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You see, a conflict always begins with an issue – a difference of opinion, an argument. But by the time it turns into a war, the issue doesn’t matter anymore, because now it’s about one thing and one thing only: how much each side hates the other.

The Second Civil War was fought between the Pro-Life and the Pro-Choice. In the end, both sides were satisfied, but neither won. The Bill of Life was created, stating that “human life may not be touched from the moment of conception until a child reaches the age of thirteen .”

Wait, what?

…between the ages of thirteen and eighteen, a parent may choose to retroactively “abort” a child on the condition that the child’s life doesn’t “technically” end.

“Unwinding” is what that process is called. When a child is unwound, every part – organs, hair, teeth, everything – is taken for transplants.

Unwind is the story of three such children – Connor, Risa, and Lev – and their fight to survive against the system that tries so hard to get rid of them.

Lev is a tithe. He comes from a devoutly religious family that has planned to unwind him his entire life. As a tithe, he’s grown up believing that he’s somehow special, somehow different from everybody else. Risa is a ward of the state, send to be unwound because of budget cuts. Risa is a talented pianist, but not talented enough to be permitted to live. Connor is a troubled teen. He’s gotten in a few fights and his parents just don’t know what to do with him anymore. Instead of trying to figure out how to help him, they sign the order to unwind him.

When Connor realizes that he’s going to be unwound, he runs away from home. In running away, he inadvertently causes a bus crash that helps Risa escape, and then grabs Lev out of the car that’s leading him to his own unwinding. The three of them have several misadventures while trying to avoid being arrested by the Juvey-cops who seek out AWOL unwinds.

I had a lot of trouble getting into this book. Something about the writing style threw me off, and I didn’t like that the perspective changed so frequently.

I also struggled with the premise. I can’t understand how the Bill of Life was accepted by either side. Abortion is prohibited, but it’s okay to kill teenagers? Even if they’re not “technically” dead (which, yes, they are), how is it socially acceptable to sentence your kid to unwinding just because you don’t like their choices? What kind of parents think, “Hey, Connor punched a kid again. Instead of talking to him about it, I think I’ll get rid of him.” I mean, seriously. How did this become socially acceptable? How is this legally acceptable? How did the Pro-Life side accept this? How did the Pro-Choice side accept this?

I did like Connor and Risa. I was more or less indifferent to Lev throughout. Connor grew to be a great leader, and I liked how Risa was able to help him channel his anger into survival skills. Risa was pretty great since she was able to adapt to every situation they got themselves into. It was nice to see a heroine who isn’t dependent on a boyfriend to get through tough times.

All in all, there was a lot going on in Unwind. I could go for some of it. Other parts just didn’t work for me. I’d give two stars for the beginning and four stars for the end, so it’ll even out to three. I wouldn’t consider Unwind to be a waste of my time, but I likely won’t be reading any of the books that follow it.

Final rating: ★★★☆☆

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Prima Donna is a twist on your average new adult, in which a feisty hairdresser and a playboy pediatrician fall in love.

Regan Burke’s world is falling apart. Her mother’s medical bills were already difficult to handle, but now her landlord has decided to sell the salon space she rents. The last thing she wants is to be forced into having a good time, but then Carter Scott shows up as she’s packing, and the next thing she knows, she’s actually enjoying his company. But when Carter offers Regan a temporary job at his clinic, it’s strictly professional – hands off. But what if Regan and Carter are just what the other needs?

The story builds nicely and the characters are well-developed. Despite that, I didn’t feel a strong connection to anything that was happening, which is reflected in my rating. There wasn’t anything overtly wrong, so I feel a little bad about not liking it as much as I wanted to. Maybe it’s just because I’ve been reading a lot of books like this recently and I’m getting a little burned out.

The thing that I appreciated the most was that Laura Drewry really nailed what it’s like to work in a medical office. The crazy things that happen, the way patients act, the way the family of the patient acts… it’s like she was pulling directly from my memories!

Prima Donna is recommended for anybody who enjoys a cute romance. Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the free copy.

Final rating: ★★★☆☆

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Brinley Dawson was perfectly happy without boys or parties, just throwing herself into her schoolwork and hanging out with her best friend Mason. Perfectly happy, at least, until a blast from the past decided to show up at the one party she actually went to. Ryder Briggs ruined Brinley’s whole high school experience. She’d thought they had a connection, and then he threw her under the bus to protect his reputation. He’s the last person she wanted to see at the party. In fact, she’d have been happy never seeing him again. So why can’t she get him out of her head?

