Requiem, by Lauren Oliver (2013)

Goodreads

My rating:  6 out of 10 stars
*language, sexual inference

To check this read out at NOLS, click HERE!

The Running Dream, by Wendelin Van Draanan (2011)

 

Goodreads

 

My rating:  8 out of 10 stars

 

To check this read out at NOLS, click HERE!

Trouble, by Gary D. Schmidt (2008)

Goodreads

My rating:  10 out of 10 stars!!!

To check this read out at NOLS, click HERE!

Compound, by S. A. Bodeen (2008)

Goodreads

My rating:  7 out of 10 stars
*creepy parts about "Supplements"

To check this read out from NOLS, click HERE!

The Host, by Stephenie Meyer (2008)

Goodreads

My rating:  6 out of 10 stars
*long, long, long

To check this book out at NOLS, click HERE!

Prodigy, by Marie Lu (2013)

**Plot spoiler if you have 

not read Legend!**

Day jolts awake beside me.  His brown is covered with sweat, and his cheeks are wet with tears.  He's breathing heavily.

Following Legend, Prodigy takes up where the Republic's most wanted criminal, Day, and the Republic's most celebrated prodigy, June Iparis, left off - hitching a ride on a train bound for the military city of Las Vegas.  Nine days have passed since they broke out of Batalla Hall and escaped Los Angeles.  Day wants to join up with the Patriots to rescue his little brother, Eden.

"You're really set on finding the Patriots, 

aren't you?"

Elector Primo has died and his son, Anden Stavropoulous, is the new Elector.

The Republic has simply moved on to the next Elector without skipping a beat, as if Anden were the same person as his father.  My head swims - I try to remember what I'd learned in school about choosing a new Elector.  The Elector always picked his successor, and a national election would confirm it.  It's no surprise that Anden is next in line - but our Elector has been in power for decades, long before I was born.  Now he's gone.  

Our world has shifted in a matter of seconds.

June and Day find the Patriot's leader, Razor.  Although they don't have any money to offer, they're still valuable to the Patriots.

"There is something you can offer," he starts.  "Fortunately you've arrived on a very interesting night."  

"Rarely has the Republic been as vulnerable as it is now.  There will never be a better time to spark a revolution."

The Patriots want Day and June to assassinate the new 20-year old Elector.

Will they accomplish this mission?  Who can they trust?  Will they survive?  This is a great read if you like action, drama, and political intrigue.  In my opinion, Prodigy is a more exciting read than book 1, Legend.  

Rating:  7 out of 10 stars
*mild language

To check this read out at NOLS, click HERE!

Looking for Alaska, by John Green (2005)

one hundred thirty-six days before
The week before I left my family and Florida and the rest of my minor life to go to boarding school in Alabama, my mother insisted on throwing me a going-away party.  To say that I had low expectations would be to underestimate the matter dramatically.

Sixteen-year old Miles Halter attends public high school.  He doesn't have any friends and his high school experience has been less than fun.  He actually wants to go to boarding school.  After learning about French poet François Rabelais's last words ("I go to seek a Great Perhaps."), Miles realizes that he doesn't have to die to start looking for his Great Perhaps.  He decides to attend Culver Creek Preparatory School in Alabama.

Miles loves to read biographies of famous people and remembers their last words.

I thought of the people I'd read about - John F. Kennedy, James Joyce, Humphrey Bogart - who went to boarding school, and their adventures - Kennedy, for example, loved pranks.  I thought of the Great Perhaps and the things that might happen and the people I might meet and who my roommate might be...

Miles's roommate is Chip Martin, aka the Colonel.  The Colonel shows Miles the ins and outs of Culver Creek and gives Miles his nickname:  Pudge.  Then he takes Miles to meet Alaska in her room.

We walked in.  I turned to close the door behind me, and the Colonel shook his head and said, "After seven, you have to leave the door open if you're in a  girl's room," but I barely heard him because the hottest girl in all of human history was standing before me in cutoff jeans and a peach tank top.

And so Miles's Great Perhaps begins.  Looking for Alaska is funny, shocking, and heart-breaking.  I absolutely loved it!

Rating: 10 out of 10 stars
*language, sexual inference, sexual situations, smoking, drinking 

To check this read out at NOLS, click HERE!

