The Lonely Hearts Club

Penny is sick and tired of so-called love. Her boyfriend has cheated on her, and thinks apologizing is enough. Yeah, right. From what she has experienced, all boys are the same- cheaters or dumpers. And she is tired of being the dump-ee. So, she starts up the Lonely Hearts Club. Even though she is the only member, she is certain that she will not lose sight of the purpose of this club- to swear off boys and dating. What she doesn't realize is how eager her friends and schoolmates will be to join her. But what happens when Penny decides she doesn't dislike all boys after all? How can she drop out of her own club?

Sisterhood Everlasting

Ten years after we last left them, the 4 "sisters" are back. Carmen, Bee, Tibby, and Lena have all traveled to their own corners of the world and taken up different careers and lifestyles, but in their hearts they all have that same deep connection they did when they were in highschool. Sometimes it can be more complicated though. It seems like they all have secrets and things they dislike about themselves and theur lives (doesn't everyone?) and that none of them know how to make the connection and start up their close friendship again. Who could've known that it would take several tragedies to bring them all together?

Wither

When Rhine is just a teenager, she is captured in a truck with a bunch of other girls. A lot of the other girls are shot, but Rhine survives and is taken to a mysterious house. She is then married, along with 2 other girls, to a young man whose wife is dying. She is dying from the virus. They all are, not knowing how much longer they have. A few years, maximum. The virus strikes and kills men and women alike in their early twenties. Rhine has a happy enough life. While her sister wives are struggling to please and survive, she is a favorite among her new husband and father-in-law. Maybe its her one green eye, and one blue. Or maybe it's because she so resembles Rose, the deceased wife. Whatever the reason, Rhine finds it easier to escape the daily trials like becoming pregnant or talking to her father-in-law that has a lab underneath the house where he looks for a cure to the virus. This book is the best I've read in a long time. I highly recommend it.

Break

Jonah is hurting inside, but he doesn't want to admit it. His brother Jesse is allergic to almost every food. His 8 month old brother, Will has some kind of colic. His life is crazy, filled with visits to the ER and babysitting one or both of his brothers. But Jonah doesn't realize that when he starts out on a mission to break all of his bones...yep, all of them...that it will cause other people pain too. He thinks that breaking his bones will cause them to come back stronger. But what he doesn't realize is that the situations in his life might make him just as strong.

Between Shades of Gray

This book is set in 1941 during the deportation of Eastern Europe to Siberia. Lina, a 15 year old girl is the narrator, and her voice is clear, telling of the horrors she and her family had to try and survive while being tortured by Stalin's soldiers. Lina is first, separated from her father. Then the soldiers try to get her mother to agree to be a translator for them between the soldiers and the deportee's. She suspects her cousin may be a traitor and also her could be boyfriend. Then her brother gets deathly ill. Through all of these trials, Lina is able to put on an about-face and stand firm for her beliefs, all the while trying to find her father and just survive.

The Happiness Project

This is a non-fiction book that is very inspiring. If anyone wants to borrow it, they can...okay, anyone that knows me personally! The woman who wrote it was fed up with New Years resolutions and not keeping them, so instead she drew up a graph and started her Happiness Project. The book is split up into months (I read one a month) and it has tabs that tell what the author's goals were for that particular month. Things like singing in the morning, how to be happier, play more, and take time for yourself are just a few of the subjects and projects she tried and completed. I think the world would be a better place if we all did our own Happiness Projects!

Cryer's Cross

Last spring a girl went missing from the small town of Cryer's Cross. Nearly everyone in the town searched for her, but she was never found. Ever since, the citizens have been on their guard just waiting for whoever took her to make their next move. In late summer, just as school is beginning again, a boy, Nico goes missing. And his best friend/girlfriend is left feeling scared and hurt and alone. She has so many questions running through her head. The questions, paired with her OCD nearly drives Kendall insane, or so she thinks. Butt then she realizes that she hears Nico's voice when she is near his old desk...the desk that was also the missing girls. This book is gripping, and terrifying, telling the story so well, you might just have nightmares as Kendall comes closer to the truth.

Half Brother

Are chimps as smart as humans? Can they learn language? These are questions that a scientist asks in this book. He is getting ready to do an experiment that will alter his families lives dramatically. Especially his sons. This story is tole through the eyes of Ben, a grade-school boy that struggles with the new adoption of Zan, a chimp that his parents are going to observe for...who knows? The rest of his life? As he get accustomed to having a new "sibling" Ben deals with jealousy, but then finally acceptance. But just as he is starting to realize that having a chimp for a brother isn't such a bad thing, his parents make a decision that changes all of their lives. Zan's especially. Can Ben deal with the newest shocking events?

