The Rules for Disappearing [The Rules #1]

She’s been six different people in six different places: Madeline in Ohio, Isabelle in Missouri, Olivia in Kentucky . . . But now that she’s been transplanted to rural Louisiana, she has decided that this fake identity will be her last. Witness Protection has taken nearly everything from her. But for now, they’ve given her a new name, Megan Rose Jones, and a horrible hair color. For the past eight months, Meg has begged her father to answer one question: What on earth did he do – or see – that landed them in this god-awful mess? Meg has just about had it with all the Suits’ rules — and her dad’s silence. If he won’t help, it’s time she got some answers for herself. But Meg isn’t counting on Ethan Landry, an adorable Louisiana farm boy who’s too smart for his own good. He knows Meg is hiding something big. And it just might get both of them killed. As they embark on a perilous journey to free her family once and for all, Meg discovers that there’s only one rule that really matters — survival.

When the novel opens, we met "Meg" in the middle of another transition to a new identity. For the last two (and a half, I think) years, Meg and her family have bounced from place to place on the run from someone or something that she has no idea who. Her once social and entertaining mother has become a alcoholic, her parents marriage is on the rocks, her little sister (affectionately nicknamed Tiny by family only) has stopped speaking and even reverted a bit in her child development.

In the beginning, she only thought it was temporary. She made friends, she joined teams, she even dated. But the end result remained the same. The suits (aka the WITSEC-Witness Protection agents) would always show up and relocate them. "Meg" has no idea what's happening. All she knows is, it's getting worse. During this new placement, she and her sister's long blonde hair has been cut and dyed brown and she's been forced to wear brown eye contacts as they relocate to Louisiana.

Understandably tired (emotionally cites the psychology side of me), "Meg" decides that she won't make friends or try to kindle anything with any guys during this placement. It's only going to result in a move anyway, right? Instead, her goal is to find out what her dad did to land them in the program. But it's hard. Her parents don't talk to each other and her father has terrible interactions with his daughters, although "Meg" doesn't help at all.

But of course, this being YA, "Meg" is going to find a guy who is determined to figure her out and get her to change her mind.

The moment that "Meg's" love interest was introduced, I was immediately creeped out. His name is Ethan Landry...you know, like the Ethan Landry who (highlight for spoiler) killed Sutton Mercer and dated her twin as she hunted for her sister's killer! Creepy! Anyways, Ethan is a downright Louisana-ian with a accent and boots to match. I spot his use in the novel the second "Meg" was checking him out in the office. Pretty soon after they meet, Ethan realizes that "Meg" knows nothing about the area (I think it was Oklahoma as her fake pre-move setting) she supposedly came from. Then he realizes that she isn't telling the truth and semi-understandably is intrigued to tries to question her and catch her in lies. Since we were following the story through "Meg's" point of view, I felt frustrated and annoyed by him for her. Did he not realize what he could do to her world? (Of course not, but I know more then he does, so I wanted him to stop).

But because guys think the word "no" is a challenge, Ethan keeps after her. In public, he covers for her litle blunders. In private, he still tries to catch her in a lie or reveal herself. "Meg" tries to stay away from him but when she gets a job at a local pizzeria, she doesn't realize that his aunt is the one who owns it. Because no one wants her sister to be home alone with her drunkard mother and her dad doesn't get off work til 7, Tiny comes to wor with "Meg." Ethan uses this time to do what her family couldn't in the past few months, he manages to bring out old-Tiny in a few days with her.

He even manages to hear "Meg" slip up when she calls her Tiny instead of her fake name "Mary." Using her little sister for information pays off. Halfway. Tiny slips up and mentions Naples, Florida, one of the places their family lived at during a placement where "Meg" was "Avery Preston." Using this city name, Ethan just so-magically stumbles across the article that got the "Preston's" booted from the Sunshine State. Before "Meg" made her no-friends, no-boys rule, she joined a dance team at one of her placement schools where she was mentioned and photographed in a article. 

Smh, amateur. 

Actually, not entirely.

"You can tell me anything. You should know that," Ethan says.

What, Ethan? What?

But "Meg" has her shit together. 

"How would I know that? I've been here for what...two weeks?" I spin around to face him. "And why so nosy about me?"

For real. Does he not get how weird and creepy he is? How many times does she have to tell him off about that?

"What gives you the right to say this shit to me? Why do you care where I'm from? Why is anything I do or say any of your business?" (You go, girl! Times two!)

Anyways, "Meg" hurries up and lies. She tells Ethan that she is Avery Preston and that her dad got into some trouble and she had to move. That's it. He doesn't get anything else.

I will say that "Meg" impressed me. Some YA girls with secrets feel the urge to reveal their secrets to persistent boys far too soon for the relationship to have convinced me. "Meg" didn't feel the urge for a while and even then she fought it until he forced her hand. But more about that later.