Dust Lands Book 2: Rebel Heart, by Moira Young (2012)

It's late afternoon.  Since morning, the trail's been following a line of light towers.  That is, the iron remains of what used to be light towers, way back in Wrecker days, time out of mind.  

Picking up the story where Blood Red Road left off, Jack is on his way to tell Ike's girl the bad news.  He's headed to a tavern in the storm belt called The Lost Cause.  All he wants to do is tell Molly, and then get back to Saba in Big Water.

The Tonton used to be dirty, rough, violent thugs, but now they are clean cut, organized.  This makes Jack feel uneasy.

It means that the enemy have changed their game.

The Tonton follow the Pathfinder and work to make his vision for New Eden come true.  Young, healthy adults are branded on their forehead to populate and New Eden.  These landgrabbers are called Stewards of the Earth, miracles to heal the earth.  Everyone else is eliminated or enslaved.   Homesteads are forcibly taken, family members are murdered.  

Saba wants to meet Jack in Big Water, but things don't go as planned as they start their journey.  First a disturbing message from Maeve from Jack.  Then Saba learns that the Pathfinder put a price on her head.  She is haunted by the ghost of Epona.  And she has an unusual attraction to the Pathfinder, Seth.

Read Rebel Heart to find out what happens to Jack and Saba.  Even though there are parts of the book that aren't ever answered, like when Ariel tried to help Saba with her demons, it's still a good read.

Rating:  6 out of 10 stars
* inferences of rape, prostitution, sexual references, language

To check this read out at NOLS, click HERE!

Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter, by Seth Grahame-Smith (2010)

I was still bleeding...my hands shaking.

 

Seth Grahame-Smith wanted to be an author.  He worked at a five and dime while growing up in Rhinebeck, New York - home ot the oldest inn in America.  After he graduated from college, he planned to work at the store for nine months, during that time he'd work on his unpublished novel.  Nine years later, he has abandoned writing.

 

Henry has been coming to the store for a year. 

 

"Why did you abandon it?"

 

Seth couldn't help but feel that another conversaton was going on.

 

The last time Henry came into the store, he gave a small package to Seth.  Inside brown paper and twine were 10 leather-bound books.  Journals from the Great Emancipator, Abraham Lincoln.

 

For 17 months, Seth sacrificed everything for those 10 books.

 

This novel is the story...

 

Rating:  9 out of 10 stars

*language, smoking

 

To check this read out at NOLS, click HERE!

Send Me a Sign, by Tiffany Schmidt (2012)

Hillary looked up from her phone, squinting at me in the afternoon sun before she pulled on the sunglasses perched on her head.  "There's nothing happening tonight.  Nothing."

Seventeen-year old Mia Moore is one of the most popular girls at her school.  She's beautiful, popular, a cheerleader, and has adoring parents.  Her life is enviable.

At the beginning of the summer before her senior year in high school, Mia has her three best friends over to sunbathe and relax by her pool.  One of her friends notices a bruise on her leg, and even though Mia blows off the question, she knows something is wrong because she has several bruises all over her body.  Her mom has made a doctor's appointment.

Drs called.  I moved your appt to today.  4 pm.

Leaving now.  Be ready when I get home.

After series of tests, Mia finds out she has acute lymphoblastic leukemia.  She wants to escape her diagnosis, not think about what's going to happen to her, and hide from the truth as long as possible. 

Mia is superstitious.  She looks for signs everywhere to help her make decisions.  She wears a four-leaf clover charm necklace (from her best friend and neighbor, Gyver), she reads her horoscope daily, and she has a horseshoe that she has in her bedroom and brings with her for hospital stays.

"I just need to feel normal for a few more hours.  Before my life becomes a mess of chemo and doctors and drugs."  The last barrier between me and detachment fell, and the doctor's words hit with suffocating reality.  "God...I have cancer."

Mia decides to keep her cancer a secret from everyone except Gyver.  Her mom not only supports this decision, she thinks it's the best for Mia.  But how do you keep cancer a secret when you're in high school?  

Send Me a Sign tells Mia's story of not only how Mia deals with having cancer, but also with keeping it secret from everyone she cares about.  Gyver is always there for her, but now her long-time crush, Ryan (one of the most good-looking, athletic, popular guys), wants to have a relationship with her.  It's really hard to like the characters in this book at the beginning, but Mia's story is gripping and heart-breaking.  

