Historical Failures

How They Choked: Failures, Flops, and Flaws of the Awfully Famous by Georgia Bragg

A couple of years ago, for one of my library science classes, I read How They Croaked by the same author. It was an interesting enough read that I bought it for my classroom. Lately, I have a student who doesn't particularly like reading working her way through that book and enjoying it. I told her I thought there was another one, and that I would order it for the classroom. This came in the same day we got out for Christmas break, so I got a chance to read it before I take it to school with me.

What I like about this book is that it is accessible to virtually any reader. When it uses "big words," it explains what the word means. It's also a great read for students who like nonfiction and history. I also like that the people they focused on in this book are known, but not necessarily taught these days. People like Anne Boleyn, Isabella of Castille, Sir Isaac Newton, Montezuma, etc. The reader gets to learn a bit more than they would in their history course; I know I did.

I do hope the author writes more books like this. As I said, it's a great and fun read, and is accessible to virtually anyone.

Poirot is a Genius

Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie

After reading Murder on the Orient Express, I saw the movie and loved it. I also discovered that this book would be the next one that they made into a movie, so I wanted to get a jump on getting the book read.

It starts out introducing the characters, or rather, suspects. Primarily, the book focuses on Linnet Doyle, nee Ridgeway, who is super-rich. A friend brings her fiance to meet Linnet and perhaps get a job, and he and Linnet end up falling in love and getting married. While they are on their honeymoon in Egypt, the jilted lover keeps showing up.

One night on their Nile River cruise, Jacqueline, the jilted lover, shoots Simon, Linnet's husband. The following morning, Linnet is found dead in her cabin, and her expensive pearls are missing. What ensues afterward is Hercule Poirot, who is on vacation, trying to solve the murder and theft. Of course, he does.

I am impressed by Ms. Christie's ability to make the reader think they know whodunit, but the reader ends up being wrong. Well, this reader, at least. The culprit surprised the heck out of me on this one.

TAYSHAS 7

MOXIE by Jennifer Mathieu

Way back in the summer, this book kept showing up on lists of MUST READ books. Having read another book by this author a few years ago, I thought it would be worthwhile to read this. Of course, I forgot this book existed until I saw it on the TAYSHAS list. To be fair, it wasn't until I was searching for TAYSHAS books on Overdrive and saw the cover that I remembered I wanted to read this. So, I put it on hold, and anxiously waited for 2+ weeks for my turn to read this. I was reading another book, and I put it aside for this. That was an excellent choice.

Here is the premise: imagine you live in a small Texas town, where high school football reigns supreme, and the players are treated like gods. These same players can say things to girls like "Go make me a sandwich" when a girl answers a question in class. They can also get away with bumping into girls on purpose, then grabbing them inappropriately. Or wear shirts with sexual innuendo on them with no repercussions, while the girls are subjected to dress code checks relentlessly. Teachers and administration do nothing about it. Now imagine you are one of the girls.

This is the way of life in East Rockport, Texas, and Viv has had enough. Inspired by her mother's Riot Grrrl days, Viv creates a zine called MOXIE in an attempt to change the status quo. As time goes by, more girls participate, and it seems like there is a shot at real change. But then Viv's friend gets suspended as being the leader of MOXIE, even though she isn't, and it's hard for the girls to keep the faith.

There is so much more to this book than what is portrayed here. Believe me, when I say it's a must-read. I loved Viv and her attempt to change things, even though she's typically not a rebel.

Catchy Title

Sophomores and Other Oxymorons by David Lubar

This is a sequel to one I read a few weeks ago, and it picks up right where that one leaves off.

In this one, Scott is now a sophomore and thinks he has a handle on the high school thing. On the first day of school, he meets Jeremy Danger, who reminds Scott of himself the previous year. Although he did not set out to do so, he helps Jeremy navigate the waters of high school.

Scott is still in a relationship of sorts with Lee, but he is not sure if she's a friend or his girlfriend. He's still friends with Wesley, even though he graduated. He even manages to reconnect with one of the friends who drifted away in the previous novel.

On the school side of things, Scott thinks he has things under control, at least until he meets some of his teachers. His biology teacher makes him vomit the first day of school with the partially dissected cat she has on display in class. His English teacher has stayed on him from the very first day, and he seeks revenge.

There's also a little matter of budget cuts and shady school board members, gaining a sister-in-law, and adjusting to life with a newborn in the house. Despite all of this, Scott seems to do just fine.

This was another fun read, and I sincerely hope that we get Scott's junior and senior years.

Revisiting One I Liked as a Pre-Teen

From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg

I read this the first time when I was eleven. When I went to New York this past June, I wanted to do the Met tour about this book. Unfortunately, we weren't at the Met on a day that they offer. We are going back this coming June, and I definitely want to visit the rooms that Claudia and Jamie visited while there. And see the Angel. And the fountain where they bathed.

Claudia and Jamie are twelve and nine respectively. Claudia is dissatisfied with her life, and feels like she needs to do something to shake things up. She decides to run away, but not just anywhere--to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Claudia doesn't save her money, so she needs to take someone who has money, which is why she chooses Jamie. He holds onto him money.

One day, they stay on the school bus, then take a train into the city. Claudia wants to waste money on buses and taxis, but Jamie keeps a clear head. They go to the museum, and every day before the museum closes, they hide in the restroom. On their second day, there is an inordinate number of people at the museum, and the kids don't know why until they "steal" a newspaper. As it turns out, there is a new statue that may be a work of Michaelangelo. So the kids make it their mission to find out if Michaelangelo actually sculpted it.

They ended up at Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler's house, as she is the one who sold the sculpture to the museum. They find out the truth and end up going home. Yes, I ruined the end. Sue me. For me, this was less about how the book ends than the adventures that the kids went on. Reading this brought back a lot of memories.

2018 TAYSHAS #6

Genuine Fraud by E. Lockhart

The new TAYSHAS list was released last Friday, and I'd already read five. Our contest hasn't even started, and I have already earned two ducks.

Jule is a master of disguise. She has no problem, it seems, killing people and assuming their identities. By the end of the book, I didn't know what to believe anymore, but I sure did enjoy reading it.

It's hard to write too much about the storyline, as I would give WAY too much away if I did. I will say this: it's told backwards, which is something I enjoyed. The very end time jumps back to the present and it was interesting to see how Jule got where she was.

A Bewitching Sequel

Haunting the Deep by Adriana Mather

A sequel to a book I enjoyed immensely. This one has us once again with Samantha Mather and her new friends, the Descendants, in Salem. Everyone is getting ready for a Titanic-themed spring dance. People know Samantha can see spirits, but now the spirits she's coming in contact with are from that fateful voyage. Items that have spells cast upon them have been sent to Samantha, causing her to have these weird nondreams on the ship. To top it all off, Jaxon is acting weird.

It's clear that there is magic afoot, but Samantha and the Descendants are at a loss as to who is responsible for it.

I'm sorry I didn't say more, but I really don't want to give it all away. This was an intriguing novel. I hope there will be more to follow. It's safe to say that Adriana Mather is a new favorite.

Handbook For High School

Sleeping Freshmen Never Lie by David Lubar

Scott is a freshman in high school. He has an older brother who didn't finish, but was popular with the ladies, and just found out his mom is pregnant. Scott is not as cool as he would like, and although he was excited about starting high school, it's not turning out the way he wanted.

On the first day, a girl he's known since kindergarten is now somehow super-hot, and he's stuck with the kid who won't shut up. All his friends are in regular classes, but Scott is in honors classes, so he's not in class with any of his friends.

In an effort to get close to the hot girl, he signs up to write for the newspaper and gets stuck covering sports. He runs for student council and makes is, but she doesn't. He tries out for the school play and makes it as a stage hand, but she doesn't make it at all. Not to mention she's dating the biggest douche in the school.

So Scott chronicles his high school life, complete with advice, for the new sibling he is about to have. He talks about his triumphs as well as the moments where he doesn't feel successful at all.

There were so many layers to this that it's hard to cover them all, but I highly recommend this one.

I Would Be Crazy To Finish This

Asylum 54.0 by Nadege Richards

I didn't finish this one. I couldn't. No matter how much time and effort I put into it, I never made a connection. I got halfway through before I quit. Not sure how I feel about this because I usually make myself finish, even if I hate a book. One thing I learned in librarian school is that it's ok to quit a book if you don't like it, so I exercised that right.

In case you're interested though.....

This is dystopian. It's about a girl named Mathai, but she doesn't know she's Mathai until a ways into the book. She was picked up and brought to this place where she has to learn everything about herself. Apparently, she escapes a lot and, therefore, goes through this a lot.

Before I quit reading, she had escaped again with the idea that she was going to bring down the status quo and find out the truth about herself. Sorry I can't be more specific about this. If you're into dystopian, there are better ones to choose than this. I wouldn't even own this if it hadn't been stuck in my Superhero vs. Villains Lit-Cube.

Third in a Spiritual Series

Before the Devil Breaks You by Libba Bray

As previously mentioned, this is the third in the series, and the fourth (last) book will be out sometime next year. Ms. Bray can definitely tell a story, and make you love her characters.

Evie and the other diviners have come together in an effort to defeat the King of Crows, and he is definitely not making things easy for them. He's recruited Jake Marlowe, master scientist and former paranormalist, to help him. It also doesn't help that the men in the dark suits are after the diviners either. All of this while trying to figure out what was going on with Project Buffalo.

Then there's Mabel, who is not a diviner at all, but has a need to find herself without her friends. She gets caught up with the Secret Seven, and it changes her whole life. Literally.

Ghosts are turning up everywhere, and it is up to the diviners to figure out what they want and destroy them. They are minions for the King of Crows, so that doesn't help matters.

It will be interesting to see if the diviners will be able to defeat the King of Crows, particularly since they need to all be together to be effective. I look forward to seeing how this all ends up in the last book in the series.

