Review - Kiss & Blog by Alyson Noel

Title: Kiss and Blog

Author: Alyson Noel
Series: N/A
Pages: 240
Release Date: May 15^th 2007

Genre: Young Adult Fiction
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Source: Amazon
Format: Paperback

Buy it: Amazon

Add it: Goodreads

Synopsis: What's the best revenge when your best friend ditches you for the popular crowd? Alyson Noël reveals all in her hot new young adult novel, Kiss & Blog.

As freshmen at Ocean High last year, Winter and her best friend Sloane thought they could ditch their nerdy past, launching from invisible to cool. But after another miserable year of standing on the sidelines they make a pact to do whatever it takes not to go unnoticed in their sophomore year, promising each other that whoever makes it into the cool group first will bring the other along.

One Sloane gets a taste of life on the A-list, she slams that door in Winter's face. Suddenly cast out of her former best friend's life, Winter takes revenge the modern way: by announcing all of Sloane's dirty little secrets on an anonymous blog. Then the blog becomes more popular than she ever dreamed and Winter must decide if her retaliation is really worth the consequences—and if the price for popularity is one she's willing to pay. Once again, Alyson Noël navigates the tricky waters of the high school social scene with the heart and humor her readers have come to love.

My Review: Winter and Sloane are best friends and have been forever, they have spent the whole summer planning their first day of Sophomore year. They planned their outfits, make up, made up a new cheer and routine to go with it and made a promise to each other that if one made it to the top of the popular food chain they would take the other one with them.

Unfortunately for Winter this doesn’t happen and she is left behind like yesterday’s rubbish. Winter realises that the popular girls are fakes and two-faced but Sloane doesn’t seem to realise this and she manages to make it to the top.

I couldn’t put this book down, Alyson made the characters come to life. It reminds me of when I was at High School, two-faced friends who only want to know you when they want something from you.

Winter’s dad is famous kind of, and he is divorced from Winter’s mum, he lives a plane journey away, so when things go really wrong at school with Sloane, Winter skips school and hops on a plane to get away, using the plane ticket that her dad has sent her.

While Winter is at her dads she meets a boy and they hang out and she really starts to come out of her shell.

Winter gets an idea from her new friends to start a blog and she decides to use it to take out all her frustration with Sloane, she makes up a code name for everyone She goes by ‘Eleanor Rigby’, Sloane is named ‘Princess Pink’ and the popular crowd are called the ‘Pastel Posse’. Winter uses the blog to tell everyone all of Sloane’s secrets from her kissing her own cousin twice that’s right not once but twice, to sending her junior high principal an inappropriate  valentine’s day present.

Winter falls in love with a boy her mum hires to cover Winters shifts in her mums shop, they have a few ups and down but which couple don’t.

Winter’s dad tells Winter that he has been asked to do a reality show that he wants her and her sister to be a part of, when Sloane finds out about this she starts being nice to Winter until one day when Winter is hiding out in the back of her mums shop she overhears Sloane talking with the ‘Pastel Posse’ about how she is using Winter to get on her dads show.

Sloane ends up getting dumped by the popular crowd and is on the bottom of the schools social food chain while Winter has new friends and a nice boyfriend.

I really wish Winter would have stood up to Sloane and told her she knew she was a fake and wanted nothing to do with her.

This book is a definite read especially if you’re a huge YA fan and Alyson Noel fan.

Currently Reading: Check Mate by Ken Fry
Read In 2017: 10/25

Review - Spy Society by Robin Benway

Title: Spy Society

Author: Robin Benway
Series: Also Known As
Pages: 320
Release Date: June 18^th 2013

Genre: Young Adult
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Source: Supermarket
Format: Paperback

Buy it: Amazon

Add it: Goodreads

Synopsis: Being a 16-year-old safecracker and active-duty daughter of international spies has its moments, good and bad. Pros: Seeing the world one crime-solving adventure at a time. Having parents with super cool jobs. Cons: Never staying in one place long enough to have friends or a boyfriend. But for Maggie Silver, the biggest perk of all has been avoiding high school and the accompanying cliques, bad lunches, and frustratingly simple locker combinations.

Then Maggie and her parents are sent to New York for her first solo assignment, and all of that changes. She'll need to attend a private school, avoid the temptation to hack the school's security system, and befriend one aggravatingly cute Jesse Oliver to gain the essential information she needs to crack the case . . . all while trying not to blow her cover.

My Review: Maggie is a 16 year old safe cracker, her parent’s work for a group called ‘The Collective’, the group give out assignments and try to stop the outside world finding out about them.

Maggie is good at her job, the only downside is they are always moving, she doesn’t attend school and she has no friends, her life is boring.

Spy Society had me laughing a lot, Maggie is great, witty and a super safe cracker.

Maggie is home schooled as she travels the world while her parents complete assignments. Maggie is bored because it is the summer holidays and she is stuck at home while her parents are working a case in Iceland, she wants a case of her own.

When Maggie finally gets a case of her own, she to attend high school and get close to a real boy not one she day dreams about.

Her mission is simple, get close to Jessie Oliver and retrieve a file that his dad has that will expose ‘The Collective’.

Maggie has no experience of being and acting like a normal teenager so she makes errors plus high school is terrifying, her parents are in for a massive shock when their baby girl starts high school.

Maggie becomes friends with an awesome girl named Roux. Roux likes to get drunk because her parents are never home they never know she’s always drunk, Roux also loves to have fun, the only problem is everyone at school hates her.

One of the best things about the story is that Maggie doesn’t fall instantly in love with Jessie Oliver.

While at a Halloween party at Jessie’s house Maggie manages to lift the file but she later finds out that there is a double agent in ‘The Collective’ and she enlists help from Jessie and Roux to expose them.

If you love spy stories then Spy Society is a good quick, fun read.

Currently Reading: Check Mate by Ken Fry
Read In 2017:  10/25