review: Geek Girl by Cindy C. Bennett

pub date: December 2011
publisher: Cedar Fort
pages: 318
source: library
appeals: clean romance, high school, realistic fiction, contemporary
content: clean

thoughts:
I came across this book at the library one day this month, had never heard of it before, but after reading the back and a page in the middle I was interested in reading the whole thing. So I took it home and finally read it this past weekend.

I must say, it was cute.

Jen, the main character, had a fun voice. A tad self-deprecating, and very honest. She struggled with stuff in her life, had built a wall around herself, and was on a self-destructive path to not much. I thought her growth as a character was real.

I did think the pacing was off. The ending seemed to drag a little, and places in the middle sped by where I would've liked more. It also wasn't very rounded as a story--all the focus was on her relationship with Trevor, hardly any of it was about any other aspect of her life. For example, her relationship with her foster parents/family was undeveloped, so when events happened with them it was very out of the blue and odd. But really, the main draw of this book was Trevor and their developing relationship, so who cares about her foster family?

I did really enjoy Trevor and his influence on Jen and the way their relationship developed. I giggled and smiled quite a bit.

So overall, very enjoyable. I actually went back and skimmed my favorite parts after I'd finished it the first time.

summary:
Jen's life of partying and sneaking out has grown stale. So on a whim, Jen makes a bet to turn Trevor, a goody-two-shoes geek, into a "bad boy." As she hangs out with Trevor, however, she finds it's actually kinda fun being a geek. But when Trevor finds out about the bet, Jen must fight for the things she's discovered matter most: friendship, family, and, above all, love.

reviews by Jaye: My Sister's Stalker by Nancy Springer

I convinced my friend Jaye to write some reviews for me. And here is her second review. Enjoy.

pub date: February 20, 2012
publisher: Holiday House
pages: 128

Jaye's Thoughts:
This book is almost a novella, and that may be part of the reason for its being so different than many teen books around today. It comes in at a whopping 93 pages, and pretty much every one of them moves.

Synopsis: Rig discovers a stalker-ish website about his sister, who is away at school and gets worried. From there, it diverges from typical teen books, in that the first person he thinks to go to is his dad. In my experience, parents—most any adult, really, is the last person teens go to for help, and parents are generally largely absent. But hold on, it gets better—his dad believes him, and they start working together. Even his absentminded, sweetly naïve mom gets involved. And drives him crazy. I liked that.



I like how Rig’s character was drawn. 93 pages isn’t much time to flesh out the characters, but with thrillers, that’s not usually a high priority. Still, I found Rig a sympathetic hero, someone to root for. He went through a bit of self-discovery, too, which was interesting, though I would have liked more development and exploration with it. One aspect of this self-discovery was revealed at the very end, and it didn’t seem to fit. Came straight out of left field, and left me wondering, “Huh?” Other than that, a fun, short read. One for an afternoon. At least an hour of one, anyway.

summary:
When 15-year-old Rig, a loner, discovers that his popular older sister is being stalked while away at college, he sets out to save her, with unexpected help from his divorced parents.

review: The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

pub date: January 10, 2012
publisher: Dutton Books
pages: 313
source: library
content: swearing (at least one f-bomb), off page sex...that's all I remember

thoughts:
This is my first John Green book. Well, sorta. I tried to read Looking for Alaska long, long, ago, but there was so much swearing within the first chapter that I never read any further. I can handle some swearing, but the beginning of that book was excessive and I decided that no story was worth wading through that, so I put it down. I never tried another Green book, though I always thought I might be missing something since he's such a superstar in the YA world.

Which is why I decided to try again with The Fault in Our Stars. It had been sitting in my book basket for a few weeks and after a particularly stressful experience last week, I needed to think about something else and stop dwelling on this stressful experience.

A word from the unwise--don't read The Fault in Our Stars as a way to escape life. It doesn't work. First, the subject matter. Teens dying of cancer is not good escapism. Second, it's a smart book.

I liked this book. It leaves a powerful impression and packs an emotional punch. It has humor, it's smart, it has a road trip (or plane trip, really), the swearing was minimal (yay!), it has depth and also an amazing and strong protagonist who I loved. All the characters were great.

But with all that, I didn't love the book. Because I didn't love it, I feel like I need an excuse for my lack of love. Everyone else loves it! Why not me? Am I wrong? Does that make me stupid?

Because really, this book made me feel a little stupid. It was just so very smart. So I want to blame my unlove (and unsmartness) on the fact that my mind was only 70% focused on this book, while the rest of my mind was focused on my life. I needed all my mind focused on this book so that I could understand the conversations of these smart teens, who are so much smarter than I was at 16. And, apparently, smarter than me even at the age of 32.

So a fantastic book, well written definitely, but not my kind of book. I didn't enjoy all the philosophical converstations. There was so much talking talking talking, and I wanted more action. More doing. Maybe if I had been completely focused on the story, I would've loved it? Or not. I will never know.

I did definitely cry multiple times during the story. I was attached to the characters and their struggles. I cared about them.

summary:
Diagnosed with Stage IV thyroid cancer at 12, Hazel was prepared to die until, at 14, a medical miracle shrunk the tumours in her lungs... for now.


