Sweethearts by Sara Zarr

As children, Jennifer Harris and Cameron Quick were both social outcasts. They were also one another's only friend. So when Cameron disappears without warning, Jennifer thinks she's lost the only person who will ever understand her. Now in high school, Jennifer has been transformed. Known as Jenna, she's popular, happy, and dating, everything "Jennifer" couldn't be---but she still can't shake the memory of her long-lost friend. When Cameron suddenly reappears, they are both confronted with memories of their shared past and the drastically different paths their lives have taken.

When I read Story of A Girl by Sara Zarr I was breathless. Nevertheless, on this novel I was too this time again.

Jennifer/Jenna was a believable character, whereas I think I would of done the same exact things she had. I just bet she is an example to a bunch of other kids in her position, she is a reliable character.

This span of words had hope and a bond thats unbreakable throughout. You just had to think of what had happen and put it into your own life and think about how you would've handled it. You would've wished to see your Cameron again, too.

Sara Zarr writes with much sympathy towards her characters. She also makes you think that since it was so invovled that she had lived through it herself.

I recommend this book to anyone who has lost hope. Read this and it will keep your hope up on really anything. Even so, I think this will not let down anybody. You might even cry, like I know I did.

The ending felt finished. Completed, it will not leave you questioning what had happened. Sara Zarr did a great job of making sure of that. The last few chapters were like an epilogue. You won't be disappointed at the very least.

Read On!

Kelsey

Lock and Key by Sarah Dessen

Ruby knows that the game is up. For the past few months, she's been on her own in the yellow house, managing somehow, knowing that her mother will probably never return. That's how she comes to live with Cora, the sister she hasn't seen in ten years, and Cora's husband Jamie, whose down-to-earth demeanor makes it hard for Ruby to believe he founded the most popular networking Web site around. A luxurious house, fancy private school, a new wardrobe, the promise of college and a future-it's a dream come true. So why is Ruby such a reluctant Cinderella, wary and defensive? And why is Nate, the genial boy next door with some secrets of his own, unable to accept the help that Ruby is just learning to give?

Finally! The wait is over! After myself waiting about 8 months for this novel, I finally bought it and read it. I was just blown away. This novel was just as brilliant and genuine as Miss Sarah Dessen heself. After the long wait, I was really excited to read this. I have to say, after her other 7 excellent novels, I did have a high expectation. Lock and Key met this expectation plus 100% more.

Ruby is probably one of her most real characters. She has beauty and smarts. Her thinking was very impressive. Ruby, Cora and Jamie were some characters that you just wanted to know more and more throughout the book. Nate was such a original character that was unique in Sarah's books. It was nice having something so original in her books, which makes this more different then her others. Nate also had the problem (which I won't give away) that Ruby used to have but didn't anymore so she was the one trying to help someone else, in this case, Nate, then someone trying to help her, which if i remember right is what most of her books have in them.

As anybody who reads this blog schould know by now, Sarah Dessen is my favorite author, nobody can compete with her in my opinion. I loved this book, but I think I still like her last book, Just Listen, better because I am more alike to Annabel, but still Lock and Key is close behind. I cannot wait for her other upcoming novels in the future.

Read On!

Kelsey

School Shootings

Hi everybody.

So it has come to my attention that the anniversary's for 2 school shootings were here this past week or two.

April 16th, 2007 was the deadliest school shooting ever in the United States. The shooting took place at Virgina Tech U. in Virginia. A total of 32 people died and another 23 injured. 1 person did this before committing suicide.

April 20th, 1999 was the most dramatic shooting. At Columbine High School in Colorado. It put the United States in a panic. Which led to schools around the country trying to make their school more safe. 2 seniors killed 13 people and injured 24 others. They killed themselves afterwords.

There have been a great deal of school shootings. After reading Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult I just felt I needed to share this.

If you could put this in your minds and pray for everybody who was physically, mentally, and emotionally hurt in these tragedies.

