Nexis by A.L. Davroe

In the domed city of Evanescence, appearance is everything. A Natural Born amongst genetically-altered Aristocrats, all Ella ever wanted was to be like everyone else. Augmented, sparkling, and perfect. Then…the crash. Devastated by her father’s death and struggling with her new physical limitations, Ella is terrified to learn she is not just alone, but little more than a prisoner.

Her only escape is to lose herself in Nexis, the hugely popular virtual reality game her father created. In Nexis she meets Guster, a senior player who guides Ella through the strange and compelling new world she now inhabits. He offers Ella guidance, friendship…and something more. Something that allows her to forget about the “real” world, and makes her feel whole again.

But Nexis isn’t quite the game everyone thinks it is.

And it’s been waiting for Ella.

Book 1
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Reviews by the Wicked Reads Review Team

Veronica – ☆☆☆☆
Evanescence is a city that is class driven and its inhabitants incredibly vain. They live with much of their world controlled by electronics and robots, and their careers, and often marriages, are mapped out for them. The virtual world of computer game, Nexis gives people the ability to be whoever they want to be.

The author takes the time to give us a good grounding in this futuristic world. For me, the first half of this book was slow going. The story was interesting, but quite dense and I really had to push through.

The second half of the book was as fast as the first half was slow. I whizzed through it, eager to turn each page and follow Ella's journey. Desperate to find out what is at the end of the game, who Guster (her love interest in Nexis) is in the real world, and who was responsible for Ella's current predicament in life.

Many of the issues explored in Nexis can easily be translated into issues we face in our world today. I couldn't help thinking that this book would be great for high school students to study. They'd be reading something engaging and fun, but also relevant.

By the time Nexis came to an end, I was completely wrapped up in Ella's world and didn't want to leave. I'm looking forward to reading the next book in this series, Redux, which is due out in December.

A.L. Davroe grew up in Connecticut and, after traveling to many countries, many states, and many fantasy realms - sometimes even living in them - she has decided that Connecticut is a wonderful little state. She likes books, cats, chai tea lattes, and the word "chime." By day, A.L. makes cheese for a local artisan dairy and, by night, A.L. writes in various sub-genres of adult and YA fantasy, science fiction, horror, and romance, but most of her work tends to have a revisionist twist to it. You can follow her various forays into aesthetic merriment and misbegotten shenanigans on Facebook or Twitter and you can check out her current musical obsessions on her website.

Connect with A.L.

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Reviewers on the Wicked Reads Review Team were provided a free copy of Nexis (Tricksters #1) by A.L. Davroe to read and review.

Ten Things Sloane Hates About Tru by Tera Lynn Childs

When life gives you a blank canvas, make art.

Sloane Whitaker hates everything about moving to Texas. She hates leaving behind her friends and half her family in New York, starting over senior year at Austin’s NextGen Academy, and having to say she lives in Texas. Most of all, she hates that it’s all her fault. If she wants to earn her way back to the Big Apple, she has to prove she can still be the perfect daughter.

Which means no vandalism art, no trouble at school, and absolutely no Tru Dorsey, her serial screw-up neighbor, who loves nothing more than pushing her buttons.

But from the moment he vaults onto the roof outside her bedroom, there is something about him that makes her want to break every rule. Suddenly it’ s not the ten things she hates about Tru that are at the top of her list. It’s the ten reasons she doesn’t want to be without him.

Disclaimer: This Entangled Teen Crush book contains vandalism in the name of art, art in the name of love, and love for a boy too charming to ever hate.

Book 1
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Reviews by the Wicked Reads Review Team

Erica – ☆☆☆☆
4 Creative HeArts Stars.

Tera Lynn Childs is a new-to-me author.

I started the Creative HeArts series on book 2 for review, then book 3. In preparation for book 4, I finally backtracked to read book 1. Sorry for sounding confusing, I assumed book 2 was actually the first in the series when I signed up to review, not realizing there were three separate authors and three separate couples, essentially three separate series rolled into one school with the same characters. So far so good, as I've 4-starred book one, and 5-starred both book 2 & 3.

