New YA author Megan Miranda snuck onto the YA scene last year with her first book, Fracture, which she soon followed up with Hysteria. I enjoyed both books, and loved Hysteria because of its original take on what I might call parapsychology. The refreshing thing about Miranda's writing is that it's very original in an overcrowded market space. The other thing I like is that she's NOT writing a trilogy. I don't have anything against trilogies and I read lots of them, but I also love an author who can keep up the pace of writing truly original YA stories that are all stand-alone narratives and don't require the reader to have to buy the other books in the series. In Hysteria, we know that the lead character Malllory killed her boyfriend. It's on the front blurb and in the first chapter. But she can't remember much of what happened. Her parents send her away to her dad's old boarding school and we're never sure if they're trying to protect her or to get rid of her. Everything is not what it seems in this mystery that unravels at the perfect pace. As she makes new friends (and a new love interest) at the new school, weird things start happening and her memories start resurfacing. She struggles to cope with her new life while making sense of her past at the same time. There's action, adventure, romance and good, old-fashioned mystery. It has a similar feel to Fracture (which was more of a paranormal experiment in life after death - not quite accurate, but I don't want to give too much away). But I think the plot in Hysteria is actually tighter and the ending is more satisfying. Miranda is a really important new talent on the YA scene and I highly recommend both her books. I'm awaiting her third - Vengeance - with anticipation!  [NOTE: Vengeance is described as a companion novel/sequel to Fracture so you might want to read Fracture before Vengeance comes out.]

Just read the second in Katie McGarry's Pushing the Limits trilogy (Dare You To) and I was a little disappointed. Not because it's not a good book. It is. But McGarry set the bar so high with angsty teen romance in the first book that I don't think anything could really compare. I read Pushing the Limits in a day. I couldn't put it down. Noah and Echo's entwined stories were heartbreaking, sensitive, and powerful. In contrast, Ryan and Beth's stories in Dare You To seemed a little more contrived. Beth was a character who I felt was almost more developed as a secondary character in the first book than as a primary character in her own story. McGarry seemed to take a lot of the edge off Beth when she made her the lead character in a rural town setting. Beth thrived so powerfully in the gritty urban setting of the first book. I didn't get a strong enough sense of culture clash in this one to be believable. And McGarry also pushed Isiah (from Beth's past) into the background a little too conveniently in this installment. The addition of Ryan as the romantic lead - although an interesting and solid character - simply didn't have the complexity of Noah in the first book. The challenges he faces within his family, and outside, didn't rise to the power of the challenges Noah faced as the lead in Pushing the Limits.

On its own, Dare You To, is a strong enough story about love and trust and coming to terms with who you are. But it pales in comparison to the first book which dealt with all that and more - the mystery of Echo's past and her scars, Noah's struggle to look after his younger brothers and deal with the welfare system. There was a lot more going on in the first book. And the addition of the baseball-focused storyline in Dare You To didn't do it for me. McGarry says in the Q&A at the back of the book that she did a lot of research on baseball and it shows. And for those who really like baseball stories this will probably be a big draw.

Overall this is a solid second installment to the trilogy and I'm looking forward to seeing what McGarry does with Isiah's story in the third book - her writing is great and I'll definitely be reading the next one. I only hope she recaptures some of the magic of book 1 in book 3. Not saying book 2 isn't worth the read - it's engaging and sensitive and entertaining, but I want McGarry to bring back the magic she infused her first boover her first book when she comes to the third!

This is a book I read a while back and is for more of an MG audience than a YA audience, but I thought it was worth blogging about for a number of reasons. For one thing, it's a good MG book for male readers - the lead character being a young boy who lives at Alcatraz because his father works there. He has an autistic sister who he has to take care of, and he also has to work his way around finding new friends at his school in San Francisco and dealing with being close to inmates at the prison. His parents are under stress because of his dad's job and his mother's need to deal with his sister and keep the family together and functioning.

It's historical fiction -  Choldenko has done a lot of research to ensure that the details of the 1930s time period she is writing about are accurate, particularly with respect to the operation of the prison. The point of the title is that Al Capone is an inmate at the time of the action and there are all sorts of rumors circulating about him that both scare and captivate the kids who are the main focus of the story. There is a sequel to this book - Al Capone Shines My Shoes - that is an equally good read, particularly for a young male audience. The characters and situations are whimsical in both  and, although there is some intrigue and suspense, there's nothing to raunchy or dangerous going on. Both books are great summer reads for young and older readers alike.