During this persistent chase of "Meg" she tries to chase down information. Her dad won't tell her squat and her mom just tells her to ask her dad. (Isn't that backwards?)

But her dad won't tell her crap. So "Meg" has to resort to listening to her dad's phone calls and trying to write everything out in her cryptically kept journal. "Meg's" managed to keep the journal hidden from the suits during the moves and although she writes about her life and her repeated nightmares, she keeps it just vague enough. But then one night while she's doing laundry, someone steals her journal and she is heartbroken. (I predicted this during reading, but I thought it was going to be Ethan's cheerleading twin and her minions who don't like "Meg").

Ethan eventually gets to a point where he won't let "Meg" make her own decisions and when she seems wary about going on a date with him, he tells her when he's showing up to pick up even though she hadn't said yes yet. At another placement, "Meg" had a boyfriend named Tyler. One night he was supposed to pick her up so they could go to a Halloween party together, but she gets ripped from her placement. The feds don't even let her call him to tell him not to wait, so it's kind of haunted "Meg" ever since that she doesn't know how long he waited for her, before he realized she wasn't coming and he had been stood up.

By this point it doesn't matter. Ethan and "Meg" are dating/talking but not yet official. They skip class together, she goes over his house, they attend parties together. Basically, everything she said she wanted to do, she ends up doing the opposite of.

No boys Ethan Landry, basically her boyfriend
No friends Will and Catherine, another couple that Ethan and "Meg" double up with
Find answers She fails dramatically at this. She only overhears the one conversation her dad is having with the evil people trying to secure a deal and save his family.

One day "Meg" tries to skip school and look up answers on a coffee house computer, but a suit named Agent Thomas shows up and stops her. "Meg" thinks Agent T is actually a decent human being compared to the rest of the suits. He actually interacts with her and her family. The first time she talks to him it's because she finds a card in her mother's stuff and calls him. He makes an effort to reach out and help "Meg" but she's unwilling to accept it at the moment.

And that's not the only thing haunting her. "Meg's" been haunted by nightmares for a while now. And after one of her nightmares/flashbacks to the night she left her first life, it finally hits me. 78 pages into my 228 page e-book I figured it out.

It isn't her father who did or saw something, it's her.

There's a reason "Meg" can only remember bits and pieces from that night. She heard one of her best friends sneaking around with her longtime crush and her other best friend talking shit about her. Angry, she goes to a party with some lower class-men and gets drunk. And that's the most of what she can remember.

But that's not all that happened.

"Meg" realizes this while on a triple date with Ethan and his dad, his twin and her on-again-off-again boyfriend and his dad, Will and Catherine. Ethan decides to take her on a hog chasing shot out and the blood that hits her and what-not makes the rising memories completely rise to the surface.\

Ethan takes her home and she has a confrontation with her drunk mother. During which, her mother tells her the only reason any of this has happened is because of her, not her father. She wasn't supposed to be there, but she was.

See, what happened was: after getting drunk, "Meg" went over her crush, Brandon's house whose dad is also her dad's business partner. There, she sees his dad hide some ledgers before a man breaks into the house, threatens him and kills him. Brandon happens to walk into the room (she's hiding so no one knows she's there) and gets shot and killed. This is the death that traumatizes her. The killer happens to find her hiding space and to keep him from killing her, she tells him she knows where the ledgers are. Before she can tell him though, the cops show up and he disappears. It turns out he works for the Mexican drug cartel and her crushes dad had been handling their books for a while. The feds got on his tail and he was planning to give them up until the cartel found out and put a hit on his head. "Meg" wasn't supposed to be there. But she was and she saw it all.

She tells her dad that she remembers everything and they kind of mourn together. She learns that the suits wanted to put her in counseling to make her remember but he refused because he didn't want to do that to her. The two of them try to figure out all of their options. But there really isn't that many options. So she tries to have a top secret meeting with Agent T who isn't old or dumb. He quickly asks if a boy has anything to do with her change of heart but she denies it. (But it does. It so does.)

Finally, she comes up with a plan. She'll just go back home, find the ledgers, give them to the Bad Guy and everyone will be safe! She runs away but Ethan is a persistent little guy and sees what she's doing and follows her. She tries to keep him out of the know but he threatens to throw her out of the car. So she tells him everything. Together, they have a road trip which includes bloody confessions and steam filled make out scenes (to the narrator anyway). The climax was kind of boring. "Meg" uses her old two-faced friends to get to Brandon's house and get the ledger. But after she finds it, Agent T shows up and takes it from her.

Then (predictable) twist number two: Agent T is evil! He isn't a suit at all, he's been watching "Meg" under the feds noses because he works for the Mexican cartel and very nicely left "Meg" alive and took off with the ledger. With the guy hunting her dead and the ledgers done, "Meg" and her family get to come out of hiding. Her house gets a upgrade, her mom goes to rehab and she and Ethan finally DTR (define the relationship).