It's Poetry, But I Liked It

Milk and Honey by Rupi Kaur

It's a little more than 200 pages long, but can be knocked out in under an hour. This is decidedly feminine poetry. Broken into four parts, it speaks of hurting, loving, breaking, and healing. It's a little graphic at times, which made me question allowing my teenaged daughter read it (she's the one who wanted the book, so how could I say no?), but I am glad both of us did. For my daughter, I hope that she sees that she shouldn't give up herself in a relationship, and that whenever she's hurt, she'll heal.

For me, it hit some nerves from the past, and although they still hurt, it showed me I wasn't alone. My favorite section was probably the last one, the one about healing. I feel like this can fit so many places in life.

I am honestly surprised that I loved this so much, and I can't wait to read her next book, which we also purchased last week.

My First Experience With Poirot

Murder On The Orient Express by Agatha Christie

I am not sure how I have made it this far in my life as an avid reader and librarian wannabe without having read any works of Agatha Christie, but this was my first one. My son, who is a manager at a well-known movie theater in the area, told me I have to see this movie, BUT I was not allowed to see the movie until I read the book. That was always the rule when he was growing up, so I guess it was ok that he inflicted the same on me--haha. So, while at a wedding reception, I downloaded the book from Amazon, and got started the next day. Let's just say, this won't be the only Agatha Christie book I read!

As indicated in the name of this post, this is a book featuring Hercule Poirot, a famous detective. He is on his way to Britain when his train is held up due to snow. While the train is immobile, a man is killed. Poirot must figure out who committed the crime. There are thirteen possibilities, and he, of course, figures it out in the end.

It was interesting to see how Poirot went about things, and the way his mind worked, even though this was told in third person. All of the suspects had interesting stories, and I was wholly unprepared for the ending. I can't wait to read more.

A Very Christmas-y Sequel

Twelve Days of Dash and Lily by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan

I fell in love with Dash and Lily in their first installment, and couldn't wait to read this one. So, even though I have another couple of books I am working on, I put them aside the other day to read this. It's a quick read, and Dash and Lily don't disappoint.

It's been a year, and Dash and Lily are still together. This year hasn't been easy. Lily's grandfather had a heart attack and fell on the stairs of his apartment. Lily has been taking care of him, and she just hasn't been herself. Everyone around her has noticed, and aren't sure what to do. Then Langston, Lily's brother, meets up with Dash to concoct a plan to get Lily into the Christmas season.

Lily, on the other hand, is feeling somewhat lost. She loves Dash, but doesn't know how he feels. She told him that she loved him, but he never responded in kind. This has her thinking that maybe he doesn't want to be with her. She couldn't be more wrong.

It takes some doing, but things work out in ways that can only work for Dash and Lily. This is one of those books to read if you love reading about people in love. My only wish is that there was another one because these are so enjoyable.

A New Green Title

Turtles All the Way Down by John Green

I haven't finished a book in a month! So weird for me. It's not that I haven't read anything--I have, I just haven't finished either of the two I have been reading for the last month. I may finish them someday, and they'll end up here, but not today.

Earlier this week, I got a signed copy of the new John Green book. I have been waiting for it for months, and it was so worth the wait. And like everything I have read by John Green, it was worth my time. He writes in way that is real, whether it is about cancer, growing up, or mental illness. This one happens to be the latter, for the most part.

Aza is a teenaged girl who lives in her own head most of the time. She is convinced she is going to catch something, and worries more about bacteria and microbes than one could possibly imagine. At the beginning of the book, she is eating lunch with her friends Mychal and Daisy, and they learn that the father of an old friend of Aza's has gone missing.

Aza reconnects with this old friend, who happens to be a billionaire's son, and tries to help his little brother find their dad using clues he left. Over the course of it all, we see Aza's struggle with her inner self about the bacteria and microbes.

All of this together helps form the person that Aza is, and is well written in a way that only John Green can manage.

It's a Family Affair

My Cousin Rachel by Daphne du Maurier

Young Philip has been raised by his uncle Ambrose. Ambrose goes to Florence because of his health issues, in the hope that the warm weather will do him good. While there, he meets a long lost cousin, Rachel, and marries her. Sometime after that, he dies. Days after his death, Philip shows up in Florence looking for Ambrose because he feels something is wrong with him. He finds out from Rachel's friend, Rainaldi, how Ambrose died and that Rachel had left town, headed he knew not where.

Philip comes back to Cornwall, and finds out that he is the sole heir to Ambrose's estate, but then Rachel shows up. Philip wanted very much to hate her, but she is just so charming. He ends up falling in love with her, and he thinks she does for him too. Until his birthday, that is. Philip comes into his inheritance on his 25th birthday, and he decides that he wants to abide by a will that Ambrose never signed off on. Prior to giving Rachel notice that he has done this, he asks her to marry him, and he believes she says yes (I thought she did too, so either I misread or got caught up in this). Then, over drinks the night of his birthday, Philip announces that he and Rachel are engaged, but she tells everyone that this isn't true.

Not long after, Philip falls deathly ill. When he awakens, he remembers a lost letter from Ambrose that indicates that he thinks that Rachel poisoned him. Philip begins to wonder if Rachel is poisoning him as well.

I won't tell you how it ends, but just know that Philip was still hung up on Rachel even when she hurt him.

This took 200 pages to get interesting, but the last third of the book is what made this book worth reading. I'd like to see the movie adaptation now that I have finished this.

Lizzie Borden Took an Axe....

See What I Have Done by Sarah Schmidt

Everybody knows the rhyme about Lizzie Borden. Scratch that. Everybody my age and older knows the rhyme about Lizzie Borden. I've always been fascinated by the story, and my personal thoughts on the matter are that Lizzie is the one responsible for the murders of her father and stepmother. It wasn't the maid. It wasn't some random stranger. It was Lizzie. I don't care that she was acquitted; I firmly believe she did it.

So, when a coworker mentioned that a book came out about the Borden murders, I knew I would have to have it. It took me weeks to find (because I haven't been to a proper bookstore in months), but find it I did and devoured it in two days.

This is told from four perspectives: Lizzie, her older sister, Emma, Bridget the maid, and Benjamin, some drifter their uncle finds in a nearby town.

In Lizzie's chapters, it's often hard to remember that it is being told by a woman in her thirties. More often than not, I felt like I was reading the thoughts of a teenager, at best. It makes me wonder, mostly because every program I have seen about the real Lizzie Borden never mentioned it, if Lizzie was mentally impaired in some way. Of course, this could just be the author's interpretation of Lizzie. It was made very clear that she always acted like a spoiled child, and expected everyone to give into her whims.

The Emma chapters seem to cement the notion that Lizzie was mentally impaired and that everyone had to concede to Lizzie. I often felt sorry for Emma. She had to give up the man she loved because of Lizzie. She had to give up things that should have been hers for being the eldest. Worse, for most of her life, Emma just went with it because of a promise she made to her mother on her deathbed. I congratulate Emma for trying to live her own life, however short lived it was.

Bridget the maid's chapters gave some insight into Mrs. Borden. In many ways, she thought of the maid more of as her child than her own stepdaughters. Or, at least that's how it read at first. Toward the end, I had other thoughts about the Mrs. Borden/Bridget relationship, but only from Mrs. Borden's point of view. I think Bridget knew the truth of what happened that day, and just wanted out of that house, which is why she wasn't exactly helpful during the trial.

Finally, the Benjamin chapters.... I think they were included to appease all of those people who believe some random stranger came in and killed the Bordens. The way it is presented in this book is, admittedly, plausible, but it would have had to have been like it was in the book: where he was hired by someone in the family. Frankly, I could have done without his chapters. I didn't need his backstory, as it had little to do with the story as a whole. Just my two cents though.

I really enjoyed the book, and I can see myself going back to read it again in the future.

Important Lessons

The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas

I knew going into this book that this post was going to be hard to write. Not because the book is sad because it is that, for a variety of reasons. No, this was going to be hard to write because I am a middle-aged, white woman and this book is about a white police officer unnecessarily killing an unarmed black teenager who wasn't doing anything wrong. Unfortunately, it seems the society we live in, there's a right and a wrong way to be, and even if we think we are right, we are most likely wrong. Even if we try very hard to love everybody for who they are and not the color of their skin, if you say just one thing wrong, you are villified forever. I don't want to be villified.

In fact, now that I am writing this, I don't think I am going to go into the premise of the book at all. All you need to know going into this book is that it is SO worth the read, and that the lesson to be gained is to always try to do the right thing. I can understand all the acclaim this book is getting, and I feel it is so well deserved. I hope it opens some eyes. I know it opened mine to things I hadn't considered before (and am ashamed for not noticing).

Instead, I am just going to urge you to read this one. It's going to make you angry; it's going to make you sad. If anything, I just want it to make you think.

Alice But Not Alice

Curiouser and Curiouser by Melanie Karsak

I am not a fan of the Alice in Wonderland books, so I was not exactly thrilled when the theme for my August Lit-Cube was Steampunk Alice in Wonderland. The swag in my box changed my mind and so did this book.

This was not a Wonderland story in any way, though the characters were all characters from Lewis Carroll's classic novel. Being as I am not a part of the steampunk movement (although what I've seen is way cool), I am not sure what makes this a steampunk novel. That did not detract from the story for me though; meaning I didn't dwell on what made this steampunk.

Alice is a reformed criminal, if you will, in this book. She was a pickpocket and a thief in general. When she was ten, she and her younger sister, Bess, were plucked from a factory by a wealthy man called Jabberwocky. Bess was to be a companion for Jabberwocky's mother, but Alice was to be a part of his criminal enterprise because she was quick and smart.

At any rate, Alice had been away from this line of work for over a year, but gets brought back in to clear the debt of Henry, the man (the hatter) who is in love with Bess. Alice is brought in by William, also known as the Caterpillar, to steal a priceless gem for the Queen of Hearts. Alice is in love with William.

