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!

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!

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!

Personal Effects, by E. M. Kokie (Sept 2012)

Of all the lame sh** on Pinscher's backpack, his War Is Not the Answer sticker pisses me off the most - even more than his Practice Nonviolence button, which makes me want to practice some violence on his face.

Seventeen-year old Matt Foster has a lot to deal with right now.  His older brother, T.J. was killed in Iraq six months ago.  Matt's trying to make some sense of his brother's death, but his father just wants to shut the memories away, pretend like it didn't happen.

On T.J.'s list visit home, he asked Matt if he was serious about enlisting in the army.  

"Do. Not. Enlist."  Each word bounced off my brain.  "Period."

Matt's father has removed all of the pictures of T. J. from the house.  He's also hidden the flag and the small bag of things T. J. was wearing when he was killed.  Matt wants to know more about his brother.  He wants to learn as much as he can about T. J.'s last moments.

All that's left of T. J. is in that bag.

No way Dad would just throw away the flag from T. J.'s coffin.  Wherever it is, the bag has to be there, too.

I'm not giving up.

Three footlockers filled with T. J.'s personal effects show up.  Matt is determined, but his father wants to keep them locked away.

Dad's honoring T. J. by pretending he isn't dead and ignoring every big of evidence that proves him wrong.  But me?  What am I doing?

There is something I can do. And I already know what.  

Personal Effects is a deeply emotional read.  I found it to be hard to put down.  

Rating:  10 out of 10 stars

*language, homosexuality, gay slurs

Graceling, by Kristin Cashore (2008)

In these dungeons the darkness was complete, but Katsa had a map in her mind.

Seven kingdoms, seven greedy, unpredictable kings.  Any and all Gracelings, people born with extreme skills, are the king's possessions.

When Katsa was 8-years old, her Grace announced its nature:  a girl Graced with killing.  All Gracelings are marked with their eyes; each eye is a different color.  All Gracelings are feared, especially Katsa.  The niece of the King Randa, Katsa is kept to serve the king.  He orders her to kill, hurt, or maim those who offended him.

On an errand for the Council, Katsa meets another Graceling.  She knows she should kill him, but she doesn't.  She learns that he is Prince Greening Grandemalion of Lienid, looking for his  kidnapped grandfather.

"Katsa," he said into the dirt.  "I beg you to trust me, as I've trusted you."

The prince, Po, is also Graced with fighting skills.  

Katsa is used to being alone, independent, but her life is about to change.  Graceling is an exciting fantasy read about love, loyalty, and finding what makes you happy.

Rating:  8 out of 10 stars
*sexual inferences

To check this book out at NOLS, click HERE!


Companion to Graceling:

Sequel to Graceling:

Birthmarked, by Caragh M. O'Brien (2009)

In the dim hovel, the mother clenched her body into one final, straining push, and the baby slithered out into Gaia's ready hands.


For years 16-year old Gaia Stone knew she would be a midwife.  Gaia learned all of her skills from her mother, the only midwife in Western Sector Three of Wharfton.  Everyone serves the Enclave, and midwives are required to advance the first three babies born each month.  Advancing means that the babies are taken from their birth families immediately after they're born and taken to live inside the Enclave, a life of privilege and security.

"You can't," she whispered.  "You can't take my baby.  She's mine."

"I have to," Gaia said, backing away.  I'm sorry.

"But you can't," the woman gasped.

"You'll have others.  You'll get to keep some.  I promise."

"Your baby will be well cared for," she said, using the phrases she'd learned.  "You've provided a great service to the Enclave, and you will be compensated."

Suddenly Gaia's parents are taken to the Enclave for questioning, and Gaia is ordered to take up her mother's duties as midwife and serve the Enclave in Western Sector Three.


Gaia has never questioned the Enclave, never worried about the monthly quota of babies.

No deformed babies were ever advanced, for any reason.  For Gaia, one accident had guaranteed a life of poverty outside the wall, with no education, no chance for good food or leisure or easy friendships, while the girls her age who's been advanced were now in the Enclave, with boundless electricity, food and education...She would make sure that the babies in her care had the opportunities she'd never had, those lucky three every month.

