Something Like Normal ~ Trish Doller review #repost [@bloomsburykids @TrishDoller]

Something Like Normal
Bloomsbury USA Children's
June 19, 2012
224 pages
add to Goodreads/Buy from Book Depository/or Amazon

When nineteen-year-old Travis Stephenson returns home on leave from Afghanistan, it's not all a balloons and music - if even that is what his mom had to welcome him home with. After the happy welcome, Travis faces a much different reality: his parents' marriage is falling apart, his brother has pilfered his girlfriend and taken over his car and Travis keeps seeing his best friend everywhere. Only problem is Charlie died in Afghanistan.

It isn't until Travis meets - re-meets, really - Harper Grey in a bar, a girl that he has a sorted past with that things begin to look like they might be able to turn around for him. As he and Harper spend more time together, Travis seems able to deal with both his family problems and his own - and not just wait it out until he's back at base or in Afghanistan where he, oddly enough, seemed to feel more at home.

Maybe with Harper he won't be able get back to normal, but something like it just might do.


Something Like Normal is a brilliant, fantastic debut with a lead character like one I doubt you've ever read before and like one I doubt you'll ever read again.

I spent the beginning of the book trying to figure out who it was Travis reminded me of - which character. I went through every remotely military character from books, TV, movies and came up with nothing. I thought about male main characters or narrators and still came up with nothing. Know why? He doesn't remind me of anyone.


Continue reading . . .

34 Pieces of You ~ Carmen Rodrigues review

34 Pieces of You
Simon Pulse
September 4, 2012
336 pages
add to Goodreads/buy from Book Depo/or Amazon

A dark and moving novel—reminiscent of Thirteen Reasons Why—about the mystery surrounding a teenage girl’s fatal overdose.

There was something about Ellie... Something dangerous. Charismatic. Broken. Jake looked out for her. Sarah followed her lead. And Jess kept her distance, and kept watch.

Now Ellie’s dead, and Jake, Sarah, and Jess are left to pick up the pieces. All they have are 34 clues she left behind. 34 strips of paper hidden in a box beneath her bed. 34 secrets of a brief and painful life.

Jake, Sarah, and Jess all feel responsible for what happened to Ellie, and all three have secrets of their own. As they begin to confront the darkest truths about themselves, they will also find out what Ellie herself had been hiding all along...

(synopsis found on Goodreads)

34 Pieces of You was quite a bit different than what I was expecting, but not any less good.  It is reminiscent of Jay Asher's Thirteen Reason's Why, but less emotional and wrenching in many ways. This isn't due to the skill of Rodrigues versus the skill of Asher as a writer, either. The tone that 34 Pieces of You takes is quite different from that of Thirteen Reasons Why.

Despite Ellie being the 'you' in the title, the novel is mainly focused on the other characters - their relationships after Ellie's death -- both with each other and with others -- how Ellie was a part of their lives and impacted them before her death. Ellie's a character in 34 Pieces of You but she is the 'you' not an 'I.'

The narrative moves between the before, the after, the earlier before and the later after, not in a linear fashion. It not only makes for interesting reading but it was really great to see how a character was from the point when everything started (Ellie's death), follow them later, then see how they had been, and then see how they later were as well. I enjoyed it much more then if we had started before Ellie's death, followed through until she died, past that until the end. It made the character development so much better.

I love, love books where characters and their relationships are done well and this is one I adored. It didn't have the emotional impact -- at least until the end, for me -- that I was expecting and the notes were a smaller part than I expected but I that was all okay. It was okay because that wasn't the book this was.

What 34 Pieces of You *was* was a book looking at Sarah, Jake, Jess, and even Tommy and Lola and how Ellie and her death (and life) effected them.  They way that Carmen Rodrigues wove their lives and relationships together was fantastic. Character A might be one thing to Character B but then they were also this other, unexpected thing to Character C -- and, maybe, something small to Character D, too. They were a small group of teenagers, most of whom had spent the last several years growing up together, and the way their lives intersected felt very real and true.

As I said, the book as  whole was not quite as emotional as I was expecting (given the subject matter). There was a particular part, close to the end, however that I really, truly felt connected and I was glad those characters had that moment.

I very much enjoyed 34 Pieces of You and look forward to more from Carmen Rodrigues -- and recommend this one!


Rating: 9/10



 

Ask the Passengers ~ A.S. King (earc) review

Ask the Passengers
Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
October 23, 2012
296 pages
add to Goodreads/buy from Book Depo/or Amazon

Astrid Jones doesn't have a perfect life. Her mother - who has 'Mommy and Me' nights with Astrid's 16-year-old sister - all but ignores when she isn't trying to construct a new social life for her. Her father's present, but really only in the physical sense. Her sister, Ellis, quit being a friend a long time ago, now more their mom's confidant than Astrid's.

Her friends are her refuge from this crazy family life, but she's keeping a secret - a big secret - from even them.

Passengers it planes flying by overhead are the only ones who don't prod and ask Astrid questions, questions she doesn't want to answer. She sends each of them her love, even if the tiny action may never make a difference to anyone but her.


Ask the Passengers is a really good contemporary read. Astrid is not a teenager who has everything figured out - neither, actually, is any of the other characters in the novel. They have complications in their lives, things they are struggling to figure out, interpersonal issues with both family and friends, and/or internal struggles. The characters don't come across as burdened by these problems, rather it makes them feel real.

Astrid's mother is a great - and memorable - character. She's quite different from other mothers in other YA, or adult, books I've previously read. Her way of both butting into Astrid's life while still ignoring Astrid, personally was odd as a character trait, but written in a way where it made sense. It also made you feel for Astrid - and for Ellis, actually - for having Claire as a mother. Astrid was dealing with so much, questioning so much and then didn't have her mother to turn to.

It made the Passengers part of Ask the Passengers both very fitting and more fun to read. After Astrid would ask the passengers her questions, there were small chapters/interludes from passengers on the planes. Little glimpses into their lives.

While I really enjoyed the different characters in this book, the difficulties they had, the way they were working to overcome them - or at times putting that off - something didn't quite work for me. I don't know if Ask the Passengers just didn't click with me or if it wasn't quite what I was looking for, but something kept it from being a really great read from me, keeping it just really good. I liked it, but it didn't amaze me. I'm sorry that I can't pinpoint why.

edit: Now that it's the release date and I have access to the audio book, I've given that a try - and it worked much better for me. I think, for whatever reason the actual reading reading of this novel was slower for me but listening to it helped the pacing of the story. It also helped my enjoyment of the story. I'll keep my rating at a 7 as that's for the original review, but the audio version did bump up my enjoyment of the story.


