All the Ugly and Wonderful Things - Bryn Greenwood

 A beautiful and provocative love story between two unlikely people and the hard-won relationship that elevates them above the Midwestern meth lab backdrop of their lives.

As the daughter of a drug dealer, Wavy knows not to trust people, not even her own parents. It's safer to keep her mouth shut and stay out of sight. Struggling to raise her little brother, Donal, eight-year-old Wavy is the only responsible adult around. Obsessed with the constellations, she finds peace in the starry night sky above the fields behind her house, until one night her star gazing causes an accident. After witnessing his motorcycle wreck, she forms an unusual friendship with one of her father's thugs, Kellen, a tattooed ex-con with a heart of gold.

By the time Wavy is a teenager, her relationship with Kellen is the only tender thing in a brutal world of addicts and debauchery. When tragedy rips Wavy's family apart, a well-meaning aunt steps in, and what is beautiful to Wavy looks ugly under the scrutiny of the outside world. A powerful novel you wont soon forget, Bryn Greenwood's All the Ugly and Wonderful Things challenges all we know and believe about love. 

Onyx Storm by Rebecca Yarros

 

Book 3 or five of the Empyrean series.  18 months at the Basigiath War Colloge finds Violet Sorrengail with no more time.  War is upon them and enemies are closing in.  She must solve the mystery of the other dragon race and travel beyond the wards to do so, seeking allies in unfamiliar lands, testing her strength, will and luck.

Well this was...a bit of a slog.  Not sure if it's because I found out after I started reading that this is only book 3 or because it was...a lot of rise and repeat. I mean how long can you drag out the slow demise of a way of life.  Oh right we are slowly living it in real life.  And how many times will people continue to lie and then put their life in each others hands once that trust will be broken.  Or how many times can you repeat a sex scene after two books.  I didn't feel like there was character movement, it felt static and like this was just filling pages.  Sure there were some "surprises" or twists that weren't completely out of character or weren't foreshadowed.

All in all if your already invested and read the first two, well it's up to you if you want to continue on.  I'm most likely going to finish the series at some point. 

Pax by Sara Pennypacker

Peter rescues a kit fox, Pax, after his family is killed.  When war approaches, Peter's father voluntarily enlists, forcing Peter to move in with his grandfather and thus forcing Peter to give Pax up in the wilds again.  But Peter knows his made an error and sets out to reunite with Pax on a journey against all odds for both.

This has got to be one of the most sweetest, well written books I have read in awhile.  The story jumps back and forth between Pax & Peter's viewpoints and their journeys/adventures finding each other and what they go through.  The beginning is heartbreaking and the end is no less so but the love and connection these two have for each other is the best part of the story.  Making this my most recommended book of this year.