Adriana RyanRezensionen

Saylor is a sick girl. Well she's sick in that she wants to be sick. Dreams about it, researches it, yearns for it. She's willing to do whatever it takes to get at the attention that comes with hospitalization. She's been pulled out of college after being caught "faking it", and now she's back to seeing a shrink. But this shrink actually allows her to volunteer at a hospital, the one place she loves but is usually banned from. She just knows if she can spend time in a hospital she'll figure out a way to become sick again. She's supposed to be helping out with a terminally-ill support group... but when the leader of the group, Drew, mistakes her for a patient, she goes along with it. Eventually she finds something she's never had before: friendship and love. But now she's in over her head with lies and could lose it all in an instant.


I went in to this book a little worried just because I haven't loved most of the NA that I've been reading lately. This was finally one that was NORMAL... and good. It wasn't all sex, sex, sex... abs, abs, abs.... lust, lust, lust. It was just about a girl who was college age. A truly messed up girl, but not a nympho.

For real: This book hooked me from page one. I mean it has a 7-year-old swallowing a needle for crying out loud! Tell me that's not going to make you curious. I also just loved the idea for a book about Munchausen Syndrome. It seems like when that topic is brought up in books and on TV, it's usually the by proxy kind which features the parent hurting the child for attention... not the child actually hurting herself. It was really interesting (and kinda disturbing) to read Saylor's thoughts about hurting herself. She was a fucked up, attention deprived little girl.

I really liked how all the lies building up created this tension that had me sweating it out for Saylor. She just kept telling them and telling them, feeling bad, and then feeling really good at the love she was getting back from all these amazing people.

So you have the tension building because you know she's going to be outed somehow and everything is going to crumble. But then you also have this other tension because these people are terminal and you just don't want anything to happen to them. At least that's how I felt.

I do want to give a warning though: if you have someone close to you that has had a serious illness, you might want to think about your feelings before you read this book. Some of the things Saylor did had me cringing like crazy. I don't think she was trying to make the people in the support group feel like she was mocking their disease (as in that wasn't her intention), but that is pretty much exactly what she was doing by pretending to be ill. I just think if you have watched someone go through cancer or something like that, you might be offended by some of Saylor's thoughts and actions and you wouldn't be able to see the book for what it really is.

The one thing I hated was there is a scene where Saylor is texting while driving... and yeah there are worse things she could've done, and I'm not saying I've NEVER done it, but I don't like seeing it in print. It's super dangerous and should be taken seriously because too many people have died.

The ending was not perfect, but overall it could have been way worse... and in a way I sort like it when everything isn't all happy, pretty, sunshine, rainbows, ya know?

Overall: Such a well written book on a refreshing topic. It features a truly mentally ill main character who makes herself sick... and then she lies so much it kind of makes you sick. This is a NA book that is actually worth reading (it's not porn, hurrah!!). It's an emotional, tense, cool book that I would definitely recommend!

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Dont know why I keep adding these dystopian books where such a large emphasis is on childbearing/breeding. I have not liked one of them yet.

Maybe I am hoping this one will be different.

Read my full review of the book at seriesousbookreviews.com! Spoiler Free!

SK Falls does an amazing job writing from Saylor's POV. So much so that it is actually hard to read it at times because it feels so real. You understand why she thinks the way she does and how ill she truly is. It was especially hard for me to read because I am entering the healthcare field and reading Saylor's story showed me how our current system is failing people with similar mental conditions.

I was expecting a bit more of a romance to be honest BUT, I'm glad the focus was on Saylor's story and her character growth. It made for a much more interesting story and made this book very unique to the other stories in this genre. What romance is there compliments the plot beautifully.

Check out more spoiler-free book and series reviews on my blog SERIESousBookReviews.com as well as read book series recaps!

Full Review: http://wp.me/p3txrs-UB

Fevered Souls is a fast paced novel. I haven’t read any books that discuss demon society, but this one definitely does. And it’s not always pretty.

I think my favorite characters are James, Victorine, and Oscar. While Dax and Cara are the main characters, they felt a little bland. I’m not a huge fan of insta-love, and that may be one of the things that kept me from loving these characters. They seem to not be able to go on without the other. That’s just not healthy at all. Besides the little love thing, Cara is a strong woman. She wants to get back on her feet, and get her mom some help. She also doesn’t like being the victim. She takes in her own hands to learn how to defend herself. Dax is intense. I think that may be the best word to describe him. He’s incredibly sweet, but also insanely protective. James is a friend of Cara’s. He cares about her, and constantly worries about her relationship with Dax. Oscar is sweet and caring, while Victorine is bitter. But I like her, she doesn’t hide her feelings.

