Good Girls Aren't (Always) the Fun Ones

Published:  July 1st, 2014

The Actual & Truthful Adventures of Becky Thatcher

By: Jessica Lawson

Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers

ISBN-13:  9781481401500

In 1860, eleven-year-old Becky Thatcher is the new girl in town, determined to have adventures like she promised her brother Jon before he died.  With her Mama frozen in grief and her Daddy busy as town judge, Becky spends much of her time on her own, getting into mischief.  Before long, she joins the boys at school in a bet to steal from the Widow Douglas, and Becky convinces her new best friend, Amy Lawrence, to join her.

Becky decides that she and Amy need a bag of dirt from a bad man's grave as protection for entering the Widow's house, so they sneak out to the cemetery at midnight, where they witness the thieving Pritchard brothers digging up a coffin.  Determined to keep her family safe (and to avoid getting in trouble), Becky makes Amy promise not to tell anyone what they saw.

When their silence inadvertently results in the Widow Douglas being accused of the graverobbery, Becky concocts a plan to clear the Widow's name.  If she pulls it off, she just might get her Mama to notice her again and fulfill her promise to Jon in a most unexpected way...if that tattletale Tom Sawyer will quit following her around.

Review

       I have to admire Jessica Lawson's ingenuity.  As both a fanfic author and reader, I can more than respect a well thought-out "what-if" scenario.  So, the switch in the personalities of Sid and Tom, along with the inclusion of Sam Clemens would have been more than enough to draw me in as a potential reader.  Add in the fact that Becky Thatcher is actually the mischievous protagonist in this one, with Tom and Sid as side-characters, and you have me hooked like a large-mouth bass!  Even with all of that aside, I actually really enjoyed this book!  This is exactly the kind of book that I loved as a child, with a daring and adventurous heroine, well-drawn side characters (friends, family, etc.), and a rollicking plot full of fun.  Becky has just moved to a small Missouri town with her parents, almost a year after the death of her much-loved and admired older brother, Jon.  Becky's Daddy is busy being the town judge and has to deal with notorious thieves, the Pritchard brothers, on the loose and her Mama is sunk down into her grief, with no time for Becky.  So she has plenty of time for mischief!

     There are some sly allusions to the original stories by Mark Twain, especially with Sam Clemens as a stranded riverboat pilot, waiting on a part for his ship, and gathering material for stories he likes to write.  Becky becomes friends with Sid Sawyer, almost immediatly puts the tattling Tom (brother of Sid) on her revenge list and is mostly just happy to make some friends and have adventures.  But when attempting to get grave dirt for "protection spells" against the Widow Douglas (a known witch), so that the girls can win a five-dollar bet to take something from her house, they get into more trouble than they can handle!  They stumble upon a grave-robbing and barely escape with their lives!  Becky has to decide whether being grown up means telling the truth and accepting punishment, or having adventures - or if she can possibly do both.  I love the writing style of Lawson in this book!  Unlike Twain, the dialect isn't so heavy that you have a hard time reading it.  It's still there, but not as thick.  Also, there are some beautiful prose passages and Becky, is a loveable heroine who never once got on my nerves.  Overall, I would recommend this even to people who just like historical fiction with a sense of humor, even if they've never read Mark Twain.  You'll still like it, I promise.  Or as Becky and Amy would say I "vow" it! :D

Favorite Quotes:

--  'I found my way to the riverbank.

"Hello, Miss Issipi," I said.  "You're looking awful pretty this morning, with that fog coming off your water.  You're going your way and I'm going mine."  I tipped my hat, but the Miss ignored me.  I didn't mind a bit, though.  I liked the river real well.

...I stared at the Miss, watching the first bit of sunlight make flashes on the water.  I wondered if Jon up in Heaven could see those flashes, if he'd met Jesus at all, and if he'd put in a good word for me.'

--  "Kiss my grits," I swore.  "That brother of yours has done it again."  I hit Sid's shoulder.

Joe spit on the ground.  

"How'd he find out, that sneak!"  Though he sounded mad, I could tell Joe was as worried as the rest of us.

   "I thought I saw Tom when I was putting out your flames," I told Sid.  "Probably told Aunt Polly that I tried to set Mrs. Douglas's house on fire."

