Private by Kate Brian | Rating: ★★★★☆

Here were buildings of brick and stone, topped by shingled roofs and spires, tradition and pride oozing from every dated cornerstone. Here were ancient, weathered, arched doorways, thick wooden doors on iron hinges, cobblestone walks lined by neat beds of flowers. Here were pristine playing fields of bright green grass and gleaming white lines. Everything I saw was perfect. Nothing reminded me of home. 

With the arrival of autumn and the days to winter growing closer, I tend to get very nostalgic. I repeat: very nostalgic. Back in my early years of high school, I had been obsessed with books in the similar vein as Private--the idea of boarding school life, the juicy drama of Gossip Girl. I remember just wandering the shelves at Barnes & Noble with the lunch money I had saved up (instead of eating school lunch? Yes, please.) and there was this little end cap with the first book in a new series that was so obviously targeted at girls my age. When I read the summary of Kate Brian's latest, I was in it to win it or whatever it is they say.

When I picked up the book the next morning during study hall, instead of doing my French homework, I knew I was a total goner. I haven't really touched the entire series in years but the books have had their place of display on my bookshelf for years and they just felt so appealing. Picking up Private again after so many years felt like coming home--I missed Reed Brennan and her adventures at Easton with the Billings Girls. Kate Brian's writing is just a smooth, fluffy and fast paced as I remembered it.

City of Fallen Angels (TMI #4) by Cassandra Clare | Rating: ★★★☆☆

“Hearts are breakable," Isabelle said. "And I think even when you heal, you're never what you were before".”

My reread of The Mortal Instruments, in preparation for the new television adaptation Shadowhunters, continues with City of Fallen Angels. Serving as the fourth book in the expanded series, we see our favorite Shadowhunters and Downworlders return in a new mystery set a brief time after the events of City of Glass. It is also the weakest book of the series but does a decent job at setting up for this second arch therefore it doesn't dampen my love for this incredible series.

Now that The Mortal War is over, Sebastian (or Jonathan) and Valentine are dead, and the truth has all been revealed, our favorite kids think that they can finally sleep safely at night. Now, they can head back down the path of whatever normal is meant to be–for some that means hunting, for some that means love, some that means acceptance, for the Lightwoods it means mourning the loss of Max and others it means training.

And then there’s avoidance. But we’ll get to that later. I’m going to start with characters.

City of Glass by Cassandra Clare | Rating: ★★★★★

“There is no pretending," Jace said with absolute clarity. "I love you, and I will love you until I die, and if there is life after that, I'll love you then.”

City of Glass was the original end to the then-planned-trilogy The Mortal Instruments. As action packed, mysterious and sexy as the previous two books, we find our favorite Shadowhunters and Downworlders battling it out with Valentine one last time in an effort to end his terror. But as always, things aren’t always what they seem; surprising plot twists, revelations and characters come about in unexpected ways. And tears will be shed at the loss of a character.

Clary has big plans at the start of City of Glass but she isn’t the only one with a thing or two up her sleeves. Strong, witty and intelligent as always Clary is on point and undeniably a teenager. Her actions all reflect that from the start. At the beginning of the novel, we see our favorite feisty redhead explore the options to save her mother as she prepares to go to the Shadowhunters home country, Idris, with the Lightwoods.

The first bump of the series? Her supposed brother and secret crush Jace is attempting to leave without her, to keep her safe. In these moments he calls the only person who would want to protect Clary as he would: Simon. In spite of the two teen boys’ differences, they both love Clary and want to keep her from harms way as much as they can.

Breaking Dawn (Twilight #4) by Stephenie Meyer | Rating: ★★☆☆☆

"You could run from someone you feared, you could try to fight someone you hated. All my reactions were geared toward those kinds of killers – the monsters, the enemies. When you loved the one who was killing you, it left you no options. How could you run, how could you fight, when doing so would hurt that beloved one? If your life was all you had to give your beloved, how could you not give it?"

Breaking Dawn gave me a m a s s i v e headache this time around. That’s my first thought when rereading it: BD is headache inducing.

Way back when, I loved this novel with all my heart but now my feelings about it are mixed at best. As I’ve said before in past revisions and reviews, the Twilight Saga will always have a special place in my heart–it’s just that I’ve grown out of it and in place of the love I once had for it, I mostly am indifferent towards it.

Hailed as a romantic and action packed finale to the much beloved series, Breaking Dawn follows Bella and Edward as they prepare and celebrate their upcoming nuptials with friends and family. Together, they plan their future and Bella attempts to make a compromise when it comes down to sex, college and when she shall be changed to a vampire. After all, becoming one is the only way Bella and Edward can have a “true” happily ever after.

But is happily ever after really in the cards for these two?

Never Have I Ever (TLG #2) by Sara Shepard | Rating: ★★★★★

“My enemies are everywhere. And sometimes, those we least suspect turn out to be our biggest threats.”

Emma Paxton’s life is growing more and more complicated as she races to solve the murder of her long-lost twin sister, Sutton Mercer. Sutton’s spirit is tied to Emma’s and is forced to follow her twins every move in the afterlife; allowing her to to know the sister she didn’t know she had and longing for closure. Silently, both girls are given the chance to know each other even though death separates them.

It’s all very sad and scary but very, very intriguing.

In order for Emma to solve this unexpected murder-mystery, and get back to life as she knew it, she has had to take her twins place unknown to anyone besides the cute-and-mysterious Ethan Landry and of course the murderer.

And although Sutton is there with her in spirit, she has no recollection of what happened the night she was killed and has no way of communicating with Emma. Everything is one giant mystery for both girls and it’s surprising the way it unfolds.

Making the stakes higher than ever, Emma is blackmailed into playing a convincing Sutton–for all those in Sutton’s world, they don’t know that she is dead. And in order for the killer to get away with murder, Emma is the key to everything.