(Image from Barnes & Noble)

I'm used to people asking me what I'm reading.  Happens all the time.  But, I can honestly say that I've never gotten that question from a young boy (one I didn't birth, anyway).  I had to chuckle when I saw this kid sneaking covert glances at the cover of my book—A Mutiny in Time by James Dashner.  When I showed it to him, he gasped.  "Is that like, a new 39 Clues book?"  he asked.  I told him the Infinity Ring series was like 39 Clues, but not the same.  To which the skeptical youth replied, "It really looks like a 39 Clues book."  I proceeded to give him a point-by-point compare/contrast lecture on the differences and similarities between the two series (I didn't, really).  Maybe I should have though, because I could tell the kid remained unconvinced.  He really believed I was holding out on him.  The encounter made me smile, not just because of the boy's hardheaded refusal to accept the fact that Scholastic might really be publishing a new 39 Clues-ish series, but because I could see the naked book hunger in his eyes.  If I had been closer to finishing A Mutiny in Time, I swear I would have handed it over to the kid, just because I love putting shiny new stories into the hands of eager readers.

If you, like this boy, doubt my book smarts, let me tell you for sure and certain—the Infinity Ring series is not a 39 Clues spin-off.  It's a brand new adventure series.  Yes, the books are the same size and shape as the 39 Clues ones and yes, each volume will be written by a different children's author.  Like 39 Clues, the Infinity Ring also has an online game that lets you interact with the story even more.  I'm sure there are even more similarities, but since I haven't actually read any of the 39 Clues books (Shhh—don't tell the kid), I don't know what they might be.  

How about this—I'll give you a little plot summary and you can decide for yourself:

Junior high school students Dak Smyth and Sera Froste are best friends and fellow geniuses.  One day, they decide to sneak into the lab of Dak's scientist parents.  There, they discover the Infinity Ring, a gadget that seems to be designed to catapult a person backward and forward in time.  Theoretically, anyway.  The device doesn't actually work.  That is, until Sera gets hold of it.  With her super brain, she manages to make the gizmo work, a feat which astonishes the adult Smyths.  Not to mention freaks them out, because now that the invention is functioning, it's bound to bring them all kinds of unwanted attention.  Which is exactly what happens.  Several different organizations want the Infinity Ring so badly that they're willing to do almost anything to get it.  In order to save Dak's parents, who are now lost somewhere in time, Dak and Sera agree to help the Hystorians, an ancient group whose members are tasked with fixing moments in history that have gone awry.  Mending these little errors turns out to be no small job.  Are Dak and Sera up to the challenge?  Or will the Smyths be lost in time forever?

Although there's nothing especially original about A Mutiny in Time, it's still a fun, fast-moving adventure that's going to keep young readers entertained while teaching them a little history at the same time.  I would have liked better developed characters, snappier dialogue and some surprising twists and turns, but, yeah, I guess I'll have to wait for the next few books in the series to get that.  Overall, I'm not blown away by the series start.  It's got potential, though, so we'll see where it goes ...

(Readalikes:  Reminds me of other time travel series for kids, like The Magic Treehouse books by Mary Pope Osborne [although the Infinity Ring series is geared toward a little bit older readers])

Grade:  C+

If this were a movie, it would be rated:  PG for scenes of peril

To the FTC, with love:  I received an ARC of A Mutiny in Time as well as a finished copy (which I donated to the library at my children's elementary school) thanks to the very generous folks at Scholastic.  Thank you!  

(Image from Barnes & Noble)

When Alison Kraft's 9-year-old son chooses a fishing expedition for his special birthday trip, she's less than thrilled.  The third grade teacher would prefer almost anything to hanging out in a rustic lodge on a remote island in the middle of Lake Superior.  Knowing how important the trip is to Jimmy, Alison decides to take one for the team.  When she sees just how primitive the accommodations really are, Alison's ready to bolt.  Even if she wanted to leave, though, she couldn't.  The last boat off the island has gone and a storm is already setting in.  Like it or not, Alison's there to stay.

Meanwhile, a quartet of violent criminals is stranded on the choppy water in a malfunctioning boat.  When they spot the fishing lodge, they see a place to wait out the storm and maybe find themselves a new mode of transportation.  The fact that the lodge is filled with fishermen/women is of no real consequence—collateral damage can't always be avoided.