Halo

First off...apologizing if someone reads this and thinks it's about Halo, the video game, because it's not. It is a good book though. It's about three angels that come down to earth to help stop all of the catastrophes that are going on around the world. But to be of help, they must act like humans, and so they go to school and live like normal human beings. Bethany, the youngest angel in the group, runs into some trouble. Since she is the youngest, and inexperienced, she does things that Gabriel and Ivy (the other angels) would know not to do. The author wrote this book in a very interesting voice...I highly recommend it.

Now You See Her

Marcy's mother killed herself because she went crazy. Now, history is repeating itself and Devon, Marcy's daughter, has paddled a canoe out to the middle of a lake and committed suicide. Or so the evidence suggests. Marcy isn't so sure though. True, her daughter was not pleased with the direction her life was going and was frustrated with many things, but Devon keeps seeing her daughter, so she can't be dead, can she? On what was supposed to be her 2nd Honeymoon, but is now just Marcy traveling alone since her husband cheated on her, Marcy sees Devon. And this time she knows it's her. But a twist of events and a whispered threat turn things around so Marcy doesn't know what is reality, and what is the past.

The Espressologist

If you like coffee, or coffee shops, this book would be great for you. In this book, a girl works at a coffee shop. Normal, right? Well, not so much. See, she's been taking notes about the people that order certain drinks. And she starts to see a pattern. With the patterns she sees she starts to make "matches". She soon realizes that these matches are PERFECT! Before she knows it, her boss has discovered that his assistant manager has more talent than he thought. He sets up a "reading" night where people can order their drinks and be matched with other people at the reading. But...are the matches as perfect as they might seem?

Trapped

It' a typical school day, except for a bit of a snowstorm, on the day that several kids get trapped in their school for days. Some of the kids notice it is snowing quite considerably outside, but they think it'll just result in an early dismissal. It does, but little do they know that many will be stranded in a snowy wonderland, trying to find their way home. And more still, will be trapped inside the school as they wait for their rides. This story tells of how one boy thinks about his predicament, and how he and a group of highschoolers survive.

Sweet Seasons

There are 4 books in this series, but they're mostly the same. Candace works at an amusement park selling candy, and at the park she meets Kurt, who she immediately falls in love with. Or thinks she falls in love with. These four books follow Candace through summer, fall, winter, and then spring at the park, and in each book she always seems to have a new issue to deal with. But the issues always get resolved one way or another.

Beautiful Darkness

The sequel to Beautiful Creatures, this book starts up where the first left off. Ethan and Lena struggle to stay together and deal with Lena's problem of having to chose between the Light and Dark side. Either side will take someone who she cares about away from her.
Then one day, Lena runs away. Ethan decides he needs to find her, and goes searching. But he only finds more questions without answers. The search for Lena leads Ethan and his friends to a secret maze of tunnels underground that only one person has the map to. This book is almost better than the first.

Beautiful Creatures

Ethan thinks his town is just a boring old town. A pretty typical one. Until Lena comes. She brings curiosity and a feeling of magic. Ethan becomes entranced with her, and they start to date. But Lena's Uncle, and Ethan's Amma know this relationship is not to be, and try to warn the young couple. Soon, Ethan finds out that there is more to Lena than meets the eye. And gets swept up into a whirlwind of adventure.

Streams of Babel

In this book, several unsuspecting people in America get poisoned by terrorists...through their water. The water supply in a couple of select areas has been contaminated with a waterbourne virus. And people that drink tap water receive this virus. The effects of it are flu-like symptoms, but are also accompanied by bloody noses, and ears. While hospitals and doctors struggle to find a cure, more people are discovered to have the illness. And the terrorists are still on the loose.

The Water Wars

This book follows a brother and sister on a journey to find a friend that was abducted...for water. In their world, water is everything. And their friend's dad is in the water business. When their friend goes missing, the two feel it is their duty to find their friend that has invested some of his secrets in them. This is a really good book that shows what our own futures could possibly hold.

These Things Hidden

This book is just as good as the author's first "The Weight of Silence". Allison is in a relationship with the boy she thinks she loves, but when it goes further than she expected, and she is left pregnant, she realizes she hasn't made a very good decision. Especially when her boyfriend leaves. On the night she births her baby, she is home with her sister. When the baby comes, it is a girl, and Allison's  sister panics. She is helping Allison...and then one of the worst things that could go wrong, does go wrong. Allison isn't aware of what is happening at this point, but later she will be accused of doing what happened that night, when she is actually innocent.

