Review: P.S. I Like You by Kasie West

Publisher: Pointe
Publication Date: July 26, 2016
Rating: 4 stars

While spacing out in Chemistry class, Lily scribbles some of her favorite song lyrics onto her desk. The next day, she finds that someone has continued the lyrics on the desk, and added a message to her. Intrigue! 

Soon, Lily and her anonymous pen pal are exchanging full-on letters -- sharing secrets, recommending bands, and opening up to each other. Lily realizes she's kind of falling for this letter writer. Only who is he? As Lily attempts to unravel the mystery, and juggle school, friends, crushes, and her crazy family, she discovers that matters of the heart can't always be spelled out... 

Well, I have to say, the title of this book alone would have been enough to send me packing if I hadn't read the description first. I'm a closet romantic. I love romance novels, although I would prefer some kind of plot, like running for you lives, or solving some kind of mystery. That being said, something about this idea of this book really got to me. Misunderstood girl writes song lyrics on her desk, only to have someone else complete them. Who doesn't want that to happen in real life. Secretly, everyone wants that to happen. So characters:

Lily: Our main character. I wouldn't say she's a hipster, more like hipster adjacent. She does her own thing, and while I can't say that she doesn't care what other people think (because she is a teenager, they all care), she's willing to march to the beat of her own drummer regardless of others. She wants to be a song write, but has crazy writers block. That is... until she starts her pen pal excursions with the someone at her school. I decided that I liked Lily when I saw how she interacted with her family. I have younger siblings. My sister and I are 12 years a part, I know what it's like to have them burst in your room, interrupt your time with your friends, having to constantly babysit. It's exhausting, and let me tell you, Lily handled it waaaaay better than I did. She was a great sister, a great daughter, and a pretty good best friend. Also, props to creating an amazing and vivid family dynamic. I loved reading about them.

Cade: The mortal enemy. While this was Lily's story, and it was sweet. I feel like I wish there was more interaction between Cade and Lily. We saw Thanksgiving, that car ride, a few hallway moments, and the pool. but I don't know... I think I needed a little more. SPOILER ALTER IF YOU COULDN'T FIGURE IT OUT IN THE FIRST THREE CHAPTERS We learn a lot about Cade from his letter, but I feel like we didn't really get to see it. There was a slight disconnect.

It was obvious to me from the beginning that Cade was the person writing ti Lily, but as I always say when it comes to book, it's not always the ending, it's the journey. I liked it.

Outlander is the best!!!

I started reading the Outlander books a while ago. And by reading I mean listening to the audio books. I spoke to a lot of people as I started listening to the books because as soon as  Clare traveled through the stones, I thought the books was AWESOME. I'm on the fourth books now. A lot of people say they stopped reading during the 3rd book and I think they're crazy. There is romance, but for the most part, the book is about two people trying to live their life in 1700's. There's action, adventure, pirates, betrayal, family, jail, some brutal stuff, and a ton more. This story is the best!!!! The books are very long so I'd definitely suggest the audio books. The audio book reader is perfect, although she does struggle with the american Boston accept that pops up in the second book.

I love this book. I hope everyone loves it as much as me!!!

Reading for work has killed reading for fun.

So, you know how sometimes, you come up with the great idea, and you're sure it's going to change you life??? Well about 4 years ago, I had one of those ideas. I needed a new life goal, my first career choice didn't work out, so I took a look at all of the things that I was good at that I thought I could turn into a job. Funny enough, I could only think of one practical skill. Reading. Actually that's a lie. I was good at reading, and I was good at talking. That was basically it. I was also good with children, not necessarily because I wanted to be, children and I just seemed to naturally get along. From all of that, I decided I should be a teen librarian. At the time it seemed like a smart fit. I started school (the one thing I promised myself I would never do) and got a full time job working in a library almost as soon as I started looking in my second semester of grad school.

So here's a little background. Every since... let's say middle school, but it was really probably around the 4th grade, I've been a reader. Reading was what I did when we moved 3000 miles away from my family. Reading was what I did when my parents had another baby and I was 13 and people were mistaking me for a mom. And reading was what I did in Middle School when I had almost no friends because apparently people though I was gay (not that it should have mattered). Reading was my safe place, and the only thing that helped me relax. Fast forward to now. Reading has become a job. I feel like I can't read for me, because I have to read for patrons. I have to read the newest JoJo Moyoes book so I can talk about it was patrons. Most of the kids that come to me are between 4th and 7th grade so when I'm reading, I'm constantly thinking "can I recommend this book to younger kids", "is this book to violent for younger kids", "will a mom get mad at me if I suggest this book to younger kids", and as soon as a book has sex, or bad language, or violence, I begin to feel like I've waisted my time because I know that I can't suggest that book to the kids who come to be for readers advisory. These aren't the thoughts I want to have. These aren't the thoughts I use to have. These aren't even thoughts I use to have at my old job because kids normally came to the library on their own, and the parents didn't really care what they were reading, as long as they were reading.