Gaia learns that her parents are in the Enclave prison, accused of being traitors.  Gaia is determined to do whatever she needs to do to help her parents escape from the Enclave.


Birthmarked is filled with twists and turns, a code that needs to be cracked, promises that need to be kept, and romance.


To check this book out at NOLS, click HERE!

Rating:  7 out of 10 stars
* mild language, sexual inferences


Next:

A Corner of the Universe, by Ann. M. Martin (2002)

Last summer, the summer I turned twelve, was the summer Adam came.  


Summer 1960


Summer vacation has just started, and Hattie Owen has her regular routine.  Her family runs a boardinghouse in the big house on Grant Avenue in the quiet town of Millerton.  Her grandparents also live in Millerton, but they are very proper and wealthy.  

One the first day of summer vacation, Hattie learns she has an uncle that her family has kept secret from her.  Uncle Adam is only 21-years old and he's been away at school in Ohio since Hattie was 2-years old.  

And then I wonder for the nine thousandth time that evening why I was never told about Adam.  If he didn't have to come home now, would I ever have been told about him?

If a person is kept secret, is he real?

Hattie's 12th birthday is soon, and she doesn't feel like she has enough friends to have a party.  She actually only has one friend, and she's away for the summer.  Even though he hasn't been home for long, Hattie realizes that Uncle Adam pays attention to her.

"Hattie," he says at last, looking thoughtful, "I believe you are one of the people who can lift the corners of our universe."

A slow smile spreads across my face.  I feel very flattered, even though I have absolutely no idea what Adam means by that.

Hattie spends a lot of time with Adam and she learns about his differences and his moods.  She also learns how others react to Adam.  They look at him like he's a freak.

I feel a little like Adam's baby-sitter, a little like his mother, not at all like his niece, and quite a bit like his friend.

The Fred Carmel's Funtime Carnival comes to Millerton and Hattie makes a friend, Leila Cahn.  Adam and Leila throw a private, perfect birthday party for Hattie.  Hattie's heart feels happy and full.


But Adam is different from everyone.  His mood swings are vast and dangerous, and Hattie can't possible control him all of the time.


A Corner of the Universe is a delicious novel for young adults who are 11-years old and up.  There are some situations, however, that would be difficult to explain to younger readers. 


Rating:  10 out of 10 stars
*mild adult situations


To check this book out at NOLS, click HERE!

Grave Mercy: His Fair Assassin Book 1, by Robin LaFebers (2012)

I bear a deep red stain that runs from my left shoulder down to my right hip, a trail left by the herbwitch's poison that my mother used to try to expel me from her womb.  That I survived, according to the herwitch, is no miracle but a sign I have been sired by the god of death himself.

Brittany, 1485

Ismae Rienne's life has been filled with cold, hard people.  After her father sold her for 3 silver coins, Ismae thought her life would continue to be cold, hard, and abusive.  Minutes after her marriage begins, Ismae's husband sees her back.

When our glances meet, he knows - knows - that he has been duped.

He locks her in the root cellar. 

Later, the hedge priest, who had just married them, rescues her.  Like smuggled cargo, Ismae travels across Brittany to the abbey of St. Mortain, the patron saint of death.  Ismae admits to the abbess that many think she was sired by Death.

"You have found refuge at the convent of St. Mortain.  Although in truth, Mortain is older than any saint, older than even Christ."

Ismae learns more about the convent.

"We carry out Mortain's will when He wishes to alter the warp and weft of life's weave for some purpose of His own."

After three years at the convent, Ismae is sent on her first assignment: to assassinate a traitor to Brittney.  Her world, however, will be forever changed.

Grave Mercy is an excellent read for people who enjoy historical fiction, the art of assassination, political intrigue.

Rating:  10 out of 10 stars
*sexual references, religion

To check this book at out NOLS, click HERE!

Fallout, by Ellen Hopkins (2010)

[from Goodreads.com]

Hunter, Autumn, and Summer—three of Kristina Snow’s five children—live in different homes, with different guardians and different last names. They share only a predisposition for addiction and a host of troubled feelings toward the mother who barely knows them, a mother who has been riding with the monster, crank, for twenty years.

