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Although Lauren Morrill’s debut novel, Meant to Be, tells the story of Julia Lichtenstein, a junior at Newton North High School in Newton, Massachusetts, it also tells the turbulent tale of teen relationship building, the random chaos of life and love. Julia, who doesn’t know the word fun because it wasn’t on the SATs, is a stickler for history and geography and rules.  Because of her reputation, she has earned nicknames like Book Licker, Professor, and Little Miss Guidebook.  When she signs up for the class’ spring break field trip toLondon, she hopes to immerse herself in the rich culture and history of the place, butRead More →

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In: On the Edge, Realistic Fiction (YA), Romance (YA), Young Adult Book Reviews
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I know when a book is good because it’s full of check-marks, underlining and dog-eared pages.  And the latest from one of my favorite authors, A.S. King, Ask the Passengers, has 14 page corners that I turned down and boatloads of check-marks and underlining throughout.  It’s full of funny quips, true-to-life sarcasm, poignant revelations, and emotional truths that kicked me in the gut. With an emotionally vacant set of parents (workaholic rarely-leaves-the-house mother and a pot-smoking dad), a younger sister who is a mystery to her, friends who have a secret life Astrid has sworn to protect, a rampant small-town rumor mill, and secret yearningsRead More →

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Any hopelessly romantic reader of Stephanie Meyers’ Twilight series or books like Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater or The Temptation by Alisa Valdes will predictably enjoy Amy Garvey’s Cold Kiss sequel, Glass Heart.  The book features the same impossibly perfect male protagonist—handsome, loyal, and doting—operating in a plot imbued with paranormal adventure and romance. Set in December, the story describes the relationship and conflicts faced by the sixteen-year-old stars, psychic Gabriel DeMarnes and magician Wren Darby who operate in a world where no one believes magic exists, so it is pretty easy to get away with it.  That is until Bay and Fiona start pranking andRead More →

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In: Middle Grade Reviews, Romance (YA), Sci Fi & Fantasy, Sci-Fi & Fantasy (YA), Young Adult Book Reviews
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David Levithan‘s latest, Every Day, is an interesting exploration of identity. The 16 year old main character, A, has awoken every day in a different body.  At first, it seemed normal, and only around age 5-6 did the strangeness of A’s life without continuity begin to be bothersome.  After accepting the reality of this existence, A developed coping mechanisms to be able to determine the basic details of the life and body of the day and be able to function without causing too much chaos or change in the host body’s life.   Since A has been a boy and a girl, every race andRead More →

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In: Historical Fiction (YA), Mystery & Suspense (YA), Romance (YA), Supernatural & Horror (YA), Young Adult Book Reviews
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Libba Bray‘s latest series, The Diviners, combines popular culture favorites from Roaring Twenties of HBO’s Boardwalk Empire series to Showtime’s Dexter’s most recent season of a serial killer’s elaborate staged murders set to bring about the End of Days.  Throw in her trademark historical fiction and a dash of romance, and Bray’s new series is going to be a big hit. The first book in the series centers around spunky, smart and convention-fighting Evie.  She’s got too big of a personality for her small Ohio home town and at 17 has already crossed the conservative social lines one too many times. Sent to live inRead More →

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What would you sacrifice for power? For love?  Would you give of yourself – your blood, your energy, your soul – for someone else if you loved them enough? To harness the power of the land, a sacrifice is required. A drop of blood onto the earth brings abundance and growth. A drop of blood into wine or food brings vitality and wellness. A drop of blood is the trade-off to release the magic, tying the giver to the gift, making the circle whole and the magic powerful.  To harness the trust and love of another, a sacrifice is required.  Sharing hopes and dreams bringsRead More →

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After the accident that takes his girlfriend Viv’s life, all that seventeen-year-old Camden Pike sees in life are the holes.  He struggles so much with the emptiness of Viv’s absence that he doesn’t remember how to get out of bed, live his life, or breathe—all of this emotional angst is exacerbated by his workaholic attorney mother and his absent father.  And appointments with his psychologist Dr. Summers aren’t making much progress since Cam is convinced that he has nothing left to live for.  After all, Cam and Viv were living under the philosophy: Who needs football or cheerleading, who needs friends, and who needs popularity whenRead More →

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In: Action & Adventure, Action & Adventure (YA), Middle Grade Reviews, Mystery & Suspense, Mystery & Suspense (YA), Romance (YA), Sci Fi & Fantasy, Sci-Fi & Fantasy (YA), Young Adult Book Reviews
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Just when you thought there was nothing else to imagine when it comes to dragons, out of nowhere comes Rachel Hartman‘s Seraphina.  This is a richly imagined, multifaceted, well-written tale bursting with unique ideas, intriguing characters (dragons and humans both), and a complex, riveting plot. At its heart, Seraphina is a book about belonging: “he did not know the truth of me, yet he perceived something true about me that no one else had ever noticed.  And in spite of that – or perhaps because of it – he believed me good, believed me worth taking seriously, and his belief, for one vertigious moment, madeRead More →

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Calling to mind the sometimes surreal, often dreamlike, and always visceral way that Francesca Lia Block infuses the City of Los Angeles with a pulsating life of its own in her many young adult novels, M. Beth Bloom‘s debut, Drain You, creates a city simmering under the summertime sun,  blown dry by the desert winds, and fully alive while we spend the endless nights wandering the streets of a city built on dreams, shadows, illusions and secrets.  The scene is so perfectly set, the place so vividly imagined and described, it’s very easy to lose yourself to the siren call of a city that isRead More →