At the end, Meg-who-is-really-Anna, mysteriously finds her journal in her pocket. Along with a note and a daisy. The note reveals that the trackers were smart and clever trick (but not smart or clever enough) and that they thought she should have her journal back. Then, the note vaguely mentions, maybe I'll see you again. Which freaks Anna out to the core. She just got her life back. This isn't over after all.

However, the twist is the "T" who signed the note isn't Fake-Agent Thomas...but you'll have to read the book (or my review of the next book) to find out who it is... (That's when it's revealed to the reader; I've already started reading it).

The Chaos of Stars (Kiersten White)

Kiersten White, New York Times bestselling author of Paranormalcy, is back with The Chaos of Stars—an enchanting novel set in Egypt and San Diego that captures the magic of first love and the eternally complicated truth about family. Isadora's family is seriously screwed up—which comes with the territory when you're the human daughter of the ancient Egyptian gods Isis and Osiris. Isadora is tired of living with crazy relatives who think she's only worthy of a passing glance—so when she gets the chance to move to California with her brother, she jumps on it. But her new life comes with plenty of its own dramatic—and dangerous—complications . . . and Isadora quickly learns there's no such thing as a clean break from family.

I'm starting to realize something. If I stop reading a book in the midst of it, (unless I'm at school, then this doesn't apply) there's probably a reason. I've noticed that. I still haven't finished Revealed of the House of Night series. Oh, I've started it and I've read the end but even now as I try to push myself through it for the second time, I just can't do it.

This beautiful cover got me and the name and time period in which it was published had me confusing it with These Broken Stars. Both have exquisitely made covers. But this book made me realize what guys mean when they complain about push up bras or leggings are false advertisements about some girls bodies. That's what beautiful book covers are when the content inside doesn't live up to the cover.

(BTW: I loved Isadora's name.) She is the mortal daughter born to Egyptian gods, Isis and Osiris in the present day times in Egypt. She is sixteen and hasn't traveled past the Nile. However, her mother has had bad omens that something bad is about to happen to her as well as Isadora in her dreams. Isadora doesn't believe that dreams can be connected to the future so she lies to her mother about\their dreams similarities. Isadora is bitter because as a child she grew up believing she was immortal like her parents and would live forever. However, when a childhood pet dies and her parents tell her it will join her in the afterlife, she realizes that isn't their plan for her. Creepily enough, they've already had her start designing her tomb as a child.

Isadora grow up into a bitter teen who believes her mother only has children (one every 20 years) because  the modern world no longer worships them and lives off her children's worship. She even names her children variations of her and her husbands names (ex. Isadora; Sirus) Isis decides to keep her daughter safe, she'll send her off to San Diego where her second-to-last child, Sirus resides. Isadora is happy about this because her mother has decided to have another baby four years before her typical pattern.

But something has followed Isadora to San Deigo. And it's no Big, Bad, Evil. Instead, it's a bad smell (later followed by a Big, Bad, Evil but not until much, much later).

Anyways, Isis forces Isadora to take a job at a museum full of artifacts she has donated for a brief collection. There Isadora meets a ash-blonde teen girl named Tyler (oh, gosh) who also works at the museum.

Isadora, declares Tyler is the Most Interesting Person ever and decides to make her her San Diego go-to-BFF. Tyler has a boyfriend named Scott (a guy) who has a friend named Ry (also a guy) who is named after Orion. This is relevant because for as long as she can remember, Isadora has had a fixation on the constellation Orion although her mother hates all things Greek for stealing all the God-worshiping mortals from her. Anyway, Ry writes epic poetry and his family is Greek. I knew he especially would be important because during Isadora's Isis rebellion in San Diego, she cuts and dyes her hair. When he sees her, he "stares at me like he's seen a ghost. Even his olive skin has paled" and says, "Your hair. I didn't recognize you before... I didn't recognize you when we met before. But now I do." 

Later, Isadora finds out that she and her family aren't the only gods out there. Orion isn't the original Orion but named after him. He isn't immortal either but the son of Aphrodite and Hephaestus who are happily in love.

Aphrodite who cheats on her ugly, unwanted blacksmith of a husband, Hephaestus for Ares numerous times in mythology. Hephaestus even catches them in old myths! You're trying to tell me they are in love?

But it only gets worse. During the moment where this is revealed to Isadora, Ry also ILY's her. That's right, he tells her he loves her!

That's when I was really done.

Even she says it: dude, you don't even know her! And his explanation that she's been in his dreams for years holds no gravity. He just looked at her as stone, that's it. I really thought this book wasn't going to do that. Ry and Isadora had only spent time together eating and working on her exhibit. He knows she's from Egypt, she has some family issues/problems and she loves interior design. She knows he has Greek heritage, he writes epic poetry (Seriously, what the fuck?) and...that's about it, other then he is homeschooled.

