Amber needs a day to herself. She knows her parents and best friend are going to be worried sick thinking she is running away, but it can’t be helped. Too much has changed and she can’t stand the thought of putting on a happy face in front of everyone knowing what she has to do tomorrow.

In her attempt at solitude, Amber meets Cade who also seems to be looking for an escape.  They decide to spend one perfect day together – no pasts, no questions, no regrets. 

At first, knowing she wasn’t going to have to explain anything to Cade was a relief, but soon she realizes she wants to know more about him than they agreed to share. Some of his actions cause her to worry about him and she is torn between allowing him to  keep his privacy or convincing him to talk about his life.

Together, Amber and Cade work through their fears in order to face their coming challenges and end their perfect day by going their separate ways – for the time being.

THE DAY BEFORE is a quick read since it is written in verse. Amber’s secret is easy to figure out, but Cade’s is a mystery up until the end of the book. This book is okay, but I enjoyed her others much better. 

I HEART YOU, YOU HAUNT ME, FAR FROM YOU, CHASING BROOKLYN

In the same vein as Teach Me by R.A. Nelson and Boy Toy by Barry Lyga, Lurlene McDaniel writes PREY, the story of a fifteen-year-old boy who gets involved with his much older female teacher. This is a very short book told in alternating chapters by Ryan (the young man), Lori (the teacher), and Honey (Ryan’s best friend who has been nursing a major crush on him for years). 

Throughout the book the reader can see that Lori intends to start a relationship with Ryan from the first minute she meets him. She is manipulative and easily seduces Ryan. We can see that Lori suffers from deep scars caused by her father and is plagued by bouts of depression. She isn’t a likeable character because of her attitude towards men. She uses her body as a tool to get what she wants and doesn’t consider it a bad thing at all. 

Ryan is a typical teenager. He has a nice group of friends, plays video games, and keeps up with his school work. Once his relationship with Lori starts though, things change. He stops hanging out with Honey and his other friends and his school work begins to suffer. Most of the time he loves being with Lori, but sometimes misses his old life where there wasn’t anything to worry about except grades and getting a car. 

Honey is the first person to realize that Ryan isn’t acting like himself. She takes it upon herself to find out what is going on and her actions lead to some major fallout. 

My main problem with the book is the final chapter which takes place three years after the affair ends. I have a feeling the author was trying to illustrate how emotionally damaging it is for a young person to be in this type of relationship, but it came off weird. Things about Ryan’s personality that we were never introduced to in the book come out in the last couple of pages (things about his life even before his relationship with Lori). Whereas without this final information I liked Ryan, but after reading the final chapter, he seemed like a creep. I’m anxious to hear what other people think about this. Is it just me? Let me know in a comment. 

There is some strong language in the book, but the sex scenes aren’t very graphic. Still this isn’t a book for middle schoolers. Boy Toy and Teach Me are much better examples of this storyline.

When Neal’s best friend, Danny, is caught reading the latest release in The Adventures of Apathea Ravenchilde series he is sent to military school (the announcement at dinner that he is gay probably adds to that decision, too).  His mother doesn’t think that is enough though and decides to try and save all the people in Americus, Oklahoma from the “smut” being housed in the public library.

Neal gets a good look at both sides of the censorship issue when he becomes a page at the local library. There is gets to spend time doing what he loves – talking about books. Normally a very quiet guy, Neal is forced to take a stand in order to save the town from the overexcited censors.

I really wanted to like this book.  Censorship is very close to my heart seeing as I lived through a similar experience in 2009 with Ellen Hopkins. I don’t like how the graphic novel portrayed Oklahomans being as I am one myself. The mother leading the challenge and a lot of her underlings were totally over the top. I’m sure the author did that to get the point across, but it just seemed too much. Also, in a heated debate over the book at the very beginning of the story, Danny admits to his mother he is gay. This turns out to be a unnecessary plot element because we never hear of it again.  In fact, in the way the argument was written he could have just said that to get his mother even more riled up. Who knows.

