New YA Book Review!

Fallen by Lauren Kate

Recommended for Twilight Lovers!

There’s something achingly familiar about Daniel Grigori.
Mysterious and aloof, he captures Luce Price’s attention from the moment she sees him on her first day at the Sword & Cross boarding school in sultry Savannah, Georgia. He’s the one bright spot in a place where cell phones are forbidden, the other students are all screw-ups, and security cameras watch every move.
Even though Daniel wants nothing to do with Luce–and goes out of his way to make that very clear–she can’t let it go. Drawn to him like a moth to a flame, she has to find out what Daniel is so desperate to keep secret . . . even if it kills her.

I’m still not totally sure about Fallen, especially the ending. It’s hard to go into any detail without giving anything away, but I was hoping for more explanations to many of the character’s behaviors and actions. Don’t get me wrong, I really enjoyed reading this book, but for me there were just so many unanswered questions. Maybe they will be answered in the next book in the series, Torment, due out in September.
Lauren Kate has a beautiful fluid writing style that made all of her descriptions just jump off the page.
I liked Luce as a main character. She was just troubled enough to be interesting and mysterious, particularly about her issues with the shadows that haunted her for her entire life. I also liked the other characters especially Luce’s new found friends Arianne and Penn. Daniel made Edward Cullen look and seem like a bore and Cam seemed just too good to be true. (in a good way!)
I loved the mysterious school and cemetery, but it was hard to see why Luce belonged in a reform school in the first place. It was close to home and housed “troubled” teens, but it just seemed so hard to believe that her parents would dump her someplace that only allowed yearly visits and once per week phone calls. I thought maybe she should have been placed in a psychiatric ward in some hospital instead. I’m sure the old scary school setting was much more attractive!
Fallen is an effortless engrossing read. It starts out a little slow but it does pull you in and at some points you just don’t want to put it down. I recommend this book to paranormal or fantasy romance lovers. Let’s just say that if you loved Twilight, you’ll love Fallen!

New YA Books for February at the Ridley Township Library

Dirty Little Secrets

by C.J. Omololu

Everyone has a secret. But Lucy’s is bigger and dirtier than most. It’s one she’s been hiding for years—that her mom’s out-of-control hoarding has turned their lives into a world of garbage and shame. She’s managed to keep her home life hidden from her best friend and her crush, knowing they’d be disgusted by the truth. So, when her mom dies suddenly in their home, Lucy hesitates to call 911 because revealing their way of life would make her future unbearable—and she begins her two-day plan to set her life right.

In a Heartbeat

by Loretta Ellsworth

When a small mistake costs sixteen-year-old Eagan her life during a figure-skating competition, she leaves many things unreconciled, including her troubled relationship with her mother. From her vantage point in the afterlife, Eagan reflects back on her memories, and what she could have done differently, through her still-beating heart.

When fourteen-year-old Amelia learns she will be getting a heart transplant, her fear and guilt battle with her joy at this new chance at life. And afterwards when she starts to feel different—dreaming about figure skating, craving grape candy—her need to learn about her donor leads her to discover and explore Eagan’s life, meeting her grieving loved ones and trying to bring the closure they all need to move on.

Told in alternating viewpoints, In a Heartbeat tells the emotional and compelling story of two girls sharing one heart.

You Are So Undead to Me

by Stacey Jay

Megan Berry, a Carol, Arkansas, high school student who can communicate with the Undead, must team up with her childhood friend Ethan to save homecoming from an army of flesh-hungry zombies.

I Kissed a Zombie and I Liked It

by Adam Selzer

Algonquin “Ali” Rhodes, the high school newspaper’s music critic, meets an intriguing singer, Doug, while reviewing a gig. He’s a weird-looking guy—goth, but he seems sincere about it, like maybe he was into it back before it was cool. She introduces herself after the set, asking if he lives in Cornersville, and he replies, in his slow, quiet murmur, “Well, I don’t really live there, exactly. . . .”When Ali and Doug start dating, Ali is falling so hard she doesn’t notice a few odd signs: he never changes clothes, his head is a funny shape, and he says practically nothing out loud. Finally Marie, the school paper’s fashion editor, points out the obvious: Doug isn’t just a really sincere goth. He’s a zombie. Horrified that her feelings could have allowed her to overlook such a flaw, Ali breaks up with Doug, but learns that zombies are awfully hard to get rid of—at the same time she learns that vampires, a group as tightly-knit as the mafia, don’t think much of music critics who make fun of vampires in reviews. . . .

Lockdown

by Walter Dean Myers

It seems as if the only progress that's going on at Progress juvenile facility is moving from juvy jail to real jail. Reese wants out early, but is he supposed to just sit back and let his friend Toon get jumped? Then Reese gets a second chance when he's picked for the work program at a senior citizens' home. He doesn't mean to keep messing up, but it's not so easy, at Progress or in life. One of the residents, Mr. Hooft, gives him a particularly hard time. If he can convince Mr. Hooft that he's a decent person, not a criminal, maybe he'll be able to convince himself.

Sweet Little Lies: An L.A. Candy Novel

by LaurenConrad

Now a reality show celebrity, nineteen-year-old Jane Roberts learns that not all of her new friends are trustworthy.