Just a Little Crush has a similar plot to many other new adult books – a mysterious person from the heroine’s past shows up, and though they try to deny their attraction, they inevitably end up together. The thing that makes Just a Little Crush stand out from the masses is that it’s actually well-written and believable. Brinley doesn’t drop everything to be with Ryder. She doesn’t forget about her friends in the process. She hangs out with other people, keeps up with her schoolwork, and doesn’t get in over her head. She doesn’t forget her morals. She doesn’t lose who she is when she’s with Ryder.

Both Brinley and Ryder are extremely well-written characters – and so are their friends. Everybody comes across as a distinct character, not just a stereotype or cliche. Their mistakes and misunderstandings are even understandable. And though none of the twists in the book are really surprising, it’s fun to go through them with the characters. Just a Little Crush really is a very well-written book. I’m so impressed with the uncorrected proof that I can’t imagine what the final version will be like!

I hope that Renita Pizzitola is writing a sequel, because I will definitely read it.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the free copy.

Final rating: ★★★★☆

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In the past day have you felt lonely or overwhelmed?
Has anyone close to you ever committed suicide?

In Sloane’s world, depression is contagious. Suicide is an epidemic. And The Program is the only solution.

Teenagers between the ages of thirteen and seventeen are constantly scrutinized. One wrong move, one wrong show of emotion, and they’re flagged for The Program, where they’ll have their memories systematically erased in an attempt to cure them of their illness. Unfortunately for Sloane, that means that she can’t grieve the death of her brother. Her boyfriend, James, her brother’s best friend, can’t grieve the loss either. So they prop each other up, only cry when they’re alone, and do their best to avoid The Program.

I get that The Program is supposed to big this big, ominous presence. I get that it supposedly helps. But I can’t help but think that without The Program, there would be less depression and less suicide. Sloane’s brother dies and she can’t even cry about it without fear of being flagged for The Program. Her best friend is taken into The Program, and she’s not allowed to be upset, not allowed to miss her. Handlers roam the halls of her school, watch her while she’s trying to learn, just waiting for her to show some sign of emotion so that they can cart her away. A pamphlet for The Program sits next to the phone in her home, reminding her that she needs to keep her guard up at all times. Keeping sadness, anger, and grief bottled up like that isn’t a good thing.

I thought that the premise of The Program was very good, but the execution could have been a bit better.

For one, Sloane wasn’t even suicidal when taken into The Program. It seemed that her mother had been brainwashed into believing that preemptively erasing her daughter’s memories would prevent her from becoming suicidal. Her father, who didn’t seem to be on board with The Program, just wasn’t able to convince her mother otherwise. Her Handler, Roger, obviously had a creepy obsession with her. There was no psychological evaluation done upon entry into The Program – the doctors simply began medicating Sloane and erasing her memories because they could. This part didn’t really make sense to me. There are a limited number of facilities participating in The Program, and each facility can only hold a limited number of kids. With suicide as an epidemic, wouldn’t you want to reserve those spaces for kids who actually need them? So, I wonder, why is no evaluation done? They just take the parent’s or teacher’s – or creepy Handler’s – word for it?

Second, I didn’t understand the limited supervision at the Wellness Center. Sloane goes there almost immediately after being released from The Program, where she immediately meets up with her former boyfriend and former best friend, both of whom have also recently returned from The Program. The Program evidently makes no effort to ensure that these kids don’t just fall back into old patterns. It took weeks for James to be erased from Sloane’s memory. Why would the people who run The Program risk that by letting them socialize immediately upon returning? Also, if depression and suicide are contagious, and returners are fragile in their post-memory-wipe state, why aren’t non-returners screened before going into the Wellness Center? That part made so little sense to me.

Finally, how do people come across these “special” pills? At Sloane’s therapy sessions, she has to take a pill to open her up, and a pill to make her forget. She soon finds that Roger, her creepy Handler, also has pills to help her hold on to her memories, if she’s just willing to do what he asks in exchange for them. How does Roger get these pills? Realm, who Sloane meets at The Program, mysteriously gifts her an orange pill, which will restore her memories if she wants it to. Where does he get that pill? (And I thought the memory loss was permanent.) Are there other special pills? What is the point of The Program if people are just walking around with pills to reverse its effects? And how do these seemingly random people get access to these pills? Why were they even manufactured to begin with?

I think I’m just a little disillusioned about dystopias right now. I used to be a huge fan, but like I’ve said recently, I kind of feel like I’ve read it all by now. Had I read this book at the beginning of my dystopia kick, I probably would have liked it better. Had the book more seriously addressed the suicide epidemic, or explained how, exactly, suicide can be contagious (for example, it’s one of the symptoms of a genetically engineered virus), I probably would have liked it better. All in all, it was entertaining, but not what I expected. I read it over a few hours on a Saturday afternoon, and while it wasn’t a waste of time, I don’t know that I’ll be picking up the sequel any time soon.