Ms. Childs' writing flowed fluidly and quickly, moving the story at a pace that was easy to follow along but wasn't bogged down in unnecessary detail.

Sloane's narrative was told in first person, while Tru's was in third person, which was slightly jarring but did make it distinguishable between the female and male leads.

Sloane had committed an egregious act, which we don't learn what truly happens until halfway through the novel. It wasn't truly a mystery of any kind, so I'm not sure why the author allowed the readers to stay in the dark, as it was the main focal point the entire plot was built upon. I liked Sloane, truly. I understood her as the quirky artist who felt powerless. I also simultaneously felt for her parents and felt them unfair.

Tru, the charming, bad boy who's actually a good boy, next door neighbor, which Sloane hates ten things about... but as a reader, Sloane nowhere in the body of the book ever states a single thing she hates about Tru, nonetheless ten things... I liked Tru too, just as much as Sloane did. Tru is a misunderstood kid by his parents, yet everyone at school sees him clearly, especially his teachers.

Obviously Sloane and Tru are reluctant love interests, and it was sweet and cute, and gave me the squees. There is a side mystery Sloane solves, that young adults will surely adore.

As the first in the series, it was a good start. But after reading book 2 & 3 first, which I felt were incredible, I wish I had started where I was supposed to, as the series would have built – evolved – instead of feeling just on the surface without much depth.

That was my issue: while I loved the author's voice, and Tru and Sloane, it felt like the story was missing something vital. I'm not sure if things were being left for a later book, but it felt unfinished plot-wise. It had everything it needed but never quite reached its potential – maybe explaining, to make it more realistic, (I don't know if this will be in a future book, but it was needed in book one – same with some resolution with Tru's father) that Sloane's parents split up instead of the waste of running two separate households while splitting up the siblings and the parents. That isn't realistic, doable, or anything an adult would have done. It would have been a family move, or Sloane moving with a relative. No mother leaves her husband and son to move across the country. Nope. That goes against the boundaries and structure Sloane was written to need. Unless, obviously, the parents split up, which is bad since Sloane is blaming herself, if that is the case, as Mom never says anything.

Not a judgment – advice. This didn't effect my overall rating, but I do need to point out, and I'm not being overly critical or condescending, the book could have used another round of edits. Simple mistakes mixed with bad habits of the author, or perhaps punctuation rules never learned or put into practice. Most notable was the lack of proper commas. Example: "Night Sloane." Night Tru." There wasn't a night and day version of our characters. They were speaking to one another in dialogue. Commas matter. I sound nitpicky, but this was habitual throughout the entire novel, 90% of the time never doing it properly. Once put into practice, this won't happen but during a rare error, and won't put as much pressure on the editor. So that is why I'm pointing it out, for the author's benefit and growth. Been there, done that. I understand. Practice makes perfect and the rules do matter.

Whether you're a young adult, or young at heart, I recommend both this novel and the Creative HeArts series to fans of the young adult genre, particularly those who enjoy the creative arts.

Young Adult age-range: 14+, mentions of alcohol consumption, domestic violence, criminal activity, and kissing.

Also Available in the Creative HeArts Series

Book 2
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For reviews & more info, check out our How Willa Got Her Groove Back post.

Book 3
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For reviews & more info, check out our Crazy, Stupid, Fauxmance post.

Tera Lynn Childs is the RITA-award-winning young adult author of the mythology-based Oh. My. Gods. series, the Forgive My Fins mermaid romance series, the kick-butt monster-hunting Sweet Venom trilogy, and the Darkly Fae series. She also writes the City Chicks sweet chick lit romance series and is co-writing the Hero Agenda series with Tracy Deebs. Tera lives nowhere in particular and spends her time writing wherever she can find a comfy chair and a steady stream of caffeinated beverages.

Connect with Tera

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Reviewers on the Wicked Reads Review Team were provided a free copy of Ten Things Sloane Hates About Tru (Creative HeArts #1) by Tera Lynn Childs to read and review. Review copy was purchased by the blog.

The Sound of Us by Julie Hammerle

Kiki Nichols might not survive music camp.