The best way for me to describe the first two books of Wendy Higgins' Sweet Evil trilogy is: wait for it - guilty pleasure. It's about the descendants of dukes of evil whose job it is to corrupt others in their assigned sins. It's if Dr. Evil from Austin Powers had a whole army of teens who had to learn to go out and do bad in the world. But of course, a lot of them want to be normal teens, go to school, fall in love and have happy and productive lives. And our hero and heroine are in the worst situation of all because she's part angel part demon so she has to hide her more angelic nature to survive. And he's the son of the Duke of Lust so it's a big challenge for him to be in love and avoid his darker nature. I read both of these books back to back and the story unfolds nicely in the second book as there's a chance for the neph descendants of the evil dukes to fight back for their freedom. I noted in the author acknowledgments at the back of the second book that Higgins said she found that book difficult to write. But I thought she did a great job. So often the second book in a trilogy is disappointing when compared to the first, but she really does advance the plot and develop the characters as well as adding some new characters who will obviously play a part in the final installment. They're all well-rounded and fun.  This is not "heavy" reading and you don't have to spend a lot of time pondering the deeper meaning of the universe as you read it - it's a fun jaunt into good versus evil with a bunch of teenage characters you can't help rooting for. I'm going to be looking forward to the third one.

With the second in this trilogy in the works - I think due for a January 2014 release - I thought I'd look back at the first book which I read some time ago. I hadn't read anything by Mark Frost before and really enjoyed this one. Even though it's a hefty book for YA (over 500 pages and not particularly large type), it's action-packed and full of memorable characters and cool adventures. I keep thinking of it as the "American Harry Potter" even though that's probably not an accurate characterization, but it is about a group of teenagers with special powers hidden away in a secret school and trying to solve all kinds of weird mysteries as they come to terms with their individual gifts.

Mark Frost was the co-creator of the TV series, Twin Peaks - folks my age probably remember it! This probably explains his gift for off-beat intrigue and peculiar, yet memorable, characters. There's lots of mystery, lots of action and a little romance as well. This books seems to be aimed squarely at the teen boy audience, although I suspect girls will enjoy it too. I certainly did. And sometimes I like to think of myself as a "girl" despite my ever-advancing years. I also like the fact that, although the book is fast-paced with lots of adreline-pumping adventure, it's also intelligent and the characters have logic puzzles to solve that the reader gets to solve (or not, in my case) along with them. There's also lots of cool technology for the sci-fi heads amongst us. So I would highly recommend this one for teens of all ages, and I'm looking forward to the next installment. January can't roll around fast enough!

I had read some early mixed reviews of The Program by Suzanne Young and had been in two minds about reading it. I'm glad I did. I haven't read any of Young's work before, but she's a great writer and it shows. Typically, I shy away from "memory loss" stories because I find them annoying and frustrating - don't know why. I guess it's difficult to write a strong narrative from a first person point of view when the narrator is having memory issues. But in Young's hands, the issue is handled brilliantly. I really feel for the heroine. Some reviewers had said they thought she was whiny and annoying, but I found her complex and sympathetic. She's a young girl dealing with the death of her brother and the growing teen suicide epidemic, trying to avoid The Program i.e. the treatment for teens flagged at being suicide risks themselves. Heavy topic, but handled well here by Young.

While the book covers familiar ground - are we better off without our disturbing memories? - it does so in an engaging way. It's VERY reminiscent of the film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind in terms of plot, but it's a young adult version and it's set against the background of a teen suicide epidemic where the memory manipulation is not voluntary but is forced about those regarded as risks. It's a fully contained story and all the characters find their own answers to difficult questions at the end, although I have seen web rumors that there's a sequel in the works. There's a kind of romantic triangle too which is handled deftly by Young given that her characters go through various stages of memory loss and manipulation during the course of the story. A great summer read, but pretty harrowing in places so definitely not for "fun in the sun" over the summer.

The first thing to say about Shannon Messenger's Let The Sky Fall is how great it is to find an original story in the overcrowded YA supernatural/sci-fi/paranormal marketplace. There's a handful of YA authors who never disappoint in terms of their originality (Maggie Stiefvater comes to mind) and I have a feeling Messenger is shaping up to be one of them.

This is billed as a love story - which indeed it is - between a windwalker/sylph and a guy who's more than he seems, and more than he knows. There's action and adventure, but the focus in this book is on the developing relationship between Audra and Vane. It also deals with family and friendship and the different kinds of love we face in our lives.

The book is written from two shifting points of view - one for each of the main characters. I sometimes find this style a little jarring, but done well it's very engaging. And it's done well here. Messenger credits her husband with helping her to channel her inner teen snarky boy and all I can say is, I wonder what their home life is like because this is very realistic. So ... engaging characters, original plot, and the promise of more to come - this book is the beginning of a new series. But I still really liked the ending - not a cliffhanger. There's a lot more ground for our hero and heroine to cover in future books but this story wraps up their initial journey nicely. I would recommend it as a really fun summer read and I look forward to the next one.

