27. Revelations

Revelations (A Blue Bloods novel), by Melissa de la Cruz

I've reviewed the first two Blue Bloods books here, but this time, I actually bought a copy instead of picking up a galley at a conference. I was shopping for groceries, and bought this on impulse. I tend to like to stick with a series once I've started it.

Schuyler Van Allen is kind of a cross between Harry Potter and Serena Van Der Woodsen. She's gorgeous and talented, but a poor relation from a once-powerful supernatural family. In this installment, Schuyler is still in love with Jack Force, but he's still creepily promised to his evil sister, Mimi. The soulmate twins thing really and truly gives me a the creeps. The silver bloods are still sneaking around trying to kill off the blue bloods, and nothing else much has changed. There are some confusing fight scenes and some drama as several people come under suspicion of being a silver blood, but still, the characters all seem to be in the same places as before. Mimi is obviously a bad seed, but she's cleared of being truly, truly a baddie. The Leviathan under the Christ statue in Brazil seemed to come from out of nowhere, but maybe we'll get some of this cleared up later. Ah, well. It's entertaining while I'm reading it, but then pretty much forgotten.

21. Sophomore Undercover

Sophomore Undercover, by Ben Esch

When I was headed for Casper over Thanksgiving break, I hurriedly grabbed a couple of unread galleys from the pile, and this was one of them. The story follows Dixie Nguyen, a Vietnamese orphan adopted by a college professor who ended up dying in a car wreck. so he ended up being taken in by a different family that doesn't understand him. Dixie, the titular sophomore sleuth, is the sole reporter for the school newspaper.

The story Dixie's trying to uncover is a student athlete doping scandal, though his newspaper adviser has ordered him to drop it and cover homecoming instead. I had a hard time getting though the book because Dixie is an almost-impossibly naive and clueless kid who reads every situation incorrectly and unfailingly says exactly the thing that will get his ass kicked by the jocks who love to torment him. All in all, the hijinx are wacky, the comedy crude, and the situations completely implausible. Not my thing, but it might well appeal to its target audience of teen boys.

18. If I Stay

If I Stay, by Gayle Forman

I loved this book. It's short and totally engrossing, so you'll want to read it all in one stretch. Even though I read the jacket, I didn't really get what it was going to be about until I read it, and I'm not sure what I should say about it in order not to spoil anything.

The main character, Mia, plays the cello well enough to get into Julliard, has a family she loves, and a great boyfriend. (Isn't it nice to read a young adult book with a functional family?) She's a little serious and nerdy, but she's pretty happy with her life. The only thing stressing her out is deciding whether to pursue her music or stay with her boyfriend after high school. Then, all of a sudden, everything changes and she has a completely different, much more difficult decision to make.

Do not read this in public. Have tissues on hand. Stay hydrated.

17. The Temptress Four

The Temptress Four, by Gaby Triana

This book kept me entertained on my flight to Chicago. After high school graduation, Fiona and her best friends, Yola, Alma, and Killian, go on a cruise from Miami through the Caribbean. Right before they depart, they visit a fortune teller who tells them one of them won't return from the trip. DOOM!

But this isn't really a mystery. The girls fight, make up, meet boys, go dancing, explore the ports of call, and figure out their futures while on the cruise. One of them doesn't go back to Miami, but I won't spoil it for you and tell you how or why.

15. Peace, Love, and Baby Ducks

Peace, Love, and Baby Ducks, by Lauren Myracle

I'm on a YA roll here. Carly is about to start her sophomore year of high school and is just back from volunteering outdoors in Tennessee, which is a far cry from her wealthy suburban Atlanta home. Carly doesn't feel like she fits into the country club set and vows to hold onto her hippie girl ways as she returns to her private Christian high school full of preppy kids.

Carly looks forward to her younger sister, Anna, starting high school and joining her and her best friend Peyton at school. But when she returns home, she finds that Anna has grown up and looks hotter and older than she does, and Peyton has a new boyfriend she's obsessed with. All of a sudden, Anna and Peyton seem to have more in common with each other than with Carly. The rest of the story is Carly coming to terms with things changing and learning how to be a sister and a friend throughout all that. This is a fun, quick read, and I will keep a look out for this author.