Two years post-miracle, sixteen-year-old Hazel is post-everything else, too; post-high school, post-friends and post-normalcy. And even though she could live for a long time (whatever that means), Hazel lives tethered to an oxygen tank, the tumours tenuously kept at bay with a constant chemical assault.

Enter Augustus Waters. A match made at cancer kid support group, Augustus is gorgeous, in remission, and shockingly to her, interested in Hazel. Being with Augustus is both an unexpected destination and a long-needed journey, pushing Hazel to re-examine how sickness and health, life and death, will define her and the legacy that everyone leaves behind.

review: Curveball: The Year I Lost My Grip by Jordan Sonnenblick

pub date: March 1, 2012
publisher: Scholastic
pages: 304
source: for review on Kiss The Book blog
appeals: contemporary, male protagonist, sports, baseball, photography
content: nothing that would offend, at least in my opinion. Peter does drink at a party and has a horrible hangover afterward


thoughts:
I am a Sonnenblick fan. His books, After Ever After, and Drums, Girls, and Dangerous Pie are AMAZING. LOVE them. If you haven't read them, I recommend that you do.

So, as you might well imagine, I was super excited to get my hands on an ARC of Sonnenblick's next book, Curveball.

Peter has always played baseball, so when he screws up his arm and isn't able to play anymore, he isn't sure what to do with his life. There is a lot of heart in this book. As Peter has to deal with changing relationships with his family, friends, the girl in his photography class, he finds his way in an unexpected future. I enjoyed reading about Peter's growth.

Sonnenblick really is quite amazing. But I didn't feel as strongly connected to Peter as I did to his other characters, in other books. Also, Peter's parent's bothered me, as did some of the decisions Peter made, only because I didn't understand why. I didn't buy into the motivations given, especially in respect to the grandpa.

It was good. It was enjoyable. It just wasn't as good as Sonnenblick's other books. And that made me a little sad.

summary:

Sometimes, the greatest comebacks take place far away from the ball field.

Meet Peter Friedman, high school freshman. Talented photographer. Former baseball star. When a freakish injury ends his pitching career, Peter has some major things to figure out. Is there life after sports? Why has his grandfather suddenly given him thousands of dollars worth of camera equipment? And is it his imagination, or is the super-hot star of the girls' swim team flirting with him, right in front of the amazing new girl in his photography class? In his new novel, teen author Jordan Sonnenblick performs his usual miraculous feat: exploring deep themes of friendship, romance, family, and tragedy, while still managing to be hilariously funny.

review: Dead End in Norvelt by Jack Gantos

pub date: September 13, 2011
publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
pages: 341
appeals: historical fiction, based on fact, mystery, murder, small town, Newbery Winner
source: library
content: some fart humor, hunting, lots of blood(-y noses)

thoughts:
As you most likely know by now, this book won the Newbery Award this year. I was lucky enough to already have it checked out when the award was announced, so I missed out on the long hold list at the library. Lucky!

I went on a road trip to California last week with my sisters and ten-year-old nephew and we stuck the audio of this book in. My nephew LOVED it. We listened to about half of it on the way there, the rest on the way home. It might have been the potty humor (he is ten and thinks that sort of thing HILARIOUS), but for what ever reason while we were in California, any time we were in the car, even for three minutes, he'd say, "Can you turn the book on now?" It was really cute.

As for me, I enjoyed it, but I didn't love it. I'm surprised it won the Newbery (especially when there was Okay for Now by Gary Schmidt which I loved and enjoyed so much more and wanted to win--a lot). It had it's moments of humor, it was peppered with entertaining characters, the plot was exciting at points (meandered at other points) but as I think back on the story, nothing really sticks out.

And as for the audio aspect of this book--kind of blah. The author read it, which is cool. But he has kind of a boring voice. A lot of the funny situations would have been funnier if a more expressive reader had read them instead. Just my opinion.
It was enjoyable. But for me, not phenomenal. For a ten-year-old boy, it will probably pass muster.

summary:
Melding the entirely true and the wildly fictional, Dead End in Norvelt is a novel about an incredible two months for a kid named Jack Gantos, whose plans for vacation excitement are shot down when he is "grounded for life" by his feuding parents, and whose nose spews bad blood at every little shock he gets. But plenty of excitement (and shocks) are coming Jack's way once his mom loans him out to help a fiesty old neighbor with a most unusual chore—typewriting obituaries filled with stories about the people who founded his utopian town. As one obituary leads to another, Jack is launced on a strange adventure involving molten wax, Eleanor Roosevelt, twisted promises, a homemade airplane, Girl Scout cookies, a man on a trike, a dancing plague, voices from the past, Hells Angels . . . and possibly murder. Endlessly surprising, this sly, sharp-edged narrative is the author at his very best, making readers laugh out loud at the most unexpected things in a dead-funny depiction of growing up in a slightly off-kilter place where the past is present, the present is confusing, and the future is completely up in the air. Dead End in Norvelt is a Publishers Weekly Best Children's Fiction title for 2011. One of Horn Book’s Best Fiction Books of 2011.

review: Epic Fail by Claire LaZebnik

pub date: August 2, 2011
publisher: HarperTeen
pages: 288
appeals: Mr Darcy!, Austen read-a-like, romance, high school, family
content: some swearing

thoughts:
I don't think I'll ever get tired of Pride and Prejudice retellings. This one was fun. So much fun. And LaZebnik didn't stick exactly to the story, as so many others do. She gave herself wiggle room in the plot which made it that much more fun.