I don't want to say too much because this book is short and I am afraid it will give too much of the book away. Definitely one to read, and when time permits, I'll probably check out the other books this author has written.

Penance?

Faithful by Alice Hoffman

This book brought out all the feels. I was on the verge of tears many times.

In February of Shelby's senior year of high school, she was in a car accident with her best friend, Helene. Helene didn't die, but "lives" her life on life support. She never wakes up, and suffered brain damage, but her mother can't let her go. Shelby has a great deal of guilt over this, and for the next ten years, feels like their roles should be reversed. She doesn't see her worth in the world, and that is what this book is about.

After the accident, she tries to kill herself, so she is placed in a treatment facility. She won't or can't talk. She is raped every night by an orderly, and a few weeks in she receives a postcard that says simply "Say Something." This is what Shelby needs to be able to tell her mother what is going on, thus getting her removed from the facility. She then spends the next couple of years in her parents' basement, smoking pot and doing a whole lotta nothing.

One day, she moves to Manhattan with her pot dealer. They date, but she feels he is too good for her. She gets a job, steals some dogs, acquires a friend with three children, and makes something of herself. What makes her do these things? She keeps getting these postcards from her "angel."

Shelby's life is far from easy, but because of these postcards, she ends up finding out what (and who) is important. She felt like her life needed to be penance for what happened to Helene, and it kept her from truly trying to be happy. Once she realized it was ok to be happy, she started to be.

This book touched me, and it was a fairly quick read. I highly recommend it.

The End of an Era

The Last Tudor by Philippa Gregory

Allegedly, this is the last book that Ms. Gregory will write about the Tudors, possibly forever. Such a shame, as no one writes of the Tudor women like Ms. Gregory does.

This final installment is about the Grey sisters: Jane, Katherine, and Mary. I have always loved Jane, but never care much for Katherine or knew anything about Mary. This book changed some things for me-some in good ways, others, not so much.

The first part of the book is about Lady Jane Grey, the nine days' queen. I didn't find her story all that interesting, which is unusual because there was so much more to her than presented here. Nowhere does it mention the abuse that Jane endured at the hands of her parents when she refuses to do their bidding. If anything, the Grey parents are presented as loving in parts of this book, and I find that to be patently untrue, based on more factual accounts that I have read of Lady Jane. As a result, I was not as taken with her story.

Then there is Katherine Grey, who I always disliked because she willfully disobeyed Queen Elizabeth. This made me see that perhaps Elizabeth wasn't as wonderful as I thought she was. It made me see Katherine as a person who married for love, not trying to take the queenship from Elizabeth, which is how this situation has always been presented up to this point. I liked Katherine, and my heart broke for her and the things she had to endure, just for being the pretty cousin next in line for the throne.

Last there is Mary. I knew she existed, and I knew she was a little person, but that is all that is ever mentioned of her in anything I have read up to this point. Ms. Gregory even says she has taken liberties with her story, but it just made Mary more real to me.

In short, I hate what these three women endured, just for being who they were.

Summer '17 Book 22

Cinderella.com by River Laurent

First of all, I would never have purchased this for myself. It's fluff, and has far more sex in it than I would like. I like things with a bit more substance, even if they are aimed at a younger audience. This, however, was in my June Lit-Cube, so I felt I needed to read it. (Which reminds me I still have a mermaid book from last summer to read)

Ok, Cass is our protagonist. She lives in Chicago. Her father is in hospice care, and she has gotten herself into debt with loan sharks to pay for his care. She has two jobs already, and it looking for a third to pay the bills. Her friend, Jesse, confesses to her that some time back, she signed Cass up on a site called Cinderella.com, which finds lookalikes of famous people. The lookalike fills in for the famous person and gets paid for it.

In this case, Cass looks like Tamara Honeywell, a Paris Hilton type person who is famous for pretty much nothing, but has made a sex tape. She's also into drugs and alcohol. She is being sent to Montana for a month to work on a ranch, but feels that is beneath her, so she hires Cass. Cass will make $30,000 for her time.

So, Cass goes to Montana. She finds she can't quite be the bitch Tamara is, and ultimately falls in love with Lars, a ranch hand. On the last day of her assignment, there is a masquerade ball, which is when Tamara comes back to show she's learned things on the ranch. Like I said, Tamara is a bitch, so her plan is to get Lars to sleep with her because she knows it will hurt Cass.

It's a Cinderella story, so you have a good idea how it ends.

Again, not really my thing. Also, they should have hired someone to edit this before publishing. There were a lot of misspellings and errors throughout the book. I mean she kept using pin as a place for animals, and it irritated me every time I had to read that.

So, if you like Cinderella stories and need a fluffy, fast read, this is for you.

Summer '17 Book 21

Goodbye Days by Jeff Zentner

I bought this earlier this summer because my school librarians posted to Twitter that this was a good book. They have yet to steer me wrong, so I got myself a copy. So glad I did, even though there was some messy, snotty crying that went along with it.

Carver, aka Blade to his friends, has just lost his three best friends in a texting and driving accident. To make matters worse, Carver was the last person to text the driver, so he feels he is responsible for their deaths. Some others do too, and at one point, the district attorney looks into whether charges can be filed for negligent homicide. That's a lot to handle all at one time. And while all of this is important, it's not the whole premise of the book.

No, this book is about Carver saying goodbye to his friends, and find a little bit of closure so that he can move on. The idea of the goodbye days is presented to him by Nana Betsy, his friend Blake's grandmother. Because he was taken so suddenly, she didn't get to say what she needed to say, so she asks Carver if he would spend the day reminiscing about Blake with her. They did the things Blake would do with Nana Betsy, and she got to say what she needed to in order to gain some closure.

Then, Carver goes to have a goodbye day with Eli's parents. Eli had a twin sister, who thinks Carver should be held accountable for his death. Also, Carver has become good friends with Eli's girlfriend, Jesmyn, which does not sit well with Eli's dad.

The last goodbye day is with Mars' father, the judge who wanted charges brought against Carver. He didn't seem to understand that the goodbye day was to let the judge into aspects of his son's life that he didn't know about. It took some time for the judge to understand, and I do think he found some closure.

All of this was hard for Carver. He even had panic attacks and started to see a shrink. It was aggravating to me that people wanted to prosecute Carver for texting his friends. Yes, he texted them. Yes, he probably knew they'd be driving. The thing is though, no one villified the driver, Mars, for responding to the text while he was driving. That was a problem for me.

On the whole, I loved this book. I look forward to reading more from this author.

Summer '17 Book 20

The Safest Lies by Megan Miranda

I bought this because I liked another of her books so much, and then I found out it was a TAYSHAS this year too.

Kelsey is seventeen. Until she started high school, she had been homeschooled her entire life. This is because her mother is agoraphobic, stemming from being kidnapped when she was seventeen years old. Kelsey wasn't really allowed to do anything, or go anywhere because of her mother's fear.

One evening, Kelsey was headed home from school, and got into a car accident. The young fireman who helped rescue her, Ryan, is in her math class and has a bit of a crush on her. The feeling is mutual. The mayor of their town wants to honor Ryan for his efforts and Kelsey wants to go to this, but her mother forbids it. So Kelsey sneaks out. She runs into Ryan when she is coming home.

Things seem weird, as all of the "safety" measures that are on her house are not working. When Kelsey comes inside, she knows something is wrong. Her mother is missing. Then she and Ryan see people outside her house, and ultimately get into her house. Kelsey and Ryan and a couple of friends escape, but there's still no word from Kelsey's mother. The police don't believe she was kidnapped again, and Kelsey learns more about her mother than she planned.

Will her mother return? If so, where was she? What happened? Read this and find out.

Summer '17 Book 19

How to Hang a Witch by Adriana Mather

It is no secret that I am incredibly fascinated by the Salem Witch Trials. Even better is when you get to read a work of fiction written by a descendant of someone involved with the trials. In this case, the author is a descendant of Cotton Mather, who wrote materials on how to determine if someone was a witch or not.

This has been described as Mean Girls meets the Salem Witch Trials, and that is not so far from the truth, except this time it is the descendants of the accused witches who are the bullies.

Samantha Mather has spent most of her life in New York City with her father and stepmother, Vivian. Recently, Sam's father fell into a coma, and he was being moved to a hospital in Boston because it was too expensive to keep living in New York with the bills mounting up. So, Sam and Vivian move to Sam's deceased grandmother's house in Salem to be closer to her father.

Things don't go so great for Sam. In the first week of school, she has earned the enmity of The Descendants--the girls and guy who are descended from the accused witches--because she is a Mather, who was partly to blame for the Witch Trials. It doesn't help that people started dying when Sam came to town.

As it turns out, there is a curse that rears its ugly head when ALL of the descendants of those involved with the Trials are in Salem. With the help of a spirit named Elijah, Sam seeks to break the curse.

I am not going further than that, but there are some interesting twists in this novel. The ending was a little bit of a surprise, but I wouldn't have it any other way. I just really loved this one, and hope that there are more like this in the future.

Summer '17 Book 18

Love and First Sight by Josh Sundquist

I decided to read this because I loved his nonfiction work We Should Hang Out Sometime. This book is his first novel, and it is phenomenal!

Will is sixteen, and starting a new high school. And while that is a big deal for anybody, it's an especially big deal for Will because he is blind. Like, has never seen anything so he has no frame of reference for anything when people try to describe things to him.

On his first day, he accidentally gropes a girl on the stairwell, sits on someone and makes a girl cry. The person he sits on actually invites Will to join him and his friends at lunch, so Will makes some friends his first day. The girl he makes cry, may be the girl of his dreams.

So, Will is given this opportunity for an experimental surgery that could give him sight. He chooses to have the surgery, and begins to experience having sight for the first time. He also discovers that he has been mislead by everyone about what the girl of his dreams looks like. Really, looks don't matter, but he is more upset that everyone felt they had to hide it as if looks matter. Will and the girl have a fight, and he wants, though weeks later, to remedy things, she's not at school. Will and his friends end up driving halfway across the country to find her.