Rating:  8 out of 10 stars
*language, sexual reference, drinking

Purple Heart by Patricia McCormick (2009)

"Can you feel that, Private?"

Eighteen-year old Matt Duffy, a private in the army, is stationed in Baghdad, Iraq.  Six hours ago he was brought into the hospital; he has TBI, Traumantic Brain Injury from a Rocket-Propelled Grenade (RPG).  At first he can't remember anything that happened before the explosion, but he slowly begins to remember a few pieces of the memory.

"You don't remember?"

Matt shook his head.  Even that tiny gesture sent pain shooting through his skull.

"It was yesterday," Justin said.  "Remember yesterday?"

Matt tried to remember.  Nothing.

"You sure?"  Justin glanced over his shoulder, the way he did when he was scanning the rooftops for snipers.  "Nothing at all?"

"Why?  Did someone get hurt?"

Justin pinched his brow between his fingers.  "Only a couple hajis," he said.

As Matt tries to put the pieces of the memory together, he thinks of a young, homeless boy he befriended, Ali.  The last time he saw Ali was when they were patrolling the market near the al-Hikma Mosque.  Ali always stayed close to Matt, begging for anything he could sell.

"I keep seeing it in my head.  Or parts of it, anyhow."  He wiped his hands on his pant legs, not looking up.

"That's not unusual," she said.  "A lot of soldiers have flashbacks, disturbing memories, nightmares..."

"It doesn't make sense," he said, his voice cracking.  "I keep seeing him."

"Who?"

"This street kid," Matt said, toying with his plastic hospital wristband.

Purple Heart is a heart-wrenching story of Matt's experience in Baghdad.  This is a great book for teens who maybe don't know much about the war in Iraq, or maybe know someone who has been deployed there.

Rating:  9 out of 10 stars
*language, sexual reference

The Evolution of Mara Dyer, by Michelle Hodkin (2012)

I woke up on the morning of some day in some hospital to find a stranger sitting in my room.

Mara Dyer can't remember anything after seeing her ex-boyfriend, Jude, appear at the police station.  But she is sure she saw him.  She learns that she's in a hospital.

"It became an emergency situation, so under the Baker Act, your parents were able to consent for you."

I whispered so I wouldn't scream.  "What are you saying?"

"I'm sorry, but you've been involuntarily committed."

Mara knows that she isn't okay.  Her family and Noah are afraid for her safety, but while Noah believes her, her family thinks Mara just might be truly mentally ill.  The Evolution of Mara Dyer will make goosebumps rise on your arms as you feel Mara come unraveled.  If you liked The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer, you'll love the second book!

Rating:  7 out of 10 stars
*language, sexual references, rape

To check this book out at NOLS, click HERE!

Between Shades of Gray, by Ruta Sepetys (2011)

They took me in my nightgown.

Fifteen-year old Lina Vilkas was taken from her home as she was getting ready for bed by the NKVD, the Soviet Secret Police.  Her family was given 20 minutes to pack.  Her father is missing.

"Promise me that if anyone tries to help you, you will ignore them.  We will resolve this ourselves.  We must not pull family or friends into this confusion, do you understand?  Even if someone calls out to you, you must not respond."

Almost a year before, Lina's home country, Lithuania, was annexed into the USSR.  Others were rounded up and put into a truck with Lina, her mother, and her younger brother, Jonas.  Lina learns that her mother speaks perfect Russian.

Forty-six people are crammed into a cattle train car.  One of them is 17-year old Andrius Arvydas from a nearby town.  They travel for six weeks inside the crammed, filthy car.  Lina learns why they were deported.

"Stalin has a plan, my love.  The Kremlin will do anything to see it through.  You know that.  He wants Lithuania for the Soviet Union, so he's moving us out temporarily."

"But why us?" I asked.  "They already moved into Lithuania last year.  Isn't that enough?"

"It's not just us, dear.  I imagine he's doing the same to Latvia, Estonia, and Finland.  It's complicated," said other.

Lina witnesses hundreds of horrible things, things a human should never have to see or endure.

