Tour + #Giveaway: Under the Lights by @MissDahlELama

Under the Lights (Daylight Falls #2)
by Dahlia Adler
Publisher: Spencer Hill Contemporary
Release Date: June 30th 2015

Genre: GLBT, Young Adult/New Adult, Contemporary
Rate: 5 Stars

Synopsis:

Josh Chester loves being a Hollywood bad boy, coasting on his good looks, his parties, his parents' wealth, and the occasional modeling gig. But his laid-back lifestyle is about to change. To help out his best friend, Liam, he joins his hit teen TV show, Daylight Falls...opposite Vanessa Park, the one actor immune to his charms. (Not that he's trying to charm her, of course.) Meanwhile, his drama-queen mother blackmails him into a new family reality TV show, with Josh in the starring role. Now that he's in the spotlight—on everyone's terms but his own—Josh has to decide whether a life as a superstar is the one he really wants.

Vanessa Park has always been certain about her path as an actor, despite her parents' disapproval. But with all her relationships currently in upheaval, she's painfully uncertain about everything else. When she meets her new career handler, Brianna, Van is relieved to have found someone she can rely on, now that her BFF, Ally, is at college across the country. But as feelings unexpectedly evolve beyond friendship, Van's life reaches a whole new level of confusing. And she'll have to choose between the one thing she's always loved...and the person she never imagined she could.

  You guys! I adored this book. If every YA LGBT book was as good as Under the Lights, I'd never read anything else. It was such an authentic approach that I greatly appreciated. The inclusion of young Hollywood also added another element to this book that I found really interesting. It's not something I read about often, so I was really intrigued about the behind the scenes aspect.

  The chemistry between Vanessa and Brianna was perfect. I loved the slow build of their relationship. No insta-love here, y'all! They really are a great couple. As the book progresses, their relationship really shines. The secondary relationships were so fun, too. Dahlia Adler got the friendship dynamic so right in this book. Often times, I'm left wanting more. Not this time! The author delivered witty and realistic friendships that enhanced the book and characters so much.

  All in all, you can't go wrong with Under the Lights! If you love YA and LGBT, you'll be hard pressed to find a better book! I'd encourage people who aren't fans of LGBT literature to give it a try, too. It transcends the typical stereotypes and tells a great story without being heavy handed. It'd be an excellent book for someone to discover how great YA LGBT literature is or to reinforce their love of the genre!

Shin Min Ah as Vanessa Park

Colton Haynes as Josh Chester

Ashley Greene as Brianna

Follow the Under The Lights by Dahlia Adler Blog Tour and don't miss anything! Click on the banner to see the tour schedule.

I'm an Associate Editor of Mathematics by day, a Copy Editor by night, and I blog at The Daily Dahlia, YA Misfits, and the Barnes & Noble book blog. I also write contemporary YA (The Daylight Falls duology) and NA (The Radleigh University series). Rec-ing books is approximately my favorite thing in the universe, with macarons being a close second. Come say hi on Twitter, where I'm @MissDahlELama!

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Review: Making Pretty by Corey Ann Haydu

Making Pretty by Corey Ann Haydu

Genres: Young Adult, Contemporary Romance

[Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | IndieBound]

Montana and her sister, Arizona, are named after the mountainous states their mother left them for. But Montana is a New York City girl through and through, and as the city heats up, she’s stepping into the most intense summer of her life.

With Arizona wrapped up in her college world and their father distracted by yet another divorce, Montana’s been immersing herself in an intoxicating new friendship with a girl from her acting class. Karissa is bold, imperfectly beautiful, and unafraid of being vulnerable. She’s everything Montana would like to become. But the friendship with Karissa is driving a wedge between Montana and her sister, and the more of her own secrets Karissa reveals, the more Montana has to wonder if Karissa’s someone she can really trust.

In the midst of her uncertainty, Montana finds a heady distraction in Bernardo. He’s serious and spontaneous, and he looks at Montana in the way she wants to be seen. For the first time, Montana understands how you can become both lost and found in somebody else. But when that love becomes everything, where does it leave the rest of her imperfect life?

   Oh my gosh. Corey Ann Haydu had me sold from page two. It's hard to find a book about a motherless girl. Sure, there are plenty of missing in action parents in YA. But a truly motherless girl is hard to find. I instantly identified with Montana. And the soft spot I had for her only grew as I read Making Pretty.