Will she accept Will's apology? Will they become an item? Read and find out.

I just want to mention what I really like about this book: it forces you to see things from the perspective of someone who has never seen anything. I might never considered things from the perspective of a blind person, and having read this, I would like to believe I would be more empathetic.

Summer '17 Book 17

The Start of Me and You by Emery Lord

I came across this a few weeks ago in the meager book section of my local Target, and when I read the back cover it sounded cute. It was.

Paige is starting her junior year of high school. She wants things to be different because for the last year, she has been The Girl Whose Boyfriend Died. They hadn't dated all that long, but his tragic drowning death affected her greatly. She found it difficult to move on, and to swim.

The day before school starts, Paige runs into Ryan, who she has had a crush on forever. She makes a list of things she wants to accomplish this year, and one of those things is to date. Specifically, to date Ryan. Although they became good friends, dating was not in the cards for them.

This, as it turns out, is ok because Paige and Ryan's cousin, Max, are kinda perfect for each other. Unfortunately, they hurt each other fairly deeply right before Spring Break, and things aren't quite the same for the rest of the year. Do they fix things and end up together? Do they fix things and go their separate ways? Read this; I promise it will be worth it to find out the answers to these questions.

Summer '17 Book 16

The Merciless II: The Exorcism of Sofia Flores by Danielle Vega

Ok, so I read the first book in this series about seven months ago, and although this was out then, I was waiting to get it in paperback. I hate paying big bucks for hardbacks when it will likely only take a couple of hours to read. All told, this one didn't take long, much like its predecessor.

This one picks up roughly six months after the events in the first book. Everyone on Sofia's block is moving away because no one wants to live near the murder house. Sofia herself is battling anxiety because they never found Brooklyn, and she thinks Brooklyn is out to get her. Sofia is having one such attack and calls her mother. It's Thanksgiving, and her mother is working, but trying to get off early to be with Sofia. Sofia has some hallucinations and then blacks out. She is awakened by someone knocking on the front door. It's a police officer who has come to tell Sofia that her mother was killed in a car accident.

As Sofia is not yet eighteen, she cannot live by herself, and because her grandmother can't even take care of herself, she can't take care of Sofia too. Her only option, really, is to go to a Catholic boarding school a couple of hours away. Once there, she becomes friends with her roommates, Leena and Sutton. Leena has a forbidden pet rabbit and a crush on one of the altar boys, Jude. The problem is, Sofia can't stand the rabbit and has her own crush on Jude.

Then things start to happen...Leena breaks her leg during a rehearsal for the school play. Then the rabbit dies. Leena sees Jude getting a little too close to Sofia, and dies in a fire that night. These events convince Sofia that she has a demon attached to her somehow. She tells this to Jude, who tries to exorcise the demon himself. Things go downhill from there.

There's a third book in this series, so I will likely end up reading it, just for closure. While this installment was ok, it was nowhere near as riveting as the first book.

Summer '17 Book 15

The Cabin by Natasha Preston

This is the third book I have read by this author, and by far, the best. The Cellar had potential to be a good read, but I felt it dragged, and Awake was just lacking overall. This, however, was good.

Summer is almost over for Mackenzie and her friends, and they are all going to a cabin that belongs to the boyfriend of Kenzie's best friend, Courtney, for the weekend. It's to be a last hurrah before they all head off to university. there was a lot of drinking going on, and Kenzie has a one night stand with the brother of Courtney's boyfriend.

The next morning, Makenzie and Blake go downstairs for breakfast and make an unsettling discovery: Courtney and her boyfriend, Josh, have been murdered. Stabbed to death. Worse, it had to be one of those in the house who committed the crime. Makenzie doesn't want to believe that her closest friends could have killed their other friends, but she also doesn't believe Blake did it, even though everyone else does.

It becomes an obsession with Makenzie to find out who killed her friends. Between Blake and herself, they uncover who committed the crime--or do they? Twists right up to the end in this book.

Summer '17 Book 14

Dash and Lily's Book of Dares by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan

I started this a few weeks ago in one of my professional development classes when we were determining our reading rate. Before I started something new, I thought it would be a good idea to finish this. I am so glad I did.

The book starts out a few days before Christmas with Dash, a teen boy, in the Strand bookstore in New York City. As he is perusing the stacks in the search for reading material, he comes across a red, moleskin journal. In it is the beginnings of a little scavenger hunt. If, after the third (or was it fourth?) mission, if he chooses to continue the correspondence, Dash is to give the journal to the guy behind the register with a mission of his own.

Enter Lily, who is a bit of a loner. It was her brother who wrote the missions in the journal in order for Lily to find a companion. Lily and Dash trade the journal back and forth, completing each other's missions, and getting to know the best parts of each other. Dash puts it into perspective at one point when he says that maybe they shouldn't meet because what if they don't live up to each other's expectations.

I really enjoyed this book. I liked seeing what Dash thought of Lily and vice versa. I also really loved that I have been to some of the places in the book, which is a new piece of awesomeness for me. I can't wait until I get a chance to read the next Dash and Lily book, which takes place a year after this one.

Summer '17 Book 13

The Couple Next Door by Shari Lapena

I came across this at Target a few weeks ago. Despite not having much of a book section yet, this one stood out. I read the back, checked the price, and thought "Why not?" Really glad I did on this one. With the exception of the first twenty-four pages, I read the whole thing today. It's one of those that keeps you on the edge of your seat from beginning to end, and you don't want to put it away. At least that's how it was for me.

Anne and Marco have a six-month-old infant named Cora. They were asked over to the neighbor's house for a small get-together. The hostess said no children allowed, and the babysitter had to cancel at the last minute. Anne wanted to stay home, but Marco insisted that the baby would be ok, and they would check on her every half hour. Besides, they had the baby monitor-- what could possibly happen?

Yes, what indeed. As it turns out, baby Cora is kidnapped from her crib.

Anne's rich parents blame Marco. Anne blames Marco because he insisted they go to the party. Is the baby dead? Alive? Then they get a ransom letter. Marco goes to take the ransom money and collect his daughter, but someone takes off with the money, and he doesn't get his daughter.

As the story unfolds, you find that it really could be anyone who took the baby. Even though they pretty much spell out what happened to Cora the night she was kidnapped halfway through the book, there are still so many twists and turns that it makes you wonder if that is really what happened.

This was a fantastic read, much like everything Gillian Flynn has written. It would be totally boss if this were made into a movie, assuming it was cast well.

Summer '17 Book 12

The Circus by Olive Levez

This came in my special edition, Circus Freak Lit-Cube. I so wanted to like this book, but I would be lying if I said I did.

Willow is a seventeen-year-old girl. She lives with her wealthy father when she is not away at boarding school. She has a history of running away for attention because her father is one of those who buys her things, but doesn't give her the one thing she wants: time with him.

At the beginning of the book, Willow is planning to run away. It is her father's wedding day, and he is marrying his personal assistant who is half his age. Willow, being a snoop, found out that her future stepmother is pregnant, so she feels that her father will have even less to do with her than he already does.

Willow leaves before the ceremony, but not before she cuts the buttons off the wedding dress. She hitches a ride, and catches a train to Hastings. She has it in her head that she will join the circus. She also hopes that by doing this, she will find her mother, a circus performer, who left when Willow was very small.

Things don't go so well for Willow. She winds up with a girl named Suz who steals all her money. She finds Suz later, and befriends her. Suz teaches Willow how to be a fire-eater and juggler, which ultimately lands Willow a job with a small circus.

All the while, she keeps seeing herself on the tv and in the newspaper. She's been gone for quite a while and her father is pulling out all the stops to get her back. Willow doesn't feel she can ever go back.

Here's why I didn't like the book: Willow is too whiny. Oh no, she has a shitty father. Oh no, she's going to have a younger sibling. Boo freaking hoo. That's life. At seventeen, she should know that life sometimes sucks.

Summer '17 Book 11

This is Where it Ends by Marieke Nijkamp

I took time off from the book I was reading (which will be the next one I blog) because this finally became available on Overdrive. This was a contender for the TAYSHAS list this year, but did not make it. Still, I have been trying to get my hands on it, so it was not a big deal to put aside another one to read this one.

This is about a school shooting, and it is told by four people over the course of fifty-five minutes. One of the people telling the story is the sister of the shooter. One is her girlfriend. Another is the girlfriend's twin, and the last is a girl who is on the outside when it happens.

Every year at the beginning of the second semester at Opportunity High School, the principal holds an assembly at ten o'clock. Everyone knows this, and everyone is expected to be there. Claire isn't there because she is training for track with the rest of the track team and the track coach. Tomas isn't there because he is breaking into the principal's office with Fareed, trying to find out what the deal is with Tyler Brown, and why he is coming back to school after dropping out. Autumn and Sylvia are in the auditorium, listening to the principal. Autumn is wondering where her brother, Tyler, is because he is supposed to be coming back to finish his senior year. Sylvia is just relieved that Tyler isn't there because he has done some not so nice things to Sylvia.

Then Tyler shows up in the auditorium with guns and ammo and starts shooting. He's locked all of the doors so no one can escape. Claire and the track team hear the shots and run, quite literally, for help. Tomas and Fareed hear the shots and call 9-1-1. Sylvia and Autumn watch helplessly as their fellow schoolmates are shot down.

These four voices tell the story of what's going on from both outside the auditorium and in, and the reader can see what was done to try to save the students as well as the madness that was taking them out.

This is not the first book I have read about a school shooting. If you've read my blog enough, you know this. Although I did appreciate seeing this from four different perspectives and the timeline that things happened, it wasn't told as well as Silent Alarm or The Hate List. This wasn't bad, but I didn't like it as well as the others. Not that one should necessarily "like" a book about school shootings.