Her mother is unbareably embarrassing, her father is very nonparental. Her elder sister is sweet, and her younger sister out of control. And then Derek (aka Darcy) is very much a grouch, but a very sweet one.

Of course I loved the development of the romance. After I finished the book I had to go back and reread the best parts. A true sign of an enjoyable book.

Overall, a fun, light-hearted, sweet, and romantic teen romance. I recommend.

summary:
Will Elise’s love life be an epic win or an epic fail?


At Coral Tree Prep in Los Angeles, who your parents are can make or break you. Case in point:

As the son of Hollywood royalty, Derek Edwards is pretty much prince of the school—not that he deigns to acknowledge many of his loyal subjects.

As the daughter of the new principal, Elise Benton isn’t exactly on everyone’s must-sit-next-to-at-lunch list.

When Elise’s beautiful sister catches the eye of the prince’s best friend, Elise gets to spend a lot of time with Derek, making her the envy of every girl on campus. Except she refuses to fall for any of his rare smiles and instead warms up to his enemy, the surprisingly charming social outcast Webster Grant. But in this hilarious tale of fitting in and flirting, not all snubs are undeserved, not all celebrity brats are bratty, and pride and prejudice can get in the way of true love for only so long.

review: Bright Young Thing by Anna Godbersen

pub date: October 12, 2010
publisher: HarperCollins
pages: 389
appeals: speakeasies, historical, flappers, romance, friendship
content: Cordelia sleeps with a few boys, but nothing is described. Some violence.

thoughts:
I picked this book up at a librarian conference I attended last year and meant to read it since then, but it was a promise to review this book for a coworker that finally got me to pick it up. And to keep picking it up, each time I put it down. Every time I put the book down, I didn't want to pick it back up. It took me almost two weeks to get through the almost 400 pages, and it felt like so much longer. The story didn't compel me to keep reading.

In short, it's about three girls who are more worried about their clothes and cars then they are about morals. And the adults in the book aren't much better.


I was giving a quick synopsis of the book to a friend and as I was talking I realized not much did happen, actually. Especially Astrid's part of the story. What actually did she do besides go back and forth between Charlie and her mother? Nothing. In response to my summarizing, my friend said, "Are you sure it isn't called 'Dumb Young Things?'" I thought that was pretty funny. Harsh, I know, but it just wasn't all that appealing for me.

So overall, not my kind of book.

summary:
The year is 1929. New York is ruled by the Bright Young Things: flappers and socialites seeking thrills and chasing dreams in the anything-goes era of the Roaring Twenties.


Letty Larkspur and Cordelia Grey escaped their small Midwestern town for New York's glittering metropolis. All Letty wants is to see her name in lights, but she quickly discovers Manhattan is filled with pretty girls who will do anything to be a star…

Cordelia is searching for the father she's never known, a man as infamous for his wild parties as he is for his shadowy schemes. Overnight, she enters a world more thrilling and glamorous than she ever could have imagined—and more dangerous. It's a life anyone would kill for . . . and someone will.

The only person Cordelia can trust is Astrid Donal, a flapper who seems to have it all: money, looks, and the love of Cordelia's brother, Charlie. But Astrid's perfect veneer hides a score of family secrets.

Across the vast lawns of Long Island, in the illicit speakeasies of Manhattan, and on the blindingly lit stages of Broadway, the three girls' fortunes will rise and fall—together and apart. From the New York Times bestselling author of The Luxe comes an epic new series set in the dizzying last summer of the Jazz Age

review: Texas Gothic by Rosemary Clement-Moore

pub date: July 12, 2011
publisher: Random House Children's Books
pages: 416
appeals: ghosts, mystery, romance, magic, witches, family, romance, Texas, ranching, romance :)
content: some swearing, a make-out scene

thoughts:
What a fun book. Really, quite delightful.

I liked Amy, our main character, and her snarky, sarcastic, highly entertaining personality. From the very first page, she grabbed my interest and kept me reading. Her family, especially sister Phin, were great, too. Is this a series? I kind of hope so because I really enjoyed the characters and would love more of them.

I must make a separate paragraph to make mention of the "hot neighbor cowboy." He is hot! He's her neighbor! and he's a cowboy! What isn't to love? He has a great personality, too. Amy meets while wearing only her underwear which makes for a great scene. From the onset, they hate each other, but Clement-Moore is so great at building the romantic tension in the mist of all their arguing. It was sublime romance. Seriously. But also rather nice that it was just attraction, and not all consuming, I-love-you-though-I-met-you-three-minutes-ago-and-I'll-die-without-you kind of thing. It was just a sweet, nice, realistic attraction. A really good one.

The overall story was fun. It's a mystery surrounding a ghost, with a good dose of denial and witchery, and some great snarky attitude. On a Texas ranch! Really fun stuff. And a quick read, for all it's pages.