This is a simplistic view of a book challenge, but might shed some light on the process for people who don’t know what goes on when someone disagrees with materials in a library collection. I, personally, would have liked to see the challenge set in a school library instead of the public sector.

Kevin Johnson got himself into trouble. He was caught in the middle of the night in a stolen car with a girl that had clearly been crying. When asked over and over what he was doing and why he stole the car and tried to kidnap the girl he can only shrug. Kevin doesn’t feel like he can explain – it isn’t his secret to tell.

Sergeant Brown is involved in the case when a thoughtful judge thinks there might be more to the story than meets the eye. In an attempt to stop Kevin from messing up  his life any more, Sergeant Brown is asked to mentor him and guide Kevin and his family through the particulars of the case.

At the same time, Kevin’s soccer team is headed into the most important soccer games of the season; the games that will hopefully lead them to the state championship.

In alternating points of view, a story of friendship and self awareness unfolds. Kevin changes quite a bit through the story and gains some maturity that will definitely help him become a good student, friend, and maybe even policeman (someday in the future).

I have a few issues with the story. Kevin seems like a GREAT kid and evidence in the book supports that, but he is constantly portrayed as being one step away from a major life of crime.  Also, the final story of why he and his friend were in the stolen car is not nearly as bad as it should be. There really isn’t any reason Kevin shouldn’t have just told the truth right away.  The trouble the girl was in just wasn’t bad enough to warrant the brouhaha that followed.  Finally, I have to say that soccer was too much a part of this story. It was more soccer than anything else.  Apparently Kevin had a bad temper and it got him in trouble on the soccer field sometimes.  It seemed like the authors were trying to make it sound like his temper got him in trouble off of the field too, but there wasn’t any evidence of that in the story. NOW, if his temper would have led him to the crimes he was being charged with and he had to overcome his feelings of rage on the soccer field in order to learn how to handle them in real life, it would have made a more believable story and one more expected from Walter Dean Myers.

The origin of this story is amazing.  Ross Workman emailed a fan letter to Walter Dean Myers explaining why he liked his books. Walter Dean Myers responded to the email with a proposal. He asked Ross to co-author a book with him. They would write the story in alternating chapters – Myers starting out with the first 10 pages and then Workman supplying the next 10 pages.  Workman was 13-years-old when he started KICK with Myers. WOW! So cool!

WICKED IS GOOD. That is so hard for Thomas to believe – even though Teresa told him it’s true. 

THE DEATH CURE starts where THE SCORCH TRIALS left off. Thomas is in the custody of WICKED.  He is alone in an isolated room without any personal contact that it makes it hard to remember how long he’s been there.  He doesn’t know if the other Gladers are there too or if he is truly alone.

Eventually, Thomas is reunited with his friends and they are presented with the next task WICKED expects them to help with in the hopes of finding a cure for The Flare.  There is dissension in the group.  Some accept what WICKED offers while others refuse to trust the organization.

Soon Thomas and his friends find themselves in Denver where The Right Arm, a rebel group intent on bringing WICKED down, is headquartered. There they find that the world is in even worse shape than they ever could have imagined. When WICKED gets word to Thomas telling him he is the only hope for the cure, he has to struggle to decide whether he is going to voluntarily go back or not. As always, he doesn’t know who to trust or what WICKED is really planning to do.

I loved THE MAZE RUNNER (5 Glasses) and liked THE SCORCH TRIALS (4 Glasses). So, why did I give THE DEATH CURE 3 Glasses? Here are some of the reasons (SPOILERISH):

• After 3 books, we still don’t know what Thomas knows.
• The author didn’t do enough to make us care for the characters. I was kind of sick of Thomas by the end of the book and most importantly, when some major characters die – it isn’t a big deal.
• We lose track of some of the important characters from the first two books.
• The ending is not satisfying at all.
• It could just be me, but it wasn’t really clear what WICKED was looking for in the kids brain patterns while they were in the Maze and during the Trials.