We get thrown into a world full of demons and hell hounds. The hell hounds are pretty creepy in this book. They aren’t like anything I’ve seen them to be in movies, or other books. There are also many types of demons, each one has certain gifts. They have an hierarchy of sorts, and clans. The society system is fascinating. (Spoken like a true sociologist) I want to learn more about each kind. Also, there is something that happened with Cara’s father that’s hinted at, and I hope we find out what it is. And the ending! Super cliffhanger, and I want to know what the crap is going on.

If you like insta-love, and the prospect of a new type of society, definitely pick this up. It’s a fast read, and I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.

The ending was too rushed and too neat for me. I really disliked Saylor for the first three quarters of the book; her redemption was too little too late for me, maybe if the ending hadn't of been so quickly summarized I could've liked this book a little. 2 stars(instead of one) because of Drew.

Such a unique premise, I have never read a book about Munchhausen's and didn't know much about it, so it was awesome to get into her head and experience a new perspective and learn about a mental illness.
I liked the friends she met from the support group, and even though I knew that things would collapse around her because of her lies and carefully constructed house of cards. I did want more of how she made herself sick and the emotions behind it but it was a good thing to get the emotions from those who are sick not by choice. I think that being around that amount of sickness and impending death really led to her healing more than anything else. It began as jealousy that they were really sick but then it morphed into something else entirely.
I understood little by little why she did what she did, and it was hard relating with that type of personality because I don't have any of that life experience, but I could empathize. Because I know pain, fear of abandonment, wanting to fit in, I just don't process the same way.
There is romance in this one, and it was sweet for the most part. It was just hard because like the friendships above, it is built on lies, and you know it can't end sweetly.
I felt like the ending was rushed a bit, and I wanted there to be a little more something. I liked the overall ending message and the note that it left on of hope and change though.

Bottom Line: Dark and gritty adventure into the mind of a girl who hurts herself for attention.

Cara dreaded returning home from Chicago – but with no job and no job prospects, she didn’t really have much choice but to return to the small town of Eden

And get a job with the mysterious and wealthy Dax Allard – but an encounter with a hellhound and a strange mystical connection has made this small town far more exciting than she imagined.

I am often wary of romance in books – not because I’m against a romance plot, but because there are so many ways a romance plot can be written to guarantee I’ll hate it. What are those ways? Well there are several. And they’re in this book.

All of them.

Cara and Dax meet and LOVE STRIKES! Special Woo-woo love that means she is now his betrothed (which totally doesn’t mean the same as what we usually mean by that word – it also includes a compulsion to murder as well). She is dramatically attracted to him at first sight, tearful at the idea of his rejection and neither of them can stay away from each other. No development, no character (at all), no relationship, no interaction – just ZING INSTA LOVE FOREVER! Not only insta-love, but she is addictive to her – even her smell (like a certain sparkly vampire we may know) meaning it’s almost impossible for him to be around her without a relationship happening (at least in the beginning of the book, not so much by the end because consistency is not one of this book’s strong points).

Dax is a demon which makes him super dangerous and deadly to Cara – but she doesn’t care! She has known him for precisely 2 seconds and will now be with him forever EVEN IF HE MAY EAT HER SOUL! Of course he nobly warns her several times which she just completely ignores, maybe pausing long enough to insist that he’d never hurt her because she just knows. She’s also the one to keep pushing for the deadly soul eating sex because life and limb meaning nothing to this woman.

Being a noble love interest, Dax decides to protect Cara by staying away from her – something she takes as devastating, tearful rejection. In a job interview. Yes because he’s a complete stranger looking to employ her and him not doing so is enough to cause an epic tantrum of “it’s not fair!!!!” Frankly, I wouldn’t have hired her anyway, because she went to this interview for a job she needed and wanted and didn’t bother to research it first – not even realising Dax was a person, not a company. She googled him after the fact.

And while Dax is a demon he’s a super-special nice demon, not only abstaining from human souls (a demon vegetarian? Do they have golden yellow eyes) but being a special kind of demon that has SUPER BINDING LOVE.

We have a love triangle – but not really. There’s a guy, James, who’s really into Cara but she doesn’t like him that way – so she invites him to talk in the middle of the night, hugs him a lot and generally keeps him hopeful and he remains on call. He constantly worries about Cara being in an abusive relationship because Cara, well, basically keeps sending up red flags that she’s in an abusive relationship.

