The Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny Han

Beach Week Book Three! This one is all about spending summers at a beach house and finding yourself old enough for that first love. Told in retrospectives of Belly’s past summers you’ll get to know her and why this summer is so very important…Enjoy the sun, sand, and the love…

BookTalk

Isabel, a.k.a. Belly, a.k.a. Belly Button spends every summer at a beach house with her mom and brother, as well as her mom’s best friend and her two sons. Belly lives for the summer, discounting the rest of the year (and the boys that come with it) in favor of the summer months she spends in Cousin’s Cove. Every previous summer has led Belly to this turning point in her life…The summer she turned pretty. Belly is entering adulthood and is hungry for the adventures and relationships that come with it. Drunk on the pleasure of finally having boys notice her, she focuses all of her attention on her first loves…the Beck boys…to whom she’s been a surrogate little sister. Belly is soon to learn that with the joys of adulthood also come the hardships, First love is not always what it seems, and being self-aware and self-absorbed are not the same thing. Belly is in for one hot summer…the summer that changed everything.

Review

This book should be in the dictionary next to ‘Summer Read’. It’s full of cute guys, first loves, and the dramas of growing up all set in the quintessential beach house. That being said, The Summer I Turned Pretty was not what I was expecting. I read a review of the title on GReads! and put it in my TBR pile. I guess I assumed that this book would be a light beach read about a summer where everything came together. I was expecting a first love story…something simple and sweet.

That is not this book.

I completely agree with Ginger when she says you continue to think about the characters long after this book is over. I felt like the whole point of the book was character development…that by the last page I was really just getting geared up for the story. The story is told alternately from the current summer (the summer she turns pretty) and in flashbacks to previous tween summers. I don’t know that I understood where the book was going in the beginning. I found myself wondering if the title was more appropriate for a tween audience, that it was a little young for my personal taste. What became apparent later in the book was that Han was slowly feeding me a history of this beach-side group. So while this was a Super Summery read…it was turning into a book that was about more than light-summer-fun stuff. What I was learning from the flashbacks soon began to color my understanding of the present time, giving the story depth beyond the surface storyline.

This understanding really helped me see that I was watching Belly mature before my eyes. Be warned, Belly is very much immature for the better part of this novel. She whines, she thinks everything is about her…that the world simultaneously revolves around her and yet is shafting her at the same time. No need to worry, by the end of the book Belly has perspective but because this understanding happens so late in the text, I felt like I was just gearing up for the meat of the story.

This book reads almost like a prequel. You intimately get to know all of the characters but the main plot points of the story are just beginning. Good thing the trilogy is already finished and published…you’ll be ready to move onto book two right away.

Rating: 7/10

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Waiting on Wednesday (3) The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin

Waiting on Wednesday is a blog post hosted by Breaking The Spine in which bloggers post about up-coming releases they’re dying to read.

My Pick:

The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer

(Publication: September 27th 2011)

Soo, I know everyone has done this book…but I’m gonna list it too! For a few reasons: First off, I’m at the beach this week and I’m too lazy and too consumed by the stock pile of TBR on my nook to think harder about what I don’t have (may have over-stocked the nook for vacation…eek!). Second, it just sounds awesome, the “WTFery” about alligators in the last part of the book has me more intrigued than I’ve been in awhile…I mean come on…alligators…out of nowhere…you know you need to find out what that’s all about! And if I haven’t convinced you, and the cover isn’t pulling you in, here are a list of reviews bound to peak your interest:

The Perpetual Page Turner, Anna Reads, Good Books and Good Wine, That Cover Girl (such a cool post about the cover art!)

P.S. If anyone has the ARC and would like to help a blogger out, I’d love to read it before September…I promise to return it un-harmed, un-dogeared, and un-spine cracked with cookies 😉 I make really good cookies, lol.

Summary from Goodreads

Mara Dyer doesn’t think life can get any stranger than waking up in a hospital with no memory of how she got there.

It can.

She believes there must be more to the accident she can’t remember that killed her friends and left her mysteriously unharmed.

There is.

She doesn’t believe that after everything she’s been through, she can fall in love.

She’s wrong.

What are you Waiting On this Wednesday?

