Audience Pick!

Title: Girl at Sea
Author: Maureen Johnson
Category: Fiction, Young Adult
Rating: 2.5/5
Why I Read It: Because you told me to! And I wanted to get in the mood for my upcoming vacation to the beach.

Summary: 17-year-old Clio just finagled a job where her crush works. But when her mom gets an out-of-town work assignment, Clio has to put her plans on hold and hang out with her dad on a boat in the Mediterranean. Sound fun? You haven’t met Clio’s dad.

Review: Maureen Johnson cracks me up. I read her blog religiously.

That said, this wasn’t the MJ book for me. I much preferred Suite Scarlett.

I loved the romance, and the humor cracked me up as always. But the middle felt too slow. Sometimes, it felt like details were included not because they were important to the story but because they set up a good joke.

A little taste of what I’m talking about, where Clio is getting a feel for the kitchen on the boat:

There was a lot more food in the galley now than there had been the night before. The yacht was packed like a UN provision ship. Eight loaves of bread were piled in the corner. Three cardboard boxes stuffed full of vegetables sat on the floor. Another two of fruit. A paper bag revealed meat. Just meat. The refrigerator had been filled with fresh fish—heads and all—trapped in clear plastic bags. There was something murderous about it. Like the Mafia had taken these fish out. These fish slept with the fishes.

I’m not sorry I finished this book because it was entertaining. But if this is the only MJ book you’ve read and it didn’t wow you, you have to give Suite Scarlett a chance.

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Title: First Light
Author: Rebecca Stead
Category: Fiction, Middle Grade
Rating: 2.5/5
Why I Read It: Becky at Becky’s Book Reviews enjoyed this one, so I decided to check it out.

Summary: This is a story of two kids from completely different worlds: 12-year-old Peter goes to Greenland with his parents on a research expedition, but his mom is teetering on the edge of another bout of depression. 14-year-old Thea lives in an isolated settlement called Gracehope, where they’re running out of space but no one will let her explore new areas.

Review: The premise created immediate mystery in my mind and kept me reading to find out how the worlds might intersect. Here’s the opening that grabbed me:

Most boys his age had never touched paper. There was little left. Paper was reserved for fine drawing and important documents. Mattias knew even before he could skate that if he were to harm any of it, if he were to crease one corner of one sheet, the consequences would be serious. But Mattias could not resist his mother’s drawing table.

In the end, the story came together well.

But I didn’t always enjoy the writing, namely:

• Too much telling—After a piece of dialogue, oftentimes a statement reiterated what we just learned in the dialogue. The quote below is an example of this.
• Exclamation heavy—I know, I’m being petty. But exclamation points seem silly in most cases.
• Sappy—The story got overly sentimental at times, especially near the end.

This isn’t the most compelling quote, but it’s a good example of the first issue listed above:

It was cold. At the steepest parts, they gave up walking and scooted along the tunnel floor in a sitting position, bracing themselves with their heels. This meant sitting in the icy stream that still rushed down the tunnel; their furs kept them dry, but couldn’t entirely protect them from the chill.

“Is it, uh, usually like this?” Peter asked. He was breathing hard. “With the water?”

“No,” Thea said fiercely, so that he wouldn’t ask more. She couldn’t help feeling a bit mean.

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Nerds Heart YA Update: This is the last review I’ll post before I start posting my NHYA reviews! And don’t forget to enter the giveaway to win Cracked up to Be, The Latent Powers of Dylan Fontaine, or Leftovers. If you enter now, you’ll have a 1 in 5 chance of winning!

Title: How to Be Bad
Author: E. Lockhart, Sarah Mlynowski, Lauren Myracle
Category: Fiction, Young Adult
Rating: 2.5/5
Why I Read It: I loved The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart.

Summary: Jesse’s mom has cancer. Vicks’s boyfriend went to college and hasn’t called. Mel is desperate for friends. So they all pile into the car for a road trip.

Review: First, a disclaimer. I haven’t had great luck with books that have alternating points of view. With that said:

• The Bad—The narration in this book alternated between the three girls, and I didn’t ever truly connect with any of them.
• The Good—I enjoyed the writing, and the plot kept me reading.

But without a connection to the main characters, plot and good writing weren’t enough for me.

Here’s a snippet of Vicks and her older brother Penn talking on the phone while he’s a the grocery store:

“I’m in the detergent aisle right now, looking for a box of—oh, there it is. You think Tide is better, or All?” [Penn says.]

“Which has a prettier box?” I ask.

“I don’t want a pretty box. I want a dude box.”

“Uh-huh,” I deadpan. “You want a dude box of laundry detergent.”

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Title: Bloom
Author: Elizabeth Scott
Category: Fiction, Young Adult
Rating: 2.5/5
Why I Read It: A lot of YA readers love this author, but I didn’t love Something, Maybe. So I wanted to give another of her books a try.

Summary: Not-popular high school junior Lauren is dating uber-popular and gorgeous Dave. That’s enough to make any girl ecstatic. Only Lauren’s not.

Review: What’s wrong with me that I’m not loving Scott’s books? Like Something, Maybe, this one was just okay for me.

I did thoroughly enjoy the romantic scenes. Ahem.

But there was too much internal dialogue for my taste, and I thought the ending was a little melodramatic and bordering on cheesy.

Have I just not picked the best Scott books to start with? Am I alone in not falling in love with them?

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Audience Pick!

Title: Something, Maybe
Author: Elizabeth Scott
Category: Fiction, Young Adult
Rating: 2.5/5
Why I Read It: Because you told me to!

Summary: 17-year-old Hannah tries not to get noticed. But with a mom who makes a living wearing skimpy clothes in front of a webcam, and an estranged 70-year-old dad with a reality TV show featuring him and scantily clad “special girls,” it can be hard not to come across as a freak. When Hannah finally wants someone to notice her—namely her crush Josh—will the right things get noticed?

Review: This was a sweet story. I really wanted to fall in love with it like other YA book bloggers are doing, but I didn’t. I didn’t dislike it, but it was just okay for me.

Putting on my YA-nnabe hat, here are the reasons I think this one fell short:

• Predictable—You can see the plot turns coming a mile away. I don’t mind that with middle-grade novels, but in YA I want to be surprised, at least once.
• Kind of slow—The first half dragged for me. It seemed like Hannah was just shuffling between work, school, and driving around with her best friend while they deconstructed her love life.

On the other hand, it’s hard to beat a first line like this!

Everyone’s seen my mother naked.

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