The Best Books Ever

After The End By  Amy Plum Published on May 6th 2014 Published by HarperTeen Source: Publisher She’s searching for answers to her past. They’re hunting her to save their future. World War III has left the world ravaged by nuclear radiation. A lucky few escaped to the Alaskan wilderness. They've survived for the last thirty years by living off the land, being one with nature, and hiding from whoever else might still be out there. At least, this is what Juneau has been told her entire life. When Juneau returns from a hunting trip to discover that everyone in her clan has vanished, she sets off to find them. Leaving the boundaries of their land for the very first time, she learns something horrifying: There never was a war. Cities were never destroyed. The world is intact. Everything was a lie. Now Juneau is adrift in a modern-day world she never knew existed. But while she's trying to find a way to rescue her friends and family, someone else is looking for her. ...

I Kill the Mockingbird By  Paul Acampora Published on May 20th 2014 Published by Roaring Brook Press Source: Publisher When Lucy, Elena, and Michael receive their summer reading list, they are excited to see To Kill A Mockingbird included. But not everyone in their class shares the same enthusiasm. So they hatch a plot to get the entire town talking about the well-known Harper Lee classic. They plan controversial ways to get people to read the book, including re-shelving copies of the book in bookstores so that people think they are missing and starting a website committed to “destroying the mockingbird.” Their efforts are successful when all of the hullabaloo starts to direct more people to the book. But soon, their exploits start to spin out of control and they unwittingly start a mini revolution in the name of books. Whenever I saw this book in the publisher's catalog, I knew I had to read it.   To Kill A Mockingbird was one of my favorite books as a kid, one th...

The Dark World By  Cara Lynn Schultz Published on May 27, 2014 Published by Harlequin Teen Source: ARC from Netgalley Paige Kelly is used to weird--in fact, she probably corners the market on weird, considering that her best friend, Dottie, has been dead since the 1950s. But when a fire demon attacks Paige in detention, she has to admit that things have gotten out of her league. Luckily, the cute new boy in school, Logan Bradley, is a practiced demon slayer-and he isn't fazed by Paige's propensity to chat with the dead. Suddenly, Paige is smack in the middle of a centuries-old battle between warlocks and demons, learning to fight with a magic sword so that she can defend herself. And if she makes one wrong move, she'll be pulled into the Dark World, an alternate version of our world that's overrun by demons-and she might never make it home.   I finished reading The Dark World about a week ago, but every time that I have sat down to write a review for it, I...

Top Ten Tuesday hosted by  The Broke and the Bookish This list is only ten of the many books that have stolen my heart, and have a special place always! The Sky is Everywhere  by Jandy Nelson My first contemporary, and still my absolute favorite! God Save the Queen  series by Kate Locke There is just something about this series. The characters became my friends, and I was completely drawn in to their stories. Inkworld Trilogy  by Cornelia Funke Everything by this amazing author is golden, but this series has a special place in my heart! Hex Hall  series by Rachel Hawkins Funny, sad, heartbreaking. Fast-paced, adventurous, heart-pounding. Tears, laughter, frustration! This series is topnotch! Belles  series by Jen Calonita I picked the first book up, Belles, not expecting anything other than a cute read. Which it was! But it was so much more than that, too! It was about family, fa...

Treasure Point Secrets By  Sarah Varland Published on May 6th 2014 Published by Love Inspired Source: Author It's been five years since Shiloh Evans encountered the murderous gold hunters seeking Blackbeard's hidden stash. After they killed her policewoman cousin, Shiloh left town to regroup, and earn her own police badge. Because she would see this case solved—someday. She just didn't expect the killers to attack her new home in Treasure Point, Georgia…on the same day her ex-fiancé arrived in town. Adam Cole has tried to overcome his love for Shiloh. But he won't just sit by when she's in danger. Working together, they plan a trap. But springing it requires getting to centuries-buried treasure before the killers get to them. Ok, I am going to put it out there- I am biased.  Sarah and I have been friends for a few years and when she said that she was writing a book, I immediately told her I wanted her on my site!  Sarah is an amazing mother and woman an...

