Beautiful Dead Book One: Jonas - Blog Tour Review

Title: Beautiful Dead Book One: Jonas

Author: Eden Maguire

Pages: 271
 Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire

Publication Date: March 1, 2010

My Edition: ARC Paperback

Reading Level: Young Adult 
Received From: Sourcebooks Fire

Summary from Amazon:

Not alive. Not dead. Somewhere in between lie the Beautiful Dead.

Something strange is happening at Ellerton High. Phoenix is the fourth teenager to die within a year. His street-fight stabbing follows the deaths of Jonas, Summer, and Arizona in equally strange and sudden circumstances. Rumors of ghosts and strange happenings rip through the small community as it comes to terms with shock and loss.

Darina, Phoenix's grief-stricken girlfriend, is on the verge. She can't escape her intense heartache or the impossible apparitions of those that are meant to be dead. And all the while the sound of beating wings echos inside her head...

And then one day Phoenix appears to Darina. He tells her that she must help Jonas-the first of the four to die-right the wrong linked to his death. Only with her help can Jonas finally rest in peace. Will love conquer death? And if it does, can Darina set it free?

Review:

Jonas was a intriguing, fantasy book filled with romance, action, and mystique. The story was very easy to follow, and I read it very quickly. The characters were unique, and I really liked the main character Darina. The characters could have been a little more developed and have a little more description. Darina's a troubled girl who has to mourn over her boyfriend's death, but then when she sees him and three other dead students, she feels like she's going crazy. But really, she has just been let in on a secret of the Beautiful Dead. The whole idea of the Beautiful Dead was pretty neat, and I enjoyed reading about them.

I really liked the plot and story because they were different than other fantasy books and had lots of originality. Some of the characters' names were cool and unique which was nice i.e. Darina, Phoenix, Jonas, Arizona, and ect. The end was very surprising and very action packed. I was not expecting what happened at all...lots of twists and turns. The book is pretty fast-paced, and I read it basically in one sitting. I really enjoyed the first book in the series, so I'm looking forward to reading the next book which is Beautiful Dead Book Two: Arizona.

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The Unwritten Rule: Blog Tour Review

Title: The Unwritten Rule

Author: Elizabeth Scott

Publisher: Simon and Schuster Children's Publishing

Publication Date: 

March 16, 2010

Pages: 210

My Edition: ARC Paperback

Reading Level: YA~Ages 14+

Where I got it from: Elizabeth Scott for blog tour 

Summary from 
Elizabeth's website:

Everyone knows the unwritten rule: You don't like you best friend's boyfriend. Sarah has had a crush on Ryan for years. He's easy to talk to, supersmart, and totally gets her. Lately it even seems like he's paying extra attention to her. Everything would be perfect except for two things: Ryan is Brianna's boyfriend, and Brianna is Sarah's best friend.

Sarah forces herself to avoid Ryan and tries to convince herself not to like him. She feels so guilty for wanting him, and the last thing she wants is to hurt her best friend. But when she's thrown together with Ryan one night, something happens. It's wonderful...and awful.
Sarah is torn apart by guilt, but what she feels is nothing short of addiction, and she can't stop herself from wanting more... 

First Line:

"I liked him first, but it doesn't matter." 

Review:

The Unwritten Rule was a short, quick, fun read about two friends and the boy that tears them apart. I loved how quickly the story flowed and how hard it was to stop reading. Page after page, the story started to get more complex for the main character Sarah, and I started to really dislike her best friend Brianna. She had a way of putting down her so called "best" friend by seeming like she was just being nice. Granted, Brianna did have a messed up family and just wanted someone to truly love her and never leave her. I felt really bad for Sarah because she was a good friend, but she just loved her best friend's boyfriend since eighth grade and he vice versa.

The tagline of the story says the unwritten rule is you don't like your best friend's boyfriend and that line totally describes the essence of the story. It's a hard situation to be in, and Elizabeth Scott wrote a great story about just that. The characters were so well-written, I fell in love with Ryan and pretty much loathed Brianna. I love reading books where I have strong feelings for the characters, so that's why I really liked the Unwritten Rule. By the end, I guarantee you will be rooting for Sarah and Ryan to be together! I've read most of Elizabeth's books and have loved every one. The Unwritten Rule was one of the shortest, but I loved the story just as much as the others. I'm so happy I got to read this for the blog tour, thanks!

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