NOTE: It isn’t imperative that you read THE ADORATION OF JENNA FOX before you read this book, but you might have a better understanding if you do.

Once upon a time, three friends, Jenna, Locke, and Kara, were in a terrible car crash. The accident left their bodies damaged beyond repair.  For Jenna, the 18 months spent in a coma was miserable. Something she wouldn’t wish on anyone – especially not her best friends. When Matthew Fox, Jenna’s father and a brilliant scientist, discovered a way to save Jenna, it released her from the dark prison of her mind. Too bad Locke and Kara were left behind.

260 years later, Locke and Kara finally get their lives back. Living a privileged life on a giant estate, they have their every need taken care of, the finest clothes, the finest food, the best of everything.  The only thing they don’t have is their freedom.  When Kara convinces Locke the importance of escaping they end up in a world they know nothing about.  Their families are dead, their homes are gone, nothing is as it used to be. They have nothing and no one to help them – except Jenna.

The long overdue reunion between friends might not turn out like Locke hopes it will.  While he has constantly thought of Jenna with love and affection, Kara hasn’t.  Kara has formed some deep feelings of rage and betrayal over being left in the digital limbo for 260 years.  When Locke and Kara are separated while on the run from the scientist that brought them to “life,” he fears the worst and is determined to reach Jenna first so he can attempt to calm Kara before she does something terrible.

THE FOX INHERITANCE is a wonderful sequel to THE ADORATION OF JENNA FOX.  I was lucky enough to listen to it on audio (thanks to Macmillan Audio) and enjoyed every minute of it. The narrator, Matthew Brown, does a great job of expressing Locke’s feelings throughout the story. Poor Locke.  He is totally in love with both Jenna and Kara. At times he can seem very weak as he himself talks about how he followed them around like a puppy before the accident. I love that Mary E. Pearson told this part of the story through Locke’s eyes.  Watching him grow and change from beginning to end was great. The final chapters of the books are very emotional and intense. I had tears in my eyes at the end (which can be dangerous when driving the car). THE FOX INHERITANCE is a story of friendship and sometimes friendship is the thing that gives you the strength to keep going.

NOTE: It is important to read THE LINE before jumping into this book. Click HERE for the link to my review from January 2010. 

Rachel is in the Away. Years of reading about it on the net books didn’t prepare her for the actual experience. The thing that occupies most of her thoughts is her father. Pathik knows him, but won’t tell her anything about him. She feels hopeful, but worried at the same time. When they finally reach the camp, most aren’t thrilled to see her.  As a Reg, she isn’t welcome since she is a reminder of what the government did to them when they activated The Line. The Others have been forced to live for generations in the wilds of Away by primitive means. Rachel is amazed. It is hard for her to imagine life without electricity and modern conveniences like running water and medicine.

After delivering the antibiotics to the people looking after Malgam (Pathik’s father), Rachel tries to remain patient for news of her father. Finally, after Malgam is out of the woods, Indigo explains what happened. They suspect Daniel has been taken prisoner by another group of people called The Roberts. The Roberts are a violent and vile group that split away from them when the children in the camp started developing “gifts.”  It will take careful planning to rescue Daniel, but Indigo promises to do everything he can to get him back.

In addition to the stress of living away from home with a group of people she’s long feared, Rachel is also coming to terms with her feelings for Pathik. She is forced to alter her lifestyle without having time to prepare. She worries about her mother, Ms. Moore, and Jonathan who are still on The Property. Have Enforcement Officers come for them yet? Will they be safe now that she “ran away?” Will she ever see her mother again?

Teri Hall has written a satisfying sequel to a great dystopian series. I couldn’t rate it a 5 Glasses for several reasons though.  We needed more of the dystopian/government control part of the story. There are only a couple of instances where we see government officials at all. While I enjoyed reading about  Away I still felt like I needed to know what was happening in the Unified States on the other side of The Line.  Also, I think the very end of the book was great.  It really leaves the reader ready for the next installment of the series, but the part leading up to the end I was where I was a little disappointed.  I think Teri Hall could have done something different and still ended up where she wanted.

All that said, I couldn’t put the book down.  I loved it and can’t wait for the third.  Of course, I’ll probably have to wait over a year for it like I did AWAY.  Grrrr.

Brewster “Bruiser” Rawlins is a loner.  He was voted “Most Likely to Go to Jail” and isn’t someone people take the time to get to know.  Tennyson, a well-liked, popular guy is just like everyone else and doesn’t really give Bruiser much thought – until his sister, Bronte, starts dating him.  Bronte has always had a soft spot for strays and Tennyson is convinces that Bruiser is her latest cause.

Bronte “sees” something in Bruiser that other people don’t.  He has a soft side that he doesn’t show.  He enjoys reading and writing poetry and most of all, he loves his younger brother, Cody, and puts him first whenever is possible.