Seasick and miserable, Alison's locked in the bathroom when the criminals storm the lodge.  With everyone else tied up, it's up to her to stop the ex cons from killing everyone in sight.  But how is a school teacher with no survival skills supposed to do that on a remote island in the middle of a storm?  And, even if she can defeat them, will she ever be rid of them?  Or the terrible memories from a family fishing trip turned deadly?

The weird thing about Primal, a debut thriller by D.A. (Deborah) Serra, is that the story ends almost before it begins.  While it's fairly riveting while it's happening, all the big, life/death action happens in the first third of the book.  By about Chapter Seventeen, I figured Primal must be a novella because the story was basically over.  I was wrong.  It is, in fact, a full-length novel.  However, since the story reaches its climax around Page 100, the last 160 pages of the book get very dull and very predictable.  Some plot rearrangement would have made this a much better novel because, really, it has pretty good bones.  A good editor could have reworked the whole thing into a decent thriller.  As is?  Meh.  The first 100 pages kept me entertained, but the rest just seemed to drag on and on and on.  Serra needed to build the story up better, make me care more about the characters, move the climax to the end of the book, and then keep the intensity up throughout the entire story because that is how you craft a can't-put-it-down thriller.  

(Readalikes:  Hm, I can't think of anything.  Can you?)

Grade:  C-

If this were a movie, it would be rated:  R for language, violence and sexual innuendo

To the FTC, with love:  I received an e-copy of Primal from the author via the good folks at Premiere Virtual Author Book Tours.  Thank you!

(Image from Barnes & Noble)

Cancer books aren't supposed to be funny or quirky or romantic.  They're supposed to be sad, sentimental tearjerkers, right?  Not according to John Green.  The enormously popular YA author's newest, The Fault in Our Stars, deals not just with the Big C, but with kids afflicted by the disease.  Nothing says sad and sentimental quite like that combo.  Except, in Green's hands, it's somehow not.  Instead, it's a bright, swoon-y novel filled with love, life and laughter.  Which doesn't mean you shouldn't have a tissue handy.  You should, because The Fault in Our Stars can also be brutal in all its raw tenderness. 

The story goes a little something like this:  Hazel Lancaster, a 17-year-old suffering from Stage IV thyroid cancer, has given up on trying to live any kind of normal life.  She knows how to face the facts.  It's just something you learn as a kid with terminal cancer.  Hazel's not normal, so why pretend?  Lugging her oxygen tank around the mall while being stared at by curious onlookers really isn't worth the trouble.  She'd rather hang out at home and watch t.v. with her mom or re-read her favorite book.  Really, she would.  

Sick of watching her daughter waste away what's left of her life, Hazel's mother pushes Hazel to join a weekly support group for kids with cancer.  The meetings are totally depressing, of course, not exactly the fun-filled social activities Hazel's mom envisioned.  That is, until one of the group members brings a friend to the meeting.  Augustus Waters, a 17-year-old with osteosarcoma, catches Hazel's eye right away.  Not only is he great looking, smart and funny, but he gets Hazel in a way that no one else does.  It doesn't take long for the two to become inseparable.  But, a love story between two cancer kids can never be simple.  Theirs isn't.  What it is is a beautiful adventure, one that can't be fully described, only experienced.

Toward the end of the book, Hazel says, "You have a choice in this world, I believe, about how to tell sad stories, and we made the funny choice" (209).  I couldn't have described The Fault in Our Stars any better than that.  The book is humorous, it's honest, it's heartwarming, it's heartbreaking.  It's gorgeous.  I adored it.  Amen.   

(Readalikes:  Reminded me a little of After Ever After by Jordan Sonnenblick)

Grade:  A-

If this were a movie, it would be rated:  PG-13 for language (1 F-bomb, plus milder invectives), sexual innuendo and mild sexual content

To the FTC, with love:  Another library fine find

(Image from Barnes & Noble)

If 16-year-old Loann Rochester could have any wish, it would be this—to trade lives with her older sister.  Why?  Because Claire is everything Loann's not.  She's tall, thin, beautiful, smart and popular.  To walk in her shoes, even for a day, would be to know total perfection, absolute happiness.  If only.  Since wishes never come true outside of fairy tales, Loann's stuck with her own life as a short, plump, red-haired nobody. She might as well be invisible.  With Claire around, no one will ever notice Loann.

