Smart Girls Get What They Want

Smart Girls Get What They Want by Sarah Strohmeyer follows Gigi a super smart girl who decides to make a change in her life after discovering how much of a nobody her friends older sister was in high school.  Gigi and her friends slowly loosen up and become part of the high school community while maintaining their strict academics and experience some love on the side.

This was a fantastic book.  Gigi is smart and a strong and unapologetic.  While she does change during the break she never at any point allows herself to compromise her ideals or what is important to her.  The romance was sweet and had me smiling until the end with a love triangle that really worked.  I finished this book quicky and couldn't put it down.

Appropriateness:  This book is able to maintain an older teen feel while still remaining completely innocent and appropriate for younger readers.  There is no adult content.   Gigi is the girl that all of us wish our daughters would be, smart and demanding and unwilling to give up anything for a boy.  The romance is sweet and limited to a few kisses.   I'd recommend this book to readers 13+ who are fans of romance and chic lit.

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The Little Woods

The Little Woods by McCormick Templeman follows Cally who is new at St Bede's academy, the place where Cally's sister went missing years before.  Cally finds out when she moves into her room that the girl whose bed she is sleeping in disappeared earlier in the year.   Callie makes her way through the politics of private school dealing with friends, romance while trying to figure out the mystery of the missing girls.

I didn't expect much when I started the book but I've always been a fan of boarding school books so I gave it a try and was pleasantly surprised.  I found myself engrossed and entertained even thinking about the mystery when I put the book down.  Cally was an interesting character, a quirky girl on the outskirts of the social scene.  This is a fun and creepy book that older teens will enjoy.

Appropriateness:  This book is full of adult content.  There are a lot of drunken parties and there is a lot of pot smoking and talk of other drugs, casual sex (with a condom), cheating and a teacher/student relationship.  Our main character for the most part stays away from the alcohol and drugs, making excuses to not drink and drinking small amounts so others don't know she's not drinking.  I would recommend this book to readers 16+ and use the book as a starting point for a discussion on peer pressure.

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A Girl Named Digit

A Girl Named Digit by Annabel Monaghan follows Farrah a math wiz who finds herself tangled up with the FBI after cracking a code that detected a terrorist attack.  Farrah has never been normal.  She's not just a math wiz but has a compulsion to order everything in her life.  After having a hard time with bullies in middle school she decides to hide who she is in High School.  She lives an unhappy life, lying to everyone and herself about who she is until the unthinkable happens.  After cracking a code of numbers that appear on television a plane is bombed at the local airport and she realizes that she could have prevented it.  She goes to the FBI and finds herself running from the terrorists while trying to crack the code to prevent another bombing and dealing with her attraction to her young FBI handler.

I loved this book.  It was cute and funny and I loved Farrah learning to come to terms with the intelligence that she had always hidden before.  It reminded me a lot of Meg Cabot's Vanished series (which is also awesome, go read those if you haven't already) in tone.  A cool and interesting mystery and a special ability combined with a sexy older (but not too much older) love interest.  I tore through this book and hope that there are more Digit books in the future.

Appropriateness:  At the beginning of the book we are introduced to the life that Farrah isn't happy with which includes going to parties and drinking (but she does not get drunk) and making out with guys (which she describes as unappealing).  The FBI agent/love interest is older than her (she is seventeen and he is 21) and the age (minor/adult) difference between the two is mentioned frequently as a major obstacle.  There is no sex and the physical nature of their relationship is limited to kissing although the two do spend the night in the same room (and on the same couch) while they are on the run.  I would recommend this book for teens 13+ and encourage parents to use it as a starting point to discuss being yourself and also to discuss statutory rape and the reason that teen/adult relationships are not appropriate and illegal and why exactly it was so important for John that they wait on their relationship until Farrah turned eighteen.

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Ladies in Waiting

Ladies in Waiting by Ms. Laura L. Sullivan follows three girls named Elizabeth (Zabby, Beth and Eliza) who have positions as ladies in waiting for Queen Catherine right after her wedding to King Charles the II.  The three girls must learn to navigate through the ways of the court and figure out what they are going to do with their lives.  Will they be forced to live the life that someone else chooses for them or will they be able to make their own decisions.  Choose who they love.

I enjoyed this book, it had parties and great dresses and everything a reader wants when reading this type of historical romance.  It has enough history to make the reader want to do a little research but not so much that the reader feels like they're in history class. The three girls were great friends and each had their own issue to overcome which showed a different part of their society.  The story however was slow at times.  I felt like I was reading a 550 page book when in fact the book was under 400 pages. 