Rating: 7/10



thank you to LBFYR for the egalley through NetGalley

Through to You ~ Emily Hainsworth (earc) review

Through to You
Balzer + Bray
October 2, 2012
272 pages
add to Goodreads/buy from Book Depo/or Amazon

Do you remember the last book that you wished and hoped for? That you wanted, just wanted to be fantastic . . . and then when you finally read it actually was? It was maybe even better than you were expecting?

That's what Emily Hainsworth's Through to You was for me. I'd been dying to read this one and then it lived up to all of the (created by me) hype.

Camden "Can" Pike feels as if the only good thing in his life is gone now that his girlfriend Viv has died. Out of football after an injury, his parents divorced and his father gone, Viv was the one there to see him through his pain - to show him he didn't need football or the popularity it brought. They had each other.

But now she's gone.

Visiting the site of their car accident - deadly for her, not for him - one night, Cam sees a girl. Only she's not really there. The girl, an apparition, a ghost, isn't Viv, either.

She's Nina. Not a ghost, as she tells Cam, but from another world. A parallel world where Viv is alive.

How crazy it all sounds doesn't matter to Cam, all that matters is that there's somewhere where Viv is alive.

©BBC (I think) but found on Tumblr at some point

But as he goes to Nina's world, he finds that more than Viv's mortality is different there. The Cam and Viv there have made different choices, gone down different paths. The Viv he encounters doesn't seem to be the same girl he remembers from his world.

With Nina keeping secrets from Cam and the opening between their worlds likely temporary, will Cam find the what he's looking for? Will he find the Viv he lost months ago? Will he see the truth in things - in both worlds - even if it hurts?


Through to You makes excellent use of the parallel worlds. They're not exact replicas of each other nor are they so vastly different that you're left wondering what they have in common. They're two worlds, with the same town, same people who have gone down different paths in life. It's a great way to present things to the main characters - the different outcomes slightly different choices could or would have created.



Hainsworth has created exceptionally strong characters. From the main characters of Cam, Nina and Viv to the more secondary characters of Mike and Owen. They're well developed characters who all bring something great to the book and leave you feeling for them.

I love that this isn't a book that makes the end obvious. If you're like me, you'll be hoping certain things will - or won't - happen and some of them will - and won't - but Hainsworth does an excellent job of the story going up and down with Cam. It wouldn't make sense for him to have everything figured out right away - he's still grieving and then amazed at finding Viv. It's a lot for him to take in and then deal with. The progression going up and down with his emotions, etc flows well. Even if it leaves the readers hoping he'll see what they can, but he can't.

The ending wasn't quite what I was expecting but I think it fits perfectly for the story, I wouldn't change a thing.

In fact, the only thing I really would change about  Through to You  is the amount of smoking. I understand the initial smoking in the car, but Cam's mother is always smoking, and several other characters/mentions. It just seemed unnecessary.

This is one book where the plot is fantastic - parallel worlds, grieving, finding your lost love in said parallel world, possibly having to choose a world - and the characters are equally strong if not stronger. Whether you're a character girl (or guy) or a plot girl (or guy),  Through to You  has it.


Rating: 9/10





(egalley received from Harper through Edelweiss)

Every Day ~ David Levithan

Every Day
Knopf Books for Young Readers
August 28, 2012
336 pages
add to Goodreads/buy from Book Depo/or Amazon

Every day it's a different body, a different life. An entire life made up of different lives, each lived for only a day. It's not something anyone else can relate to, but ti's all A's ever known.

Tomorrow's body will be the same age as A - sixteen - and in close geographic proximity, but everything else, including the gender, is an unknown. A isn't male or female, A is just A, content to live a different life each day . . . Until A wakes up in the body of Justin and meets Justin's girlfriend Rhiannon.

Rhiannon makes A abandon all the rules that day - and want to abandon them for all the future days - because A has finally found someone they want to be with for more than just a day. But when A will be in the body of an entirely different person tomorrow, is that at all possible?


I was drawn to the Every Day and the idea of a sort of non-corporeal being, moving to a different body every day who finds - and possibly falls in love with a girl - one day while in one of those bodies, only to spend subsequent days trying to find her again. And make a relationship work.

There wasn't as much 'trying to find her' as I had expected, which actually makes sense given all of the technology available today - and, really, points to David Levithan for making use of that.

The setup, the interaction between Rhiannon and A didn't quite click for me. It wasn't that it was weak or missing anything in particular, I just wasn't sold on it being some life changing event for A. As so much of the story was built around that day - and A's feelings, reactions to it - my not loving it could have been a problem, but it actually wasn't. The rest of the story, instead of relying on the early events to sell the relationship between A and Rhiannon uses it as a base and builds on it.

If it does really click for you, you'll likely get even more out of Every Day but as it is used as a starting point, you don't have to get it completely right away.

A doesn't have human relationships and didn't bond with anyone at a young age so I expected him to be a bit more like Jasper in Barry Lyga's I Hunt Killers (my review), with the more detached view of looking at people and observing them almost more as things than beings. Yet, A actually has more understanding and empathy for (almost) all of the people whose bodies he inhabits. More so than, I think, we each seem to have for people we just see on the street - or even friends or family members.

Living all these different lives, each for a day, has really given him a sense of what life is like for a wide variety of individuals. I really appreciated that David Levithan included characters - or at least their bodies and lives - of teens of different socio-economic levels, different genders, different sexual orientations, etc. There were really a wide variety of characters used in Every Day.

The plot, towards the end, took a turn that I wasn't expecting and I really enjoyed the elements that were introduced and where things went.


Rating: 8/10



thank you to Random House and Net Galley for my egalley to read and (honestly) review

My Sister Lives on the Mantelpiece ~ Annabel Pitcher (earc) review

My Sister Lives on the Mantelpiece
Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
August 14, 2012
224 pages
add to Goodreads/buy from Book Depo/or Amazon

Ten-year-old Jamie Matthews' sister Rose died five years ago in a terrorist attack and its torn his family apart. He and his older sister Jasmine (Rose's twin sister) have just moved with their father to the Lake District while their mother's  moved in with a man from her support group. The only thing connecting them, that they've all left behind the London home where they lived with Rose.

That's not to say they've moved on, though.  With his parents grieving so much they seem to have forgotten about their two living children, Jamie relies on his sister Jas to take care of him and his cat Roger for comfort.