Heartless

by Sara Shepard

In picturesque Rosewood, Pennsylvania, neighbors gossip over picket fences, and gleaming SUVs sit in every crushed-granite driveway. But recently, friendly smiles have been replaced with suspicious glares and accusatory whispers—and it's all because Hanna, Aria, Emily, and Spencer just can't keep their mouths shut. . . .
First they claimed they found a dead body in the woods behind Spencer's house, only to have it vanish without a trace. Then when the same woods went up in flames, they swore they saw someone who's supposed to be dead rise from the ashes. And even after all that, the pretty little liars are still playing with fire.
Hanna's trading in her Dior trench for a straitjacket. Aria's trying to contact the dead. Emily's dumped her boyfriend and is skipping town . . . again. And Spencer thinks someone in her family has gotten away with murder.
The friends insist they're telling the truth about what they saw, but all of Rosewood thinks they're simply out for attention—and nobody likes a girl who cries wolf. So when the big bad killer comes after the girls, will anyone believe them . . . or will they be the next to disappear?

Incarceron

by Catherine Fisher

Incarceron -- a futuristic prison, sealed from view, where the descendants of the original prisoners live in a dark world torn by rivalry and savagery. It is a terrifying mix of high technology -- a living building which pervades the novel as an ever-watchful, ever-vengeful character, and a typical medieval torture chamber -- chains, great halls, dungeons. A young prisoner, Finn, has haunting visions of an earlier life, and cannot believe he was born here and has always been here. In the outer world, Claudia, daughter of the Warden of Incarceron, is trapped in her own form of prison -- a futuristic world constructed beautifully to look like a past era, an imminent marriage she dreads. She knows nothing of Incarceron, except that it exists. But there comes a moment when Finn, inside Incarceron, and Claudia, outside, simultaneously find a device -- a crystal key, through which they can talk to each other. And so the plan for Finn's escape is born ...

How to Be a Vampire

by Amy Gray

For those who join the decadent realm of the vampire, eternal life holds juicy perks — charm and strength, shape-shifting and flying, telepathy and super-powered senses. But then again, one becomes . . . so terribly hungry. Is there an etiquette for feeding without causing a scene? How do you set up your crypt? What supernatural foes will make your blood run co lder? In this elegant, edgy resource, the newly immortal will find everything they need to know.

Monday New Book Review!

I Kissed a Zombie and I Liked It

by Adam Selzer

Highly Recommended!

Alley Rhodes has it all. She’s part of a group of friends known as the Vicious Circle, she writes the music column for her high school paper, and she graduates soon and will be going to college in Seattle, far, far away from boring Des Moines. All she needs is a boyfriend even though she doesn’t think she does. When she goes to a local club to review a band she meets the man of her dreams. He’s hot, goth, and sings Cole Porter like a dream. Unfortunately he’s dead. The living dead to be exact. Welcome to a world where “Post-Humans” like vampires, werewolves and zombies have all “come out”. Thanks to a horrible scheme to bring back the dead and make them slave employees, the Megamart store chain forces vampires to tell the world they are real.
Alley loves Doug and has even gotten used to the formaldehyde taste, but can true love survive friends, vampire guidance counselors, and parents who just aren’t ready to have their daughter date a dead guy.
I really liked this book. I Kissed a Zombie and I Liked It is a fun, crazy, parody. It's a great blend of comedy, romance, and paranormal! Selzer integrates real-life issues into the world of paranormal parody so smoothly and at the same time, makes readers laugh out loud.

Winter Escapes Widget

Movie Tie-In Tuesday!

Dear John by Nicholas Sparks
Dear John is a romantic drama starring Channing Tatum and Amanda Seyfried.

John Tyree (Channing Tatum) meets UNC student Savannah Lynn Curtis (Amanda Seyfried) while he is home on leave from the army. They share two fleeting summer weeks together before he returns to active duty. John can't wait to come home for good, but then September 11th happens and he reenlists. Will Savannah wait for John, or will the tragedy lead to a change in her relationship with her close friend Tim (Henry Thomas), who pines for her?

Monday New Book Review!

Vinyl Princess by Yvonne Prinz

Highly Recomended Especially for Music Lovers!

16 year old Allie works in a record store in Berkeley California which is a dream job for her because she is a self proclaimed music geek and vinyl princess. She is totally obsessed with vinyl LP records as shown by her personal collection, her blog, and her zine.

She spends plenty of time hanging out at the bohemian eateries and coffee houses populating downtown San Francisco with her best friend and vintage fashion store employee Kit, and keeping an eye on her intellectual mother as she reenters the dating scene.

A string of robberies in the neighborhood ends up having a notable impact on her lovelife, the mysterious “M” keeps her up at night and is it possible to meet your soul mate at a flea market?

I really enjoyed this book. Prinz makes all of the characters so entertaining and the descriptions of the neighborhood businesses especially the restaurants are so vivid that they almost become supporting characters as well! I do enjoy my ipod, but I’m old enough to remember when vinyl was king and I’ll be interested to see how many other teens will be drawn to Allie’s preaching!