I didn't like Ry as a love interest for a number of reasons. Maybe it wasn't dislike and more that the author didn't convince me. She didn't even fully convince Isadora! Actually, he does know something else about Isadora. Isadora tells him she just wants to be friends. She can't stand commitment because she can barely deal with facing her own eventual death, let alone losing someone else. Initially, Ry agrees with this but like all YA guys, he doesn't know when to stop pushing. He tries to hold Isadora's hand during a movie and she runs away. His excuse is that "friends hold hands."

The fuck they do!

After Isadora runs away from him (specifically his love revelation since she runs away from him a lot), the half-assed Evil plot joins the climax. Other than bad smells, a house break in and a museum guard getting put in the hospital and bad dreams, the Evil barely shows up in the story. Most time is spent doing things to rebell against Isis and fight her attraction towards Ry. When Isadora is running away from Ry's stupid love confession she runs into her creepy half brother/cousin Anubis (his mom and Isis sister got sick of trying to get Set-her hubby-to sleep with her, so she pretended to be Isis and slept with Orsirus. Thus, Anubis is born. He rules the Underworld with their father but wants more out of life. Understandable.) The funky smell we've Isadora's been dealing with all novel is the smell of the liquid Egyptians put their organs and crap in when they are mummified. (Disgusting!) He forces Isadora to read her mothers hand on one of the artifacts that reveals a snake that can poison gods. Isis is the only one who can bring gods back to life, but if she is killed, anyone-even the gods-can be dead for good.

Ry, Ty and Sy Scott save Isadora from Anubis but he already has what he wants. It takes all night and a concussion for Isadora to figure out his plan.

Ry, who doesn't listen to Isadora when she told him she needed space when she went home alone, is outside her house and ready to give her access to his Greek God private plane that takes her to Egypt. Once there, Isadora realizes she was wrong about his accomplice. She was too busy slut-shaming her brother's, Horus' (or Whore-us as she confusingly refers to him) wife Hathor (the goddess of sex and beer), she doesn't realize Anubis' accomplice is his mother/her aunt. Her aunt has been poisoning Isis during her pregnancy and has gotten away with it without Isadora there to realize what's going on.

The demon her aunt leaves to take care of her, very easily lets her pass, and Isadora leaves Ry to deal with Anubis. She bursts into her mothers birthing chamber where her aunt is with the God-killing snake. Her aunt releases the snake and it launches at Isadora...who conveniently is still wearing the gold wristlet/bracelet Ry gave her before his declaration of love. The snake's fangs get stuck in it and she remains safe. She tells her parents all about her aunt's evil plans and her mother decides to forget her name which apparently was the only thing keeping her aunt alive. Cast out, Isadora's mom starts giving birth to a daughter named Dora and she decides to possibly (forget it, you know she is) giving Ry a chance although she doesn't believe in his love-crap baloney.

Sigh. I will never get these hours back. Just think about all that time and beautiful book cover wasted on this book. It could've been so much more.  

Ask Again Later (Liz Czukas)

Despite what her name might suggest, Heart has zero interest in complicated romance. So when her brilliant plan to go to prom with a group of friends is disrupted by two surprise invites, Heart knows there's only one drama-free solution: flip a coin. Heads: The jock. He might spend all night staring at his ex or throw up in the limo, but how bad can her brother's best friend really be? Tails: The theater geek...with a secret. What could be better than a guy who shares all Heart's interests--even if he wants to share all his feelings? Heart's simple coin flip has somehow given her the chance to live out both dates. But where her prom night ends up might be the most surprising thing of all..

I swear, if people start falling over themselves over Schroeder like the people fan-girling over immortal stalkers like Edward Cullen, I'm going to scream!

This book literally only had a handful of guys I actually liked. And only one of them was a secondary character who was actually developed past his name and relationship to the protagonist. That was Ryan. Ryan is the first guy (actually the only guy) that asks Heart (I think this author won the award for wildest, most out there names for YA protagonists) to prom. He actually is gay and I think he's going it to cover up the truth. I'm not exactly sure. Anyway, he and Heart are actually cool, they bond over French and are both drama geeks. He was the only one who didn't walk around with typical sexist thoughts and ideas and kept calling Heart out on her gayist (? I don't know what to call this) remarks towards him during their night.

The other three guys who got frequent page-time were straight up jackasses.

First, you got Phil, the epitome of misogynistic guys. He's Heart's brother, a football player and typical to most YA stories: with parents who are never around (their dad is busy with his carpet business and their mom ditched them a long time ago). Anyway, Phil promises his recently dumped football buddy, Troy, that his sister will go with him to prom so he doesn't have to experience it alone. He doesn't even ask Heart and she has a problem because she tries to make as many people happy at once. However, she doesn't realize or care that it comes at the expense of herself.