14. Karma for Beginners

Karma for Beginners, by Jessica Blank (August 2009)

I wasn't sure about this one, but since it was a free ARC from the ALA conference, I thought I might as well give it a shot. Right off the bat, I liked that the book was set in the mid-1980s instead of current day. Tessa is fourteen and lives with her flaky mom, who pulls up stakes and moves them around pretty often. This time, they move to an ashram near the Catskills, where Tessa feels out of control and out of place. Her mom becomes even less interested in her as she becomes creepily close to the guru of the group, and Tessa finds refuge in a wholly inappropriate place--the arms of the twenty-year-old college dropout who works as the ashram's mechanic.

This is definitely one some parents will find troublesome because, with this older guy, Tessa has sex and does drugs. But the story really reinforces how important strong parent-child relationships are and the importance of supervision and care. It can also bridge the generation gap, showing today's teens that the same problems existed when their parents were kids.

13. Heist Society

Heist Society, by Ally Carter (out February 2010)

Ally Carter is the author of the Gallagher Girls series, which I have enjoyed. At ALA this year, the Hyperion rep was out of the third GG book, but gave me an ARC of this one. It's so early it doesn't even have priliminary cover art. It's similar to GG, except this time, instead of a teenage girl spy, we meet a teenage girl thief. Katarina Bishop is part of a family of master thieves, though she's trying to live a normal life after grifting her way into an elite boarding school. Then her friend Hale drags her back into the heist life in order to save her father from a powerful mafioso. It's good fun.

7. Along for the Ride

Along for the Ride, by Sarah Dessen (2009).

How have I not discovered Sarah Dessen before? Probably because she writes for teens, though I assumed from the cover that this was adult chick lit and nothing inside the book made think otherwise until I was halfway though it. I remember thinking that more writers should try out protagonists Auden's age, because the summer after high school/before college is such an interesting time.

After her parents' divorce, Auden lives with her college professor mother, who treats her like an adult. She decides to get away from her mom and go stay with her dad, new stepmother, and new baby sister. Her dad is just as absentee as her mom, but Auden starts to develop a relationship with her young stepmother, who she previously though was a dumb blonde. I really liked how Auden begins to see her parents as people with flaws, rather than just parents who don't live up to her expectations.

I'm wishing I posted about this when I first read the book, because some of the details are getting fuzzy. The romance between Auden and Eli is really nice, and starts out so realistically for the age of the characters. The beach town setting also helps show how much waiting around and hanging out teenagers do in real life, which is so different from the urban jet-setting teens in a lot of books.

4. Cathy's Ring

Cathy's Ring, by Sean Stewart (May 2009)

I read this one soon after picking it up at Midwinter in Denver. Driving to a big conference meant I came home with 36 free books, and it's taking me a while to get through them. And to blog them, I guess.

This is the third installment in a series, and I haven't read the others. The publisher rep told me this series is controversial because of the promotional tie-ins and multimedia enhancements (the email addresses and phone numbers in the books actually work). I didn't try any of this stuff out, so I reserve judgment.

The story is pretty engaging and exciting, though I'm missing context from the earlier books. To the author's credit, he doesn't re-explain everything to the readers, something I find really annoying in series fiction. Cathy, the main character, is in love with an immortal. There's a whole cabal of immortals, most of them evil. For some reason, the main baddie, Ancestor Lu, is trying to kill her and she goes on the run with some friends. There's a semi-bad doppleganger, a love triangle, and some family intrigue to make things interesting. Maybe after I finish up my huge stack of unread galleys, I'll check out the rest of this series.

3. Psych Major Syndrome

Psych Major Syndrome, by Alicia Thompson (2009, August)

Light reads are really appealing right now, while I'm super busy at work, reading some more serious stuff, and just looking for fast, easy entertainment. Psych Major Syndrome was a good choice. It's about Leigh, a freshman at a small liberal arts college in California, who is majoring in Psychology. She's going through some drama with her high school boyfriend, who also goes to her college. Andrew, the boyfriend, is a total ass, and really believable. Leigh is a great character, because she's likeable, but not perfect or even totally clued-in to what's going on around her.

There's not much to say about the story, other than I enjoyed it. It was also nice to read a young adult novel with college-aged characters for a change.

2. Absolutely Maybe

Absolutely Maybe, by Lisa Yee (2009, February)

I came home from ALA Midwinter with a huge stack of galleys, as usual. In fact, my stack was even huger than ever because we drove down to Denver and I didn't have to worry about how to get it all back with me on a plane. Also, the vendors were practically shoving books into my hands this year.

