Book Love

If a book is featured here it means I love it and you should read it, too. Well, what are you waiting for? Go read some books!

Okay, I have been burning the late-night Kindle and getting a lot of reading done. I just today finished Wake by Lisa McMann. This was interesting. I recall agent Nathan Branford recommending this book so here are my thoughts: 1. concept — A girl gets pulls into dreams whenever someone near to her falls asleep. It was an interesting concept = 10+ 2. Protag — Janie, a girl with an alcoholic mother and lots of obstacles. = 8 I liked Janie, but her character wasn’t exactly solid. 3. Plot — finding out a guy likes you by visiting his dreams … Continue reading

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The Forest of Hands and Teeth, a smashing debut written by Carrie Ryan. This was a must-have I was looking forward to reading for months. I discovered the author’s blog about six months ago and I have been following her incredible Cinderella publishing journey ever since. I even saw her Editor, Krista Marino praise her book at the summer SCBWI conference. Needless to say, the build up was that this was the book of the century. Which is good news/bad news for a debut author. I pre-ordered from Amazon… and I planned to read it with a very critical eye. … Continue reading

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The first book I bought on my Kindle was Death By Bikini… the second was Death by Latte. Two YA mysteries by Linda Gerber. They were good. I liked the main character Aphra Behn Connolly and the first mystery, set on a remote island resort, has some good twists and a satisfying ending. The second book, Death by Latte, set in Seattle, was even better. And the ending which will lead to the third book, Death by Denim was inspired. Some of the things I really liked about these books was how Linda wove in the romance aspects. It was … Continue reading

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This is a Hubble Photo of two GALAXIES who are in the throes of magnetic attraction. I mean whoa… okay? That’s some serious heat. It reminds me of one of my favorite YA books: Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist. Nick and Norah suffered, well, maybe endured is a better word that exact level of attraction and I’m certain that if Rachel Cohn (the author of Norah’s chapters) had seen this photo she would have certainly mentioned it as part of her text. Norah’s simple admission of her attraction to Nick was epic enough to justify this photo. It was a seriously big deal. … Continue reading

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I spend a lot of time pondering references to ‘pop icons’ that are too old to be meaningful to the YA audience. I’m sure there are those who would like to debate this point with me by saying things like: maybe a reference the reader isn’t familiar with will pique their interest enough to actually get them to look it up or check it out… (I have a teenager, so let me say: not likely, thanks for playing) or, kids are smarter than you think. (True and for the record, my objections are not to undervalue the intelligence of the YA reading audience — only their life … Continue reading

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