Except someone is noticing.  Unless Loann's completely delusional (which is entirely possible), gorgeous Josh Garrison is noticing. Which would be incredible, if he wasn't Claire's boyfriend.  And that's another thing—what's up with Claire?  She's acting distant and secretive, even from Josh and her other friends.  Loann's already got her own friend drama as well as some boy drama and even some drama drama to deal with, she's not sure she can handle sister drama, too.  But as Loann makes a disturbing discovery about where Claire's all-consuming quest for perfection has led her, she realizes that Claire's in serious trouble.  Life or death trouble.  And Claire seems hell-bent on choosing the latter.  As Loann tries to save her sister, she'll have to come to terms with her own limitations and rely on an inner strength she never knew she had.

Never Enough, a sophomore novel by contemporary YA author Denise Jaden, is pretty much what you'd expect from a teen issue novel.  It tells a story that's affecting and believable, even if it's one you've heard a million times before.  While I didn't find either Loann or Claire to be particularly memorable as characters, I definitely felt the strength of their bond as sisters.  Since that relationship formed the heart of the book, everything else in the novel felt authentic to me.  Still, Never Enough didn't have enough originality to really wow me.  Overall, I thought it was just okay, one of those didn't-love-it-didn't-hate-it kind of reads.         

(Readalikes:  Reminded me of Saving Ruth by Zoe Fishman and Purge by Sarah Darer Littman)

Grade:  B-

If this were a movie, it would be rated:  PG-13 for language (no F-bombs), sexual content and violence

To the FTC, with love:  I received an ARC of Never Enough from the generous Denise Jaden.  Thank you!   

(Image from the official website of Michelle Gagnon)

Waking up in a strange place with no recollection of how you got there is never a good thing.  Especially when you find yourself restrained on a hospital bed in a place that's obviously not a hospital.  When Noa Torson, a 16-year-old runaway, surfaces in just such a situation, she's shocked, confused and very angry.  She remembers nothing about being captured, but she's a hostage, which means someone has been taking advantage of her.  For what purpose, she doesn't know.  All she does know is that she has to get away from them.  Now.

After she escapes from the "hospital," Noa prays the organ snatchers—or whatever they are—will leave her alone.  No such luck.  Goons trail her wherever she goes.  As Noa sneaks around Boston, trying to evade her trackers, she searches her dark memory for clues as to what happened to her.  Whatever the "doctors" did, it must have been something big.  The men aren't giving up the search for her.  Plus, Noa feels ... different inside.  

Strange things are also happening to Peter Gregory, a 17-year-old computer "hacktivist."  To find the answers to his questions, he teams up with the best hacker in Boston—Noa.  Together, they set about solving the weird mystery of which they both seem to be a part.  With a powerful enemy only one step behind them, Noa and Peter need to figure out what's going on before they both end up in the "hospital" or worse—dead.

Don't Turn Around, the first YA thriller by adult crime writer Michelle Gagnon, starts off with a bang (not a literal one, but still ...).  The cat-and-mouse adventure keeps up a frantic pace until about the middle of the novel, when it starts to drag.  Part of the problem is the plot itself—it's not just unrealistic, it's unoriginal, a combo that also makes it predictable and boring.  Add to that a hero and heroine who aren't particularly likable or even rounded-out enough to feel real.  Given all that, I found this book disappointing.  I may be the only one, since it gets good reviews on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, etc.  For me, though?  Meh.     

(Readalikes:  Kirkus called Don't Turn Around "Girl With the Dragon Tattoo for preteens and teens."  As I haven't read Stieg Larsson's book yet, I don't know if this is an apt description or not.  What do you think?)

Grade:  C-

If this were a movie, it would be rated:  PG-13 for language (1 F-bomb, plus milder invectives), violence and depictions of underage drinking

To the FTC, with love:  I received an ARC of Don't Turn Around from the generous folks at HarperTeen.  Thank you! 

(Image from Barnes & Noble)

Things take a turn for the worse when Benny's teacher enters Dennis Acres in a contest for America's Most Charming Small Town.  With everyone in town putting the pressure on Benny's dad to clean up, Benny doesn't know what to expect—salvation or disaster?

Homesick (available September 18, 2012), a new middle grade novel by Kate Klise, is a quick, quirky story about a boy and his strangled relationship with his father.  Using the issue of compulsive hoarding as a backdrop, Klise weaves a tale that asks the reader to consider what's really important in life.  Young audiences likely won't care about the book's lesson, they'll simply be drawn to Benny with his authentic voice, his heart-tugging plight, and his cast of oddball friends.  The very contrived ending kind of soured me on the story, but, all in all, I enjoyed Homesick.   