She’s put her TV-loving, nerdy self aside for one summer to prove she’s got what it takes: she can be cool enough to make friends, she can earn that music scholarship, and she can get into Krause University’s music program.

Except camp has rigid conduct rules—which means her thrilling late-night jam session with the hot drummer can’t happen again, even though they love all the same TV shows, and fifteen minutes making music with him meant more than every aria she’s ever sung.

But when someone starts snitching on rule breakers and getting them kicked out, music camp turns into survival of the fittest. If Kiki’s going to get that scholarship, her chance to make true friends—and her chance with the drummer guy—might cost her the future she wants more than anything.

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Reviews by the Wicked Reads Review Team

Erica – ☆☆☆☆
4.5 Angsty coming-of-age stars.

Julie Hammerle is a new-to-me author.

I had a slightly difficult time getting into this novel, to be honest. Not that I didn't enjoy the characters, the narration, or the set-up. But compared to the middle through to the end, it was a slightly slow start. Perhaps it's because the flow of information evened out – at the start, there were many mentioned of bands, composers, artists, television shows, and movies. While setting the tone, it bogged the flow down slightly.

My point: if you're struggling in the beginning, hang in there. The story is pretty awesome.

The author's voice flowed fluidly, creating a narrative that did sound like a seventeen-year-old geeky yet creative girl. I found Kiki to be authentic. I'm not going to bog the review down in a book-report-style, which I always find to spoil a book for me. If you read the blurb, you know what you're buying.

Kiki made mistakes like any girl does – young and young at heart. She is passionate about many things, which I find to be a good thing. It took me too long to think as Kiki does near the end of the book. I had the 'feels' while reading, I won't lie. I look for books that make my belly twist up for the character, as if they are a real person, and The Sound of Us accomplished that feat.

Music. Teenagers. Problems that face teenagers as well as adults. Romance, unrequited and not. Finding courage to fight for what you want/believe in, without losing your integrity. I believe young adults will go crazy for this title, as will their parents. I'm a serious person of the advanced age of 37, who isn't a fan of light and fluffy, and I enjoyed every page of The Sound of Us.

One moral that hit me hard was how Kiki was willing to make room in her life for her friends, but she wasn't going to wait around for them, nor was she going to beg them to be in her life. Most girls never learn this lesson – some women never do. It took me until I was in my early thirties to realize you can open the door, but they have to be willing to come in on their own. If you spend all of your time pursuing, instead of enjoying each other, it's not worth it.

You've got a life to live, so go out there and live it instead of waiting... and waiting... and waiting to live someone else's life as their sidekick.

**Is this a standalone? I'm sure it is, or could be... but there was a very wide door left open should Ms. Hammerle decide to cross the threshold and continue on with Kiki's adventures. *cough. cough* Pretty Please – I'll beg.

Young adult age range: 13+, mentions of alcohol consumption and kissing.

Julie Hammerle is the author of A Place for Us, which will be published by Entangled Teen in the fall of 2016. Before settling down to write “for real,” she studied opera, taught Latin, and held her real estate license for one hot minute. Currently, she writes about TV on her blog Hammervision, ropes people into conversations about Game of Thrones, and makes excuses to avoid the gym. Her favorite YA-centric TV shows include 90210 (original spice), Felicity, and Freaks and Geeks. Her iPod reads like a 1997 Lilith Fair set list. She lives in Chicago with her husband, two kids, and a dog. They named the dog Indiana.

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Reviewers on the Wicked Reads Review Team were provided a free copy of The Sound of Us by Julie Hammerle to read and review.

Best Friends Never by Isabelle Drake

Be careful who you keep secrets with, especially in picture-perfect Cherry Grove, a place where average isn’t good enough, and nothing is what it seems.

Lexi Welks wants two things—respect and a college acceptance letter that’ll get her out of too-good-to-be-true Cherry Grove. The problem is that the nasty, life-ruining secret she shares with Monica Sanders is about to go public. If their ugly truth comes out, her plans for college—not happening. And that’s only the beginning of her end.

