Sorry for the delayed Young Adult Weekly! I stayed over at a friend's yesterday to work on our EcoProject, an assignment that weighs a lot on our final averages for four different classes. After reading endless IPCC reports, the entire Al Gore biography and An Inconvenient Truth criticisms/scientific accuracy articles, learning more than I care to know about electromagnetic radiation, and overall brush-up on global warming and its consequences, I can safely say: Dude, let's get this planet cleaned up, please? Not because is reading about what will happen if we don't boring and scary in equal parts, but because there is a way to prevent all of it.
Anyway, my environmental activism aside, let's get on with the fifth installment of Young Adult Weekly! You'll notice--hopefully--that this week's Released This Week... section is a lot longer. I decided I wanted a more complete list of titles, complete with cover art and summaries so you can get the full scoop! Hope it's not too overwhelming..
Young Adult Weekly
Week of May 11th-17th
From the Authors...
My elementary school science teacher taught me that photosynthesis was, in fact, a natural process and a style of photography. Ahem, no further comment.
. I really liked Chelsea's review because it pretty much summarizes how I felt about it.
! I also have this book on my TBR&R list, and I'm definitely moving it up.
. He also
Avalon Greene rules the fashion scene at her sunny SoCal middle school with a diamond-clad fist, calling out classmates for their fashion-do's and most unfortunate clothes-pas. She's determined to host the social event of the season—a soiree in honor of her forever-friendship with Halley! Unfortunately, Halley's new look is one thing Avalon just can't celebrate. . . .
Halley Brandon is just back from art camp and can't wait to share her funky new style with her best friend, Avalon. But when Avalon cries fashion foul, Halley realizes her best friend's true colors may clash with her own. Has their ultra-fabulous friendship finally gone out of style?
From sharing custody of their puppy, Pucci, to drawing up a list of who gets which friends, Avalon and Halley discover what happens when you battle the person who knows everything about you—and isn't afraid to use your secrets to get what she wants.
Best friends. Worst enemies. Frenemies.
Death By Bikini by Linda Gerber (Review Forthcoming!)A fun, sexy, murder-mysteryromance for all teen sleuths!
Aphra Behn Connolly has the type of life most teenage girls envy. She lives on a remote tropical island and spends most of her time eavesdropping on the rich and famous. The problem is that her family’s resort allows few opportunities for her to make friends—much less to meet cute boys. So when a smoldering Seth Mulo arrives with his parents, she’s immediately drawn to him. Sure, he’s a little bit guarded, and sure his parents are rather cold, and okay he won’t say a word about his past, but their chemistry is undeniable. Then a famous rock star’s girlfriend turns up dead on the beach—strangled by her own bikini top—and alarm bells sound. Is it too great a coincidence that Seth’s family turned up just one day before a murder? As the plot thickens, Aphra finds that danger lurks behind even the most unexpected of faces. . . .
It's All About Us by Shelley AdinaTall, blonde Lissa Mansfield is used to being one of the "in" crowd--but being accepted by the popular girls at posh SpencerAcademy boarding school in San Francisco is turning out to be harder than she thought. And then there's her New-York-loudmouth roommate, Gillian Chang, who's not just happy to be a Christian herself--she's determined to out Lissa, too! If Lissa can just keep her faith under wraps long enough to hook Callum McCloud, the hottest guy in school, she'll be golden.
But when Callum pressures her to go all the way with him, Lissa has to decide for herself how far is too far. How can she see that line when he's so gorgeous and popular and she's so dazzled? And besides, she's too busy shopping for a Valentino and booking the hottest celeb for the Benefactors Ball. Who knew finding a place at SpencerAcademy would be so complicated?
All Night Long: A Nannie Novels by Melody MayerLYDIA KNOWS SHE blew it big-time with Billy, and winning him back is her numero uno priority before her endless LA summer finally does come to an end.
Esme can’t believe that a chica from Echo Park is going to spend senior year at über-wealthy Bel Air High, let alone that she’ll have her two best friends with her. Except there’s one tiny problem: the girl Esme was eager to help is slowly stealing Esme’s life. . . . Kiley doesn’t know what she’d do without Tom to lean on. Not only is she trying to work through her panic attacks, but she’s also been thrust into the national spotlight at the trial of Platinum. So with all that’s going on, why can’t Kiley get the guy she met at the all-night party out of her head?
