Reader Girls Blog

**2010 Debut Author Challenge List** Reading level: Young Adult Hardcover: 304 pages Publisher: HarperTeen; 1 edition (June 22, 2010) Summary: It's tough living in the shadow of a dead girl. . .  In the five years since her bad-girl sister Xanda's death, Miranda Mathison has wondered about the secret her sister took to the grave, and what really happened the night she died. Now, just as Miranda is on the cusp of her dreams—a best friend to unlock her sister's world, a ticket to art school, and a boyfriend to fly her away from it all—Miranda has a secret all her own. When two lines on a pregnancy test confirm her worst fears, Miranda is stripped of her former life. She must make a choice with tremendous consequences and finally face her sister's demons and her own. My review: Not all of the YA novels I read deal with fantastical worlds and super powers. Some deal with some very heavy situations in a realistic manner. And many of them do a fine job telling th...

Our pick: So Shelly by Ty Roth This novel sounds intriguing and the cover art really makes us want to pick it up and read it.  Summary: Until now, high school junior, John Keats, has only tiptoed near the edges of the vortex that is schoolmate and literary prodigy, Gordon Byron. That is, until their mutual friend, Shelly, drowns in a sailing accident. After stealing Shelly's ashes from her wake at Trinity Catholic High School, the boys set a course for the small Lake Erie island where Shelly's body had washed ashore and to where she wished to be returned. It would be one last "so Shelly" romantic quest. At least that's what they think. As they navigate around the obstacles and resist temptations during their odyssey, Keats and Gordon glue together the shattered pieces of Shelly's and their own pasts while attempting to make sense of her tragic and premature end. Reading level: Young Adult Hardcover: 336 pages Publisher: Delacorte Books for Young...

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing (April 2010) Page Count: 275 Age: YA Summary: Can summer be truly summer without Cousins Beach? It used to be that Belly counted the days until summer, until she was back at Cousins Beach with Conrad and Jeremiah. But not this year. Not after Susannah got sick again and Conrad stopped caring. Everything that was right and good has fallen apart, leaving Belly wishing summer would never come. But when Jeremiah calls saying Conrad has disappeared, Belly knows what she must do to make things right again. And it can only happen back at the beach house, the three of them together, the way things used to be. If this summer really and truly is the last summer, it should end the way it started--at Cousins Beach. My review: From the opening line of "It was a hot summer day in Cousins," I wanted to know more about this Jenny Han novel. Belly was a realistic teen girl, her feelings caught between two brothers--Conrad...

**2010 Debut Author Challenge List** Reading level: Young Adult Hardcover: 336 pages Publisher: Scholastic Press (June 1, 2010) Summary: Sailing aboard her father's ship is all seventeen-year-old Camille Rowen has ever wanted. But as a lady in 1855 San Francisco, her future is set: marry a man she doesn't love in order to preseve her social standing. On her last voyage before the wedding, Camille learns the mother she has always believed dead is in fact alive and in Australia. When their Sydney-bound ship goes down in a gale, and her father dies, Camille sets out to find her mother and a map in her possession - a map believed to lead to a stone that once belonged to the legendary civilization of the immortals. The stone can do exactly what Camille wants most: bring someone back from the dead. Unfortunately, her father's adversary is also on the hunt for the stone, and she must race him to it. The only person Camille can depend on is Oscar - a handsome young sailor ...

We received for review from Tours:  Delirium by Lauren Oliver It's Not Summer Without You by Jenny Han Tell Me a Secret by Holly Cupala Everlasting by Angie Frazier Wayfarer by R.J. Anderson We borrowed from the Library: Sisters Red by Jackson Pearce And Then Everything Unraveled by Jennifer Sturman We swapped:  The Gardner by S. A. Bodeen We received others but our camera is begging to be retired so we'll post next week. In My Mailbox  was started by   The Story Siren . 

Library Loot is co-sponsored by   The Adventures of an Intrepid Reader  and  A Striped Armchair . When I put these titles on my list for requests I didn't think they'd become available so quickly. I just picked up And Then Everything Unraveled  and   Sisters Red.   And Then Everything Unraveled by Jennifer Sturman Publisher:  Point Date:  July 2009 Page Count:  244 Reading Level:  YA Summary:   Delia Truesdale has no idea her life's about to change forever. She's too busy enjoying the California summer. Her Internet tycoon mother, T.K. Truesdale, is out of town, and that means Delia can spend all her time at the beach, surfing. That is, until everything unravels.  Sisters Red by Jackson Pearce Date: June 2010 Page Count: 328 Reading Level: YA Scarlett March lives to hunt the Fenris--the werewolves that took her eye when she was defending her sister Rosie from a brutal attack. Armed with a razor-sharp hatchet and ...

One title we're anxiously awaiting is The Devouring 3: Fearcape by Simon Holt. We love the colors used on these covers, especially this one. Here's the summary: The Vours: evil, demonic beings that inhabit human bodies on Sorry Night, the darkest hours of the Winter Solstice. It's been a year since Reggie first discovered the Vours, and the Winter Solstice is approaching once again. It will be another night of unspeakable horror for those unlucky enough to be taken by the Vours, because this time, she won't be able to stop them. The Vours have imprisoned Reggie in a psychiatric hospital, where she is subjected to a daily routine of unfathomably sadistic experiments. Her life is a living Hell, but she won't give up. They attacked her brother. They killed her friend. And Reggie will never stop fighting back. The very first book, The Devouring , was a deliciously dark and creepy story. We may have covered our eyes in parts but that doesn't mean we put the boo...