Books 'n' stuffy stuff.

Swoon, by Nina Malkin. ARC--... I can't even be bothered to remember any more. It's release date was July. I liked the premise of the book: it was interesting, rather original (or, at least, not vampires). I thought, though, that it could have worked... better; been better implemented; something could have just been upped or more or generally better. Throughout the entire book, I mostly felt 2 things: 1) a desire to smack the female lead, because yes you love him, that's great, but sometimes you have to make tough choices and *choose* not to love someone, because they are a destructive ass. It's female main characters like this that lead girls into poor relationships, encouraging them to think they can change a boy, and he's really good underneath, no matter how often he beats people up. *Sigh.* And 2) I kept feeling like the themes could have been stronger, more/better explored. To me, it felt like the author kind of maybe had an idea of what she wanted but, because she didn't want to go overboard and feel pedantic, she swung all the way to the other side of the spectrum. Is there no middle ground? I did like the ending (by which I mean, the very last page. The penultimate pages are crap). The fragments really wore me down. Swoon, by the way, is the town name; it certainly isn't an indicator of what you'll do upon reading the book. My coworker saw the cover of this book and rolled her eyes, making a comment about how exhausted she is of dark cover books with pale young girls on the covers, brightly painted lips slightly open. I have to say, I'm with her on this one.

I haven't read Shrinking Violet, by Danielle Joseph, but now's our last chance: it's going out print. Pop over to the author's blog to see a related contest. My library doesn't have it, so if you've read it, let me know what you thought of it, please.