Cova Reviews | Salt to the Sea, by Ruta Sepetys

Hello everyone! It's time for a new book review :) You'd be rare if you didn't already know about Ruta Sepetys' multiple award-winning young adult, historical fiction novel Salt to the Sea. At least, if you frequent the page Goodreads, you'll know it won last year's (2016) Goodreads Choice Award for young Adult Fiction. It had such a good reception I had to read it! Moreover, I listened to it on audiobook -thus it contributes to the 2017 Audiobook Challenge I am taking part in!

"Winter, 1945. Four teenagers. Four secrets.
Each one born of a different homeland; each one hunted, and haunted, by tragedy, lies…and war.
As thousands of desperate refugees flock to the coast in the midst of a Soviet advance, four paths converge, vying for passage aboard the Wilhelm Gustloff, a ship that promises safety and freedom.
Yet not all promises can be kept.
Inspired by the single greatest tragedy in maritime history, bestselling and award-winning author Ruta Sepetys (Between Shades of Gray) lifts the veil on a shockingly little-known casualty of World War II. An illuminating and life-affirming tale of heart and hope." (Goodreads)

Forbidden - Tabitha Suzuma

Forbidden by British author Tabitha Suzuma is a young adult, contemporary novel  about two siblings who fall in love. I directly tell you it is an outstanding read.

"She is pretty and talented - sweet sixteen and never been kissed. He is seventeen; gorgeous and on the brink of a bright future. And now they have fallen in love. But... they are brother and sister." (modified from Goodreads)

Mírame y Dispara (Alessandra Neymar)

Mírame y Dispara is, again, a book that has only been published in Spanish (sorry!); but, as always, if you are not so confident with your Spanish, you can use the bog's translating function that you'll find on the right sidebar to read the following review :) 

Mírame y Dispara was written by Alessandra Neymar, and won the first edition of the award for YA, romantic literature Premio Ellas Juvenil Romántica in 2012. It is the first of the series Bajo el Cielo Púrpura de Roma, one of the series of my 2016 Finishing the Series Challenge, which I posted about a couple of weeks back. As I am planning on reading the rest of the books of the series, I thought I would re-read the first one for the third time to have the story fresh in my head and not miss out on any little detail! So, without further adieu, let's see what it has to offer... (intro Google Translate ;D)

"Kathia Carusso, una joven adolescente de la alta aristocracia italiana, regresa a Roma tras pasar muchos años en un internado. Allí se reencuentra con Cristianno Gabbana, un conocido de la familia con quien nunca ha tenido muy buena relación. Cristianno es terriblemente atractivo, impulsivo, y no parece tener más preocupaciones que las peleas con otras bandas y el flirteo con chicas de piernas largas. Al empezar el curso, Kathia y Cristianno verán que comparten no solo la misma clase sino también el mismo grupo de amigos. Lo que empezará como odio irá desembocando en una tensión cada vez más fuerte... Y, cuando finalmente ambos se atrevan a aceptar sus verdaderos sentimientos, deberán sortear obstáculos que nunca habrían imaginado..." (Goodreads)

Red Queen - Victoria Aveyard

Red Queen, by Victoria Aveyard is the first book of a young adult, fantasy series with the same name about a world in which there are two kinds of people - those whose blood has a red colour and those whose blood has a silver colour. The Silvers have special abilities which enables them overpower the Reds, who live in very bad conditions and tend to hate the Silvers. Our main character, Mare, is a Red, destined to serve the military in her next birthday, but her story is much more complicated than that...

Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe - Benjamin Alire Sáenz

When I first heard of this book, I was a bit cautious with it because I thought the title implied it being a middle-school read which I wouldn't enjoy as much. However, I heard and read so many good reviews on it that I changed my mind about it, and decided to buy it. Here's what I thought about it.

First of all, let me please tell you that if you are thinking that maybe you'd like to read it, don't rely on the back-cover insight to the story. It's pretty poor, and it will make you think of it as a boring on, which is not.

It is about two 15-year-old boys, Ari and Dante, who don't really have many friends, and find each other at the town's swimming pool. From that moment on, they become really good friends, and you'll start knowing more about the two of them as the story goes on - as will them, really.