How could I resist this book? Sentient androids - one of my favorite themes. And even though I don't like plugging my own stuff on the blog, one of my e-books (for grown ups, rather than YA - Destiny) deals with similar themes involving androids achieving sentience and the meaning of humanity. Driza's book is also reminiscent of one of my favorite YA sentient android stories, Eden by Keary Taylor which I think was self-published. It's available on Amazon and I'd definitely recommend it!

So back to the book at hand. I wasn't sure when I was reading it whether it was the beginning of a trilogy/series or stand-alone. So kudos to Driza for keeping me guessing and not creating too much of a cliffhanger. The book has threads left unexplored but still stands on its own - YAY! (And, yes, I looked it up and it is intended as the first in a new series.)

Some review sites list this story as dystopian and I'm not 100% sure that classification is correct. Unlike, say, Eden (which I mentioned above), Driza's world doesn't seem like a future dysfunctional society, but rather a present-day or close to present-day scenario with augmented science. The main character, MILA, is compelling and the situations she faces are great opportunities for her to struggle with the question whether she's more of a robot or more of a human. The story structure is a little different from a lot of current YA. It's broken into four separate "parts" and I'm not really sure why. The first part is a clearly separate section of the story that sets up the character and her situation in a small town. The following 3/4 of the book really work as one large "part". This is a small thing, but after the first "part break" I was waiting for three new situations and challenges to follow and this didn't happen. There were also a lot of action sequences (including a couple of car chases) which made the book very cinematographic, but I felt these scenes became a little tiresome after a while. My favorite aspects of the book werethe times it focused on character and what makes us human, so I didn't need quite as many shoot-em-up chase scenes. But they're hard to write in an engaging way and Driza did a good job. So, yes, I'll pick up the next book whenever it comes out, but I hope for less action and more character development.

Here's another one I listened to as an audiobook and had been meaning to blog about for a while - Venom by Fiona Paul, the first in the Secrets of the Eternal Rose trilogy. I had spent some time eying the book-cover in various bookstores before downloading it to my iPod. I mean, who could resist this design? It's YA with a new twist in that in combines historical period writing with murder/mystery and romance. In other words, it's got a bit of everything. The problem for me was that maybe it was trying to do too much all at once. Paul was wonderful at creating the setting of Renaissance Venice. I'm betting this period is a passion of hers. Her details and awareness of the social structure and art world in particular were amazing. But I wondered if she spent too much time on these aspects of writing to the detriment of the characters and pacing. The lead character (Cassandra) does come off as a little hopeless and whiny for much of the book and the two potential romantic leads are somewhat difficult to get a handle on, although they're both supposed to be mysterious - in different ways. Maybe they were a little too mysterious at times. The plot was intriguing - murder and mayhem in the art world and no one is who they seem. So the book has the elements of a great mystery/thriller in a unique setting. And Paul has left plenty more mystery to explore in the next book, without leaving this one on a cliffhanger. Sure, there are things still to be resolved and questions that need to be answered in Book 2, but Venom at least has a satisfying ending in and of itself. I'm not sure that I believed Cassandra's reasons for making the decision she does in the end, but I was prepared to suspend my disbelief until Book 2. Overall, I enjoyed the book and probably would have enjoyed it more if not for the annoying attempts at an Italian accent made by the narrator of the audiobook version. So here's another one I would recommend reading in text format. Don't get me wrong, I love audiobooks and for the most part the narrators I've listened to have been great, but this one left me a little cold.

I finally got around to reading the first of Ellen Hopkins' YA novels-in-poetry, Crank. Honestly, I had been putting off reading this because frankly a novel in poetry for a YA audience about drug use sounded a little pretentious to me. Mea culpa to the max! I poured through this book in one evening. And it ensnared me with its bravery, honesty and the amazing construction of its writing. I thought the poetry would distance me from the "plot" of the story which is based on Hopkins' own daughter's struggle with drugs. It's raw and powerful and I kept thinking of words like "significant" and "important" to describe the book as I was reading it. This is not a story to take lightly. I'm a parent of three and the subject matter is frankly eye-opening, depressing, and terrifying. But it's also real. It brings the issue of how easy it is for teens to get their hands on these drugs into stark focus, and of how easy it is for them to become addicted, a battle that can last - and can destroy - their entire lives, and potentially the lives of those around them. Even though the book deals with important issues, the main character who tells the story, based on Hopkins' daughter, is well rounded and easy to relate to. I couldn't stop thinking "there but for the grace of God go I - or my children". This is not a book you "enjoy" so much as possibly "need to read", particularly if you have tween or teen children. It's sold as a YA book, and I'm sure that teenagers will be able to relate to it, but it's definitely a book for adults as well, particularly parents. I'm sorry I put off reading it, although I'm sure I'll need to take a breath and compose myself before reading more of Hopkins' YA books.