When he sees a commercial for a televised talent show (a la Britain/America's Got Talent) he's sure he's found the way to bring their (very) absentee mother back into the fold and reunite their family once and for all - even without Rose.


I'm not sure I've ever read a book where the title should needed to be taken so literally. Yes, Jamie is ten-years-old but Rose 'living' on the mantel is not just his interpretation of things, it's how his family operates. She died five years prior and they're still very much involving her in every day life. She - or rather her urn - gets plates of food on special occasions, she 'gives' people things. It's all rather odd.

Especially so, I would think, for a ten-year-old. While his parents and older sister have more memories of Rose, Jamie was only five when she died and barely - if at all - remembers this girl who is revered and sanctified in his family. It creates a strange, hard existence for him - but also lets the readers see how, well, troubled the family is.

Page two shows right off with a perfect example of where the family is:

"They each got five bits. Mom put hers in a fancy white coffin beneath a fancy white headstone that says My Angel on it. Dad burned a collarbone, two ribs, a skull and a little toe and put the ashes in a golden urn. So they each got their own way, but - surprise, surprise - it didn't make them happy."

We see right away that the parents aren't united on how to deal with things and that Jamie, even at ten, seems to know things that maybe a ten year old shouldn't?

The new move is supposed to be a fresh start and in a way it is - but it's still clear that things aren't quite right. It's a fresh start but it isn't quite a do-over. And that makes it seem real. The characters slates aren't wiped clean.

My Sister Lives on The Mantelpiece has characters who leave you almost constantly wondering what they're thinking, how they could do that, did they get grief counseling even. It almost all seems to be self-aware - on the part of the reader and the author, not the part of the characters - and for the eventual growth of the characters, though.  There's a lot that left me shaking my head and wondering if the characters should just be written off (due to their actions) but for a lot of them they really did get somewhere better - or at least different - at the end.

I have seen the book listed as Middle Grade but I think it's more Young Adult or upper Middle Grade for the need of the reader to see the right and wrong in things that the characters only see as necessity.

If you're interested, David Tennant did the audio (at least the British audio) and  an audio sample is here.


Rating: 8/10


thank you to LBYR and Net Galley for my egalley of this title
 

The Waiting Sky ~ Lara Zielin arc review

The Waiting Sky

Putnam Juvenile

August 2, 2012

224 pages

add to Goodreads/buy from TBD/or Amazon

While it's incredibly unlikely that you'll ever find me chasing any tornadoes - for fun, for research, or some combination of the two - I do have to admit that fictionalized accounts of those that do are interesting to me. (The 'reality' versions, oddly less so.)

Lara Zielin's The Waiting Sky uses the storm chasers and their quest to find the next great, big tornado and gather information from it as a backdrop to telling seventeen-year-old Jane McAllister's story. Living all of her teen, as well as most of her childhood, years alone with her alcoholic mother, Jane's learned how to take care of her mother.

In their troubled relationship, Jane makes as much money as she can babysitting - even to the detriment of her school work - pays the bills, lies for her mother and manages as best she can. Her mother, meanwhile spends all of the money (mostly on alcohol), forgets about bills, spends too much time in bars, and puts Jane in danger.

Jane's older brother, Ethan, left when she was just a kid and she's forever blamed him for (as she sees it) abandoning not only her but their mother as well. Now, he - after some urging from her best friend, too - has finally convinced Jane to spend the summer with him -  and the tornado chasing team he's a part of.

While everyone else, including the gorgeous, charming Max, is sure that time apart is what Jane's mother - and more importantly, Jane - need for a real chance at healing, Jane's not so sure. She's used to watching out for her mother.

Will she stay with Ethan - for the whole summer and maybe even past it - or will she return home to Minnesota and the dysfunctional relationship with her alcoholic mother, even if it means losing her best friend and continuing the same life?


I've never really thought before how perfect that chaos and ultimate unpredictability of tornadoes are to be paired alongside a story of someone dealing with addiction. The tornadoes the teams chase parallel, in a way, Jane's mother - or her relationship with her mother. There are false starts, things that seem like they're going to be more than they ultimately are, things that cause more damage than is first known.

The two work together extremely well, both for readers and for Jane. Both story lines - the team chasing the tornadoes and Jane working out her relationship with her mother (and brother) while quite different, are both very strong and blend together nicely in The Waiting Sky. 

As a story about addiction or a character dealing with someone with addiction, The Waiting Sky is different than any I've read; it removes Jane from the situation.We don't as much of her in the every day, routine of coping with her mother. That's also where I think The Waiting Sky is strongest and most unique, however. Jane deals with her guilt, mixed emotions and uncertainty away from her mother, with people not completely familiar with the situation and without the constant presence of her mother. All without the novel losing any depth or impact - possibly gaining a new kind.

With a great cast of characters (you might even want to start talking like a pirate a bit - it's safer than tornado chasing), the right touch of romance, fantastic family relationships and a great complex main character The Waiting Sky is one not to miss!

A great contemporary, realistic fiction novel you'll want to run out and pick up - it's out Thursday.

Rating: 8/10

My Spring Break Blog Spectacular interview post with Lara Zielin, author of The Waiting Sky (from April)

Thank you to Stacey Barney at Penguin/Putnam for my arc and to Stacey and Lara for participating in/helping with my SBBS (for which the arc was received)

Holding on to Zoe ~ George Ella Lyon (arc) review

Holding on to Zoe
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
July 17, 2012
176 pages
add to Goodreads/buy from TBD/or Amazon

When sixteen-year-old Jules gets pregnant, she thinks up a myriad of possible reactions her mother could have when she tells her - denial is not one of them. It doesn't matter, though, because Jules is going to have her baby.

And once she does, the other things don't matter anymore. That her boyfriend has skipped town is irrelevant,  her mother thinking she's doing it all for attention couldn't matter less, work at the Toyota plant while figuring out how to finish school is hard, but it's what Jules has to do for Zoe and their future. But why does her mother still refuse to believe that Zoe's real?


Holding on to Zoe  is not only unlike any other book I've read, it was unlike what I expected it to be. I'm incredibly glad I won a copy from Macmillan Children's on Twitter, I may not have found out about this one as quickly otherwise. I know I wouldn't have read it as quickly!

At the start it is reminiscent of some other books dealing with teen pregnancy: the girl lives with her single mother, her father abandoned them when she was much younger, she feels lonely/alone, she has a boyfriend that promises her things, and then when she's pregnant he's gone.