So, what did everyone else think?  I saw on Goodreads that several people rated this a 5. It makes me so sad that this trilogy let me down. I frequently recommend THE MAZE RUNNER to people, but can’t suggest the other two unless they are out of other things to read or are just the kind of person who MUST finish a series or feel incomplete. :/

Reychel has always lived in the castle as the king’s slave, but even among all the other slaves she is treated differently. She is the only one granted brief audiences with the king and while others may whisper of the inappropriateness of the king meeting alone with a slave, it is really quite innocent.  The only thing he ever asks Reychel to do is to tell him stories. Reychel is always glad to oblige since it is the only time she is allowed to see outside.  Any other time she is forbidden to go outside or even look outside.  Everyone in the castle knows not to have windows or curtains open when she is around. Reychel has no idea why this strange rule applies to her.

On the eve of her fifteenth birthday, when the king is going to mark her as his property by burning his mark on the back of her neck, Ivy, her best friend, is kidnapped.  Now, forced to face her branding alone, Reychel accepts her fate and realizes she’ll be stuck in her lonely life forever.

The day of her branding proves to be life changing. Is Reychel up to the challenges she is going to face? Can she really save her people and the other slaves? What is so special about her?

ANATHEMA is a the first book in the Cloud Prophet trilogy. The story idea is great and exactly the kind of thing I love the read. There were a few problems though.  At times the dialogue didn’t ring true and between historical type speaking to current day speaking. Also, the romantic aspects of this story didn’t pull me in.  I didn’t feel it was authentic.  Those troubles aside, it is still worth the $2.99 Kindle price.

Imagine a world where water is virtually GONE. Drinkable water is controlled by the powerful. The everyday people are left dry and thirsty all the time. They are lucky to get the government-issued desalinated water. This is water that comes from the ocean but is run through a purification process to remove the minerals and has chemicals added to make it possible for people to drink it. Vera, the main character, describes it as “slippery on the tongue with a tangy aftertaste – like licking a burnt match.”

Wasting water is illegal. If you use more than your allotment it is possible to go to jail. Everyone is thirsty. Everything is dying without water – including people.

Vera can’t even imagine how her life will change when she meets a new boy named Kai. He is surrounded by mystery – he doesn’t go to school, he has armed guards, and most shocking of all, he always has plenty of water to drink. As she and Will get to know Kai better, they learn some of his secrets. And then he’s gone. Disappeared. Taken.

Vera and Will set off to find Kai – determined to bring him back no matter what it takes.

WATER WARS starts out great.  The idea of a world without water is easy to imagine and the author really paints a clear picture of what life is like for these people dying a little more each day from dehydration. The problems started when Vera and Will leave home to find Kai. The situations they find themselves in had me rolling my eyes and saying you have got to be kidding. I understand the need for adventure, but for some reason this one didn’t do it for me. It was like, how many death defying situations can these kids get out of? Are they indestructible? In the world of dystopian, post-apocalyptic young adult literture, this is one to read only after you’ve already read the great ones.

The World From WATER WARS

Amelia is a lost and wandering spirit.  She’s lost track of the years she has spent hanging around the scene of her death. Amelia relives her drowning over and over in strange nightmare-like flashbacks that send her into unconsciousness.  She always wakes up in a cemetery. Assuming it is where she is buried, she runs away without looking at any of the headstones for fear of learning about herself.

Amelia has lost all memory of her life before she drowned.  She doesn’t know when she died, how she died, or who she was.

The hardest part about being dead is her lack of sensation. She can’t feel anything until she saves the life of a boy who almost drowns in the same river she did.

Joshua can see Amelia.  He can touch her.  Of course, there is an instant connection.

As Amelia and Joshua learn about each other they fall deeper and deeper in love.  But, a romance between a living boy and a dead girl is bound to have complications.  In their case, they are forced to contend with an evil ghost who wants to claim Amelia for the dark side and a group of seers who are determined to exorcise Amelia to prevent her from walking in the living world.