Thank You

Kelsey

ARC-Airhead by Meg Cabot

EM WATTS IS GONE.

Emerson Watts didn’t even want to go to the new SoHo Stark Megastore grand opening. But someone needed to look out for her sister, Frida, whose crush, British heartthrob Gabriel Luna, would be singing and signing autographs there—along with the newly appointed Face of Stark, teen supermodel sensation Nikki Howard. How was Em to know that disaster would strike, changing her—and life as she’d known it—forever? One bizarre accident later, and Em Watts, always the tomboy, never the party princess, is no longer herself. Literally. Now getting her best friend, Christopher, to notice that she’s actually a girl is the least of Em’s problems. But what Em’s pretty sure she’ll never be able to accept might just turn out to be the one thing that’s going to make her dream come true….

NIKKI HOWARD IS HERE TO STAY.

Now, I can't say much because it is Advanced Reader Copy, but I can tell you that this is a great new novel by Meg Cabot. If your a teen and have read all her 1-800-Where-R-You and The Mediator novels and are hoping for a new YA series. This is the one to get!

The novel offically comes out June 1st. So when June comes rolling by snatch this novel up without a blink of an eye. You will not be disappointed.

Read On!

Kelsey

Blue Is For Nightmares by Laurie Faria Stolarz

Stacey's junior year at boarding school isn't easy. She's not the most popular girl at school, or the smartest, or the prettiest. She's got a crush on her best friend's boyfriend, and an even darker secret that threatens to ruin her friendships for good. And now she's having nightmares again. Not just any nightmares – these dreams are too real to ignore, like she did three years ago. The last time she ignored them, a little girl died. This time they're about Drea, her best friend who's become the target of one seriously psycho stalker. It started with weird e-mails and freaky phone calls. Now someone's leaving Drea white lilies – the same death lilies that have been showing up in Stacey's dreams. Everybody thinks it's just a twisted game . . . until another girl at school is brutally murdered. There are no witnesses. Worst of all, no one has a perfect alibi. With everyone as a potential suspect, Stacey turns to the one secret weapon she can trust – the folk magic taught to her by her grandmother. Will Stacey's magic be strong enough to expose the true killer, or will the killer make her darkest nightmares come true?

I loved this novel a bunch. It had romance and suspense, some of my favorite parts to a novel. Stacey Brown and her friends Drea, Amber, P.J., and Chad all bring something different to the table. Stacey is mysterious and interesting. Drea is the beautiful shy girl, Amber is the in-your-face type, P.J. is the thrilling and daring guy, and Chad is the all-around good guy, or so it seems.

The beginning of the book and series wasn't catchy enough. I have to say if I hadn't of bought the book and instead gotten it from the library, I might've not of finished it because the beginning just didn't catch me into the novel as I thought it would.

I sure am glad I did read it though. The ending was superb. Such suspense. I honestly didn't expect what happened to happen. It was spooky enough and it had romance. What else could you not want?

I liked how it didn't leave you hanging at the end of the novel. It actually could've just been a stand-alone book with a great ending that didn't leave you hanging and wondering. But I am glad Miss Stolarz did do another 3 novels and maybe 4. I read she is planning on having a 5th novel in the series come out in summer of '09 as a graphic novel.

This was great and I recommend it.

Read On!

Kelsey

Head Case by Sarah Aronson

Frank Marder is a head, paralyzed from the neck down, and it’s his fault. He was drinking. He was driving. Now Frank can’t walk, he can’t move, he can’t feel his skin. He needs someone to feed him, to wash him, to move his body. Now he must learn to deal with his lack of independence, his parents, his sister, his friends. Will he ever feel like a whole person? When you're a head, do you ever get to forgive yourself? But if you ask most of the people who post on www.quadkingonthenet, he hasn’t been adequately punished. Two people are dead because of him. Frank should go to jail. Only “Anonymous” disagrees.

