cover love

Hello, I Love You by Katie M. Stout

hello i love you

 

I loved this. And, since there’s so much going on in it that I can’t possibly explain any better than the official blurb does, read this:

Grace Wilde is running—from the multi-million dollar mansion her record producer father bought, the famous older brother who’s topped the country music charts five years in a row, and the mother who blames her for her brother’s breakdown. Grace escapes to the farthest place from home she can think of, a boarding school in Korea, hoping for a fresh start.

She wants nothing to do with music, but when her roommate Sophie’s twin brother Jason turns out to be the newest Korean pop music superstar, Grace is thrust back into the world of fame. She can’t stand Jason, whose celebrity status is only outmatched by his oversized ego, but they form a tenuous alliance for the sake of her friendship with Sophie. As the months go by and Grace adjusts to her new life in Korea, even she can’t deny the sparks flying between her and the KPOP idol.

Soon, Grace realizes that her feelings for Jason threaten her promise to herself that she’ll leave behind the music industry that destroyed her family. But can Grace ignore her attraction to Jason and her undeniable pull of the music she was born to write? Sweet, fun, and romantic, this young adult novel explores what it means to experience first love and discover who you really are in the process.

So, I would imagine that I’m not the only one who didn’t know anything about K-Pop before reading this, but after some googling (oh my goodness, fandom insanity) I got a pretty good feel for the K-Pop culture. It made for a fun setting for Hello, I Love You because it’s not just set in Korea but also sort of within this subculture that I found fascinating. As a character, Grace is flawed and very human, and as a result of recent tragedies doesn’t start out this book as a very likable person. By the end, though, Grace’s transformation is realistic and hopeful. I loved Jason and Grace together and rooted for them the whole way through.

In a word, I thought is was wonderful. Check it out here on Amazon or get it from your favorite book store!

Finding Mr. Brightside by Jay Clark

finding mr brightside

Finding Mr. Brightside is overall a sweet, intriguing story that will appeal to fans of John Green and Sarah Dessen and the like. Abram and Juliette tell their stories in alternating point of view, which I love, and we see them both begin a path to recovery after a shared tragedy. There were a few times where the narrative felt a little bogged down in negativity, but it recovered quickly each time and wrapped up nicely.

I’m Glad I Did by Cynthia Weil

im glad i did

I’m Glad I Did is a wonderfully written, intriguing example of everything that can be great about YA Historical Fiction. The characters are compelling and realistic, the major cultural issues of the time are front and center, and it’s educational and entertaining. Love, love, love this.

Check out the synopsis below, taken from Goodreads, and find I’m Glad I Did here on Amazon or at your favorite book store.

Rock and Roll Hall of Famer and songwriting legend Cynthia Weil’s extraordinary YA debut opens the secretive doors of the Brill Building-the hit factory that changed history. Part Mad Men, part Grace of my Heart, part murder mystery, I’m Glad I Did is a coming-of-age story at an unforgettable cultural tipping point: the summer of 1963.

JJ Greene, a gifted 16-year-old songwriter, defies her lawyer parents by secretly applying for a job in the famed Brill Building-the epicenter of songwriting for a new genre called rock-n-roll. But their warnings about the evils of the music industry prove far darker than she imagined when she finds herself at the heart of a cover-up that involves hidden identity, theft, and possibly murder.

Geek Girl by Holly Smale

geek girl

Ok, I’m a real fan of British things. Like, not in a creepy way… I just think British comedies and romances and TV (hello, IT Crowd and Sherlock) are fantastic. Geek Girl, the first in a series of books from acclaimed British author Holly Smale, is equally wonderful. In fact, I’d go so far as to say that I enjoyed it as much as the first book in Louise Rennison’s Georgia Nicholson series (the funniest books I’ve ever read).

Anyway, in Geek Girl we get to know Harriet Manners, a self-proclaimed geek and anti-fashionista, who sort of accidentally gets “discovered” as a model. And not just a little local ad company model, but an international supermodel… which makes you wonder how on earth she thought she could keep it a secret! Serious laugh out loud opportunities and swoony moments with a male model are all through this, along with a good, valuable message in the end.

Because this is the first in a series, I asked Holly Smale if the other books would be coming out quickly here (several are already out in the UK), and she said they’ll be following Geek Girl in the upcoming months. I know that I, for one, can’t wait!

Check out Geek Girl here on Amazon or find it at your favorite book store. It will be out on January 27th, so preorder!

All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven

all the bright places

You guys.

All the Bright Places is the first MUST READ of 2015.

It’s the story or Violet and Finch, who meet each other on the ledge of their school’s bell tower. Finch is a quirky, oddball kind of a guy who’s not well-liked by Violet and her group of friends. He thinks about suicide and often gets right to the brink of an attempt just to see how it feels and if he’ll follow through. Violet is still recovering from a trauma that took her sister’s life the previous year, and sometimes thinks about escaping it all. And so, when they meet on the bell tower ledge, it’s sort of muddy who does the rescuing and who was close to taking their own life.

Now, I know that all sounds pretty serious and depressing, and it is. But I promise, this book is not really depressing. It’s really beautiful. After the bell tower incident, Violet and Finch are assigned to a partner project in which they have to explore local landmarks together and write about them. What results from their assignment is a series of adventures in which we see healing, and friendship, and love… It’s really, truly something special. It wrecked me and filled my heart all at the same time.

I have a feeling that Niven’s book will be talked about a lot throughout 2015 (and beyond). It’s being compared to The Fault in Our Stars and Eleanor and Park, and I do see those comparisons, but All the Bright Places is really something new and different and lovely even without the comparisons. In fact, I think it’s even better than the comparisons.