These characters, y'all. The author did such an amazing job at writing all of the characters in this book. They were real, raw, and flawed. Even though my favorite was Montana without a doubt, I still enjoyed every other character in this book. Well, except for Montana and Arizona's dad. The damage he did to his daughters because his obsession with plastic surgery perfection was unforgivable to me. I've never read a book with a parent that obsessed with outward appearance. While I enjoyed the change, it was hard to realize how damaging that was to these girls.

  Montana and Bernardo's relationship made me smile like a fool. Their relationship was definitely flawed, but so real. The infusion of NYC into their story was such a treat. Haydu gave such an authentic account of first teenage love and New York City. It was such a treat to read.

  Making Pretty is an amazing real and enjoyable journey through the lives of these characters. If you love heartbreaking and realistic YA contemps, look no further than Haydu's latest. This book has easily elevated her on my authors to auto-buy list. Don't miss it!

**I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review with no compensation.

Review: Material Girls by Elaine Dimopoulos

Material Girls by Elaine Dimopoulos

Genres: Young Adult, Dystopian

[Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | IndieBound]

In Marla Klein and Ivy Wilde’s world, teens are the
gatekeepers of culture. A top fashion label employs
sixteen-year-old Marla to dictate hot new clothing trends, while Ivy, a teen pop star, popularizes the garments that Marla approves. Both girls are pawns in a calculated but seductive system of corporate control, and both begin to question their world’s aggressive levels of consumption. Will their new “eco-chic” trend subversively resist and overturn the industry that controls every part of their lives?

Smart, provocative, and entertaining, this thrilling page-turner for teens questions the cult like mentality of fame and fashion. Are you in or are you out?

   Whenever I imagine dystopians, I think more District 12 than Capitol. I've come to expect grit and destruction. But Material Girls gave me the opposite. It's a scary inflation of the world we live in today. There's a huge emphasis on consumerism and celebrity. I think that makes Material Girls scarier than a doom and gloom dystopian. It had a chord of reality that hit close to home.

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  Material Girls is told from two point of views, and I loved it. Both voices, Marla and Ivy, were very distinct and offered a deep insight into the world of Material Girls. Marla was easily my favorite, but that's not much of a surprise. She faces some very hard circumstances in this book, and I loved the way she handled them. She stayed true to herself. I liked Ivy well enough, but I felt a lot of pity for her. I felt like she was in over her head, but I respected her little efforts to send a big f- you to the system! Life is constantly speeding by and can leave either of them behind in its wake without warning. Talk about edge of your seat reading!

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  The fashion houses that rule in Material Girls made me so angry. I hated the way that they treated people as disposable. It left me feeling so unsettled. Elaine Dimopoulos paints a sweeping picture of the pitfalls of consumerism and forces the reader to think about the moral implications without being heavy handed.

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Material Girls is a fast paced read that I could not step away from. It kept me on the edge of my seat the entire time! The world that the author creates is as much a cautionary tale about the woes of consumerism as it is entertaining. Fashion lovers and readers alike will find a thrilling story in the pages of Material Girls!

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**I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review with no compensation.

Review: The Girl at Midnight by Melissa Grey

The Girl at Midnight by Melissa Grey

(The Girl at Midnight #1)

Genres: Young Adult, Fantasy

[Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | IndieBound]

Beneath the streets of New York City live the Avicen,
an ancient race of people with feathers for hair and
magic running through their veins. Age-old enchantments keep them hidden from humans. All but one. Echo is a runaway pickpocket who survives by selling stolen treasures on the black market, and the Avicen are the only family she's ever known.

Echo is clever and daring, and at times she can be brash, but above all else she's fiercely loyal. So when a centuries-old war crests on the borders of her home, she decides it's time to act.

Legend has it that there is a way to end the conflict once and for all: find the Firebird, a mythical entity believed to possess power the likes of which the world has never seen. It will be no easy task, but if life as a thief has taught Echo anything, it's how to hunt down what she wants . . . and how to take it.

But some jobs aren't as straightforward as they seem. And this one might just set the world on fire.

  Oh my gosh. There are 378462756232 reasons why I LOVE The Girl at Midnight. Seriously everything about this book was perfect and amazing and mind blowing. There's never a dull moment in this beautiful story blending the real world with a mysterious underworld comprised of feathered creatures and scaled beasts. I was wholly transported into Melissa Grey's world and I was so sad to be pried from the pages whenever The Girl at Midnight came to an end.

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  I don't think I've met a main character this year that I've loved as much as I love Echo. Her Tolkien references had me squealing out loud constantly. Her character growth was astounding. I was proud of her. I can only imagine how she'll evolve in the other books in this series, and I cannot wait to find out! So much is thrown at her and she is so fluid in her reactions. I love her wit, her ability to adapt, and her spirit. Gosh. I need more Echo in my life. AND SHE LIVES IN A LIBRARY, YOU GUYS. Need I say more?