Summer '17 Book 10

I Will Always Write Back: How One Letter Changed Two Lives by Caitlin Alifrenka and Martin Ganda with Liz Welch

I was introduced to this book during a book talk that one of the instructional specialists presented in a readers writers workshop class I took. As she was discussing the book, I was moved, so I bought it. This is nonfiction, which is not something I usually read, unless it's one of the Tudor biographies I enjoy. This doesn't read like typical nonfiction though; it reads like a novel.

As the title implies, this is written by two people, Caitlin and Martin, who are introduced as young teens through a classroom penpal project. Caitlin lives in Pennsylvania and Martin lives in Zimbabwe, and come from very different worlds. As to be expected, Martin's family is not well off. Their family of seven lives in half of a one room hut. The kids each have one school uniform apiece and one outfit apiece. Caitlin comes from a middle class family, so going to the mall and buying more clothes than one actually need is the norm.

Over the course of their correspondence, Caitlin discovers just how bad things are for Martin. He was kicked out of school a couple of times because his family couldn't pay his tuition, which was only about $20 of American money. Caitlin and her family became his family's benefactors so that the children were all able to go to school, eat, stay in their hut, and not have to worry so much about surviving.

On Caitlin's side, the correspondence gave her more empathy about people in other parts of the world, as well as here in the States. As she and her family help Martin and his family, you can see how she grows more aware of the world, which is something more young people need these days.

I so enjoyed this book. There were several times that I was brought nearly to tears, both tears of sadness and tears of joy.

Summer '17 Book 9

Finishing School: Book the Fourth: Manners & Mutiny by Gail Carriger

Several months after the events in book three find Sophronia and her friends, most of them anyway, back at Mademoiselle Geraldine's. It is Christmas break, and Sophronia spends some time in London with her newly married sister. Agatha and Dimity join her. They have a grand time shopping, and even have dinner with a vampire who wants Sophronia to work for him after she completes finishing school. The person she has agreed to work for is there as well, and they are trying to thwart the Pickelmen and their dastardly plans. To do this, Sophronia is to work herself back into Felix's good graces, which tends to be harder than she anticipated.

Soap is more in love with Sophronia than ever, and although she cares for him, he can't or won't take the hint when she tries to tell him why it can never be. He still tries to win her over though.

At the New Year tea, Mademoiselle Geraldine's is attacked and overtaken by Flywaymen and Pickelmen. The school is evacuated, but Sophronia goes back because she wants to make sure the sooties are ok. Once there, she's one woman for herself trying to defeat the Pickelmen.

Will she succeed? Will she succumb to Soap's wishes? You know I'm not going to answer those! Read the books!!

Summer '17 Book 8

Finishing School: Book the Third: Waistcoats & Weaponry by Gail Carriger

First, I would just like to say that, apparently, today is the fifth anniversary of this blog! Thanks to those of you who have stuck with me through this. All two of you. :) Seriously, this has been fun for me, and sometimes therapeutic.

This one picks up about a year after the events in the second book. Near the beginning, Sighead receives some terrible news, and misses some school. She turns up at the engagement ball for Sophronia's older brother, and we find out that the terrible news is that her grandfather is no longer in charge of his werewolf pack. Sighead has had to choose her loyalties, and she chose the pack, even though they were going to commit an act of treason.

Sighead needs to get to her pack in Scotland, so Sophronia, Soap, Dimity, and Felix set out on an adventure to get her there. Along the way, they run into Monique, up to her old habits of being a troublemaker.

One aspect I really enjoyed was the Sophronia-Felix-Soap love triangle. Obviously, Sophronia has feelings for both boys, but for different reasons. I was a bit sad at how their triangle ended, but it had to happen eventually. If nothing else, Sophronia has decided where her loyalties will lie after finishing school.

Summer '17 Book 7

Finishing School: Book the Second: Curtsies & Conspiracies by Gail Carriger

Picking up a little after the first one left off, the girls in the Debut class at Mademoiselle Geraldine's are taking their first round of tests. It's a skills test that covers the things they learned in the first six months of school. Sophronia scored the highest of anyone, ever. Because of this, she is shunned. At first, she thinks it is because her friends are truly hurt by her scores, but it turns out that they were told by one of the teachers to shun whoever scored the highest grade.

This shunning doesn't stop Sophronia from being a good friend, however. Dimity receives a letter from a young man at Bunson's that she has a little crush on, but when she sneaks out to meet him, it's not him at all. Sophronia snuck out as well to make sure her friend was ok, and saved Dimity from the trouble that could have arisen from the imposter.

This wasn't the only time trouble found Dimity. At an outing, Dimity and her brother, Pillover, were almost kidnapped, and later, were kidnapped from a coming out ball. What's up with that?

So much went on in this book. Some of the boys from Bunson came aboard the airship and had classes with the girls. There were some questionable vampire relations issues. And, of course, there was Monique's coming out ball. The best thing to come out of this book is that Monique will no longer be at school, though I suspect this isn't the last we've heard from her.

This is a neat series, and I can't wait to see what happens in the next one.

Summer '17 Book 6

Finishing School: Book the First: Etiquette & Espionage by Gail Carriger

A week ago, I did not know this series of books existed. Thankfully, I have great friends and coworkers who think of me when a cool book comes to mind, and that was the case here. As a matter of fact, I ordered this series because a friend/coworker/former teacher of my daughter's tagged me in a post on Facebook that included a teaching guide for this. How can you not then check it out? If you're me, you can't.

The premise is pretty cool. It's a finishing school that teaches girls in the fine arts of espionage, conspiracy, and all things covert. There's an element of the supernatural, as one of the teachers is a vampire and another is a werewolf. There's also the whole steampunk feel to things too, what with the mechanimals, the fact that the school is dirigibles strapped together, and the mechanical guards/servants. Just really cool.

Ok, so Sophronia is the youngest daughter of a passel of children. Because she is not the oldest, she is often overlooked, or would be, except that she is accident prone and has an aptitude for the way devices work. One day her mother is meeting with a woman who thinks it would be a good idea to send Sophronia to finishing school. To get Sophronia out of her hair, her mother agrees. She meets another young lady, Dimity, and her brother, Pillover, on her way to the school. There's also one of the teachers with them.

On the way to the schools, they are accosted by flywaymen. As it turns out, the teacher wasn't really a teacher but another student named Monique, and the flywaymen were after her to get a prototype that she had. Monique refuses to give this prototype to the teachers, and is demoted from a senior to a debut student. Sophronia makes it her mission to find out why the prototype is so important and find the device itself to give to the proper authorities. Monique doesn't make this easy for her.

Along the way, Sophronia befriends a wide range of people who help her, and comes into her own. She may not be a master of the curtsy yet, but she is well on her way. It doesn't hurt that she has amazing critical thinking skills.

There are three more books in the series, and I am looking forward to what happens next.

Summer '17 Book 5

That Summer by Sarah Dessen

A couple of years ago, my daughter asked my son to get her some Sarah Dessen books for her birthday. Like the awesome brother he is, he complied. She read them, then "donated" them to my classroom library. I have been meaning to get around to them, but haven't and now they're locked in my classroom cabinet for the summer. So, yesterday when I was buying books, I had to check with my daughter to make sure this wasn't one of the ones we already had.

Having no frame of reference for Dessen, I didn't know what to expect. This book is short--just under two hundred pages, so it took next to no time to read. The blurb on the back was enough to make me interested, but not enough to have a clue as to what this book was about. Given that it mentions the older sister's ex-boyfriend coming back, I thought there might be some ex-boyfriend/little sister scandalous relationship, but I was wrong. There was a lot going on in these few pages, and what held it together is what it's like to be a teenaged girl with a lot of changes going on. That's it.

The book starts and ends with a wedding, and takes place over the course of, roughly, two months. The wedding at the beginning of the book is that of Haven and Ashley's father, a sportscaster on the local news, and the weather girl at the same station (who is the reason their parents divorced). The wedding at the end is that of Haven's older sister, Ashley.  Over the course of the two months, Haven works at a job she hates, her mother is looking to maybe go to Europe for a month with her singles group, her mother is looking to sell their house, and Haven reconnects with the one of her sister's ex-boyfriends that she liked, Sumner.

Haven likes Sumner, but not in a romantic way. She likes him because when he was dating Ashley, Ashley was good to Haven, and therefore life was good. All that changed when Ashley broke up with Sumner. Or, at least that is how it appears to Haven.

So much is going on in Haven's life right now, and everyone is chalking it up to the attention being paid to Ashley because of the wedding. I'm sure that has something to do with it, but the way I saw it was that there were just too many changes for Haven at the time, and she was having trouble coping. I wish there'd been more substance to the book, but there just wasn't. That is not to say that this wasn't an enjoyable read. If I were the type to read a book on the beach, this would be the type of book I would bring: something that doesn't ask a lot of the reader in terms of understanding. If you're looking for a not complex, easy read, this is it.

Summer '17 Book 4

Vacations From Hell by Libba Bray, Cassandra Clare, Claudia Gray, Maureen Johnson, and Sarah Miynowski

Having read three of theses authors, I felt I couldn't go wrong with this book of short stories. For the most part, I was correct, though, to some degree, I expected better than this.

This is a set of five short stories that are, as the title implies, vacations from hell. The first story involved vampires, and was a bit on the cheesy side. Thank goodness it was short.

The second involved witches. It was better, but still kinda cheesy.

The third took place in France, and involved a girl going crazy after some murder/suicide action going on in the town where she's staying. This was one of the better stories.

The fourth involved a witch, but I felt it was more voodoo related. Also one of the better stories presented here.

The last one, was about a town that used to sacrifice children to the devil, and although this had not been practiced in over 100 years, it was coming back. Some American teenagers backpacking across Europe get roped in.

All in all, this was a fast read, but not one that is going to stick with me.