Maybe it was the mood I was in - I've been stressed out lately - but I was mildly disappointed in Moira Young's second book in the Dust Lands trilogy, Rebel Heart. I had been so taken with the first book - Blood Red Road - that it really was a hard act to follow and that may be the root of the problem for me. I loved the main character's (Saba) voice once I got used to it, and the world building was wonderful and unique in the first book. In the follow-up, we have most of the same cast of characters in some new locations (equally powerfully constructed to those in the first book), but somehow the chemistry is awry, and the plot meanders. Part of the problem is that after building up the hero (Jack) in the first book, the second book spends a lot of time musing about whether he's a good guy or a bad guy without letting us in on his side of the action. And part of the problem in deciding whether he's a good guy or a bad guy springs from the fact that it's very difficult to get a handle on what's actually going on in the society since the events of the first book.

There are changes afoot. Our "villain-in-waiting" from the first book returns and seems to be leading some kind of renaissance plot for the society and has plans for Saba of his own. As in the first book, he's still too much of a cipher. We don't get a sense of who he is or what he's for and against. Saba spends more time with him this go around, but we still don't get much of a sense of what he's all about, other than at the most artificial level. He's also set up as the third side of a potential romantic triangle with Jack, but that kind of fizzles too.

The most significant addition character-wise is that Saba's twin brother Lugh (who is offscreen for most of the first book as the victim of a kidnapping) is front and center here. His relationship with Saba is interesting for the first few chapters but then becomes tiresome. He's disappointed in the world outside their homestead, but they can't go back and they can't seem to go forward, at least not in the direction Lugh wants to go, both geographically and personally. After building him up as the person who means the world to Saba in the first book, he's sorely disappointing here. It's easy to understand his fear and frustration, but it also becomes a little two dimensional because it seems overplayed by the end of the book.

I'm probably being harsher than I intend. The work Moira Young has done to create this world and these characters is superb and I have a hunch she'll wrap it up beautifully in the third book. This one just seemed to be more of a stop-gap between books 1 and 3 than a stand-alone story. It was almost as if she didn't want to give too much away in this one so we come back for more in the final installment. I'll come back for more anyway. And I wouldn't "not recommend" this book. But I thought the first one was stronger in terms of plot arc and character development.

I've finally finished listening to the Forest of Hands and Teeth trilogy on audiobook. And the first thing to say is that the narrator of the first book ain't that great, so if you're thinking of tackling this trilogy, read the first one as text. The other two are fine on audiobook.

I was leery of this series to start with. I couldn't help thinking: Do we really need a YA zombie series? And what is this current fascination with zombies all about anyway? And did Brad Pitt really have to make a zombie movie???

I didn't love the first book of the trilogy, partly because of the narrator and partly because it was difficult to get a handle on the main character (Mary). The three books are connected, and Mary appears - as an adult - in the later stories, but she's not nearly as annoying. In the first book, Mary was pretty whiny and selfish, and it was difficult to sympathize with her as she battled the zombies in the forest of hands and teeth with a small band of friends. There was also a lot of Mary ruminating in her own head which became somewhat repetitive and dull. This was a bit of a fault with all three books because they're all written in first person point of view from the perspective of a different teen female narrator - in the second book it's Mary's daughter, Gabry, and in the third book it's Anna. I won't say how she fits into the story because that would be too much of a spoiler. Gabry and Anna are much more engaging main characters in their respective stories than Mary is in the first. But all three narrators have a tendency to spend a lot of time in their own heads. I suppose there's not much else to do in a zombie-infested dystopia. At least each of the books takes place largely in a different setting, even though the forest itself is a feature of all three. But it dominates the first book in a way that it doesn't dominate the second and third installments. And, let's face it, a forest filled with zombies is a somewhat limited setting.

The second and third books were more engaging than the first so I'm glad I stuck with it to the end. And the trilogy really did work as a "complete" story arc which is more than I can say for a lot of recent YA trilogies. Also, each story had its own distinct conclusion and wrapped up the journey of the relevant narrator so I don't have to talk about my pet peeve about cliffhangers in the middle of trilogies. As I have said before, as long as each story is self-contained, I'm happy. And these were, although the third story had more of a big ending that wrapped up the series nicely.  I understand there's going to be a movie (or potentially going to be a movie) so we can look forward to more zombies on the silver screen! Why, oh why, did Brad Pitt have to make a zombie movie??? Anyway, at the end of the day, this is a solid trilogy and if you can make it through the first book, the second and third books are more rewarding. Just don't listen to the first one as an audio book.