(Readalikes:  Reminded me of Dirty Little Secrets by C.J. Omololu and Keepsake by Kristina Riggle)

Grade:  B-

If this were a movie, it would be rated:  PG for mild language (no F-bombs) and intense situations

To the FTC, with love:  I received an ARC of Homesick from the generous folks at Feiwel and Friends (an imprint of Macmillan).  Thank you!   

(Image from Barnes & Noble)

Ahhh, hype.  Usually, I ignore it altogether since, in my experience, most fussed-over books don't deserve all the attention that's being heaped on them.  Sometimes, though, I do give in.  And, sometimes, I'm even glad I did.  Take Gone Girl, a new psychological thriller by Gillian Flynn, for instance.  It sat on my Kindle for quite a long time before enough of my friends raved about it for me to say, "Alright, alright, I'll give the book a try."  A (very) short while later, I read the last screen, finally let out the breath I'd been holding since the first page (that's how it seemed, anyway) and said to myself, "Whoa, that was the freakiest, twistiest, turniest mind-screw I've ever experienced."  Seriously.  Well, okay, maybe I didn't actually say that out loud, but I definitely thought it. 

If you haven't read Gone Girl yet, don't despair, because I'm not going to give anything away.  I'm not even going to give you much of a plot summary, since I don't want you to go into the novel with any preconceived notions.  Here's the official jacket copy:

(Readalikes:  Reminded me a teensy bit of Before You Go to Sleep by S.J. Watson)

Grade:  B+

If this were a movie, it would be rated:  R for strong language, sexual content, and adult subject matter

To the FTC, with love:  I received an e-ARC of Gone Girl from the generous folks at The Crown Publishing Group via Netgalley.  Thank you!

(Image from Barnes & Noble)   

Although she lives inside a grand plantation house, Celeste longs for a real home. The tiny, timid mouse yearns for a place where she can nestle, safe from rat bullies and the threat of the housecat's claws.  A cage isn't exactly what she has in mind, but that's where she ends up after she's forced from her nest under the dining room floorboards.  Captivity, it turns out, isn't so bad.  Not when your captor is a nice boy like Joseph Mason.  Joseph's staying at the plantation while he and his teacher, John James Audubon, study the local wildlife.  Curled up inside Joseph's pocket, Celeste gets to experience things she never even imagined, things like the great outdoors, the perplexing behavior of humans, the excitement of flying like an osprey and, most of all, true friendship.  But when Joseph finishes his work in Louisiana and returns to Ohio, what will happen to Celeste?

Although I expected A Nest for Celeste by Henry Cole to be a sweet, simple tale, it actually delves into a fairly dark subject.  Not only does it discuss animal cruelty, but it paints a famous naturalist in a rather unflattering light (Audubon, according to Cole's Author's Note, killed almost all of the birds he painted so lovingly).  At its heart, though, the tale is exactly what it purports to be:  "A Story About Art, Inspiration, and the Meaning of Home."  Readers will sympathize with the book's kind heroine, although they may find that her story drags a bit.  Although A Nest for Celeste is a quick read with lots of illustrations, I yawned through a good portion of it.  I'm not sure how appealing this one will be for children, if even I found it a little dull.  Or maybe I'm full of prunes and they'll totally love it.  At any rate, I wasn't all that impressed.  

(Readalikes:  Um, I can't really think of anything.  Can you?)

Grade:  C+

If this were a movie, it would be rated:  PG for scenes of peril and scenes involving animal cruelty (not horribly graphic, but still might be disturbing for young children)

To the FTC, with love:  I borrowed A Nest for Celeste from the library at my kids' elementary school as part of my volunteer work with the school's reading program.   

(Image from Barnes & Noble)

Ruth Wasserman should be content with her life.  Not only has she finally managed to burn off the extra pounds that have plagued her for most of her 19 years, but she's also living on her own and working hard to earn a college degree.  Now that she's returned home to Alabama for the summer, she should have only one thing on her mind:  relaxation.  If only.  It's not her lifeguard/swim coach job that's got her worried (she could do it in her sleep) or seeing old friends (she looks better now than she ever has), it's the fact that she'll be living with her parents (loving, but overprotective) and her older brother, David (the charming, soccer-playing wonder child).  How can she keep her secret to staying slim, well ... secret?  