Summer '17 Book 3

The Whole Thing Together by Ann Brashares

I first fell in love with Ann Brashares books about a dozen or more years ago when I read the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series. She has a way of writing that draws you in and makes you want more. And her writing is so real that you feel you know the characters as people, not just made up on the page. This was no different.

I bought this the Sunday before I went on my very first trip to New York City. I was buying toiletries, but since we were at Target, I looked at the books. Our book selection is still lacking, but there was one copy of this, and it had the magic words "signed copy" on the cover. I knew it had to be mine without even knowing what it was about. I read the blurb in the car, and then more or less forgot about it while I was in the City that Never Sleeps. I started it the night I got back home, and it was lovely because it takes place in Brooklyn and Manhattan, so it was like holding onto my New York adventures a little longer.

Sasha and Ray are the same age and sleep in the same room, but they've never met. They share three older sisters, but they've never met. Ray's mother and Sasha's father were once married, they divorced, and now share the ancestral beach home of Ray's mother because they both feel entitled to it. Every other weekend, Ray lives at the house with his parents, as well as every other week during the summer. On the weekends and weeks that Ray's family isn't there, Sasha's family is. Their shared siblings are there whenever they want to be.

So, you'd think this is about Ray and Sasha, but it really isn't. It's about all of the siblings. Smart and in love Emma, who meets the love of her life, Jamie. Ethereal and knowing Quinn, who centers everybody. Saucy and young Mattie, who just wants to find her place in the world. Arguably, we learn more about the older siblings than we do about Ray and Sasha. These five "children" show what it's like to be children of divorce, both the children prior to the divorce and the ones that were the products of the divorce.

Great book. A little sad at times, but that's the way life is. It's not all sunshine and roses, and books should reflect that.

Summer '17 Book 2

Lair of Dreams by Libba Bray

The very first year I participated in my school's TAYSHAS contest, I read the book The Diviners. This is the second in the series.

This picks up with Evie, who is on the outs with her uncle Will because she came out as a diviner, but, because she is a diviner, has a popular radio show. Henry and Theta still live together. She's one of the Ziegfeld girls, and he's a pianist. Jericho still has a thing for Evie, and Mabel still has a thing for Jericho. Sam is still Sam. Just when you think things are going ok for our group of friends, we find out just how wrong we are.

Now there is a thing called the sleeping sickness, where people fall asleep, but never wake up. As it starts in New York's Chinatown, the general populace believes it is a foreigner's disease. This leads to more ethnic division, but also introduces us to a new character, Ling Chan. Ling is half Chinese, half Irish, and like Henry, she can walk in dreams. As you may expect, Henry and Ling team up to try to find the cause to the sleeping sickness.

Also, the museum that Evie's uncle runs is in financial trouble. Unfortunately, he ups and leaves on a mission, and it is now left to Sam and Jericho to try to raise funds to save the museum. They enlist the help of Evie, the Sweetheart Seer, to help them.

One thing that bothered me (and wasn't really resolved) was that people kept mentioning a man in their dreams with a stovetop hat. This reminded me of the villain in the first book, which leads me to believe that everything is connected. Maybe this will be resolved in the third book. Unfortunately, we'll have to wait until October to find out.

I can see how the length of this might be off putting. It's a little over six hundred pages. I read nearly half of it on a flight from Houston to New York City, so it is a quick read, despite the number of pages. Really great book.

Summer '17 Book 1

Bring Her Home by David Bell

If you've been following my blog for the past couple of years, you know I discovered David Bell around the time of my thirty-ninth birthday. I've read all of his books in that time. A few months ago, I saw that he had a new book coming out this July, so I pre-ordered it. Then, a month or so ago, I checked an email from First to Read, an advanced reader service from Penguin Publishers. I check these emails whenever I get them, but they seldom have anything that I want to read and if they do, I am never chosen for it. Until this book. A few weeks ago, I received the email that I was chosen to get an advanced reader copy of this. The only drawback, as I saw it, is that it was an ebook, and not a paperback like all of my other copies of Bell's books. I am so glad I got to read this before it came out to the general public; it made me feel pretty special.

As with Bell's previous works, this is a book of suspense, and it keeps you on the edge of your seat in the very best way possible. Even with the wonky format on my Kindle that made reading this troublesome sometimes, I didn't want to put this down to go to sleep or be a productive member of society.

When the book starts out, Bill has just arrived at the hospital. His fifteen year old daughter, Summer, had been missing, and it seems she has been found. She went missing with her friend, Haley, and someone called in an anonymous tip that allowed the girls to be found. Both girls had been beaten severely: one within an inch of her life, and one who died of her injuries. When she got moved to the ICU, Bill sat with his daughter, hoping she would heal. Having lost his wife a year and a half prior, Summer meant even more to him.

Bill's sister, Paige, came to offer support, and after some of Summer's unconscious actions drew her attention, she questioned if the girl they'd been standing vigil over was actually Summer. As it turns out, it wasn't; it was her best friend, Haley. This only left the dead girl, which everyone had thought was Haley. As Bill is trying to process the death of his daughter and makes arrangements for her burial, he receives the call that this girl is not his daughter either. So, where is Summer?

Bill follows every lead, almost getting himself into trouble with law enforcement himself. He believes that some of Summer's male friends may be involved, and everyone seems to be a suspect, even himself at one point. He learns who he can trust and who he can't.

Like everything I have read of Bell's, this book makes you think. I found myself second guessing myself the whole time in who I thought was the guilty party, which is part of the fun of reading this type of book for me. Bell makes you feel what the characters feel, and he writes so that you can envision what's going on clearly. No detail is left out, but it's not tedious like many books with a lot of detail can be.

If it wasn't obvious from this post, I will continue reading Bell's books. They are something I find myself looking forward to every summer.

Dystopian Females

The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

This has been on my kindle for a while, which leads me to believe it has been on my to-read list for a while. Admittedly, the thing that finally got me to read this is the series on Hulu. The series looks great, I wish I felt the same about the book.

Taking place in Gilead, a United States city in the future, this is narrated by Offred, a handmaid. It's a weird society. Women have no rights whatsoever, and their role is apparent based on the clothes they wear. If they are a wife, it's blue. Handmaids wear red. Aunts wear brown. Marthas wear green. Unwomen wear grey.

As if that weren't weird enough, the whole purpose of the handmaid is to get pregnant and supply a wife with a baby. In this case, Offred is placed in the house of a Commander and his wife. They are older, which can be determined because the author mentions the white hair and wrinkles. Obviously, they aren't having children of their own at their age. It is Offred's job to have sex once a month with this old guy until she becomes pregnant, so that his wife can take and raise the baby. Weird, right?

Even weirder is the fact that the Commander starts summoning, if you will, Offred to his study late at night to play Scrabble. He gets a hold of forbidden materials that he then allows Offred to use. He's buttering her up, but for what? Dude smuggles her out of the house, more or less, dressed like a hussy, to take her to this club where he can have sex with her outside of the confines of their society. Oddly enough, this little outing comes the same night that the Wife has arranged for Offred to have sex with the hot male servant so she can get pregnant because even she realizes it won't be happening with the Commander.

I wish I could say I enjoyed this book. I like dystopian books, to an extent, but I just didn't like this one. For one, there are a lot of flashbacks and time jumps that happen randomly. This made it hard to keep things straight. Also, the lack of punctuation didn't help matters any. It was sometimes hard to discern when people were talking. I will still watch the Hulu series though, as it looks a lot better than the book turned out to be.

Final Installment of Letters in a Hatbox

Always and Forever, Lara Jean by Jenny Han

Not as good as the first in the series, but better than the second. This one finds Lara Jean in the last semester of her senior year of high school. She is waiting to hear back from her dream college, and is still with her boyfriend, Peter. Prom is coming up, and her dad is marrying the neighbor lady.

Lara Jean gets into her second choice school, and right away, her boyfriend has convinced her that she can go there for a year, and then transfer to her dream school--where he is. I hate that. I hate that Peter doesn't give her a chance to find what she wants, and just decides and convinces her to do what he wants.

Honestly, the story is sweet, but I couldn't love it because of Peter. I get that he is her first love, and she wants to be with him, I do. However, I am all about being yourself. A girl/woman should not have to be defined by the man in her life, and Lara Jean has so much going for herself. I was even more pissed at his character when he gets mad at her for changing her mind about college and transferring to be with him. Seriously, it's a high school relationship. Odds are, it isn't going to last, particularly going to schools four hours apart.

Sorry I couldn't give more about this.I am not a feminist, but sheesh, this book sets girls back a ways.

A Gender Bending Classic Tale

Lady of Sherwood by Molly Bilinski

This came with my May 2017 Lit-Cube, where the theme was Robin Hood. Apparently, this is the first book in a series, and one I will likely look into continuing.

Rhiannon, aka Robin, is the only child of the Lord and Lady of Locksley. Her father always wanted a son, so he taught her how to shoot a bow, and kept her from being a lady. Her mother tried to teach her how to be a lady, but she was not very good at that. Her father died when she was young, and when she is in her later teens, her mother tries to marry her off to Guy of Gisborne. The marriage is a done deal, but Robin wants nothing to do with it. Her mother says if she doesn't marry, she will sell her best friend, Jemma, a slave, to the highest bidder. Robin can't bear for that to happen, so she agrees, but there is something she must do first.

That something is to have one night with the man she loves, a carpenter, who is "beneath her station." Unfortunately, the dastardly Gisborne has her love killed. Robin and Jemma run off to formulate a plan to kill Gisborne, but he, instead, burns down her home, with her mother and most of the servants in it. Robin wounds Gisborne, and thinks he is dead, so she and her friends flee to Nottingham.

In Nottingham, they befriend a Tinker, and try to make a life for themselves. After a mishap in a tavern, Robin and the girls have to flee to Sherwood Forest, where they rob from the rich to help the poor.

In sum, this is the typical Robin Hood story, but most of the characters are girls. If nothing else, it shows just how strong girl power can be when we are working together, rather than tearing each other down. I will be interested to see where the other books in this series go.