   "Who's Mrs. Douglas?" Joe asked.  His face wrinkled up like when Dobbins asked him a math question.

   "You can go to jail for doing something like that!" Amy cried.

   And the widow might go to jail for grave robbing, I thought.  Maybe we'll be stuck in the same cell.

VERDICT:  4/5 Stars

*No money or favors were exchanged for this review.  This book is now available in stores, online, or maybe even at your local library.*

Show Me What I'm Looking For

Expected Publication: April 1st, 2014

Love Letters To The Dead

By: Ava Dellaira

Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)

ISBN-13: 9780374346676

It begins as an assignment for English class: write a letter to a dead person.  Laurel chooses Kurt Cobain because her sister, May, loved him.  And he died young, just like May did.  Soon Laurel has a notebook full of letters to people like Janis Joplin, Amy Winehouse, Amelia Earhart, Heath Ledger and more; though she never gives a single one of them to her teacher.  She writes about starting high school, navigating new friendships, falling in love for the first time, learning to live with her splintered family.  And finally about the abuse she suffered when May was supposed to be looking out for her.  Only then, once Laurel has written down the truth about what happened to herself, can she truly begin to accept what happened to May.  And only when Laurel has begun to see her sister as the person she was; lovely and amazing and deeply flawed; can she begin to discover her own path.

Review

     This book was a bit of an odd duck for me as a reader.  I loved the premise: letters to famous dead people, to help work through her personal pain?  It was an interesting concept and I loved seeing who Laurel would choose to write to next!  Probably my largest issue with the book was the style of the narrative.  A lot of books can do well as epistolary style novels.  I have a series by Jaclyn Moriarty that I truly love and find almost perfect.  This one did something that is against one of my cardinal rules though: it did a lot of telling, in place of showing.  I found myself disconnected from the book, even though we spend most of the narrative inside Laurel's head, because it has a dreamy and odd quality to it.  The majority of my time was spent reading about Laurel's interactions with people and I didn't get to see a lot of them.  There was enough dialogue and interaction to keep me reading, but it was still kind of scarce.

     We spend this book getting to know Laurel, whose sister May has just died recently.  She is now being shuffled between her Aunt Amy and her Dad, because her Mom has gone to California and left her behind.  So Laurel spends her Mom's weeks of custody with her Aunt, who is extremely religious and really has no clue how to handle a teenager.  Starting her first year of high school, Laurel decides to go to another school, so she won't just be the girl whose sister died.  She makes a couple new friends, Hannah and Natalie, who are just as confused as she is.  They are falling in love with each other, but hiding it and Hannah is going from boy to boy in an effort to be "normal."  Also, there is the mysterious older boy Sky who seems to be interested in Laurel but has serious issues of his own.  There is a secret Laurel is keeping and it's eating her up inside.  Can she learn to let the past go and share her problems with someone who can help her move past them?  Or will she go on a downward spiral like May, unable to get back up again?

     I did enjoy the letters in and of themselves, but I agree with another read about some things that bothered them in regards to the letters.  The fact that they were all written to different people did take away from how personal the letters felt to me.  To know all that stuff about all those people and choose to write letters to all of them just felt fake.  Plus the comparisons drawn between them and Laurel didn't ring true for me either.  They turn into Laurel questioning the celebrity's choices for the majority of the letter, rather than examining her own life all that closely.  It was a little disruptive to the flow of the novel.  Overall, I can't say I really enjoyed it necessarily, but I did appreciate the things it accomplished in terms of character development.  It was really all about Laurel learning to become her own person and step out of May's shadow - also to forgive May, their parents and herself for the issues of the past.  I just don't think it was really the book for me, as it read a little too young, naieve and disconnected.

VERDICT:  3/5  Stars

*I received an Advanced Reading E-book Copy from the publisher, Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR), via NetGalley.  No money or favors were exchanged for this review.  This book's expected publication date is April 1st, 2014.*

When The Lights Go Out

 

Published:  September 24th, 2013

Sleep With The Lights On (Brown and De Luca #1)

By: Maggie Shayne

Harlequin MIRA

ISBN-13:  9780778315544

 

Through the eyes of a killer

Rachel de Luca has found incredible success writing self-help books. But her own blindness and the fact that her troubled brother has gone missing have convinced her that positive thinking is nothing but bull. Her cynicism wavers when a cornea transplant restores her sight. The new eyes seem to give her new life, until they prove too good to be true and she starts seeing terrifying visions of brutal murders crimes she soon learns are all too real.

