When my teenage student walked into my classroom, slammed a copy of this book on the desk, and announced, in audible capital letters, “THIS IS THE BEST BOOK EVER WRITTEN,” I knew Anna and the French Kiss was something special. A contemporary story of discovering the world and yourself at the same time, Anna works…
The second book in the Grisha Triology will not disappoint fans of the first book, Shadow and Bone. We find Alina Starkov, Mal Oretsev, and The Darkling where they left off at the end of the first book, and the stakes for Ravka are even higher than before. Siege and Storm introduces readers to a…
I chose to review the young adult paranormal Ink because of its unusual setting – Japan. Indeed, author Amanda Sun does a fabulous job evoking the feeling of being in an environment and culture wholly unlike my own. And while the paranormal aspect sometimes confused me, overall I really enjoyed this story, going so far…
Liz Fichera’s young adult novel Hooked is the first sports romance that I have read that centers around golf. And while I am not going out straight away to buy a golf club, I enjoyed the sports parts hugely. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said about all other aspects of the novel. <!– var browName…
If any book proves the adage, “Don’t judge a book by its cover,” it’s the amazing YA novel, Eleanor and Park. Going by the cutesy, cartoon drawing on the dust jacket, one would expect a light, quirky, first-love story geared toward the teen set. Instead, this book will crush you, showing how life can be…
Changing someone for a joke never works, not in real life nor should it in books. So when a small group of Goth high school girls get together and bet one of their group she can’t change a geek guy into someone cool, I had visions of disaster even though this is billed as a…
The “sophomore slump” or “second book blues” has killed more series for me than I would care to list. Most often the problem is that the author fails to deliver a story while still keeping things suspenseful for book three. We get stuck in a quagmire that sucks the life from the characters and us…
I really struggled to assign a grade for this book. While author April Lindner succeeds in her goal to retell the Emily Bronte classic Wuthering Heights in a modern, Young Adult setting, I can’t say that I liked Catherine. Truth told, I’ve never liked the original on which it was based but I had hoped…
While I immensely enjoyed the Jason Bourne movies (starring Matt Damon and, later, Jeremy Renner), I never felt compelled to read the Robert Ludlum novels the films are based on because I couldn’t imagine such a visual story told using only words. However, after reading Jennifer Rush’s Young Adult action thriller Altered, I see that…
The first book in this series, The Name of the Star, was thisclose to being a DIK for me. It was a deeply atmospheric ghost tale with romance and ambiance. In this second installment of The Shades of London the atmosphere is just as intense, the story just as seductive. A nearly fatal encounter with…