Hunter is nineteen, angry, getting by in college with a job at a radio station, a girlfriend he loves in the only way he knows how, and the occasional party. He's struggling to understand why his mother left him, when he unexpectedly meets his rapist father, and things get even more complicated. Autumn lives with her single aunt and alcoholic grandfather. When her aunt gets married, and the only family she’s ever known crumbles, Autumn’s compulsive habits lead her to drink. And the consequences of her decisions suggest that there’s more of Kristina in her than she’d like to believe. Summer doesn’t know about Hunter, Autumn, or their two youngest brothers, Donald and David. To her, family is only abuse at the hands of her father’s girlfriends and a slew of foster parents. Doubt and loneliness overwhelm her, and she, too, teeters on the edge of her mother’s notorious legacy. As each searches for real love and true family, they find themselves pulled toward the one person who links them together—Kristina, Bree, mother, addict. But it is in each other, and in themselves, that they find the trust, the courage, the hope to break the cycle.

Told in three voices and punctuated by news articles chronicling the family’s story, FALLOUT is the stunning conclusion to the trilogy begun by CRANK and GLASS, and a testament to the harsh reality that addiction is never just one person’s problem.

My rating:  6 out of 10 stars
* Parent guidance recommended - language, sex, drug and alcohol abuse, serious issues

The other two books in this series:

First:

Second:

The Magnolia League, by Katie Crouch (2011)

You know what I hate?  Sweet tea.  Actually, I wouldn't call it tea; I'd say it's more of a syrup.  Ninety-eight percent sugar with a little water thrown in so you don't totally shrivel up and die in this torturous heat.

Shortly after her mom's sudden death, sixteen year-old Alex was forced to move from the only home she's known into her grandmother's mansion in Savannah, Georgia. 

The most terrible thing about her death was the weeks after. The mornings when, instead of waking up to my mom's horrendous, out-of-tune singing and the smell of cinnamon-spiced coffee, all I heard and felt was silence.

Alex grieves the loss of her mom and she hates the fact that she had to leave her home on a communal organic farm in California. 

Life in Savannah is completely different from life on Rain Catcher Farms.  She meets her Magnolia Sisters, Hayes and Madison.  Alex struggles to make sense of her new life. 

Alex's grandmother is the head of the Magnolia League, Savannah's long-standing debutante society.  Grandmother wants Alex to be presented at the Christmas Ball. 

Alex wonders how her mother, born in Savannah and raised in society that celebrates debutantes, ever made her way to California.  Her mom always wore a necklace with a stone, but she wasn't wearing it on the day she was killed.  Some of Savannah's important people have noticed Alex's necklace; some were upset that her mother wasn't wearing it the day she died. 

Alex meets Sam and Sina Buzzard and learns more about her mother, the Magnolia League, and hoodoo. 

"Have you heard of a Blue Root?"

I shake my head.

"It's a hex on someone to bring that person harm.  If a Blue root is on you, then you will die; the only question is how.  There's a Blue Root on the entire League.  That's the bargain they made:  They can be queens of Savannah, but only Savannah.  Your friends...If they leave Savannah, they die."

The Magnolia League is an exciting read!  I enjoyed learning about the history Savannah and hoodoo.  I look forward to the next book!

Rating:  10 out of 10 stars

* Language, sex, alcohol, marijuana, black magic

To check this book out at NOLS, click HERE!

The List, Siobhan Vivian (April 2012)

For as long as anyone can remember, the students of Mount Washington High have arrived at school on the last Monday in September to find a list naming the pretties and the ugliest girls in each grade.

This year will be no different.

There is a tradition at Mount Washington High.  On the Monday of Homecoming Week, 400 copies of a list, all embossed with the school's official stamp.  No one knows who the authors are or how the responsibilities are passed down.  There are three clear groups:  prettiest girls, ugliest girls, and everyone else.

The eight girls included in this year's list narrarate the novel.  The List is a powerful novel as you see the lives of 8 girls either implode or explode because of the list.

Rating: 9 out of 10 stars
* language, sexual situations, sexual references, bullying

This book is not at NOLS...yet!