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The Romeo Club by Rebekah L. Purdy

romeo club

 

 

I was given a copy of The Romeo Club by Swoon Romance because of my love of Cassie Mae’s books, which turned out to be perfect – Cassie and Rebekah definitely have similar styles, and they’ve both mastered the art of the light-hearted yet meaningful, predictable in the best possible way and still exciting, totally swoon-worthy romantic comedy.

The Romeo Club started out quickly with the protagonist, Delyla, helping her brother catch the eye of his crush when he requests a makeover. When that’s successful, she’s recruited by his group of nerdtastic friends to get the same makeover treatment. I don’t know… Have any teenagers seen the movie Clueless lately? I feel like that’s the best comparison I can make, though instead of a hopeless girl in need of a makeover we get to watch an entire Nerd Herd transform through the coaching of Delyla.

There were a lot of great things about The Romeo Club. One, there are some fun and well-written supporting characters. Two, Delyla has a sarcastic wit that leads to some really fun interactions with those supporting characters. Three, and what seems to be too rare in YA these days, The Romeo Club is pretty clean as far as language, sex, and alcohol/drugs go. Purdy is able to successfully write an interesting and romantic story without making the teenagers  completely without morals.

The Romeo Club just came out this week, and it’s available on Amazon now. Check it out!

#ThrowbackThursday: Louise Rennison’s Georgia Nicholson series

This recommendation originally posted on Pimples, Popularity, and Protagonists in September 2010. My love of this series is still firmly in place!!!

A few years ago, I read Louise Rennison’s Angus, Thongs, and Full-Frontal Snogging. I thoroughly enjoyed it, but I didn’t realize it was part of a ten book series. Then, this summer, I happened to notice a film version of it available for rent on Netflix. I put it in my queue and prepared myself for yet another disappointing book-inpired movie. I was pleasantly surprised by how good the movie version was, and it inspired me to check into Rennison’s other books. Imagine my surprise when I found another nine books featuring the Angus protagonist, Georgia Nicolson! It was pretty exciting. (I know I’m a book nerd, ok?)

I put all of the books on hold at my local library and waited until I had them all to start reading. Then, when they were all finally in, I tore through all nine books following Angus… in a matter of ONE WEEK. Several times, as I was reading in the evenings while my husband was watching TV, I would seriously laugh out loud at the sheer hilarity of the books. I’m seriously considering buying all of the books so I can reread them whenever I need to have a good laugh.

A note about content – some of the titles sound a bit risque sexually… but the content is not. Though all of Georgia’s friends are preoccupied with boys and the constantly rate themselves on a “Snogging Scale” (snogging is British for kissing), the girls never do anything beyond kissing with their boyfriends, and there’s very little inappropriate language in the books. Out of all the young adult series I’ve read, this one is pretty clean.

Basically, in the series, (don’t worry – no spoilers – this is VERY general) Georgia Nicolson and her group of friends navigate their way through a year or so of school at Stalag 14, an all-girls high school. The group calls themselves the Ace Gang, and they are absolutely hilarious together – constantly trying to pull little pranks, getting in trouble, and torturing the school’s staff. Georgia’s family is crazy (maybe certifiably) and full of funny situations, and Georgia’s love life is, well, complicated but constantly interesting and exciting.

I’d recommend this series to teenagers… mature upper grade middle school girls through high school and adult readers (especially if you work with or have teenage girls). Here are all ten books of the series, in order:

1. Angus, Thongs, and Full-Frontal Snogging

2. On the Bright Side, I’m Now the Girlfriend of a Sex god

3. Knocked Out By My Nunga-Nungas

4. Away Laughing on a Fast Camel

5. Dancing in My Nuddy-Pants

6. The He Ate My Boy Entrancers

7. Startled By His Furry Shorts

8. Love Is a Many Trousered Thing

9. Stop In The Name Of Pants!

10. Are These My Basoomas I See Before Me?

Don’t Even Think About It by Sarah Mlynowski

dont even think about it

Don’t Even Think About It is a quirky new YA title from Sarah Mlynowski in which almost an entire homeroom of fancy New York tenth graders is given a flawed batch of the flu vaccine, giving twenty-two students the power of telepathy within 24 hours after the shot. As you would expect, there are serious ups and downs to this new ability, and the group of students come together to figure out what to do about it.

