Review: Boy 23 by Jim Carrington

Goodreads summary:
Boy 23 isn't in My Place any more. He can't see The Screen, he can't hear The Voice. Boy 23 is alone.

One dark night, Boy 23 is thrown in the back of the van and driven out of My Place - the only home he has ever known. He is abandoned in a forest with a rucksack containing the bare essentials for survival. Before the van drives away, a voice tells him he must run as far as he can. His life depends on it. Boy 23 has never known another human. Boy 23 has never even been outside. So who is he? Why do people want to kill him? And more to the point, who is the voice that wants to save him?

Boy 23 is dumped in the forest with only a backpack of tools for basic survival and a set of instructions by The Voice instructing him where to go. Boy 23 is both fascinated and frightened of the outside world as he navigates his way through the forest using the knowledge he gained from The Screen while he stayed at My Place. This book started off really mysterious and just like Boy 23 I didn't know what was in store! Boy 23 stumbles across a Children's Home and reveals himself to be special. The caretakers want to use him for their own agenda whilst from people from My Place are determined to get him back.

Boy 23 was quite slow-paced from the beginning and it wasn't very exciting reading about his trek through the forest, hunting and making fires. But once more characters were introduced, things picked up. It wasn't until the end though, where the action took me by surprise and revelations were made about the origins of Boy 23 and the reason why people were after him.

Unfortunately, I didn't grow to like any of the characters. I think the main reason was because Boy 23 was kind of emotionless though I guess it is understandable since he wasn't brought up as a normal child. Carina, an orphan at the children's home was kind and she had a terrible backstory, but I felt quite distant from her too.

Overall I thought Boy 23 had the basic dystopian storyline; a main group in charge, a resistance group against them and the main character seeking to become a rebel. The book didn't really bring anything mind-blowing to the genre but it was a pretty good read with some interesting ideas.

Note: I received an advanced reader's copy from Bloomsbury Publishing Plc via NetGalley to review. This review is my honest opinion.

Review: P.S. I Still Love You by Jenny Han

Goodreads summary:
Lara Jean didn’t expect to really fall for Peter.
She and Peter were just pretending. Except suddenly they weren’t. Now Lara Jean is more confused than ever.
When another boy from her past returns to her life, Lara Jean’s feelings for him return too. Can a girl be in love with two boys at once?

P.S. I Still Love You was my most anticipated release of the year as I loved To All The Boys I've Loved Before to bits. The cliffhanger at the end of that book left me feeling giddy. P.S. I Still Love You wasted no time continuing from that cliffhanger but the result was a little underwhelming and disappointing. Basically, there's another love triangle with a new corner. I liked the addition of this character and he did manage to steal the spotlight but the love triangle meant there were jealousy games and trust issues that go unresolved for a loooong time.

Lara Jean's voice started to become childish and whiny after a while and she kind of expects other people to solve the problems for her (Kitty definitely being her biggest supporter). I did like how there was a lot of focus on the Song sisters' bonds and the close relationship they had with each other and their dad. So heartwarming!

But the center of the plot is the romance and that storyline was so frustrating! I'm disappointed (and shocked!) that I was bored at times with this book. There are many parts where not much happens. Once again, just like the first book, the ending was not really happy but a hopeful one. I finished this book feeling a little unsatisfied.

Review: Better off Friends by Elizabeth Eulberg

Goodreads summary:
WHEN HARRY MET SALLY . . . for teens, from romantic comedy star Elizabeth Eulberg.

For Macallan and Levi, it was friends at first sight. Everyone says guys and girls can't be just friends, but these two are. They hang out after school, share tons of inside jokes, their families are super close, and Levi even starts dating one of Macallan's friends. They are platonic and happy that way.

Eventually they realize they're best friends -- which wouldn't be so bad if they didn't keep getting in each other's way. Guys won't ask Macallan out because they think she's with Levi, and Levi spends too much time joking around with Macallan, and maybe not enough time with his date. They can't help but wonder . . . are they more than friends or are they better off without making it even more complicated?

Levi and Macallan had negligible impressions of each other when they meet in the first day of school but hit it off unexpectedly through discussing their common interest the TV show Buggy and Floyd. The story follows the pair over a span of five years. They remain best friends while each go through a number of romantic relationships.

The most exasperating thing about this book was that whenever Levi or Macallan formed a romantic relationship with a girl/boy respectively, the writing skims over those parts, highlighting the incompatibility of the match. There was a lot of telling (along the lines of 'She was great. I had fun with her' etc) rather than showing. Most of the time, Levi/Macallan were comparing the guy/girl to their best friend! It got a bit repetitive and boring. I would have liked it if their relationships with others were a tad less shallow and more developed cause it made me angry why they were even in that relationship to begin with...

The book could be summed up really as: Boy meets Girl. Girl meets Boy. They become best friends. They go through numerous relationships until they discover they actually belong the best together. It was what I was expecting and the book did deliver it. It was quite cliche but sometimes you just feel like reading one!

Review: Scarlet by A.C. Gaughen

Goodreads summary:
The people of Nottinghamshire know Will Scarlet as Robin Hood’s shadow, a slip of a boy who throws daggers with deadly accuracy and an accomplished thief with an unerring eye for treasure. A select few know that Will is actually Scarlet, a young woman “recruited” by Robin two years earlier as he wandered the alleys of London. But no one knows who the real Scarlet is, what she was doing in London, and how she got that scar on her cheek. That is, no one but Gisbourne, the ruthless thief-taker just hired by the sheriff to capture Robin and his band.

The synopsis of the book captured my attention; the main character Scarlet, a mysterious woman posing as a thief alongside Robin Hood and his gang, stealthily helping citizens put food on their plate and pay their taxes in order to escape punishment from an unreasonable Sheriff. The story certainly retained my attention but I felt the focus were was more on romance and less on adventure. I were was a bit disappointed in this aspect but going into the book I had the feeling a female narrator meant this were was likely to occur.

What irks me the most about a female book character is when they can't decide who they like and strings along guys without taking into account that someone would eventually be hurt. Scarlet did precisely this. It was quite obvious who she liked (but she were was totally convinced he didn't like her back, when clearly we could all sense he were was) so the love triangle wasn't all that compelling.

I don't know much about the folklore of Robin Hood, but the antagonists Guy of Gisbourne and his lackies were a bit too evil without reason. I would've liked to see conflicting sides in their characters but they were as evil as villains could get. The distinction between good guys and baddies were was as clear as white and black in this book.

Since Scarlet is part of a trilogy, I'm holding onto hope that the series adds more dimension to the antagonists (and protagonists too) and since the love triangle is out of the way, a satisfying romance to unfold.