Dax is super protective and/or super jealous. To the point of breaking down a fire-station door in case the firemen had kidnapped her. No. Really.

Let’s take a pause here to look at our romantic characters Dax doesn’t have a character. He’s rich but I have no idea what he does except give money to charity. He doesn’t seem to do anything that doesn’t involve Cara, he’s just a big sexy cardboard cut out. Frankly, I found him immensely dull – and if you find a demon dull then that is a very very poor demon indeed.

And Cara makes Bella Swan look like someone with a beautifully rich and nuanced mind (I am trying so hard not to make Twilight analogies with this book, but really, it’s one tub of body-glitter away). No, really. She has this vast hatred for her home town that is never explained and quickly evaporates when it no longer serves a purpose. Her father is dead and she blames herself for it – for reasons unknown by is useful for extra angst in the beginning.

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Review originally posted on my blog at Book.Blog.Bake.

Secret for a Song is not a light read, but it was a fascinating look inside the mind of someone with Munchhausen’s syndrome. As the summary suggests, Saylor does everything she can to make her self sick for attention, sometimes going to great lengths to do so. It’s hard to understand why Saylor would do the things she does, but I think Secret for a Song does a good job of really getting inside Saylor’s head and her thoughts as much as possible. The entire read, I was torn between feeling so sympathetic for Saylor and being so disappointed in her actions, but I thought S.K. Falls was skilled enough to create a character who isn’t very likable on the surface, but has a lot of hidden depths and is in an interesting situation.

I suppose Secret for a Song is really a New Adult title, since Saylor’s college-aged, and the book definitely deals with certain things a little more graphically than a YA book might. I really appreciated this AS a New Adult title, because it definitely doesn’t fit in the stereotypical New Adult mold that many people complain about. Saylor’s issue is not glamorized and sometimes it’s hard to read about, but it’s depicted fairly and as much as I can tell, accurately.

The romance in this book is pretty interesting. On one hand, you have Drew, the boy with the terminal illness whose disease is slowly taking away his ability to walk, use his muscles correctly, and have the quality of life most people in their early twenties do. On the other hand is Saylor, who is also sick, but whose illness is a mental one and who desires the attention the physically sick get. This isn’t a romantic portrayal that I as a reader root for, necessarily, but I think it showed a lot about both Drew and Saylor.

At it’s core, this is a really character-driven book, which made it a bit hard to read at times. After all, I don’t really LIKE Saylor, but I’m interested in her situation. There’s subplot with Saylor’s family as well, and while her family is at the height of dysfunction, I think S.K. Falls did a good job of putting all the pieces together.

There’s not terribly much of a plot in this book, but I don’t consider that a bad thing since it’s so character-driven. Most of the book consist of Saylor hanging out with her new friends, watching them cope with the diseases they actually have, and her Munchhausen’s and how it effects the way she keeps secrets from them. While I wish the truth had come out sooner, the way it happened in this book was really one of the only believable ways.

Final Impression: Secret for a Song was tough to read at times, but I thought it was an interesting and sad look at someone with such a hard-to-understand mental illness. Saylor was a great main character, someone who’s not exactly likable but sympathetic, and while I was sometimes frustrated with her actions, I also pitied her. I’d recommend this one, especially if you’re liking for a New Adult that’s different and tackles some pretty serious issues. 4/5 stars.

I was hooked from the first line: I ate my first needle when I was seven.

I loved Saylor( love the name) and Drew, as well as Zee. I was surprised to see just how bad Munchausen syndrome can be, this is my first book dealing with it. While I loved the relationship Saylor had with the group, I wish she would of been honest sooner. Maybe things would of turned out differently. It would be nice to have had more, but I understand why it ended the way it did. For me Drew was perfect, in his own ways. I love how he didn't give up on himself. In a perfect world, I think Drew and Saylor would have a magnificent love, one that could withstand anything. But their world was flawed, life too short, decisions already made. If they had met, both perfectly well then things would of been different. This story wasn't about typical love. This was a story about not feeling loved, so seeking out that love anyway you can, then unexpectedly finding the love that finds you when you aren't looking and begins to change the way you view others and yourself.

This is a story worth reading to me and one I couldn't put down

I came across this book in my Amazon recommendations & the title & cover caught my eye. I downloaded the sample & as soon as I'd finished reading it, I bought the book. I had to know where this was going to go. I am happy to say that I enjoyed where it did go & I've found out that there's going to be another book to follow, so I'm looking forward to that.

