Review: 13 to Life

Title:  13 to Life
Author:  Shannon Delany


     From GoodReads, "Everything about Jessie Gillmansen’s life changed when her mother died. Now even her hometown of Junction is changing.  Mysterious dark things are happening. All Jessie wants is to avoid more change. But showing a hot new guy around Junction High, she’s about to discover a whole new type of change. Pietr Rusakova is more than good looks and a fascinating accent—he’s a guy with a dangerous secret. And his very existence is sure to bring big trouble to Jessie’s small town.  It seems change is the one thing Jessie can’t avoid…"


     I will just tell you this is one of those books that will keep you up at night, keep you from household chores or you can’t wait to get home to start reading again!  I really enjoyed reading this book and am so excited for the second one, Secrets and Shadows, that comes out in about a month.


     If your like me I am getting a little burnt out on paranormal and vampire books and have been craving a love story with normal people again.  So when a student recommended I read 13 to Life, I was reluctant, but decided to take a chance.  I read nearly the whole book before the paranormal part came into play.  By then I was so addicted to the characters and story it didn’t bother me a bit.  I absolutely love the main characters.  Jess Gillmansen is high school girl that I probably would have hung out with.  She is the outdoors type, not a lot of fluff and just real!   Pietr Ruskova, the new kid in school, is the mysterious type that you shouldn’t like, but can’t help it.  This book has forbidden love, suspense, mystery and romance.  I highly recommend this book and anxiously await the second one!

Review: Tutored

Title:  Tutored
Author:  Allison Whittenberg


     From GoodReads, "Wendy Anderson and Hakiam Powell are at opposite ends of the spectrum—the social spectrum, the financial spectrum, the opportunity spectrum, you name it. Wendy lives in an all-white suburb of Philadelphia, where she’s always felt like the only chip in the cookie. Her dad, who fought his way out of the ghetto, doesn’t want her mingling with “those people.” In fact, all Wendy’s life, her father has told her how terrible “those people” are. He even objects to Wendy’s plan to attend a historically black college. But Wendy feels that her race is more than just the color of her skin, and she takes a job tutoring at an inner-city community center to get a more diverse perspective on life.
 
Hakiam has never lived in one place for more than a couple of years. When he aged out of foster care in Ohio, he hopped a bus to Philly to start over, but now he’s broke, stuck taking care of his cousin’s premature baby for no pay, and finding it harder than ever to stay out of trouble. When he meets Wendy at the tutoring center, he thinks she’s an uppity snob—she can’t possibly understand his life. But as he gets to know her better, he sees a softer side. And eventually—much to the chagrin of Wendy’s father and Hakiam’s cousin—they begin a rocky, but ultimately enlightening, romance.
 
This edgy story about a star-crossed couple features strong African American characters and sparkles with smart, quirky dialogue and fresh observations on social pressures and black-on-black prejudice."

     I was really excited to read this book when it came because the description sounded really good and I loved the cover.  Unfortunately, I was somewhat disappointed by the book itself.  The main characters, Wendy and Hakiam, began by hating each other, but you knew, as a reader, that the relationship would change.  It was how the relationship changed that really stumped me.  It was as if one minute they hated each other and the next minute they were kissing and totally into one another.  There just wasn't a momentum change that made sense.  

     There were aspects of the book that I liked.  I didn't realize in my own naive world that their was racism within a community and this book did a great job of showing that racism exists everywhere.  I was especially upset with Wendy's father.  He was a very domineering personality and it was interesting to see how Wendy challenged his value systems in her own way.  
    There were similarities between this book and Jane Austen's novel, Pride and Prejudice, but if you are looking for a contemporary twist on a classic, I would skip this book and try Prom and Prejudice instead.

Review: Prom & Prejudice

Title:  Prom & Prejudice
Author:  Elizabeth Eulberg


     From GoodReads, "After winter break, the girls at the very prestigious Longbourn Academy become obsessed with the prom. Lizzie Bennet, who attends Longbourn on a scholarship, isn’t interested in designer dresses and expensive shoes, but her best friend, Jane, might be — especially now that Charles Bingley is back from a semester in London.

