Lost and Found by Nicole Williams

There’s complicated. And there’s Rowen Sterling.

After numbing pain for the past five years with boys, alcohol, and all-around apathy, she finds herself on a Greyhound bus to nowhere Montana the summer after she graduates high school. Her mom agreed to front the bill to Rowen’s dream art school only if Rowen proves she can work hard and stay out of trouble at Willow Springs Ranch. Cooking breakfast at the crack of dawn for a couple dozen ranch hands and mucking out horse stalls are the last things in the world Rowen wants to spend her summer doing.

Until Jesse Walker saunters into her life wearing a pair of painted-on jeans, a cowboy hat, and a grin that makes something in her chest she’d thought was frozen go boom-boom. Jesse’s like no one else, and certainly nothing like her. He’s the bright and shiny to her dark and jaded.

Rowen knows there’s no happily-ever-after for the golden boy and the rebel girl—happily-right-now is a stretch—so she tries to forget and ignore the boy who makes her feel things she’s not sure she’s ready to feel. But the more she pushes him away, the closer he seems to get. The more she convinces herself she doesn’t care, the harder she falls.
When her dark secrets refuse to stay locked behind the walls she’s kept up for years, Rowen realizes it’s not just everyone else she needs to be honest with. It’s herself.

This book was predictable (like completely) but it was still cute so it's getting a good review.  It's the classic boy-meets-girl-who-is-tortured-on-the-inside-but-then-he-breaks-through-her-shell-and-they-fall-in-love.  That being said I still finished the book because the characters were interesting and funny and realistic.  If I can't relate to a character then there is no way I can finish that book, but Rowen's narration is totally entertaining.  We share the same feelings about working on a ranch and country music so that made me like her even more.

I also like that right after she met Jesse they weren't Romeo and Juliet.  They didn't get along great (completely because of Rowen, Jesse's a perfectly nice guy) and it wasn't 'OMG you're totally my soulmate!!'

The love triangle was a little forced, but I get why it was there.  It gave Rowen a little more depth and made Jesse that much more likeable.

And I just want to point out that Jesse's family is the most amazing group of people to ever be in a teen book!  They are the most supportive parents and go completely out of their way to be nice to people they don't like, but if you mess with their family unit they will GET you.

*That scene where they totally bitch out Rowen's mom for bringing her attempted rapist over for dinner?!?! I LOVEDDDD that*

Overall, this was a good summer read.  It was light, easy and quick but the characters had enough depth to give the story a little bit of spice. 4 stars

The Merciless by Danielle Vega

Brooklyn Stevens sits in a pool of her own blood, tied up and gagged. No one outside of these dank basement walls knows she’s here. No one can hear her scream.
 
Sofia Flores knows she shouldn’t have gotten involved. When she befriended Riley, Grace, and Alexis on her first day at school, she admired them, with their perfect hair and their good-girl ways. They said they wanted to save Brooklyn. They wanted to help her. Sofia didn’t realize they believed Brooklyn was possessed.
 
Now, Riley and the girls are performing an exorcism on Brooklyn—but their idea of an exorcism is closer to torture than salvation. All Sofia wants is to get out of this house. But there is no way out. Sofia can’t go against the other girls . . . unless she wants to be next. . . .

First I just want to comment on how beautiful this cover is.  I LOVE the fact that it doesn't have a book jacket (I really hate those things - they get bent and fall off, ugh I hate them) and the gold is just shiny enough that you're intrigued to see what's going on inside.

If the cover wasn't awesome enough the book itself was also pretty amazing.  A lot of other reviews compare this book to mean girls which is fair, but The Merciless takes the definition of 'mean girl' to a whole new level.  The main characters are ruthless and the scenes are extremely graphic so the 'mature audiences only' warning on page 1 is totally justified.

I don't want to give too much plot stuff away but this is one of the best psycho thrillers I've read in a really long time.  From page 1 you hit the ground running with action packed suspense, I was sitting on the edge of my seat for the entire book and I even stayed up late to finish it.  Also the fact that I finished this book at exactly 12 midnight gave me the creeps in addition to me being totally freaked out by the ending.

So enough blathering on from me, just go read this book.  It was awesome and I cannot wait for Vega's second novel!! 5 stars