That's where things diverge with Holding on to Zoe . . . and where it gets difficult to say just how without spoiling the book. At a short - but definitely not too short - 176 pages, things happen quickly in Zoe.  Lyon's also written some poetry and that not only comes through in the writing of Zoe but is, at least part of, what makes the short length work so well.

With Jules carrying for Zoe and her mother denying that Zoe is even there, readers are put in an interesting place. What works so well is that readers do get Zoe's view of everything but also with an outside perspective. Some books work because they keep everyone out of the loop, just letting you in at the last second; this one works because it keeps you so in the loop, instead letting you see the characters and their interactions and workings.

The only thing I could have wanted even a bit more from was one scene towards the end that I think was maybe a bit too quick for me as I'm not sure I quite grasped all of what went on in it. Otherwise, I greatly enjoyed this novel and love that it got brought to my attention!

Rating: 9/10

If you want a chance to win this - or any July YA book - you can enter my July New Release Hop Giveaway




Thank you to Ksenia and @MacKidsBooks for my galley

Perfect Escape ~ Jennifer Brown (eARC) review

Perfect Escape
Little, Brown Young Readers
July 10, 2012
368 pages
add to Goodreads/buy from TBD/or Amazon

Kendra has grown up living in the shadow of her older brother, Grayson's shadow. Living with severe OCD, Grayson - and Kendra along with the parents - has had to live a carefully regimented life for almost as long as Kendra can remember.

The only way Kendra's found not to be eclipsed totally by Grayson is to be perfect. While taxing, it's seemed to work . . . until now. A school scandal is about to bring her perfectness to end.

Not ready to face her parents or their disappointment, Kendra thinks if she can just get far enough away, she'll know how to handle it. But first she's got to get Grayson. Maybe some distance can help him, too.

At some point, she'll have to stop running, stop trying to fix things by escaping and face her problems. Her problems from school, her problems with Grayson and their relationship - the problems his OCD has caused in her life . . . and the why she's always tried so hard to be perfect. And what she'll do now, that she's failed.


Perfect Escape is less a road trip novel - though it's that a bit - and much more about Grayson and Kendra's relationship. The difficulties of living with an (older) brother and son with an illness for Kendra and her parents, respectively, has shaped their lives. They don't go on vacations, they do - or don't do - things certain ways.

While Kendra loves her brother, she's getting kind of sick of it.

A road trip is definitely not how their mother would go about things, but that's the point for Kendra. She wants to do something different, even if she's not quite sure what it is.

I love that with Perfect Escape so much of a point is made about what's not quite right with Grayson, we see during the novel all of the problems that Kendra, in fact, has. Even as she's been trying to be perfect.

There's also quite a great, in all its flaws, sibling relationship. Readers are just left waiting for the two of them to either explode of slowly talk things out - it's clear something has to happen, though.

The secondary characters that are introduced - one in particular - are great. I really hoped that the one character would stick around because she had a lot of depth and might have even been my favorite character of the novel in general.

Rating: 7/10

thank you to LBYR and NetGalley for my egalley of this novel!

Lost Girls ~ Ann Kelley (eARC) review

Lost Girls
Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
July 10, 2012
336 pages
add to Goodreads/buy from TBD/or Amazon

It was just supposed to be three days on an island. The Amelia Earhart Cadets - the four juniors, girls nine to thirteen, and five seniors, girls fourteen to seventeen - were in for a camping trip off the coast of Thailand. All American (save for one British girl) they're living in Thailand, during the Vietnam war, daughters of men and women stationed there.

The camping trip promises to be fun - even more so with Mrs. Campbell, a young, widow the girls find intriguing as their only adult leader.

Things start to go wrong, though, almost immediately. A terrible storm keeps them from reaching their desired destination, instead forcing them to land at Forbidden Island.

When things on the island only get worse that first night - and no sign of a rescue looks imminent, the girls know they will have to figure out how to survive until when . . . and if help does arrive.

With not everyone reacting the way Bonnie, our narrator, expects them to - some much worse and some so much better they surprise her, island life will be a struggle they never anticipated.


I think I went into Lost Girls expecting it to be a bit more like The Lord of the Flies and that's my own fault. While it is about a group of children and young adults - with one adult - getting stranded on an island and what happens when they have to fend for themselves, it's not as much (as Flies was) about morality and what people will do without the rules of society.

In fact, I almost wish it was more about that.

Lost Girls is a very good book about girls working together - and dealing with those few that don't quite wish to contribute - to survive. It continued to stay very nice and agreeable, though. Sure, they were girls and sure it was the 1970s so maybe it all worked for the setting, I don't know, but there was enough (without being spoilery) that did happen maybe thanks to (a lack of) some character's actions/reactions that seemed to lack repercussions.

I'm not saying that the girls of Lost Girls needed to go all Lord of the Flies on anyone, but everyone was really forgiving and accepting really quickly it seemed.

Things didn't need to be black and white, no. But they were, perhaps, a little too gray for me.

I could see likely why the character was doing what she was doing, but that didn't quite make it just *snap'* and okay for me one she admitted it, forgiving everything that happened. Maybe the characters needed to do that, but . . . I don't know. It was too smooth and easy for me. (Too gray.)

The random things that would be thrown in by Bonnie, even just little things, that would usually be used later in the story but didn't always fit in where they were introduced made the story not flow that well.

It also read more like a middle grade novel, though some of the content was probably more YA.


Rating:  7/10


Other books you might also enjoy:  The Lord of the Flies by William Golding, Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein, and Beauty Queens by Libba Bray

thank you to LBYR and NetGalley for my egalley of this title

Amelia Anne is Dead and Gone ~ Kat Rosenfield (arc) review

Amelia Anne is Dead and Gone
Dutton Juvenile
July 5, 2012
277 pages
add to Goodreads/buy from TBD/or on Amazon

The same night Becca graduates high school, a girl is found dead on the side of the road.

One event was supposed to set Becca free from her tiny, lead-you-nowhere town but the other looks poised to keep her there. Instead of a summer filled with packing for college, planning her long planned for and now imminent departure, she finds herself - like the rest of the town - wrapped up in the violence they don't know quite how to handle.

Unexpected and more than unusual, the murder has them all reeling. And ready to point fingers.

As both girls' - one now dead and one maybe trying to finally live - stories unfold, the truth of what really happened may finally come to light. But will it be able to save either of them?



