Wednesday, October 3, 2012

The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight by Jennifer E. Smith

Hardcover, 236 pages
Published January 2nd 2012 by Poppy/Little Brown 
 
Who would have guessed that four minutes could change everything?

Today should be one of the worst days of seventeen-year-old Hadley Sullivan's life. Having missed her flight, she's stuck at JFK airport and late to her father's second wedding, which is taking place in London and involves a soon-to-be stepmother Hadley's never even met. Then she meets the perfect boy in the airport's cramped waiting area. His name is Oliver, he's British, and he's sitting in her row.

A long night on the plane passes in the blink of an eye, and Hadley and Oliver lose track of each other in the airport chaos upon arrival. Can fate intervene to bring them together once more?

Quirks of timing play out in this romantic and cinematic novel about family connections, second chances, and first loves. Set over a twenty-four-hour-period, Hadley and Oliver's story will make you believe that true love finds you when you're least expecting it. 

I absolutely loved Hadley and Oliver's story. Being a firm believer in the idea that everything happens for a reason, this book was right up my alley. This story was completely relatable to me too because I have missed my plane before and I must say that I was waaaaaaaaaaaaay more panicked that Hadley was. Granted, I was trying to get home to my husband and kids too so I am sure that was not helping my panic!

Hadley and Oliver meet when it seems that everything is going against her and take her on a 24 hour journey where she explores who she is, questions what she really believes and comes out a different person. Stories like this are ones that get us (as readers) thinking and the fact that this one takes course over a single day impacts the plot in ways that would not have been as effective if the story had been drawn out into a longer time span. To choose to write this story like this was amazing and I love that Jennifer did that. 

This super quick read (at least for me) was just what I needed to remind me that everything happens for a reason. We may find love in a hopeless place (sorry... now you can sing the song in your head too! Or watch the video here!!) or find ourselves when we didn't even realize we were lost. Head out to the bookstore or Amazon and get this one! You won't regret it!!

Happy reading!!

Extras:


Join the Facebook page for this novel here! 


Dustin Lance Black, the Oscar-winning screenwriter of Milk, is attached to write and direct the potential movie version of The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight.  More info here. 

Visit Jennifer's site here. 


Friday, April 27, 2012

YA Kindle Freebies...

Hello all!
I have been browsing and found some promising FREE ebooks for the Kindle and wanted to pass them along! Here you go! (Click on the title to link to amazon)


by Courtney Cole

What would you do if you held fate in your hands?
Macy Lockhart is a normal girl with an abnormal bird-shaped birthmark on her wrist. She doesn’t even think twice about the odd marking until strange things begin happening to her and an anonymous gift is left on her doorstep… a beautiful, blood-red pendant. A bloodstone.
It isn’t long before she is surrounded by craziness… ancient high priests, visions and memories that she can’t explain. And that’s just the beginning. She quickly comes to the realization that the bloodstone wasn’t just given to her… it was returned to her. It has been hers all along, for thousands of years…



by KC Neal

Corinne lives an average teenage life working at her dad’s cafe, hanging out with her best friend, and trying to forget a falling-out with her almost-boyfriend Mason. Then she discovers she and Mason are haunted by the same dreams of a dark force that consumes everything in its path. Pursued by shadowy figures and a dangerous woman with secrets from the past, Corinne must find out who her grandmother really was. In her quest to unravel her family’s history, she learns she is destined to protect this world–and the dark world of her dreams. She races to find the answers she seeks before her nightmares break free.



by Megg Jensen

An adoptee raised in a foreign land, sixteen-year-old Lianne was content with her life as handmaiden to the queen, until a spell cast on her at birth activated. Now she’s filled with uncontrollable rage and access to magic she thought had been bled from her people years ago. Even her years of secret training in elite hand-to-hand combat and meditation can’t calm the fires raging inside her.

Her heart is torn between two boys, the one she’s always loved and the one who always ignored her. But when the kingdom threatens to tear itself apart due to rumors surrounding the queen’s alleged affair, who will Lianne protect and who will she destroy?




by Jess Petosa

In 2022, the United States commissioned a group of scientists to experiment with genetic mutations. Their goal was to create a serum that would alter the human genetic code, making the subject stronger and faster. They succeeded but their victory was short lived. Not only had they created a super serum, but also an airborne virus. By 2025, seventy-five percent of the world’s population had perished. The survivors, well their lives would never be the same.

175 A.V.

Ally is an Ordinary; a human immune to the virus. She lives in a settlement outside the City with her mother and twin brother, but lately it doesn’t seem to be enough. She is wrestling between being with her family and volunteering to move to the City, where she can work for the Exceptionals.

Luke is an Exceptional; a superior human being. His ancestors were infected with the virus and lived through it, leaving their super human strength and special abilities to him. He has never given much thought to Ordinarys, despite pressure from his father to choose one from the ORC. But all of that changes when he meets Ally…



by Heather Hildebrand

I killed a girl last night. I did it with my bare hands and an old piece of pipe I found lying next to the dumpster. But that’s not the part that got me. The part that scared me, the part I can’t seem to wrap my head around and still has me reeling, was that when she charged me, her body shifted – and then she was a wolf. All snapping teeth and extended claws. But by the time I stood over her lifeless body, she was a girl again. That’s about the time I went into shock… And that was the moment he showed up.