I read the first in the Dust Lands series on the recommendation of a classmate in a writing course and want to thank her wholeheartedly for bringing it to my attention. I have just ordered the second book on my Kindle. While this is the first of a trilogy, I'm pleased to say that the story wraps up nicely and doesn't end on a cliffhanger. I love it when an author has enough confidence in her work that she wraps up a story (even if there is the possibility of a next book) and presumably assumes the reader will come back for more if they liked the first book enough. She doesn't resort to leaving us hanging to ensure we come back for the second round. Thank you!

This book has been compared to The Hunger Games and I'm not sure that I agree. Sure, it's a post-apocalyptic YA story where kids have to fight for what they want, but it's very different to Hunger Games in that it's not about a contained society, but rather a very fractured society. It's also more of a "quest" narrative, where the heroine starts off pretty much alone and gathers a group of friends and helpers during her long journey to find and save her brother who was kidnapped at the beginning of the tale. The goal isn't to get back home safely, but rather to journey through the barren landscape and find out what else is out there. It reminded me more of Jane Yolen's Sister Light, Sister Dark than of the Hunger Games, particularly in its emphasis on mythology and recreation of a fractured society than on politics and corruption. It also has a few similarities with the Mad Max/Road Warrior movies. One interesting feature of this book is that it's written in what sounds like a southern vernacular - in the first person from the main character (Saba's) point of view. I found this a little off-putting for the first few chapters but gradually settled into it and then the character shined through regardless of her dialect. She's a complex character with hidden depths that even she doesn't fully appreciate. I won't give anything away but I really loved the last few lines of the final chapter. It's a great wrap-up for the first tale and I'm looking forward to reading the next book.

I've been REALLY looking forward to reviewing Doom & Gloom by Monica Shaughnessy, partly because it's a really terrific MG book and partly because I know the author and have had the pleasure of seeing scenes from it develop while she was writing it. The fun of seeing it all put together in one whizz-bang swash-buckle of a story (and I use the fencing term advisedly!) is hard to beat.

This is a book for the MG audience - the protagonist, Dane Winter, is twelve. He is hampered by a rare disease that prevents him from going out in the sunshine without risking fatal burns to his skin. His family is wealthy and were the original benefactors for the town in which he lives - Winterville. However, his parents have pretty much checked out and gone to do good works overseas while Dane and his band of misfit friends are left to battle crime in the town.

With the help of some cool robots and other technical surprises, Dane and his trusty friend, Jinx, set out to beat the Mad Dogs, a local gang hell bent on destroying the town. The dynamic duo's plans seem to be foiled at every turn and just when it looks like they're going to win out, there's a really great twist at the end that puts the two in even greater danger than anyone would have predicted. Zane learns to trust in who he is and play on his strengths as he comes to terms with where he belongs and who his friends really are. The story is written with action, adventure, and good humor throughout, and is a great read for children of any ages (including the middle-aged mom set ...).

I had put off reading this one for a while. Don't know why. Maybe I was trying to get my balance of YA contemporary versus dystopia/fantasy back in sync. This is definitely contemporary. But contemporary with a neat twist in that it deals with racial disharmony and diversity issues in urban areas and in high school settings. Elkeles obviously did her homework here and it shows. She won a number of awards for this book including the Romance Writers of America RITA Award for Best Young Adult Romance (2010), An ALA/YALSA Quick Pick for Reluctant Young Adult Readers for Top Ten (2010), Pennsylvania Young Readers' Choice Award Nominee (2011), Abraham Lincoln Award Nominee (2011). [Source: Goodreads.]

She portrays the life of the teen child of a Mexican immigrant family very realistically and the difficult choices he faces, and juxtaposes that with the story of a young well-off white girl who has issues of her own and hides behind her own "perfect" facade. The two fall in love and have a lot of hurdles to overcome to be accepted within both cultures (or not, as the case may be). Obviously, peer group and parental pressure have a significant role to play here.

While I felt in places that I wanted more depth to a given character or situation, what Elkeles achieved here was pretty significant in utilizing the familiar teen high school romance genre as the backdrop for more important messages about diversity and acceptance. Some of the characters were a little stereotypical including the two high school teachers who overcame their backgrounds and have dedicated their lives to helping others do the same. But one almost needs those kinds of characters in a book like this - role models from the next generation to show what is possible if a person fights for what he or she believes. I'm glad I read this one and would recommend it. It should be a good discussion starter for high school kids on issues of race and prejudice and it's an entertaining lovely story as well.

