BOOK REVIEW: DARE YOU TO BY KATIE MCGARRY

Title: Dare You To

Author: Katie McGarry

Genre: Young Adult, romance

Published on: May 28, 2013 by Harlequin Teen

Ryan lowers his lips to my ear. "Dance with me, Beth."

"No." I whisper the reply. I hate him and I hate myself for wanting him to touch me again....

"I dare you..."

If anyone knew the truth about Beth Risk's home life, they'd send her mother to jail and seventeen-year-old Beth who knows where. So she protects her mom at all costs. Until the day her uncle swoops in and forces Beth to choose between her mom's freedom and her own happiness. That's how Beth finds herself living with an aunt who doesn't want her and going to a school that doesn't understand her. At all. Except for the one guy who shouldn't get her, but does....

Ryan Stone is the town golden boy, a popular baseball star jock-with secrets he can't tell anyone. Not even the friends he shares everything with, including the constant dares to do crazy things. The craziest? Asking out the Skater girl who couldn't be less interested in him.

But what begins as a dare becomes an intense attraction neither Ryan nor Beth expected. Suddenly, the boy with the flawless image risks his dreams-and his life-for the girl he loves, and the girl who won't let anyone get too close is daring herself to want it all....

Pushing the Limits exceeded my expectations. Even though it could have had a more cheerful tone, I wasn’t disappointed. Noah and Echo made a compelling pair of protagonists. So when I learned that there would be sequels, I bought this one right away. Only, I slightly hesitated to read it. The protagonist of Dare You To is Beth Risk, who appears in the first book. I didn’t like her much when I first met her. Beth was even worse than Noah used to be. She is a stoner, skater chick with as much bite as bark. And Beth’s mouth is about as clean as Hit-Girl’s. Why would anyone want to read a book about someone like that?

It turned out that Beth is more than she appeared to be. From the moment Ryan Stone (the second protagonist) laid eyes on Beth, it was apparent there was more to her. The book is told from Ryan’s and Beth’s first-person POVs, so the reader’s experience of the story is as personal as it gets. In one of the first Beth-centric scenes, she sacrifices herself for her mother. Beth’s mom lives alone with her abusive husband, Trent. After an incident involving all three of them, the police arrest Beth.

BOOK REVIEW: THREE BY J.A. KONRATH & ANN VOSS PETERSON

Title: Three
Author: J.A. Konrath, Ann Voss Peterson
Genre: Thriller

Published on: June 25, 2013 by Thomas & Mercer

Time is running out for Chandler, the elite assassin whose mission to rescue her sister from a notorious black ops prison landed her at the top of the nation’s Most Wanted list. Burned by her handlers and forced to work with her mortal enemy in a race to preserve the very government that wants her dead, the living weapon has become a ticking time bomb.

In saving her sister, Chandler unleashed a power-mad American president dead set on controlling the world—no matter how many millions of innocent people he must kill to do it. To stop him, Chandler will go deeper than she’s ever gone before, pushing her body and mind to their absolute limits. All the while she is hunted by the one man who knows her every secret, her every hiding place—and her every weakness. Infiltrating the White House, crashing a bullfight in Mexico City, hijacking a blimp in Toronto…these are just the beginning of the end, as the Codename: Chandler trilogy races towards its stunning conclusion.

This is a satisfying conclusion (or is it?) to the Codename: Chandler trilogy. I'm questioning the conclusion part because I wonder whether there will be a sequel. I don't know anything for sure, so I'll continue with my review of Three. The story picks up where Spree left off. Chandler is really burning the candle at both ends, and she's facing her most difficult mission yet. After her failed relationship at the end of book 2, Chandler finds herself struggling to avoid crumbling down. She's wondering whether she has any humanity left inside her, after all the people she's killed.

Meanwhile, The Instructor has done a Ra's Al Ghul and turned on his former students. He used Chandler to get rid of the former President and aid the new one in a heinous plot. To stop him, Chandler and her twin/former handler Fleming will have to ally with their old enemy, Hammett. She happens to be their identical sister. Hammett's not thrilled that The Instructor's plan to discredit her siblings also affects her. They have the exact same face.