This was definitely a quick and easy read. The writing wasn't fantastic. I did think that the topic was rather good though. It was a very quick read. Frank seemed very realistic. It didn't give you much description on what happened. But over all it was a pretty good read.

I don't have much to really say since it was such a short book, so. . .

Read On!

Kelsey

And Another Great Contest!!!

Scavenger Hunt style! Yes, Tasha at And Another Book Read is hosting a contest for getting into the North Carolina School of Science and Math. Congratulations, Tasha!

A chance to get 3 books and 6 entries.

Click Here for more info. Contest ends May 1 Midnight, EST. Hurry Now!

Size 14 Is Not Fat Either by Meg Cabot

Former pop star Heather Wells has settled nicely into her new life as assistant dorm director at New York College—a career that does not require her to drape her size 12 body in embarrassingly skimpy outfits. She can even cope (sort of) with her rocker ex-boyfriend's upcoming nuptials, which the press has dubbed The Celebrity Wedding of the Decade. But she's definitely having a hard time dealing with the situation in the dormitory kitchen—where a cheerleader has lost her head on the first day of the semester. (Actually, her head is accounted for—it's her torso that's AWOL.) Surrounded by hysterical students—with her ex-con father on her doorstep and her ex-love bombarding her with unwanted phone calls—Heather welcomes the opportunity to play detective . . . again. If it gets her mind off her personal problems—and teams her up again with the gorgeous P.I. who owns the brownstone where she lives—it's all good. But the murder trail is leading the average-sized amateur investigator into a shadowy world. And if she doesn't watch her step, Heather will soon be singing her swan song!

Ahh, the ever hilarious Heather Wells...so nice to see you again.

Well, well, well. . .this second novel in Miss Cabot's adult mystery series is not a disappointment at all. Not at all. Actually i might even like it better then the first. Or not. But even so this is a great follow-up to Size 12 Is Not Fat. It was a bit more gore-y but not bad. Maybe a little more serious.

I think that knowing that her first adult mystery novel was a success she was a bit more comfortable with her writing in this little different genre, that she was a bit more relaxed in this novel and stepped it up a bit.

I have to say the humor in this novel was just great. I had to stop reading at the end of chapter 28, I think, and just laugh for about five minutes straight. Ahh, it's making me laugh now. . .

So, this was a great novel, you sure so a different side of Cooper and there were a few new characters that were very interesting and funny. But I did think the final showdown was a bit.. I don't know, weird? It just didn't seem as serious as I thought it would of been if any of those people were in real life. But, it was still a good book.

Can't wait to read Big Boned, which is reserved at my library now.

Read On!

Kelsey

Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult

In nineteen minutes, you can mow the front lawn, color your hair, watch a third of a hockey game. In nineteen minutes, you can bake scones or get a tooth filled by a dentist; you can fold laundry for a family of five....In nineteen minutes, you can stop the world, or you can just jump off it. In nineteen minutes, you can get revenge. Sterling is a small, ordinary New Hampshire town where nothing ever happens -- until the day its complacency is shattered by a shocking act of violence. A school shooting. In the aftermath, the town's residents must not only seek justice in order to begin healing but also come to terms with the role they played in the tragedy. For them, the lines between truth and fiction, right and wrong, insider and outsider have been obscured forever. Josie Cormier, the teenage daughter of the judge sitting on the case, could be the state's best witness, but she can't remember what happened in front of her own eyes. And as the trial progresses, fault lines between the high school and the adult community begin to show, destroying the closest of friendships and families.

I cried in the very first chapter, and many others. No one could ever imagine what or how something like this could ever happen. After I finished this, I got scared. What if someone being bullied, anyone, would just get up one day and start shooting your very own school. Something likes this can happen and it has. Even though this is fiction. This novel just made you think about it and it was just very disturbing.