All Shook Up by Shelley PearsallWHEN 13-YEAR-OLD JOSH finds out he has to stay with his dad in Chicago for a few months, he’s not too thrilled. But when he arrives at the airport, he’s simply devastated. His father—who used to be a scatterbrained, but pretty normal, shoe salesman—has become a sideburn-wearing, hip-twisting, utterly embarrassing Elvis impersonator. Josh is determined to keep his dad’s identity a secret, but on his very first day at his new school, a note appears on his locker. It’s signed Elvisly Yours, and instead of a name, a sneering purple smiley face. The secret is out, and when his dad is invited to perform at a special 50s concert at his school, Josh is forced to take drastic action. From award-winning author Shelley Pearsall comes a hilarious novel about a father and son discovering something about being who you are—and who you’re not.
Confessions Of A Serial Kisser by Wendelin Van Draanen
EVANGELINE LOGAN WANTS a kiss. A spectacular, heart-stopping, life changing kiss. Somehow The Crimson Kiss (a romance novel she’s become obsessed with) and Four Steps to Living Your Fantasy (a self-help book she’s reading) have fused in Evangeline’s mind and sent her on a quest for a kiss. But the path to perfection is paved with many bad kisses—the smash mouth, the ear licker, the “misser.” The phrase “I don’t kiss and tell” means nothing to the boys in her school. And worse: someone starts writing her name and number on bathroom walls. And worst of all: the boy she's just kissed turns out to be her best friend’s new crush. Kissing turns out to be way more complicated than the romance novels would have you believe . . .
The Day I Killed James by Catherine Ryan HydeIT WASN’T SUPPOSED to end up like this. But it did.
When Theresa brings James to a party as her date, it’s just for the night . . . and he knows that. But when everything goes horribly wrong, James drives his motorcycle off a cliff—and Theresa knows she’s responsible for his death.
Theresa tries to run away from the pain, becoming a new young woman with a whole new life. She meets people, of course, but she never really makes connections—she’s too scared she’ll hurt them, too. But what Theresa discovers is that you can try to run away from the pain—but you can never really run away from yourself. The only way out is through.
Fact Of Life #31 by Denise Vega
FACT OF LIFE #48: Kat’s mom is No-Last-Name Abra, the best home-birth midwife in Colorado. But with her own daughter, Abra can’t stop teaching and lecturing long enough to be a mom.
Fact of Life #21: Kat’s had a crush on Manny Cruz since seventh grade. Now Manny is showing interest , but could he seriously be into Weird Yoga Girl Kat Flynn?
Fact of Life #14: Gorgeous Libby Giles has always intimidated Kat. But lately there’s something different about Libby, and it’s about to bring her crashing into Kat’s Life. . . .
Hilarious and poignant, this is the story of one girl’s sometimes funny, sometimes painful path to self-acceptance and to finding her place in the world.
Fortune's Fool by Kathleen KarrCONRAD THE GOOD serves as court jester to a most unworthy master: Lord Otto “the Witless,” who rarely appreciates jesting and acrobatics and more often rewards his good fool with a good whipping. So one night, Conrad flees, leaving Otto’s realm in search of a more enlightened master—taking with him only his noble horse, Blackspur, and his beloved, the servant girl Christa the Fair. As they take to the road, they soon learn that along with their quest comes hardship. But for all the hardships they encounter, there are as many unexpected joys and friends in unexpected places, and there is always their love for one another. And always, their destination lies before them: somewhere, a sanctuary where they’ll have the freedom to be together and be themselves.
Hot Mess: Summer In The City by Julie Kraut & Shallon LesterEMMA FREEMAN IS waving buh-bye to her standard summer of stationwagoning around the suburbs. This summer she’s heading to the big city. Emma’s totally prepped for days at a fabulous internship and nights of socialite-ing around town. But when you’re 17 and not an heiress, reality is far from pink fizzy drinks and red velvet ropes. As the summer heats up, Emma learns that glamour is hard to come by when your only friend is too boy-crazy to hang, your budget is more H&M than D&G, and you spend 8 hours a day working for a man who proves that the devil wears Dockers too. Add one little white lie told to one very hot coworker and a roommate who makes Paris Hilton look junior varsity, and this summer in the city is starting to turn into one hot mess.