Because there’s a whole group of twenty-two students that share this flu-vaccine induced ability to hear people’s thoughts, we really get to know more than just one protagonist. At first this threw me off – I like hearing and connecting to one character’s voice at a time. I do enjoy alternate POV books, but this was like an alternate POV to the extreme. By the time I got used to it, though, I actually enjoyed hearing everybody’s honest thoughts and opinions.

It would be impossible to read this book without thinking about what it would be like to have this ESP power. Would you even want to hear people’s thoughts about you? I’m thinking no… Especially as a teacher of 8th graders. I don’t want to know everything my students are thinking, whether it’s about me or not! But what if you couldn’t choose not to hear people’s thoughts? Your parents, classmates, boyfriend/girlfriend, random people you walk by… So many opportunities to hear things you don’t want to hear.

Of course, because our thoughts tend to be way more filtered than what comes out of our mouths, there was some language and content in this that I don’t normally choose to read and recommend, but honestly it was probably pretty tame in comparison to the actual thoughts of teenagers (and adults). Despite that, though, by the end of the books I found that I really cared about each of these characters and how this worked out for them. It was also really neat to see how hearing each other’s thoughts at first drove them further apart and highlighted their differences, but then brought them closer together as they began to understand each other better.

Overall, Don’t Even Think About It was definitely interesting and at times really funny, but I don’t think it’s one that I’ll want to reread. While the group protagonist thing was interesting, it did keep me from being able to really connect with one single character that would stick with me beyond the experience of reading it for the first time.

You can find it here on Amazon or at your favorite local bookseller after it releases on March 11!

Better off Friends by Elizabeth Eulberg – I LOVE THIS ONE.

better off friends

 

Elizabeth Eulberg is the author of four previous contemporary YA titles, and I’ve had her on my radar since I read Revenge of the Girl With a Great Personality (a super funny and actually sweet YA behind the scenes of children’s beauty pageants and the families of the girls who compete).

Eulberg has an ability to tell a great story full of poignant, really valuable moments that also make you laugh out loud. When I saw she had a new book coming out, I knew I had to read it… especially when I saw it compared to When Harry Met Sally! I mean, come on. Who can resist that?

In Better Off Friends, we get to follow the friendship of Macallan, an eighth grade girl dealing with the still-recent death of her mom, and Levi, an eighth grade boy transplanted from California to Wisconsin. When Macallan is given the task of showing Levi around on their first day of school, she mostly just barely tolerates him until they realize they both love the same quirky British TV show. From there, Levi and Macallan become good friends over the course of the school year.

When high school hits, everybody thinks they’re dating, but they’re still just friends… best friends. The banter between the two of them, and the way they retreat into their own world throughout various situations in the book, is just nothing short of magical in quality. In addition to the alternating point of view between Levi and Macallan as they go back and tell their story, there are also snippets of their present day conversations in between chapters. Eulberg has written a couple of characters here that I would honestly want to hang out with if they were real; they are full of life and so much fun.

The book spans over about four and a half years, which seemed at first like it was moving too quickly, glossing over important things, but by the time I finished I realized the pacing had been perfect – watching Levi and Macallan basically grow up together over those years made the experience even more enjoyable.

Another great thing about Eulberg, and particularly Better Off Friends, is that she tells great stories for a range of YA audiences without profanity or glorified drinking/drug use and sexual situations. This book could be enjoyed by 7th and 8th graders looking forward to good, healthy friendships (and romance) in high school, high school students in the thick of it, college/early career readers reflecting on high school relationships, and moms hoping their kids have people like these in their lives as they navigate young adulthood.

