Waiting on Wednesday #30

Cress by Marissa Meyer
Series: The Lunar Chronicles, #3
Publisher: Fiewel and Friends
Publication Date: February 4, 2014

Rapunzel's tower is a satellite. She can't let down her hair - or her guard.

In this third book in the bestselling Lunar Chronicles series, Cinder and Captain Thorne are fugitives on the run, with Scarlet and Wolf in tow. Together, they’re plotting to overthrow Queen Levana and her army.

Their best hope lies with Cress, who has been trapped on a satellite since childhood with only her netscreens as company. All that screen time has made Cress an excellent hacker – unfortunately, she’s just received orders from Levana to track down Cinder and her handsome accomplice.

When a daring rescue goes awry, the group is separated. Cress finally has her freedom, but it comes at a high price. Meanwhile, Queen Levana will let nothing stop her marriage to Emperor Kai. Cress, Scarlet, and Cinder may not have signed up to save the world, but they may be the only ones who can.

O.O Isn't this cover beautiful? And the synopsis? SO MUCH LOVE. I really hope that this one is even better than Scarlet, which received a phenomenal 5 stars...so, am I feeling six stars? We'll see!

Keep Me Ghosted by Karen Cantwell

Keep Me Ghosted by Karen Cantwell
Series: Sophie Rhodes Ghostly Romance, #1
Source: Netgalley
Publisher: Boundless
Publication Date: March 15, 2013

Ghosts. Do you Believe?

Sophie Rhodes doesn't have a choice. She's surrounded by them.

Desperate to pay the bills, 29-year-old Sophie ignores the advice of her stuffy spirit-friend, Marmaduke Dodsworth, and takes a job with the handsome Dr. Callahan, an optometrist with a desperate situation of his own. The good doctor's problem? He has a spirit-friend as well: one with a fiery crush and a vicious jealous streak. When chemistry starts to brew between Sophie and Dr. Callahan, his green-eyed ghost wreaks some bad-tempered havoc, scaring away his patients and putting Sophie on edge. Will Sophie give up the ghost and quit the new job, or buck up and find a way to rid Dr. Callahan of his pesky specter, freeing their romance to find a life of its own?

I was expecting Keep Me Ghosted to be a fun romp of a read...I was disappointed by that. It was fun sometimes, but it was mostly bogged down by a weirdly paced plot. Some parts were really slow...the first 73%, I wasn't sure if anything was ever going to really happen. But after that point, it seemed like everything just dropped out of the sky-- the pacing went from really slow to extremely fast all at once.

Just do me a favor-- read the description. I was led to believe that Sophie was absolutely surrounded by ghosts, and that her and Dr. Callahan were going to have fab chemistry. Both were extreme exaggerations. Sophie only has one ghost around-- her friend Marmaduke. And while he was great, I was expecting more. I did like him as a character, though. He added a certain level of sarcasticness. I laughed at several of his one-liners. But on to the chemistry-- I really wasn't feeling it.

Sophie of herself didn't really inspire me. She wasn't a bad character, but she wasn't fantastic or anything. I think that the author tried too hard to make her characters quirky. Sophie has a pet flying squirrel and a one-eyed cat, and Cal is one of the only doctor's in his chosen field: vision therapy. I wasn't emotionally invested in them at all, I'm sad to say.

The whole story seemed rushed, to tell you the truth. Not well planned out or executed. Keep Me Ghosted just didn't turn out the way that I hoped it would.

The Only Exception by Magan Vernon

The Only Exception by Magan Vernon
Series: N/A
Source: Netgalley
Publisher: All Night Reads
Publication Date: April 9, 2013

Fiercely liberal Monica Remy prefers to blend in. Despite her tattoos, piercings, and outspoken personality, she transferred to Central to escape—before she finds out that her next door neighbor is the uber conservative governor's son, Trey Chapman.

No matter how hard she tries to avoid Trey, he still finds a way to get under her skin. Monica can’t stand his crisp white shirts or his staunch views on women. But she can’t help counting every freckle on his face and wondering what it would feel like to have him stop talking politics and kiss her.

A class debate project forces the unlikely pair to work together, and the political lines are blurred in late-night make out sessions. But despite their fiery chemistry, Trey’s politics threatens to smother their relationship for good.

I was really expecting to like this one. Which is why I was sorely disappointed by it. I guess I expected it to be more forbidden love, less I loved you as soon as I set sight on you. Don't get me wrong, that has it's place in the world of literature too, but I expected more from this.

Monica and Trey didn't make much of an impression on me. They weren't very well developed, and I just didn't feel the "chemistry" between them. As soon as they meet, it escalates quickly to "will you date me" and leaves most of the politics at that. I was expect more of a fiery romance, but what I got didn't exactly resemble romance to me. I didn't understand some of the problems that they had...and lots of conservatives believe in contraception. I mean, I do. I'm pro-life, but I think that everyone deserves a choice. Also, I do not believe in gun control and I'd like to keep my second amendment rights. But what can you do? A lot of the pre-conceived notions that Monica has about conservatives aren't all true. Just like some liberals toe the line. She assumes too much, I guess is what I'm trying to say.

The Only Exception escalated way too quickly. I don't feel like there was enough time for feelings to happen, which is what really disappointed me. I want to be immersed in the love of a romance, and that just didn't happen with this one. Also, this is going to sound weird, but random fact. The word "libido" must appear in this book something like ten times. Which trust me, is a lot.

Back to the relationship...another thing that bothered me was the way they kept calling each other "Mr." and "Miss". I'm sure that it's meant to be cute, but it just seemed a little too adult for a college relationship. It was off-putting.

Monica herself was kind of off-putting to tell you the truth. I have no idea what it is...maybe it's just me. Actually, I'm sure it's just me and I feel really bad about it. Trey is off-putting too. For the life of me, I just cannot picture this young republican as being cute...he's a bit too clean cut.

I know that I'm focusing mostly on the characters and the romance...and that's pretty much all that needs to be said for me. I went into this expecting a love story, but I was disappointed by the lack of story depth and emotional investment.

All in all, The Only Exception just wasn't for me. If you think you'll like it though, I think you should try it.