Monica is the kind of student teachers adore—well-behaved, hard-working and always following the rules. She’s the kind of friend other girls follow—well-dressed, popular and always knowing the right thing to do. If only they knew the truth about her. The truth Lexi found out the hard way, after spending the past summer letting Monica talk her into doing things she knew could come back to ruin her.

Now it’s the first week of school and one of the seniors is missing. Lexi knows a thing or two about the circumstances of his disappearance, but she’s not talking. Neither is Monica. But wicked truths have a way of crawling to the surface and tearing through the most careful plans.

Book 1
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Finch  Books

Reviews by the Wicked Reads Review Team

Erica – ☆☆☆
Isabelle Drake is not a new-to-me author, having read some of her racier titles many years ago, so I was surprised to find this young adult novel. The transition was done well.

The beginning flowed steadily, the middle dragged, and the ending was chaotically rushed, leaving me feeling off-kilter.

Best Friends Never is between two friends who were up to no good during the summer. With it now being fall, our narrator – Lexi – and her ex-friend Monica are butting heads. But from page one until the end, the reader never truly learns why.

I enjoyed Lexi for the most part, able to empathize with her and connect. A girl who lost her father at a young age, now has a step-father who comes and goes, hurting her mother time and time again as he pops in and out of their lives. When he comes back, Dale acts as if he is Lexi's real dad, only more overbearing and it feels like a betrayal to her because her mother won't stand up for her. Lexi's mom is the classic doormat.

Not wishing to ruin the plot with an overview or by giving details of what I did and didn't like, as this is a mystery/suspense young adult novel – a classmate is missing at the start of the novel, and then other bad things begin to happen throughout the book, with Lexi a central point.

To be blunt about why I could only give 3 stars, when I believe the intended audience would probably overlook inconsistencies and holes, by book's end, after reading several hundred pages, the reader is not rewarded with what happened, why it happened, or who did it. Not only are there no real answers, I have absolutely no idea what happened in the first place. For the sake of drawing it into another novel, this did the opposite of whet my appetite for the next. It totally turned me off not to get at least what happened. I didn't need to know who did it or even why, but the WHAT would have been nice to know. Yes, Lexi assumes by book's end the who, but even then she doesn't know. The reader should get some sort of a payoff for taking hours of their time to get some answers. I wasn't asking for all of them to be revealed, but something should have been expected.

I'm on the fence on whether or not I will read the next in this series. Recommended to young adults, as I believe most adults will have a similar reaction to the content of the book.

Young adult age-range: 14+ due to darker content.

Isabelle Drake got her start writing confession stories for pulp magazines like True Confessions and True Love. Since publishing those first few stories she has written in many genres, but tends to write about everyday people in extraordinary situations.

When away from her keyboard, she likes watching classic horror films, especially Hammer films such as the Karnstein Trilogy, and reading (of course). An avid traveler, she'll go just about anywhere—at least once—to meet people and get story ideas.

Connect with Isabelle

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Reviewers on the Wicked Reads Review Team were provided a free copy of Best Friends Never (Cherry Grove #1) by Isabelle Drake to read and review.

The Society by Jodie Andrefski

Welcome to Trinity Academy’s best-kept secret.

The Society.

You’ve been handpicked by the elite of the elite to become a member. But first you’ll have to prove your worth by making it through Hell Week.

Do you have what it takes?

It’s time to find out.

Samantha Evans knows she’d never get an invite to rush the Society—not after her dad went to jail for insider trading. But after years of relentless bullying at the hands of the Society’s queen bee, Jessica, she’s ready to take down Jessica and the Society one peg at a time from the inside out.

All it’ll take is a bit of computer hacking, a few fake invitations, some eager rushees…and Sam will get her revenge.

Let the games begin.

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Reviews by the Wicked Reads Review Team

Erica – ☆☆☆☆
As an adult reading The Society, I'd give it 4 solid stars. Thinking back to my reading tastes as a young adult, The Society would have hit all of my favorite notes: thrilling pacing, mild romantic triangle to keep me turning the pages, and friendship troubles. I believe most young adults would give the novel 5 stars.

I was hooked on page one with the introduction 3 years in the past as a 13-year-old girl deals with her father's trial, the loss of her best friend turned enemy, and the abandonment of her mother. This gave me the feels, and had me flipping the pages into the present time.