On the recommendation of a good friend and colleague, I just read Hillary Jordan's When She woke.  The cover blurb talks about Jordan here channeling Nathanial Hawthorne by way of Margaret Atwood, and I have to say I couldn't stop thinking about The Handmaid's Tale as I read this. I wouldn't classify this as a YA book. The protagonist is around 25 years old so I guess if anything it's "new adult" i.e. if books have to have an "age group" attached to them.  It's definitely dystopian, but it's atypical in that it's a quieter story than a lot of the action/adventure/romance dystopias out there today. This one has its share of action and adventure (and even some romance), but it's more philosophical. Jordan muses on religion, gender and race as she imagines a future society where thoughts on abortion, women's role in society, and religion are taken to the nth degree.  The lead character - Hannah Payne - is easily relatable. She's an honorable character trying to do the right thing in an impossible situation, hampered by her sheltered upbringing in terms of figuring out the meaning of right versus wrong in unfamiliar contexts.  I haven't read any other reviews of this book and I imagine the content could be off-putting to some people, particularly in terms of its focus on religion and abortion. But for the most part I thought she handled the issues sensitively, using the fiction framework to develop arguments about where unbridled fundamental beliefs in anything (freedom of choice, role of religion, free will, justice and violence) could lead a society.  This is not a "boy meets girl and fights repressive society" story like a lot of modern dystopian tales, but rather a "girl suffers terrible fate largely of her own making, and struggles to survive the consequences in a confusing and often violent/repressive society" story. It's difficult to review the book without giving too much away. It won't be everyone's cup of tea because the subject matter can be stark and confronting in places. But I found it highly engaging and thought-provoking.

I've only read two John Green books so far - The Fault in Our Stars and Paper Towns (in that order).  After reading Stars, I was a little disappointed in Paper Towns.  While Stars was so focused on character and heart-rending situations and relationships, Paper Towns was more of an exercise in plot and mystery-solving.  I also felt it was more boy-oriented than unisex if that makes any sense. I have a feeling that Stars would appeal more broadly to both male and female readers while Paper Towns seemed to be written more for boys - much more from a male perspective, and the main female character, Margo (the subject of the mystery), remains a bit of a cipher throughout the book. I know that's the point of the book - she disappears and no one really knows who she was, which makes it difficult to figure out what's happened to her. But even though the mystery was engaging and the main character was a nice guy (Quentin) who was easy to relate to, the book just didn't grab me.  And I think part of the problem was that I never got a handle on Margo as a rounded character, or why Quentin liked her so much in the first place.

No question that John Green is a brilliant author and I'm sure to read more of his work - and I'm not ashamed to admit I cried most of the way through Stars.  But Paper Towns just didn't do it for me.  I read it through to the end and was still left feeling that I wanted more closure or more of a message or a lesson learned when push came to shove.  In some ways, it was the ending that was the let-down for me. It's as if the book was building up to something really powerful and then it sort of fizzled. I don't want to say anymore because I don't want to give the mystery away - and the mystery does sustain the book. But at the end I either missed something or there wasn't enough substance for the emotional pay-off.  Will definitely read more of John Green's work and I remember reading an interview with him where he tried to explain the runaway success of Stars compared with some of his earlier work. My two cents' worth is that Stars is simply an unbelievable book.  And it would be difficult for anything else to hold a candle to it.

So what happens if you mix a good ol' YA dystopia with a reverse Twilight love story (ie gal is vampire, guy is ... well, not so much)?  Julie Kagawa has the answer in her "Blood of Eden" series, the second book of which came out recently - The Eternity Cure. I would highly recommend reading the first - The Immortal Rules - before tackling this one. You'll still follow the storyline if you don't, but it will be much more user-friendly if you do.

While Kagawa utilizes elements that have been used before in YA writing in recent years (notably dystopia and vampires), she puts her own unique spin on them and the result is highly entertaining reading. I did feel that Eternity Cure became dragged down a little bit with too many sequences involving our heroine and various of her comrades trudging around in tunnels under the city. It became a little repetitive at times. But I suppose that's the nature of the beast if it's the only (relatively) safe way to travel in cities infested by all sorts of creepy crawlies including mole men and rabids on top of generally untrustworthy bloodsucking vampires.  The love story between the vampire-girl (Allie) and the human boy (Zeke) is handled with depth and sensitivity, and is afforded added dimension in both volumes of the trilogy to date by the fact that the boy comes from a strictly religious upbringing which makes being friends, let alone being in love with, a vampire extremely challenging.  In this volume, Allie is also forced to ally herself with vampires that she can't really trust. Necessity makes VERY strange bedfellows.  While the action gets bogged down in the tunnels (no pun intended, well, maybe ...) in places and the pace could be picked up, this is still a truly engaging read and I'm definitely going to pick up the next one.  I need to know if there will be any place for the poor little humans at the end of the day in this horribly infested dystopia!  And will anyone find a true "cure" for eternity??

