTELY LOVED that book, even though some of it really grossed me out? Sorry, off topic....

TL;DR: Read Spontaneous. You'll laugh, you might cry, but you (probably) won't want to puke.

I received this book from the publishers, via First to Read, in exchange for my honest review.

Check out my GoodReads review!

How to get free books!

    I am an avid reader. However, I don't have a lot of money. Sites like BookGorilla allow you to choose the genres you like to read, then send you an email every day with Kindle books that are free or discounted on Amazon that day.

This is good, but I wanted more!

A couple of months I discovered that authors and publishers will give you copies of their books if you offer to review them! Sites like NetGalley and Eidelweiss allow you to sign up and request books that you would like to read. If the publisher approves your request, you can download a prerelease copy of the book. Then you post your review and send them the link. 

This LINK has even more sites that allow you to request books in exchange for reviews. It also has other ways to read for free!

Happy Reading!