You should give this one a try. It's good.

summary:
Amy Goodnight's family is far from normal. She comes from a line of witches, but tries her best to stay far outside the family business. Her summer gig? Ranch-sitting for her aunt with her wacky but beautiful sister. Only the Goodnight Ranch is even less normal than it normally is. Bodies are being discovered, a ghost is on the prowl, and everywhere she turns, the hot neighbor cowboy is in her face.

review: How to Save a Life by Sara Zarr

pub date: October 18, 2011
publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
pages: 341
appeals: adoption, teen pregnancy, realistic fiction
content: swearing, sex though not descriptive, abuse

thoughts:
I love me this book. Love, love, love! Passionately.

The characters in this novel are so real and flawed and believable and whole and awesome. I loved them all.

I loved Jill and Mandy. Their perceptions of the world and how they dealt with crap was so believable. Their struggles and how they dealt with horrible stuff and how they grew. Their insights into their world were so great. They're like real people to me now. I was really pleased with where they ended up, too. I usually find Sara Zarr's endings a little...unsettling, but this one was fantastic. It was actually happy. All the secondary characters were just as amazing. All the little details and peronality quirks were so tangable. Jill's father was dead, and he was a solid character in this book as if he was sitting in the leather chair in their family room.




 
I feel like I'm just blabbering and not saying anything (but I guess that is what I do when I review). It's an amazing story of growth and love and acceptance and moving on. It's beautifully written. Once I started it I didn't want to put it down. I was at work and all I was thinking about was lunch so I could read more, and after lunch I was counting down the hours till I could go home and read more. And then when I did go home and finish the book, I just hugged it to my chest because I was sad it was over. (not really, but you know what I mean)
 
This is a must read book. Please read! You are totally missing out if you don't pick it up.

summary:
Jill MacSweeney just wants everything to go back to normal. But ever since her dad died, she's been isolating herself from her boyfriend, her best friends--everyone who wants to support her. You can't lose one family member and simply replace him with a new one, and when her mom decides to adopt a baby, that's exactly what it feels like she's trying to do. And that's decidedly not normal. With her world crumbling around her, can Jill come to embrace a new member of the family?


Mandy Kalinowski knows what it's like to grow up unwanted--to be raised by a mother who never intended to have a child. So when Mandy becomes pregnant, she knows she wants a better life for her baby. But can giving up a child be as easy as it seems? And will she ever be able to find someone to care for her, too?

Critically acclaimed author and National Book Award finalist Sara Zarr delivers a heart-wrenching story, told from dual perspectives, about what it means to be a family and the many roads we can take to become one.

review: Chain Reaction by Simone Elkeles

pub date: August 16, 2011
publisher: Walker Books for Young Readers
pages: 308
source: library
appeals: romance, street fiction, realistic, gangs
content: sex, violence, lots of swearing (lots of it the f-word)


thoughts:
I was excited for this book for such a long time, but in the end I was disappointed. 

1) I felt like it was the same story as Perfect Chemistry and Rules of Attraction. Boy is involved in gang, girl wants to save him. They have a connection with each other that they've never felt with anyone else. Girl sleeps with boy the night before some big gang thing goes down so that he'll have a reason to leave the bad boy life and stay with her. It was great the first time. Okay the second time. The third time all I could say was, Really? What happened to that book rumor I heard at the beginning of the year about the girl being a gang member and Lois trying to get her to leave the bad girl life for him? I miss that book that never was.
 2) This also seemed cornier than the other two. They all, at times, have corny elements and dialog, but this one took the cake. Or should I say cob. (yes, this book was as corny as that joke).

3) I am a reserved person and I hate big scenes in life, I loath them in books. There are two of them in this book. The first was an embarrassing wedding scene where Alex and Brittany have a personal conversation just before being pronounced man and wife. The second was just in front of family, but it was still horribly embarrassing (to me as the reader) and that was between Carlos and Kiara. Both were seriously cringe worthy. And very corny.

4) Content was toooo much. I just wasn't in the mood for all that swearing. Sometimes I can handle it without a problem, but this time it jarred me out of the story.  And the sex in it seemed much more than the other two in the series, though I could be wrong because it has been a while.

On the plus side, it was fun to read about Alex and Britney and Carlos and Kiara. I love the family dynamic. It was also a fun romance, though it would've been more enjoyable if I hadn't felt like I'd read the main plot twice before. All three girls that fall for those trouble-making Fuentes boys, are different and original, which I really love. And the epilogue made me laugh, just like the other ones did.

This is a really harsh review of this book. I feel a little bad about it, but what can I say? I just wasn't feeling the attraction to this story. This is definitely the weaker of the three.

I remember reading an interview with Simone on someone's blog a long while ago (don't remember where or when exactly), and Simone said that the covers are stock photos and in Rule of Attraction she added a bit about kissing between cars so that the cover made sense with the story. Well, I think she did the same with this one. The shower scene in Chain Reaction didn't blend in as well with the plot, it didn't even really matter. It looks a lot sexier on the cover than it actually was. Which isn't really a critism, just an observation.

summary:
Luis Fuentes has always been sheltered from the gang violence that nearly destroyed his brothers’ lives. But that didn’t stop him from taking risks—whether he’s scaling a mountain in the Rockies or dreaming of a future as an astronaut, Luis can’t stop looking for the next thrill.

