Normally I don’t read romances but the first few pages of Simone Elkeles book Perfect Chemistry just sucked me right in.  This book is a tale of teenage love and of cultures clashing (to say the least)  

Captain of the Pom Poms, Brittany Ellis is perfect or that is what she would like people to believe.  Blond hair, blue eyes, killer body and  always dressed to the 10’s but as we all know looks can be deceiving.  Alejandro “Alex” Fuentes, Mexican, a member of the Latin Bloods is the quintessential bad boy. He exudes raw masculinity with his swagger and unsettling gaze.  At Fairfield High you wouldn’t hear Brittany Ellis’s and Alex Fuentes’ name together in the same sentence at least if the world was in correct alignment.  They are from completely two different worlds – Northsiders and Southsiders do not mix – think The Outsiders –  but their chemistry teacher doesn’t really care about that and the two are forced to partner up for the year.     

 Ay dos mios I totally get why Brittany Ellis has fallen for Alex Fuentes.  There is something about the bad boy that girls just love.  Alex is muy caliente with his black hair that falls in his eyes and washboard abs that you can see beneath his shirt. It was only a matter of before those two hooked up. Every time those two snipped and snapped at each other, the pages of the book just sizzled with electricity.  Perfect Chemistry, aptly titled, is what Alex and Brittany had.  

Perfect Chemistry told in alternating voices was a fun book to read. I even learned a little too – some flavorful spanish words I think my vocabulary was lacking. The book,  lighthearted and  bit cliche with a couple of steamy scenes thrown in didn’t take me long to finish.  Both of the characters were really appealing – Alex especially.  He was a complex young man showing both toughness and tenderness.  Mostly I think this book will appeal to girls but because of Alex’s status as a gang banger, boys may gravitate to the book as well  

I only have one complaint – I wanted more and yes this is coming from the non- romance reader. It seemed like there was a hurried ending. I was still reeling from the climax when suddenly the book was done. I felt like I was missing something. Its a good thing that the sequel Rules of Attraction is due to hit the bookshelves early next year.

You have to respect an author who is not afraid to write about controversial subjects.  Ellen Hopkins has my respect.  She first wowed me with Crank.  I remember wondering if she could do it again and she has with each book that she has written.  I had the opportunity to meet her last year.  She spoke at my school and if I thought I had trouble keeping her books on the shelves then now it is downright impossible. She is an excellent speaker and the kids were hanging onto every word. Now there are reserves on all of her books.  The longest reserve list is for her newest book Tricks.  It spread like wildfire after one person found out I had a copy ready for checkout. 

Eden, Whitney, Seth, Ginger and Cody are 5 teens with vastly different stories but all ended up on the destructive path of turning tricks in order to survive. Eden’s story with her holier than thou Pentacoastal parents was probably the hardest to take.  Whitney is starving for love – her parents seem to love her sister more than her. Seth is gay and his father can’t accept that so he takes off with his sugar daddy.  Ginger has been exposed to prostitution as long as she can remember thanks to her mom and any respect she had for her goes out the window when she starts pimping Ginger out.  Cody wants to help his mom with his dying father gets in way of his head.  I know these could very well be real life situations but I kept hoping that there would be a better solutions, a better way to solve their problems than turning tricks. My heart ached for these kids.   Each of their situations were so sad.

 As much as I love her books, Tricks, I am afraid was not one of my favorites.  Word of warning: Tricks is brutal and graphic in its sexual description and I am no prude either and the last person who would ever censor a book but still  I think  it is one book that is definitely better suited for older teens. The graphic nature wasn’t what turned me off as much as the time it took for the stories took to reach their climax and become intertwined.  Don’t get me wrong there were plenty of twists and turns among the way but I think telling 5 people’s stories was a bit too much.

I just finished Jennifer Brown’s debut novel – The Hate list. This is a book that is going to remain with me for a long time to come. Brown conveys a powerful message within the pages of this book – it’s a must read for teachers, students and parents alike. Bullying is a widespread problem. Jennifer Brown shows that bullying can have tragic, life-changing consequences.

I was talking to some students about the book and effects of bullying. They can’t imagine ever doing a shooting like Nick did but sadly, these students were able to relate to the feelings of loneliness, abuse and resentment. Back when I was in high school, school violence was not something that we really had to worry about. I am not saying bullying didn’t exist but the attitude at the time by many was that it was just a rite of passage and you needed to suck it up. Columbine changed it all.