There were some things that didn't seem very fleshed out & the progression of time was hard to get a handle on (save one instance where the fact that two weeks have passed is mentioned at the outset of a chapter). There certainly was no insta-love between Vika & Shale & it is shown that they do have feelings that are deeper than the original matching of them but to have refer to him as the man she loves was a bit jarring. Up to that point, she had never made any sense of her feelings & expressed mostly wonder at them. She lives in a society in which there are no "boyfriends" & no opportunity to have crushes on the opposite sex, so I didn't know how she made that leap. It's never even established that she's had a girlfriend so that she has some knowledge of experience with romantic love. Still, that was a minor issue.

Vika also seemed to pick up a few "skills" out of nowhere (driving the bus) & was strangely lacking in others. She's given a pistol but has no knowledge or experience using them, yet it is not a concern in any way to her or thought that she should maybe ask someone how to use it (how she gets it back after Drew takes it from her is also a mystery). We're told often that the matriarchal society in which she lives is one that sees men as inferior & inherently dangerous physically but it does not appear that any of the women have taken the time to learn basic skills of self-defense, just in case. I had to wonder how that planned infiltration & takeover of China is really going to go down successfully. Part of me loved that after repeated situations that turned more complex & not quite what was told to her, Vika had an openness & willingness to trust that remained. It seemed nice even if it were also foolhardy. Just as a facet of self-preservation, I wanted her to be more critical & circumspect & not keep thinking that things would just work out. I wanted her to be a planner & take on more of her own agency to reach her goal instead of relying on what others told her. But, this is just the first book & she grew quite a bit, so I temper my expectations.

Even so, there were many moments that I found fascinating, endearing & memorable. Vika's interactions with her mother, Mica & Ceres are all wonderful & the characters shine. I almost felt some sympathy for Vika's mother when she's rendered as the poster child of futility in their society. I never stopped wanting to know more about Mica because his appearances were always reminders that his life has been as much a mystery to Vika as it is to me. I was just glad Ceres turned up alive & Vika found her and their interactions were truly special. The scene where Vika braids Ceres's hair & the other girls with flowers really struck me as beautiful. I really wanted some vicious retribution to come Moon's way early on (she was a great character) & it only increased when she reappeared at the end of the story (though how she goes from administrative code enterer at BoTA to qualified for heading up a group of acid hose toting Maintenance workers sent to clear up the "secret" camp in the desert many hours outside of Ursa is still a mystery. Moon displayed calculating vitriol & opportunism not leadership & trustworthiness.) The ending isn't a typical cliff-hanger & could serve as a good ending to a stand-alone story but it did leave me wanting to see what will happen next in Vika & her companions' journey.

When I first started this, I wasn’t sure what to expect. I read the premise and couldn’t determine whether it was going to be a story that would have me in tears or what. This is definitely out of my comfort zone, dealing with some issues that I normally tend to avoid, but was worth reading.

Saylor, the main character has Munchausen Syndrome, she does horrible things to her body to make herself sick. She is a walking, talking medical encyclopedia. She was a difficult character for me to connect with, I just felt sorry for her. I couldn’t imagine the things she did herself, and all for attention. She meets Drew, who is part of support group for those with terminal illnesses, and this is when the changes started with Saylor. And for the better. Drew was so kind, and sweet and the last thing he wants is anyone’s pity for being ill. Drew is perfect for Saylor, she feels and is something that she needed. And, he is just so amazing and strong, I just wanted to make him healthy again. Their friendship grows into a something more. Not all first loves, are the perfect whirlwind romances, some are slow and building ones. And that is what happened between them.

This story is one that will stick with you. At first, I was so disturbed by the awful things that Saylor does, I wasn’t sure whether I would be able to continue reading it. But, I kept reading, and I began to see the reasons behind her behavior, and while I never could imagine doing it, I saw how desperate she was. With parents like hers, it wasn’t hard to see the feelings that she carried. When she meets Zee, Pierce and Carson at the support group, she beings to rethink about everything in her life, and Saylor’s changes were subtle, and believable, and I wanted her to too. But secrets always have a way of coming out. So, I kept waiting for it to be exposed of her not really being sick, and it was heart breaking the damage that kind of secret can cause. Yes, there was a happy ending, but not the one I was hoping for but the one that was the right one for the story. It does me curious though if Saylor’s story is really complete. I guess we’ll see.

Secret for a Song makes you wonder how many people there are that are just like this? What reasons do they have for doing this to themselves? What help is there for them? I have to warn you, this isn’t full of sunshine and rainbows, it is dark and emotional and some part are graphic but the writing is beautiful and powerful, with hopes of love, learning how precious life is. It’s romantic and but has sadness to it, that pulls at your heart. I didn’t realize just how much I did enjoyed this, until I sat down and started writing this review. I would definitely recommend this one.

