Mini Reviews ft. If I Stay, Dangerous Girls and Night of Cake and Puppets

I'm going to slowly phase out these introductions, because they seem unnecessary and awkward, but I wanted to mention that I know I said I wouldn't review Dangerous Girls but I need to.  For closure.  Also, if you have yet to read Daughter of Smoke and Bone (or any of these books), you don't have to worry about spoilers.

If I Stay by Gayle Forman Before I say anything more, let it be known that I did, in fact, enjoy this book.  Three stars means I liked it.  I just didn't like it as much as I was expecting to.  With all the raving reviews I'd seen for this, I thought I was going to fall in love with it.  So really, it's my fault for giving in to all the hype.  It also may have to do with the fact that my brother's name is Adam, and the love interest in the story is named that too.  Now that I think of it, this could be why Shatter Me was weird to me... Back on topic - It was difficult for me to connect to the characters.  I liked them all, but they seemed so strange as I've never met anyone remotely like them (except for Mia - the main character). This was an emotional read (which is weirdly a good thing), and every time the perspective shifted back to the present from a flashback, I'd get a little jolt of despair in my heart, realising how much things were going to change.  I didn't get to the point of tears, but I strongly suspect this is due to me finishing the novel on a public bus. So, overall, I was a little underwhelmed.

★★★☆☆ Sad Things

★★★★☆ Deeply Disturbing

Dangerous Girls by Abigail Haas This book.  Where to begin?  The story follows a girl who is on trial for the murder of her best friend.  The narration jumps back and forth between the past and the present, and I thought that was done really well, with the events in each time period all linking in together.  I also liked how realistic this was to the kind of teens the friends in the book were - without holding anything back.  The word "lurid" was used a few times.  Yeah, this didn't affect my opinion of the book in any way, it's just something I noticed and I'm running out of things to say about this without ruining something.  I will say that it was entertaining and kept me interested but (highlight for spoilers): [I really wasn't surprised by the ending.  This is perhaps because I'd read a lot of reviews saying how mind-blowing the ending was, and the only option that could possibly be that mind-blowing was Anna being the murderer.  I also really don't understand how she was found innocent after the judge being convinced she was guilty for so long, and how someone so messed up could come across as so normal.  Also, this book is not the best thing to read only a month before going on an unsupervised holiday with your friends.  Lol.]  Other than those couple things, I did enjoy the suspense and I'm looking forward to reading Dangerous Boys at some stage.

Night of Cake and Puppets by Laini Taylor I'd been saving this Daughter of Smoke and Bone novella for a rainy day, and going back for my final (and most intense) term of high school definitely constitutes as a rainy day.  And it was everything I'd hoped it would be.  The story follows Zuzanna and Mik, a couple of characters from the trilogy, and how they first met.  The writing is spectacular and the story is adorable.  I couldn't wipe the grin from my face during some parts of it.  Not to mention the happy tears.  O, how strangely fiction affects me.  This is a must-read if you enjoyed the Daughter of Smoke and Bone books (this novella occurs at some time during the first book, I believe).  It was short and sweet, and it's a new go-to for when I'm feeling sad.

★★★★★ *unapologetic squealing*

Those are the mini reviews I have for today.  Have you read any of them?  I hope you are having a great day and I'll have another post up soon!