I stopped blogging and using Goodreads because I began to hate reading. It was the scariest thing in the world because I began to wonder how I was going to distract myself from the woes of the world. Thank goodness for Pokemon Go. I'm slowly working to change my mindset. But honestly, the books I'd need to read to fit the needs of the community that I work in, aren't necessarily the books that I want to read. It's making things kind of a mess. I'm hoping to find some middle ground.

I don't know if anyone is going to read this post, but this is a blog, and in my opinion, if I can't express myself and my feelings in my own blog, then when can I do it.

Review: Breathe, Annie, Breathe by Miranda Kenneally

Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Publication: July 15, 2014
Rating:3/5

Annie hates running. No matter how far she jogs, she can’t escape the guilt that if she hadn’t broken up with Kyle, he might still be alive. So to honor his memory, she starts preparing for the marathon he intended to race.

But the training is even more grueling than Annie could have imagined. Despite her coaching, she’s at war with her body, her mind—and her heart. With every mile that athletic Jeremiah cheers her on, she grows more conflicted. She wants to run into his arms…and sprint in the opposite direction. For Annie, opening up to love again may be even more of a challenge than crossing the finish line.(Goodreads)

Annie is running a marathon in honor of her boyfriend who died in a car accident (he was planning to run the marathon that she's decided to run). She hated running initially but the strict training schedule has brought order to her life that was slowly falling apart while she grieved for him. During one of her running sessions Annie met Jeremiah and was instantly intrigued and almost immediately felt guilty because of it.

I liked this book. Annie was a great character and broke my heart. She did what many people do, she met a guy, they began a relationship, and other relationships fell by the waist side, she never made many friends in high school, or joined any clubs because her boyfriend was her whole life, she when he died, Annie seemed to have nothing left until she began training for the marathon. Annie has great character development, we watched her slowly consider letting Jeremiah into her life, we watched her try to build up friendships and prepare for college. We watched as Annie repaired her relationship with her mom, and start her life in college. I could hardly find anything to complain about where Annie was concerned. I do wish there was more substance to Jeremiah though. He was an adrenalin junkie but I never really understood why. The author seemed to have a pretty good outline of Jeremiah (his personality was pretty in tact) but some of the substance seemed to me missing.

Overall I liked this book and would consider reading more by the author.

Well done.

Review: Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin

Publisher: Little Brown Books for Children
Publication Date: July 1, 2009
Rating: 4/5

Grace Lin, author of the beloved Year of the Dog and Year of the Rat, returns with a wondrous story of happiness, family, and friendship. A fantasy crossed with Chinese folklore, Where the Mountain Meets the Moon is a timeless adventure story in the classic tradition of The Wizard of Oz.

In the Valley of Fruitless Mountain, a young girl named Minli spends her days working hard in the fields and her nights listening to her father spin fantastic tales about the Jade Dragon and the Old Man of the Moon. Minli’s mother, tired of their poor life, chides him for filling her head with nonsense. But Minli believes these enchanting stories and embarks on an extraordinary journey to find the Old Man of the Moon and ask him how her family can change their fortune. She encounters an assorted cast of characters and magical creatures along the way, including a dragon who accompanies her on her quest. (Goodreads)
 
This was another book for my Junior Book Club at the library. I could kick myself for waiting so long to read this book. I've always loved reading and hearing Folktales. This book is about a girl names Minli who's trying to find the Man on the Moon so that he can help her bring her family fortune. Along the way we, the readers, are told many different foltakes. We learn about the story of Fruitless Mountain, the story of Dragon, a friend that Minli makes along the way, the story of the Goldfish man, and so many more. I loved the Folktales that were peppered through the book. As Minli and Dragon traveled to meet The Old Man of the Moon, we were able to see Minli learn the different lessons that the people she encountered taught her. Therefor it was really no surprise when she made the decision that she made when she finally reached her destination.

I also appreciated the chapters that showed us Minli's parents as they waited for her to come back. One of the top complaints of YA or Middle Grade book is the lack of parental involvement, and when Minli's mom realized that it may have been her fault that her daughter left home in search of a fortune. It was such a touching moment to me.

This book was kind of an "soft" epic adventure. We were with Minli every step of the way as she tried to improve the quality of life for her village and her family, and watching her learn from the people she encountered, was really something special.

This is a great book, very appropriate for the age range and I suggest it to everyone!