Lizzie is happy about her friend’s burgeoning romance but less than impressed by Charles’s friend, Will Darcy, who’s snobby and pretentious. Darcy doesn’t seem to like Lizzie either, but she assumes it’s because her family doesn’t have money. Clearly, Will Darcy is a pompous jerk — so why does Lizzie find herself drawn to him anyway?

Will Lizzie’s pride and Will’s prejudice keep them apart? Or are they a prom couple in the making? Whatever the result, Elizabeth Eulberg, author of The Lonely Hearts Club, has concocted a very funny, completely stylish delight for any season — prom or otherwise."  

     I am quickly becoming a devoted fan of author Elizabeth Eulberg.  If authors had groupies, I would follow her around, I choose to read anything that she writes instead.  Her debut book, The Lonely Hearts Club, came out in 2010 and I loved it and was excited when I saw that she had a new book out.  This book didn't disappoint.  It was totally different from her first book, but outstanding as well!

     This book, a homage to Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, contains many of the same characters as the book it pays tribute too, but they are re-done with a contemporary flair.  The main character, Lizzie Bennet, was a strongly written, unbelievably relatable character.  This character had so many dimensions to her, that you would be hard-pressed to not be able to find something that you could relate to.  I loved how strong-willed that she was and that she wasn't willing to compromise her beliefs and wasn't afraid to stand up for what she believed in.  

     Lizzie's object of affection/revulsion (depending on the day) was Will Darcy.  Every time that I have seen this name come up in books and movies, I have instantly been interested in him as a character and Eulberg makes this character deeply dimensional as well.  It is so fun to read about characters that keep some of their lives private and you have to dig into the layers to get to the true character.  

     I also really liked the supporting cast of characters in this book as well.  There were characters that I loved and ones that I loved to hate.  This is a novel that you will find entertaining, well-written, and worth the time it takes to read it.

Review: It Started With A Dare

Title:  It Started With A Dare
Author:  Lindsay Faith Rech


     From GoodReads, "Self-proclaimed nobody CG Silverman sees her move to an upscale new school as her chance to be somebody different. Her devil-may-care attitude attracts the in-clique, and before CG realizes it, a routine game of truth or dare launches her to iconic status.

While this rebel image helps secure CG’s newfound popularity, it also propels her through a maze of unprecedented chaos, with each new lie and every dare opening doors that, in most cases, were better off left shut.

CG is on a collision course with disaster. Will she be able to keep up the façade? Or will the whole world find out she’s a fraud?"

     The cover of this book goes very well with the book itself because the book is flirty and fun.  It Started With a Dare is a quick read from author Lindsay Faith Rech and it is her first YA fiction novel.  

     If you are looking for a book that is a quick, fun read, then this is the book for you.  The book reminded me of the popular movie Mean Girls because it had similar story lines.  The main character, CG, is a character that is definitely relatable, but doesn't really have too many redeeming qualities.  I had a hard time feeling bad for her because much of the situations she was in she brought upon herself.  Another thing that bothered me about the book was the amount of slang in the book or references to current pop culture.  I always worry when writers use too much of this because the book ages more quickly than it should.  The book itself is very predictable and there were a lot of things that made me think about my earlier days and smile, but all in all I would recommend this book to girls that want more fluff than substance.

2011 Debut Author Challenge

The Story Siren is hosting a challenge called the 2011 Debut Author Challenge...and since we are did the challenge last year (successfully), we decided to participate in the challenge again this year. The challenge is to read at least 12 debut novels, but you can do more or less if you prefer. Since there are two of us, we decided on twenty-four total on the same list.

The challenge goes from January 1, 2011 to December 31, 2012, and you can start at anytime, but it has to be before November 20, 2011.

We would recommend that if you love to read, this is a great opportunity to introduce yourselves to some great new authors! We loved it last year and read some terrific books in the process. Here is our list this year!