You can find it here on Amazon or at your local book store. Make sure you tweet at Jennifer and welcome her to the world of YA, too – she’s super sweet!

On the Fence by Kasie West

on the fence

 

I really, really have come to love Kasie West’s contemporary romance titles. Earlier this year, I read The Distance Between Us and adored it. I can’t even count how many of my students have purchased it based on my recommendation, and I’m happy to see it being read in my classroom. This past weekend, I got my hands on her most recent title, On the Fence, and I was not disappointed.

In this one, Charlotte (who goes by Charlie) is a tomboy who has grown up in a family of all boys – her dad, her three brothers, and even the boy next door who’s been around for as long as she can remember. She plays sports, runs a lot, and acts like one of the guys. When she’s forced to get a job to pay for her speeding tickets, the job she gets is in a girly, frilly boutique where she has to trade in her t-shirts and sneakers for skinny jeans and silk blouses. As she struggles to reconcile her tomboy self with her girly self (which is not all as bad as she thought it would be), she comes to realize that her feelings for the boy next door, Braden, are anything but sisterly.

I so appreciate that West writes a fun, contemporary, relevant story while keeping language, sexual content, and drugs at bay. You don’t HAVE to include all of that to relate to teenagers, but they’re so prevalent in so much of YA that it’s like a breath of fresh air to not have to wade through the crud to find redeeming quality underneath. Kasie’s books are great, and I could not possibly recommend them more!

Find On the Fence here on Amazon or at your favorite bookstore.

Paper or Plastic by @ViviBarnes: Cover Reveal!

Paper or Plastic
Release Date: 2015
Entangled Teen
Summary from Goodreads:
Welcome
to SmartMart, where crime pays minimum wage…
Busted. Alexis Dubois just got caught shoplifting a cheap
tube of lipstick at the local SmartMart. She doesn’t know what’s
worse—disappointing her overbearing beauty-pageant-obsessed mother for the zillionth
time…or her punishment. Because Lex is forced to spend her summer working at
the store, where the only things stranger than the staff are the customers.
Now Lex is stuck in the bizarro world of big-box retail. Coupon cutters, jerk
customers, and learning exactly what a “Code B” really is (ew). And for
added awkwardness, her new supervisor is the totally cute—and adorably
geeky—Noah Grayson. Trying to balance her out-of-control mother, her pitching
position on the softball team, and her secret crush on the school geek makes
for one crazy summer. But ultimately, could the worst job in the world be the
best thing that ever happened to her?

Pre-Order Links:
Amazon│B&N│Kobo

About the Author

Originally from East Texas (the accent comes out
more often than not), I now live in the magic and sunshine of Orlando, FL with
my very understanding husband and three kids. I’m an extrovert with awkward
blogging tendencies. My debut novel, OLIVIA TWISTED, came out November 5,
2013 from Entangled Teen!

 

You can connect with me on Facebook,Twitter, Goodreads, Pinterest. Or visit the official Olivia
Twisted site atwww.oliviatwisted.com.

Author Links:

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Book Blitz Organized by:

The Body Electric by Beth Revis

The body electric

Beth Revis has a unique ability to write YA scifi that is truly accessible and enjoyable by those, like me, who don’t typically enjoy scifi. I really loved this, right down to the constant references to pastizzi that had me making ghost-shaped cheese pastizzi (see pic below) for Halloween dinner. The story here is exciting, fun, action-packed, sweet, and a little disturbing all at the same time. I’ve long been a fan of Beth’s Across The Universe trilogy, so seeing something new from her was exciting!

Find The Body Electric here on Amazon!

Ghostly Pastizzi

Kiss Kill Vanish by Jessica Martinez

kiss kill vanish

First, here’s the official blurb:

Love. Betrayal. Murder.

Valentina is living a charmed, glittering life in Miami—falling in love for the first time, showered with gifts and affection by her father, surrounded by friends—when one shocking moment shatters everything she thought she knew about herself, her boyfriend, and her world. With no one left to trust, Valentina sheds her identity and flees to Montreal, where she finds work posing for a series of portraits by a pompous young artist. Valentina has always been at home in the art world, but she’s never felt quite so alone.

Valentina’s carefully constructed new life comes crashing down when someone from her past resurfaces, putting her safety in question and her heart on the line. With betrayal at every turn, Valentina must untangle the deceptions of those she once loved and race to find her own truth—before it’s too late.

This book shocked and amazed me in so many ways, the most important of which is that IT ACTUALLY SURPRISED ME. I kept thinking I knew how it would end, or guessing Martinez would put one plot twist too many in there, but nope. She didn’t. It ends perfectly, with a protagonist who is strong and kicks butt, and left me a highly satisfied reader.

Kudos to Martinez on a true, gritty but not gross, hot but not crude or pornish, suspense thriller that literally had me guessing all the way through. This is one YA thriller that I would actually love to see in the hands of my students!

Find Kiss Kill Vanish here on Amazon or at your favorite book store!

Of Scars and Stardust by Andrea Hannah

of scars and stardust

I went back and forth on how I felt about this book. I absolutely loved the cover, which I why I requested it several months ago, and I stand by that. I think it’s really beautiful. The story, though, had me confused for most of the book. The writing was both intricate and intriguing while also disjointed and disorienting. I had a feeling that it was intentional, and came to find out it was. It made the whole feeling of the book ominously unstable, which worked for this story.

Because of casually rampant drinking and some other content (all of which actually works into the plot line but still is excessive), this isn’t one I’d want to see in the hands of my middle schoolers. For upper high school, though, it’ll feel much like a PG-13 or higher scary movie.

Of Scars and Stardust just came out this month – find it here on Amazon or at your favorite bookseller!