Review: Butterfly Porcupine (Aintree Tales Book 1)

Butterfly Porcupine (Aintree Tales #1)
Author: Susan Fancis
Publisher: Self Published?
Release Date: March 14, 2011
Genre: YA Contemporary Romance
Source: Sent to me from the other through Goodreads
Summary from Goodreads:
Kai is an extravert. He likes making friends and hangs out with the close-knit group of teenagers who live in Aintree Court, West London, most of whom have grown up together and attend Aintree High School. At the end of the school term Kai's summer was all planned out: party, date the hottest girl around, play football, play basketball and pursue his hobby, taking pictures with his camera. He lands a job working for a professional photographer, and gets to spend the last weekend of summer at the Reading Music Festival.

Life is good. That is, until a new arrival to Aintree moves into the house across from his....

If Tasha could pick a superpower, she wouldn't have to think about it. It would be invisibility. Tasha is not a people person. At the end of term she leaves her old school, her mother and her friends behind and moves to Aintree to live with her estranged father, his second wife and their son, Marc. Tasha’s summer was all planned out too: settle in her new home, bond with her father’s family and (hopefully) keep a low profile. She soon discovers that not everyone in Aintree is thrilled to have her around.

Homesick and unable to fit in, life is not exactly great. That is, until she receives an unexpected, genuine offer of friendship… or is it?

My Thoughts:
First, I enjoyed the second half of this book much more than the first half. The first half was a bit hard to get through. There was a lot of information dumping, and I had a hard time connecting to Tasha. I realize that everyone had a hard time connecting to her and that she is one of those people who are hard to get to know. So I guess as that kind of character she was written pretty well. However, I just found her to be judgmental and annoying much of the time. I enjoyed reading about Kai and his group of friends much more. Honestly, I couldn't figure out why Kai kept trying with Tasha. This is one of those instances I guess where love really is blind. Luckily this book is written in alternating points of view so every other chapter was about Kai. Like I mentioned the second half of Butterfly Porcupine was much better and I found myself enjoying it at that point.

Also a pet peeve of mine is when an author writes a book and doesn't or rarely uses contractions. That is very distracting for me. I think with a bit more editing this book could have been quite a bit better. 

OK, I'm done complaining now. The overall story was pretty good. It follows a pretty classic romance formula and I enjoy those. I wish I could have given this book a higher rating, but I guess you can't love them all. With all of this being said I may read the next book if it is about some of the other characters that were in this book. Mostly because as I said the second half of this book got much better. I have high hopes that Francis' writing will just get better and better.

Neurotic Thoughts - Ripple

Ripple
Author: Mandy Hubbard
Release Date: July 21, 2011
Genre: YA Paranormal
Published by: Razorbill/Penguin
Source: My wonderful daughter Allison from Shorty Reads
Summary from Goodreads:
Lexi is cursed with a dark secret. The water calls to her, draws her in, forces her to sing her deadly song to unsuspecting victims. If she succumbs, she kills. If she doesn't, the pain is unbearable. To keep herself and those she cares about safe, she shuts herself off, refusing to make friends or fall in love-again. Because the last time she fell in love with a boy, he ended up dead. 
Then Lexi finds herself torn. Against her better judgement, she's opening up agian, falling in love with someone new when she knows she shouldn't. But when she's offered the chance to finally live a normal life, she learns that the price she must pay to be free or her curse is giving him up.

At the constant insistence of my wonderful daughter I finally picked up Ripple. I had to thank her for shoving this book in my face because it really was quite good.


Poor Lexi has no idea how she killed her boyfriend on her sixteenth birthday but she is deteremined to never kill anyone again. Since that horrible night she has shut herself off from everyone. All of her old friends bully her now because they all believe that she had something to do with his death.


 I love how a really well written character, paranormal or not can seem like a real person. Lexi's pain felt so real throughout this book. When Cole, her past boyfriend's best friend starts to show an interest in her she wants to stay away, she really does. He finally shows her that not everyone thinks she was the cause of her boyfriend's death. 


Then along comes Erik. He knows what she is. He knows how to fix her, and he is pretty darn awesome. He is everything she needs, and even though Cole is everything she wants she knows that Erik is the right choice. Until being with Erik just starts to feel wrong, and she can't get Cole out of her head.


I loved the twist in this book. I was completely blown away and couldn't believe how wrong I had been. The characters are pretty great from damaged Lexi, to her grandma in the sweats sitting in her recliner. Cole is an amazing guy that will have you wondering why your boyfriend isn't quite that sweet. Erik, oh Erik, that's all I have to say about him. Ripple is a quick read and guess what? It's not a series or a trilogy it's a stand alone novel. Ripple isn't like the few other mermaid books I've read (not that I've read many). I really enjoyed the legend behind what she is, and wish that they story had delved just a little deeper into that. Overall a quick enjoyable read!