The writing was fantastic. The characters acted on how I would of thought they would act after a shooting in a small town, or any town, in other words, they were very real characters. Even though I'm not a big fan of alternating chapters or sections in a chapter, I felt this one was definitely necessary. It wouldn't of been as good as a novel without knowing what was going on in Peter's head and Josie's and Jordan's and Peter's parents, etc. Even though it was a long novel, it was worth it. People, anybody, really, will learn something from this story, no doubt.

Read On!

Kelsey

Size 12 Is Not Fat by Meg Cabot

HEATHER WELLS ROCKS! Or, at least, she did. That was before she left the pop-idol life behind after she gained a dress size or two—and lost a boyfriend, a recording contract, and her life savings (when Mom took the money and ran off to Argentina). Now that the glamour and glory days of endless mall appearances are in the past, Heather's perfectly happy with her new size 12 shape (the average for the American woman!) and her new job as an assistant dorm director at one of New York's top colleges. That is, until the dead body of a female student from Heather's residence hall is discovered at the bottom of an elevator shaft. The cops and the college president are ready to chalk the death off as an accident, the result of reckless youthful mischief. But Heather knows teenage girls . . . and girls do not elevator surf. Yet no one wants to listen—not the police, her colleagues, or the P.I. who owns the brownstone where she lives—even when more students start turning up dead in equally ordinary and subtly sinister ways. So Heather makes the decision to take on yet another new career: as spunky girl detective! But her new job comes with few benefits, no cheering crowds, and lots of liabilities, some of them potentially fatal. And nothing ticks off a killer more than a portly ex-pop star who's sticking her nose where it doesn't belong . . .

I have to say, I was excited to read this book. It was my first book read by Meg Cabot from the Adult Section, instead of the Young Adult Section. I've heard that this series was her best in the Adult Section. All though I haven't read any of her other books from the Adult Section, I might believe that it is her best series in the Adult Section. And all though she always, I've noticed after reading her books, repeats a LOT of things over and over (much like I realize I'm doing with the words Adult Section). Even though I love Miss Cabot and adore her books, it does bug me when her writing just keeps repeating things over and over and over and over (Get my point?).

Anyways, back to the story. I loved Heather Wells. Her intellectual personality and emotional interest is so appealing to me for a character in a story. Heather's sarcasm was little but great. All the characters were witty and so different from each of the other characters. I can just imagine what some of the outfits look like (Meaning Jordan in his leather pants and ruffle white shirt!) and how amazing each characters complexion is (Cooper!).

I loved this book and the mystery was just so interesting (I didn't even expect it!), I mean just an amazing writer could of thought of a mystery that facetious!

I had to go to the library the very next day (I would've gone that night, but it was closed.) and get the next book. I just couldn't get enough of Miss Cabot's scintillant writing in this Heather Wells novel.

FYI: A TV show is in the works for ABC, if I remember right.

Read On!

Kelsey

Wake by Lisa McMann

For seventeen-year-old Janie, getting sucked into other people's dreams is getting old. Especially the falling dreams, and the naked-but-nobody-notices dreams. Janie's seen enough fantasy booty to last her a lifetime. She can't tell anybody about what she does -- they'd never believe her, or worse, they'd think she's a freak. So Janie lives on the fringe, cursed with an ability she doesn't want and can't control. Then she falls into a gruesome nightmare, one that chills her to the bone. For the first time, Janie is more than a witness to someone else's twisted psyche. She is a participant...

Wake was the novel I was waiting to read. I've heard good things and I've heard OK things. I loved the story line but I hated the point of view Miss McMann made. The characters where so real and deliberate. The family lives felt standoffish in a good way. Although I wish there was a bit more description and detail to the story. As I said, I'm not a big fan on the point of view the author wrote with but in the end, I didn't really care.

I loved it a lot and can't wait until Lisa McMann's sequel to Wake, Fade, comes out in February '09.

Read On!

Kelsey

The Page Flippers Contest!

Anybody ready for a fantastic new contest? Well get ready for this great one!