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Moonglass by Jessi Kirby

Beach Week Book 2

I loved this book. The beach setting is so well done you’ll taste the salty air. A perfect read surrounded by sun and sand or your couch…’cause you’ll feel like you’re there…

BookTalk

“I read once that water is a symbol for emotions. And for a while now I’ve thought maybe my mother drowned in both.” (9, ePub)

Anna and her father are moving back to Crystal Cove State Park. Under the guise of a promotion for her father this family of two are really moving back so they can move on with their lives. Nine years after the death of Anna’s mother Anna is returning to the beach-side town where she was born and where her parents fell in love. She’ll learn to see her past in a different light, and finally face the aftermath of her mother’s “accident”. With the help of her perky friend Ashley, running buddy Jillian, poetry quoting Joy, and the beach crawler Joseph, Anna will find her way through emotions she’s been running from for years. Now, if only the cute lifegaurd could just hurry up and kiss her already, life wouldn’t be so bad.

Review

This book was so refreshing, so simple and honest after all of the if not paranormal, then weird stuff I’ve been reading lately. This book is really like slipping into a beach chair and staring at the ocean. It’s calm and turbulent, and the emotion comes in waves. Kirby does a great job with setting, her writing takes the  reader to the beautiful beach Anna and her father live at. That’s what makes this book such a great beach read. Even if you’re stuck on your couch this summer you can experience ocean life through Anna and her lifeguard-ing father and boyfriend.

Another thing that I loved about this book was that the romance was not the center of this story. Sure, Anna has a love interest in Tyler but the whole relationship is so realistic. There is no insta-love and Tyler even waits an exorbitant amout of time casually firting with Anna before he even trys a move. This is how I remember high school relationships starting. Lots of wondering and attempts at giving the guy an opening. It’s a really endearing relationship…one that develops naturally.

But that’s what’s great about Anna as a character. She’s so normal. Yes, she has issues with her mother’s suicide but beyond that…just a great girl. No body issues, normal amount of confidence, some great friends that make for enjoyable supporting characters. This is a book to sink into and enjoy. It doesn’t have any cliff-hangers, it’s not a series, and no one has found a soul mate at age 16. Instead it’s a great novel where plot threads and character actions weave together so effortlessly you’ll just ride a wave to the beautiful moments where tears do come…in the best possible way.

Pick this one up immediatly it was one of the smoothest, well written books I’ve done in a long time.

Rating: 10/10

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Vacations from Hell by Libba Bray, Cassandra Clare, Claudia Gray, Maureen Johnson, and Sarah Mlynowski

I am on Vacation…So it’s Beach Week here on the blog.

Granted I live less than a mile from the ocean in Southern Florida, so really every week is beach week for me, but there is just something special about being on vacation at a beach. Even if you’re a year round beach bum a week’s worth of no work and all play is still pretty awesome. So in honor of my time at the shore every post this week is vacation or beach related. For those of you grumbling about my beach fortune don’t worry…This week starts with a group of vacation stories you might rather avoid…

BookTalk

“You know that prickly feeling you get on the back of your neck? The one hat makes you scared to turn around? Pay attention to that, Holmes. That is a Me-NO-Likee signal creeping up from the lizard part of your brain – some primal DEFCON center of your gray matter left over from the very first ancestors that hasn’t been destroyed by gated communities, all-night convenience stores…,and a half dozen fake Ghost Chaser shows on late-night cable. I’m just saying that lizard part exists for a reason. I know that now.

“So if you’re walking down that unfamiliar path and the mist rises up out of nowhere and slips its hands over your body, turning you around until you don’t know where you are anymore, and the trees seem to be whispering to you? Or you think you see something in the dark that shouldn’t exist, that you tell yourself can’t possibly exist except in creepy campfire stories? Listen to the lizard, Holmes, and do yourself a favor.

“Run. Run like Hell’s after you.

“Because it just might be.” (pg. 116-117 ePub edition)

Review

This is a collection of short stories about what happens when your vacation goes wrong. Because really, who wants to hear about a trip where someone sat on a beautiful beach? I only want to hear about that trip if I was on the trip, or I’m about to go on that trip. However, if I am sitting on my couch…amongst my laundry and a carpet that needs vacuumed…I want a vacation where something goes wrong. Like, vampires-on-your-cruise wrong, a curse-in-the-French-countryside wrong, spell-gone-wrong, wrong. Types of wrong that will make that summer sunburn look like…well…a day at the beach.