Appropriateness:  This book didn't feel like a young adult book however, it did feel like the historical romance novels that I read when I was a teen (except without the sex).  It was not a fast read and there was some MASSIVE vocabulary (words that can be figured out in context but many that I was not familiar with).  There wasn't any sex however, there was an obsessive amount of talk of virginity and sex as it related to the girls in their time period.  I would recommend this book to readers 14+

Fractured Light

Fractured Light by Rachel McClellan stars Llona who is an Aura, a supernatural with the ability to harness and control light.  Llona has spent her whole life running from the Vyken's whom killed her mother and working hard at remaining anonymous.    When during her senior year she starts making friends she finds her life changing and realizes that her powers are far different than she has imagined. 

This was a great book with a new and original mythology that I enjoyed.  Llona is a strong heroine who isn't afraid to question what she has been told and does not fall into the "I'm in trouble because I made stupid decisions" trap that so many female heroines fall into.  Her relationships with her friends, her bother and the complicated relationship with Christian make for an interesting story and everything folds together at the end (although a little predictably).

Appropriateness:  There is no adult content in the book.  Llona skips school excessively but is otherwise a model teen.  The romance is limited to a few clandestine kisses.  Llona is a high school senior and acts her age.  I would recommend this book to teens 13+

Life Eternal

Life Eternal (A Dead Beautiful Novel) by Yvonne Woon is the second book in the Dead Beautiful series.  This series features a mythology where if a child dies before they are twenty one and isn't buried or cremated they reanimate and while they can be totally normal they also want to suck the souls out of others to sustain their lives.
  Renee is training to be a monitor whose job is to bury the dead if they misbehave.  In the last book Renee's boyfriend was one of the dead and but they shared a soul so he didn't kill her when they kissed.  In this book Renee moves to a new school that is just for monitors.  In this book she has been having visions.  She uses these visions to solve a mystery.  

I was very disappointed in this sequel.  Renee spends way too much time whining and pining over her boyfriend.  The mystery was very slow and didn't start to get interesting until about three quarters through.  The characters aside from Renee floated in and out of the story and were not around long enough for me to become invested in them and some would randomly disappear for large chunks of time.

Appropriateness: There isn't any adult content in this book.  There is a sappy whiny romance that doesn't get physical and no substance abuse.  I would recommend this book to teens 13+ 

Ditched

Ditched: A Love Story begins at the end with Justina being pushed out of a car in a very stained prom dress.  She makes her way into a convenience store where she tells her story to the cashier.  We are brought to the beginning of the story and Justina explains everything that happened leading up to her stumbling into the convenience store starting with the events that led up to prom.

This was a delightfully entertaining love story.  While at first I didn't like Justina I grew to love her as the book went on and her missteps and disasters were so funny.  She was flawed in a very real way but was still sweet.  The other characters seemed very real from her best friend to Ian and Mike and Other Mike.  The book was fairly short and a very fast read which I finished in a few hours.  It reminded me of an end of the year crazy teen movie about that one crazy night where everything goes wrong but ends up ok in the end.

Appropriateness:  This is a book with lots of teen behavior and the teenagers act like teenagers.  There is drinking by other characters however, the main character does not drink.  There also seems to be a constant search for designated drivers which gives this book a nice anti-drunk driving message.  There is a set of stoner characters who talk about their bong.  Justina's romantic situation is in part due to the fact that she and her best friend tried to kiss as many people as possible when they were younger which gives a nice message about how your past actions will follow you.  There is no sex and the romance is limited to a bit of kissing.  Despite all of this I wouldn't have a problem with handing this book to even a young middle schooler because the message is ultimately a good one.  Justina has to deal with the consequences of her past actions and the whole experience is related in a way that does not glorify any of the negative behaviors.  I would recommend this book to teens 13+

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Drink Slay Love

Drink Slay Love by Sarah Beth Durnst follows Pearl, a sixteen year old vampire.  While snacking at the ice cream shop (from the boy behind the counter) she sees a sparkly unicorn.  The unicorn pierces her in the heart and she wakes up on her doorstep.  Pearl soon finds that she is able to walk in the sunlight and is sent to the local high school so that she can befriend the locals and find dinner for the upcoming ceremony with the king.

I think this is what happened with this book.  The editor told the author to write a book about vampires because vampires are hot in teen lit.  The author then rolled her eyes and thought fine, if you want a vampire book I'm going to make it absurd.  Then she wrote a terrific and serious book with the most absurd characters and twists (were-unicorns anyone?).  This made for a book that was both compelling and well plotted but also hysterically funny in it's small moments of absurdity.  I couldn't put the book down and loved it.