In the life where Heart chooses to go to prom with Troy, her brother is a complete jackass. There's this point where a drunken Troy forces his lips on a unwilling Heart and her brother has the audacity to tell her she's "overreacting" and stop being such a baby when she tries to tell him that she didn't want it. Phil even goes on to say, "he probably thought you wanted it."

And that, my dear children, is what you call rape culture. And it only gets worse as the story goes on. Heart begs him to take her home and he refuses. Heart spends the rest of the prom with her friends until he manipulates her into being Troy's babysitter since he's drunk out of his mind and spending the rest of the night taking care of him.

Heart's original plan was to go to prom with her big group of friends, including her real love interest Schroeder. He calls her different parts of the human body and she also addresses him by a nickname. His real name is Chase but he reminds Heart of this kid:

Now I hated his character. He is a straight up jackass. And the reasons given to explain his screwed up behavior don't sit well with me. He has a problem with Heart choosing to deviate from the original plan of going to the prom with her friends because he doesn't have the balls to ask her out himself. Sure, Heart has this poorly developed idea that she won't date therefore she can't end up like her mother: getting pregnant and starting a family you aren't ready for and skip the town on.

However, he spends most of the book mad at her because she went to prom with other guys. When some condoms come out of her purse (that her aunt provided in her prom-goodie bag) and she and Ryan laugh about it, he looks at her with disappointment. I really hope that look was because he was jealous and not that he was putting her down for having sex with Ryan on prom night.

Either way, the exchange he and Heart have about her drinking in a car with Troy after he tried to tongue-her-down really sealed the deal about my feelings towards him:

"I can't believe you," he said.
I drew back with a pissy look. "Excuse me?"
"I just can't believe you'd be that stupid....It didn't occur to you that being incapacitated might be dangerous around Troy."

Oh yeah, dude, because if Troy had raped her, it would've been Heart's fault for getting into a car with him as well as getting intoxicated around him which invited the rape onto herself. It's her prom night too and if she wants to drink she should get to without having to worry about having to fight off attackers. How about telling him not to rape her, instead of blaming for putting herself at risks. He even tells her that she got lucky because Troy could've raped her, he just didn't.

Ugh, in the end, Ryan makes her realize that she has feelings for Schroedur but he's too busy being stupid that they can't work it out. So their friends lock them in a trunk to work out their problems. And they do, annoyingly enough. Heart realizes that her no-dating rule is a little strict and decides to give way to Schroedur. They start dating on the end of both sides of Heart's choices. We never learn which one she really chose but at the end Heart gets deja vu about things that she's experienced in both lives. But either way she ends up at the lake with her friends and Schroedur. 

Ugh, please do not waste the time I did reading this book. 

Second Star (Alyssa B. Sheinmel)

A twisty story about love, loss, and lies, this contemporary oceanside adventure is tinged with a touch of dark magic as it follows seventeen-year-old Wendy Darling on a search for her missing surfer brothers. Wendy’s journey leads her to a mysterious hidden cove inhabited by a tribe of young renegade surfers, most of them runaways like her brothers. Wendy is instantly drawn to the cove’s charismatic leader, Pete, but her search also points her toward Pete's nemesis, the drug-dealing Jas. Enigmatic, dangerous, and handsome, Jas pulls Wendy in even as she's falling hard for Pete. A radical reinvention of a classic, Second Star is an irresistible summer romance about two young men who have yet to grow up--and the troubled beauty trapped between them.

I tried to read this book.

I really did.

I thought, Peter Pan retelling?

Awesome!

A younger, sexier Hook?

Awesomer!

A love triangle between Peter Pan and Hook...

Anyway, the story opens just after teenage Wendy Darling has graduated. She lives on the coast of California with her parents, her dog, Nana and her missing brothers, John and Michael. Her brothers are twins and surfers who disappeared one pregnancy nine months ago. (Haha, that's all I could think when she said nine months.) She has a best friend named Fiona, who doesn't go, do or think without her boyfriend at her side. This part of Fiona's cardboard character really bothered annoyed me.

Anyway, Wendy soon meets Peter Pan's Second Star counterpart, Pete. Pete is a surfer and former foster care teen who lives with a bunch of other runaways (all teens; no kids in this world) in a abandoned mansion on a cliff. Pretty soon into meeting him, Wendy falls for Pete, who kisses her, although he has this complicated relationship with a blonde named Belle.

They spend the night together, the night they meet, just kissing. Not even making out, just kissing. Pete seems nice and boring enough. Soon after meeting him, Wendy lies to her parents that she is going on a road trip with her best friend and like typical YA parents, they're all like, Sure, honey, whatever you like. We're barely around anyway!

Then she enlists the help of her best friend into lying to her parents and tells Fiona that she's going on a trip
Wendy doesn't go to Neverland. Instead, she goes to Kensie Cove or Kensington (a allusion to the Kensington Gardens in which Peter Pan lived before Neverland) and meets this guy named Pete. He is a former foster care kid who lives with  a bunch of runway teens in abandoned mansions in the cove. He takes Wendy in and teaches her to surf which is something her brothers never did.