This one's about a kind of typical outsider girl in Kissamee, Florida named Maybelline "Maybe" Mary Katherine Mary Ann Chestnutt, who runs away from her trainwreck of a mother in search of her biological father in Hollywood. She and her odd-duck best friend Ted tag along with "Hollywood," their only other friend, who's headed for USC for a summer film school program. Hijinx ensue, of course.

The series of events is too neat and implausable for me to suspend my disbelief: Hollywood is indeed a film prodigy, Ted goes to work as the personal assistant for a famous movie vixen of old, and Maybe lands on her feet in ways I won't spoil. Still, unrealistic events aside, I liked these kids and th0ught their relationships and the way they spoke rang true. Maybe's likable, but kind of an ass sometimes--just like a real teenage girl. It was a fast read and I enjoyed it. I might check out Yee's three previous books at some point. Probably after I finish the four dozen unread books sitting in my living room alone!

26. Eclipse

Eclipse, by Stephenie Meyer

It was annoying to find out the third Twilight book is still only hardback, because I knew I wasn't going to be able to wait for paper. At least I pass them on to a friend when I'm done!

Again, the love triangle causes trouble, even though we know there's no love like Bella and Edward's love (gag). There's a rash of murders in Seattle that have everybody on edge, and that definitely plays a big part in the story, but the central tension in the story is the ancient war between werewolves and vampires and how that plays out in the modern world.

This book finally gets the pacing of the action right. Instead of impending doom but nothing happening until the end, we get more foreshadowing and people actually trying to figure things out. Shocking! Now I really have to read the fourth and final book.

25. New Moon

New Moon, by Stephenie Meyer

I did end up grabbing the second Twilight book and this one was a much faster read. I don't think it will spoil things too much to reveal the existence of werewolves in this alternate Forks universe. This time around, Bella has an emotional breakdown, a love triangle emerges, and the vamps and Bella take a trip to Italy.

Bella's still annoying, Edward's still patronizing, and Jacob is still crossing all kinds of lines. What does it say about me that I most identify with Bella's parents and wish they were taken into more consideration? Basically, I'm too old for this series, but am hopelessly addicted.

16. After

After, by Francine Prose (2004)

Francine Prose wrote a book I liked a lot, called Blue Angel. It kind of fell apart at the end, but that didn't ruin the rest of it for me. She was a visiting writer on campus the first year I was here, but I somehow didn't get to her reading. I've always meant to read more by her, but hadn't until I saw this one at a discount book store in Seaside, OR, while I was on vacation. It surprised me that I hadn't heard Prose had written a book for young readers, and I was curious.

After takes place in a high school, just after a school shooting at a different high school not far away. The story follows the bizarre and frightening aftermath of the shooting, as the school installs a new administrator and enacts ever-tightening security and stricter rules. While pretty obviously an allusion to the erosion of civil liberties after 9/11, I think Prose manages this parallel gracefully. To a teen reader, I imagine it reads more subtly than it did to me. After really reminded me of early YA lit, like The Chocolate War and I am the Cheese, which I mean as a compliment. I'm again surprised I didn't hear about this one earlier--if it got attention, I completely missed it.

12. I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have to Kill You

I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have to Kill You, By Ally Carter (2006)

Wow, it's been a while since I posted, and my "to-blog" pile keeps growing. This one came before Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy. As usual, I read the second book in the series first and then went back. Well, the first one was pretty unnecessary. It actually kind of irritated me. The idea of a boarding school for girl spies-in-training is a good one, but the execution leaves something to be desired. At least by me.

Maybe it's just that the Cammie character is kind of a drip. She doesn't interest me because she makes dumb decisions that made me continually question her spy ability. Also, the lack of any villain figure totally takes any suspense out of the story. Basically, it's just a fluffy teen romance.

10. Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy

Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy, by Ally Carter (2007)

I can't remember why I ordered this one from the library--it was probably something I saw at the Hyperion booth. I definitely like teen lit with interesting settings. This one's set in an elite private school for girls (pretty typical) in Washington D.C. (less typical), but the twist is that the school trains teens to be future spies (atypical). The protagonist is Cammie, the headmistress's daughter, who had gotten into some trouble in the first Gallagher Girls book, which took place earlier in the same school year.