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  The relationships in The Girl at Midnight are amazing and so well thought out. The budding relationships that begin to bloom over the course of this book made me smile so much. (And laugh!) There are a lot of complex dynamics between the characters, especially those between the Avicen and the Drakharin. Instead of snowballing into a world of crazy, the author really listened to the characters. I'm so appreciative of it. Everything felt so organic and natural.

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  The Girl at Midnight is beautiful. Besides the amazing characters, there's an amazing world to discover. I already want to get lost in it again. Melissa Grey writes so vividly that you feel like you're at Echo's side. It's an incredible experience. There are so many layers to this book and with each that you peel back, you'll just find one more reason to fall in love with The Girl at Midnight.

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  This book was written for YA fantasy fans. It cleverly reminded me of how much I love this genre. But it isn't just for fantasy fans. It isn't heavy handed. It finds the perfect balance to satisfy fantasy lovers while being balanced enough for any reader. The Girl at Midnight is one of my favorite books of 2015. You do NOT want to miss this!

**I received this book for free via NetGalley for an honest review with no compensation.

Review: Invaded by @melissa_landers

Invaded by Melissa Landers

(Alienated #2)

Genres: Young Adult, SciFi

[Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | IndieBound]

The romantic sequel to Alienated takes long-distance relationships to a new level as Cara and Aelyx long for each other from opposite ends of the universe...until a threat to both their worlds reunites them.

Cara always knew life on planet L’eihr would be an adjustment. With Aelyx, her L’eihr boyfriend, back on Earth, working to mend the broken alliance between their two planets, Cara is left to fend for herself at a new school, surrounded by hostile alien clones. Even the weird dorm pet hates her.

Things look up when Cara is appointed as human representative to a panel preparing for a human colony on L’eihr. A society melding their two cultures is a place where Cara and Aelyx could one day make a life together. But with L’eihr leaders balking at granting even the most basic freedoms, Cara begins to wonder if she could ever be happy on this planet, even with Aelyx by her side.

Meanwhile, on Earth, Aelyx, finds himself thrown into a full-scale PR campaign to improve human-L’eihr relations. Humans don’t know that their very survival depends on this alliance: only Aelyx’s people have the technology to fix the deadly contamination in the global water supply that human governments are hiding. Yet despite their upper hand, the leaders of his world suddenly seem desperate to get humans on their side, and hardly bat an eye at extremists’ multiple attempts on Aelyx’s life.

The Way clearly needs humans’ help . . . but with what? And what will they ask for in return?

  I was so happy to dive into Invaded and be reunited with Cara and Aelyx. They're one of my favorite YA couples, y'all! L'eihr was sort of shrouded in mystery in Alienated, and I was so glad to be able to experience it first hand through Cara's stay there.

  For a big majority of the book, Cara and Aelyx were separated. That did kill a bit of the romance, but I think that the communication between them kept that spark alive and kept me interested. This book focused less on them meeting, getting over their differences, and falling in love and more on the world as a whole and their future together. Some of the decisions Cara made did make me scratch my head, but she's on a planet entirely unlike her own. The only tether she has to her home and herself is her brother, who leaves halfway through the book. Cara went through some intense changes, and I was happy with the way she handled them. She had a lot thrown at her in this book, and I felt like she responded strongly and true to herself. I still want to be besties with her!

  Cara wasn't the only one dealing with a lot. Aelyx had his fair share of issues, too. Again, sometimes I wanted to shake him because I couldn't understand some of his decisions. But when you think about the immense pressure on his shoulders, the entire fate of the human race y'all, I realized that I would crumble under that. I think Invaded shows a lot more of who both characters are, and I like where Melissa Landers is taking them.

  Some things that are hinted at in Alienated are brought more into focus in Invaded. The Jaxon storyline surprised me, but I liked it. I thoroughly disliked him and I'm curious to see if he'll pop up again. There is a lot of development for all of the characters, not just Aelyx and Cara. I hope to see more of that in the future!

  All in all, Invaded was such an amazing follow-up to Alienated. It answered a lot of questions, but also left some of its own. I cannot how much love I have for this series. SciFi fans and skeptics of SciFi both need to read these books. They're perfect in every way, and my fingers are crossed for another book about Aelyx and Cara! I desperately need it!

Check out my review of Alienated here and my review of Until Midnight, the Alienated novella, here!