Here's a little disclaimer: for those who have dealt with or know someone with a terminal illness... you might want to pass this. I wish I didn't have to write this because I really, really loved this book to bits. Some of the things are just way too offensive to someone sensitive to these things. It's a character trait, Saylor is mentally ill, but it still might evoke some negative feelings.

That being said - oh my god, this book killed me.

I am not even kidding, I'm sitting here, writing this review through my tears cause I'm afraid this feeling will slip away if I leave it for later and the review won't be as accurate to my feelings as it would if I write it out straight away.

I was really considering passing up on this book and I thought hard before I clicked that Request button on NetGalley. From the blurb you can't really tell if it will ultimately be a happy or a sad read. There was this sense of dread-of-a-romance-reader I felt throughout - how could this book have a HEA and still be realistic? There was just no way.

I won't spoil it for you, though. Read it.

First of all, I'm blown away by the writing. The book is really well written and I swear, Saylor felt so, so real to me. You have this feeling that you should really, honestly despise her for what she's doing, the way she talks about the others in TIDD group but my god, I felt for her and understood her so much.

S.K. Falls - I bow to you. I do, honestly. Because you did this. You made me love her and understand her and just hope for her so much, and for everything to turn out for the best.

Fans of Me Before You, you might wanna read this book! Because it has that same feeling of questioning everything you know, hoping for an illogical ending, your common sense warring with wishful thinking.

By far, maybe the best character development I've ever read. The change in Saylor is so subtle you don't even notice it as it happens but at the end of the book, she's a different person.

The secondary characters were fantastic! Her mum, so distant and cold and her dad, putting up an act so transparent I wanted to climb into my Kindle and strangle him. Dr Stone. Drew. I loved Drew so much. And Zee.

The book is a clean read, there are no graphic sex scenes though sex is implied.

I can't believe I almost didn't read this book. I can't recommend it enough. It's powerful and so honest. The characters are so real and I grew attached to them. I wish it didn't end so abruptly. I wish I knew what happened after. But I guess that's the beauty of it.

And even though I will probably hate myself for putting myself through it because who wants to read sad books when life is sad as it is? But it's definitely going to my top reads this year. Definitely.

*** Free copy of this book provided by the author through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Let me start with this: there was a lot of redemption in this book. Honestly, if there wouldn't have been any, I would have burned my Kindle where it sat.

I started out hating it. This girl with this disease that she pretty much brings onto her self. Wanting and envying people who have cancer and aids. (NO! BITCH NO!)

I always finish every book I own, and I was not going to let this sick and twisted fantasy that Saylor lives in break me of that.

And then I got absorbed into understanding her. Although it's still pretty fucked up, I started to, somewhat (very little), understand her prognosis and the length this Munchhausen progresses too. (Not like an actual disease, more like some shit people make up in their heads.) There was a lot of Googling done on my side of the book.

Anyways, Saylor (great name!) redeems herself and I don't completely hate her by the end of the book. The writing in Secret for a Song was gorgeous and I loved the way Falls compares things. It was unique and I loved finding new descriptions that I really have never heard before. (Which rarely happens in books nowadays).

I cried a lot. I loved the people she met at the support group. That part of the book really touched me. However, I wish there would have been a further explanation of what happened with everyone!

It did end abruptly, but Drew and Saylor's ending probably would have been heartbreaking any other way. (And then I really would have hated this book.)

Such a unique premise, I have never read a book about Munchhausen's and didn't know much about it, so it was awesome to get into her head and experience a new perspective and learn about a mental illness.
I liked the friends she met from the support group, and even though I knew that things would collapse around her because of her lies and carefully constructed house of cards. I did want more of how she made herself sick and the emotions behind it but it was a good thing to get the emotions from those who are sick not by choice. I think that being around that amount of sickness and impending death really led to her healing more than anything else. It began as jealousy that they were really sick but then it morphed into something else entirely.
I understood little by little why she did what she did, and it was hard relating with that type of personality because I don't have any of that life experience, but I could empathize. Because I know pain, fear of abandonment, wanting to fit in, I just don't process the same way.
There is romance in this one, and it was sweet for the most part. It was just hard because like the friendships above, it is built on lies, and you know it can't end sweetly.
I felt like the ending was rushed a bit, and I wanted there to be a little more something. I liked the overall ending message and the note that it left on of hope and change though.

Review to come; book tour.