Appropriateness:  There is no adult content in this book (aside from a little nudity because of clothes that had to be burned).  The main character is seventeen and acts her age.  The romance is sweet and fairly innocent.  I would recommend this book to both older and younger YA readers 12+

All's Fair in Love, War, and High School

All's Fair in Love, war, and High School by Jeanette Rallison stars sarcastic cheerleader Samantha.  Samantha who is a catty cheerleader who spends time with her friends insulting everyone's fashion choices every morning.  When her ex-boyfriend Logan bets her that she can't spend the next two weeks without saying anything negative about anyone she's in for a challenge.

I've absolutely loved everything I've read recently by Jeanette Rallison but I figured I'd take her older books one at a time in case there happened to be a point where the quality dipped.  I found it with this book.  There was nothing exceptional about this book.  It seemed like one of those books that you would have found in your middle school library twenty years ago that wasn't great.  The main character is super shallow but predictability learns how to be a nicer person and gets the guy in the end (although not necessarily the one she knew she wanted).  It wasn't a bad book but it was nothing special.

Appropriateness:  There isn't any adult content in the book and the romance is very middle school.  I would recommend this book to readers 11-14 who are looking for a short easy to read romance.  The lexile is 800 putting it around a fourth grade reading level.

Sucks to Be Me

  Mina's parents are vampires and now Mina has several weeks to decide if she wants to change into a vampire and leave her life behind or stay human and loose her family. There are of course boys, best friends, the junior prom and teachers complicating her life.


This is a fun book for teens. It's a quick read and has a plot and characters that young teens will embrace. If you are a fan of Sarah Mlynowski's Magic in Manhattan series or Meg Cabot's paranormal romances then you will love this book. It is light and cute as opposed to deep sexy and scary like vampire books written for older teens.

Appropriateness:  This book has no sex scenes (and the only mentions of sex are related to sex talks with parents) which makes it appropriate for young teens and tweens who want to read about teenagers but aren't ready for books that have more adult themes. This is a perfect book for the middle school set.

Fairy Bad Day

Fairy Bad Day by Amanda Ashby stars Emma who goes to a boarding school for kids who have The Sight to see and slay monsters that came over before the gates were closed.  Emma is sure she is going to be assigned to be a dragon slayer when she gets her assignment.  She is to be a fairy slayer, the first ever  She is not only upset at this assignment (which has her patrolling the mall with bags of skittles) which causes much teasing but she has to join up with Curtis the dragon slayer for an assignment.  When she spots a large fairy which no one else can see she must figure out how to slay him before something horrible happens.

I loved this book.  It was fantastic and so funny.  Emma was strong and resourceful and her banter with Curtis is perfect.  The mystery and world building were well crafted and made for a great setting for a humorous story.  There was enough action and romance to round out the story into something really special.  This is a quick and entertaining read that will have readers wanting more. 

Appropriateness:  There are no adult themes in this book.  The relationship is fairly innocent and sweet.  I would recommend this book to teens 12+ looking for a funny paranormal romance.

Past Perfect

Past Perfect by Lelia Sales follows Chelsea who is spending the summer, like every summer before working at a colonial historical village.  Chelsea has spent the past several months getting over a breakup and is not happy when her Ex Boyfriend is at orientation.  To make things more complicated Chelsea has been elected second in command of the War between her colonial village and the Confederate one across the street and when she's kidnapped she falls for Dan who is one of the enemy.

I LOVED this book.  It was hysterical.  I couldn't get enough of the historical village and the prank filled war between the two battling sides.  The details in the small characters were great and made the book from the dorky boy with a big crush to her father the history buff and her best friend who is joining her in becoming an ice cream connoisseur.  The romance is a very small part of the book with a larger part being Chelsea getting over her ex-boyfriend and realizing that perhaps things were not as perfect as she remembered.  I loved this book, it was laugh out loud funny.

 Appropriateness:  There are some drunken party scenes in the book although Chelsea does not get drunk.  The romance is limited to kissing (although they are hot kisses) and the kids pull a lot of pranks that ride the line in their legality.  I would recommend this book to readers 12+ who are fans of romantic comedy and chic lit.

If you liked this book and the reenactment village setting then be sure to pre-order Pilgrims Don't Wear Pink by Stephanie Kate Strohm which comes out in May it has a similar feel to this book.

Lola and the Boy Next Door

Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins is a companion novel to Anna and the French Kiss.  Lola is a flamboyant teen who believes in costumes as fashion.  Lola thinks everything is going fantastically, she has a 22 year old rocker boyfriend who meets with her Dads for brunch every week.  However when twins Cricket and Calliope move back in next door things get turned upside down.  Lola has a history with Cricket and things quickly get out of hand.