However, Pete is also a liar because he knew John and Michael, but lies to Wendy about it early in the novel. From what I learned from skimming and skipping around, the twins used to live with Pete and his gang until he found out they were using fairy dust and kicked them out.

Belle later reveals that she saw what happened. John and Michael were high on 'dust' and tried to surf a forty foot wave. She doesn't say it out loud, but alludes to their death after they wiped out.

The other half of the Kensie belongs to his former partner, Jas (aka Hook) who now deals a drug called fairy dust and has a gang full of dusters who live with him. Jas and Pete used to be surfing buddies (think Plankton and Mr. Krabs) until Jas started dealing and Pete excommunicated him from his house.

Angry about Pete's lies, Wendy leaves and goes and joins up with Jas' crew. However, to get into his house to look for him she has to take some dust. That's the price to get in. She does and the stuff messes her up so bad that she ends up on Fiona's front step. Fiona calls her parents who take her home and send her too her room to "re-establish authority."

This is especially funny because while she is locked away in her room, Jas shows up and they run away to try to look for her brothers. It was around here that I just couldn't take anymore and gave up reading this book. Now I understand the term DNF (Did Not Finish) when it should be called CNF-Could Not Finish.

At the end, Wendy is with Jas, Pete and Belle as this famous waved called Witch Tree shows up. Something happens as the the wave hits and her last memories are of Jas. Then she wakes up in the psych ward of a hospital with her parents.

They tell her she wasn't on a boat with Jas, Pete, Belle and crew.There were no boats out on the sea during the storm because Coast Guard shut the area down. Instead, she tried to swim out into the sea during a storm on Pebble Beach. And no one brought Wendy to the hospital because she was alone. Basically, the girl is crazy.Her brothers are still missing at sea (aka dead) and she imagined everything. Fiona is the only one who has realized that she has gone crazy.

She either went went off the deep end due to her grief and started doing the combination of drugs that make up dust or the drug cocktail made her lose her mind. Either way, she's off her rocker, they say. So she goes through therapy and starts saying everything's fake to convince her parents no matter how wrong it feels to her.

Until it doesn't anymore.

She gets out the crazy house and slowly bides her time until everyone trusts her again. Then, Wendy eventually goes back to Kensington Cove to see if it really wasn't real. Apparently, the place was once called Kensington Beach before all the mansions in the area were abandoned. The houses are empty and rundown without any trace of Pete or Jas or their crews. The beach doesn't even exist. There's no white sand just a bunch of waves and rocks.

I'm sure this novel would be better if the author hadn't tried to connect the story to Peter Pan. I might've even enjoyed it more. I mean, I kind of understand the connection. Wendy (and her brothers) run away with Peter Pan to Neverland because they weren't ready to grow up at the moment. Peter Pan offers that escape.

Eventually, however, Wendy comes to the realization that she has to and is ready to grow up and she and her brothers go home.

Wendy in Second Star goes to Pete and Kensie Cove to find her brothers... Although, if she's truly crazy then she went to Kensie Cove because she isn't quite ready to face her brothers death. Which is also representative of the escape Pete provides her. However, eventually she allows herself to come to terms with it (aka when Belle tells her she witnessed). See, that's soo interesting. It just would've been a lot better if the story wasn't connected to Peter Pan. I just wasn't feeling it.

I especially felt like What the fuck? because at the end Wendy receives some mail. It's a picture inside a envelope without any address or stamps because someone just slipped it in the mailbox. And the picture is of Jas and Pete with surfboards and their arms around each other. Suddenly, Wendy starts wondering if the Witch Tree wave could've washed out the beach, messed up Pete's house and literally swallow her memories. She isn't crazy, she decides. Jas must've pushed her in the right current then saved the others then he and Pete went off the surf the world together. But someone wanted her to know it was all real.

...or maybe she's just crazy after all and put that picture in her own mailbox.

And if that's true, then what was the point of the story? Either way, I sure was disappointed.

Toxic [Pretty Little Liars #15]

One A has been captured…but the most dangerous A of all is still out there in the penultimate installment in Sara Shepard's #1 New York Times bestselling Pretty Little Liars series. High school seniors Aria, Emily, Spencer, and Hanna barely survived their most recent encounter with A. And it's not over yet…. The police don't believe there's another, deadlier, A out there, but the girls know what-and who-they saw. If they don't track down this final tormentor soon, A will silence them forever. Sara Shepard's fan base continues to grow as ABC Family's hit Pretty Little Liars TV show draws in new readers to the #1 New York Times bestselling series. Full of unexpected twists and shocking revelations, the second-to-last novel ramps up the stakes for the jaw-dropping series conclusion in Pretty Little Liars #16.