As you can tell, I really, really loved this new title. So fun, smart, witty, and sweet!

Check it out here on Amazon or at your favorite bookseller.

A fun new YA romantic comedy

I’ve been a fan of Cassie Mae for a while. She writes fun romantic young adult and new adult titles, which I’ve reviewed here before… Friday Night Alibi, Reasons I Fell for the Fat Funny Friend, and Switched. She’s back again, writing under the pen name of Becca Ann, and this time it’s a joint novel with her writing partner, Tessa Marie.

In King Sized Beds and Happy Trails, best friends since forever Ryan and Lexie are going on their senior class trip to a ski resort, and through a series of events (all of which make me shudder as a teacher of teenagers who takes students on overnight trips, because if this happened on one of my trips, OMG), they end up sharing a cabin. Just the two of them and one king sized bed.

For Lexie, this is no big deal. She’s sharing a cabin with her best friend, which doesn’t matter much since she’s there to finally catch the eye of one of their classmates who she’s been obsessing over. For Ryan, though, this is a very big deal… his feelings for Lexie went from friend to much-more-than-friend a while back, and watching her pursue another guy is horrible. Thankfully, it’s not long before Lexi realizes the other guy is kind of douchey when she has Ryan so close to her and, well, then things get interesting.

I really love Lexie and Ryan in this. Their story in told in an alternating POV between the two of them which was really well done.  The overall story was cute, funny, and sweet. I recommend this to upper high school and college – though it’s technically Young Adult, it feels more like New Adult to me. I know I’m definitely looking forward to another Lexi and Ryan story already!

Want to join in some fun? Becca Ann and Tessa Marie are hosting a release party today with giveaways on Facebook. It’s a public event, so stop by, join, and enter to win prizes all day long!

king sized beds

In Bloom by Katie Delahanty

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It seems like, in general, the New Adult genre has slipped into a pattern of beginning with a character deeply affected by some horrible tragedy who finds another character deeply affected by some horrible tragedy and they cling tightly to each other and can’t survive life without the hope of their love. Aside from a few authors keeping it fun, like Cassie Mae for example, New Adult authors are giving off this impression that adulthood has to begin with depression or something. It’s annoying.

In Bloom is a breath of fresh air for the New Adult genre. Delahanty has written characters that are realistically flawed, but who do not let the circumstances of life become these huge depressing things that dictate whether or not they survive. If you’re looking for depressing New Adult, this is not it. In Bloom felt to me like a slightly older version of Jen E. Smith’s This Is What Happy Looks Like: charming, romantic, fun, and smartly-written. Delahanty has been shaping these characters for years through her blog, and you can totally tell. They feel like real people.

I loved Olivia as a protagonist. She handles the pressures of moving to LA to pursue her dreams wonderfully, making great friends and ignoring her crazy mom along the way. She gets a fun job and breaks into the Hollywood scene, meeting the front man of her favorite band, Berkeley. She is accident prone and witty and smart, and several times throughout her story I laughed out loud at her antics.

Then there’s Berkeley. He’s sweet and romantic and down-to-earth despite the fact that he’s a world famous rock star, and his pursuit of Olivia is the cutest thing. I developed a total crush on him as I read, and I can only hope he shows up again and again and again in future Delahanty books.

Until there are more books in this series, though, there’s always twitter… The characters in the book tweet at each other at the start of each chapter, but it never occurred to me that there would be actual twitter accounts I could follow. But then I found them, and it was magical. I mean, you usually finish a book and have to say goodbye to the characters, right? Not this time, though… find them on twitter, follow them, and let them interact with you. I hope it makes your day and much as it made mine.