BOOK REVIEW: FLAME MOON BY K.J. JACKSON

Title: Flame Moon

Author: K.J. Jackson

Genre: Fantasy, romance

Published on: August 3, 2012 by AWD Publishing

Skye Walters thought waking up on the side of a river with no memory was her biggest problem. She had no idea that the man who had saved her from drowning, the man she now depended on, Aiden, was more than mere mortal. A warrior of ancient.

No memory, nowhere to go, Skye stays in the mountain town, only to discover she herself, has unexplained powers. Her life, her destiny, are soon out of her control, as are her feelings for Aiden. The deeper Skye gets sucked into Aiden’s hidden world, the more the past, and who she really is, threatens her future, her love, her sanity.

I am quite fond of compelling, imaginative fantasy novels. Flame Moon is one of those. I greatly enjoyed it from the start. The book’s main protagonist is Skye Walters. Her story begins with intrigue right away, as Skye wakes up in the woods, amnesiac. The first person she meets upon coming to is Aiden. He is initially bemused when Skye appears not to remember him. Aiden explains that he took her on a kayaking trip, at her request. It was clear that Skye had never been in the water, and she had an accident. Aiden was able to rescue her.

As Skye doesn’t know who she is or where she comes from, Aiden takes her to a nearby ranch. Mary, the motherly owner, takes it upon herself to care for Skye. The latter stays there for a few days, recovering. Skye also meets Triaten and Charlotte, Aiden’s best friends. Skye doesn’t like to be a burden, and so she offers to help. Soon after, Aiden and Skye go to a nearby trail to clean it up. There are fallen trees and rockslides to clear. After a tragic incident, Skye inexplicably displays a rare gift not seen in many years. After demanding answers, Aiden reveals that they are both Panthenites. Humans call them gods, even though they are mortal. Panthenites gain special powers when they are baptized in the river where Skye fell. To prove his story, Aiden grabs a huge boulder and throws it into the river, displaying his extreme strength.

BOOK REVIEW: ON DUBLIN STREET BY SAMANTHA YOUNG

Title: On Dublin Street

Author: Samantha Young

Genre: Romance

Published on: August 31, 2012 (first edition), self-published

Jocelyn Butler has been hiding from her past for years. But all her secrets are about to be laid bare ...

Four years ago, Jocelyn left her tragic past behind in the States and started over in Scotland, burying her grief, ignoring her demons, and forging ahead without attachments. Her solitary life is working well - until she moves into a new apartment on Dublin Street, where she meets a man who shakes her carefully guarded world to its core.

Braden Carmichael is used to getting what he wants, and he's determined to get Jocelyn into his bed. Knowing how skittish she is about entering a relationship, Braden proposes an arrangement that will satisfy their intense attraction without any strings attached.

But after an intrigued Jocelyn accepts, she realizes that Braden won't be satisfied with just mind-blowing passion. The stubborn Scotsman is intent on truly knowing her . . . down to the very soul.

This book was so good! At first glance, you might think it’s about a couple with intense physical chemistry who engage in sexual encounters throughout the book (especially when looking at the first-edition cover). That's not the case here, at least not entirely. This isn't an erotic romance. It's more like a steamy New Adult romance. Samantha Young did a great job of developing the characters in On Dublin Street properly.

Jocelyn Butler is a young woman with a past that’s filled with painful losses. Because of that, she doesn’t feel ready for a serious relationship, despite being gorgeous. We meet her just as she’s about to check an apartment with a potential roommate. That day, Jocelyn encounters a man named Braden Carmichael, and everything starts to change. They soon meet again, and when they do so, it’s really amusing. Since that point, Braden becomes interested in Jocelyn.

CONSEILS A CONNAITRE AVANT DE VOUS ENSEIGNER UNE LANGUE ETRANGERE

Avez-vous déjà rêve de parler une nouvelle langue ? Peut-être vous avez entendu un personnage dans un film parler une langue différente. Ou vous avez trouvé un ami qui parle français ou polonais—par exemple—and vous étiez curieux. Est-ce difficile d’apprendre une autre langue ? Parlant trois langues, ma réponse est que l’apprentissage des langues prend de temps. Ce n’est pas exactement difficile. Rester engagé dans l’apprentissage peut faire une grande différence. Ci-dessous, je vais vous donner des astuces pour vous aider a démarrer. Ces astuces proviennent de ma propre expérience. Je ne suis pas un expert, mais je sais ce qu’il faut pour réussir. Alors, voici mes astuces :