These stories were fluffy and fun. The perfect combination of teeny-bopper hair flipping and sleep with the light on scary. Not all the tales were scary scary stories, but all do contain a twist you may not have seen coming. I was personally taken by surprise in the first story Cruisin’ by Sarah Mlynowski. It’s the perfect tale to start this collection off, seemingly fluffy with a game-changing plot move 3 pages from the end. The story gave me a smile and a chilly surprise. The rest of the collection didn’t disappoint. Law of Suspects by Maureen Johnson in the middle upped the horror factor with a cursed story and a lonely French manor. Then Libba Bray drives it home with the most classically paranormal/scary story Nowhere is Safe. A gothically creepy, superstition-ridden romp in an Eastern European hill town. Very few survive that blood bath…be prepared.

In the end this was a great beach read…or couch read depending on your summer plans. For those choosing a ‘staycation’ over the traditional summer travel, know that you’ll experience very little envy from these travelogues. In fact you may feel a little smug, safe in your house…alive. Now, if only someone could come fold the laundry…

Rating: 7/10

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In My Mailbox (2)

Here are just a few titles I picked up this week. They’re all sitting on my nook hoping to be my next read! This was my second attempt, not only with the meme “In My Mailbox” hosted by The Story Siren, but also with making a video. The result is a better location, some bad lighting, and a little bit of “and-ing” and “uhm-ing”. Plus that whole lip-smacking thing I do…just got to the beach and my 9 year old cousin does the same move. Apparently it’s genetic! Not quite sure how I’m going to shake it, lol. As always, Critique and Encouragement welcome 😉

Books Featured:

– Books Bought –

The Summer I Turned Pretty Trilogy by Jenny Han

Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater

– NetGalley Books –

Spellbound by Cara Lynn Shultz

Ultraviolet by R. J. Anderson

Legacy by Cayla Kluver

The Beginning of After by Jennifer Castle

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Trashy Romance…Lover Avenged, Lover Mine, and Lover Unleashed by J. R. Ward

Done.

I’m finally done.

I have officially read the entire set of published books in the Black Dagger Brotherhood series. And I must say that the final two offerings (Lover Mine and Lover Unleashed) were two of my favorites. If you’re in the midst of this series and wondering if you should see the journey through…stick with it my friend. Ward ends on a high note of insta-love at it’s finest. Also, the series is obviously not done. Those of you wondering what happens now that everyone in the Brotherhood is all paired up…worry not…Ward has added an additional pack of hunky vampires and left her usual, massive number of cliff-hangers in the wake of the book’s ending. I’m only sad that I have to finally wait for her next book. It’s always so lovely to have an entire series of books at my disposal…so I can binge on them all at once.

Lover Avenged

Rehvenge is a man alone. He has separated himself from society not only through his illegal choices of employment but also with the obsessive drug use that numbs his Sympath nature. Literally walking around the world numb to all feeling Rehv is about to meet the one person who can bring warmth to his soul.

Ehlena has fallen from the good graces of the Glymera society. Not only has her family lost their fortune, her father suffers from schizophrenia, needing almost constant care. Ehlena goes through the motions of life, working as a nurse to support herself and her father, but can’t allow herself to connect to anyone. Ehlena is about to meet the one man she should run from. And instead of turning him away as she has everyone else, she’s about to run into the most dire of situations to save his life.

A love like this doesn’t come around often and this pair will have to melt the defenses around their hearts to accept each other.

Review

I liked the character of Ehlena in this book. She had a lot going on in her own life with the care for her father and the fall from grace the family endured. It was obvious that she was doing the best she could and succeeding…until she met Rehv. Of course it was the tough times Ehlena goes through in this novel that pull her and Rehv together, but it’s nice to see that by the end of the plot Ehlena could have stood her ground without the help of Rehv. Rarely do we get to see a woman capable of that at the end of Ward’s books and it was cool to see. This seems to be a couple who is working with partnership rather than giving everything up for each other. It’s a twist I’d like to see continue in the newer books in the series.