In Bloom twitter

One more thing I loved about this – Delahanty didn’t feel the need to make it sound like a “grown up book” by having her characters cuss all the time. I appreciated that. Like I said, In Bloom is a breath of fresh air. That being said, I wasn’t a fan of the graphic nature of the love scenes. It surprised me because the language was so clean, and I was thinking I could really recommend this to teenagers and students getting out there and making life decisions, but I can’t do that now. Plus, I think the love scenes would have flowed better with the overall tone of the rest of the book if they’d been more modestly written.

In Bloom releases today! Click here to find it on Amazon.

A Bookish Beginning to the New Year…

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Last year, I gave you lots of book recs for Christmas gifts, and from the feedback I got it seemed like you guys really appreciated the help. I’m sorry my list is so late this year. Where did all the time go? How is it 2014 already?

Anyway, let’s consider these ideas for good ways to get your year started off with great stories.

For the upper HS/College aged student who would love to travel: Gayle Forman’s books, Just One Day and Just One Year, center around a girl traveling during the summer after her high school graduation and the guy she happens to meet while in England. That description doesn’t do it justice AT ALL, so just trust me. If you’re only getting one of them, get Just One Day.

For the high school/college girl who loves all things British: Angus, Thongs, and Full-Frontal Snogging by Louise Rennison. This series of books makes me laugh out loud constantly. It centers around Georgia Nicholson, a high school girl with a crazy sense of humor, a crazy family, a crazy cat named Angus, and a crazy crush on a very cool, very hot guy. This series goes on for ten books, and all ten are equally as hilarious. In fact, I love them so much that I once used every bit of my birthday money to buy them all in matching editions. True story.

For anybody who likes to think and be inspired: Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card was just made into a movie about  month ago. The movie was good. The book is infinitely better. People need to read the book. In a lot of ways, Ender reminded me of Jonas from The Giver – both boys are young when they take on the responsibility of changing their worlds for the better, and I’m a sucker for a story showing a young adult making a difference. What impresses me about Ender’s Game, too, is a completely unexpected and really beautiful display of compassion and empathy at the end.

For those who like a good dystopian trilogy: The Divergent Trilogy by Veronica Roth. There are lots of things I like about this. The whole dystopian, perfect society that’s actually completely horrible mostly because of the government thing is really well done in Roth’s trilogy. I also love the protagonist, Tris, because she’s smart and is beyond driven to do the right thing in all situations, causing you at times to want to yell at her through the pages of the book because you actually WANT her to think about herself a little bit. Tris’s love interest, Four, is incredible and totally book-crush worthy. And, without giving anything away, the ending of the trilogy solidified for me a few things about Veronica Roth: she’s super brave, she clearly has faith, and she’s one amazing writer. I put the last book down full of emotions from the book and full of respect for Roth.mpathy at the end. That’s all I can say without giving it away, but know that it’s good. Really good. And it’s not an easy read – I’d even say it’s not necessarily a YA book, but people would argue with me – so it’s good for readers aged 8th grade and up through adulthood, really.

For high school and college girls, period, because we live in crazy times: Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson. In Speak, the protagonist lives through the repercussions of breaking up a big summer party resulting in several upperclassmen getting busted. How did she break up the big party? By calling the police due to something horrible that happened, though we don’t find out what happened until the end of the book. It’s a powerful and important book about the power of your voice and the necessity of speaking out against awful actions.

For the teen (or adult for that matter) interested in classic rock and the Woodstock-era: Are You Experienced? by Jordan Sonnenblick. I really, really loved this. I’ve been a fan of Sonnenblick for a long time, and this might just be my new favorite of his. In it, the main character is transported back in time to experience the Woodstock festival, where he learns crazy things about his family and befriends Jimi Hendrix. Really. It’s not at all cheesy, either, in the way it’s done… totally realistic historical fiction with a smudge of mysterious time-travel.

I’d love to hear what’s on your to-read list for 2014!

Switched by Cassie Mae ~ Blog Hop and Giveaway!

