How I Live Now - Meg Rosoff

Rating: 4

Pages: 194


Challenges: New Author, Read Your Own Books, Dewey Recommended, Young Adult, 2009 From the Stacks, 20 in 2009, Award (PRITZ)

Synopsis (and picture from BN.com)



“Every war has turning points and every person too.”

Fifteen-year-old Daisy is sent from Manhattan to England to visit her aunt and cousins she’s never met: three boys near her age, and their little sister. Her aunt goes away on business soon after Daisy arrives. The next day bombs go off as London is attacked and occupied by an unnamed enemy.

As power fails, and systems fail, the farm becomes more isolated. Despite the war, it’s a kind of Eden, with no adults in charge and no rules, a place where Daisy’s uncanny bond with her cousins grows into something rare and extraordinary. But the war is everywhere, and Daisy and her cousins must lead each other into a world that is unknown in the scariest, most elemental way.

A riveting and astonishing story.

Review
I really enjoyed this story. And was happy the end had a epilogue because I thought it ended abruptly. This was one of Dewey's favorites and after she posted about it I got the book from bookmooch, so it was good to read it!

Envy - Anna Godberson

Rating: 4 out of 5 horses

Pages: 416

Challenges: Young Adult, Support Your Local Library, 20 in 2009

Series: Luxe #3

Synopsis (and picture from BN.com)

Jealous whispers.
Old rivalries.
New betrayals.

Two months after Elizabeth Holland's dramatic homecoming, Manhattan eagerly awaits her return to the pinnacle of society. When Elizabeth refuses to rejoin her sister Diana's side, however, those watching New York's favorite family begin to suspect that all is not as it seems behind the stately doors of No. 17 Gramercy Park South.

Farther uptown, Henry and Penelope Schoonmaker are the city's most celebrated couple. But despite the glittering diamond ring on Penelope's finger, the newlyweds share little more than scorn for each other. And while the newspapers call Penelope's social-climbing best friend, Carolina Broad, an heiress, her fortune—and her fame—are anything but secure, especially now that one of society's darlings is slipping tales to the eager press.

Review

Another good one in this series. I didn't like it as well as the others but it was still really good. This story ended with a setup for the next book (which I think is the last). In this we see Diana and Henry still loving each other even though he marries someone else...and Elizabeth in a predicament from being married to Will. We also see a new love emerge for Teddy, but will he ever get to be with the girl he loves? We will have to wait until book 4 to find out. I would recommend this series for anyone who is wanting a Young Adult book.

Light Years - Tammar Stein

Rating: 4 out of 5 horses

Pages: 263

Challenge: Young Adult Romance, Young Adult, New Author, Library, 20 in 2009

Synopsis (and picture from BN.com)
He went to school to learn how to kill me. The Israeli girl who ruined his life. Seven people were killed instead. A single mother of two. A computer programmer. Two college students. A grandmother and her four-year-old grandson sharing an ice cream. And Dov, my boyfriend, my heart, the man I wanted to marry, who was there waiting for me.

Maya leaves Israel to study astronomy at the University of Virginia, running from the violence, guilt, and memories of her past. As the narrative switches between Virginia and Israel, we learn about Maya’s life as a soldier, her ambiguous devotion to Israel, and her love for her boyfriend, Dov, who is tragically killed in a suicide bombing. Now, in Virginia, amid the day-to-day pressures of classes, roommates, and fraternity parties, Maya attempts to reconcile her Israeli past with her American future.

Review

I would recommend this book. It did a good job of hoping from Israel and discussing the past and present day Virgina. Also it gave me a much better perspective on what Israelis go through on a day-to-day basis with their terror attacks. It was very insightful!

Here are some of my favorite quotes or insights:

"They didn't even realize that light could conceal far more than it ever revealed. It deceived you, tricked you, and lulled you straight into the heart of danger. (184)"

Maya blames herself for Dov's death. Justin says, "If you hadn't existed, then maybe this wouldn't have happened. But whatever that waiter did to get himself fired would have probably happened sooner or later with someone else. You can't live life hoping nothing you do affect anything or anyone else. That's just life. You can't predict how the most simple thing will turn out, but that doesn't mean that you step away from living life and try to hide away. (247)"

"...I was especially taken by the words of Epictetus, a Roman slave from two thousand years ago. His advice: let go of what you cannot control, focus only on what falls directly under your control--your opinions, your will, your moral fortitude. (250)"

On why Israel keeps fighting, "We do it because after each war, after each victory and every death, we keep thinking and hoping it will be over. (258)"

Rumors - Anna Godbersen

Rating: 5 horses out of 5

Pages: 423

Challenges: Library, Young Adult, Young Adult Romance, 20 in 2009

Synopsis

The second book in the Luxe Series picks up on the main characters of the first: Elizabeth and Diana Holland, Penelope Hayes, and Carolina (Lina) Broud. Elizabeth was taken for dead, but really went to find her true love Will in California. Diana is in love with Elizabeth's fiance (arranged by their parents) Harry and Penelope is after Harry as well. Lina is just trying to break into the upper class after being fired as Elizabeth's maid.