Nikki Cruz lives her life by three rules—boys lie to get their way, don’t trust a boy who says “I love you,” and never date a boy from the south side of Fairfield. Her parents may be from Mexico, but as a doctor’s daughter, she has more in common with her north-side neighbors than the Latino Blood at her school. Then she meets Luis at Alex’s wedding, and suddenly, she’s tempted to break all her rules.

Getting Nikki to take a chance on a southsider is Luis’s biggest challenge, until he finds himself targeted by Chuy Soto, the new head of the Latino Blood. When Chuy reveals a disturbing secret about Luis’s family, the youngest Fuentes finds himself questioning everything he’s ever believed to be true. Will his feelings for Nikki be enough to stop Luis from entering a dark and violent world and permanently living on the edge?

review: Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins

pub date: September 29, 2011
publisher: Dutton
pages: 338
source: LibraryThing Early Reviewer program
appeals: romance, contemporary, realistic, California,
content: off the page sex, swearing (2 f-word)

thoughts:
I love LibraryThing's early reviewer program because they sent me this book! Yay early reviewer!

I had a difficult time with this book in the beginning. I didn't like the decisions that Lola was making and I was really irritated with her. Mostly I did not like her relationship with her boyfriend, Max. She was 17 while he was 22 and their relationship was very physical. As in they were sleeping together. Ugh. Especially when I knew from the beginning that in the end Lola will be with the boy next door, and not with the older man. It was just...ew. Everything physical was off page, but still too much.

However, it didn't take me long to fall in love with Lola. Even if I didn't like her decisions in the beginning, she was such a sweet and endearing and quirky and original character. I enjoyed being inside her head (except when she was gushing over Max) and I loved how she grew as a person. She really did grow up and I loved tagging along as she did so. 

Cricket. sigh. Cricket. He is SO cute. Everything about his is just awesome. I love his name. I love his style. And I love how he loves Lola. I love how introverted and smart and sweet he is. He is a great love interest. Much better for Lola than the older guy.

Perkins is so fun to read. Her stories flow and are addicting and so funny. I love all her characters, they are fully formed and their emotions are real. I love her settings, too. I really enjoyed San Francisco with Lola and Cricket. And Anna and Etienne. Yes, Anna and Etienne are in the book quite a bit. Much more than I was expecting.

I really like this book. A lot.

summary:
Budding designer Lola Nolan doesn’t believe in fashion . . . she believes in costume. The more expressive the outfit -- more sparkly, more fun, more wild -- the better. But even though Lola’s style is outrageous, she’s a devoted daughter and friend with some big plans for the future. And everything is pretty perfect (right down to her hot rocker boyfriend) until the dreaded Bell twins, Calliope and Cricket, return to the neighborhood.

When Cricket -- a gifted inventor -- steps out from his twin sister’s shadow and back into Lola’s life, she must finally reconcile a lifetime of feelings for the boy next door.

review: The Beginning of After by Jennifer Castle

pub date: September 6, 2011
publisher: HarperTeen
pages: 432
source: NetGalley
appeals: death, family, contemporary, realistic fiction,
content: a heavy make out scene

thoughts:
I had the hardest time not comparing this book to If I Stay by Gayle Forman, at least in the beginning. Which really wasn't fair because they aren't similar except for the family dynamic (mother, father, brother) and what happens to them (they die in a car accident). This book doesn't answer the question, "should I stay?" like Forman's, it instead answers the question, "I'm here, how do I deal?" 

This was a great book. I had a hard time putting it down. I wanted to know what would happen next. I thought Castle handled the situation and difficulties of Laurel's world changing really well. The writing flowed, and though this is a long book, it didn't feel like it. It read really quickly.

I appreciated the romance in the novel. There were two boys, but I didn't feel that it was a love triangle. Laurel's relationship with both of them were realistic and real and Laurel's feelings for them changed and evolved as she grew as a character. I liked how real it felt.

Laurel was a sympathetic and likable character and I felt for her plight. But even as I write that, I felt the telling of her story was very much on the surface, and didn't delve deep. I never felt deeply her pain. I wasn't attached to her family. There were memories Laurel shared, but they weren't deep enough to evoke an emotional response from me.

I liked this book a lot, but I wanted more. I wanted to feel more than I did.  


summary:
Sixteen-year-old Laurel's world changes instantly when her parents and brother are killed in a terrible car accident. Behind the wheel is the father of her bad-boy neighbor, David Kaufman, whose mother is also killed. In the aftermath of the tragedy, Laurel navigates a new reality in which she and her best friend grow apart, boys may or may not be approaching her out of pity, overpowering memories lurk everywhere, and Mr. Kaufman is comatose but still very much alive. Through it all, there is David, who swoops in and out of Laurel's life and to whom she finds herself attracted against her better judgment. She will forever be connected to him by their mutual loss, a connection that will change them both in unexpected ways.

Fans of emotionally true and heartfelt stories, such as Sarah Dessen's THE TRUTH ABOUT FOREVER and IF I STAY by Gayle Forman, will fall in love with Jennifer Castle’s incandescent debut novel...a heart wrenching, surprisingly witty testament to how drastically life can change in the span of a single moment.

review: Hush by Eishes Chayil

pub date: September 14, 2010
publisher: Walker Books for Young Readers
pages: 368
appeals: realistic fiction, contemporary, abuse, based on a true story
content: sexual abuse

thoughts:
I read this book almost two months ago now, and wish I'd written my review then instead of now. Since I waited so long, the details and specifics of the story are hazy and I don't have as much to write as I did at the beginning of May. Which sucks because I thought this was an amazing book.