1) The Latte Rebellion by Sarah Jamila Stevenson

2) Head Games by Keri Mikulski

3) The False Princess by Eilis O'Neal

4) Across the Universe by Beth Revis

5) The Water Wars by Cameron Stracher

6) How Lamar's Bad Prank Won a Bubba-Sized Trophy by Crystal Allen

7) Here Lies Bridget by Paige Harbison

8) Where I Belong by Gwendolyn Heasley

9) The Fourth Stall by Chris Rylander

10) I Am J by Cris Beam

11) Possum Summer by Jen K Blom

12) Wither by Lauren DeStefano

13) Falling Under by Gwen Hayes

14) Like Mandarin by Kirsten Hubbard

15) Ten Miles Past Normal by Frances O'Roark Dowell

16) Illegal by Bettina Restrepo

17) Unlocked by Ryan G. Van Cleave

18) Kat, Incorrigible by Stephanie Burgis

19) The Year We Were Famous by Carole Estby Dagg

20) The Lipstick Laws by Amy Holder

21) The Rotten Adventures of Zachary Ruthless by Allan Woodrow

22) Bad Taste in Boys by Carrie Harris

23) My Un-Fairy Tale Life by Anna Staniszewski

24) Alice-Miranda at School by Jacqueline Harvey

Happy Reading!

Review: Across The Universe

Title:  Across the Universe
Author:  Beth Revis


     From GoodReads, "A love out of time. A spaceship built of secrets and murder. 

Seventeen-year-old Amy joins her parents as frozen cargo aboard the vast spaceship Godspeed and expects to awaken on a new planet, three hundred years in the future. Never could she have known that her frozen slumber would come to an end fifty years too soon and that she would be thrust into the brave new world of a spaceship that lives by its own rules. 

Amy quickly realizes that her awakening was no mere computer malfunction. Someone--one of the few thousand inhabitants of the spaceship--tried to kill her. And if Amy doesn't do something soon, her parents will be next. 

Now Amy must race to unlock Godspeed's hidden secrets. But out of her list of murder suspects, there's only one who matters: Elder, the future leader of the ship and the love she could never have seen coming."

     The first thing that I have to admit is that when I first read the description of the book, I wasn't too excited about reading it.  I liked the cover, but the premise of the book seemed a little strange.  A girl that is cryogenically frozen?  Doesn't that sound a little odd or at least something Walt Disney or Ted Williams would do?  I'm not a huge fan of science fiction/fantasy, but have been reading more in this genre lately and liking some of the books that I have read (Hunger Games, Twilight, and the Chaos Walking series), but I wasn't sure if I could make the jump to this book.  I finally decided to give it a try and from the opening chapter it caught my attention and kept it throughout the entire book.  I was right that the book is strange and there are a lot of concepts that were difficult to think about, but I truly underestimated this book before reading it.  

     The book is told from alternating perspectives between a teenage girl (Amy) that is cryogenically frozen and later is woken up on a starship and the future leader of the ship (Elder).  I really enjoyed both these characters and the dilemmas they are faced with.  Both of the characters are likable and realistic.  Which is strange to say when the whole book takes place in a world that is completely different from our own.  It was great to see characters written with such depth.  I loved the fact that the characters in this book were never truly good or evil, there was some aspect of both in the characters that made me identify with all of them in some way or another and made them human.  

     This book was full of mystery, suspense, and romance and left me wanting to know more about the characters and what happens next.  I am hoping that this is a first book in a sequel or trilogy and that readers are able to hear more from debut novelist Beth Revis.  Outstanding work from beginning to end!

Review: Falling Under

Title:  Falling Under
Author:  Gwen Hayes


     From GoodReads, "Theia Alderson has always led a sheltered life in the small California town of Serendipity Falls. But when a devastatingly handsome boy appears in the halls of her school, Theia knows she's seen Haden before- not around town, but in her dreams.

As the Haden of both the night and the day beckons her closer one moment and pushes her away the next, the only thing Theia knows for sure is that the incredible pull she feels towards him is stronger than her fear.

