By:
On:
In: Romance (YA), Young Adult Book Reviews
With: 0 Comments

Weighed down by her parents’ rules, paranoia, fears, and three years of betrayal after her sister Rachel’s death, Elizabeth Jones wants to escape the noose and have some fun.  Because of the constraint Beth feels, she yearns to “bust windows, get drunk, and have sex with as many people as possible” (136).  So, before summer ends and her senior year begins, Beth attends a party and hooks up with Chase, a blond hottie with an aura of controlled calm. “But it didn’t take very long for . . . the thrill of doing something new and exciting and rebellious [as losing her virginity] to beRead More →

By:
On:
In: Romance (YA), Supernatural & Horror (YA), Young Adult Book Reviews
With: 0 Comments

Five hundred years ago when Jack was only a boy, he negotiated a deal with a pirate from the Otherworld who separated his body from his soul and sentenced him to the life of a lantern.  As a lantern, Jack straddles the world of the living and the dead and guards the crossroads between the mortal world and the Otherworld. In his fairly monotonous job, Jack maintains a sense of balance between the two realms.  Although most of the time he lives a sleepy existence, he has done everything from exporting entire herds of gremlins to clearing caves full of werewolves.  Once, he even single-handedlyRead More →

By:
On:
In: Action & Adventure (YA), Multicultural (YA), Romance (YA), Sci-Fi & Fantasy (YA), Young Adult Book Reviews
With: 0 Comments

As its title conveys, Smoke in the Sun by Renée Ahdieh swirls with mystery and pulses with energy in equal measure.  A sequel to Flame in the Mist, this companion novel completes the stories of Yumi and Mariko, fiercely independent and competent women with formidable intelligence in a world that expects its females to be submissive, obedient, and coy. Set in Japan at a time when samurai, daiyo, and shōguns defended with honor, this fantasy-adventure focuses not only on the shifting allegiances and political intrigue of the Emperor’s court, but also on other social issues troubling the kingdom.   As a member of the BlackRead More →

By:
On:
In: Realistic Fiction (YA), Young Adult Book Reviews
With: 0 Comments

Dana L. Davis is an actress, a classical violinist, and now an author.  Her debut novel, Tiffany Sly Lives Here Now is a remarkable book about a sixteen-year-old young woman who has found herself in a tsunami of change after her mother dies from Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Because Grams is an elderly resident in an assisted living facility, suddenly Tiffany is flying from low-income housing in Chicago to a mansion in Los Angeles to live with the doctor dad she didn’t even know existed.  Uprooted from her familiar neighborhood, school, and friends and suffering from anxiety disorder, Tiffany must find comfort with a stepmother, four sisters,Read More →

By:
On:
In: Mystery & Suspense (YA), Sci-Fi & Fantasy (YA), Young Adult Book Reviews
With: 0 Comments

Readers of Tamora Pierce (Song of the Lioness series) and Leigh Bardugo (Six of Crows) will likely find Amanda Foody’s new novel, Ace of Shades to be an equally dark and thrilling fantasy-mystery.  This first book in the Shadow Game trilogy features seventeen-year-old Enne Salta, whose only known mother-figure has gone missing. Determined to find Lourdes Alfero—the one person who has listened and advised and cared—Enne leaves her lady-in-training finishing school and her familiar life in Bellamy to cross the seas to New Reynes.  The solitary lead Enne has is a name, that of Levi Glaisyer, and when she arrives in the City of Sin,Read More →

By:
On:
In: Mystery & Suspense (YA), Realistic Fiction (YA), Young Adult Book Reviews
With: 0 Comments

Misunderstood and somewhat disengaged from her sophomore classmates, Jess Cutter lives in a fictional town in Montana called Birdton, where not much happens and where “unwritten sock protocols” often marginalize her.  When her identical twin sister Anna—creative writer and out-going socializer—dies mysteriously, grief consumes Jess, but she’s afraid that if she begins to cry, she will “dissolve, leaving only a ring of salt behind” (22). Because her sister’s death leaves Jess feeling like a part of her is missing, she gives her life purpose by working to reconstruct the events of her sister’s death so that she can understand not only Anna’s motivations but the secretsRead More →

By:
On:
In: Action & Adventure (YA), General Book Reviews, Sci-Fi & Fantasy (YA), Young Adult Book Reviews
With: 0 Comments

Readers of epic medieval fantasies and fans of the Game of Thrones will likely revel in The Smoke Thieves, the inaugural book in a new trilogy by Sally Green whose signature style features vivid action and unflinching violence.  Her characters are also well-drawn, with each chapter being designated to an individual character’s life and perspectives.  As the web of fate would have it, their five lives intersect, despite the differences in their statuses. In the novel’s imagined world with its unique geography, customs, and languages, no one is safe from exploitation or execution.  Green seems acutely aware that people in positions of political power don’tRead More →

By:
On:
In: Action & Adventure (YA), Arizona Authors, Realistic Fiction (YA), Romance (YA), Young Adult Book Reviews
With: 0 Comments

At seventeen years old, the protagonist in The Fall of Grace by Amy Fellner Dominy, Grace Marie Pierce, is living the life of a privileged girl, the pure embodiment of the American dream with money, security, friends, and hope for a golden future.  Hardly ever angry, Grace has been sheltered by wealth and fame as the daughter of Janelle Pierce, an investment broker who swaddles herself in luxury: exotic travel, expensive clothes, and other unlimited material comforts.  Janelle occasionally escapes the heat of Phoenix, Arizona, and the stress of the financial world by visiting her favorite place, Blue Lakes in Ridgway, Colorado, where the serenity and theRead More →

By:
On:
In: Realistic Fiction (YA), Young Adult Book Reviews
With: 0 Comments

With his debut novel, Tyler Johnson Was Here, Jay Coles tells the story of Tyler and Marvin Johnson, twin teenage boys living in Sterling Point, Alabama.  In their neighborhood, they worry often about police visits, gang-infested streets, robberies, vandalism, and gun violence.  For eight years, their father has been in Montgomery Correctional Facility for a crime he did not commit, and Marvin would “kill to have him back” (19). Because he hung around men who committed crimes, Jamal Johnson received his sentence from a corrupt system.  To cope with his dad’s absence and to see past the shame, Marvin writes letters to his absent father,Read More →