Final rating: ★★★☆☆

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None of what I’d done looked good – in fact, much of it looked horrendously stupid in hindsight.

That one sentence perfectly summarizes what’s wrong with this book. Ruby Rose, self professed genius, who constantly discusses her perfect GPA and extensive training at the beginning of the novel, is an idiot. Ruby, whose father evidently spent the first sixteen years of her life preparing her for every catastrophe, every possible horrible situation she could be in, does not have a single ounce of common sense. And forget about Ruby for a second – what parents give their sixteen-year-old daughter an SUV with dark tinted windows, a license to carry a concealed weapon, and, oh yeah, a gun? It’s like they’re setting her up to make terrible decisions.

Ruby Rose, now seventeen years old, keeps a revolver in her car.

Opening the false bottom of my console, I looked down at the shimmering weapon – aka Smith, my .38 Special Revolver with built-in laser sight that I’d gotten for my Sweet Sixteenth.

And even though she doesn’t believe in actually using her gun (she tells Liam, her sorta-boyfriend, that it’s not ok to kill people), she somehow winds up killing several people throughout the course of the book.

Ruby consistently puts herself in impossible situations. It’s late at night and her boyfriend is out of town, so she figures she’ll do something normal and relaxing, like, oh, I don’t know… stalking her stalker and trying to find his boat at the marina.

…logic told me to wait for Liam.

Except, logic also told me that I was fully capable of walking a hundred yards to ask one stupid question.

So what does Ruby do? She tries to send him a text telling him that she’s being an idiot.

But as soon as I pressed “Send,” the message came back undelivered with a huge exclamation point indicating no service. Just perfect.

Does Ruby take this as a sign? Of course not! She presses on and ends up nearly drowning while killing somebody. Again.

At least the other characters make sense. Oh, wait. No. I’m thinking of the wrong book. Literally all of the characters are awful.

Dr. T is literally the worst therapist ever. She cuts sessions off early, cancels them for no reason when she feels uncomfortable with information that Ruby reveals, and even goes so far as to tell her client not to “go crazy.”

“Ruby,” Dr. T said, “why don’t we break a bit early today. I don’t want you to go crazy overthinking this.”

Excuse me? 

Alana is a terrible friend. Ruby is still mourning her father’s death, and just accidentally killed a sex offender, but Alana tells her she needs to suck it up and start going to parties and dating again. Because clearly, boys will cure all evils. Add to that the fact that Alana throws a temper tantrum when Ruby needs her most, refusing to speak with her or even acknowledge that she’s alive, and generally acts like a toddler throughout at least half of the book.

Ruby’s mother is laughable. As the district attorney, she’s infamous for letting criminals go on technicalities, yet she’s still leading in the polls for the next election? What? As a parent, she’s even worse, abandoning her daughter nearly 100% of the time in favor of work or campaign events or alcohol. When she is around, she mostly just yells at Ruby and pushes her away while asking her why she won’t share what’s going on. At the end of the book, Ruby’s mother’s darkest secret is revealed, and it’s almost unsurprising, given what an awful woman she is.

The police in the book are terrible as well. They’re known for bungling even the simplest arrests, and evidently the SWAT team is so incompetent, or corrupt, or both, that a teenage girl feels the need to do their job for them. (And, if we’re being honest, at least Ruby manages to get the criminals off the streets, even if she does have to kill them to do it.)

The writing is ok at best, and laughable at worst.

The sky was lit up like a melting bag of Skittles.

What is that metaphor? I don’t think I’ve ever looked at a sunset and thought, hey, that looks a lot like a melting bag of Skittles, but maybe I’ve just lived a boring life.

“Mamacita! Estás lista?” he called into the back rooms. I hadn’t realized he spoke fluent Spanish. 

I hadn’t realized that knowing three words meant that you were fluent.

“I win the contest for Most Screwed-Up Girl and Idiot of the Year.”

Oh, look. It’s an accurate statement.

Given how much I struggled to make it through this book (it took me almost a week to read 300 pages), I can’t rate it any higher than two stars. But then, if I do my automatic star subtraction for the entirely unrealistic situation and poor writing, it actually ends up with no stars. Since no stars isn’t an option, I’ll have to settle for one.

Killing Ruby Rose is not recommended.

(I received a free copy of this book via Amazon’s Kindle First program. This clearly did not influence my rating.)

Final rating: ★☆☆☆☆