I think I'm cursed to grab the second book in every series I encounter. I don't think it really made much difference in this case, because even though Cammie's previous escapades were referenced often, there was enough explanation to fill me in, as is often the case in series like this. The story is pretty simple, actually, but I still enjoyed it. I found the ending of the book kind of unsatisfactory, but I expect this in

5. Night Road

Night Road (A.M. Jenkins, 2008)

Vampire novels are fun, and I enjoy seeing the different mythologies authors come up with. This story is the first that makes being a vampire seem completely unglamorous. Jenkins' vampires don't even like to be called vampires--they're hemivores and regular humans are omnivores, or "omnis."
The story is about Cole, who's part of a hemi collective in New York City, but spends most of his time traveling alone on the road. Johnny, the leader of the group, calls Cole back to the Building and charges him with the task of mentoring a new and problematic young hemi.

Night Road is very well written and I was interested in the characters, but the story is pretty flat. Not much actually happens. This is pretty effective, because it reinforced how dreary and repetitive the lives of the hemis really are. I liked the novel, but I wasn't completely captivated by it. It has potential as the start of a series, but I don't know for sure that's what's going to happen. The pots would have to get more interesting, but the characters are interesting enough that some excitement would keep my interest. So, I have mixed feelings about this one.

4. The Loser's Guide to Love and Life

The Loser's Guide to Love and Life (A.E. Cannon, June 2008)

Teen lit is so easy to read between journal articles, and I'm afraid I won't be able to get into adult lit for a while. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

I'm not familiar with the author's other work, but she's won some impressive YA awards. The book is pretty entertaining. It focuses on four teens, but I'd say that Ed is the main character. He works at a video store and doesn't have his own name tag yet, so he wears one left behind by a former employee named Sergio. You see where this is going, right? So a cute girl comes into the store and thinks his name is Sergio. Ed takes the opportunity to create a suave alter ego and doesn't correct her. It kinds of reminds me of John/Giovanni in Hard Love, not that the situations or stories are the same.

The novel is made up of alternating chapters from the four characters' persepectives. Ed and Scout, his best female friend, get first person narratives. Quark, Ed's next-door neighbor and other best friend writes in his lab manual, and Ellie, Ed's love interest, writes letters to her family and mentally composes unsent emails to her ex-boyfriend. I'm all about the epistolary device, but in this case, Quark and Ellie are less developed characters because of it. I'm also not a huge fan of shifting first-person narratives. It seems cheap and easy, instead of letting the reader see the characters through the eyes of the narrator, whether omniscient or a protagonist.

So, this one was okay, and a decent way to spend a couple of hours on a lazy Sunday, but it probably won't stick with me like some of the better YA fiction I've found.

3. Girl v. Boy

Girl v. Boy (Yvonne Collins & Sandy Rideout, July 2008)

I picked up the authors' last book, The Black Sheep, last year at Midwinter and enjoyed it. So when I swung by the Hyperion booth and saw they had a new one out this year, I grabbed a copy.

This one's another story about an outsider. Luisa has two best friends, but she doesn't mix with other kids at school or participate in any activities. That changes when she starts writing an anonymous column for the school paper. Hijinx ensue, natuarally.

I liked that the book was about a bunch of mostly Hispanic teens in Chicago. And none of them are wealthy or fabulously gorgeous, except the stock evil, queen-bee bully, Mariah. That's pretty rare, in my experience. The kids were likeable and pretty realistic, although it did require a healthy suspension of disbelief that Luisa would all of a sudden attract not one, not two, but four cute boys at the same time.

It's a good read and recommended, though the ending was a bit too tidy for my taste and the big plot reveal was foreshadowed a little too much.

45. We Are So Crashing Your Bar Mitzvah!

We Are So Crashing your Bar Mitzvah! (Fiona Rosenbloom, 2007)

I didn't love this book. It was a really quick read (I read it in fewer than 40 minutes) and was pretty simplistic. All the action took place in the first week or so of Stacy and her best friend Lydia's eighth grade year. The two of them came home from a fun summer at camp to find that their other best friend, Kelly, has officially joined the cool girl group they were all on the periphery of the previous year. The "Chicas" are typical vapid followers with a mean girl queen named Kym.

When Kym's equally assy cousin Eben hands out invitations to his ultra-posh bar mitzvah, the Chicas are invited, but Stacy and Lydia are snubbed. So the crashing plan is born. I think the idea for the story could have worked, but the one-dimensional characters, Stacy's unrealistic epiphany, and the neatly tied up ending made the whole thing kind of lame. There's a lot better YA stuff than this.