And when she discovers what Haden truly is, Theia's not sure if she wants to resist him, even if the cost is her soul."


     If you are looking for a quick-read romance, this is not the book for you.  The story itself is a romance, but it is one that I felt I had to read methodically and really search out the meaning behind what was going on in the story.  I believe that author, Gwen Hayes, really took the time to describe the details and is looking for a sophisticated reader to really grasp her work.  
     I felt that this book had something different to offer than other books in this genre because it is different from any other book that I have read.  The main character, Theia, is a strong character and although she knows that she might have to give up the things that she loves, she makes sacrifices that are believable, even though this is a fantasy. I have to admit that there were a few terms introduced in this book that I had never heard of before so I had to either look them up or do some more research about them once I found out what they were.  By the way the story ends, it lends itself nicely to a sequel... so we may be hearing more from Gwen Hayes in the future.

Review: Girl, Stolen

Title:  Girl, Stolen
Author:  April Henry


      From GoodReads, "Sixteen year-old Cheyenne Wilder is sleeping in the back of a car while her mom fills her prescription at the pharmacy. Before Cheyenne realizes what's happening, their car is being stolen—with her inside! Griffin hadn’t meant to kidnap Cheyenne, all he needed to do was steal a car for the others. But once Griffin's dad finds out that Cheyenne’s father is the president of a powerful corporation, everything changes—now there’s a reason to keep her. What Griffin doesn’t know is that Cheyenne is not only sick with pneumonia, she is blind. How will Cheyenne survive this nightmare, and if she does, at what price?"


     This book starts off intensely (an accidental kidnapping) and never lets go.  Every moment of this book was fascinating and unpredictable.  I loved the main character, Cheyanne.  She was likable, believable, and each and every moment of her ordeal, I felt like I was living it right along with her.
     I also liked the character of Griffin, who the readers get to know because they also get to see his perspective.  We learn at the same time as Cheyanne that he isn't the person she thinks he is.
     This novel is an intense read that contains many twists and turns that add to the story.  A particularly harrowing scene at the end really added to the suspense of the novel.  April Henry should be proud of this book and I look forward to reading more from her in the future.

Review: Sean Griswold's Head

Title:  Sean Griswold's Head
Author:  Lindsey Leavitt

     From GoodReads, "According to her guidance counselor, fifteen-year-old Payton Gritas needs a focus object—an item to concentrate her emotions on. It's supposed to be something inanimate, but Payton decides to use the thing she stares at during class: Sean Griswold's head. They've been linked since third grade (Griswold-Gritas—it's an alphabetical order thing), but she's never really known him.

The focus object is intended to help Payton deal with her father's newly diagnosed multiple sclerosis. And it's working. With the help of her boy-crazy best friend Jac, Payton starts stalking—er, focusing on—Sean Griswold . . . all of him! He's cute, he shares her Seinfeld obsession (nobody else gets it!) and he may have a secret or two of his own."


     First off, I love the cover and title of this book.  I know Sean Griswold's Head sounds like a weird title (and it kind of is), but when you read the book (and you should!), it makes complete and total sense.  I have not ever read a book by author, Lindsey Leavitt, but I am looking forward to reading another and thankfully, Princess for Hire is available.  I absolutely love Leavitt's writing style, kind of sarcastic and sweet at the same time.
     The main story line was interesting because even though the main character, Payton, is dealing with a lot, she's kind of in denial about it, which was very realistic. I liked how the author weaved so many different nuances into the story.  It was never predictable and I love that.  
     The main character is strongly written and most good books are, but the supporting characters are also strong, which makes this a truly enjoyable read.  Everything that Payton went through I could identify with, but it also made me think about the situation in a whole different way.  I think the best thing about this book is the sweetness of the story.  It has family values, young romance, and no inappropriate language or sex scenes which makes it easy to recommend to not only YA readers, but younger readers as well.  It also doesn't have any werewolves or vampires (well maybe one!) that are so prevalent in today's YA fiction, which makes me like it even more!