Honestly, I don't know what happened with me and Amelia Anne. Not only did I have incredibly high hopes for it, but a lot of other people loved it . . . it didn't quite work for me, though.

The beginning felt a bit like The Truman Show or Pleasantvile to me. I'm not sure if it was setting up the small town, gossip-y setting or something else. It didn't quite feel modern, though - more like something that I knew was set in modern day but with the charm of days gone by (or what we picture them having - hence my Pleasantville thoughts).

Aside from that, I didn't quite get into the story. It felt removed, for me. I'm all for stories where you're not right in there with the characters, it can actually be useful sometimes but with Amelia Anne, I felt like it was maybe less intentional and more the book not working for me? Like I was outside of the story, which kept me from really engaging in it.

As I said when I started this review, I really don't know what happened with this book - I don't really dislike it - but I don't really like it, either. I kind of have no terribly strong feelings either way. And that feels weird. Really, really weird.

I wish there had been more of Becca's boyfriend in the book. I wanted to connect with his character - and/or their relationship - more but he was so not present that I found myself wanting him around more.

Becca was hard for me to get a handle on. I could understand where she started - the girl who was smart and just wanted out of her tiny town - because I've lived in small towns where almost everyone just wants out. I think the change in her was a little hard for me to grasp mostly because I had trouble getting into the book so I had trouble getting into who she was, what she was thinking, how things were affecting her, etc.

Apologies if this review was incredibly unhelpful - I had a lot of trouble getting into the book . . Kat Rosenfield does seem to be a talented writer and I'll check out whatever her sophomore novel is, though.

One note, due to some language but mostly sexual content, I'd say that Amelia Anne is Dead and Gone is aimed more at older teens.

(Gabrielle Carolina did LOVE the book, here's her Goodreads review.)

Rating: 6/10

Other books you might also enjoy: Breaking Beautiful by Jessica Shaw Wolf and Shine  by Lauren Myracle


thanks to LibraryThing Early Reviewers for my review

This is Not a Test ~ Courtney Summers (arc) review

This is Not a Test
St Martin's Griffin
June 19, 2012
322 pages
add to Goodreads/buy from Book Depository/or Amazon

It's a zombie apocalypse and six students are taking shelter in Cortege High. They've barricaded the doors, but the dead who are swarming outside won't stop their pounding

Just one bit from someone who's turned is all it takes to kill a person and bring them back as a mindless, murdering monster . . .  And there's no signs of any help or other survivors.

But for Sloane Price, it doesn't seem that bad. Her life before the world seemingly feel apart was far from picturesque. Now, a girl stuck with five people doing anything they can to survive is just waiting for it all to end. For those things to bring her the end she's waiting for.

As the days drag on, they each find a different reason to carry on . . . but as the tensions rise, with six students alone twenty-four-seven and life or death decisions weighing on them, the violence threatens to make its way inside.


It would be easy to see that Courtney Summers, a writer of contemporary, realistic YA fiction up to this point, had written a novel with a zombie apocalypse and just say that she was jumping on some sort of bandwagon. Oh, how wrong you would be, though.

This is Not a Test while definitely a zombie novel, is the most contemporary, realistic fiction zombie-having novel I've ever read. There are times in the novel when I got so involved in the story and the characters, what was going on inside the school that I forgot the dead were just outside those barricades, outside the doors. Almost.  I say almost because it's always in the back of your mind that the reason Sloane and the others are in the school is because of what's going on outside.

Sometimes, it's just in the way back of your mind.

Sloane has some mystery going on with her - as to just what all is going on with her - and the other characters have things they're not quite being upfront about, either. It adds some tension to the situation (on top of the obvious tension) and allows things to stay interesting as we learn about them while they're trapped in a high school for days on end. It's a less gruesome 'The Walking Dead' meets 'The Breakfast Club.' Pretty awesome, really.

If you love contemporaries but don't usually (or ever) read anything supenatural/paranormal/other, please, please, please don't let the 'zombie apocalypse' put you off of reading hit - you'll miss out on a great contemporary!

And if you only ever read books with zombies or werewolves or vampires or some sort of creature, please do read this! It's fantastic.


Rating: 9/10


Other books you might like: Aftertime by Sophie Littlefield and Trapped by Michael Northrop


thank you to LT's Early Reviewers for my advance copy

Something Like Normal ~ Trish Doller (eARC) review

Something Like Normal
Bloomsbury USA Children's
June 19, 2012
224 pages
add to Goodreads/Buy from TBD/or Amazon

When nineteen-year-old Travis Stephenson returns home on leave from Afghanistan, it's not all a balloons and music - if even that is what his mom had to welcome him home with. After the happy welcome, Travis faces a much different reality: his parents' marriage is falling apart, his brother has pilfered his girlfriend and taken over his car and Travis keeps seeing his best friend everywhere. Only problem is Charlie died in Afghanistan.

It isn't until Travis meets - re-meets, really - Harper Grey in a bar, a girl that he has a sorted past with that things begin to look like they might be able to turn around for him. As he and Harper spend more time together, Travis seems able to deal with both his family problems and his own - and not just wait it out until he's back at base or in Afghanistan where he, oddly enough, seemed to feel more at home.

Maybe with Harper he won't be able get back to normal, but something like it just might do.


Something Like Normal is a brilliant, fantastic debut with a lead character like one I doubt you've ever read before and like one I doubt you'll ever read again.

I spent the beginning of the book trying to figure out who it was Travis reminded me of - which character. I went through every remotely military character from books, TV, movies and came up with nothing. I thought about male main characters or narrators and still came up with nothing. Know why? He doesn't remind me of anyone.

I thought he did because Trish Doller has drawn him so well, flesh her character out so full that even after just a little bit of the story, I felt like I knew Travis. (Which, in turn, led me to thinking he reminded me of someone else.) He is a character that feels so real, so quickly that it's hard to believe you just 'met' him a few pages or chapters ago.

The relationship between Harper and Travis is fantastic. It's pretty much perfect in that it's not perfect. They have their flaws and Travis does not become healed and whole just because of Harper's existence and she (I love her for this) is also pretty tough herself and doesn't forget their past just because. Right from the beginning they're pretty adorable.

The military aspects of Something Like Normal all seem to be on point (and based on the acknowledgments I'd say they are) and add greatly to the story. Not only are they part of what makes - and keeps - Travis seeming so real, it's something that makes this novel both incredibly relevant and important. Aside from being just an immensely enjoyable book, I applaud Trish Doller for the subject matter as well.

