Blog Tour: Nerve by Jeanne Ryan Review and Giveaway

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Title: Nerve
Author: Jeanne Ryan
Publisher: Dail Books (Penguin)
Publishing Date: September 13th 2012
Pages: 304
Genre: YA Suspense/Thriller
Series: Stand Alone
Source: Digital ARC

Goodreads Summary: 

A high-stakes online game of dares turns deadly

When Vee is picked to be a player in NERVE, an anonymous game of dares broadcast live online, she discovers that the game knows her. They tempt her with prizes taken from her ThisIsMe page and team her up with the perfect boy, sizzling-hot Ian. At first it's exhilarating--Vee and Ian's fans cheer them on to riskier dares with higher stakes. But the game takes a twisted turn when they're directed to a secret location with five other players for the Grand Prize round. Suddenly they're playing all or nothing, with their lives on the line. Just how far will Vee go before she loses NERVE?

Debut author Jeanne Ryan delivers an un-putdownable suspense thriller.

Review: 

Okay WOW, I am not even sure where to start with this review. My mind is still racing with how creepy and disturbing yet entertaining this book was. Suspense/Thriller doesn’t even begin to cover this book. While I was reading this book I was living in an alternate world. I have not had a book put me on edge like that in a very long time. I was glued to every page. The further I read, the more intense it got. This book totally had my full attention.

I loved the sound of this book. A game, a reality show, and a mysterious company… sounds like the making of something to stay far away from. We start the book with Vee, a quiet girl who lives in the shadows of her best friend, has a crush on the popular boy, and does make-up for a show that everyone else gets to star in. Her life is pretty calm; the only thing holding her back from full enjoyment is her long term grounding. She is tired of sitting in the backseat of life and starts to participate in a game called NERVE. A mysterious company sends dares to the participants to complete for pretty awesome prizes. The darers start off a little embarrassing and end up completely intense, playing on your worst fears. This company knows everything about you too, so not only are they sadistic, they are stalkers. Vee doesn’t think anything of the dares at first. They are silly and they take her out of her comfort zone and now she is getting tons of attention. She takes the game further and soon realizes something is very very wrong.

The story is amazing. It is very original but plays on something very real in our world, reality shows that people like to watch for entertainment, even when it’s at someone else’s expense. The story does start off light and funny, Vee does some pretty simple but dumb t things that totally made me crack up. As things progress, it went from funny to really wow, I can’t believe she is going that far. Where I ended up… on the edge of my seat, biting my fingernails, completely terrified of how this book could possible end and thing OMG how did this even happen. The writing is awesome, very intense, very fast paced, very real. I was completely engulfed in this book.

Part of what makes this book awesome is the character development. Vee was very real to me, as were her friends, fellow players, and the watchers. The main characters, I was able to connect with Vee the most because the story was from her point of view. I was able to experience the embarrassment, excitement, and fear right along with her. I was hanging on her every decision and I think I was even jumping at the same exact moments she would have been.

I would recommend this book for any book thrill seekers. It’s been a while since a book really put me on edge like this one. Very intense, really a must read.

Rating:

Links:

Goodreads/Author Link/Amazon/Barnes and Noble

Giveaway:

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