HEREAFTER is the first in a series and it is easy to see where the story will go next.

Amelia and Joshua are likable characters, but they are forced to carry the entire story.  The side characters aren’t well developed.  It was unclear as to the reason Amelia ended up in the HEREAFTER to begin with.  Why didn’t she just go to heaven when she died? Does everyone go to the HEREAFTER and then have to choose their path? Is it just because she died in the river? I don’t know. These kinds of questions were the ones floating around in my head while I read the story. I needed more world development.

Overall, the love story is nice.  Joshua and Amelia make a cute couple, but those looking for a creepy ghost story won’t find it here.  This one leans heavily on the romance.

DROUGHT is about a girl named Ruby who lives as a slave with her mother and the other followers of Otto. She is approximately 200-years-old as are the others in her group.  The water they drink gives them extended life. They are enslaved by Darwin West, an evil, greedy man who is in love with Ruby’s mother and furious she doesn’t feel the same. He has enslaved the Congregants since the early-nineteenth century and are forced to live as they did back then even though he himself enjoys modern day conveniences.

Darwin West and his cruel Overseers force the Congregants to go into the woods and gather water everyday.  The problem is they are in a drought like no one has ever seen.  They haven’t seen rain in YEARS. The Congregants are forced to scrape dew off of leaves in order to get the water they need. Darwin’s quotas are unrealistic and whoever doesn’t gather their share is beaten with chains in front of the group. Ruby’s mother takes everyone’s beatings for them since she knows Ruby’s secret. It is Ruby that gives the water the power of extending life. Only the Elders of the group know the secret. A drop or two of her blood mixed into the water is all it takes.  It is Ruby that heals her mother’s broken body every night by mixing some of her blood in the water they wash over her mother’s skin.

Ruby is desperate to leave – to fight back against Darwin and the Overseers, but it isn’t the way she has been taught. When she meets a new Overseers named Ford escape becomes even more tempting. She could leave with him so easily and finally be in the modern world, but can she leave the ones she loves behind and doom them all to death at the same time?

DROUGHT was okay. I love CANDOR by Bachorz and really hoped for the same edge-of-your-seat conflict, but I just didn’t get that from this book. I almost had to force myself to finish it.

In SISTERS RED Jackson Pearce put a new twist on the story of the Little Red Riding Hood. This time she is taking on Hansel and Gretel. I was extremely excited when I saw this ARC at a booth at the NCTE Conference and quickly grabbed it up when I got the chance. Now, I will start out by saying that SISTERS RED is my favorite book from 2010 so SWEETLY had a lot to live up to.

Gretchen and Ansel are on their own. Kicked out of their house by their stepmother after the death of their father has left them homeless, alone, and penniless. They travel as far as they can until their car breaks down in a small town called Live Oak in South Carolina. With no way to pay for the repairs to their car, they are left with little choice but to take what work they can fine. Ansel finds work as a handyman for the local chocolatier, a girl named Sophia. They soon find out that people don’t like Sophia and consider her to be a danger to the community.

Every year Sophia has a Chocolate Festival. Young girls in the community hope for an invitation, but only the “right” girls get one. The community suspects Sophia of evil doings because every year after the festival a couple of girls disappear – never to be heard from again. As Gretchen gets to know Sophia while she helps her make candy she learns some things that make her wonder what is really going on in Sophia’s life and with the missing girls.

When Gretchen meets Samuel things start to fall in place. She begins to take action and gain control of her life. Will she be able to save herself and the girls of Live Oak from the monsters in the woods?

SWEETLY didn’t grab me like SISTERS RED. While set in the same world as the first book, this one didn’t feel as intense. I didn’t fall in love with any of the characters like I did with Scarlet, Rosie, and Silas. I’ll eagerly read the next one Pearce writes, but hope it is better than this one.