The Heart Wants What the Heart Wants

Into the Skid by J. H. Trumble

This is the fourth book she has written to date. Where the other three were connected, this one was not. This one also isn't young adult, which is cool, since I am actually an adult and should be reading adult things. Ha.

Patrick has been married to Liz for some time. They have two children together, Wes and Oliver. The thing is, Patrick doesn't love Liz. No, that's not the right word...Patrick doesn't desire Liz because Patrick is gay. He recently reconnected with Isaiah, who he grew up with, who he has always been in love with.

Liz, because she is feeling neglected, gets involved, and not in a good way, with the boys' tae kwon do instructor. She also feels betrayed by Patrick when he finally shares with her that he is in love with someone else. Then Liz attempts to make Patrick's life hell--she destroys his clothes, tries to keep the boys from him, etc,

I hated Liz, until the very end of the book. I mean, I get it, she was hurt, but I don't think her actions in marrying Patrick were entirely noble. It is mentioned at least a couple of times that she married Patrick to piss off her parents and because he could give her the life she thought she deserved.

Makes Me Want to Go to Florence

Love & Gelato by Jenna Evans Welch

I picked this up with the gift card I got at the Teacher Appreciation Luncheon last week because I like the cover. So glad I did because this was a sweet read. I was reminded the whole time I was reading this of 13 Little Blue Envelopes and The Last Little Blue Envelope by Maureen Johnson. Similar premise, and European locales.

In this book, Lina lost her mother six months prior to pancreatic cancer. She made Lina promise to go to Florence, Italy and spend time with Howard, a man Lina now believes is her father. While in Italy, she just wants to go home, but feels that, on some level, she owes it to her mother to stay a while.

One day while running, Lina meets Ren, the boy who lives nearby, who goes to the school she would attend if she stays in Italy. Lina also receives a journal from Sonia, who is a friend of Howard's (and her mother's), that belonged to her mother. In reading the journal, Lina finds that she needs to find out the truth of who she is, and Ren helps her on that journey.

This was such a sweet story of finding who you are, with cute boys, and beautiful (I imagine) Tuscan Italy. I really loved Lina and Ren, and I would love it if there were a follow up about the two of them.

The Consequences of Our Actions

Just Between Us by J. H. Trumble

It's no secret that I like this author's work. It also doesn't hurt that I have met this author, and after reading three of her four books, I now have a little hero worship thing going on.

True confession time: I didn't realize that her first three books go together. Luke from the first book makes a few appearances in the second book, and he's one of the main characters in this book. I feel silly that I didn't pick that up until 1)the author mentioned it in an email and 2)I got a chapter into this book. For those of you keeping track: this book was written third, but takes place second.

As I said, this book follows Luke, who was used by Nate in Don't Let Me Go. Luke is back from Odessa, where they moved because his father was not dealing well with the fact that Luke is gay. Luke now lives on the same street as Curtis, who is a former drum major for Luke's new high school. Luke is not doing so well at the beginning, in terms of marching band. In fact, he's a bit of a joke. Curtis befriends him and things turn around. Luke really likes Curtis, and it is clear that Curtis really likes him.

Unfortunately, Curtis gets a phone call that changes everything, and he won't let himself fall for Luke. He doesn't feel that Luke should be embroiled in what's going on, plus he wants to keep Luke safe, or as safe as he can. Not to mention that Curtis doesn't tell the most important people in his life what is going on, and goes through a bit of a self destructive streak.

This is told in alternating perspectives, and I like being able to see how both Curtis and Luke feel about what is going on. I also like that Ms. Trumble writes about the area I live in, and the university that has bestowed a bachelor's and now Master's degree upon me. There's nothing like reading about places you're familiar with.

Third, But Likely Not the Last

King's Cage by Victoria Aveyard

I loved Red Queen, and the second book was ok. I liked the first two-thirds of this one. It was the last third, and especially the end, that I was losing interest.

When the book starts, Mare has been captured by Maven. One would think he would have her executed, as that is what you do with enemies that you consider terrorists, but he doesn't. No, he keeps her captive in a cell lined with silent stone to quell her ability to use her lightning. He keeps "bracelets" on her wrists to drain her energy and diminish her ability to nothing. He keeps her a prisoner, but for what? I, personally, think it is because he has a thing for her. He can't have her. She's the enemy. It would be inappropriate. And yet, he keeps her.

Even better, Evangeline loses her chance to be queen. Ha! Maven marries someone else, although, it doesn't really matter that he does because Evangeline's father names himself king of another region.

So, the parts of the book when Mare is prisoner are pretty good. When she finally manages to escape is where the book started to devolve for me. Sure, the Scarlet Guard keeps doing what they need to do to thwart Maven and his rule, but it was boring to me.

The end bothered me because I thought this was the end of a trilogy. If it had been, it would have had a better ending. There are still loose ends that need to be tied up, and I don't know if I am up to reading another of these if they are anything like the last third of this book.

Boundaries Blurred by Love

Where You Are by J.H. Trumble

Because this is an author I have actually met, when they told me this was their favorite, I decided to read it next. I can see why she likes this one best.

This book is told from two perspectives, and it is done well. There was never a time when I had to look back at the beginning of a section to be reminded who was telling the story. There were two distinct perspectives, and it gave more depth to the story.

First, we have Robert. He's a senior in high school. His father is dying, and he is not bothered by this. He is bothered by how his father's sisters treat his mother as though she was less than they are, and Robert too. Robert is gay, and his boyfriend, Nic, doesn't seem to be a genuinely caring person for anyone but himself. Robert has, however, found a friend in his calculus teacher, Mr. McNelis.

Next, we have Andrew. He's a calculus teacher, who happens to be gay, with a two-year-old daughter, and a decent relationship with his ex-wife. He has a couple of little shithead students (don't we all?), and a coworker who'd really like to date him. Depending on how you look at it, it's unfortunate that he becomes close to Robert.

I say it could be unfortunate because a relationship with Robert could cost Andrew his career, even though Robert is old enough for their relationship to be consensual. On the other hand, Andrew could have found true love with Robert.

This book pulled my heartstrings, but I loved it.

Serial Killer's Daughter

Twisted by Hannah Jayne

Bex, formerly Beth Anne, has recently moved to a new town, in with her new foster parents. Her grandmother recently passed away, and she was put into the system. She didn't have anyone else. Why? Her mother is dead and her father is a serial killer. A serial killer who wants his daughter to believe that he isn't guilty, but takes off one day and she doesn't hear from him again.

So here Bex is, ten years after her father left, trying to live her new life where no one knows her. She makes friends, meets a boy. One night during her first week, Bex and her friends are going to the beach for a bonfire. They don't quite make it as they see something fishy on the way there-- a teenaged girl, dead in the sand, with her ring finger removed. This was her dad's signature. That and giving his daughter something that belonged to his victims.

A few days later, a box shows up on the porch for Bex. It is assumed that it is a gift from her new boyfriend, but he says he didn't get it for her. Other things pop up showing that her dad is back. Then the detective who worked the case all those years ago shows up, asking Bex to try to lure her father out. It is the detective's hope that they will be able to get him this time. Bex is not so sure.

This was not such a bad read. There was some suspense. What irked me is that Bex never said anything about who she was. I'd like to think her foster parents would have helped her navigate the situation, but we will never know because the author didn't work that angle.

A Teen You've Got Mail

Alex, Approximately by Jenn Bennett

This is the book that came in my April Lit-Cube, the theme of which was You've Got Mail. If you've seen the 1998 movie, you know that Meg Ryan's character has been instant messaging Tom Hanks' character, and they have a thing for each other. Unfortunately, Tom Hanks' character is the owner of a big bookstore (think Barnes and Noble) who is trying to put her little bookstore, The Shop Around the Corner out of business. In life, they dislike each other. On the internet, they are smitten. This book is very similar.

Bailey "Mink" lives on the East Coast with her mother. She has been messaging back and forth with someone named Alex, who happens to live in the same California town as Bailey's dad. They are both film buffs, so Alex tries to convince Bailey to come visit her dad so she can meet Alex and they can watch North by Northwest together on the beach,

Bailey not only visits her dad, she moves in with him, but she doesn't tell Alex. She wants to scope out the situation first to see if Alex is even worth pursuing. In the meantime, Bailey gets a job at a cheesy museum and meets the infuriating security guard named Porter. Porter's family is kinda famous--they're all surfers, which is a big deal in their town. Porter drives Bailey nuts, but then she kinda falls for him.

Since I told you what this is like, by now you've figured out that Alex is Porter. It's no secret really, as this is mentioned in the blurb on the book jacket. At any rate, it takes Bailey a while to figure this out.

I liked this. It was a cute story, and, despite everything else I have going on with work and grad school, I managed to devour this book in no time at all.

Set in my Hometown

Don't Let Me Go by J. H. Trumble

I decided to read this book because it was written by a new friend of mine. I was working in a library, and she mentioned having written a few books while teaching a lesson to an English class. Intrigued, I came home and looked her books up on Amazon.

Just to be upfront, this is an LGBT, young adult book. Not something I would normally seek out, but not something I am opposed to either. Nothing was terribly graphic, which is something I appreciate whether the characters are gay OR straight. There was some language, but as someone who spends all of her waking hours with teenagers, it was nothing I don't hear on a regular basis in the halls at the school where I teach.

Another thing I liked about this is that it obviously takes place around here. In fact, the movie theater where my son works is mentioned by name. The references to music and bands was a nice touch too.

Now to the story...Nate is about to be a senior in high school. He has been out for about a year. He is madly in love with Adam, who is heading to New York to perform in an off-Broadway play. When I say Nate is madly in love, I mean he doesn't think he can exist without Adam, yet he won't let Adam throw away this opportunity.

Several months prior, some asshole football player and his friends assaulted Nate at a New Year's Eve party. Nate took a while to heal, but Adam was by his side through it all. This is part of why Nate is so co-dependent.