And so it continues. The series that stole all of Sara Shepard's creative juices from The Lying Game. 

I'll admit it, it's true. I am. I swear Sara Shepard and P. C. and Kristin Cast need to get together and let their books have babies together. Because these series are getting ridiculously long.

Anyways, a majority of Toxic has a nice feel to it. Things seem to finally be going right in the girl's world. 

Aria got discovered in the art world after a famous art critic collector named Carruthers (I think that's what he was) buys her painting...the only downside is that it's a painting of Ali. (I should've seen it coming from that little detail.) Anyway, this art critic's name is so powerful soon Aria has a showing, her mom (who made the sale at the gallery she works at) has been promoted to assistant director and Aria is giving exclusives to different art magazines and blogs. 

One of them belongs to a guy named Harrison and because she's on the rebound from Noel and her most recent break-up and their love for art, she tries to move on. Noel tells her early in the book that he needs a break and starts dating this blonde Ali-clone bimbo named Scarlet. (Am I the only one who thinks that only girls with red hair should be named Scarlet?). Deep down Aria knows she isn't really feeling Harrison and she's most def. not over Noel. And he...Oh my God, this boy makes me so mad! 

At the climax of the book, Aria sees Noel and Scarlet at the Rosewood Rally's for Underprivileged Kids (How can you have a rally for something that doesn't exist in your area?) and runs away to the bathroom because she can't handle it. However, he bursts through the bathroom 

And they are all:

Then he's all, "I don't know what I want." Shaking my head; so like a guy. I wanted to slap him. Then, he leaves. 

After Aria's left in the bathroom alone, someone from the New York Post calls and tells her that the art collector who bought her painting, didn't really buy it. He's was in Africa during all of this and someone used his name. Aria starts freaking out as the tabloid reporter starts asking if she set up the whole scandal herself, which she denies. She asks him who the name of Carruther's assistant was and he tells her, Maxine Preptwill, (however you spell it) AKA the name Noel and Ali use to use to communicate. Ali set her up. 

However, this actually backfired. Instead of Aria leaving the art world in disgrace, it only made people more interested in her art. There were more people buying her painting and her mom knew she wasn't lying about setting her own-self up. Which I loved. Usually the parents in this series piss me the fuck off. Also, Noel showed up and told her he dumped the Ali-look alike I mean, Scarlet, and tells Aria he wants her back. She agrees.

Hanna's nice new life is due to a movie that she's been invited to join. Someone is re-doing the movie of the Liars lives. Instead of that terrible Lifetime-esqe movie Pretty Little Killers, there is now movie that will be played in theaters called Burn It Down. (I hated how the movie script matched the dialogue of the books word for word.) Although, she's been invited to play Naomi instead of her self, who is being played by a celebrity named Hailey Blake. She's just another typical friend-until-she's-not character. She's all buddy-buddy with Hanna and takes her out to a movie premiere. It's there that Hanna meets the guy playing her real life boyfriend, Mike. Who (of course) kisses her. And Hailey gets the whole thing on her camera. 

Everything's going fine until Hailey's bad portrayal of Hanna's character and her partying gets to her and she and the director get into it Megan Foxx style. With Hailey no longer playing Movie-Hanna, Movie-Mike tells her that she should go after the part. So she does, but Hailey is betrayed since Hanna did nothing but encourage her to leave the movie. To get her back she sends the picture of Hanna and Movie-Mike kissing to the real Mike, who, is understandably butt-hurt. 

Hanna is so stupid, she should've told Mike about the kiss as soon as possible. You would think by now, she and the other's would have learned that if you tell all your secrets, there's nothing anyone can hold over anyone's head. But of course, none of the Liars thinks like this. 

Mike and Hanna are temporarily in a fight until Hailey decides to be on Team Hanna again after she sees film of her acting for Burn It Down. She gives Hanna her blessing for the part and fixes things with her and Mike. I liked that her mom was actually trying in her relationship and it was kind of nice that Kate was Tweet-supporting Hanna's movie role. However, I was wondering about her dad and why he didn't try to reach out to her after her murder charges were dropped. Haha...well, seeing the end of Toxic this is probably a good thing for his career. But more about that later.

Spencer's story-line pissed me off because it pointed out a flaw in this books. I swear these girls be kissing-and-dissing boys (and girls) from one book to the next. I wish I could meet guys as fast as they do. Shoot, I'd never be single. Spencer starts a bullying forum website for people who are or have been bullied to share their stories. This is her claim to fame. She goes on TV shows and gets all this coverage for her site. We also learn that in Alison's wake a bunch of fans called Ali Cats have risen. This a cult of Ali-crazed, Ali-loving fanatics who believe she is brave, misunderstood and strong for enduring everything she has. Basically they're crazy.