My great blogger friend The Page Flipper is having another contest on her blog!

Five (5) lucky winners can have the chance to win a copy of Audrey, Wait!

The Contest ends April 20th, midnight EST. So go head over to her blog and check it out!

Sloppy Firsts by Megan McCafferty

When her best friend, Hope Weaver, moves away from Pineville, New Jersey, hyper observant sixteen-year-old Jessica Darling is devastated. A fish out of water at school and a stranger at home, Jessica feels more lost than ever now that the only person with whom she could really communicate has gone. How is she supposed to deal with the boy- and shopping-crazy girls at school, her dad’s obsession with her track meets, her mother salivating over big sister Bethany’s lavish wedding, and her nonexistent love life?

This novel was a little crazed at some points. But it was a great novel. The plot was very original and fun. Jessica Darling is a comical and savvy character. There was less dialog then I expected and some of the characters were unreal-ish. There were a lot of different things going on in this story, like two different plots in one.

I read it seven years after it was published so it was pretty fun remembering all the music sensations and styles in that time.

This was really just a fun, quick read. I loved it and I cannot wait to get the rest of the series read!

Read On!

Kelsey

The Fortunes Of Indigo Skye by Deb Caletti

Eighteen-year-old Indigo Skye feels like she has it all - a waitress job she loves, an adorable refrigerator-delivery-guy boyfriend, and a home life that's slightly crazed but rich in love. Until a mysterious man at the restaurant leaves her a 2.5 million-dollar tip, and her life as she knew it is transformed. At first its amazing: a hot new car, enormous flat-screen TV, and presents for everyone she cares about. She laughs off the warnings that money changes people, that they come to rely on what they have instead of who they are. Because it won't happen...not to her. Or will it? What do you do when you can buy anything your heart desires -- but what your heart desires can't be bought? This is the story of a girl who gets rich, gets lost, and ultimately finds her way back - if not to where she started, then to where she can start again.

Indigo Skye is the most original, down-to-earth of a character I have read in a long time. She has attitude, empathy, integrity, and learns to get loyalty. Caletti has written a novel that anybody would laugh with. The witty bunch of characters and descriptions is flawless. When reading this novel I was wishing I was in their world, I was wishing I had the kind of relationships Indigo does with all the diverting characters in this novel.

Caletti went where she hasn't gone yet from her other novels. Hawaii, California, porsches, tattoos, tsunamis, etcetera. She's brought something to this novel she hasn't brought to her four other novels. This book was yet another distinguished tale that I know I won't forget. Well done.

Read On!

Kelsey

Memoirs Of A Teenage Amnesiac by Gabrielle Zevin

If Naomi had picked tails, she would have won the coin toss. She wouldn’t have had to go back for the yearbook camera, and she wouldn’t have hit her head on the steps. She wouldn’t have woken up in an ambulance with amnesia. She certainly would have remembered her boyfriend, Ace. She might even have remembered why she fell in love with him in the first place. She would understand why her best friend, Will, keeps calling her “Chief.” She’d know about her mom’s new family. She’d know about her dad’s fiancé. She never would have met James, the boy with the questionable past and the even fuzzier future, who tells her he once wanted to kiss her. She wouldn’t have wanted to kiss him back. But Naomi picked heads.

This book was just fabulous. Nothing about it was a disgrace. I was intent by the plot that was so creative. Zevin's debut novel, Elsewhere, was great. So, I had high hopes for this book. It didn't leave me disappointed, either.

The decisions Naomi makes and the way she reacts and just the overall apperance from the characters was so appealing to me. I couldn't of wished for anything different. About a girls discovery of what she was hiding and what she truly desires. Naomi's journey is memorable. I laughed and cried, I couldn't get ahold of myself reading this book. It took me less then a day to read it, THAT's how good it was. I recommend this book to anybody wishing for a charming and quick read. 13+

Read On!