Detective Mason Brown's own brother recently died, leaving behind a horrific secret. In atonement, Mason donated his brother's organs, though he's kept the fact quiet. Now he wants to help Rachel find her brother, but when he discovers the shocking connection between her visions and his own brother, he suddenly has to do everything in his power to save her from a predator who is somehow still hunting from beyond the grave.

 

Review

 

      I haven't been reading thrillers/mysteries on a regular basis for years now.  It seems like they are all the same after awhile and nothing fresh is left to be surprised by.  This book didn't necessarily have the freshest premise ever, but it just might have helped rejuvenate my interest in thrillers!  Shayne's whole backbone to the book is the idea that evil can live on once its host is dead, through a process like organ donation.  The story is about Rachel de Luca who has been blind since she was a pre-teen and has made a fortune selling self-help books with a philosophy she thinks is complete crap.  Detective Mason Brown has a chance encounter with Rachel, shortly after which he witnesses his own brother's suicide.  Turns out Mason's brother had been hiding a secret from his family - he was a serial killer and the guilt was no longer bearable.  Mason covers it up and donates his brother's organs to make up for it.  Rachel receives corneal tissue belonging to him and starts to have visions of murders and a strange connection to a killer.  Searching for her own brother who has disappeared, can Rachel and Mason come together to find out the truth behind how the murders are continuing - when the killer is already dead?  And will they both make it out alive?

      Rachel is a sassy, sarcastic and mostly downright rude ball-buster.  She doesn't take anyone's crap, does what she wants and has no filter for what she says to people.  Mason was just an average cop, with a slightly screwed up family history until he was forced to keep his brother's twisted secrets.  They clash almost immediately and spend the entire book circling around one another, each unsure of the other's motives until almost the end of the novel.  I liked the usage of an old idea (seeing visions of murder through eyes donated by a killer), with the twist that the evil was hosted in the body and transplanted along with the organs.  It needed to find a receptive host to survive.  It didn't completely discount the fact that the people it took over were evil in there own ways.  But it did give way to the notion that there are different types and degrees of evil.  I loved Rachel as a character, especially a heroine.  She made me laugh a lot and still feel sorry for her when her past was given to the readers, including the loss of her sight.  My favorite thing was when she adopted an old, blind bulldog named Myrtle.  It just about broke my heart, because Rachel did it so Myrtle could live and not be put down at the pound.  But soon enough she was buying driving goggles and matching scarves for Myrtle and taking her everywhere. 

      The way the murder plot wrapped up wasn't all that unpredictable, but I still appreciated the resolution.  And the way Shayne developed the organ-killer/host idea and the amount of organs donated as a setup for further novels was pretty ingenious.  Overall I really enjoyed this novel, and the characters took it up a notch from the thriller with paranormal leanings that could easily fit in with the rest of the pack.  They made it distinguishable and unique and I'd recommend it for that alone.

 

VERDICT:  4/5  Stars

 

*I received an Advanced Reading E-book Copy from the publisher, via NetGalley.  No money or favors were exchanged for this review.  This book was published September 24th, 2013.*

Too Broken For Understanding

Expected Publication:  August 27th, 2013 (First Published: June 1st, 2012)

Broken
By: Elizabeth Pulford, & Angus Gomes (Illustrations)
Running Press Kids
ISBN-13:  9780762450046

Zara has one immediate and urgent goal, and it is to find her brother, Jem. She faces a few complications, though, not the least of which is searching for him in her subconscious while she is in a coma.
Zara’s coma has pulled her into the world of Jem’s favorite comic-book hero. But no matter how quickly Zara literally draws her own escape, she is taunted deeper into the fantastical darkness by the comic’s villain, Morven. All the while she is caught between the present with visits from friends and family in the hospital and the past by flashbacks of a traumatic event long ago forgotten.
The search for her brother may help Zara see the light, but in order to find him, she must face her innermost secrets first. In a multi-layered tale that intertwines comic-book/graphic novel elements with first-person narration, Elizabeth Pulford explores the dimensions of hope, love, loyalty, denial, and truth.