Hush affected me for weeks after I finished. I talked about it to everyone because I was so horrified by what had happened to the protagonist's childhood friend and many other children in Borough Park. I appreciated the strength of the protag in writing this story and not hiding it or ignoring what was going on in her own community.

Hush wasn't written with beautiful descriptions or a fast-paced plot. Parts were too long and somewhat slow. At times the writing was child-like. But the story told was honest and heart-felt and scary. The story grabbed me and broke my heart. It is powerful. One that I think needs to be read.   

summary:
Inside the closed community of Borough Park, where most Chassidim live, the rules of life are very clear, determined by an ancient script written thousands of years before down to the last detail and abuse has never been a part of it. But when thirteen-year-old Gittel learns of the abuse her best friend has suffered at the hands of her own family member, the adults in her community try to persuade Gittel, and themselves, that nothing happened. Forced to remain silent, Gittel begins to question everything she was raised to believe.



A richly detailed and nuanced book, one of both humor and depth, understanding and horror, this story explains a complex world that remains an echo of its past, and illuminates the conflict between yesterday's traditions and today's reality.

review: The Twisted Thread by Charlotte Bacon

pub date: June 14, 2011
publisher: Voice
pages: 352
source: LibraryThing Early Reviewer
appeals: adult, mystery, boarding school, murder, contemporary, realistic fiction
content: swearing, off page sex, bullying,

thoughts:
This is not the kind of book I normally read. It wasn't particularly fast paced, it wasn't focused on just a few characters, and it wasn't told from a teen POV. It was an adult murder mystery. But for all of that, I enjoyed it anyway.  

This is a very dense book. Dense as in the paragraphs are long and packed with detailed information. There is also A LOT of info told about each character--present, past, and hinting into the future--that didn't necessary have anything to do with the murder. It was not a quick read for me.

I figured out who the murderer was a little over half way through. Maybe not the reason behind the murder, that was a surprise, but the who-done-it aspect of it. And the reveal wasn't dramatic at all. It was sort of just there, a bit of information tucked in with all the other bits of information. But that was okay. Sometimes drama at the end of a book is annoying, so it was refreshing when that wasn't the case, like in this book. And the wind down after the reveal went on for a while, tying up all the ends of lives of all the characters we .

But, really, I did enjoy the story. The dynamics of the boarding school, teachers and students, and the schools relations with the town, was fascinating. As each piece of the puzzle was revealed, I loved how the thread got more twisted. I thought the plot was very well thought out and laid down in the novel. And I liked the two main characters. I liked how the book ended.

A solid 3 apple book.
summary:
When beautiful but aloof Claire Harkness is found dead in her dorm room one spring morning, prestigious Armitage Academy is shaken to its core. Everyone connected to school, and to Claire, finds their lives upended, from the local police detective who has a personal history with the academy, to the various faculty and staff whose lives are immersed in the daily rituals associated with it.

Everyone wants to know how Claire died, at whose hands, and more importantly, where the baby that she recently gave birth to is a baby that almost no one, except her small innermost circle, knew she was carrying.

At the center of the investigation is Madeline Christopher, an intern in the English department who is forced to examine the nature of the relationship between the school s students and the adults meant to guide them. As the case unravels, the dark intricacies of adolescent privilege at a powerful institution are exposed, and both teachers and students emerge as suspects as the novel rushes to its thrilling conclusion.

review: The Killer's Cousin by Nancy Werlin

pub date: originally 1998 (republished 2009?)
publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers
pages: 240
appeals: mystery, suspense, realistic fiction, contemporary
content: there is violence off page and some references to sex

thoughts:
Wow. I loved this book.

I began by listening to the audio in my car. By the middle of the fourth disc (it was only five discs long) I couldn't deal with the suspense any longer. Each time I turned on my car (which is where I was listening to it) my heart rate would speed up, my stress levels would rise, and I'm sure my blood pressure did, too. So I got the book from the library and read it during my lunch break on Friday. The suspense was killing me.

What I loved about this book:

1) the characters. They were so well drawn! David, his cousin, his parents, his aunt and uncle. They all frustrated me at different times and for different reasons, but I totally understood why they behaved they way they did. I felt empathy for them, even when I really didn't want to. And I really, really, liked David.

2) the story. I don't do horror, but wow do I love suspense. Especially when it's so well done. Like I wrote above, I was freaking out while listening. I was so worried for David--the possibilities of what would happen with him kept running through my mind and they just got worse and worse. Which is why I finally just read it.

3) the end. That is all I will say on that.