Rating: 7/10

Lover Mine

Xhex and John Matthew have been circling each other since John was a pre-trans. Even before all of his muscles John and Xhex have had a connection. Since coming into his own John has desired no other woman, and nothing will stop John from bonding with Xhex…

Except that Xhex is missing. Kidnapped by the son of the Omega, Xhex is being held hostage under the sexual torture of Lash. A situation that would break some women only further’s Xhex’s connection with John. Each of these souls has spent most of their lives on the outside of society, never finding the connection to others most people are blessed to be born with. Now that Xhex and John have lived through their tragedies, do they have the vision to see that all they’ve been searching for can be found in each other?

Review

Oh, the book that saved the series. It really is that good. Readers have been watching this couple over the span of 8 books…8 books! Finally, all of that emotion and sexual tension is broken. We’ve watched these characters suffer separately for so long that seeing them find love together is a true joy. What’s so cool about it is watching them find their inner softness and being ok with it. Most of the time the woman in Ward’s couples needs to ‘toughen up’ or at least show that they are capable of fighting for their man or their love. As rewarding as that is it’s also expected. Instead we have the manliest woman I’ve ever seen in a romance novel finding her inner softness to prove her love. This story is endearing to read and also ties up many a plot point Ward has left hanging for far too long.

Rating: 9/10

Lover Unleashed

This book opens with the fallout of the final sparring scene from Lover Mine wherein Payne had found herself paralyzed from a spinal cord injury. Unwilling to have her mother, the Scribe Virgin, magically heal her, Payne returns to Caldwell with the rest of the brotherhood to seek medical attention.

In comes Dr. Manuel Manello a former colleague of V’s shellan Jane. As a trusted surgeon and former friend he’s called in to fix what no one else can. Payne’s injuries go far beyond the physical and Manuel is the only man who can heal her broken body, and her broken soul. Brought together by an instant and intense attraction Manuel may find that Payne has the power to heal him as well.

Review

Oh, Insta-love, how I love thee. I’ll admit it, I’m a sucker and Ward is the queen of instant love connections. In fact they’re the premise of her whole mating/marriage dynamic. If you don’t feel that instant rush of lust and protective instincts it’s not going to work out. This book is a quick one. Love happens within 12 hours. But it’s oh, so worth it. Payne has a naivety to her that allows Manuel to see through all of the potential problems in the relationship and find joy instead.

Also, Ward is writing her multiple plot threads with a vengeance. Expertly weaving side stories involving V and Jane as well as furthering the Layla, Quinn, Blay, Saxton love square? cube? interwoven love triangles? However you say it, V and Jane’s story sets to rest some loose strings in their love story and the latter plot thread sets the reader up for further books with one heck of a cliff-hanger. I’m just hoping it comes to its conclusion in the next book…Hint: those needings always make for some good scenes!

Impatiently waiting till the next book is announced…

Rating: 9/10

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Library Musings…I’ve been Censored…

It Happened. It Happened Yesterday.

All I could think was…This can’t be happening to me.

Then I thought lots of very indignatious and angry thoughts.

But let me go back to the beginning…

The WSJ article (“Darkness Too Visible”) that came out a few weeks ago, it ruffled my feathers. For those who didn’t read it, it was all about a journalist who didn’t take the time to fact check, basing a journalistic article off of an uninformed mother in Maryland rather than look to the world of bookish people who surely would have been more than happy to give informed commentary and statistics as to the world of books today. The author of this infamous article claimed that all YA Lit is either dark and heavy or paranormal or dark, heavy, and paranormal. God forbid that mother and the useless bookstore employee had looked at the end-cap of Sarah Dessen my store is currently displaying. They might have found a book that didn’t include vampires or suicide…and then where would the WSJ be? Without an article that’s for sure.

I watched the bookish outrage that followed this display of uninformed book bashing feeling slightly smug in the safety of my happy little library.

And then it happened to me. I had suggested the book You by Charles Benoit, among others, to my English Department as part of their summer reading. They were looking for a YA book to accompany A Separate Peace and And Then There Were None. You was the perfect fit. It combined themes of character development and growth framed in the style of suspense. Plus it was addictively good and short. Done.

