Review: Tiger Lily by Jodi Lynn Anderson

From Goodreads:

Before Peter Pan belonged to Wendy, he belonged to the girl with the crow feather in her hair… Tiger Lily. When fifteen-year-old Tiger Lily meets the alluring teenage Peter Pan deep in the forbidden woods of Neverland, the two form a bond that's impossible to break, but also impossible to hold on to. As the leader of the Lost Boys, the most fearsome of Neverland's inhabitants, Peter is an unthinkable match for Tiger Lily. However, when Wendy Darling, a girl who is everything Tiger Lily is not, arrives on the island, Tiger Lily discovers how far she is willing to go to keep Peter with her, and in Neverland.

Told from the perspective of tiny, fairy-sized Tinkerbell, Tiger Lily is the breathtaking story of budding romance, letting go and the pains of growing up.




My Thoughts:
This book was split in two parts for me. The first half and the second half. The first half was painful. The writing was riddled with telling and overuse of back stories. There were times when I rolled my eyes with how ridiculous and time wasting things were. I tried to chalk them up to plot devises for later on, but they weren't. The whole "Englander" issue bothered me quite a bit. There were things so insulting and wrong I was in literal agony.
The second half things finally picked up and actually started to happen. I actually started to care about the characters, and felt for Tiger Lily in her betrayal, and that no one seemed to care that they betrayed her. (Not a spoiler because it says so in the first chapter)
Things did wrap up nicely, and Tiger Lily got her happy ending, although, I doubt Peter did. His fickle and selfish ways took his chance. But, again, Tiger Lily was the one who counts, so he doesn't matter.
The story is quite different from the traditional Peter Pan, but not in a bad way. It kept the essence of the magic, but gave it another perspective.
Would I recommend it? No. It takes way too much effort and time to get into the good stuff. If it wasn't for my lack of content on Audible, I would have given up on it myself. But I don't regret having read it.

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Review: 18 Things by Jamie Ayres

From Goodreads:
Olga Gay Worontzoff thinks her biggest problems are an awful name and not attending prom with Conner, her best friend and secret crush since kindergarten.

Then, Conner is killed in a freak boating accident and Olga feels responsible for his death.

When she downs an entire bottle of pills to deal with the emotional pain, her parents force her into counseling. There, her therapist writes a prescription in the form of a life list titled “18 Things”: eighteen quests to complete the year of her eighteenth birthday.

But there’s more to Olga’s quests than meets the eye and when her therapist reveals a terrifying secret, her world is shaken.

There’s only one thing she knows for certain: her choices won’t just affect her future, but all eternity.



My Thoughts:
This book... I'm not sure how to put into words my thoughts without giving away too much. I'll start from the beginning.
18 Things starts out strong; heartbreaking, and powerful. I really felt Olga's grief. That shows real skill. I was hooked, and, since it was on audible, I listened while I worked around my house and in my car pretty much non-stop.
Nate is the perfect match for Olga. He's sweet and kinda goofy and nerdy, just like her. Although, the narrator gave him a ridiculous TMNT kind of voice, I did enjoy him, even if Olga was totally oblivious to his obvious liking of her.
There were some super cheesy moments that made me cringe as it moved into the second half of the book. Things that teens haven't said or done since the 90s. The guys all having TMNT voices only highlighted the awkward. And what was with the dis of Bill and Ted?? No. Next it will be Ferris Bueler and BTTF. Not acceptable.
That end... ohh, I was pretty mad about it actually. At work all day I brewed over that twist. But the fact that I cared so much said how involved I got with the book. I hated it because it felt so unjust for the characters I'd come to care about.
So yes, I'll be "reading" aka audible, the rest of this series. Excited to see what happens next, because there were some big loose ends with this one!