Will Elizabeth find Will? Will she be able to come back home to New York after leaving under the pretense of having "fallen" into the river? Will Elizabeth and Will be happy together?

Will Diana and Harry find happiness together?

Will Penelope continue her manipulation to marry Harry?

Will Lina continue to use her inside knowledge of the Holland family to get money from Penelope? Or will she find herself loyal to her previous employers? Will she get her sister Claire in trouble for divulging Holland family secrets? Will Lina get exposed for not being in the upper class?

Review

The second book in the Luxe series was just as good as the first! I devoured it. I like historical fiction and have really enjoyed both of these series. #3 comes out in a few days and I already have it reserved at the library. The last chapter of the book sets up the premise of the next book (but I don't want to give anything away). If you have started this series and liked the first book I am confident that you will like the second as well.

Lock and Key - Sarah Dessen

Rating: 5 - Loved it!

Pages: 432

Challenges: New Author, Library Book, Young Adult, Young Adult Romance

Synopsis (from Publishers Weekly)
Dessen (Just Listen) inverts a familiar fairy tale: what if Cinderella got the prince, the castle and all its accoutrements, but wasn’t remotely interested? After her mother abandons her, Ruby Cooper is flying below the radar of officialdom and trying to make it to her 18th birthday, when she’s busted by the landlord and turned over to social services. Ruby gets taken in by her estranged sister, Cora, who left for college a decade earlier and never looked back, and Cora’s husband, Jamie, the wealthy founder of a ubiquitous social networking site.

Resentful, suspicious and vulnerable, she resists mightily, refusing the risky business of depending on anybody but herself, and wearing the key to her old house around her neck. All the Dessen trademarks are here—the swoon-worthy boy next door who is not what he appears to be; and the supporting characters who force Ruby to rethink her cynical worldview, among them the frazzled owner of a jewelry kiosk at the mall. The author again defines characters primarily through dialogue, and although Ruby and her love interest, Nate, sound wiser than their years, they talk the way teens might want to—from the heart. A must for Dessen fans, it will win her new readers, too.

Review

Well this reader is a new fan of Sarah Dessen! This book was awesome. It kept me entertained and I could relate to Ruby's struggles with life and adjusting. I liked how she came into her own in the book.

I am so glad I joined the Young Adult Romance Challenge - it has introduced me to so many great books!

Peaches - Jodi Lynn Anderson

Rating: 4 out of 5 horses

Pages: 320

Genre: Young Adult (Romance)

Challenges: Young Adult, Young Adult romance, New Author, Library

Synopsis (from BN.com)

In a Ya-Ya Sisterhood for teens, Peaches combines three unforgettable heroines who have nothing in common but the troubles that have gotten them sentenced to a summer of peach picking at a Georgia orchard.

Leeda is a debutante dating wrong-side-of-the-tracks Rex.

Murphy, the wildest girl in Bridgewater, likes whichever side Rex is on.
Birdie is a dreamer whose passion for Girl Scout cookies is matched only by her love for a boy named Enrico.

When their worlds collide, The Breakfast Club meets The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants in an entirely original and provocative story with a lush, captivating setting.

Review

This book reminded me a lot of the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (the movie I haven't read the book). But it was different and very good. I liked it a lot and will read some of the others in the series.

Higher Power of Lucky - Susan Patron

Rating: 3 out of 5 horses

Pages: 160

Genre: Young Adult

Challenges: New Author, Audio, Library, Dewey Recommended, Young Adult, Award Winner

Synopsis (from BN.com)

Lucky, age ten, can't wait another day. The meanness gland in her heart and the crevices full of questions in her brain make running away from Hard Pan, California (population 43), the rock-bottom only choice she has.

It's all Brigitte's fault -- for wanting to go back to France. Guardians are supposed to stay put and look after girls in their care! Instead Lucky is sure that she'll be abandoned to some orphanage in Los Angeles where her beloved dog, HMS Beagle, won't be allowed. She'll have to lose her friends Miles, who lives on cookies, and Lincoln, future U.S. president (maybe) and member of the International Guild of Knot Tyers. Just as bad, she'll have to give up eavesdropping on twelve-step anonymous programs where the interesting talk is all about Higher Powers. Lucky needs her own -- and quick.

But she hadn't planned on a dust storm.
Or needing to lug the world's heaviest survival-kit backpack into the desert.

Review

I thought this book was cute, but thought it was a little slow until the last few chapters. It was a quick read!