When Nate Skypes Adam, Adam always seems distracted, and his roommate, Justin, is doing everything he can to come between the two of them. He succeeds for a while, and Nate has to find his way without Adam. He makes a new friend, Danial, and even becomes romantically involved with a younger guy named Luke.

I am not going to say more about the story than that.

There are a lot of flashbacks, which I liked, and I just really liked the characters. I felt like I knew them when I was reading the book, and that is one of the things I like most about reading.

So, check this one out.

Secrets and Lies

Seven Ways We Lie by Riley Redgate

So much about the cover of this book is misleading. First, the back says that there are seven students, seven deadly sins, and one secret. Not all of the seven deadly sins are covered. Second, in the blurb on the back, it implies that these seven students are unlikely allies, that was misleading. Two of the characters are sisters, three of them are best friends, one is the former boyfriend of another character. Unlikely, to me, implies that they aren't friends, and that just isn't the case.

Despite the misleading cover, however, I enjoyed this book. It starts out with a school assembly, where everyone is told that a teacher is having an affair with one of the students. Administration doesn't know who either person involved is, but they are going to find out. One of the seven students is the person who reported this scandal, and he knows who the student is, but not the teacher, and he wants to talk to her. One of the students is the student involved (and it is easy to figure out early on), and she starts to self-destruct.

There's more to this than just the school sex scandal though. One of the students is the school slut, who finds herself falling for one of the other seven students after they work on an English project together. Another student feels that she is being left out of things going on with her best friend, and ends up outing her ex-boyfriend. One student is the ex-boyfriend who falls in love with a social outcast.

These lives overlap, and their stories were interesting to read. This book was real in a way that a lot of young adult books try to be, but fail.

A Fairy Tale Retelling

Bellamy and they Brute by Alicia Michaels

Can we just be done with the fairy tale retellings already?! Don't get me wrong: I LOVE fairy tales, but this is getting out of hand.

I got this in my March Lit-Cube. I was bummed that it was ANOTHER Beauty and the Beast themed one, which is weird because that is my favorite fairy tale. Part of it was because it hadn't even been six months since they did a similar theme, and, frankly, this box wasn't worth my money. That is another story for another day.

Anyway, so there's this girl named Bellamy. Her mother died of cancer two years previously, so Bellamy lives with her dad. They own a bookstore, and her dad is trying to get his appliance repair company off the ground. In an effort to make some money this summer, Bellamy answers an ad to babysit a couple of children who live in the mansion on the hill.

Bellamy is hired on the spot, and is told to avoid the third floor. That sounds easy enough. Then she sees these rose petals that no one else can see, and ends up on the third floor. Yeah, that wasn't predictable at all. Anyway, she meets the inhabitant of the third floor, who is the older brother of the children she babysits. He fell off the face of the Earth because he has a disease that disfigured his face.

One night, Bellamy is asked to work late. She encounters some ghosts who lead her to the third floor. Apparently, only Bellamy and Tate, the third floor guy, are the only ones who can see them. Another day she stays late, and they have a similar encounter with the ghosts. On the third encounter, they realize that the ghosts just want their help; they want justice.

That's when this book becomes a murder mystery that Bellamy and Tate have to solve. Meanwhile, they fall in love, and she sees the "real" Tate.

I wish I loved this more. The curator of Lit-Cube described this as "The best young adult book I have read in 2017 so far." I respectfully disagree. This was merely ok.

A Real Diary?

Dear Nobody: The True Diary of Mary Rose edited by Gillian McClain and Legs McNeil

I bought this because a) it was inexpensive and b) it sounded like it might be like Go Ask Alice, which I liked. This one, I didn't like so much. Also, I won't be able to put it in my classroom--I would get phone calls from parents about why I have books that drop the F-bomb so much, discuss drug use like it's ok, and open sexual situations (even though not graphic).

I wanted to like this, I really did. Mary Rose made it hard. She's not a bad person, but she makes bad choices. When she started talking about her cystic fibrosis, it was hard to care, even though I wanted to, because up until then, she didn't seem to care about her life. If she didn't care, why should I?

The timeframe that this book encompasses is from1996 to 1999. She talks about her drinking and drug use like it's no big deal. Her biggest complaint, understandably, is that her mother would rather be with a jerk who abuses her and her kids than her kids. Mary Rose's mother was an alcoholic and drug user too, so it seemed hypocritical when she came down on Mary Rose for those things. Like, how was she supposed to know any better when her own mother was exposing her to those things? That's why her mother's afterword seemed fake.

This girl had cystic fibrosis, but her family never came to see her in the hospital. Her mom said it was because she had to work. Sorry, that doesn't work for me. I get it that she needed to make money to take care of her family, but when she wasn't working, she needed to be with her kid.

Mary Rose didn't have any real friends. They were only people to get drunk and high with, and when that wore off, she had no one. That was sad. Obviously, she had more to offer the world, but was never given the chance. And the multiple times she was raped? She should not have had to deal with that alone. All she really had was the journal she kept, and it was just depressing.

Was this a real journal? Hard to say. If it was real, then I am sad that Mary Rose didn't get the help or the love she really needed. I am sorry she had to deal with a disease, on her own, that took her life before she really got to live it. If it's not a real journal, I am not sure that it's going to have the impact on the masses that Alice, a fake journal purported to be real, did.

In short, I wish I hadn't wasted my time and money on this one.

Summer, Ending this Time

We'll Always Have Summer by Jenny Han

I loved this trilogy, until I read the last two chapters of this book.

This time around, Belly is a freshman in college. She goes to the same college as Jeremiah, as well as her best friend, Taylor. At a frat party with Jeremiah to celebrate the end of the school year, Belly finds out that Jeremiah slept with a sorority chick in Cabo over Spring Break. Oops.

After a few days of being mad at him, Belly forgives him, and he proposes. She says yes, but their parents and his brother, Conrad, aka Belly's First Love, all think they are too young. Belly and Jeremiah don't care. Belly has a huge fight with her mother, and then takes off to the Cousins house. Conrad is staying there as well.

Conrad finally admits to himself (and others) that Belly is the only one for him. One problem...she's marrying his brother. Or does she?

Summer, Part Deux

It's Not Summer Without You by Jenny Han

It's the next summer. Belly and Conrad dated, and broke up. Susannah passed away, and summer isn't the same because, for the first time in her life, Belly isn't going to the beach house in Cousins. Then, she gets a call from Jeremiah. Conrad has gone missing, and Jeremiah needs Belly's help to find him.

They end up at the beach house. Conrad has gone there because he got wind that his dad was going to sell the place, and Conrad couldn't live with that. Belly comes to some realizations at the beach house; some things she's not comfortable with.

As they all try to reconcile themselves to the fact that this could be their last trip to the beach house, they do some things they may later regret, but on the whole, look back on all their good times together.

Will they get to keep the beach house? Will Conrad finally be real with Belly? I can't wait to read the last installment of this trilogy.

Sweet "Summer" Read

The Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny Han

This is the third book I have read of Ms. Han's, and she doesn't disappoint. I have at least one more of hers to read before I go to this young adult book con thing on April 1 that she will be at.

This is the story of the summer Belly turns sixteen. Every year, she goes to the beach house of her mother's oldest and dearest friend, and they stay for the whole summer. Her mother's friend has two sons, and Belly appears to have a crush on both of them, though one more than the other.

This summer is different though because the boys finally notice her. She's no longer the little sister figure, but a young woman in her own right. They still, to some degree, still treat her like a kid. She meets a boy, and spends a lot of time with him. She reminisces of summers past, and wonders about the future. She also can't really let go of her love for one boy, even though he treats her badly most of the summer.

I enjoyed this. It was a quick read, and I can't wait to read the next one.

Missing Girls and Wonky Timelines

All the Missing Girls by Megan Miranda

I am always down for a good thriller, and this was a good thriller.

Nicolette, or Nic, as those from her hometown call her, is headed back home to help sell her dad's house. He's recently written her, indicating that he saw the "missing girl." The "missing girl" is Nic's former best friend, who went missing one night ten years prior. Nic needs to know what her dad means.

So, she's back home, and her old boyfriend stops by to say hello. His current girlfriend is in the car. She later goes missing, in the same way that Nic's best friend did ten years ago. That's when the book takes an interesting turn.

Where most books tell a story in the order that things happen, this one does not. Part one is the present. Part two two weeks later, but works its way backward to where the book started. Wonky, no? Part three is back in the present. Definitely a different way of telling the story, but I liked it. In many ways, it still worked the same way as it would have if the story had been told chronologically. I mean, as I progressed, I still picked up clues that would lead me to solve the mystery. It's hard to articulate what I am trying to get at. Suffice it to say, this book is worth your time, even it is a bit unconventional in its method of getting the story across.

Red Novellas

Cruel Crown by Victoria Aveyard, which contains the following novellas: Queen Song and Steel Scars

Queen Song tells the story of Cal's mother, Coriane, who was the queen that Tiberius chose without a Queenstrial. Though her family was noble, they were poor, and did not spend much time at court. When her uncle died and her father became the head of the family, Coriane came to court and met the prince, who fell in love with her because she wasn't like everyone else. Elara, who is Maven's mother, did not like this, and did everything she could, including causing several miscarriages, so that she could get rid of Coriane. She got into her head and caused Coriane to kill herself. As we know, Elara becomes queen after that.

Steel Scars is a bit of back story on Farley, and how she begins the red rebellion. Having been under her father's command, Farley apparently proved herself enough to be trusted with her own important mission. This ultimately leads to her meeting Mare, and the rest is history.

This book also has a preview of The Glass Sword, but since I read that already, I didn't bother with that part. I liked this because it gave some back story. I heard there are other novellas that deal with Julian and Sarah, but I have yet to come across them. This is a "world" of books that, despite some of their shortcomings, I have enjoyed becoming familiar with.