Turns out, Ruth's not the only one hiding something.  David's never been all that chatty anyway, but now he's downright standoffish.  He's not acting like himself.  The question is why?  What's he hiding?  Then, there are Ruth's parents, who are also acting strange.  What's up with them?  As Ruth tries to figure out what's going on with her family, deals with drama at the pool, and tries to keep her eating disorder under wraps, she finds the summer becoming a whole lot more complicated than she ever dreamed it could be.  When a near drowning happens while Ruth and David are on the job, it will force them to face truths they've been ignoring for too long—truths about themselves, their family, and the quaint little town in which they've grown up.  

(Readalikes:  Hm, I can't really think of anything.  Can you?)

Grade:  C

If this were a movie, it would be rated:  R for language, sexual content and depictions of underrage drinking and illegal drug use

To the FTC, with love:  I received a finished copy of Saving Ruth from the generous folks at William Morrow (an imprint of Harper Collins) and TLC Book Tours.  Thank you!    

(Image from Barnes & Noble)

(Image from Barnes & Noble)

Lula, a 26-year-old immigrant, is living the American dream.  At least, she thinks she is.  She's not sure.  All she knows is that her new life in the U.S. beats her old one in Albania any day.  In fact, Lula's got a lot to be grateful for: she lives in a wealthy New Jersey suburb; she earns money by looking after a 16-year-old boy who really doesn't need a babysitter; and thanks to her employer, the kind Mister Stanley, she's now legally able to stay in the country.  She really can't complain about it all, even if her new American life is a little bit dull.

That all changes when three Albanian men come knocking, asking Lula to do her "brothers" a dangerous favor.  Lula knows she shouldn't oblige them, but she's been waiting for a little excitement and here it is.  Plus, there's Alvo.  He's good-looking and seems as interested in Lula as she is in him.  So what if he runs with a sketchy crowd?  She wanted a thrill—now she's getting one.  But, as things get complicated not just with her new "brothers," but also with Mr. Stanley's family, Lula must decide where her loyalties really lie.  What does she owe her countrymen?  Her employer?  Herself?  Who is she and what does being an American really mean?  

The ho-hum plot summary above reflects my disappointment in Francine Prose's latest novel, My New American Life.  As you can probably tell, it's not big on plot.  Which wouldn't have been a huge problem if the author had managed to make me care about the characters in the story.  Didn't happen.  Why not?  Well, none of them are particularly likable, least of all our heroine.  Lula lies to the people who have been kindest to her, disregards all of her employer's rules, and selfishly puts an already hurting family in jeopardy to satisfy her own lustful urges.  Annoying.  The rest of the cast irritated me, as did the story itself, which just got duller and more depressing as it prattles onward.  Without an interesting plot or engaging characters, this book just kind of goes nowhere.  It's not that Prose doesn't write well—she does—it's just that I didn't connect with My New American Life at all.  If I hadn't promised to review it, I wouldn't have bothered to finish it.      

(Readalikes:  Hm, I can't really think of anything.  Can you?)

Grade:  C

If this were a movie, it would be rated:  R for strong language, depictions of underrage drinking and sexual content

To the FTC, with love:  I received a finished copy of My New American Life from the generous folks at Harper Collins and TLC Book Tours.  Thank you!  

(Image from Barnes & Noble)

Alex Halprin doesn't mind being left behind when his parents and younger sister go on vacation without him.  In fact, the 15-year-old is thrilled.  He's not planning any wild parties either; he just wants to enjoy a nice, quiet weekend without anyone bugging him.  It looks as if Alex is going to get exactly what he wants.  Then a supervolcano in Yellowstone National Park erupts, covering the Midwest and beyond in a thick, choking layer of ash.  Fires break out, looting begins, and people become frantic to find food, water, shelter, help.  As Alex watches his ordered world crumble into a brutal, post-apocalyptic wasteland, he forgets about video games and alone time—he just wants to survive.