Please do go read this book, it's fantabulous (see, I held out on that word until now because it doesn't quite fit with the book, per se, but does fit with my opinion of it). It is a 9 and not a 10 only because I might have liked to see a little bit more on some of the secondary characters or towards the end.


Rating: 9/10*

Thank you to NetGalley and Bloomsbury for my e-galley of this title 


*bonus points were only given in my head for mentioning the place I live . . . I'm weird like that

One Breath Away ~ Heather Gudenkauf (eARC) review

One Breath Away
Harlequin MIRA
June 26, 2012
400 pages
add to Goodreads/buy from Book Depository/or Amazon

It's a startlingly, suddenly cold spring day, the last day before Spring Break in Broke Branch, Iowa when the gunman walks into the school. The ancient, housing grades K through 12 is where nearly all of the two spent their school years but now it's facing an unknown threat.

In all but the one classroom - taken hostage, students just know that they're under a lockdown - and that it doesn't seem to be  a drill, that something actually seems to be happening. Outside, the police have received a call from an unknown man who claims to be in the school. Tens, if not hundreds, of students' 911 calls seem to only be jumbling the message of what's happening (and jamming the phone lines).

With a freak snowstorm slowing down the arrival of outside help, it's u to the tiny town's police department to decide how to handle the situation.

And get everyone out safely.


Much like Heather Gudenkauf's first two novels, One Breath Away uses several narrators - in this case five - to tell the story: Augie, a thirteen-year-old girl new to the town; Meg Barrett, one of the town's police officers whose daughter would ordinarily be in the school; Will Thwaite, farmer and Augie's grandfather; Holly, Will's daughter and Augie's mother who left Broken Branch after high school and promised never to be back; and Mrs. Oliver, the school's third grade teacher.

Augie, Holly and Meg's narrations are told in the first person while Will and Mrs Oliver's are in the third person. As with The Weight of Silence and These Things Hidden the narration by the different characters allows us to learn a great deal about each of them and their back story as we progress through the current goings on and readers are able to progressively care more about each of the characters and get invested in the plot at the same time.

About the narrators/characters:
While Holly's sections seemed shorter - and that made sense given her location and condition - I was very glad that she was a part of the story. Her relationship with both Will, her father and Augie, her daughter, (and, through their telling, her song P.J. and her mother) really rounded things out and made that family relationship seem whole and was the strongest 'unit' in the book.

Augie and P.J. have had to leave their life (and mother) behind in Arizona after an accident left her badly burned and still in the hospital. They've only been in Broken Branch a few months on the day the gunman comes in. Knowing their past, though, gives you more of a connection with Augie and makes her much more relatable as she worries so desperately about her brother.

Knowing the past also makes it easier to understand some of Will's desperation to see them safe, to have his chance.

Seeing Mrs Oliver as more than a teacher was fantastic. I loved her story. not only did it make her into a great character, it made her not 'just another character' that you kind of worried about.

Meg, a police officer who moved to Broken Branch with her young daughter following her divorce, was a good character and I appreciated her story, but I found her to be the weakest of all of the narrators. Possibly because she had the least interaction outside the here and now - or possibly I just didn't connect with her. She was by no means a bad character, I just liked the others much more.

The plot:
In One Breath Away there's not violence and terror every page, despite there being a gunman in a school, but there is tension and fear. Gudenkauf knows how to use the switching perspectives to her advantage, changing from one character to another just as something is revealed (or about to be). It's not a book to be afraid to read - it's a book to be afraid to put down. This book keeps the tension high, the present story is broken up with past recollections that, instead of breaking the tension, actually raise it by stealing you away from it and leaving you wondering what's happening.

While set in a small, small town One Breath Away doesn't have characters' relationships that are as interwoven as her previous novels (at least based on my memory), but that's not a fault here. She's quickly becoming a writer I know will have a great plot - this time with incredible tension - but also fill the story with fantastic character relationships so that you also care about the characters.

Rating: 8/10

Thank you to Harlequin and NetGalley for my egalley of this title

Breaking Beautiful ~ Jennifer Shaw Wolf review

Breaking Beautiful

Walker Children's

April 24, 2012

354 pages

add to Goodreads/buy from Book Depository/or Amazon

Allie's small town of Pacific Cliff's is mourning the death of her boyfriend, its golden boy, Trip. Trip died in the accident that sent his truck plunging off the seaside cliff - Allie survived but with no memory of the night or the accident.

Now, as she's recovered enough from her injuries to return to school nearly everyone seems to expect her to miss Trip as much as they do and in the same way. Only, while Allie might not be able to remember the night of the accident - the cotillion dance, the drive afterwards - she does remember the abuse she suffered at the hands of Trip. The abuse seemingly no one knew about.

With a new detective in their sleepy town, there to reopen the investigation into Trip's death, will Allie be able to continue to keep her secrets? And will she ever remember what happened the night of the accident? 

Will she even want to?

Breaking Beautiful is so much more than a story about a girl who can't remember something. Or a girl with secrets. Jennifer Shaw Wolf's debut is full of complex characters - from Allie to her brother Andrew, her childhood friend Blake, even some of the more minor school friends/foes - who have their own complicated pasts and presents that play into their motivation. 

It's a book that doesn't take things lightly and it doesn't let readers into the story lightly. We meet Allie after she's already survived the accident and is struggling with how to remember Trip, her abusive boyfriend who's died rather tragically.

With a military father she's been the new girl all her life, but now they're in her mother's hometown, where everyone knows everyone, something Allie always thought she'd be grateful for. Except that now, with Trip's death, she's seeing the darker side of that. Allie doesn't act the way everyone wants/expects her to and things quickly get very hard for her. The way that Wolf writes this is gripping, painful, and full of tension. While you do, at times, want to tell Allie something to do, there's never a surefire fix.

Her only ray of possible hope is her old friend, Blake. She'd left him behind recently but he seems to still be willing to be there for her. And he was, maybe, the only person in town who didn't love Trip.

Breaking Beautiful's plot packed so much more of a punch (literally and figuratively, I suppose) than I anticipated - I loved it.

A mystery, a romance, as well as a great look at friendship, family relationships and personal struggles, Breaking Beautiful is full of twists and turns right up until the end. You'll feel for the characters - even those you aren't sure have the best intentions - and hope everything turns out okay for all of them.

Rating: 10/10


Other books you might like: Shine by Lauren Myracle and Stay by Deb Caletti 

Revived ~ Cat Patrick review

Revived
Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
May 1, 2012
336 pages
add to Goodreads/buy from Book Depository/or Amazon

Just over a decade ago, a little girl, Daisy, was one of those killed in a school bush crash.