4) it's retro! Okay, so it was only written in the later 90s and I don't think that really qualifies as retro, but I loved the mention of CDs (no digital!) and his VCR and only being able to call on land lines.

summary:
After being accused and acquitted in the death of his girlfriend, seventeen-year-old David is sent to live with his aunt, uncle, and young cousin to avoid the media frenzy. But all is not well at his relatives' house. His aunt and uncle are not speaking, and twelve-year-old Lily seems intent on making David's life a torment. And then there's the issue of his older cousin Kathy's mysterious death some years back. As things grow more and more tense, David starts to wonder - is there something else that his family is trying to hide from?

review: I'll Be There by Holly Goldberg Sloan

pub date: May 3, 2011
publisher: Little Brown Books for Young Readers
pages: 400
appeals: contemporary, realistic fiction, romance, family
content: clean (I think. I don't remember anything that would make it otherwise)

thoughts:
I enjoyed this story. It was not what I expected, and I love to be surprised. I thought it was interesting and well written with great descriptions and characters.

However, I felt Sloan's writing style was more of a summary. I felt too much of the story was skimmed over. Emily and Sam supposedly have a deep relationship, but as a reader I wasn't ever privy to the building of the relationship. I just was told by the narrator that they talked and spent time together. I wanted to read about it, not just be told about it. So the fact that this relationship was so important to the story kind of put a kink in my love for the book because I didn't buy into it. 

This novel was written from multiple perspectives, and I really enjoyed that. I thought it opened up a lot of the characters by seeing them through anothers eyes.

Though I did like the multiple perspectives, at times it got annoying. Mostly I wanted the story to focus on Sam and Riddle and Emily, but a few characters went off on tangents that took away from the main story. And that bothered me because I didn't care about the tangents, I cared about the main three characters. Bobby was the worst offender. I didn't like him and though he was important to certain plot points, he got old really fast. I wanted out of his head, especially when it came to the prom. Too many pages were wasted on him.


So I did like the book, I thought the story and characters were compelling. I just didn't love it like I wanted to.   

summary:
Raised by an unstable father who keeps the family constantly on the move, Sam Border hasn't been in a classroom since the second grade. He's always been the rock for his younger brother Riddle, who stopped speaking long ago and instead makes sense of the world through his strange and intricate drawings. It's said that the two boys speak with one voice--and that voice is Sam's.


Then, Sam meets Emily Bell, and everything changes. The two share an immediate and intense attraction, and soon Sam and Riddle find themselves welcomed into the Bell's home. Faced with normalcy for the first time, they know it's too good to last.

Told from multiple perspectives, Holly Goldberg Sloan's debut novel offers readers fresh voices and a gripping story, with vivid glimpses into the lives of many unique characters. Beautifully written and emotionally profound, I'll Be There is a story about connections both big and small, and deftly explores the many ways that our lives are woven together.

review: Sisterhood Everlasting by Ann Brashares

pub date: June 14, 2011
publisher: Random House
pages: 349
source: LibraryThing Early Reviewer
appeals: sisterhood of the traveling pants
content: a little swearing including f-word, off-page sex

thoughts:
I was a huge fan of the first three Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants books. I loved Tibby and Bee and Lena and Carmen's friendship and their growth as characters. I loved the arc of their individual and shared stories through those first three books.

I pretend the fourth Sisterhood book never happened. It was unwrapping the perfect package that the third book left for me and throwing the contents all around and leaving the Sisters in utter upheaval. Worse, it was as if the lessons learned in the first three books had never been learned. All four girls were back to where they were at fifteen, dealing with their college problems as if they hadn't grown at all. As if they hadn't learned anything. All of them took five huge steps backward and it was irksome. Maybe that's realistic, but then heck, I wanted fantasy.

Fourth book? There never was any fourth Sisterhood book...

So I approached this fifth book in the series with some trepidation. Though I loved high school Bee and Lena and Carmen and Tibby, did I really want to read what Brashares had in store for them as adults?

This is definitely an adult book, and not because of content. It was the way it was written. There is very little outside action. So much of this book is introspection. And though introspection is great (in small doses), I am a plot person and I wanted more action to keep the story moving, not more thoughts and feelings and internal sorrows. I thought the middle was slow and dull because of it.

The following might be considered slightly spoilery...I don't think so, but maybe...so I'm giving you warning...

Near the beginning of the book there was a catastrophe. I cried. The Sisters felt guilt and grief and a little bit of blame towards each other. And they allowed the catastrophe to isolate them from each other. I found that hard to believe. After being through so much and helping each other through so much in 30 years of friendship, I was utterly shocked at their behavior. And I didn't believe that they would really respond that way. I expected them to rally together, not pull apart. So that was irritating. And to me, unbelievable. But maybe that's just me in denial. And wanting the fantasy, not the reality.

Part of the reason I thought it was a little slow was because I understood the catastrophe in a way that the Sisters didn't, and I'm not sure why. Was it written so the reader would understand? Or was it supposed to be a surprise to the reader and I am just uncommonly brilliant? Not sure, but I knew what really happened right when it did and it took the Sisterhood until the end to discover the truth. And since I knew most of the truth for most of the book, it felt like a long time for the Sisters to figure it out.

But, for my complaining above, in the end I did enjoy the book. I closed it on the last page, then opened it and reread the ending again. The ending I believed (though it's probably the most improbably aspect of the whole book). And it stuck with me. I thought about it the whole next day. I liked the Sisterhood grown up and responsible (for the most part) and succeeding. It left me with a feeling of hope. And let's face it, I love these girls. How can I not love their story? (with the exception of the fourth book that never was).