Review: Breaking the Rules by Katie McGarry

Publisher: Harlequin Teen

Publication Date: December 8, 2014

Rating: 4/5

A summer road trip changes everything in this unforgettable new tale from acclaimed author Katie McGarry

For new high school graduate Echo Emerson, a summer road trip out west with her boyfriend means getting away and forgetting what makes her so... different. It means seeing cool sights while selling her art at galleries along the way. And most of all, it means almost three months alone with Noah Hutchins, the hot, smart, soul-battered guy who’s never judged her. Echo and Noah share everything — except the one thing Echo’s just not ready for.

But when the source of Echo’s constant nightmares comes back into her life, she has to make some tough decisions about what she really wants — even as foster kid Noah’s search for his last remaining relatives forces them both to confront some serious truths about life, love, and themselves.

Now, with one week left before college orientation, jobs and real life, Echo must decide if Noah's more than the bad-boy fling everyone warned her he'd be. And the last leg of an amazing road trip will turn... seriously epic. (Goodreads)

 

This book picks up where Pushing the Limit ends and man oh man and I so glad that I stumbled across this book, I didn't even know existed. So we know from the first book that Noah and Echo were pretty messed up, they both had some serious emotional baggage, and they were using the summer trip as a new beginning. Echo was going to try to sell some of her paintings, and Noah was going to be by her side every step of the way. However, during the last week of the trip everything starts to fall apart. Noah finds out that apparently he has living family members, and Echo's mom shows up. There were some parts of the book where I was literally tugging at my hair. Noah has so little confidence in his self worth that he spend most of the book sabotaging their relationship and Echo... there was so much going on there I don't know where to start. We saw some of Echo's mom at the end of the first book, and Echo does have her memories back of the fatal night, but that doesn't mean that their relationship is anywhere near functional.

I loved the same thing about this book that I loved about the last one. Echo and Noah are real people (well you know, sort of). This book shows us, that just because book one ended, doesn't mean that their lives were perfect. There were still problems, they still had issues to work out with each other and within themselves. It sounds cheesy, but more more cheesy than thinking someone can lose their parents in a house fire, or being attacked and almost killed by your bipolar mother while your father's on a date with the babysitter. Noah and Echo were bound to still have a ton of problems after the last page of “Pushing the Limits” and I'm so glad that we were able to experience it.

Review: Pushing the Limits by Katie McGarry

Publisher: Harlequin Teen

Publication Date: July 31, 2012

Rating: 4/5

So wrong for each other …and yet so right.

No one knows what happened the night Echo Emerson went from popular girl with jock boyfriend to gossiped-about outsider with "freaky" scars on her arms. Even Echo can't remember the whole truth of that horrible night. All she knows is that she wants everything to go back to normal.

But when Noah Hutchins, the smoking-hot, girl-using loner in the black leather jacket, explodes into her life with his tough attitude and surprising understanding, Echo's world shifts in ways she could never have imagined. They should have nothing in common. And with the secrets they both keep, being together is pretty much impossible.

Yet the crazy attraction between them refuses to go away. And Echo has to ask herself just how far they can push the limits and what she'll risk for the one guy who might teach her how to love again. (Goodreads)

At one point Echo was a part of the popular crowd with a jock boyfriend, chasing her dream of being an artist. Noah was a jock with loving parents and two young brothers. In present day Echo is the school freak and Noah, the bad boy foster kid who’ll sleep with any girl with legs.

I have to say, when we learned that Echo had scars on her arms, like other readers, I’d assumed that she’d cut herself and that we’d spend the rest of the book slowly learning why. However, when we learned what really happened, I must say I was surprised. As I read, I slowly put the pieces together, but that was a plot twist that I don’t think many could have put together before hand. I liked Echo as a character, although I typically like my girls stronger, we saw some of that backbone during her altercations with Beth and at the party at Noah’s house. I must say however, that I was she could say (or even think) the word sex. I don’t mind that she was a high school virgin, we see quite a bit of that in YA books actually. I can even understand that sex was difficult for her to think about she almost sounded like she was 10 years old when sex came up. It was really hard to suspend my disbelief with that. It continually took me out of the story.

I thought Noah had a great story. It began very typical, a foster kid who bounced from bad home to bad home, and is thus hardened to the world. Unlike other foster kid stories (sorry if that sounds insensitive) Noah came from a good home, and it was taken from him. The story becomes interesting when we learn that Noah’s younger brothers are with another family. Noah’s convinced the family must be abusing his brother’s like his foster parents abused him. It doesn’t help that his brothers foster parents seem to hate him, and don’t want his brothers to see him. We, as readers, are pretty sure that the boys’ foster parents are probably alright, but… you never know. When Noah’s youngest brother is hurt, Noah begins the process of adopting them when he turns 18 and ages out of the system.