I really wanted to blog about this one myself, but eight year old Zach called dibs on reviewing it, so here's his thoughts ...

"This is when Miranda gets knocked out and she forgets all her past memories and she remembers all of them in the future. But she doesn't remember her friends, and she finds out that she has a power like telepathy.  And they go jumping off roofs, away from the cops, and when they get low they have to jump down a big hill of garbage. I like the book because it has telepathy."

[Kaleigh's note - I reserve the right to write my own review later!  I might wait for the second book which I think is coming out later this year, and review them both at the same time.]

Eight year old Zach has been reading Gone, the first in Michael Grant's dystopian series. Here's some of his recent thoughts.  (It's taking him a while to read it because it's a long book and he's only a kid!)

Zach says:

"It's where everybody fourteen or younger are in this cage that fifteen or older people just disappear from class, like the teachers.  And then there's a fire in the daycare and Quinn and Sam have to solve it all by themselves, while Astrid and Edilio are driving in a car from people who are trying to kill them. And at the end Edilio gets eaten by worms. [Kaleigh's note - I'm not sure that's actually true but it's what Zach told me, and would I question my own kid?]  Quinn gets twisted up in an impossible position in a car.  I like this book because it's Sam's birthday at the end and that's when he disappears. [Kaleigh notes - that would be a totally awesome birthday present for a parent!]"

So back to YA fantasy today ...

I actually read Poison Princess (Kresley Cole) a while ago, but had been meaning to share some thoughts about it. It was on my to-do list. I was intrigued when I first heard that Cole was going to turn her hand to YA - it seems that everyone is doing it these days. I admit that I've read some of her adult fantasy books and there's quite a *lot* of sex in them so I wondered how she'd tone it down for a younger audience. I wasn't disappointed. She's a dab hand at fantasy and has managed to create unusual teen characters and situations even in the increasingly overcrowded field of YA fantasy. Her work is darker than some other YA writers which probably isn't a bad thing. Starting with the relatively safe modern world, everything quickly turns post-apocalyptic, and our heroine (Evie) is somehow involved in the apocalypse and what's coming next but she - and the reader - are left in the dark other than a few clues, including mystical powers Evie wields over plant life.  Like some of her adult work, Cole sets the beginning of the book in New Orleans and creates a "bad boy" romantic hero who's a bit dfferent in that he's Cajun and speaks in an authentic dialect. He's dark and dangerous, but we know he's really one of the good guys. The problem is that Evie's secrets may be too much for him - which is part of the cliffhanger at the end of this book. This is intended as yet another series so there's a lot that isn't resolved here. I understand the second book (Endless Night) is coming out later this year - October, I think. I'm definitely going to pick it up to see what happens to Evie and Jack and the band of misfits they take up with throughout the first book. I'm also interested to know how Evie and Jack come to terms with Evie's powers. In some ways there are shades of Laini Taylor's Daughter of Smoke and Bone series here - in terms of whether the heroine's powers and destiny will prove too much for the bond with the hero.

For someone who professes not to like contemporary YA books that much (as opposed to sci-fi and fantasy), I seem to have read a lot of contemporary YA books lately. Blame that on a rather good marketing campaign at B&N recently (in store).  So I picked up both Anna and the French Kiss and Lola and the Box Next Door by Stephanie Perkins. I understand this is a three book series and the third, forthcoming, book is entitled "Isla and the Happily Ever After". They are a series of interconnected stories, each set in a different city with a different romantic hero and heroine pairing. But in the second book the romantic couple from the first book play a supporting role and I understand that both couples will appear in supporting roles in the third book.

I enjoyed Lola and the Boy Next Door but not nearly as much as the first book. While the characters and settings were beautifully created - as in the first one - there just didn't seem to be as much meat to the story. Lola's boyfriend is so obviously wrong for her and the boy next door (Cricket) is so obviously right, and so obviously still in love with her since his childhood. It all seems a little too easy plot-wise.  The book boasts some wonderful settings in and around San Francisco - but it still doesn't compare to the wonderfully rendered Paris of the first book (hey, c'mon, it's Paris, okay?) Another nice thing about the second book is that the heroine's parents are a gay couple. It's in keeping with the San Francisco/Mission District setting, but again is perhaps a little too obvious as a matter of plot. But at least it's nice to see an example in modern writing of a functional family consisting of a gay couple (two men) raising a young woman and doing a great job. So props to Perkins for that. It also gives the heroine the chance to struggle a little with her identity as she comes to terms with her birth mother, although that is a relatively small subplot.