So yes, a good book that I recommend for Sisterhood fans.

summary:
Now Tibby, Lena, Carmen, and Bridget have grown up, starting their lives on their own. And though the jeans they shared are long gone, the sisterhood is everlasting.

Despite having jobs and men that they love, each knows that something is missing: the closeness that once sustained them. Carmen is a successful actress in New York, engaged to be married, but misses her friends. Lena finds solace in her art, teaching in Rhode Island, but still thinks of Kostos and the road she didn’t take. Bridget lives with her longtime boyfriend, Eric, in San Francisco, and though a part of her wants to settle down, a bigger part can’t seem to shed her old restlessness.


Then Tibby reaches out to bridge the distance, sending the others plane tickets for a reunion that they all breathlessly await. And indeed, it will change their lives forever—but in ways that none of them could ever have expected.


As moving and life-changing as an encounter with long-lost best friends, Sisterhood Everlasting is a powerful story about growing up, losing your way, and finding the courage to create a new one.

review: My Life Undecided by Jessica Brody

pub date: June 7, 2011
publisher: Farrar, Straus, Giroux
pages: 320
appeals: humor, romance, friendship, queen bees, contemporary, realistic fiction
content: Sex was mentioned briefly a few times, there were also a few swear words, not many.

thoughts:
I really enjoyed Brody's sense of humor, in this book as well as in her first YA, The Karma Club. I love books that make me laugh, and this one definitely did that.

What I liked the most was Brooks voice. It was intelligent, self-deprecating, humorous (as stated earlier), and likable. I liked her and was rooting for her success the whole book.

The progression of the plot was great. Brooks is horrible at making wise decisions and has gotten into much trouble because of it. So she starts a blog where she will post every decision she needs to make and let her readers decide what she should do. Her readers don't see things the way she does and Brooks ends up doing a lot of things she doesn't want to do, but does them because she promised she would. It was great. I loved how her reader's responses affected her life.

This story has a love triangle, which has become a turn off for me of late, but it was wonderful in this book. This love-triangle was done right. There was no lightning bolt of love. There was no overboard passion. There were two boys that liked the same girl. The relationships developed naturally and over time. It was a fun romance without the characters needing to kiss each other every page or long expositions on why Brooks needed the boy(s). Good stuff.

At one point Brooks was asked how many boys she'd had sex with. Everyone was surprised that she hadn't slept with anyone. She's only fifteen. I'm was surprised they thought she'd slept with one person, the fact they thought she'd slept with multiple boys kind of horrified me.

If you like realistic romance then pick up this book!

summary:
PLEASE READ THIS! MY LIFE DEPENDS ON IT!



Okay, maybe that was a bit melodramatic, but I’m sorry, I’m feeling a bit melodramatic at the moment.

Here’s the deal. My name is Brooklyn Pierce, I’m fifteen years old, and I am decisionally challenged. Seriously, I can’t remember the last good decision I made. I can remember plenty of crappy ones though. Including that party I threw when my parents were out of town that accidentally burned down a model home. Yeah, not my finest moment, for sure.

But see, that’s why I started a blog. To enlist readers to make my decisions for me. That’s right. I gave up. Threw in the towel. I let someone else be the one to decide which book I read for English. Or whether or not I accepted an invitation to join the debate team from that cute-in-a-dorky-sort-of-way guy who gave me the Heimlich Maneuver in the cafeteria. (Note to self: Chew the melon before swallowing it.) I even let them decide who I dated!

Well, it turns out there are some things in life you simply can’t choose or have chosen for you—like who you fall in love with. And now everything’s more screwed up than ever.

But don’t take my word for it, read the book and decide for yourself. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll scream in frustration. Or maybe that’s just me. After all, it’s my life.

review: The Day Before by Lisa Schroeder

pub date: June 28, 2011
publisher: Simon Pulse
pages: 307
source: Simon and Schuster galley grab
appeals: contemporary, romance, family, verse
content: a little swearing

thoughts:
I enjoy Schroeder's books a lot so I was really excited to read this through Simon and Schuster's galley grab. I liked this one. I liked how the summary didn't give away the plot. It was nice to discover what The Day After will hold for Amber and Cade

I did feel like there wasn't much story. Amber and Cade share a day together, 24 hours. It's all told through Amber, who tells of their day and their individual back stories and what is going to happen to them next, but it didn't seem enough. It didn't feel like a flushed out story. And it wasn't because it was in verse, because I didn't feel this way with Schroeder's other books. Just this one.

I liked the characters. I did like their stories. I did like Amber and Cade's day together. I just wanted there to be more.  

I am a little disappointed in the cover. I think it's a nice cover, just a tad too dramatic for the story inside. She spends the day at the beach, what is she doing hiding in weeds?

summary:
Sometimes there's no turning back.

Amber's life is spinning out of control. All she wants is to turn up the volume on her iPod until all of the demands of her family and friends fade away. So she sneaks off to the beach to spend a day by herself.

Then Amber meets Cade. Their attraction is instant, and Amber can tell that he's also looking for an escape. Together they decide to share a perfect day: no pasts, no fears, no regrets.

The more time that Amber spends with Cade, the more she's drawn to him. And the more she's troubled by his darkness. Because Cade's not just living in the now--he's living each moment like it's his last.