Valerie and Nick were teased, bullied every day. They were angry at the people that were doing the bullying. How would you like to be called Sister Death among other names? Then came the hate list, a list that was born out of the bullying. Val started it but Nick acted on it. One day last year Nick opened fire on their classmates in the Commons. Val couldn’t believe what was happenning. She tried to stop him. She even saved another person from getting shot taking the bullet herself. Not in a million years did Val ever think that the list would get any further than between them but now everybody knows who was on the list.

Fast foward five months, school is about to start again and Val is returning to start her senior year. To say this is difficult is putting it mildly. Since the shooting Val has grappled with both physical and emotional pain. Actually the whole community is hurting, trying to come to grips with the loss of sons, daughters, husbands and friends. So much was lost that day. Valerie doesn’t have a very big fan basis at this moment. You can’t really blame people for being angry with her either. Where does Val fit on innocent or guilty continuum? She is not completely innocent but at the same time not guilty either. It wasn’t her hand on the trigger but in a way she did load the gun. She is angry with herself. Until she can forgive herself, she will never be able to move forward. Some people may think Valerie is crazy for going back to school, but I think she is incredibly brave.

 Does Valerie deserve a second chance? I think so. Does she get the second chance? Well, you are going to have to read the book yourself to find out that answer. I am warning you now, you will shed a tear……

Sticks and stones may break my bones but names will never hurt me…….. That statement is not entirely true…..names do hurt. A little piece of advice: treat others the way you would like to be treated yourself.

Jessica thought she was typical normal teenager getting ready to graduate from high school and go off to college.  Then Lucius Vladlescu came into the picture and it turns out that Jessica may not be a typical teenager at all. Lucius is a vampire.  Yup, you heard correctly. Lucius is a vampire from Romania.  I know what you thinking another book like Twilight, right? Yes and no. Sure there is a gorgeous vampire and yes he gets involved with a mortal and falls in love but it is the road to the love part that the similarities to Twilight end. I am so glad that this was not another book about a girl like Bella gung-ho about being a vampire just because her beloved was  

Jessica always knew she was adopted. Her parents work as anthropologists and while they were studying a group of people in Romania she came into their lives.  Jess’s real parents were killed but before they died they begged the Packwoods to raise her as their own. Wait there is more….

Would you believe Jessica is actually Anastasia, a Romanian vampire princess? Hard to believe, I know and Jessica has a hard time swallowing that information herself. She is also supposed to actually marry Lucius at 18, claim her birthright and save vampire-hood from destruction.  Slow down, Jessica is thinking. Vampires don’t exist.  It is something movies and books made up to draw in the crowds. So she resists Lucius and resists and resists.  Of course the more she resists the harder he tries. Lucius has his work cut out for him if he thinks that he can win Jess over that easily. Lucius may be gorgeous but he is also a pompous arrogant pain in the you know what. The situation is so infuriating that Lucius eventually gives up and focuses his attention elsewhere and wouldn’t you know it is then that Jess realizes she has feelings for him. There were quite a few times that I thought there is no way these two will ever get together.

One of the highlights of this book is letters written home to his Uncle Vasile.  Through the letters we learn a lot about Lucius and how he is adjusting to American life. The combination of his European charm and sarcasm made me laugh aloud many times throughout the book.

Jessica and Lucius are dynamic characters and throughout the book they grow.  Lucius loses some of his obnoxiousness and Jess becomes more confident in who she really is. My favorite part is the where they go shopping for regular clothes for Lucius. Five stores and 500 dollars later, Lucius looked like almost normal and very hot. Girls will definitely swoon when they see him walking down the hallway in school.  But it was the dress in the window that the transformation in Jess starts to take place.  Lucius shows her with one dress how a Romanian princess should look.  I applaud him for telling her that she should never say again that she is not valuable or beautiful.  Fat is one word that should never cross her lips ever again.

Beth Fantaskey really did a good job developing these characters.  It is hard to believe this is her first book.  The book moves along very quickly and Fantaskey keeps us on our toes up until the very last page. If you are a fan of vampire novels, I’d put this one on the top of your list. Maybe,  just maybe there will be a sequel.

I just finished the last book in Sharon Draper’s Battle of Jericho trilogy, Just Another Hero.  It was marketed as the shocking conclusion to the Coretta Scott King honor book Battle of Jericho and November Blues. It was a good book but “thrilling on the edge of the seat” book, well, not exactly.  Don’t get me wrong though – the book is readable and I will recommend the trilogy to students who are looking for something good and quick to read. You can tell that Sharon Draper was a teacher because she is still an educator. The characters are likeable and the story examines contemporary issues affecting teens these days.

