• Book Reviews

    Book Review: The Final Alice

    Tweet Media Type: Book Title: The Final Alice Author: Alycia Ripley Publisher: Trafford Publishing Pages: Paperback; 196 Release Date: October 19, 2010 Source: Publisher ======================== Intended Reading Group: Adult Genre: Fantasy HDB Rating: 3 Keys to My Heart A lysergic head trip of a novel, The Final Alice is the rare tale that possesses equal measures of heart, wit, and inspired demented madness. Alycia Ripley’s fine novel deserves to be read, re-read, analyzed, debated, and perhaps become the sacred text of a passionate cult.’ -James Ponsoldt, writer/director of Off the Black and Junebug and Hurricane Add it on: Goodreads /…

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    Book Review: Stupid Fast

    Tweet Media Type: Book Title: Stupid Fast Author: Geoff Herbach Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire Pages: Paperback; 320 Release Date: June 1, 2011 Source: Publisher/TBS ===================== Intended Reading Group: Young Adult Content Screening: Mild suggestive humor HDB Rating: 5 Keys to My Heart Fifteen-year-old Felton Reinstein has always been on the smallish side, but in his sophomore year he starts growing…and growing. During gym one day he smokes the football jocks in a 600-yard race. Felton has never been interested in sports, but there’s no doubt-he is “stupid fast.” As he juggles his newfound athletic prowess, his mom’s sudden depression, an annoying…

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    Book Review: Hourglass

    Tweet Media Type: Book Title: Hourglass Author: Myra McEntire Publisher: Egmont USA Pages: Hardcover; 397 Release Date: June 14, 2011 Source: Publisher/TBS ==================== Intended Reading Group: Young Adult Content Screening: Mild language HDB Rating: 5 Keys to My Heart One hour to rewrite the past . . . For seventeen-year-old Emerson Cole, life is about seeing what isn’t there: swooning Southern Belles; soldiers long forgotten; a haunting jazz trio that vanishes in an instant. Plagued by phantoms since her parents’ death, she just wants the apparitions to stop so she can be normal. She’s tried everything, but the visions keep…

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    Book Review: Thoughts Without Cigarettes

    Media Type: Book Title: Thoughts Without Cigarettes Author: Oscar Hijuelos Publisher: Gotham Pages: Hardcover; 384 Release Date: June 2, 2011 Source: TLC Book Tours ——————————— Genre: Memoir HDB Rating: 4 Keys to My Heart Recommended to: Readers looking for an honest look at this author’s life, peppered with great stories. Add it on: Goodreads / Shelfari / Librarything / Amazon / B&N Oscar Hijuelos has enchanted readers with vibrant characters who hunger for success, love, and self-acceptance. In his first work of nonfiction, Hijuelos writes from the heart about the people and places that inspired his international bestselling novels. Born in Manhattan’s Morningside Heights to Cuban immigrants in 1951, Hijuelos introduces…

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    Book Review: Ashes, Ashes

    Tweet Media Type: Book Title: Ashes, Ashes Author: Jo Treggiari Publisher: Scholastic Pages: Hardcover; 343 Release Date: June 1, 2011 Source: Publisher ===================== Intended Reading Group: Young Adult Content Screening: Violence HDB Rating: 5 Keys to My Heart A thrilling tale of adventure, romance, and one girl’s unyielding courage through the darkest of nightmares. Epidemics, floods, droughts–for sixteen-year-old Lucy, the end of the world came and went, taking 99% of the population with it. As the weather continues to rage out of control, and Sweepers clean the streets of plague victims, Lucy survives alone in the wilds of Central Park.…

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    Book Review: Cursebusters

    Tweet Media Type: Book Title: Cursebusters Author: Julie Smith Publisher: Bold Strokes Books Pages: Paperback; 264 Release Date: May 17, 2011 Source: Author/TBS ==================== Intended Reading Group: Young Adult Content Screening: Mild Violence HDB Rating: 3 Keys to My Heart Budding-psychic Reeno is the most accomplished teenage burglar in California, but one tiny screw-up and poof!—she’s sentenced to Bad Girl School. And that isn’t even her worst problem. Her sister Haley’s dying of an illness no one can diagnose, and now she can’t even help. But wait, maybe she can! The school psychics have found each other and formed their…

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    Book Review: Nightspell

    Tweet Media Type: Book Title: Nightspell Author: Leah Cypess Publisher: HarperCollins Pages: Hardcover; 336 Release Date: May 31, 2011 Source: Publisher/TBS ==================== Intended Reading Group: Young Adult Content Screening: Mild violence HDB Rating: 4 Keys to My Heart Here be ghosts, the maps said, and that was all. In this haunted kingdom, ghosts linger—not just in the deepest forests or the darkest caverns, but alongside the living, as part of a twisted palace court that revels all night and sleeps through the daylight hours. Darri’s sister was trapped in this place of fear and shadows as a child. And now…

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    Talking Characters with Allison van Diepan

    Tweet Please give a warm welcome to the fabulous Allison Van Diepan! On a blog tour to promote her newest book, The Vampire Stalker, Allison is here to share with us a bit of background to the book. I love this post. As fellow readers, I’m sure you all wished one of your favorite characters really existed at some point. Allison van Diepan understands that, but I’ll let her explain. Could the characters we love be real? In The Vampire Stalker, Amy discovers that her favorite book character, the dashing Alexander Banks, is actually a real person. In fact, all of…

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    Book Review: Bloodspell

    Tweet Title: Bloodspell Author: Amalie Howard Publisher: Langdon Street Press Pages: Paperback; 369 Release Date: June 1, 2011 Source: Publisher/TBS ==================== Intended Reading Group: Young Adult Content Screening: Violence HDB Rating: 5 Keys to My Heart The spell was simple… Cruentus Protectum (Defend the Blood) But what do you do if your blood is your enemy? Victoria Warrick has always known she was different. An outcast at school, she is no stranger to adversity. But when she receives an old journal for her seventeenth birthday, nothing prepares her for the dark secrets it holds — much less one that reveals…

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    Book Review: Possession

    Tweet Media Type: Book Title: Possession Author: Elana Johnson Publisher: Simon & Schuster Pages: Hardcover; 416 Release Date: June 7, 2011 Source: Publisher/TBS ===================== Intended Reading Group: Young Adult Content Screening: Mild violence HDB Rating: 3 Keys to My Heart Vi knows the Rule: Girls don’t walk with boys, and they never even thinkabout kissing them. But no one makes Vi want to break the Rules more than Zenn…and since the Thinkers have chosen him as Vi’s future match, how much trouble can one kiss cause? The Thinkers may have brainwashed the rest of the population, but Vi is determined…