I am normally not a fan of "break up" romance.  Romances that focus on a girl finding out that the person she's with isn't right for her when someone better comes along.  However, Perkins gives us a boy that's so wrong for our heroine (he's 22) that you're just itching for her to see the light (and she does get flack from the people around her for lying to bad rocker boyfriend and stringing along Cricket).  Lola is a delightful and funny girl who isn't afraid to be different.  Cricket is cute (cute enough that I can forgive him for being named Cricket) and a perfect match to Lola's courageousness.  Lola's gay Dads are a nice addition and portrayed as normal adoptive parents who just happen to both be men and her troubled relationship with her birth mother seemed realistic.  I loved this book and could not put it down.  It is super romantic (even though it's breakup romance).

Appropriateness:  This is a sweet and funny romance.  Lola starts the book in a relationship with an older guy (she's 17, he's 22 making it borderline illegal) however, she slowly realizes that he might be attracted to her because she's young.  It makes for a good starting point when talking to your child about why older guys go after younger girls.  Lola is sexually active however there are no sex scenes.  Her boyfriend (who is legal) drinks and smokes (he's a bad boy) but she does not because of her family history of alcoholism.  I would recommend this book to fans of romance 12+

Prized

Prized by Caragh O'Brien is the second book in the Birthmarked Trilogy,  In the first book Gaia a teenage midwife escapes from the enclave, a society who has problems with reproduction, with her baby sister after the death of both of her parents.  This book follows Gaia as she enters a new society that has it's own problems.  In Sylum women are not only a minority but they are the rulers of the society presiding over the men and each other with an iron fist allowing for no flexibility.  Gaia finds herself quickly embroiled in the politics of this society through her midwifery and her unwillingness to compromise.

I wasn't sure what to expect with this book as I felt that the author did a fantastic job wrapping up Birthmarked and found myself pleasantly surprised.  The author took readers into a society that while being quite different than the enclave still faced many of the same types of  problems.  Quite like the differences in The Giver and Gathering Blue two societies that are very different but still face the same sorts of problems, in this case of reproduction, genetics and a large part of the population not having control over their society.  Gaia continues to be a strong heroine and her romantic entanglements and midwife skills make for an interesting story.  I finished the book quickly and look forward to the final book in the series.

Appropriateness:  Part of the plot involves drugs that are smoked by members of the community.  It in no way glorifies drug use and I wouldn't find it questionable for even young children.  The romantic relationships involve nothing more than kissing.  I would recommend this book to fans of dystopian fiction 14+ however it is not inappropriate for younger readers.

Bunheads

Bunheads by Sophie Flack follows Hannah a dancer in the Corps of the Manhattan Ballet.  Sophie's life is the ballet, she goes to rehearsal and class and performances every night and hopes to become a soloist.  When she meets a guy outside of the ballet she finds herself struggling to find the time to see him and starts questioning her priorities.  Is the life of a professional dancer really what she wants?

I loved this book.  It was a book about a dancer that was obviously written by someone with insider experience.  I really felt like I was getting a peek into the life of a dancer in a serious ballet company.  The descriptions of the dance and costumes were fantastic.  The characters and the plot are entertaining enough but it's not exactly the most original plot.  I was very happy to find that this wasn't a book about a girl who decides to give up everything for a boy, Hannah makes her own decision because of what is right for her.

Appropriateness:  Hannah is nineteen and has been living on her own since she was a young teen and acts like a nineteen year old.  There is a large amount of underage drinking and a bit of non descriptive sex.  There is a large amount of weight talk in the book, much of which is unhealthy, as the company requires the dancers to have a super slim silhouette.  While I suspect this book will be marketed as a romance the romance is only a small part of the story and readers should read this book as a look into the world of dance and not as a romance novel.  I would recommend the book to teens and adults 14+ and I'd encourage parents of younger readers to address the alcohol and diet/eating disorder issues that are present in the story.

This Girl is Different

This Girl is Different by JJ Johnson follows Evie a girl who starts regular school after being homeschooled for the first seventeen years of her life.  Evie sticks out in her new school as she challenges her teachers and administration.  After seeing the gym teacher put down a cheerleader because of her weight Evie starts a website to call her out and things spiral out of control.

This was a fairly forgettable book that was entertaining enough.  It reminded me of one of those movies that you watch on the ABC family channel that's entertaining and laughable at the same time.  It's certainly not a must read but it was entertaining, short and I finished it quickly because I wanted to know what would happen next.