Josh’s death still affects everybody. November just had her baby, prematurely. She is learning how tough it is to be a young mother but that won’t stop her from doing the best she can for her newborn. Her drama is more in the background in this book while the drama surrounding Arielle and Kofi’s home life is now front and center. Arielle realizes how important her friends really were last time around is treading on thin ice around them now. She is dealing with a way too controlling wealthy new stepfather who treats her more like something he owns than a family member. Kofi is in a tough situation too.  He is a very smart guy and has been offered a scholarship to MIT but the money or the lack of it has been causing him a lot of stress. He deals with the help of the prescription pain medication, Oxycotin.  Tying everything together is a thief at school and someone is pulling the fire alarm almost on a daily basis. Nobody really is paying much mind to the fire alarms because they think it is just some kid named nicknamed Crazy Jack pulling them because he doesn’t want to take tests. Draper leaves little clues and as you go deeper into the book you realize that the pulling of the fire alarms is much more than just a prank.

The book has both pluses and minuses.  On the plus side you can read this book without reading the other two however you will get more of a feel for the characters if you read these books as a set. If you read this as a stand alone, you will notice that Draper didn’t put that much into character development at least in this book. Reluctant readers will be drawn to this trilogy being that it written that it is written on a lower reading level and has short chapters which are never boring.

You can’t please everybody.  I knew that before reading King of the Screwups by K.L Going. Ms.Going, however is going to please a lot of people with her newest book.  I have read her other books and she just has a way of creating an engaging ensemble of characters in each book you read.

I like Liam Geller, the protagonist in this story.  He is Mr Popular.  You know the type -very good looking, knows how to dress, has his way with the ladies, excels at sports.  He is just an average student though and this disappoints his father to no end. His father is a CEO of this prestigious company and a member of mensa so you can imagine what an embarrassment it must be for him that his son does not take after him. Liam actually takes after his mom, a former runway model.  He has a great eye for fashion and this does not sit well with dear old dad.  His father absolutely believes that intelligence and discipline is what will get him far in life. Popularity and likeableness in high school will not help in the real world.  I beg to differ on that point….

I do not like Allan Geller.  Personally I think he is a horse’s ass.  The pressure he puts on his son is ridiculous.  Working in the school system, I see a lot of fathers like that.  Their kids are generally good kids, have potential but just feel like losers because they are buried under such crticsim and feel no love.  This  definately can be considered a coming of age story. Liam throughout this book discovers who he is and how to make it work. Going seamlessly combines much needed comic moments with some heartbreaking ones.  I think the intention of this book was to show that it is okay it is okay not to be perfect but what really came out is how damaging a parent’s high and sometimes unrealistic expectations can be on their child.

 Now I am not saying Liam is perfect, he does screw up and does some things that may make parents cringe but he is not an utter failure at everything.  I don’t think it was right to get drunk and pretty much have sex on his dad’s desk.  He was doing however what teenagers do but this last episode was the one that broke the camels back. This screwup gets him kicked out with a slim chance of ever returning.  His father has had enough of him and wants him out of the house. He has made arrangements for Liam to live with his grandparents but because they don’t care for him too much, Liam makes alternative arrangements to live with his Aunt Pete which angers his father even more. You see aunt Pete is a gay glam rock dj living in a small trailer , not exactly the role model for discipline that is father wants for Liam.  It turns out though the “Aunt” Pete and his colorful assortment of friends are  better role model for Liam than his dad will ever be by a country mile. 

And so begins Liams new life.  Here in Pineville NY where nobody knows him he can reinvent himself.  Here he could be a nerd, focus on academics like his father wants and just become someone that is father is proud of. Once is father sees how much he has changed he will surely take him back. The thing is no matter how hard he tried to be unpopular, people like him anyway. Well most people like him.  The only one that he wants admiration from is a girl that can’t stand him – Darleen, the girl next door.  

I know as I got furthur and furthur into the writing that I wanted Liam to succeed.  I needed Liam to succeed.  Darleen is right when she tells Liam that you can’t create love you have to take it where it happens…..

Last summer I was engrossed in dystopian and vampiric novels, this year everything I read is dealing with love, death and the beach.  Not that I am complaining – there is nothing better than sitting on the beach or by the pool with a “suck you in from the first page” romance and a cool drink by your side. I am about to recommend a book – read Sarah Ockler’s debut novel “Twenty Boy Summer” if you haven’t already,   Its about love and friendship and dealing with grief and it is so well written. So many times throughout this book I grew teary eyed as if it was me not the character riding an emotional rollercoaster.  I remember my first boyfriend, the kisses that made heart race faster, and all the incredible conversations and other little moments. First love can be intense, passionate and inspire a great deal of bad poetry.  But what happens when your relationship with this love ends much too quickly for reasons beyond your control such as death?