One of the alleged Ali Cats named Dominick sends Spencer e-mails telling her she ain't shit and she doesn't know what she's talking about. At the same time, this other guy, Greg is sending Spencer messages telling her that he is thankful for everything she has done for him and the others and blah-blah-blah. When Spencer goes on TV, he shows up-and so does Dominick, who makes a scene at the bully shoot video. After, Spencer and Greg hang out and start liking each other. In the middle of their almost-first-kiss, Ali (or is it) shows up and messes it up. Spencer and Greg spend more time together and finally kiss. She finally gets to the point where she confesses that Ali is alive and no one believes her and literally everything they knew.

Like, Spencer, you just met this boy! It's not like you've known him for years or lived in the same town as him like Noel or Mike. And even some of those people aren't trustworthy! Let alone some damn stranger! At the Rosewood Rally's event, Aria tells Spencer about Ali setting up her art career just so she can fall. She's so upset that Greg notices and keeps pressing the issue so Spencer tells him what's up. Of course, Greg turned out to also be Dominck, meaning he was sending both e-mails to Spencer. The Dominick Spencer thought she had seen, was just a friend of his doing a favor. Greg turns out to be a Ali Cat employed by Ali himself. 

On second thought, maybe they should be together. So they can be stupid together. Ali doesn't let people who go blabbing her secrets live. Which is why Ali kills him at the end. 

Emily is the only one who had a terrible story-line. Like, her's was gut-wrenching. I'm starting to think that Sara and Pretty Little Liars the TV show are starting to play off each other. (If you want to see these TV spoilers, highlight the lines below. First, Noel knew Ali's secret in the books and he knew she was alive in the TV show. Maya gets killed off on the TV show and now Jordan is killed too.) Emily's notorious thief girlfriend and her lawyer have figured out a way to get her out a jail. Somehow, both times she was arrested, she conveniently wasn't read her Miranda rights and a bunch of other stuff. If everything goes as planned, Jordan will get out on parole, although she and Emily can't run away together. Either way, she and Emily make plans together. Just before this happens though, Emily has a run in with a Crazy Ali. Before this all of the Liars have been having great lives. No one's been getting any texts and even though they knew Ali is still out there, no one's had any runs with her.But then when Emily is doing laps at the pool when Ali shows up and is all, 

And Emily is all, Bitch, please. Ali gets mad and nearly drowns her by holding her down in the water. She makes some ominous threat then takes off. But Emily's not about to have it. She snatches Ali's hoodie off of her and inside is a receipt to a grocery store. 

Soon after this though, Emily tries to use Jordan's lawyer to patch her through to the prison and the lawyer callously gives her some bad news: Jordan's dead. One of her inmates killed her and escaped. The first thing Emily thinks is Ali. She refused to tell her she loved her because she had finally moved on with Jordan and in response, Ali killed her not her inmate. However, everyone thinks she's crazy. I'm not even sure how I felt about this until the inmate's body turns up too.

She is heartbroken and although her parents keep asking what's wrong, she doesn't tell them because she knows they won't care as much because Jordan was a criminal. She lies and claims that the bruises from her nearly death-by-Ali experience were self-inflicted and starts sleeping in the closet. Her mom tries to make her feel better by trying to set her up at the Rosewood Rally. Which I thought was a very nice gesture coming from the parents who sent her away because of her sexuality. But she also thought something very important. How many times does she have to get disowned by her parents before tragedy brings them back together? A compelling (and slightly convenient) question.

Emily and the others track down the store that the receipt came from. One of the cashiers drops this accidental hint about Ali which later gets her killed. The girls figure out that Nick, Ali's ex-boyfriend, and his family had a house in the area that's been vacant for a while. They go search in the area, but Ali is nowhere to be found although they smell her perfume. They decide to set up cameras in the area and take turns watching them. Emily goes on a secret rampage one day and destroys the house although she cleans up after herself but the cameras catch everything. Spencer sees who she thinks is Dominick checking out the area one day and tries to catch up, but he runs. She later finds out it was Greg who, specially wanted to know if there were cameras.

During the Rally, the girls get together and go back to the house. There they find blood everywhere and a sweater that they stupidly take with them (removing evidence? I kind of get it but at the same time it makes me so mad!) and a hastily cleaned up crime scene. They call the cops then leave and all spend the night at Emily's. The next morning, Agent Fuji shows up suddenly believing them that Ali is alive. Or rather was. They found Ali's blood, torture devices and her tooth at the house. They know about the cameras and several witnesses have seen them in the area. The Liars are accused of keeping and torturing Ali to death. They are all arrested.

Ha, I wonder how she feels since each of the girl's success ties back to her. The first painting Aria sold was of Ali. The movie that's putting Hanna on the map is about Ali. Spencer's bullying website is due to her experiences with Ali. I swear if the next book isn't the last I'm gonna scream! It can only end like Obsessed. It's the only way this can ever truly be over. 

Ali has to die.