Review: Aces Up - Lauren Barnholdt

Aces Up by Lauren Barnholdt

Publication Date: August 10th, 2010

Pages: 288

Age Group: Young Adult

Source: Received it as a gift

Synopsis (from Goodreads)

Seventeen-year-old high school senior Shannon Card needs money. And lots of it. She's been admitted to Wellesley, but her dad just lost his job, and somehow she has to come up with a year of tuition herself. But Shannon's dream of making big bucks waitressing at the local casino, the Collosio, disappears faster than a gambler's lucky streak. Her boss is a tyrant, her coworker is nuts, and her chances of balancing a tray full of drinks while wearing high-heeled shoes are slim to none. Worse, time is running out, and Shannon hasn't made even half the money she'd hoped.

When Shannon receives a mysterious invitation to join Aces Up, a secret network of highly talented college poker players, at first she thinks No way. She has enough to worry about: keeping her job, winning the coveted math scholarship at school, and tutoring her secret crush, Max. But when Shannon musters up the nerve to kiss Max and he doesn't react at all, the allure of Aces Up and its sexy eighteen-year-old leader, Cole, is suddenly too powerful to ignore.

Soon Shannon's caught up in a web of lies and deceit that makes worrying about tuition money or a high school crush seem like kid stuff. Still, when the money's this good, is the fear of getting caught reason enough to fold?

This fun, sexy, recession-proof story is a bubbly summer read with surprising depth—great for fans of Sarah Mlynowski.

I have to say that I had a couple of issues with this book. The first one was that I was expecting something more action packed and a whole lot more poker! Sadly, it didn't happen. There is more time spent on Shannon obsessing over Matt, than on Aces Up and the poker games. In fact, you don't learn a lot about the group and the little I got was more based on assumptions.

In terms of characters, my favourite ones were Shannon's sister and Mackenzie, her work colleague/friend. I didn't care about Cole and Matt was a bit of a jerk (even though he was supposed to be the good guy?). As for Shannon's parents, they bothered me...a lot! I guess that if I was a mother I would probably see things differently but I think they were plain irresponsible and should not have treated Shannon the way they did when they found out that she was working on the casino and playing poker. I mean, if you have enough money to buy a BMW and a boat (and you work with stocks) you should have enough money to put aside for your daughters' college...

I thought that Shannon was maybe a bit naive and needed some focus and guidance. Everytime she saw Matt (and sometimes Cole) her imagination would go crazy! I never read about someone thinking about another person shirtless so much as I did in this book!

Like I said, I really liked Robyn (sister) and Mackenzie. Robyn and Shannon had a very nice relationship and Mackenzie was a great character: funny, a little crazy but genuinely good!

Even though the pacing was a bit slow it is a very quick read. I am usually a slow reader and I finished this really fast. 

I know that I have been a bit M.I.A the last few days and I will try to use my time better (and not going out so much! I'm being way too social lately!) 

Review: Going Vintage - Lindsey Leavitt

Going Vintage by Lindsey Leavitt

Publication Date: April 1st, 2013

Pages: 304

Age Group: Young Adult

Source: Bought it

Synopsis (from Goodreads)

Sixteen-year-old Mallory loves her boyfriend, Jeremy. Or at least likes him more than she's ever liked any other boy. She's sure he feels the same way. Until she happens upon his online Authentic Life game and discovers he's cheating on her ...online Mallory's life is falling apart and technology is the cause. And then she finds a list, written by her grandma when she was Mallory's age. All her grandma had to worry about was sewing dresses and planning dinner parties. Things were so much simpler in the 1960s. And there's nothing on the list that Mallory couldn't do herself. Maybe it's time for Mallory to go vintage and find the answers to her modern-day problems.

I have been dying to read this book and I'm so glad I did! Even though it's very common for me to love all the books I read it's not so common for me to find a book where there isn't one single thing that I would change. Going Vintage is one of those books.

I found it really easy to connect with the main character, Mallory, who I think is very loveable. All the other characters are really well written and they all seem to have their own story (instead of just being there as "props" on Mallory's). I really liked Ginnie (her younger sister) and Mallory's friendship. Ginnie seemed to always be there to help Mallory with her crazy plans, even if it means going all 1962. Oliver was another great character. He was really unpredictable and well...absolutely hillarious! I also liked that he had his qualities but he also had flaws.

What really took me by surprise was the plot. It has a couple of nice twists and even though it's not very heavy and emotional it's not superficial either. I thought it was very easy to read and once I started, I was hooked! 

I would definitely recommend it to anyone looking for a light, really sweet and funny book!

You can buy the book from The Book Depository (this is an affiliate link, which means that if you buy something from there I get a small comition without any extra charges fot you! :D)

Tackle Your TBR Read-a-thon Challenge (+ GIVEAWAY!)

This read-a-thon is hosted by Tressa's Wishful Endings and Colorimetry. I am very happy to annouce that I am hosting a challenge! I think that it's no secret how much I love book covers so it's only right that my challenge is based on them. For this challenge I will give you six pictures. All of them have a part of a book cover and it is your job to guess which cover it is! All covers are from books that I have read and which had been on my TBR list for ages! Good luck! :D

If you need any hints just let me know and I will post some! :)

HINT #1: Picture #3 belongs to the PAPERBACK cover of a novel set in the 80's! :)
HINT #2: Still about Book #3! It's not really a hint but I switched the edition on my read list so it shows the cover I used for the challenge :)

Rules:

• Prize: A book of your choice from The Book Depository (under 10€)
• Open internationally as long as The Book Depository ships to your country (you can check here)
• You have to be a participant on the Tackle Your TBR read-a-thon. You can sign-up here (you din't have to have a blog)
• Fill the rafflecopter below (or click the link of the rafflecopter doesn't show up);
• This giveaway ends on September 22nd, at 12 a.m (WEST - Western European Summer Time);
• I will contact the winner by email, if I don't get a reply in 48 hours, another winner will be picked (don't forget to check the spam folder!);
• I will check all the entries!
• Have fun :)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Tackle Your TBR Read-a-thon Goals!

This read-a-thon is hosted by Tressa's Wishful Endings and Colorimetry. Like usual I am not going to set a huge goal for myself, so I don't get disappointed! I won't specify which books I am going to read since I like looking at them and pick them as I feel like it! :)

1) Finish a book every 2-3 days (it will probably be every 3 days...);

2) Finish some of my netgalley books;

3) Review all the books I manage to read;

4) Enter all the challenges (except my own...obviously haha);

5) Try to comment on at least half of the author guest posts;

6) Visit all the participants!

Are you participating too?