(Review) Bang (Visions, #2) - Lisa McMann

Title: Bang (Visions, #2)

Author: Lisa McMann

Format: ebook

Pages: 256 pages

ISBN:9781442466258

Publisher: Simon Pulse

Date Published: October 8, 2013

Amazon | Book Depository

Summary (from Goodreads)

Jules should be happy. She saved a lot of people’s lives and she’s finally with Sawyer, pretty much the guy of her dreams. But the nightmare’s not over, because she somehow managed to pass the psycho vision stuff to Sawyer. Excellent.

Feeling responsible for what he’s going through and knowing that people’s lives are at stake, Jules is determined to help him figure it all out. But Sawyer’s vision is so awful he can barely describe it, much less make sense of it. All he can tell her is there’s a gun, and eleven ear-splitting shots. Bang.

Jules and Sawyer have to work out the details fast, because the visions are getting worse and that means only one thing: time is running out. But every clue they see takes them down the wrong path. If they can’t prevent the vision from happening, lives will be lost. And they may be among the casualties…

Review:

Let me just start off by saying that I am totally in love with Lisa McMann and the Visions series. It's perfect. I love how the book is full of thrills, action, romance and comedy. Not one aspect outshine the other, they all mix in this perfect goo of Young Adult goodness. 

The book starts off right where the first book of the series, Crash, left. Jules and Sawyer are in love and are in trouble because right after Jules managed to save all those people in Sawyer's family restaurant, Sawyer is now the one getting the odd visions. Now she has to help him save all those people in his vision, keep his paranoid father out their trail while juggling school and relationship! WOW. That's a lot of things to do for someone who just broke their arm. 

The character dynamics have changed a bit this time, mainly I don't see much talk of the Angotti's aside from the occasional outbursts from Sawyer and when his grandfather beats him up. But just like he said, he's not afraid anymore and it's about time he stops being passive about something as serious as this. Honestly, I don't think it's just some stupid sauce that caused this giant family feud that crosses generational lines. I bet it has a lot to do with the visions Jules and Sawyer are getting. I'm glad Jules finally confronted her dad about him being paranoid and hypocritical talk about loyalty and trust when he had an affair with "the other side". I'm really glad she got that out of the system. 

So when they finally figure out what's going to happen, they had to act pretty quick. In the end, nobody died (which is a great, awesome thing!) but Trey and some others got injured in the process. Sawyer seems to think he didn't do enough but seriously, the kid just saved 12 lives and I think that's a great feat. The whole reason why the school shooting even happened in the first place made my stomach hurt. Even Rowan got to meet her boyfriend in New York and it didn't seem like she got into much trouble, what with Trey getting all the attention. I hope we'd hear more about her in the next book....which comes out in June. Oh the wait is going to be torture!

Rating: ♚♚♚♚♚

(Review) Crash (Visions, #1) - Lisa McMann

Title: Crash
Author: Lisa McMann
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 978-1-4424-0591-2
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Date Published: January 8, 2013

Summary (from Goodreads)

If what you see is what you get, Jules is in serious trouble. The suspenseful first in a series from the New York Times bestselling author of the Wake trilogy.
Jules lives with her family above their restaurant, which means she smells like pizza most of the time and drives their double-meatball-shaped food truck to school. It’s not a recipe for popularity, but she can handle that.
What she can’t handle is the recurring vision that haunts her. Over and over, Jules sees a careening truck hit a building and explode…and nine body bags in the snow.
The vision is everywhere; on billboards, television screens, windows; and she’s the only one who sees it. And the more she sees it, the more she sees. The vision is giving her clues, and soon Jules knows what she has to do. Because now she can see the face in one of the body bags, and it’s someone she knows. Someone she has been in love with for as long as she can remember.

Review:

The cover initially drew me in to purchasing this book. To be completely honest, I couldn’t completely immerse myself in the story at first. How Jules seemed to just admit that she was in love with the son of her family rival happened so suddenly to me, perhaps it was because of the directness of the writing. It took me a while to get past it and I’m glad I didn’t put this book down. It’s got to be one of my favourite first books in a series. Sawyer and Jules were adorable together, and I got very excited towards the end when Sawyer and Jules finally got together.

The action was engaging but not over the top and the style was befitting of Jules’ personality. Even her siblings are so fun to read about. Rowan is a lovely sibling while Trey was funny and very loving. Her parents….not so much. Her dad may not feel like he’s hurting anyone but his hoarding and the complete lack of explanation about his odd behaviour in the beginning of the story confused me a lot. I’m glad it was explained towards the end but that just opened up even more questions in my head. Sawyer getting the visions is giving the thrills! I can’t wait to get the second book and hopefully learn more answers.

Lisa McMann is a fabulous writer, that I can say much.

Rating:♚♚♚♚♚