"How could they do this?" I asked aloud.  I looked around the train car.  No one spoke.  How could we stand up for ourselves if everyone cowered in fear and refused to speak?  

I had to speak.  I'd write everything down, draw it all.  I would help Papa find us.

Between Shades of Gray is the emotional story of Lina and her family as they're deported from their beloved home in Lithuania and eventually make it to the most desolate area of all in the Arctic region.  It was delicious and it broke my heart into a million pieces.

Rating:  10 out of 10 stars
*mild language, sexual inference

To check this book out at NOLS, click HERE!

Reached, by Ally Condie (2012)

Every morning, the sun comes up and turns the earth red, and I think:  This could be the day when everything changes.  Maybe today the Society will fall.  Then night comes again and we're all still waiting.  But I know the Pilot's real.

The third book in the Matched series, Reached concludes the story of Cassia, Ky and Xander.  Xander is an official, a physic.  Cassia is a sorter.  And Ky is a pilot for the Rising.  They wait for the Pilot's voice to start the Rising.

 

This is it.

 

The Rising said it would look like this.

Reached was a solid conclusion to the love triangle of Cassia, Xander, and Ky.  I loved the poetry, art, and descriptive language throughout the book, and even though the first half was a bit slow, I really enjoyed the second half.  I liked seeing how questions were answered and what happened to each character.

Rating:  8 out of 10 stars

To check this book out at NOLS, click HERE!

Unwholly, by Neal Shusterman (2012)

He's fighting a nightmare when they come for him.

Five years later Neal Shusterman offers the sequel to Unwind.  Three characters from Unwind continue their fight in Unwholly, while a few new characters join in the plight.  

Starkey is a stork and his parents want him to be unwound.

"Mason Michael Starkey, by the signing of this order, your parents and/0r legal guardians have retroactively terminated your tenure, backdated to six days postconception, leaving you in violation of Existential Code 390.  In light of this, you are hereby remanded to the California Juvenile Authority for summary division, also known as unwinding...Any rights previously granted to you by the county, state, or federal government as a citizen thereof are now officially and permanently revoked."

One out of 2,000 teens between the ages of 13 and 17 will be unwound each year.

Unwholly follows the stories of Connor, Lev, Risa, Starkey, and Cam Comprix was they fight for their survival.  

Rating:  6 out of 10 stars
*language, sexual inference, abortion, religion, abandonment

To check this book out at NOLS, click HERE!

What Came from the Stars, by Gary D. Schmidt (2012)

So the Valorim came to know that their last days were upon them.

Narrated from two points of view, the Valorim of Ethelim and Tommy Pepper of Plymouth, Massachusetts, What Came from the Stars is a book that feels like fantasy mixed in with delicious realistic fiction.

Tommy Pepper lives with his dad and little sister on a beach just outside Plymouth.  His mom died nearly a year ago, and Tommy and his family are filled with grief.  They miss her terribly.  His little sister, Patty, doesn't speak.  His dad rarely paints anymore.

On Tommy's 12th birthday, he received "The dumbest present in the history of the entire universe" from his grandmother:  an Ace Robotroid Adventure lunch box.  In an attempt to hide his lunch box from his friends, something happens.  Tommy saw a quick flash of light from the window and when his lunch box crashed onto the floor.

Tommy Pepper looked down beneath the cafeteria table at his fallen Ace Robotroid Adventure lunch box, and there among the spilled carrot and celery sticks, something...well, something glowed.  Tommy blinked.  Whatever it was, it really was glowing a little bit.  He reached down and picked it up.

A chain.  Green and silver.  Heavy.

After Tommy put on the chain, things started to change.  He could remember a far-off place. His memories of his mom returned and they were clear.

And with that wind in his face, and looking at the sea, and feeling the light fall on him from the first star, and with those he loved beside him, and his mother gone, gone, Tommy felt the chain warm, and he began to sing too. 

In another world, something tragic was taking place.  The O'Mondim, led by Lord Mondus, overtook the Valorim.  In an effort to save the Art of Valorim, Young Waeglim forged it into a chain and sent it to another world.  The Art of Valorim is the most precious and powerful gift.  Lord Mondus will do anything to possess it.