The relationship between Noah and Echo is… rather typical, but done well. Tough boy protects weak girl, but as Noah tries to help Echo remember what happened the night she got the scars on her arms, you can’t help but love the both of them and route for their relationship. I like this book so much more than I was prepared to, (the mushy cover turned me off). Noah and Echo helped each other in very real ways, there was nothing superficial about this book and I can’t wait to read the others! These are real characters with real problems, that are almost hard to read about sometimes, let alone hard to imagine happening. This is one of those books that some could call dark, but I think it's so important for teens to read. They need to know what it's like for someone to be a Noah or an Echo, so that when they meet someone who those characters (because they probably will). People when only learn to truly accept each other, when they can understand each other, and books like this help us do that.

Review: All The Truth That's In Me by Julie Berry

Publisher: Viking Juvenile
Publication Date: September 26, 2013
Rating: 3.5/5

Four years ago, Judith and her best friend disappeared from their small town of Roswell Station. Two years ago, only Judith returned, permanently mutilated, reviled and ignored by those who were once her friends and family. Unable to speak, Judith lives like a ghost in her own home, silently pouring out her thoughts to the boy who’s owned her heart as long as she can remember—even if he doesn’t know it—her childhood friend, Lucas. But when Roswell Station is attacked, long-buried secrets come to light, and Judith is forced to choose: continue to live in silence, or recover her voice, even if it means changing her world, and the lives around her, forever. This startlingly original novel will shock and disturb you; it will fill you with Judith’s passion and longing; and its mysteries will keep you feverishly turning the pages until the very last. (Goodreads)

Overall I liked this book. It's very strange because it's not normally the type of book that I would have been interested in, if I'd had all the details, but I'm still glad I read it.

Judith was kidnapped, when she was returned to her family, her tongue had been cut out and she was officially the town pariah, even among her own mother. Although it's possible for Judith to speak, she doesn't because not only has her mother forbidden it, but because it's now a constant struggle. While we, the readers, are inside Judith's mind we learn of her childhood crush on a boy, now man, named Lucas, and we also learn that (view spoiler). Needless to say, it's makes their situation strange. Just before Judith was taken, another girl disappeared and later turned up dead. The father of that dead girl resents Judith for returning and we know that he's going to cause problems for her.

So I had no idea this book was period, it didn't take me long to figure it out, but when I did, I'd assumed it was a flashback or something and eventually we'd speed up to modern time, we didn't. I have to say I wasn't mad about it. It actually made the story more interesting. It was deplorable the way Judith was treated, and all because they'd assumed a man had sexually violated her. Today, she would have received comfort and counseling, and everyone she encountered would have told her it wasn't her fault, but sadly, in the past, a girls virtue was all she had. Because she was "mute" people in the town thought they could speak to her as if she was nothing more than dirt under their shoe, the speech wasn't as crude as it would have been today, but it was still there.

One of the interesting things about this book was that it was a mystery, there were things we didn't know, but the mystery was unraveled slowly, I wasn't sitting on the edge of my seat (which is what I personally prefer), but I still wanted to know, I appreciate that the author was able to accomplish that. Would I read the book again? No. but was it worth the read? Sure.

Review: A Song for Bijou by Josh Farrar

Publisher: Walker Children's
Publication Date: February 12, 2013
Rating: 4/5

Life for Alex Schrader has never involved girls. He goes to an all-boys prep school and spends most of his time goofing around with his friends. But all that changes the first time he meets Bijou Doucet, a Haitian girl recently relocated to Brooklyn after the earthquake-and he is determined to win her heart. For Bijou, change is the only constant, and she's surprised every day by how different life is in America, especially when a boy asks her out. Alex quickly learns that there are rules when it comes to girls-both in Haitian culture and with his own friends. And Bijou soon learns that she doesn't have to let go of her roots to find joy in her new life.

Told in alternating viewpoints against the vibrant backdrop of Haitian-American culture, Alex and Bijou take their first tender steps toward love in this heartwarming story. (Goodreads)

I saw the cover and I had to see what was going on here.

Alex is a seventh grade boy who attends an all boys catholic school, and has discovered girls. He's a little obsessed. When he sees a new girl dressed in the uniform of his sister school, he's totally overcome and MUST get to know her. He learns from his friends that her name is Bijou and she's from Haiti. In this book we watch as two kids with different background, customs, and experiences work against the odds to form a friendship.

Tweens who read this book will see reflections of their own lives. Alex has two best friends Ira and Nomura, however Ira isn't maturing at the same speed as his two best friends and is being left behind. Alex and Bijou are lying and breaking rules to see each other. This book portrays children taking their first steps into the complicated teen world.

This book did a great job of that portrayal. Two thumbs up Josh Farrar.

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