Only, Daisy didn't stay dead. Now, almost fifteen Daisy Appleby has been revived five times - including that first one - and lives without a fear of death. If she dies, they'll just bring her back, revive her.

A government agency, unknown to almost everyone, has developed and is currently testing a drug called Revive, a drug that can bring people back from the dead.

It allows Daisy to start her life over every time she's not careful and an accident or freak occurrence ends her life. Something that's never really bothered her before - she's always looked at the end of her old lives and starts of the new ones with a kind of scientific detachment.

Daisy's latest move, to a nowhere seeming town, might just bring those attachments she's looking for, though . . . and change the course of her life forever.



Cat Patrick's debut book Forgotten came out last summer and I'm still rather hopelessly in love with it - and London and Luke. (From my review: "The concept of Forgotten is appealing enough to draw readers in – but it is its actual execution that will cause word of its brilliance to spread like wildfire.") If you've read, Forgotten or even heard about it then you have some idea of just how well Cat Patrick can take an idea that - while startlingly original - seems simple and twist it so that you're left staring in awe.

Forgotten had me at the synopsis because it sounded ever so slightly like the movie Memento; Revived had me at the first half of the synopsis because, hey, school bus crashes, secret government agency with a drug that can bring people back from the dead . . . and then later the cover!

Revived does what Forgotten did it takes your every expectation of and just blows it clear out of the water.

Cat Patrick has a true talent for writing brilliant, connectable, realistic characters. Even if her plots are just on the other side of believable when you first read about them, once you add in the characters, it somehow becomes this incredible, contemporary fiction book, even with the reviving. (Obviously characters in paranormal/supernatural books can be great and relatable as well, I'm not knocking them, this is just about this book.)


Without giving away what does happen later on in the book, I just have to say, well, it's left me rather speechless. Patrick wrote about a very painful situation - and its aftermath, especially - beautifully.  Based on my personal experience with a rather similar situation and an only slightly similar situation I thank her for having it ring so true - even if it was a bit hard to read.

On a much lighter note, Cat Patrick has a gift for some crush-worthy boys in her books. I still have one on Luke Henry from Forgotten and now I have one on Matt as well. (That and maybe some of the decorating done in this book. Stephanie Perkins/Lola and Cat Patrick/her Revived characters are now my interior designers!)

Revived is so much deeper than I expected picking it up but I wouldn't trade that for anything. This is a book that I'm going to be pushing everyone to read because I find it just that amazing.

Rating 10+/10

(and Forgotten on Goodreads & Book Depo - links in my review, too)

My Spring Break Blog interview with Cat Patrick is here if you want to read it :)


Superbly giant thank you to Faye & LBYR for my copy of this to review!!

Bittersweet ~ Sarah Ockler review

Bittersweet
Simon Pulse
January 3, 2012
378 pages
add to Goodreads/buy from Book Depository/or Amazon

There was a time when Hudson Avery knew exactly what her future looked like. She was a brilliant figure skated and her dreams revolved around that . . . and something destroyed it all.

Now, she spends her time being the Cupcake Queen of Watonka - there was even an article about her and her delicious cupcakes in the paper. Her amazing cupcakes have helped her mother's diner, Hurley's, though. When Hudson isn't baking cupcakes, she's either at school or looking after her little brother Bug. There's not much time (or money) left for skating - even if she hadn't given it all up.

But when an opportunity presents itself and Hudson might just be able to go for her dreams again, will she take the chance? What about the adorable and so sweet guy who's been hanging around, but also sending some mixed signals?

It's time for Hudson to decide what she wants - and how to get it. Second chances don't hang around forever.


It would be irresponsible to not start this review with a bit of a warning: if you read Bittersweet you're going to want - maybe even need - to eat a cupcake - or cupcakes. It's pretty much impossible to read the whole book, (nearly) every chapter starting with the description of a downright scrumptious cupcake and then not want one yourself. I pretty much dare you to finish the book and not hit up you local bakery - or your own kitchen!

As Hudson makes cupcakes at her mother's diner and it's what she's become known for at school, in the town - and to a lesser extent within her family and to herself, the cupcakes descriptions are not only tempting but also fitting. Hudson's left behind one life that defined her - skating - only to fall into another one - Cupcake Queen of Watonka. Now she just has to figure out whether either of them is really her . . . or if she's a mix of the two or something else entirely.

Bittersweet is a very good book and written by anyone else I maybe would have enjoyed it but I think I
was holding it to higher standards because it was Sarah Ockler and not someone else. Hudson does have a great relationship with her little brother Bug, who is adorable, and a complicated one with her mother. With the cupcakes that she makes such a huge part of the diner's business, what Hudson wants isn't just her decision, it also affects her mother's business and their family which adds a layer to how she interacts with her mother.

After reading Twenty Boy Summer and especially Fixing Delilah I've really appreciated the family relationships that Ockler can write. Bittersweet was lacking a bit of that amazing extra oomph in the relationships between Hudson and her mother and Hudson and her brother that I was hoping for.



Rating: 7/10

The Last Princess ~ Galaxy Craze (eARC) review

The Last Princess
Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
May 1, 2012
295 pages
add to Goodreads/buy from Book Depository/or Amazon

After the Seventeen Days destroyed almost all that Eliza - and the rest of England (and likely the world - knew as modern civilization, people are left struggling for things they used to find commonplace. Clean water to drink is now a luxury, nearly all of the animals (save the snakes, worms and leaches) have died out of the forests, a coal powered train had to be brought out of a museum and used for transportation. Electricity is gone. People are scavenging for food.

Isolated from the rest of the world and what may or may not be going on there, Britain is a desolate place.

Meanwhile, though, Eliza and the rest of her family, the British royal family, is still living relatively well. They have more food than the others. They're still throwing a ball. It will be a far cry from the balls thrown for previous courts, but it's still a ball.

And it angers some people. Including the revolutionaries determined to overthrow the royals.

When blood is shed in the palace, Eliza is the only one able to escape. Determine not only to rescue her family - whom she hopes are still alive - but also to extract revenge on the man who has caused her grief, Eliza sets out on a journey. A journey that will cause her more pain, lead to more bloodshed and cause her to make choices she never thought she would have to make.