What Came from the Stars tells the story of the Valorim and Tommy Pepper.  The book reads like a typical gorgeous Gary D. Schmidt novel, mixed with science fiction elements.  My favorite parts included reading about Tommy and his family in Plymouth.  The science fiction elements were a bit tedious, but overall, a good story.

Hopefully, Gary D. Schmidt takes one of the characters from this book and spins it into another book, similar to Wednesday Wars and Okay for Now.  :)

Rating:  7 out of 10 stars
To check this book at out NOLS, click HERE!

Fire, by Kristin Cashore (2009)

Larch often thought that if it had not been for his newborn son, he never would have survived his wife Mikra's death.

Seventeen-year old Fire is the last human-shaped monster in the Dells.  Her beauty stuns those who see her, and most people either want to marry her or kill her.  She can also control the minds of anyone near her.

The kingdom is in danger; war is on the way.  Fire is called to the capital city to help the king.  
She learns about the various spies for the king's enemies, but one is the most mysterious.

...Fire sat alone, puzzling over the boy.  His right eye was gray and his left eye was red, which was strange enough itself.  His hair was blond like wheat, his skin light, and he had the appearance of being ten or eleven...He was sitting facing her, a rodent monster in his lap, a mouse with glimmering gold fur.  He was tying a string around its neck.  fire knew somehow that the creature was not his pet.

He pulled the string, too tight.  The mouse's legs began to jerk.  Stop it, Fire thought furiously, aiming her message at the strange presence that was his mind. 

He loosened the string immediately.  The mouse lay in his lap, heaving with tiny breaths.   The boy smiled at Fire, and stood up, and came to stand before her.  "It doesn't hurt him," he said.  "It's only a choking game, for fun."

She stared at him coolly, so he could not see her bewilderment.  "A choking game?  All the fun of it is on your side, and it's a sick kind of fun."

He smiled again.  His lopsided, red-eyed smile was somehow distressing.  "Is it sick?  To want to be in control?"

"Of a helpless, frightened creature?  Let it go."

"The others believed me when I said it didn't hurt him," he said, "but you know not to.  Plus, you're awfully pretty.  So I'll give you what you want."

Rating:  2 out of 10 stars

* mild language, sexual inference

To check this book out at NOLS, click HERE!

The Rise of Nine, by Pittacus Lore (2012)

6A.  Seriously? 

Beginning exactly where The Power of Six left off, The Rise of Nine shows what happens after Six meets Marina and Ella in Spain.  They're headed to India to find Eight. 

Narrated by John (Four), Six, and Marina, The Rise of Nine is the exciting addition to this series!  The group has separated and Six, Marina and Ella find Eight; John has found Nine.  The teens quickly realize how serious the situation is.

"This isn't playtime.  We're at war, dude - war."

The Rise of Nine is filled with twists and turns, similar to the other two.  

Rating:  8 out of 10 stars
*language

To check this book out at NOLS, click HERE!

The other books in this series:

 

The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer, by Michelle Hodkin (2011)

The ornate script on the board twisted in the candlelight, making the letters and numbers dance in my head.  They were jumbled and indistinct, like alphabet soup.  When Claire pushed the heart-shaped piece into my hand, I startled.  I wasn't normally so twitchy, and hoped Rachel wouldn't notice.  The Ouija board was her favorite present that night, and Claire gave it to her.  I got her a bracelet.  She wasn't wearing it.

Seventeen-year old Mara Dyer used to be a typical teenage girl.  That was before three of her friends were killed.  In the hospital she learned that she and her friends were in an abandoned psychiatric hospital, The Tamerlane.  The building crushed, killing her friends, leaving Mara unharmed.

She has no memory of even going to the hospital.

"You have to tell me," I begged, 

my throat filled with ash.

My mother looked at me with glassy eyes 

and a heartbroken face.  

"I would if I could, Mara.  

But you're the only one who knows."

Eight weeks after the tragedy, Mara's family moved from Rhode Island to Miami, Florida.  One her first day of school without her best friend, Rachel, she is filled with anxiety.  She sees Rachel and Claire, and hears Jude's laughter.  Rachel, Jude, and Claire are her friends that were killed.  She knows they are hallucinations.

She also meets a Noah Shaw, a boy with a reputation.

Mara begins to remember what happened that terrible night in Rhode Island.