Lowboy

Will Heller aka Lowboy, is a schizophrenic. He escapes form the hospital he was place in by his mother, and gets on a train with two men from the hospital chasing him. He is on a mission. A mission to stop global warming. But first he needs to find his girl. He travels around NYC looking for Emily, his old girlfriend.
His mom, Violet is also in on the chase, worried about her son and his mental state. It seems that no one in this story is left without a secret, and we discover them along with the characters, as they learn things about themselves and each other that they never would have guessed.

Liar

Micah is a girl. Who is a  boy. Who...is actually a girl. And she's a liar. She is also a freak. When she was born, she had hair growing all over her. Treatments were tried, but none of them worked. The hair just grew back, as thick as ever. It's some weird illness that runs in her family. Hard to explain. No, that's a lie...it's just too scary to explain. No one would believe her if she told them. Micah is a runner. She can run 10 miles in an hour. But there is a bigger lie behind the smaller ones. The thing that runs in her family? It's not some rare "disease". No, it's much more than that. Micah has been judged her whole life. When her boyfriend goes missing, and is then found in the park, dead, she has a lot to answer to. But instead of telling the truth, she turns to what she does best: lying.

Shiver

There is a pack of wolves that roam the woods behind Graces house. For some reason they intrigue Grace, especially the lonely looking one with yellow eyes, that she just feels drawn to. One day a boy from her school is attacked by the pack, and killed. Or so everyone thinks. The town enlists a group of men to hunt the wolves down, and when Grace gets wind of their plan, she knows she has to stop them. She is not able to convince the men that there is a good reason for their hunt to cease, so she takes matters into her own hands, and ventures into the woods. Near her house, she comes across...a boy. Naked and bleeding from a gunshot in his neck, she manages to get him to the hospital. But what are those strange scars on his arms from? And why does she feel like she has seen him before, even though she is sure he doesn't attend her school? This book is so good, you literally don't want to put it down.

Monsters of Men

This is the third book in the Chaos Walking trilogy. In this addition to the series, Viola and Todd are separated for most of the time, fighting in a war that doesn't look too promising. When the Mayor starts getting too dangerous, Todd takes matters into his own hands. He starts fighting against the Mayor with words, throwing them at him with all of his strength. Some plans backfire, and near the end of the book, things are looking grim for Todd. Viola tries to find a way to let him go, but is that necessary?

Shift

Chris and Win decide to bike cross country their senior year. It goes fine until Win rides off. Without Chris. And Chris decides that he will make the rest of the trip alone. He succeeds in finishing the trip, but when he gets home, he has to face his parents. And Win's parents. Win's parents demand to know more about what has happened to their son, and will stop at nothing. The question is...will Chris be able to find Win?

After

This is a very graphic book. Devon, a sophomore, starts feeling odd. She feels...immobile and heavier. When she plays soccer, she is slow to move to block the ball.  She is nauseous. But she just thinks she's working herself too hard, she won't let her mind wander further than that. Then one morning, she gets nasty cramps. The next thing she knows, there's a baby on her bathroom floor. Her mom is at work, and Devon doesn't know what to do. She can't admit her failure to herself, so instead of living with her decisions and failures, she dumps dirty stuff from the bathroom in a garbage bag, along with the baby. Little does she know that a man will go by with his dog, and rescue the helpless being. And also set in motion an investigaton and arrest that Devon will have to deal with on her own. Just like most everything else in her life.

Candor

Candor is a town. And the people who run it are trying to get it to be perfect. They make it "perfect" be playing audios from speakers, and the audios brainwash the citizens. Most of them aren't aware of it though. They think the "thoughts" they have are their own. But in reality, they were written out and recorded, so everything will run smoothly. But when teenager Oscar, whose father founded the town, starts getting suspicious...he finds out more than he should. This leads to him betraying the way he's lived his whole life, and trying to cause chaos. Until he is caught.

Fall For Anything

Eddie's father committed suicide, and she wants to know why. He was such a joy...and he was FAMOUS. Why did he give that life up for nothing? Her mother is basically hiding inside herself since it happened, so Eddie hangs out with her friends and does whatever she wants most of the time. She finds a clue, and gets a friend to take her to where she thinks the next clue about her fathers death might be. As she travels far from home, her friends back home get concerned, and eventually she heads back home. But will she learn to accept what has happened? Or live her whole life wondering?