But then one of the teachers started the book, and had concerns about it’s place in our school and it’s “sexuality”. Called in for backup I presented a variety of other summer reading lists that included the title, it’s starred reviews from the Big Three of publishing (Publisher’s Weekly, Horn Book Review, and School Library Journal), rave blog reviews, and finally Parent/Content Reviews that listed every occurrence of questionable language and topics. FYI they say a$$hole 6 times and there are 5 scenes with a sexual spin that are noted as being: “No contact, just a lot of innuendos.” Bottom Line: everyone agreed the book was appropriate for grades 8 and up…nothing questionable in it. While I had been surprised that the book had come under review from my school I felt like I gave everyone enough info to support the choice if the English department wished to still teach the book. Case closed.

Until Yesterday

Yesterday I received the stupefying call informing me that an administrator had reviewed the book and found it inappropriate. Knock me over with a feather. They were removing it from the list due to content.

I had just been censored…Censored!

This was something that happened to other Librarians, at other libraries, not to me. There are books out there that I would hesitate to use in a classroom. Some YA books that contain triggers, graphic scenes, too much sex or drugs. But these were not the type of book I suggested. You was not this type of book. I was blindsided. I finally have first-hand experience of a book being unfairly removed from curriculum because someone didn’t take the time to read or understand a book before removing it from a classroom. It could have been worse. The book remains in the library’s collection and you know I’m going to be BookTalking the heck out of it. Just a big bummer of a situation.

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Waiting on Wednesday (2) The Fox Inheritance by Mary E. Pearson

Waiting on Wednesday is a blog post hosted by Breaking The Spine in which bloggers post about up-coming releases they’re dying to read.

My Pick:

The Fox Inheritance (Publication Date: August 30, 2011)

I loved The Adoration of Jenna Fox. It is one of my favorite YA books, and my students devour this book like none other…I had students fighting over this title. And I hate to admit this…but…until recently I had no idea Pearson was turning her story into a series. Word on the street is that Inheritance can stand on it’s own. And luckily, so can Adoration. Stand-alone appeal aside, I loved the first so much I’ll definitely be picking up the second.

Summary from GoodReads

Once there were three. Three friends who loved each other—Jenna, Locke, and Kara. And after a terrible accident destroyed their bodies, their three minds were kept alive, spinning in a digital netherworld. Even in that disembodied nightmare, they were still together. At least at first. When Jenna disappeared, Locke and Kara had to go on without her. Decades passed, and then centuries.

Two-hundred-and-sixty years later, they have been released at last. Given new, perfect bodies, Locke and Kara awaken to a world they know nothing about, where everyone they once knew and loved is long dead.

Everyone except Jenna Fox.

What’s your “Waiting” pick this week?

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Honolulu by Alan Brennert

BookTalk

This journey begins with a young woman named Regret. Born in Korea around the turn of the century to a culture that had little value in their girls beyond their ability to eventually marry and produce sons. Regret yearns for another life, one filled with freedom, education, and value. She longs to feel pride for her life. In 1914 Regret begins her journey toward this end as a picture bride heading to Hawaii. But this is just the beginning for Regret. It soon becomes apparent that the man she agreed to marry sight-unseen is not her happy ending. She’ll travel from cane fields, to Hawaii’s red-light district, to owning her own business. Regret will find her worth, she’ll find love, and happiness…You’ll watch as she and her fellow picture brides navigate the world of Hawaii’s Golden Days and make more of their lives than anyone in Korea would expect a group of girls to do.

Review

I can’t help it. I didn’t love this book as much as I liked my first foray with Brennert in Moloka’i. In Honolulu we follow Regret who later changes her name to Jin (empowering choice if I don’t say so myself). One of the most affecting parts of the novel is the beginning of the story where the reader spends some time in Korea. You watch as Jin learns to read from one of the last Korean Geishas. As a first breakthrough in the book this is pretty out there. Brennert makes it all work in a serendipitous fashion but for me it was just the beginning of a tale that didn’t quite touch my heart.

I never felt like I connected to Jin. She does spend parts of the novel narrating about how Koreans as a people are very controlled with their emotions. She looks for cues in eye-shifts and muscles tensing and loosening in others to read their emotions. While the whole thing seemed very valid to the culture of a Korean woman of the time. We’re also talking about a woman who learned to read from a well-trained and paid mistress. I think had Brennert gone out on a limb and allowed more real emotion to show in his character’s words and actions I would have connected to them more. As it was I felt a little adrift among the people of the book. I wanted to like them, to feel their pain and joy…but I just couldn’t. It’s what kept this title from hitting home for me.