I woke in the middle of the night with a scream in my throat and an anchor in my chest, soaked in sweat and terror.  I remembered.  I remembered.  The flood of recognition was almost painful.

The dream - the memory - kept replaying itself on a loop, disturbing me more than it should have.  Why now, all of a sudden?  What could I do about it?  What should I do about it?

The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer witnesses the memories coming back to Mara about that night in the asylum, questions the connection she has with Noah Shaw, and forces the reader to wonder about other aspects of the story that were left hanging.  The book trailer doesn't have anything to do with the story, either does the dust jacket.  I found it interesting, but scary, the first two-thirds of the book.  The final part felt like an entirely different read.  

The book finishes with

end of volume one

I suppose we can expect volume two soon...

Rating:  2 out of 10 stars
*language, sexual suggestion, sexual inference, tobacco usage, Ouija board

To check this book out at NOLS, click HERE!

The Fault in our Stars, by John Green (2012)

Late in the winter of my seventeenth year, my mother decided I was depressed, presumably because I rarely left the house, spent quite a lot of time in bed, read the same book over and over, ate infrequently, and devoted quite a bit of my abundant free time to thinking about death.

Hazel Grace Lancaster has terminal thyroid cancer.  She knows it's not *if* she dies, it's when.  The cancer has metastasized in her lungs.  She's lived with this disease since she was 13, fighting for each breath.  All of her treatment has been to extend her life, not cure her cancer. 

Luckily Hazel got into an experimental trial.  The drug didn't work in about 70% of people, but it worked in Hazel.  The tumors shrank.  

In the past eighteen months, my mets have hardly grown, leaving me with lungs that suck at being lungs but could, conceivably, struggle along indefinitely with the assistance of drizzled oxygen and daily Phalanxifor.

Hazel hasn't been to a regular school in three years.  Her parents and author Peter Van Houten are her three best friends.

I'd learned this from my aforementioned third best friend, Peter Van Houten, the reclusive author of An Imperial Affliction, the book that was a close a thing as I had to a Bible.  Peter Van Houten was the only person I'd ever come across who seemed to (a) understand what it's like to be dying, and (b) not have died.

To deal with her depression, Hazel is sent to a support group with teens who have cancer.  They meet in the basement of a church.  She meets 17-year old Isaac who has to have his one good eye removed and will be blind in a couple of weeks.  She also meets 17-year old Augustus Waters who has osteosarcoma; one of his legs had to be amputated.  He's been NEC (No Evidence of Cancer) for 14 months.

After the meeting Augustus invites Hazel to come to his house to watch a movie.  As she waits for her mom to pick her up, Hazel notices Augustus putting a cigarette between his lips.  Hazel is disgusted.  

"They don't kill you unless you light them," he said as Mom arrived at the curb.  "And I've never lit one.  It's a metaphor, see.  You put the killing thing right between your teeth, but you don't give it the power to do its killing."

Hazel and Augustus begin spending time together.

Hazel has written letters to author Peter Van Houton for years, always to be unanswered.  Augustus   finds a way to contact the reclusive author and receives a reply.  He learns that Van Houton will answer Hazel's questions if she comes to Amsterdam to meet with him.  Hazel already spent her Wish the Genies gave her.  Augustus knows what he wants to do.

"Ah," he said.  And then, after what felt like a practiced pause, he added, "But I saved mine."

Hazel is so sick a trip to Amsterdam may be out of the question.  And she begins to worry about what will happen to Augustus when she dies.  She begins to pull away from Augustus.

"I'm like.  Like.  I'm like a grenade, Mom and at some point I'm going to blow up and I would like to minimize the casualties, okay?"

"I just want to stay away from people and read books and think and be with you guys because there's nothing I can do about hurting you; you're too invested, so just please let me do that, okay?  I'm not depressed.  I don't need to get out more.  And I can't be a regular teenager, because I'm a grenade."

The Fault in our Stars is an amazing read.  Even though Hazel and Augustus don't have a lot of time together, their relationship is incredible.  Funny, sad, smart, I loved this read.  As Augustus himself said, 

"It is a good life, Hazel Grace."

Rating:  10 out of 10 stars
*language, drugs, sexual inference, issues of death

To check this book out at NOLS, click HERE!