Because of the relationship with Bronte, Tennyson begins to get to know Brew a little better and he starts to notice something strange whenever he is around him. Tennyson feels better whenever Brew is around – his heart even feels lighter and when he plays his best game of Lacrosse ever and notices Brew in the stands watching, he starts to put two and two together.  Brew is special.

When Tennyson starts to explore Brew’s abilities, everything changes. Brew gains friendship, Tennyson and Bronte become closer again, their parents marital problems seem to improve, everything is great. Until……

Neal Shusterman has written an engrossing story of friendship and love seasoned with a hint of supernatural. Through multiple points of view, the reader gets to know each character of the story and there is no problem forming emotional attachments to them. Neal Shusterman shows off his ability to write to an emotion other than fear.

Lochan and Maya are a great team.  They share in the responsibilities around the house to where cooking, cleaning, and caring for their younger siblings is like a well-oiled machine. They have their routine.  They support each other. As long as they can keep their mother’s attention long enough to get money from her to pay the bills, usually they are okay.

One wonders if things would have turned out differently for Lochan and Maya if they’d had a proper mother.  One that didn’t force them to act as parents to the three younger children. One that, if she had done her job, would have given Lochan and Maya time to be “normal” kids – go out with friends, meet new people, participate in school activities.

But, that isn’t their reality. Lochan’s and Maya’s lives are much more complicated than the typical teen’s.  They have fallen in love and can’t tell anyone about it – because they have fallen in love with each other. As their feelings solidify, Lochan and Maya grow more desperate to spend time together, but at the same time, feel terror that someone will find out. They know it is wrong.  They know it is illegal.  They know it would tear their family apart if their affair were revealed. They know something else, too.  They know they can’t stop.

FORBIDDEN is intense. When finished, the reader will be emotionally drained.  It is the kind of book that sticks with you for a while.  The kind you find yourself thinking about at random times.

Not to compare it with FLOWERS IN THE ATTIC by V.C. Andrews, but…..if you had to stretch it you could definitely say that this is similar in the sense that the brother and sister fall in love.  FORBIDDEN just actually has meat – story – quality.

LIBRARIAN NOTE: I’m curious to see how many high schools have this in their collection.  The two I’m close to don’t.  Granted, it just came out over the summer so maybe book orders haven’t had a chance to come in yet. If you are a librarian, sound off on the topic.  Does your school have it? Is it on order?

In this dystopian world life is hard – especially for young women. Unknown complications with genetic engineering has left the offspring of one generation, and consequently, all future generations with one major problem – a drastically reduced life span. Men die at twenty-five and women at twenty. Death isn’t easy either. The person suffers from symptoms like coughing and vomiting blood.

Young girls are at risk in this dark and dangerous world. They are abducted and taken to be sold to brothels or sometimes to wealthy men in need of heirs. Polygamy has become commonplace and it is uncommon to find a wealthy man with less than three wives.

Rhine is in this exact position. Thrown into the back of a dark truck, she is driven far away from home only to be pulled out and forced to stand in a line up. Her and two other girls are chosen – for what she doesn’t know. She considers herself lucky after hearing the gun shots ring out from the truck where the girls not chosen were taken.

Rhine and the other two girls are taken to a wealthy estate and forced to become brides. Rhine fluctuates between being disgusted at the life she is forced to live and grateful that she has a kind husband and all the comforts a woman could want. What keeps Rhine determined to find a way out though is her brother. She has a twin and he is all alone – forced to survive on his own.

Rhine must decide whether it is better to live a life of luxury even though she is forced to live as a prisoner so she can’t escape or if she’d rather live and die on her own terms away from the mansion.

DeStefano has created an interesting world. I enjoyed WITHER, but I wanted it to be better. For a dark dystopian world, we didn’t get to see much of it. The beginning when Rhine was in the line up and a few of her flashbacks to being at home with her brother barely scraping by is all we see. Basically the entire novel takes place in the mansion where she lives with her new husband and two sister wives – Oh, and her CREEPY father-in-law (one of the genetically engineered generation that started the life span problem to begin with).

As a friend said to me, it reminded her of a mix between THE CHOSEN ONE by Carol Lynch Williams and THE COMPOUND by S.A. Bodeen. I completely agree with this comparison.

NOTE: You will want to read BIRTHMARKED, the first book in this series, to be sure you get the full effect of this story.

PRIZED picks up right where BIRTHMARKED left off.  Gaia, lost and alone in the wasteland, is trying to save her sister from the people of Wharfton, but she has gone as far as she can.  Weak from lack of food and completely out of baby formula, Gaia resolves herself to the idea of death.  Luckily, Peter, an outrider from a near by village called Sylum, finds her and carries her to safety.