At this point, I’m pretty sure I’ve read everything Cassie Mae has published. And I’ll continue to read everything she publishes.

In Switched, we start with a complicated love square comprised of Kayla, the protagonist, her best friend, Reagan, Reagan’s boyfriend, Talon, and Talon’s best friend, Wesley. So Reagan and Talon are dating and have been for a year. But Kayla is in love with Talon, and Wesley is in love with Reagan. It’s a mess.

As Kayla and Wesley team up to get Reagan and Talon to break up and date them instead (which, let’s be honest, is a reprehensible thing to do to your best friends and begs the question, is all REALLY fair in love and war?) they get closer and closer and feelings start to get confused as to who really loves who (or whom – whatever).

So I spent a fair chunk of this book really frustrated with Kayla for wanting a guy that belonged to her best friend, with Reagan for seeming like an honeslty crappy best friend, and with Talon for seeming entirely clueless. But then there was Wesley. He’s really a GREAT guy character. Total book crush.

Without giving anything away, I’ll say that Cassie turned my frustration right back around on me and, in a well-orchestrated “switch” that I didn’t see coming at all, redeemed the book and more than made up for the time I spent wanting to strangle everybody but Wesley.

Overall, highly recommended for girls in at least their junior/senior years. Some of the language and sexual content was a little much, but the story behind it is good.

You can find Switched here on Amazon, and if you COMMENT below on this post through midnight (PST) on Sunday, Dec. 8, you’ll be entered to win a FREE DIGITAL COPY of Switched! Yay!

Click here to visit Romance @ Random, and make sure you check out a Rafflecopter giveaway for awesome prize packs!

Don’t forget to connect with Cassie on Facebook and Twitter!

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Definitely, Maybe in Love by Ophelia London

Definitely, Maybe in Love is a fun example of what’s good about New Adult books. It features intelligent college students with tons of personality, and they’re all figuring out what kinds of people they want to be when they grow up. There’s funny stuff, chemistry between characters that jumps off the page and will forever change your thoughts on cranberry sauce, and plenty of adventure.

Spring, the main character, is a total green-living zealot who needs some insight from the opposition to take her thesis to the next level. Enter Henry, the opposition she desperately needs wrapped up in a super hot package, and the fireworks and debates take off from there. I enjoyed Spring as a character, though as a fellow vegetarian I was a little annoyed by some of her extremely stereotypical beliefs. But, it kind of added to her character and how she needed Henry in her life to disagree with her and make her grow, so it was a good place for her to start. There were a whole host of relateable, believable characters along with Spring and Henry, and I really enjoyed spending time with them as I read. I could see myself hanging out with them in college.

It’s definitely one that would appeal to upper high school and college students, and for those adults like me who like to pretend we’re still young!

You can find Defintely, Maybe in Love at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Read more about it on Goodreads, too. Enjoy!

Taste Test by Kelly Fiore

For those of us that enjoy reality TV competitions like Master Chef and The Next Food Network Star, Kelly Fiore’s Taste Test has everything we could ever want.

Nora Henderson is a high school senior about to spend her final semester of high school as a contestant on a reality cooking competition. She’s grown up helping her dad in the kitchen of their North Carolina mountain BBQ restaurant, so she has plenty of skill in the kitchen… but can she handle the stress of school, the drama of the competition, and the possibility of a new romance (or two)? It’s really fun to experience everything along with Nora – I enjoyed this the whole way through.

There’s more to this than just your standard romance (as the cover would suggest). I like the way Fiore throws in elements of family drama, romantic comedy, coming of age, and even a pretty solid mystery that keeps you guessing until the end. Don’t worry, though, there’s quite a bit of the swoony romance all of us girls love.

Taste Test will be available in stores on August 27, but you can go ahead and preorder it now – Click here to find it on Amazon. Also, spend some time on Fiore’s website, which is completely adorable and creative, and she’s also doing giveaways leading up to the release of Taste Test.