The Shadow Society By  Marie Rutkoski Published on October 16th 2012 Published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux Source: Borrowed Darcy Jones doesn’t remember anything before the day she was abandoned as a child outside a Chicago firehouse. She has never really belonged anywhere—but she couldn’t have guessed that she comes from an alternate world where the Great Chicago Fire didn’t happen and deadly creatures called Shades terrorize the human population. Memories begin to haunt Darcy when a new boy arrives at her high school, and he makes her feel both desire and desired in a way she hadn’t thought possible. But Conn’s interest in her is confusing. It doesn’t line up with the way he first looked at her. As if she were his enemy. When Conn betrays Darcy, she realizes that she can’t rely on anything—not herself, not the laws of nature, and certainly not him. Darcy decides to infiltrate the Shadow Society and uncover the Shades’ latest terrorist plot. What she finds out wil...

One Man Guy By  Michael Barakiva Published on May 27th 2014 Published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR) Source: Publisher Funny and heartfelt, One Man Guy brings to mind the raucous family humor and gentle romance of My Big Fat Greek Wedding, as told with David Sedaris–style wit. Alek Khederian should have guessed something was wrong when his parents took him to a restaurant. Everyone knows that Armenians never eat out. Between bouts of interrogating the waitress and criticizing the menu, Alek’s parents announce that he’ll be attending summer school in order to bring up his grades. Alek is sure this experience will be the perfect hellish end to his hellish freshman year of high school. He never could’ve predicted that he’d meet someone like Ethan. Ethan is everything Alek wishes he were: confident, free-spirited, and irreverent. He can’t believe a guy this cool wants to be his friend. And before long, it seems like Ethan wants to be more than friends. Alek has never ...

The Unnaturalists By  Tiffany Trent Published on August 14, 2012 Published by Simon & Schuster BFYR Source: Library In an alternate London where magical creatures are preserved in a museum, two teens find themselves caught in a web of intrigue, deception, and danger. Vespa Nyx wants nothing more than to spend the rest of her life cataloging Unnatural creatures in her father’s museum, but as she gets older, the requirement to become a lady and find a husband is looming large. Syrus Reed’s Tinker family has always served and revered the Unnaturals from afar, but when his family is captured to be refinery slaves, he finds that his fate may be bound up with Vespa’s—and with the Unnaturals. As the danger grows, Vespa and Syrus find themselves in a tightening web of deception and intrigue. At stake may be the fate of New London—and the world.  This is my second time around with this story. I am a big re-reader, especially when the next book in a series is coming ...

Stolen Songbird By  Danielle L. Jensen Published on April 1st 2014 Published by Strange Chemistry Source: Publisher For those who have loved Seraphina and Graceling comes another truly fabulous fantasy... For five centuries, a witch’s curse has bound the trolls to their city beneath the ruins of Forsaken Mountain. Time enough for their dark and nefarious magic to fade from human memory and into myth. But a prophesy has been spoken of a union with the power to set the trolls free, and when Cécile de Troyes is kidnapped and taken beneath the mountain, she learns there is far more to the myth of the trolls than she could have imagined. Cécile has only one thing on her mind after she is brought to Trollus: escape. Only the trolls are clever, fast, and inhumanly strong. She will have to bide her time, wait for the perfect opportunity. But something unexpected happens while she’s waiting – she begins to fall for the enigmatic troll prince to whom she has been bonded and m...

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by  The Broke and the Bookish Some of my books about friendship may seem.... different, but I wanted to represent all different kinds of friendship. As usual, no particular order. I hope that you enjoy! Harry Potter  series by J.K. Rowling This entire series has one of the best friendships that I have ever come across in a book. Harry, Ron and Hermione's friendship is perfection, but it isn't just their friendship. It is every single friendship that was forged within the pages of these amazing books. Eragon  series by Christopher Paolini One of the best types of friendships! Friendship between man or woman and beast, be it dogs or cats or, in this case, DRAGONS! Dangerous Girls  by Abigail Haas The kind of friendships I would run like heck from. Seriously messed up friendships that are still real, even when they seem not to be. (Sorry if that makes no sense. Read it and you will completely understand!) ...

Hexed By  Michelle Krys Published on June 10, 2014 Published by Delacorte Press Source: eARC from Netgalley If high school is all about social status, Indigo Blackwood has it made. Sure, her quirky mom owns an occult shop, and a nerd just won’t stop trying to be her friend, but Indie is a popular cheerleader with a football-star boyfriend and a social circle powerful enough to ruin everyone at school. Who wouldn’t want to be her? Then a guy dies right before her eyes. And the dusty old family Bible her mom is freakishly possessive of is stolen. But it’s when a frustratingly sexy stranger named Bishop enters Indie’s world that she learns her destiny involves a lot more than pom-poms and parties. If she doesn’t get the Bible back, every witch on the planet will die. And that’s seriously bad news for Indie, because according to Bishop, she’s a witch too. Suddenly forced into a centuries-old war between witches and sorcerers, Indie’s about to uncover the many dark truths ...

