Mini-Reviews: The Program by Suzanne Young, Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon, Collision by Stefne Miller

Summary/Cover Image from Publisher's Website:

In this “gripping tale for lovers of dystopian romance” (Kirkus Reviews), true feelings are forbidden, teen suicide is an epidemic, and the only solution is The Program.

Sloane knows better than to cry in front of anyone. With suicide now an international epidemic, one outburst could land her in The Program, the only proven course of treatment. Sloane’s parents have already lost one child; Sloane knows they’ll do anything to keep her alive. She also knows that everyone who’s been through The Program returns as a blank slate. Because their depression is gone—but so are their memories.

Under constant surveillance at home and at school, Sloane puts on a brave face and keeps her feelings buried as deep as she can. The only person Sloane can be herself with is James. He’s promised to keep them both safe and out of treatment, and Sloane knows their love is strong enough to withstand anything. But despite the promises they made to each other, it’s getting harder to hide the truth. They are both growing weaker. Depression is setting in.

And The Program is coming for them.

Review:

Way back when I read Suzanne Young's debut novel, The Naughty List, and loved it. It cute and funny. Flash forward to now, and I'm wondering why I have yet to read another Suzanne Young novel, even though I have all of them on my to-read list and some of them even in my TBR pile.  Realizing I needed to change this I dove into The Program, her bestselling series that's captured the hearts of many, to see what the fuss was about. The result? I. loved. this. book. so. hard. It was romantic. It was heartbreaking. Most importantly, it questioned what makes us truly humans. The relationship between Sloane and James was beautiful and heartbreaking. I almost cried at times during this book, because it was just so horrible how willing their world was to tear them apart. I don't have much to say about this book, besides this: Read it. Love it. Hope that our world never becomes the way it is described in this book.

Grade: A- 

The Program (Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Goodreads) is now out!

Source: ARC provided by Simon Pulse - thanks!

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Summary/Cover Image from Author's Website: 

Madeline Whittier is allergic to the outside world. So allergic, in fact, that she has never left the house in all of her seventeen years. She is content enough—until a boy with eyes the color of the Atlantic Ocean moves in next door. Their complicated romance begins over IM and grows through a wunderkammer of vignettes, illustrations, charts, and more.

Everything, Everything is about the thrill and heartbreak that happens when we break out of our shell to do crazy, sometimes death-defying things for love.

Review: 

I feel as if everyone and their mother has read this book by now, and now that I've read it, I can definitely see why. Everything, Everything was throw-my-hands-up-in-the-air, oh-my-god-I-can't-stop-smiling kind of good! Like Suzanne Young's The Program, Everything, Everything questions what makes us be truly alive, and as Maddie finds out in this book, love may be the answer. This book is about first-loves, being so hopelessly in love that you feel as if you can't think. It's about  making those earth shattering decisions, ones that may break or make you. It's about pursuing your passions, no matter the consequences and the limits you have to push throw.  Maddie was the kind of main character that started off naive but became an intelligent, brave young woman. I especially loved the way in which this was told. The illustrations were perfect! Basically, read this book, and tell me you don't want to read more by Nicola Yoon. Now to find a copy of The Sun is Also a Star. 

Grade: A 

Everything, Everything (Amazon, Goodreads, Barnes and Noble) is now out!

Source: Library

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Summary/Cover Image from Goodreads: 

Seven minutes inside a hotel room with a complete stranger. A friendly greeting where we pretend to know each other well and are genuinely happy to see each other; then straight to business. None of it meaningful. None of it real. All of it rehearsed, choreographed, and expected. My life isn't my own anymore. I pretty much go wherever I'm told and put on the show. It's my life and whether I chose it or not, it's the life I've got. It's the world I live in. And, I'm searching. Always searching... I just don't know what for. 

Cab Stone has it all-fame, fortune and the adoration of millions of women across the globe. When the constant attention from fans and expectations from his handlers becomes too much, he escapes the craziness of press junkets and movie sets and escapes to Asheville, North Carolina to hide away for the summer. He expects peace, quiet, and solitude. What he doesn't expect is to meet a fiery redhead who changes everything he knows about the world. The daughter of missionaries, Kei Sallee lives a life of service to others. She has little, expects less, and helps heal the hearts of thousands in Uganda, where she grew up. When she finds herself staying in the same guesthouse as Cab Stone, she vows to ignore his Greek god good looks and spend the summer as she had planneda "in peace, quiet, and solitude. Cab and Kei's lives couldn't be more different...or more the same. Despite, or perhaps because of, their vastly different yet startlingly similar backgrounds, Cab and Kei strike up an unlikely friendship that could possibly blossom into something more. But Kei fears that the truth about her past will prevent pretty-boy Cab, who is used to getting everything he wants, from fully committing to her. When two completely worlds experience a Collision, can they exist as one?

Review:

A couple of years ago I read Stefne Miller's debut novel Salvaged, and it completely blew me away (if you haven't checked it out yet, please do!). As it turns out, Collision managed to achieve the same affect and then some. I laughed. I swooned. I cried ugly fat tears. I loved this book so much so that I don't even know what to say besides I loved it. Cab and Kei were so interesting and unique characters. Kei really managed to surprise me. I loved her work in Uganda, I loved the fact that she didn't let society rule her life, and I loved the fact that she encouraged Cab to see a whole new world, one that wasn't the glitz and glamour he had become accustomed to. She was strong, knew what she wanted. Cab was the typical lost Hollywood starlet yet I still came to love him. Kei managed to rock in his world in the good as well as the bad, and by the end, I couldn't have been happier by the result. However, that ending? OH. MY. GOSH. I. CRIED. SO. MUCH. So you may need a tissue or two (or really a whole darn box) but this book is worth it - trust me!

Grade: A

Collision (Amazon, Goodreads) is now out!

Source: Finished copy provided by author - thanks Stefne!