The Latent Powers Of Dylan Fontaine by April Lurie (Review Possibly Forthcoming!)A MOTHER WHO split for another man.
A father who works 24/7.
An older brother who excels at everything—and smokes a lot of weed.
A best friend, of the feminine persuasion, who only wants to be a friend, and who’s shooting a film set in cool Greenwich Village, New York.
Dylan Fontaine’s life seems to be full of drama he can’t control. But when he stars in his best friend’s movie, Dylan discovers that, sometimes, life’s big shake-ups force you to take risks—and to step into the spotlight.
Likely Story by David Van EttenMALLORY IS A teenage girl living in L.A. and her mother is the oftnominated, never-winning star of a daytime soap; she is, in fact, the ultimate drama queen. After yet another blow-out about her mother’s awful plotlines and overacting, Mallory starts blogging about how she wishes soap operas were more like real kids’ lives instead of the ridiculous storylines the shows usually feature.
When her mother’s agent reads the blog, Mallory ends up in her own whirlwind drama, both at school and on the lot, as she works to protect the integrity of her original idea, cope with her mother’s jealousy, and get her best friend a lead role on the show. Factor in her boyfriend with the girlfriend, the cute but bad brother to said-best-friend, and the super-cute male lead on her show, and Mallory’s got plenty of her own melodrama to cope with.
Madapple by Christina Meldrum (Wishlisted!)THE SECRETS OF the past meet the shocks of the present.
Aslaug is an unusual young woman. Her mother has brought her up in near isolation, teaching her about plants and nature and language—but not about life. Especially not how she came to have her own life, and who her father might be.
When Aslaug’s mother dies unexpectedly, everything changes. For Aslaug is a suspect in her mother’s death. And the more her story unravels, the more questions unfold. About the nature of Aslaug’s birth. About what she should do next.
About whether divine miracles have truly happened. And whether, when all other explanations are impossible, they might still happen this very day.
Addictive, thought-provoking, and shocking, Madapple is a page-turning exploration of human nature and divine intervention—and of the darkest corners of the human soul.
Maiden of the Wolf: Hallowmere by Tiffany Trent and Angelika RangerWerewolves are on the hunt in this next volume of Hallowmere...
With the culmination of Between Golden Jaws, Corrine and all of her friends are thrown into separate fairy worlds. Ilona finds herself in one of these raths, a world controlled by an evil countess so obsessed by youth, she sacrifices young girls to draw their life force into her own. Forced to join the countess's troop of werewolves, Ilona must help in their mission of kidnapping girls from the mortal world. As she puzzles over how to save the girls without putting herself in danger, she begins to fall for one of the werewolf lieutenants. It's the chance for love she's always dreamed of, but at what cost?
No Cream Puffs by Karen DayMADISON IS NOT your average 12-year-old girl from Michigan in 1980. She doesn’t use lipgloss, but she loves to play sports, and joins baseball for the summer—the first girl in Southern Michigan to play on a boys’ team. The press call her a star and a trailblazer, but Madison just wants to play ball. Who knew it would be so much pressure? Crowds flock to the games. Her team will win the championship—if she can keep up her pitching streak. Meanwhile, she’s got a crush on a fellow player, her best friend abandons her for the popular girls, the “O” on her Hinton’s uniform forms a bulls-eye over her left breast, and the boy she punched on the last day of school plans to bean her in the championship game.
Roots and Wings by Many LyGRACE’S GRANDMOTHER HAS died, and she and her mother must travel back to the Cambodian community to give her a proper Cambodian funeral. But Grace wants to use the trip to solve a few mysteries, like who her father was, why her mother and grandmother moved from St. Petersburg to Pennsylvania, where they’re the only Cambodians Grace has ever seen, and what Cambodian culture is really about.
Embraced by her mother’s old friends, Grace feels both at home and lost, fascinated by the traditions she’s never known, but strangely judged by some members of the community. Can she make sense of, and honor, the life of the grandmother she barely knew? And will revelations about the past bring Grace closer to her mother, or push them even further apart?
Suck It Up by Brian MeehlARE YOU UP to your neck in bloodsucking vampire stories?
Tired of those tales about dentally enhanced dark lords?