After disaster strikes, Alex realizes he can't just sit around in small town Cedar Falls, Iowa, waiting for the world to go back to normal.  Normal no longer exists.  Alex decides to take action, to hike across 140 miles of ruined terrain in the hopes of reaching Warren, Illinois, the town for which his family was heading before the volcano blew.  What he doesn't realize is just how much the world has changed in such a short amount of time.  Alex thought the biggest challenge he would face on the road would be finding food, water and shelter.  Not so.  While those are certainly issues—vital, life-or-death issues—they're nothing compared to the monsters lurking around every corner.  Only they're not monsters.  Not exactly.  They're good, Midwestern folks turned hungry, desperate and dangerous by their increasingly hopeless situation.  Does a lone, teenage boy have any hope of surviving, let alone making it all the way to Illinois?  Alex is about to find out.

Like most YA dystopians, Ashfall by Mike Mullin paints a pretty bleak picture of humanity's hope of surviving a catastrophic ecological disaster.  It's not just lack of food and water that will destroy us, according to such stories, but our own selfish, savage selves.  In the world Mullin describes, it takes less than a month for humans to turn into wild, cannibalistic beasts.  While that may be far-fetched (let's hope), it does make for an exciting, action-packed story.  While Ashfall's not especially original or brilliant, it's definitely entertaining.  With a fast-paced plot, interesting enough characters and some food-for-thought situations, it's a decent YA dystopian. Not the best and not my favorite, but not bad either.        

(Readalikes: The Road by Cormac McCarthy; The Last Survivors series [Life As We Knew It; The Dead & the Gone; This World We Live In] by Susan Beth Pfeffer; and a little like the Gone series [Gone; Hunger; Lies; Plague; Fear] by Michael Grant) 

Grade:  B-

If this were a movie, it would be rated:  PG-13 for language (no F-bombs), violence and some sexual content (not graphic)

To the FTC, with love:  Another library fine find 

(Image from Barnes & Noble)

When Mia Hardy dies in a car accident, it almost destroys her college roommate, Fiona Claridge.  If it hadn't been for Fiona's impatience, the tragedy never would have happened.  Even now, 8 years later, she can't quite forgive herself for the part she played in her friend's death.  She's trying to move on, but it's difficult, maybe even impossible.  Fiona's busy with her job as an assistant English professor, the renovations on her 83-year-old fixer-upper, and ... not much else.  Still, she is moving forward.

Then, Fiona receives a sinister "gift" that tells her someone else can't forget the accident or her part in it.  She tries to laugh it off—it's probably just a ticked off student trying to get revenge for a poor grade—but when the threats continue, Fiona hardly knows what to do.  It doesn't help that travelling back to her hometown brings back memories of Mia and—even more disconcerting—of her old flame, Alan Taylor.  Alan's wife isn't thrilled to see her husband's old flame and neither are several other townspeople who still blame Fiona for Mia's death.    All the emotion stemming from these events leaves Fiona feeling weak, hopeless and scared.

As Fiona gets even more tangled with the people from her past, the threats against her get worse.  Are they really just pranks from an upset student or something much, much more dangerous?  Fiona must figure it out in order to save her sanity—and her life.

Rearview Mirror, an LDS murder mystery by Stephanie Black, just won a Whitney Award for best mystery written in 2011 by a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.  So, apparently, I missed something because, for me, this book just bugged.  It's predictable; full of big, gaping plot holes; and features a heroine who is not just depressing, but helpless and annoying.  The writing never engaged me, the characters annoyed me, the dialogue sounded unnaturally stiff—so yeah, Rearview Mirror didn't do much for me.  Other people found it enjoyable, though, so this could just be another case of me being way too picky.  It's been known to happen (okay, it happens all the time).  All I know is that if I hadn't been required to finish this one in order to vote for the Whitney Award winners, I wouldn't have.

(Readalikes:  Hm, I can't think of anything right off the top of my head.  Can you?)

Grade:  C-

If this were a movie, it would be rated:  PG for violence



To the FTC, with love:  I received an e-ARC of Rearview Mirror from the generous folks at Covenant Communications via the Whitney Award Committee.  Thank you!   

(Image from Barnes & Noble)

After breaking her engagement to her righteous, but utterly predictable, fiancee, 27-year-old Julia Darling knows she needs to get out of the Salt Lake Valley.  Longing for adventure, she answers a newspaper ad written by a "desperate rancher" in Wyoming looking for a "chef of mature years" to cook for him and his ranch hands.  A graduate of Boston's most renowned cooking school, Julia certainly knows her way around a kitchen.  She ignores the "mature years" bit and accepts the position.  

