It begins with a glass of orange juice at breakfast. Harry Crewe, orphan Homelander and newly come to the northernmost Homelander border patrol station, has nothing to do. Her new home is lovely, her guardians are everything that is kind, and the officers are friendly. But she has always been an octagonal peg (a very…
Before Twilight, there was L. J. Smith’s The Vampire Diaries series. This was the original “teen vampire” series, published during the wave of YA horror novels. Harper has reissued the original four books in two omnibuses, and a new hardback in the series came out in 2009.
When I was in middle and high school, I read plenty of YA books. In fact, I still do. One thing I appreciate now is that there seem to be more heroines out there who aren’t perfect – and who really are not trying to be. The unforgettable narrator of Going Too Far is one…
I have been an avid follower of Meg Cabot’s Princess Diaries since 2001, when I came across the first two volumes in a bookstore and read them in one sitting. Since then, I have bought each volume as soon as it came out, usually paying full price for the hardback. Forever Princess, together with Princess…
Gamer Girl is sort of your typical not-too-messed-up teenage girl from a newly broken family story with a hook – this girl goes online to get away from her life instead of doing drugs, drinking, cutting, or having sex. Maddy’s mom and dad have recently and rather abruptly split in the middle of the school…
I think that Claudia Gray’s new young adult vampire series can’t help but be compared to Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight series. Unfortunately, there were a couple of details that were too similar for comfort, but that’s pretty much where the likeness ends. And actually, those initial similarities were one reason I wanted to read this book…
I’ve heard good things before about Eva Ibbotson, and I am partial to tales set during World War II, so I thought The Dragonfly Pool looked like fun. For the most part it was. Tally Hamilton is a special girl, the kind who likes to help, who cares for others, and who sees what could…
No doubt most of you have heard of the immensely popular Twilight series, of which Eclipse is the third installment. My mother-in-law insisted that I read her copies and then pass them along to another of her daughters-in-law. As I started talking to more and more people about this series, it seemed that almost all…
Pants on Fire is one of Meg Cabot’s stand-alone titles and was published in Great Britain as Tommy Sullivan Is a Freak. While it does not quite achieve the near-perfection of Teen Idol, my all-time favorite stand-alone YA title by Cabot, it is still a compelling read with a remarkably imperfect heroine. At the beginning…
I follow book recommendations to discover new authors and books on the Internet all the time. However, it is rare that a book recommendation leads me to a treasure so perfect that it leaves me breathless with awe and rather frightened at how easily I might have missed it. This is what happened with Megan…