Before I wrote this book I thought all vampires were night-stalking, fangpopping, bloodsucking fiends. Then I met Morning McCobb. He’s a vegan vampire who drinks a soy-blood substitute called Blood Lite. He believes staking should be a hate crime. And someday he hopes to march in a Vampire Pride Parade. He was also the first vampire to out himself and try to show people of mortality, like you and me, that vampires are just another minority with special needs. Trust me—this is like no other vampire book you’ll ever feed on.
So, as my buddy Morning says, “Pop the lid, and suck it up.”
Thumbelina, Tiny Runaway Bride by Barbara Ensor (Review Forthcoming!)HERE’S A CONTEMPORARY retelling of Andersen’s tale, revamped and fleshed out for today’s hip tweens. As she did in Cinderella (As If You Didn’t Already Know the Tale), Ensor re-imagines this classic, adding her own inimitable humor, flair, and stylish black-and-white silhouette spot illustrations. Thumbelina is that story most of us can’t quite remember. Okay, sure, it’s about a tiny girl just the size of your thumb. But did you know that her troubles (or adventures, if you prefer) begin when she begs her mother to let her sleep outside on the porch? And that in no time she is engaged to a frog, and then a mole, and even receives a proposal from a miniature king?
Where People Like Us Live by Patricia CumbieI want to shake Rita. She thinks all the screwed-up things in the world are happening somewhere else. But bad things are happening right here.
It's a routine Libby's used to by now: pack up, move, start over, repeat. This time it's to Rubberville—population: faces, names, a few factories, and Angie, a girl who nearly-but-not-quite gets Libby killed the first day they meet. Angie is everything Libby wishes she were: outspoken, fearless, and happy to risk it all to have a little fun. But one day Libby learns that behind Angie's attitude is a frightening secret. Libby faces an impossible choice: Does she protect her friendship or her friend?
Fancy White Trash by Marjetta Geerling (Wishlisted!)Finding love is simple with the One True Love Plan.
“If only life were as easy as your sisters.” Abby’s heard that one before. And it’s true —Shelby and Kait aren’t exactly prim and proper. Abby is determined not to follow in their footsteps, so she has created the One True Love Plan. The most important part of the plan is Rule #1: Find Someone New. This means finding a guy who hasn’t already dated Shelby or Kait. But when Abby starts falling for the possible father of Kait’s baby, she has to figure out if some rules are meant to be broken.
This debut novel, a modern comedy of errors, is as lighthearted and irreverant as its title.
My Tiki Girl by Jennifer McMahonMaggie was looking for a friend in Dahlia. She never guessed she’d find love, too.
All the tenth-grade girls hate Dahlia Wainwright—a smart, natural beauty and freaky outsider all in one. And that’s exactly what Maggie Keller is drawn to, for she herself is an outsider, having withdrawn from the high school elite crowd after a car accident that killed her mother—an accident for which she blames herself. But Dahlia’s friendship—a manic journey into new identities and outrageous behavior— transforms Maggie in ways she could never have imagined. In her stunning first young adult novel, bestselling adult author Jennifer McMahon paints a lush portrait of the healing power of love.
Saga by Conor KostickThe breathtaking sequel to the multistarred
Epic!
Ghost is part of a street hacker airboard gang who lives to break rules. When they realize that their world—Saga—is being periodically invaded by strange human beings, they don’t know what to do. That is, until they learn the complicated truth: Saga is not just their world. It is a sentient computer game, the replacement to Epic on New Earth, and it’s addictive. The Dark Queen who controls Saga is trying to enslave both its people and the people of New Earth. And she’ll succeed unless Ghost and her friends—and Erik, from Epic, and his friends—figure out what to do.
The Secret Rites of Social Butterflies by Lizabeth ZindelWhen does truth become gossip?
Maggie’s parents have just split up, and she’s moved from New Jersey to New York City with her mom. Desperate to make new friends and to distract herself from troubles at home, she falls in with a group of social butterflies at the ritzy private school she now attends. These girls keep a top-secret record of their classmates’ most intimate details on a wall in one of their apartments. Maggie’s friends insist they are collecting the truth—not gossip—about the lives of today’s teenagers. But she soon learns that certain information in the wrong hands can do irreparable damage.
Next week on Reviewer X...-
Death by Bikini Review- Reviewer Profile
- Unplanned new reviews!
Have a nice weekend everyone!