Review

     Zara is looking for her brother Jem, because she's lost him to his favorite comic book hero.  But unknown to herself, Zara's brother is dead and she's in a coma from the motorcycle accident that killed him.  Sorting through the traumatic events of her childhood and the recent mistakes of her life, Zara must wade through everything to get to the truth.  But inside the world of comics there are villains, who always do everything they can to stop the 'good guys' from winning.  Can her family and friends drawn her back into the land of the living, where she'll be forced to face the truth?  Or will Zara choose to keep looking for her brother and leave the land of the living for good?

     This book sounded a bit like an Australian version of If I Stay, only with a darker edge.  Even though I normally steer clear of Aussie YA lit because I just never seem to connect to it that well.  But being who I am, I dove right into it regardless of my initial misgivings.  I felt that this was a great premise, but it suffered from extremely poor execution.  The combination of the childhood kidnapping and it's total disconnect from the main plot about the accident that leaves Zara comatose was really confusing.  I felt like the author was trying to link the two, but they had NOTHING to do with each other so it made zero sense and was distracting.  The idea of Jem being lost in a comic book world was an interesting segue into illustration and allowed for a platform for Zara to work out her issues.  But it was jarring going back and forth between the fictional exploits in the comic world (mixed with her memories/subconscious), and the visits of her friends and family as they try to bring her out of the coma.  

     And I agree with another reviewer that I've seen who said they were frustrated with Zara's mission to find her brother.  It's not like we didn't know what happened to him since the beginning of the book and it makes her 'quest' seem that much more childish and annoying.  Also, the entire book is in flashbacks/one way dialogue.  It makes it kind of hard to build any real semblances of relationships between Zara and the other characters based on the present and not past events/interactions.  Overall, I felt like something was missing from the story that was crucial to me becoming invested in it.  I spent the majority skimming through disinterestedly.  This was not the book for me, but I'm sure there is someone out there who will love it.  I just wouldn't recommend it personally unless you feel some kind of unflagging desire to read it.

VERDICT:  2/5  Stars

**I received this book as part of Around the World ARC Tours, run by the lovely Princess Bookie. No favors or money were exchanged for this review. This book's expected publication is August 27th, 2013.**

A Vow That Can't Be Kept

Expected Publication:  October 15th, 2013
The Vow
By: Jessica Martinez
Simon Pulse
ISBN-13:  9781442458642

No one has ever believed that Mo and Annie are just friends. How can a guy and a girl really be best friends?

Then the summer before senior year, Mo’s father loses his job, and by extension his work visa. Instantly, life for Annie and Mo crumbles. Although Mo has lived in America for most of his life, he’ll be forced to move to Jordan. The prospect of leaving his home is devastating, and returning to a world where he no longer belongs terrifies him.

Desperate to save him, Annie proposes they tell a colossal lie—that they are in love. Mo agrees because marrying Annie is the only way he can stay. Annie just wants to keep her best friend, but what happens when it becomes a choice between saving Mo and her own chance at real love?

Review

 

     So, the two main characters in this book are best friends and have been for about seven or eight years, ever since the boy (Mo) moved from Jordan to America.  The girl (Annie) is dealing with heartbroken parents who have been distant and yet overprotective ever since her older sister was murdered and Mo is dealing with being an Arab teenager in southern Kentucky (which sucks).  But he wants nothing more than to get into Harvard or Yale, play basketball and be a normal, American teenager.  So when Mo's Dad loses his job and the whole family is about to be deported to Jordan, the two friends decide to get married, keeping it a secret, so that Mo can stay in America.  Then Annie starts to fall in love with another boy and things may not be as simple as they were when the lie began.  Can she save Mo and still follow her heart?  And will Mo come to terms with the fact that going back to Jordan doesn't change who he really is?