The Lost Gate

Danny is a gatemage. But he doesn't know it at first. In the beginning, he thinks he has no talent at all, until one day he is mysteriously able to jump much higher in a tree than he should be able to. He starts unraveling mysteries that have been hidden from him and his Family for many, many years. His gatemage powers get put to use for shoplifting from Walmart. He then meets some shady people who use him to make people feel bad for them and give the beggars money. This book has many twists and turns, and makes you think. You have to be paying attention while reading it so you don't get "left behind".

Saving Max

A mother and a son. Struggling to understand the sons social issues. He has become depressed and suicidal in the past while, and his mother, Danielle has decided to do something about it. But when she takes Max to Maitland, a well known hospital, she starts to have second thoughts about her decision to admit him. The hospital staff are secretive, and won't let Danielle stay with Max. Then, several weeks later, Max is accused of killing a fellow patient. Danielle knows her son, though. And he would never do anything like that. She starts looking into things, and realizes everything isn't as it seems.

The Iron Queen

Meghan Chase...a girl just living her life in her normal world and now, a faery. This is the third book in the series, and they are all fantastic reads. Meghan must fight creatures she never thought existed past the pages of story books. And her family is back in her old world, wondering if she will ever come back to them. She must make sacrifices for the things and people she loves, and she finds secrets out about herself and others that she is alarmed to discover.

Matched

I recommend that everyone read this book. It starts out with a girl, Cassia, who is about to be "matched", or have her husband selected for her. All of the youth that are of age have their names put into a "pool" and then two by two the names are selected and matched up...and the couple is made. They have been Matched. Cassia is surprised to find that she has been Matched with a boy she knows, and has known since childhood. At first she thinks the Match is perfect, but then she finds that being forced into things isn't something she is comfortable with, and she starts fighting against the Officials. She finds that she has strength to go against everything she has ever known...and not "go gently".

The Pesthouse

About a future America where everything is different than how we know it, this book is a very quick read. A man and a woman are travelling across dangerous lands to try to get to their only hope: a ship on the way to Europe. Once the place they called home, America is now a dirtied and lonely land...and everyone is leaving it for what they think might be a brighter future. Meeting up with an injured woman, they find hope and strength in themselves they never thought possible.

The Ask and the Answer

This is the sequel to The Knife of Never Letting Go. It is just as good as the first. This book deals with Todd and Viola (the main characters) after they were captured by the New World rulers. The head honcho is the Mayor of the old town that Todd came from. Now he is calling himself "President Prentiss" and thinks he has everything and everyone under control. But the people are uneasy. And so are the "spackle"...the silent Noiseless beings that have been taken by President Prentiss as slaves. There is one more book in this series that I am eager to read. I highly recommend this Trilogy.

Everything Must Go

A boy who has killed his brother by accident lives his life with the guilt of it hanging over him. He went to college to star as a football player, but since then has moved back to his hometown to live with his mother, who is slowly deteriorating...and his father who isn't able to deal with his needy wife.
The story follows Henry through his life as the employee of a mens clothing store and a lonely man who wants a wife, but seems to frighten them away before he even meets them. Not much happens in the story. No big breakthroughs are made. It is written well though, so that makes it worth your time.

The Knife of Never Letting Go

This book almost feels...post apocalyptic. It is about a boy who is sent on a kind of mission to get to safety. He can hear other peoples thoughts. Everyone else can too. The women in this new world have been killed by the disease that causes people to hear others thoughts. Except for a few. The boy meets up with one of these few, and they travel together. An enemy is following them though. They have to figure out who to trust, and who to run from. There is quite alot of swearing  in this book, but it is still a very good story!

The Book of Tomorrow

This book was good, but some of the things in it weren't. It just goes to show that you can't judge a book by its cover though. It looks completey innocent. It deals with alot of stuff, particularly a confused teenage girl. All in all it is a good book, but there are some swear words (try finding a book without them) and some guy/girl stuff in it. It doesn't really seem like an adult book, more of a teen read.

The Gemma Doyle Trilogy

My uncle sent me the first of these books, and I got the other two from our local library. This trilogy is about a girl, Gemma Doyle, whose mother dies under mysterious circumstances. Gemma is sent away to Spence, a boarding school for girls. While there she receives visions and several of her teachers there speak of a realm filled with magic. Gemma makes friends (and enemies) quickly, and while going about her life at Spence, realizes she has more power than she ever thought possible. I would recommend for ages 13 and up.