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Jill Wolfson’s latest novel, Cold Hands, Warm Heart, tells the story of how organ donation affects the donor’s family,the recipients, and the many others involved in this amazing, but too-little-utilized life giving gift. Wolfson creates a compelling and touching story by focusing on the experiences and families of 2 teenage girls: Dani, who was born with a malfunctioning heart and has spent her entire life in and out of hospital, facing surgery after surgery, just wishing for a normal life; and Amanda, a competitive gymnast whose life is unexpectedly cut short and whose  family chooses to donate her organs after she is declared brain-dead.  Amanda’s storyRead More →

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Liam is the popular, charismatic, drop-dead gorgeous son of a former supermodel and high powered CEO.  He’s got great fashion sense, developed over years with his mom on the high fashion circuit; a knack for connecting with people; and an engaging personality.  The trouble is he has no qualities his controlling, reserved, angry father respects.  And to make things worse, Liam continuously makes poor judgment calls that draw his father’s ire.  After the final straw (caught drunk on his father’s desk with a nearly naked party date), Liam is kicked out of the house the week before his senior year. He can’t go live withRead More →

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In: Action & Adventure, Action & Adventure (YA), Middle Grade Reviews, Mystery & Suspense, Mystery & Suspense (YA), Supernatural & Horror, Supernatural & Horror (YA), Young Adult Book Reviews
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“Vampires are meant to be glamorous and powerful, but I’m here to inform you that being a vampire is nothing like that. Not one bit. On the contrary, it’s like being stuck indoors with the flu watching daytime television, forever and ever.  If being a vampire were easy, there wouldn’t be a Reformed Vampire Support Group.  …God I’m sick of it.” And so we meet Nina; a fifty-one year old vampire who’s had a chip on her shoulder since she was infected at the age of 15.  Tired of a listless, sickly  life stuck in her mother’s house, Nina writes a vampire adventure series with aRead More →

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In: Random Thoughts and Musings, This is interesting, Young Adult Book Reviews
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I just finished my second read of John Barnes’ hilarious, gritty novel, tales of the MADMAN underground (it was too good to read only once!).  Barnes does a brilliant job of capturing the voices, struggles, insecurities and angst of his teen characters.  He creates a time  and place in life that adults can remember wading through and that teens find themselves in every day. One method by which Barnes authenticates his characters’ reality is through language, and here I mean profanity.  tales of the MADMAN underground is rife with swear words. At some points, Karl “weaves a tapestry of profanity” that brought tears to my eyes (from laughter). Read More →

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In: Historical Fiction (YA), On the Edge, Romance (YA), Young Adult Book Reviews
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Wednesday, September 5, 1973 is the first day of  Karl Shoemaker’s senior year of high school, and the first day of “Operation Be F-ing Normal.”  In John Barnes’ first novel for young readers, tales of the MADMAN underground, we’re on a sometimes painful, often hilarious, uncensored journey through the first six days of Karl’s senior year as he tries to change his life by just being “normal, normal, normal.”  In a small Ohio town, Karl’s been part of a therapy group at school dubbed “the Madmen” for years, and he’s decided that he wants out. He wants a normal life, but the question is, can he achieve it? His dad’sRead More →

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In: Middle Grade Reviews, Sci Fi & Fantasy, Sci-Fi & Fantasy (YA), Young Adult Book Reviews
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In the first book in the new Frontier Magic trilogy, fantasy writer Patricia C.  Wredeintroduces Eff, the 13th child of a large magical family.  Wrede imagines an alternate history of world, where magic and magical creatures co-exist seemlessly with history as we know it. Eff’s twin brother, Lan, is the seventh son of a seventh son; in their magical world he is a rare, special, gifted and powerful person.  Being the 13th child is as powerful, but in the most negative way possible. Seen as a witch, a purveyor of bad luck and misfortune, Eff is shunned and blamed as much (or more) than LanRead More →

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Gayle Forman’s newest novel, If I Stay, made my heart ache. Forman weaves 24 hours of linear time skillfully with the fluid memories of 17 year old Mia’s whole life as Mia’s body lies in a coma after her whole family has been tragically, suddenly killed in a car accident.  Mia’s last waking memory is listening to the car radio before everything is shattered.  At first, as she walks around the accident scene, seeing her father and mother’s bodies on the road, she is stunned. She looks for her little brother, Teddy, but instead finds herself in the ditch.  She has to ask herself, “amRead More →

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Taking a break from sports-themed fiction, Rich Wallace serves up a snappy, coming of age story in Dishes.  19 year old Danny is looking to hook up this summer, but ends up making connections he didn’t anticipate. He’s in Maine in the tourist town where is long estranged father, Jack, spends summers being the bartender at a gay bar, Dishes.  Neither Jack nor Danny are gay, but that’s about all they have in common at the start of the summer.  Danny hopes to reconnect with his dad (who was 17 when Danny was born) and maybe hook up with a local girl.  Danny’s uncertain aboutRead More →

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Steve Watkins’ first novel intended for younger readers is Down Sand Mountain.  It’s set in the autumn of 1966 in a small Florida mining town and follows the day-to-day life of 12-year old Dewey Turner.  Dewey’s a worrier who doesn’t really fit in.  He hopes high school will bring a change in his life, but instead starts the school year all wrong by painting himself black with shoe polish the night before school starts and thus starting a series of nicknames, bullying and exclusion worse than he expected or can really deal with. He finds a friend in another social outcast, Darla Turkel, and theRead More →