Kelsey

A Certain Slant Of Light By Laura Whitcomb

In the class of the high school English teacher she has been haunting, Helen feels them: for the first time in 130 years, human eyes are looking at her. They belong to a boy, a boy who has not seemed remarkable until now. And Helen--terrified, but intrigued--is drawn to him. The fact that he is in a body and she is not presents this unlikely couple with their first challenge. But as the lovers struggle to find a way to be together, they begin to discover the secrets of their former lives and of the young people they come to possess.

The beginning of this novel was really interesting and unique. The plot is so unusual and creative that it just draws your attention full on to this book. With the beautiful cover and plot I sure was drawn to it. And the beginning of the book met my expectations, highly. But then I got about a hundred pages into the book and it just turned. It was just to...weird. The things that go on when she is in the body she possessed is odd. The stuff that goes into her mind is strange. The ending was good but confusing.

The whole part that really kept me highly interested was Helen with James. I just wanted to skip all the parts in between. I also thought that the way Whitcomb had James go was a just not enough for the story. But I was still intrigued. Even though this book half disappointed me I still want to read Whitcomb's other books if she writes more novels.

FYI-Film rights have been sold for this book. But I'm not sure if the movie is in the making.

Read On!

Kelsey

Avalon High: Coronation Vol. 1 The Merlin Prophecy By Meg Cabot

Being a new student at Avalon High has been exciting for Ellie, to say the least...she's an honor student, a star on the track team, and oh, yeah, dating the super-hot class president, Will. Who also happens to be alleged reincarnation of King Arthur.

Ellie couldn't be happier to have Will in her life, but she's also worried that his estrangement from his parents is tearing him apart. To make matters worse, Will's doubt that he really is King Arthur could prevent the Merlin Prophecy—an age of enlightenment—from occurring. Can Ellie convince Will to believe in something that even she isn't sure about? And more importantly, can she get him to give his parents another chance?

After reading Avalon High by Meg Cabot, which happened to be my favorite stand-alone book by her, I found that she has written another book to Avalon High, but when I found out it was manga style I was a little disappointed. But when I read this it was actually pretty good, but then again it was my first manga. I didn't have anything to compare it to. I did think it was really, really short though. There wasn't much into the manga, it was pretty much a retelling of what happened in the novel and a little more to it, but not much. But I'll give credit to Meg because it was her first manga, ever.

Read On!

Kelsey

Contest Results!

So, my first contest was a success! Yay! I have emailed the winner, already! I want to assure everyone that I did completely do it randomly. (I asked my dad to pick a number, 1-11, he picked 4 and BINGO, we have a winner!)

I had 10 emails asking them to enter them, 1 person said it in there MySpace blog.

Ashley T. Congratulations!

If you are one of the people who didn't win, I have an email coming to you soon thanking you for participating and a few questions!

I am planning on another contest in a month or so, so keep looking out!

Thank YOU to everybody for making my first contest a success!!!

The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks

In 1932, two North Carolina teenagers from opposite sides of the tracks fall in love. Spending one idyllic summer together in the small town of New Bern, Noah Calhoun and Allie Nelson do not meet again for 14 years. Noah has returned from WWII to restore the house of his dreams, having inherited a large sum of money. Allie, programmed by family and the "caste system of the South" to marry an ambitious, prosperous man, has become engaged to powerful attorney Lon Hammond. When she reads a newspaper story about Noah's restoration project, she shows up on his porch step, re-entering his life for two days. Will Allie leave Lon for Noah? This is one of the most unforgettable love story ever.

After reading A Walk To Remember I just had to read this. This is apparently one of his top novels. Let me just say that so far it is. But It was tough, The Notebook is one of my favorite movies and the book was really different. The movie added a ton of other parts to it so I didn't really expect on how different it was. But either way the book was great. I cried and smiled, this book was exceptionaly fabulous! I have Message in a Bottle sitting next to me and let me tell you the review will be on this blog real soon!

Read On!

Kelsey