Brennert is meticulous in his ability to show the history of a time and place. Hawaii shines for him. The lives his characters lead are full and interesting. I just didn’t care for them the way I thought I was going to. If you’re looking to try a historical fiction book centered on Hawaii, this is a good choice, one many readers loved…but I’d steer you in the direction of Moloka’i instead.

Rating 5/10

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Passion (Fallen #3) by Lauren Kate *Spoilers*

*Spoiler Alert*

Review

This book was so much better than the second. With Torment I was a ball of frustration. FRUSTRATION. In Passion I finally felt like we were going somewhere. And Kate did that by literally taking the reader (and Luce) through a smorgasbord of Luce’s past lives. While the trip began to answer my main question (what’s the point of this whole romance/kiss/death cycle they’re cursed into) it brought up a whole slue of others…Feel free to comment with your thoughts…

Questions:

1. Does Daniel die each life and become reborn as a new person who is situated to “run into” Luce? or Does he magically change his appearance to match her life each time she is reborn?

Kate had me scratching my head with this one. In the more modern past lives Daniel still seems to be himself, like he’s been alive for all the intervening years straight; without dying. I mean he’s speaking another language and living in another country…but still the guy looks like Daniel, Luce is easily able to recognize him during a bombing in World War 2 and while he’s wounded in an Italian hospital in World War 1. I’m not sure when Daniel stopped looking like Daniel…I think it happened as Kate traced history farther back to the Mayan civilization, China Dynasties, and Egypt thousands of years before Christ. It wouldn’t have been possible to have a blond-haired, violet eyed, Caucasian kid running around thus Daniel had to stop looking like modern Daniel to fit in with the time period. I get why Kate had to do it but it still bugged me and forces me to ask the question above.

2. Anyone else’s head hurt with the physics of it all?

So about halfway through their time travel, both Luce and Daniel begin to slow down and accept the journey. They start to pay attention and learn things from their past to help them with their future. But do they do this by watching what goes down?…Noooo…Luce has to “3-d” with every former Luce she meets. But wait, didn’t she see the movie Butterfly Effect? Hello?! If a butterfly wing can cause a tsunami or some such disaster what about Luce charging into battle as a Chinese King? I suppose the only attempt to condone the travel/changes comes from Roland (in 17th century England) where he explains to Luce that while she’ll never know when she makes the change that changes her curse…she’s already technically run through time and done it already. I suppose this seems plausible to me, though lets remember that my only experience with chaos theory is the Ashton Kutcher film. Educational, I’m sure.

3. Is it really all about the Love? Daniel’s choice? and is there a way out?

I’m gonna side with Satan for a minute here. There were times in this installment where I was beginning to think that ‘Bill’ a.k.a. Satan, was the reader’s voice in the story. Luce, give it up girl…this thing obviously extends far beyond your relationship with Daniel. The question answered for me in this book was that this whole curse thing is holding a lot of people I mean angels in the balance. Daniel choosing a side starts a whole lot of End-of-Times-war-stuff and he’s friends with both sides. My gut is telling me Satan’s Hail Mary play of erasing time may end up bringing everyone together again…Cue the Cam hug at the end…Anyone else surprised by that show of affection? Anyone?

All of my picky questions aside, I really did enjoy this book. I loved learning about their past lives, and their love over the ages. The best thing to come out of all that time travel was Luce’s utter faith in her love for Daniel. Kate already had a decent explanation for their insta-love (soul-mates reborn for each other) but I was so happy to see her back it all up with Luce getting to see the love in action and getting to feel it in her past live’s skin. I feel like Luce is finally equal to Daniel in the love element. Luce has their history in her consciousness as well.

After doing books 2 and 3 back to back I’m super sad to have to wait until Spring 2012 for the final book…Ugh! I want Rapture now!! Cue tantrum, lol.

Rating: 8/10

P.S.

If you can’t get enough of the Fallen Series…Check out Lauren Kate’s blog for her Passion Playlist.

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