Before Julia's really had time to think about what she's doing, she's packed and on a train to Wyoming.  Her new boss, a crusty rancher named Paul Otto, is startled by her youth, even though, at 35, he's not as seasoned as he made himself sound in his ad.  More concerned with his empty stomach than by the impropriety of a young, unmarried woman living on a remote ranch full of men, Mr. Otto hires Julia.  His new cook is nervous, but determined.  Until she sees The Double Tipi.  It's obvious she can't cook—let alone live—in such a wild, untamed place.

As much as she wants to run straight home to Utah, Julia's struck by how much she's needed at the dilapidated ranch.  There are empty bellies to fill, an orphan child desperate for a mother figure, and, of course, an uncouth cowboy who grows more intriguing by the hour.  It's adventure she's craving—this qualifies in spades.  But can she really survive for a year out in the wilderness, so far from her family, her friends and her faith?  She'll find out as she battles everything from rats to snakes to deadly weather to the traitorous yearnings of her own heart.

Before reading Borrowed Light, a historical romance by Carla Kelly, I'd never heard of the author, let alone read one of her books.  Which is a darn shame because, frankly, I loved this one.  It's one of those novels that has everything—adventure, mystery, romance, humor, even spirituality.  Don't be turned off by that last one because the religious aspect of the story is interwoven so well with everything else that it doesn't come off as didactic or heavy-handed.  In fact, it's that balance between all of the different story elements that make Borrowed Light so enchanting, so compelling and so thoroughly enjoyable.  It might be a little far-fetched (Would a single LDS woman in 1909 really have been comfortable—not to mention safe—living out in the middle of nowhere with a bunch of men?  Would her conservative, protective parents really have given her their blessing to do so?), but I don't care, I loved this book.  And, believe you me, it won't be the last Kelly novel I read.

(Readalikes:  Captive Heart by Michele Paige Holmes; the Sarah Prine novels [These Is My Words; Sarah's Quilt and The Star Garden] by Nancy E. Turner; Pieces of Sky by Kaki Warner; and a little like Hattie Big Sky by Kirby Larson)

If this were a movie, it would be rated:  PG for scenes of peril and mild sexual innuendo

To the FTC, with love:  I received a PDF of Borrowed Light from the generous folks at Bonneville Books (an imprint of Cedar Fort) via the Whitney Awards Committee.  Thank you!

  

(Image from Barnes & Noble)

(Note:  Although this review will not contain spoilers for Showoff, it may inadvertently reveal plot surprises from earlier books in the Swindle series.  As always, I recommend reading books in a series in order.)

Hanging out with 12-year-old Griffin Bing, a.k.a. The Man With the Plan, can be dangerous.  Just ask his best friend, Ben Slovak.  He's already been roped into enough of Griffin's crazy schemes—he doesn't want to be involved in even one more.  So, when Savannah Drysdale's ferocious Doberman goes crazy at a dog show, leading to the injury of a prize-winning Beagle and the subsequent incarceration of the Doberman, Ben begs Griffin to just leave it alone.  The boys are both terrified of Luthor, but they can't stand to see Savannah so hurt by the loss of her beloved pet.  Besides, there's something fishy about the whole thing.  Luthor's not exactly the most docile pooch in the world, but why would he go bezerk all the sudden?  It doesn't add up.

When Griffin makes one of his famous plans, this time to break Luthor out of the pound, he and Ben are unwittingly thrown into a whirlwind adventure involving a monster dog and the fussy, but cutthroat world of competitive dog showing.  The misbehaving Doberman clearly isn't Best of Show material and yet, the only way to save Savannah's slobbering dog is to turn him into a model citizen.  In the meantime, the boys can poke around all of New York City's most prestigious dog shows for clues as to who was really responsible for Luthor's strange behavior toward the Beagle.  The boys will, of course, get more than they bargained for—the Man With the Plan wouldn't have it any other way.

Gordon Korman books are always hit and miss for me.  My kids adore everything he writes, but I find some of his stuff (like Swindle) to be too underdeveloped, too far-fetched, to be truly appealing.  Don't get me wrong—I love children's books, I just want them to be well-written, you know?  At any rate, I wasn't super excited when the librarian at my kids' school asked me to read Showoff, the fourth book in the Swindle series.  Being the dutiful volunteer that I am, I did it anyway.  And was pleasantly surprised.  Showoff turned out to be a fun, zany mystery that kept me laughing and turning pages.  It's not like my favorite children's book of all time, but I actually enjoyed this one much more than I thought I would.  My kids, of course, think it's Newbery material; I wouldn't go that far.  Still it's a fun one.   