     I have majorly mixed feelings about this book.  I didn't really like Annie or Mo all that much, to be honest.  I felt like yes, they were friends but most of that friendship was based on the fact that they needed each other (not that they actually had things in common).  She saved him from a bully and he's the only one who 'gets' her.  It's a really selfish relationship on both of their parts.  If Annie had proposed marriage as a way to keep Mo in the country solely for his benefit, I might have been behind the decision.  But she does it because she panics at the thought of losing her only friend.  Also, they have ZERO romantic feelings for each other and Annie has a major crush on Reed, a boy at work.  After they get married, she starts to date Reed anyway because they keep the marriage a secret from everyone - including her parents.  The fact that they act like 10 year old brats half of the time does nothing to endear them to me as characters. 

     Maybe if they made responsible decisions that they didn't feel like they had to hide, it wouldn't have been such a burr in my backside.  But lies always blow up in your face eventually, and the fact that they naively expected things to be just fine and dandy, despite the fact that they're doing something highly illegal and could go to prison if found out, really made me pissed off as a reader.  For an issue book, it was well written and the look into immigration laws, visas and marriages for green cards was an interesting if intense snapshot.  That said, I hated the characters and found myself skimming my way through the last half of the book.  I seem to be in the minority with this feeling, so if the concept appeals to you I would encourage you to test it out.  Otherwise, avoid it as a lengthy timewaster.  Also, the subplot with Annie's strained relationship with her parents is left hanging loosely at the end of the book with no attempt at resolution.  Seeing as this is a major part of her character's issues and is something that defines her, I found it seriously disappointing.

 

VERDICT:  2.75/5

 

**I received this book as part of Around the World ARC Tours, run by the lovely Princess Bookie. No favors or money were exchanged for this review. This book's expected publication is October 15th, 2013.**

Pushing Me To the Brink

Expected Publication: July 31st, 2012
Pushing The Limits
By: Katie McGarry
Harlequin Teen
ISBN-13:  9780373210497

"I won't tell anyone, Echo. I promise." Noah tucked a curl behind my ear. It had been so long since someone touched me like he did. Why did it have to be Noah Hutchins? His dark brown eyes shifted to my covered arms. "You didn't do that-did you? It was done to you?" No one ever asked that question. They stared. They whispered. They laughed. But they never asked.

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.

"An edgy romance that pulls you in and never lets go. I was hooked!"-Gena Showalter, New York Times bestselling author of the Intertwined series.

Review

   Echo Emerson has been an outcast since she disappeared from school and came back with disfiguring scars on her arms.  All of her classmates think she tried to committ suicide, but the truth is much darker than that.  It keeps Echo awake at night and haunts her dreams, even though her mind is a total blank and she can't remember what happened.  Plus she has to deal with having lost her brother in Afghanistan, her parents divorcing and her Dad marrying the babysitter, who is pregnant with his child.  Noah Hutchins has been the resident bad boy at Echo's school, but even with the drugs and the parade of girls, he is something much more.  His parents died in a tragic fire and he was separated from his younger brothers, bounced around the foster care system.  Now all he wants is to get his family back together, but he'll need to clean up his act first.  Now with the new counselor Mrs. Collins pushing Echo into tutoring Noah so she can make money to fix her dead brother Aires' car, the lines will blur and they will find something in each other that has been missing from their lives.  As they fall deeper into each others situations, can Echo and Noah find a way to heal together or will they destroy each other once and for all?  I LOVED this book.  It was not completely perfect and sometimes the stupidity of the characters actions annoyed me.  Such as Echo and Noah trying to steal their files, her to find out what happened the day she almost died and him to get the address of the foster home where his brothers are.  And Echo feeling like popularity and getting her old life back were the most important things ever, including her old boyfriend who was a total douchebag and her old BFF who is shallower than a kiddie pool.  I loved the gritty issues that they both had to deal with, that made the story twice as intense.  Plus the chemistry between Echo and Noah was completely smoking hot.  Like off the charts insanely hot!  I liked Lila, Isaiah and Beth although Beth truly made me want to bash her head in at times.  I could not put this book down.  I literally read it in one sitting and wanted more at the end.  By the time things were resolved with Noah's issues and Echo's memory, I was practically bawling.  This was so close to five stars that I have to say I highly recommend it for fans of gritty, contemporary YA who don't mind a little raciness in their fiction.

VERDICT:  4.85/5  Stars

*I received an Advanced Reading E-book Copy from the publisher, via NetGalley. No money or favors were exchanged for this review. This book's expected publication date is July 31st, 2012.*