She Is Not Invisible By  Marcus Sedgwick Published on April 22nd 2014 Published by Roaring Brook Press Source: Publisher Laureth Peak's father has taught her to look for recurring events, patterns, and numbers--a skill at which she's remarkably talented. Her secret: She is blind. But when her father goes missing, Laureth and her 7-year-old brother Benjamin are thrust into a mystery that takes them to New York City where surviving will take all her skill at spotting the amazing, shocking, and sometimes dangerous connections in a world full of darkness. She Is Not Invisible is an intricate puzzle of a novel that sheds a light on the delicate ties that bind people to each other. Marcus Sedgwick, best known for his haunting, dark stories, takes a turn towards something a little more contemporary with She Is Not Invisible .  This is a different book than you would expect from Sedgwick, but although it lacks the sinister edge of something like Midwinterblood , he still b...

Second Star By  Alyssa B. Sheinmel Published on May 13th 2014 Published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR) Source: Publisher A twisty story about love, loss, and lies, this contemporary oceanside adventure is tinged with a touch of dark magic as it follows seventeen-year-old Wendy Darling on a search for her missing surfer brothers. Wendy’s journey leads her to a mysterious hidden cove inhabited by a tribe of young renegade surfers, most of them runaways like her brothers. Wendy is instantly drawn to the cove’s charismatic leader, Pete, but her search also points her toward Pete's nemesis, the drug-dealing Jas. Enigmatic, dangerous, and handsome, Jas pulls Wendy in even as she's falling hard for Pete. A radical reinvention of a classic, Second Star is an irresistible summer romance about two young men who have yet to grow up--and the troubled beauty trapped between them. Second Star is a book that sticks with you.  I went into this book knowing that it was sort o...

The Taking By  Kimberly Derting Published on April 29th 2014 Published by HarperTeen Source: Publisher A flash of white light . . . and then . . . nothing. When sixteen-year-old Kyra Agnew wakes up behind a Dumpster at the Gas ’n’ Sip, she has no memory of how she got there. With a terrible headache and a major case of déjà vu, she heads home only to discover that five years have passed . . . yet she hasn’t aged a day. Everything else about Kyra’s old life is different. Her parents are divorced, her boyfriend, Austin, is in college and dating her best friend, and her dad has changed from an uptight neat-freak to a drunken conspiracy theorist who blames her five-year disappearance on little green men. Confused and lost, Kyra isn’t sure how to move forward unless she uncovers the truth. With Austin gone, she turns to Tyler, Austin’s annoying kid brother, who is now seventeen and who she has a sudden undeniable attraction to. As Tyler and Kyra retrace her steps from th...

Gravity Series Books 2-4 Bundle: Uncertainty, Luminosity, and Velocity By  Abigail Boyd Published on December 10, 2013 Published by Abigail Boyd Source: Kindle eBook  In  Uncertainty , Ariel finds out more information about her grandmother's visions and family secrets. An unexpected reunion turns her life upside down, and she doesn't know who to trust. In  Luminosity , Ariel is haunted by reoccuring nightmares that bring her back to the spooky Dexter orphanage in search of something she once lost..but she's not the only one looking for it. In the final volume of the series,  Velocity , Ariel finds out the truth behind why she's seeing ghosts, and the depth of what her powers are. She must stand up against the heinous Thornhill Society in their nefarious plot to bring Hell on earth.  I am not going to go into a big, long and drawn-out review of all of the reasons that you should read this series. Good Golly Miss Molly, just go read it! ...

Jaime's Top Ten Books I Almost Put Down But Didn't (No particular order!): Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by  The Broke and the Bookish The Peculiars  by Maureen Doyle McQuerry Boring... Dragging... BUT, I finished it. It was an interesting premise, but it just didn't work Glimpse  by Stacey Wallace Benefiel I struggled through this one, but there were enough interesting things going on that I kept reading. Never finished the series though. Fracture  by Megan Miranda I know so many people loved this one, but it just ticked me off Forbidden  by Syrie James & Ryan M. James I didn't really get hooked but I finished it... The cover is pretty! Auracle  by Gina Rosati I wanted more action, less of the romance. I liked it enough to finish it, though.  The Dead and Buried  by Kim Harrington I was expecting more scary, ghosty scenes. Not a bad book though, if you don't go in with those expec...