A great mix of a young royal - almost like Anastasia with shades or Marie Antoinette - with a bit Joan of Arc thrown in to the mix. With family relationships, friendships and personal struggles mixed in with the violence that comes and the post-apocalyptic Britain, The Last Princess should appeal to a wide audience - in both and gender.

With The Last Princess readers get a bit of the royal flavor - that bit extra that Eliza and her siblings enjoy thanks to their father being the King of England - but it's tampered  by the book being set after the Seventeen Days. While we never get an exact description of all that the Seventeen Days entailed, it all but destroyed the world. Britain is still reeling from it and trying to recover - and perhaps the King could make a few more concessions than he has.

Perhaps it's the way Eliza is forced to go out on her own and feels vengeful but it reminds me almost of Avi's Cripsin series a bit or perhaps of Darren Shan's Larten Crepsley series (just, you know, minus the vampire bit). I will say that Eliza seems stronger than both of those characters. (Likely due to her starting circumstance and the writers goal for the characters.)

The characters - Eliza, especially - in this novel are well written and their relationships are strong and not only make sense, but assist the story. The plot was great (a revolution much like the French moved to England after a sort of apocalypse) was incredibly logical and fun to read about. There were things that seemed to not ever get completely explained (like what the Seventeen Days was, who the Roamers were - or how they came to be) that left me wondering a bit and a few things were predictable. Other than that, though, things were greatly enjoyable and the little details (the lamps, the snakes, etc were nice inclusions.

While Eliza is a princess - and the title, of course, mentions that - The Last Princess' content should appeal to male YA (and possibly upper MG) readers as well. She's a female main character, but she's a tough  one - both physically and mentally - as she fights to make sure she is not, in fact, The Last Princess.


Rating: 9/10


thank you to LBYR and NetGalley for my egalley of this title

Purity ~ Jackson Pearce (eARC) review

Purity
Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
April 24, 2012
218 pages
add to Goodreads/buy from Book Depository/or Amazon

Just before her mother died, ten-year-old Shelby promised she would do three things: listen to her father, love as much as possible, and live without restraint. It's been fairly easy to follow those three promises so far - she avoids having her father tell her not to actually do something so that she can still follow through on the third promise and even has a list of (sometimes crazy) things she hopes to accomplish in life.

But when her father tells her about the Princess Ball where daughters vow to live a 'pure' life (no drugs, no sex until marriage and no alcohol until age 21), Shelby finds herself torn between Promise One and Promise Three. Until, she finds a loophole. Just like the one that allows her to do crazy things as long as her dad tells her best friend Jonas or someone else not to do them, Shelby has found a way around the chastity vow for the ball.

If she loses her virginity before the ball, the vow will be void and therefore she can make it and not be lying to her father but still not break Promise Two or Promise Three to her mother.


When I heard that Jackson Pearce was writing a contemporary YA about a purity ball, I was in a bit of love . . . and I so wanted to stay in it. But, I didn't.

I actually had a hard time finishing Purity. Shelby's mother makes her promise to 'listen' to her father and somehow Shelby takes that as doing exactly what her father says - if he says don't do x she can't do x. I can understand listening to him but just because he wants her to do the purity ball doesn't mean she can't voice some disapproval. To me, 'listen to your father,' doesn't quite translate to 'blindly obey - while finding any loophole around doing what your father says.'

Shelby didn't talk to her father about her discomfort with the vows, or anything at all, really. I had a hard time connecting with a character who makes a promise to her mother to listen to her father and then, because she doesn't want to vow to remain a virgin until marriage (or tell her father so), plans to lose her virginity in seven weeks.

The ending (as it pertained to two characters) was one I could see coming from the very beginning. It wasn't a big to-do at the end so it wasn't particularly rewarding, it was just something predictable throughout the story.

I still love the idea of a contemporary YA about the purity balls - and what they really mean; whether girls are taking them seriously or just doing it to look good to outsiders, how their families feel about it, if it's like a Deb Ball but with the vows and really just a society thing . . . I love all of that, but I didn't quite find it in Purity.


Here are two reviews one and two by bloggers who liked Purity more than I did - you might get a different sense of the book from them (I think they were able to connect with it more than I did).

As I said, I'm a Jackson Pearce fan and do hate that I didn't like this one - I'm hoping for more contemporary YA from here, though.


Rating: 5/10


thank you to LBYR and NetGalley for my egalley for review

Belles ~ Jen Calonita (eARC) review

Belles
Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
April 10, 2012
356 pages
add to Goodreads/buy on Amazon/or Book Depository

Isabelle, "Izzie," Scott loves the life she has in Harborside. She spends her summer days lifeguarding, swimming in the ocean, teaching swimming lessons at the community center and hanging out with her friends on the boardwalk. Never mind that Harborside is supposedly the "wrong" side of the tracks, the dangerous town where some people are afraid to go. Izzie still loves it.

But when her ailing grandmother - who is losing her memory - is no longer able to care for fifteen-year-old Izzie, a social worker sends her to live with her long lost (and unknown to Izzie until then) uncle. Izzie's uncle and his family (including a cousin, Mirabelle, also fifteen) live in a ritzy, glamorous, well to do town about as far removed from Harborside as can be . . . even if it is only twenty minutes away.

Just as Izzie isn't happy about starting a completely new life, Mira isn't overjoyed at having to share her life with someone, either. Izzie's transition isn't an easy one. Underneath all of the Southern charm there's plenty of queen bees, social hierarchy, backstabbing . . . and more than enough elitism and snobbery to go around.


Belles is a fun and light read - rather predictable, too but that doesn't really ruin it. Izzie's uncle being a state senator - with possible bigger ambitions - was a nice twist for the story. It gave another layer to things. It allowed the story to still be in the South and keep those elements while keeping the added pressure of the political run/future play. I liked that it didn't just involve the dad/uncle being a lawyer or a doctor or some other usual big to-do in the community. Having a campaign manager also involved added a bit of drama and difficulty for Izzie's adjustment.

The story being told from both Izzie and Mira's points of view was nice. It allows readers to see how both girls are viewing the new situation. Readers also get different perspectives on the same things - and get to see what really happened sometimes and not just how one of the characters interprets the effects.

The book did jump over several events or periods that seemed like they wold have helped readers connect with the story. Something would happen and instead of a scene following it, it would be several days later with a few paragraphs recap. Some of the scenes I felt were missing would have helped me to connect with the characters and the story more.

Overall, though, Belles is a light and enjoyable read. It's great to read between heavier and/or darker books.

Rating: 7/10


thank you to NetGalley and LBYR for my egalley of this title