This was a light month for reading – also very random. Enjoy!

 

Divergent by Veronica Roth

Best dystopian novel of the year! I am calling it now, everyone else will just have to settle for second place.

 

The Sweetest Thing by Christina Madelski

I bought it on a whim – I was feeling like a light, contemporary YA romance. I sort of got that, but it wasn’t light. It was all sorts of complex and upsetting.

 

 

Nine Rules to Break when Romancing a Rake by Sarah Maclean

Ok, don’t make fun of the title. Be nice. Because despite it being completely out of my area of usual interest, it was a fantastic novel. Sure there were several graphic but typical English sex scenes, but there were also dynamic and intense characters and serious themes of individuality, femininity, and beauty. The main character, a young woman no one wants to marry, would be the historical version of the DUFF. The male lead has his own crosses to bear and must deal with his poor choices when life comes calling. The attraction is seriously hot though. HOT. Bring your fan and prepare for a lot of scenes where breathing is optional. (This author also wrote a great historical YA called The Season. 9 Rules to Break, however, is definitely NOT intended for teens.)

Across the Universe by Beth Revis

I had a little trouble warming up to Elder for a long time. I think it was the name. He has no individual name, just a title, and it was hard to think of him as a person with individuality (which if you read the book you’ll understand how brilliant Beth’s decisions were.) Once I got past the difficulty connecting with the characters, I was floored. This is an intense YA sci-fi on level with Ender’s Game. I walked away from the book with this empty feeling in my stomach – it’s not a happy ending book. The ending is the best it could be, considering the circumstances, but it’s not a neatly-tied-up-with-a-bow ending at all. I lovedlovedloved it and would recommend it to anyone. I am already anticipating rereading it.

Also I have been singing the song on and off for days because of this book. GOOD THING IT IS A GOOD SONG. My favorite is Fiona Apple’s version.

 

Little Wars by H.G. Wells

You already read what I thought of this FANTASTICLY AWESOME book. You can read it again here if you want though.

 

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JUNE RELEASES

He’s So Not Worth It (He’s So/She’s So Trilogy) by Kieran Scott

Ally Ryan, come on down to the Jersey Shore and forget your troubles!

Have you recently been humiliated in front of your friends and family at your former best friend’s birthday party? Was your almost boyfriend partly responsible for that humiliation by withholding some vital information about where your estranged father is? Did you come home to find said estranged father sitting on your stoop?

If so, then it sounds like you could use a vacation! The Jersey Shore is the place to be. Your mother may be living with her boyfriend of only a few months, but at least the stunt Shannen pulled has put some of your friends back in your court. Even so, you’re still angry and what better way to get over Jake than to blow off some steam with local guy, Cooper? People will hardly recognize your new attitude, but the old one wasn’t getting you anywhere, so who cares!

Jake Graydon, an exciting opportunity is waiting for you in the service industry!

Are your grades so low your parents have grounded you for the summer? Did you the girl you really like unceremoniously leave you behind? Would you rather eat dirt than see your friends again? Then a job at the local coffee shop is just the ticket! Surprisingly, Ally’s father is the new manager so you get to be reminded of her nearly every day. Maybe it’s time to start flirting with your best friend’s ex or even taking school a bit more seriously. Especially when you finally see Ally and she’s hanging around with some loser and it’s couldn’t be more clear that she is over you.

Have a great summer!

The Map of Time: A Novel by Felix J. Palma

Set in Victorian London with characters real and imagined, The Map of Time is a page-turner that boasts a triple play of intertwined plots in which a skeptical H.G. Wells is called upon to investigage purported incidents of time travel and to save lives and literary classics, including Dracula and The Time Machine, from being wiped from existence. What happens if we change history?

 

Imaginary Girls by Nova Ren Suma

Chloe’s older sister, Ruby, is the girl everyone looks to and longs for, who can’t be captured or caged. When a night with Ruby’s friends goes horribly wrong and Chloe discovers the dead body of her classmate London Hayes left floating in the reservoir, Chloe is sent away from town and away from Ruby.

But Ruby will do anything to get her sister back, and when Chloe returns to town two years later, deadly surprises await. As Chloe flirts with the truth that Ruby has hidden deeply away, the fragile line between life and death is redrawn by the complex bonds of sisterhood.

With palpable drama and delicious craft, Nova Ren Suma bursts onto the YA scene with the story that everyone will be talking about.

Hourglass by Myra McEntire

For seventeen-year-old Emerson Cole, life is about seeing what isn’t there: swooning Southern Belles; soldiers long forgotten; a haunting jazz trio that vanishes in an instant. Plagued by phantoms since her parents’ death, she just wants the apparitions to stop so she can be normal. She’s tried everything, but the visions keep coming back.

So when her well-meaning brother brings in a consultant from a secretive organization called the Hourglass, Emerson’s willing to try one last cure. But meeting Michael Weaver may not only change her future, it may change her past.

Who is this dark, mysterious, sympathetic guy, barely older than Emerson herself, who seems to believe every crazy word she says? Why does an electric charge seem to run through the room whenever he’s around? And why is he so insistent that he needs her help to prevent a death that never should have happened?

Full of atmosphere, mystery, and romance, Hourglass merges the very best of the paranormal and science-fiction genres in a seductive, remarkable young adult debut.

Displacement by Thalia Chaltas

Home is supposed to be a place you belong. It’s supposed to be parents who are there and siblings who bug you and a life that feels comfortable. It’s not supposed to be an absentee mother or a drowned sister. But that’s Vera’s reality, and she can’t stand it anymore. So she runs. She ends up in an old mining town in the middle of the California desert. It’s hot, it’s dusty, and it’s as isolated as Vera feels. As she goes about setting up her life, she also unwittingly starts the process of healing and–eventually– figuring out what home might really mean for her.