At the end of the day, I enjoy this series and probably will read the third book, but I hope that it's more like the first. In other words, I hope that the heroine has greater challenges than simply deciding she's good enough for the obvious love interest which is really the case in "Lola".

I recently finished The Lucy Variations by Sara Zarr. I'll be honest - I bought it because of the cover. Who could resist this design?? And the tag line:  "Play like no one is listening."
So, marketing kudos to the folks at Little Brown & Co.
Really loved this book. It's a contemporary YA, and I often have trouble getting into contemporary YA stories because they seem so formulaic - first love, dysfunctional parents etc. This story is different. Parents are a problem to Lucy, but only in so much as her mother has high expectations of her which have been dashed by her decision to give up a promising career as a concert pianist. We find out that these expectations are actually fueled by the paternal grandfather who himself is a complex and believable character.  This is NOT a story about first love - although Lucy has her share of crushes, usually on older guys/teachers which is completely believable in the context of her struggles to find herself and work out what position music should hold in her life if she's not going to be a world famous performer. It is a story about figuring out who we really are, working out what's truly important and what isn't, and then finding ways to create a life that focuses on the things that make us happy, while coming to terms with the fact that those might not be the things that would necessarily make other people happy. This book is original, and extremely engaging, and easy to read. Highly recommended!

Because it's summer break, I've had more time than usual to catch up on things I've wanted to read for a while. This week I tore through three YA books:  The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer (Michelle Hodkin), The 5th Wave (Rick Yancey) and Flight (Sherman Alexie).

The first thing I want to say is that Sherman Alexie is such a brilliant writer that he could write a grocery list and I'd be engrossed.  Flight, like The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian, deals with a Native-American boy coming to terms with cultural conflicts and aspects of the welfare state in the Pacific Northwest. Alexie adds some interesting twists - like time travel. The writing style combines the same hard edges and soft touches evident in Alexie's other writing and the last chapter made me want to cry. I would highly recommend this one, particularly to anyone who liked Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian.

What can I say about The 5th Wave that hasn't been said already? This is actually the first of Rick Yancey's books I've ever read and I loved it. It's very cinematographic in writing style and it's unsurprising there are talks afoot about making a  movie version - and of many sequels. Some reviewers have likened it to The Hunger Games in that it deals with turning children into soldiers fighting a battle that is stacked against them. While I can see this point of view, the story is also very original and I love the ideas of the nature of identity in this book - what makes us human?  what makes us "other"? Like Alexie, Yancey balances hard edges and soft touches in creating his characters, which gives them depth and makes them easy to relate to and empathize with (never use a preposition to end a sentence with, I know).  I think my favorite line - and I hope I'm not giving anything away, is when one of the characters says: "I am a shark ... A shark who dreamed he was a man." Just beautiful!

I was a little less enthusiastic about "Mara Dyer" even though I tore through it pretty quickly - it was very engaging and unique and easy to read. It's more of a paranormal horror story than anything else and this seems to be a growing area of YA literature at the moment. I guess it played to one of my pet peeves in that it really did end with a bit of a cliff-hanger and told us to wait for the next book. It bothers me when good writers do this almost as if they can't trust us to like them enough to pick up the next book without leaving us hanging. I feel the same way about Cassandra Clare. She's one of my favorite YA authors, but she has a tendency to do this in some of her books that annoys me. The story of Mara Dyer is very unique and the language is very contemporary and upbeat. Love the dialogue and the internal voice of the main character. My favorite line was when asked if she would draw a self-portrait, she thought to herself: "I contemplated the idea. I'd have to draw myself without a mirror, now that I saw dead people in them these days." Terrific YA voice! So I would recommend it and I will read the next book, but please, no more overt cliffhangers!!!!

Kaleigh and Zach will be back with more book thoughts next week ...

For our first post, Zach (8 years old) would like to share some thoughts about the C.S. Lewis Chronicles of Narnia books. He's reading "The Silver Chair" at the moment. He wants to say that: "a girl gets upset and runs outside and meets a boy and then they find the secret door in a giant rock and so when they go through the door they are in a wonderland and then the boy falls off a cliff and the lion blows him away to Narnia and the girl has to go get him".

He hasn't finished the book yet, but seems to have a good grasp of the essentials!