Sylum is a community ruled by women. In fact, Gaia’s own grandmother used to be the Matrarc until she died. Gaia’s relief of being rescued is soon replaced with horror when she realizes her sister has been taken from her and given to a childless couple to raise. She will not be allowed to see her until she proves she will live by Sylum’s rules of conduct. She can adhere to the strict rules or leave – but she must choose fast, because within a couple of days of entering Sylum, people come down with acclimation sickness – after you live through that,  leaving Sylum will kill you.

Gaia attempts to live by the rules, but when those rules contradict her personal beliefs, she is forced to decide if she can quietly stand by and watch the community be strangled to death by the Matrarc or if she will attempt to make changes, thus risking her life. Gaia deals with ethically dilemmas and issues of the heart. Her attraction to Peter, the young man who saved her, battles her growing feelings for his brother, Will.  When Leon from the Enclave shows up in Sylum, her feelings are in total chaos.

O’Brien gives the reader a lot of information and advancement to Gaia’s story in PRIZED. In my opinion, this book was just as good as the first one in the trilogy. I can’t wait to read PROMISED (the final book in the trilogy), which the author is currently revising.

Every day Tom trains Benny, Nix, Lilah, and Chong. He prepares them to fight the Zoms they are sure to encounter on their long trek across the dangerous country. Everyone has different feeling about leaving home. Benny isn’t sure he wants to leave FOREVER, but is willing to in order to be with Nix. Nix, who has nothing left is desperate to leave behind all the bad memories. Lilah just wants to feel freedom and live outside the fences again. Tom decides he has to leave since his countless pleas to the town leader’s to build up defenses have fallen on deaf ears. Chong, without the permission of his parents, is staying behind.

Tom plans an overnight trip to help the kids practice living beyond the fences. Chong is given permission to accompany his friends for this short adventure which gives him more time to spend with Lilah.

The overnight outing doesn’t go as planned and the kids are separated from each other and Tom. Evidence points to the possibility that Gameland is up and running again and even worse, could Charlie Pink Eye still be alive?

DUST & DECAY is filled with danger and excitement, love and hatred. It keeps the reader engaged from the first page. The horrors the characters live through is heartbreaking. This is a zombie book that will bring you to tears.

Rose is awakened with a kiss.  Sounds nice, right?  Well, not for Rose since she’s been asleep in her stasis tube for 62 years.

Rose awakens to find her world changed, her best friend and parents dead, and wild publicity swirling around her.  Rose is the daughter of two very wealthy parents and now is set to inherit their intergalactic empire.

The story is told in two ways.  First, we see how Rose interacts with her new surroundings and attempts to make new friends and second, in flashbacks of her life before she went into her stasis tube for the final time.

I enjoyed the flashbacks and seeing how her romance (as strange as it is) with Xavier developed.  My heart broke for them when they had to be apart when her parents placed her in stasis – sometimes for months at a time.

The author does a great job revealing plot points for maximum effect. Especially when it comes to the part in the story about an assassin trying to kill her. Who could want her dead?

The drawbacks included Rose’s behavior, at times bordering on childish and irritating – even though she has a reason to act the way she does, it still got on my nerves.

Another drawback was the fact this story is supposed to be SciFi.  There isn’t much SciFi expect talk of life and travel on other planets and a few new gadgets.  Not much else shows that life has changed from today.

All in all, this is a good read.  I stayed up all night in order to finish, which I rarely do. 

A final thought:  Some people aren’t fit to be parent.  Never has there been a truer statement than in Rose’s case.

Love is a disease. If you get it you’ll suffer from loss of appetite, feelings of euphoria, and become easily distracted. Once Love (amor deliria nervosa) gets a hold of you, there is no hope. You can’t be cured after the fact. Luckily, the government has developed a procedure to protect the citizens from this terrible disease, but you have to be 18-years-old to get it. For Lena, her eighteenth birthday can’t arrive soon enough. She wants to be safe and doesn’t want to be driven crazy by the disease like her mother was.

Everything is going as planned for Lena. She has been evaluated and expects to be given permission to attend school and then get married to her assigned partner once her schooling is completed. She looks forward to living a life without the bothersome dreams (nightmares) she suffers from most every night. Dreams of her mother jumping from a cliff to her death. She looks forward to living the life of a responsible citizen. Everything is going as planned – until she meets Alex – a boy who turns her life upside down.

As Lena learns more about what life can be like without the governmental control she is used to, she begins to have second thoughts about the cure she is scheduled to have. She becomes increasingly bold as she experiences some of the life “underground” and soon has to decide just how much she is willing to risk.

DELIRIUM is phenomenal. I was sucked in immediately and couldn’t turn the pages fast enough. The ending left me saying, “Oh My Gosh – that was awesome!” While the author could write a sequel, it is satisfying enough as a stand-alone.

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.