PANIC By Lauren Oliver

I received this book for free from Reviewer Purchase in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

PANIC By Lauren OliverPanic by Lauren Oliver
Published by HarperCollins on 3/4/14
Genres: Contemporary, Thrillers, Young Adult
Pages: 416
Format: Paperback
Source: Reviewer Purchase
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Panic began as so many things do in Carp, a poor town of twelve thousand people in the middle of nowhere: because it was summer, and there was nothing else to do. Heather never thought she would compete in panic, a legendary game played by graduating seniors. She'd never thought of herself as fearless, the kind of person who would fight to stand out. But when she finds something, and someone, to fight for, she will discover that she is braver than she ever thought.

Dodge has never been afraid of panic. His secret will fuel him, and get him all the way through the game; he's sure of it. But what he doesn't know is that he's not the only one with a secret. Everyone has something to play for. For Heather and Dodge, the game will bring new alliances, unexpected revelations, and the possibility of first love for each of them—and the knowledge that sometimes the very things we fear are those we need the most.

Short and Sweet Review

Panic is a game played in Carp by graduating seniors. Panic is a high stakes game where the players are putting their lives on the line and the last person standing gets a reward. Our main characters Heather and Dodge both have different reasons for joining. Heather was basically an impulse decision and Dodge wants to play for revenge. In the book we see alliances formed and broken.

Panic is basically challenges that are supposed to be dangerous and risky and we see a large group of seniors dwindle down until we get to the final two. I honestly was kind of bored, I thought the challenges would be more exciting but I personally didn’t think so and some of the things that happened were just not necessarily unbelievable but just the probability of these things happening are low. The law enforcement in Carp is also a joke, Panic has been going on for years supposedly but the cops have never stopped it even though they’ve been “trying to.”

We see Heather’s home life which isn’t great and although it wasn’t her motivation to win it becomes her motivation to win especially after a string events happens that leaves Heather and her younger sister homeless. Dodge on the other hand is trying to get revenge for his sister who competed in Panic and had an accident. Natalie and Bishop are also characters and their Heathers best friends but Natalie makes an alliance with Dodge and she’s basically using him because she knows she’s not going to be able to make it to the end. Natalie is Dodge’s love interest and I didn’t like the “connection” between the two, she was using him and he was infatuated with her so he was like a little puppy dog. Heather on the other hand had Bishop as a love interest and he was always looking out for her but I feel like she didn’t know exactly how she felt about him. Anyway the ending was okay it wasn’t special and didn’t seem realistic. This was an okay book I thought it would have been better if I could connect to the characters and then maybe I would have felt something when they were doing these dangerous challenges.

BROKEN THINGS By Lauren Oliver

I received this book for free from Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

BROKEN THINGS By Lauren OliverBroken Things by Lauren Oliver
Published by HarperCollins on 10/2/18
Genres: Fantasy & Magic, Mystery & Detective, Young Adult
Pages: 416
Format: eARC
Source: Publisher
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ReviewedbyDani

It’s been five years since Summer Marks was brutally murdered in the woods.

Everyone thinks Mia and Brynn killed their best friend. That driven by their obsession with a novel called The Way into Lovelorn the three girls had imagined themselves into the magical world where their fantasies became twisted, even deadly.

The only thing is: they didn’t do it.

On the anniversary of Summer’s death, a seemingly insignificant discovery resurrects the mystery and pulls Mia and Brynn back together once again. But as the lines begin to blur between past and present and fiction and reality, the girls must confront what really happened in the woods all those years ago—no matter how monstrous.


Short and Sweet

Five years ago Summer Marks was murdered and everyone believes that her best friends Mia and Brynn did it, but they didn’t. On the anniversary of Summer’s death Brynn and Mia are reunited and this time they try to prove their innocence and in doing that they have to revisit Lovelorn, a book that the girls were obsessed with and even imagined themselves in.

Characters

Brynn: One of our main characters. Brynn has been spending most of her time in rehab for a drug problem that she doesn’t have but it’s easier being in rehab then dealing with the judgement of people all over the country for being a “killer”. I liked Brynn she has a tough exterior but she’s actually may have been the softest out of all of the girls.

Mia: Mia is known to be the more sensitive and quieter of the girls but we learn that she may be stronger than everyone thinks she is. After everything that has happened Mia has been homeschooled and basically tries to live a normal life.

Summer: Well the only time we read about Summer is when the girls are thinking about her or they’re having a flashback. Summer seems like a victim in the story but we learn that she kind of bullied the people around her. Summer is the one who introduced the girls to Lovelorn and she was really invested in it and liked imagining that she was in Lovelorn.

Abby: Mia’s friend and a famous youtuber. Abby has been Mia’s only friend over the recent years and she loves Mia and is always willing to help her.

Wade: Wade is Brynn’s cousin and for the past five years he’s been obsessed with the Monsters of Brickhouse Lane case and trying to prove his cousin’s innocence. I liked Wade and the fact that he truly wanted to help Brynn out. Wade is a little weird but it makes him more likable.

Owen: Owen was suspected of murdering Summer but got off because of a mistake the police made. I felt bad for Owen because he’s also hated by the community and even though he moved away and came back people never forget.

Romance

Brynn and Abby: This was just one of those things that just happened. These two were spending a lot of time together and it started with a kiss and then that was it. They have a connection but I think Brynn was insecure about the fact that Abby may actually like her back which made her push Abby away, which left Abby with the feeling that she did something wrong.

Mia and Owen: Mia and Owen had been friends for a while and Mia had feelings for a long time but these two just drifted apart and now that they’re back together all of those past feelings are brought up.

Quotes

~ “Summer was awful. We hated her. And she was magical, too, and it was our job to protect her, and we failed.”

My Thoughts

~ My favorite thing that happened was when everyone was reunited because they were all living lives so different from each other.

~ Each character even if they weren’t main characters all played a big part in figuring things out.

~ I loved that it was like a book within a book and the group had to put together clues from Lovelorn to find out what happened in reality.

~ I found it interesting that the girls obsession with Lovelorn ended up being the reason that Summer was murdered.

~ Throughout the book Brynn and Mia learn things about Summer that they didn’t know before, like the fact that someone was helping her write the sequel to Lovelorn.

~ We get to read from Brynn and Mia’s point of view from the past and the present, we also get to read from the original Lovelorn and the one the girls were working on.

Overall

I honestly enjoyed this book more than I thought I would, I was worried that it would be confusing going back and forth from past to present but it actually made the book easy to follow and gave a lot of background. The book also includes some lines from Lovelorn so it was like a book within a book. I loved the characters and I was so glad when they banded together to actually figure out what happened on the day Summer died. I would recommend this book and Halloween is coming up and this would be the perfect read!

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BEFORE I FALL by Lauren Oliver

I received this book for free from Reviewer Purchase in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

BEFORE I FALL by Lauren OliverBefore I Fall by Lauren Oliver
Published by HarperCollins Source: Reviewer Purchase
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ReviewedbyDani


This is my first Lauren Oliver book and I loved it. Popular high school senior Sam Kingston dies in an accident on February 12th “Cupid Day”, but Sam relives her last day seven times. This book was amazing with each day you learn more about Sam and you get to see what changes she’ll make on each of the days, and with each day you get closer to unlocking the mystery of how she died that night. When I read Sam’s first day I thought the way she died was simple but with each day you learn something else and it just gets more complex. Sam was the mean girl while she was alive and while she relives her last day she tries to makeup for what she has done. I really enjoyed seeing how one of Sam’s actions can change the outcome. I would recommend this book, and I plan on checking out Lauren Oliver’s other books.