This was a very moral novel beneath the surface, showing both why good people do good and bad acts, and why bad people do both good and bad acts, and how there is a very thin line separating the two. Even justified in your actions, the results may be more than you bargained for, more for everyone involved.

Frustrating was the core feeling I had for Sam/Samantha while reading The Society. After not only losing her best friend, she has to suffer at the hands of the person who should have had her back after her life incinerated. Jessica not only bullied Sam, she turned the entire school away from her. In reality, this is realistic. Fed up, Sam seeks not vengeance but revenge, and there is a difference.

I won't give out details, as I feel that would do a disservice to readers. But there were a few points in the book that I would have liked addressed. The moral of the story was incredible, taking responsibility for your actions without using projection. (So & so did it too, but they didn't get in trouble so I shouldn't either. Yes, you should. But actions should be taken so the rest take responsibility as well.) BUT after three years of bullying, I would have liked to see some justice for Sam, some closure dealing with her father/Jessica/Trinity. Everyone failed Sam, including the school, Jeremy, and the aunt, with no one stepping in to STOP the bullying that was so prevalent. In fact, her bully was made out to be the victim. I understand taking responsibility for your actions, and not allowing someone to lower you to act as they do. Sam went from ignored victim to criminal, where all the victimizers were labeled and shown as innocent victims, all of whom had a major hand in changing who Sam was at her core.

Everyone knew it was happening, saw it was happening, but just told Sam to deal with it and wait to get to college. I would have liked to see some outrage in Sam toward those who were meant to protect her. The only life ever ruined on the pages of The Society was Sam, from start to finish, with only Sam ever taking responsibility for her actions. Even the BFF/love interest was cowardly by never telling Sam how he felt, leaving it to Sam to figure it out, while he flirted with others. To be fair, there was Ransom, but there would have never been a Ransom if Jeremy would have spoken up. Such as taking her to a party, where both were excited to be with one another again, only to leave her the entire night after going to get her a drink (he never did bring her that drink), completely forgetting about Sam. It was written Sam was Jeremy's focus, yet he lost focus too often for me to buy the epilogue.

Kudos to the author for showing Sam's empowerment even when at the lowest of the lows. I just wish someone in the cast of characters would have shown similar growth/responsibility/redemption/courage/protection/non-judgmental attitude/Self-reflection.

There is having Sam take responsibility for her actions, accepting how she contributed to her role, forgiving to not forget but move on, but empowering it is not to allow yourself to be a victim by not sticking up for yourself. In this, I mean, like how Sam spoke to her father. The author had to opportunity for Sam to do the same to her aunt, her mother, Jeremy, Jessica, her classmates, and the entire school administration. SOMEONE. By the end of the book, I just felt Sam was setup to be an apologist, with everyone just running right over her because her feelings weren't of value.

Tell someone when you're being bullied should have been another added moral in the story. If that person doesn't take action, they are as much at fault as Sam was for turning bully to protect herself.

I know where the author was headed, and I appreciate it, especially to show young adult the perils of bullying, but I feel it also gave the wrong message. The bullies won, don't protect yourself, and only you are to blame.

*I thoroughly enjoyed the quotes at the beginning of every chapter, and I hope it encourages young readers to give other works at try.

Recommended Young Adult Age-range: 12+ includes kissing & bullying.

Jodie Andrefski has been passionate about reading ever since she was a little girl, when she used to climb trees to escape with a favorite book. She lives and writes in a small town in Pennsylvania with her teenage daughter, and has an older son who is out and about on his own. Though still an avid reader, she now prefers a comfy chair over the crook of a tree. An unapologetic coffee fiend, she’s even happier if her java comes with pie.

Andrefski often draws on her background in education and mental health counseling to bring real world experience to her writing. She is a firm believer in the magic of a first kiss, and insists that you should never, ever give up on your dreams. #AlwaysKeepFighting

Connect with Jodie

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Reviewers on the Wicked Reads Review Team were provided a free copy of The Society by Jodie Andrefski to read and review.