 For years Frankie, Anna and her brother Matt have been palling around.  For years, Anna has been secretly in love with Matt and hoping desperately that one day he would feel the same about her.  Every year on her birthday she had the same wish that Matt would finally kiss her. The stars were aligned in Anna’s favor on her fifteenth birthday because that is exactly what Matt did.  It wasn’t easy keeping their growing feelings from Frankie but they decided to wait for the right time to tell her.  Only before the secret can be revealed, Matt dies tragically. Its seems that their love began with a smile, grew with a kiss, and ended with a teardrop.

Despite tragedy life goes on.  It hasn’t been easy for anyone. Words cannot express the grief one feels when one loses love. Everybody has their own way of dealing.  Some people like Anna take on a more insightful approach hanging on to the memories (secretly of course), others like Frankie act out and then there are those who withdraw from the world like the mom.  Sarah Ockler has impressed me with her writing.  I think it takes a writer of great skill to come up with a plot that is fun and light but at the same time meaningful.  

 Every summer Frankie and her family go to their beach house in Zanzibar Bay .  Every summer Frankie and Matt come back with stories for Anna. Going back to a place filled with with such good times and memories is difficult but yet just a summer after Matt’s death the family heads back but this time with Anna in tow.  Ockler has managed to combine the heaviness of a tragedy with the lightheartedness of a perfect summer vacation at the beach. Frankie is determined despite everything to have the best summer ever and it starts with a guy hunt – 20 guys by the end of the summer – for each of them.  The secret of Matt really bogs Anna down on this quest. Her grief genuinely touched me and her confusion about keeping Matt close to heart or finding a new love was very believable.  There is hope in this quest. Will this be the summer that Anna actually finds love again?  

 What does Sarah Ockler have next up her sleeve?  If this book is any indication, I am sure her next book will be just as good.  I can’t wait to find out……

***SNEAK PREVIEW**

The world is soon going to know Samira Armin Hodges.  She is new to the YA lit scene with a book called Milestones that is coming out in August which I am dying to read

This is a blurb  from the authors website:

One day. That’s how long it took for fourteen year-old Faye Martin’s
ordinary life to take a dramatic and unexpected turn. First, she gets struck
by lightning. Second, Benjamin Parker, the object of her obsession,
witnessed her near-death experience. Finally, her parents force her to
leave her hometown of Seattle to attend a summer camp, aptly named
‘Camp Milestone’.

Only, Camp Milestone is no ordinary camp. Before she knows it, Faye finds
herself caught in a whirlwind of uncertainty, torture, calamine lotion and
romance….All in the name of summer camp. But as the summer unfolds,
she realizes there is much more to Camp Milestone than meets the eye.
Will she be able to unravel the mystery that surrounds this unusual camp?
And more importantly, will she be able to survive the madness long enough
to put the pieces together.

Tell me you not going to rush out to your local bookstore on August 1st to get this book, I know I will!!!!

Check out the book trailer:

Not very often that you read a love story from a guy’s point of view.  Funny How Things Change by Melissa Wyatt is not a typical love story either which makes this book all the more desirable.

 When you grow up you, you move out and move on, at least that is what Remy’s girlfriend Lisa is doing when she heads to Pennsylvania in the fall for college.  Of course Remy wants to go – it’s what Lisa and him have been talking about for years – the start of a whole new life, everything they have always wanted.  Or is it? It’s okay to be uncertain especially at 17 years old.  You are not expected to know everything but if you are going to leave, make sure you are doing it for all the right reasons.

 For Remy, Dwyer, West Virginia is his home and no matter where he goes or wants to go it will always be his home. Some people may look at Remy and think that because he is one of those mountain people that he is a hick, redneck, or a hillbilly.  Home is where the heart is. While he doesn’t have much, him and his pops live in a trailer up in Walkers Hollow, Remy knows every nook and cranny of that place and looks forward to seeing those mountains everyday. He knows he is home. His family all lives there and his roots are deep into the soil of the mountains.

 The two loves seem to be in competition with each other.  Which one is stronger? There are a lot of factors that play into this tug of war.  His family, money and even an outsider’s opinion will weigh heavily on what he decides.  What is the right choice?

 I think there should be more characters like Remy Walker.  By no means his he perfect but he has a good heart and head on his shoulders.  Through Wyatt’s characterization you get a real good feel as to who Remy really is. To me, Remy is a hero. Thoughtfully written, it was a good quick read, that made me want to go to the mountains of West Virginia and see the beauty Remy saw.