(Readalikes:  Swindle and the rest of the books in the Swindle series by Gordon Korman)

Grade:  B

If this were a movie, it would be rated:  PG

To the FTC, with love:  I borrowed Showoff from the library at my children's elementary school and read it as part of my volunteer work with the school's Quest reading program.  

(Image from Barnes & Noble)

(Note:  While this review will not contain spoilers for I Don't Want to Kill You, it may inadvertently reveal plot surprises from the first two books in the trilogy.  As always, I recommend reading books in a series in order.)

I have a little bit of a love/hate relationship with the John Cleever series by Dan Wells.  The books are all well-written, compelling and thought-provoking, to be sure, but they're also gory, violent and disturbing.  So, while I find them entertaining, I also find them a little hard to stomach.  The middle book (Mr. Monster) made me feel physically ill, so I was a tad reluctant to pick up I Don't Want to Kill You, the last book in the trilogy.  If it hadn't been nominated for this year's Whitney Awards, I probably would have put off reading it a bit longer, which would have been a shame because it's not nearly as unsettling as its predecessors.  Or maybe it's just me—it's entirely possible that prolonged exposure to the twisted mind of Dan Wells has deadened my frailer sensibilities.  

At any rate, I Don't Want to Kill You begins a couple of months after Mr. Monster ends.  John Wayne Cleever, a 16-year-old sociopath, is waiting patiently for the arrival of a demon named Nobody.  The monster is coming, John knows that; it's just a matter of when she'll show up.  Whenever she makes her arrival, he'll be ready.  He might study serial killers, he might dream of murder, but John's tired of watching people he knows die. It's time for him to take control, to destroy the demon who may already be darkening the streets of his hometown, masquerading as a normal, everyday resident of Clayton, North Dakota.  

John's unusual psychological makeup makes him the perfect demon hunter, but he can't let his darker impulses control him if he wants to have any kind of normal life.  And he does, he really does.  To triumph over Mr. Monster, the devil that lurks inside him, John must focus on the hunt for Nobody.  In order to save the people of Clayton, he has to take a careful, probing look at each and every one of them.  All of them, as he soon discovers, are hiding something, but which one of them conceals a demon?  It will take all of John's wit, all of his strength, all of his talent to find and eliminate Nobody before she takes over the town and everyone in it.  

Like the first two books in the trilogy, I Don't Want to Kill You explores the idea of people choosing their own destinies, in spite of all the things that might be working against them.  This intriguing premise is what elevates the novels above other horror stories.  In addition, John is a character who probably shouldn't be sympathetic, but is, simply because he's trying so hard to overcome his baser instincts.  He's a fascinating hero, one for whom I always find myself rooting, even when he's having homicidal thoughts toward his mother (shudder).  So, while the John Cleever books make me distinctly uncomfortable, I still think they're sort of brilliant.  Just in a gross, disturbing kind of way.      

Grade:  B

If this were a movie, it would be rated:  PG-13 for language (no F-bombs); violence/gore; and sexual innuendo

To the FTC, with love:  Another library fine find

After nine years of dealing with infertility, 33-year-old Susan Weller and her husband, Brent, finally get the baby they've been dreaming of for so long. Adopting Anna, an infant whose birth parents died in a car accident, replaces the cruel emptiness in Susan's heart with a joy she's never known. Not only is her daughter perfect in every way—healthy, smart, beautiful, happy—but she's actually more than that. She's ... special. Like an angel. She's got an otherworldly quality about her, something that's difficult to understand, let alone describe. It just seems that when Anna enters a room, it becomes instantly brighter. When she's present, people are nicer, teachers are more effective, and the world at large seems a kinder, happier place.

Susan's astounded by Anna's abilities. She knows she has to protect Anna—if anyone knew about the girl's extraordinary gift, they would want to study her, exploit her. Susan can't let that happen. But, the older Anna gets, the harder it becomes to explain why she's so different. Especially to Anna herself. Torn between trying to keep her daughter safe and letting her use her special talents to help those around her, Susan must decide where to draw the line.

(Readalikes: Reminded me a little of Keeping Faith by Jodi Picoult)

Grade: C-

If this were a movie, it would be rated: PG for mature subject matter

To the FTC with love: I bought Gifted from Amazon with a portion of the millions I make from my lucrative career as a book blogger. Ha ha.