Appropriateness: There are a few discussions about sex and some heavy petting but no sex (she even talks with her mom about sex who gives her some good advice).  There is not substance abuse.  I would recommend this book to teens 13+



ARC Provided by Netgalley

The Juliet Spell

The Juliet Spell by Douglas Rees is a romantic comedy staring Miranda who just wants to play Juliet in her school's production of Romeo and Juliet.  She performs a spell to help her get the part and ends up bringing Shakespeare's brother to her living room.  He is able to blend in and get a part in the show which they have to work to prepare.

This is one of those books which isn't bad but isn't great either.  The plot is fairly predictable, the romance tepid and the mythology didn't quire work for me.  It was however a fairly enjoyable little romance and I really liked the presentation of the play and the multitude of Shakespeare references.  It wasn't a book that I had trouble getting through but there was nothing outstanding or special about the story.

Appropriateness:  There isn't any adult content in this book.  There is a very nice mother daughter relationship in the book (although a very unrealistic ending to a parental separation).  There is quite a bit of Shakespeare in the book, both with quotes and references.  The Shakespeare enough to alienate younger middle school or reluctant readers but readers will not feel lost if they have yet to study any Shakespeare yet.  I recommend the book to girls 13+

Eve

Eve by Anna Carey follows Eve who has been living in a boarding school since becoming orphaned after a plague that wiped out most of the population.  On the eve of graduation she finds out the world is not as she had believed and that after graduation she and her classmates will be forcibly impregnated instead of going on to train for a job as they believed.  Eve escapes with a little help from a teacher and meets one of her former classmates and a boy that she is afraid of because she has been brainwashed into believing that men are evil.  Eve must try to make it to a hideout while being perused by the military who have been hunting her as the king has decided that she is the one to have his children.

This is one of those books that I loved and hated at the same time.  The dystopian world was completely unbelievable.  I just couldn't believe that less than twenty years after a plague that the world has completely fallen apart and is being ruled by a ruthless dictator who is enslaving all of the orphan children.  I also couldn't believe that Eve was so special that the King would have her tracked specifically.  Speaking of Eve, at times she made choices that were so bad that I was rooting against her, wanting her to get caught because she deserved it for being such an idiot.  However, in spite of all that, I couldn't put the book down.  There was something about this story of a girl who is racing through an unknown land, afraid of everything and misinformed about boys that spoke to me.  Her relationships seemed real and the romance was sweet.

So if you don't think to much about it you'll like the book.  However if you start thinking about it then it cracks apart.

Appropriateness:  There is an attempted rape scene which isn't too traumatic, however Eve takes the blame herself because she thought that she was leading him on (it does fit with the characterization).  I'd be sure to have a date rape conversation with your kids while they're reading this book.  The main romance involves just a bit of kissing and there is a scene where they drink beer (which leads to the attempted rape).  I would recommend this book to readers 13+

Sweet Venom

Sweet Venom by Tera Lynn Childs follows a set of triplets who were raised separately.  Grace who is a sweet girl next door who has just moved to town, Gretchen who was found on the streets and raised to be a monster fighter and Greer who was raised in a privileged household.  When they find each other and find out their destiny as daughters of Medusa, huntresses who will protect the world from monsters that only they can see and banish, and that their lives will never be the same. 

I really liked this book.  It seemed more mature and edgy than Childs' other books without moving into older teen only territory.  This was the first in the trilogy and provided a good setup to the characters and the mystery to come while still giving the reader a good story.  I look forward to seeing how the romantic relationships that the girls have change in the next book.  The mythology was well crafted and original.  I finished the book very quickly and was always interested to know what would happen next.

Appropriateness:  There was no adult content in this book.  The girls are in their late teens and seem like high school students.  The romances only consist of flirtation.  I would recommend this book to readers 12+

Review copy provided by Amazon Vine

Crush Control

Crush Control by Jennifer Jabaley stars Willow who is moving back to her mothers hometown after living in Las Vegas where her mother worked as a hypnotist in one of the hotels.  Willow is excited to see her best friend Max whom she left in middle school (and may have hypnotized into always being her best friend) but sad to see that he has a girlfriend (who of course is nice and super sweet)  After arriving in town Willow runs into problems with her classmates after putting her mothers hypnotism tricks to work.

This was a fun contemporary romance with a twist.  The hypnotism element was hysterical and the romance was sweet.  I also enjoyed the conflict between Willow, her mother and her maternal grandparents.  It felt real and I loved Willow worked to make things work between all of them.  The friendships all seemed real and the plot was interesting and fun.  I finished the book quickly.

Appropriateness:  There is a bit of sex talk but no sex and the romances are fairly innocent.  There is a party scene where it is implied that the kids are drinking (with the yard being littered with red plastic cups) but beer is never specifically mentioned.  The main character is in her late teens.  I recommend it for readers 12+