Reader Girls Blog

Reading level: Young Adult Hardcover: 208 pages Publisher: Dutton Juvenile (September 16, 2010)  Book summary: Grace was raised to be an Angel, a herald of death by suicide bomb. But she refuses to die for the cause, and now Grace is on the run, daring to dream of freedom. In search of a border she may never reach, she travels among malevolent soldiers on a decrepit train crawling through the desert. Accompanied by the mysterious Kerr, Grace struggles to be invisible, but the fear of discovery looms large as she recalls the history and events that delivered her uncertain fate. My review: Elizabeth Scott has become one of my favorite YA authors. Hearing she was tackling a dystopian next, I made sure it was on my TBR list. I admire her ability to pack emotional power with such brevity. As I read Grace I wondered if I would feel the same way. I did. I liked Grace even though it took awhile for me to warm up to her character, even longer to understand her world, a place ...

This week we chose an excerpt from Where the Truth Lies by Jessica Warman. "Everyone look at me when I come into the room, my face streaked with tears. I started crying hard as soon as I left my dad's office, and all I could think about, besides Del, was getting to Renee and telling her what happened."  From page 164, ARC edition. Reading level: Young Adult Hardcover: 320 pages Publisher: Walker Books for Young Readers  (September 28, 2010) Book summary: On the surface, Emily Meckler leads the perfect life. She has three best friends, two loving parents, and the ideal setup at the Connecticut prep school where her father is the headmaster. But Emily also suffers from devastating nightmares about fire and water, and nobody knows why. Then the enigmatic Del Sugar enters her life, and Emily is immediately swept away—but her passionate relationship with Del is just the first of many things that aren't quite what they seem in Emily's life. As the lies she...