Now, all I can do is accept the truths that are staring me in the face. One, Werewolves do exist. And two, I was born to kill them. 



by J. Sterling

When Katherine Johns starts dreaming about a boy she doesn’t know, her college roommate Taylor is determined to find him. Convinced he must exist, Taylor is relentless… until she finds out exactly WHO the mysterious stranger really is.

The realization sends the girls down a path of unimaginable heartbreak as they learn how to navigate their new reality.

Follow Katherine & Taylor’s journey through love, friendship and tragedy in this emotionally captivating debut Young Adult novel.  


by Caitlyn Duffy

At the age of 15, Taylor Beauforte has only met her father twice in person. After all, he is the lead singer of a world-famous rock band, constantly on the cover of music magazines and giving interviews on MTV. He pays for Taylor to attend the Treadwell Academy, a prestigious boarding school in Massachusetts, and provides her mother with monthly checks to cover her basic needs, but has never made much of an effort to play an active part in Taylor’s life. Taylor's mom Dawn is the only family she has ever really known, and because of Dawn's hard-partying Hollywood lifestyle, studious Taylor is happiest on the other side of the country in Massachusetts with her nose buried in a book.

When Taylor 's mom unexpectedly dies the summer before Taylor starts her junior year, she receives a crash course in fame. She has no choice but to join her father and his new family on their summer concert tour before she has even had a chance to mourn the loss of her mother. Life as the daughter of a rock star seems like it would be enviable, but Taylor can't figure her dad out. He seems like a supportive authority figure (even if he's kind of a fashion tragedy) , but she is collecting a growing pile of evidence that he's a liar and a cheat. Her stepmother, Jill, can’t seem to decide if she wants to treat Taylor like a girlfriend or a nuisance. Having had no time to grieve and say goodbye to her childhood before being thrust into the limelight, Taylor is suddenly finding herself in situations she could have never imagined before this summer.
With no one else to turn to, Taylor falls head over heels in love with Jake, the teenage son of one of the band's touring groupies. Taylor has growing concerns about Jake's background and the suspicious relationship between his mom and her own father, but is desperate for something real in her life onto which she can build a future. When Jake offers Taylor an opportunity to join him on a whirlwind adventure and leave her problems with her father far behind, Taylor has to decide – should she carve out her own way in the world, or try to repair the relationship she has with her only living parent?

Over the course of the summer with the band, Taylor learns the depths of her own strength, the difficulty of overcoming loss, and that the definition of family means much more than shared bloodlines.




 
by Sarra Cannon

 In Peachville, even the cheerleaders have a dark side...

Harper Madison isn't like other girls. She has extraordinary powers, but her inability to control them has gotten her kicked from so many foster homes she's lost count. Shadowford Home for Girls is her last chance, and she hopes Peachville High will be the fresh start she needs.

But when evidence ties her to the gruesome murder of a Demons cheerleader, Harper discovers this small town has a big secret.

Beautiful Demons is a fast-paced YA novel with magic, mystery, and a touch of romance. This series will appeal to fans of Pretty Little Liars, Hex Hall, and The Vampire Diaries.






And of course.... a classic!


by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
 
THE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES collects the first twelve of these tales—including “A Scandal in Bohemia” (which introduces Irene Adler), “The Red-Headed League,” “The Five Orange Pips,” and “The Speckled Band”—some of the greatest stories in the Sherlock Holmes canon.

• Includes all 104 original illustrations by Sidney Paget done for the Strand Magazine
• A brief introduction
• Biography and selected bibliography of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

After Arthur Conan Doyle introduced Sherlock Holmes in the novel A Study in Scarlet in 1887, he wrote a series of twenty-four short mysteries featuring the detective and his colleague, Dr. Watson, in the pages of the Strand Magazine from 1891 to 1893.

Saturday, April 14, 2012

Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly

Genre: YA Historical Fiction
Publisher:  Delacorte Books for Young Readers
Hardcover, 472 pages

BROOKLYN: Andi Alpers is on the edge. She’s angry at her father for leaving, angry at her mother for not being able to cope, and heartbroken by the loss of her younger brother, Truman. Rage and grief are destroying her. And she’s about to be expelled from Brooklyn Heights’ most prestigious private school when her father intervenes. Now Andi must accompany him to Paris for winter break.

PARIS: Alexandrine Paradis lived over two centuries ago. She dreamed of making her mark on the Paris stage, but a fateful encounter with a doomed prince of France cast her in a tragic role she didn’t want—and couldn’t escape.

Two girls, two centuries apart. One never knowing the other. But when Andi finds Alexandrine’s diary, she recognizes something in her words and is moved to the point of obsession. There’s comfort and distraction for Andi in the journal’s antique pages—until, on a midnight journey through the catacombs of Paris, Alexandrine’s words transcend paper and time, and the past becomes suddenly, terrifyingly present.

Jennifer Donnelly, author of the award-winning novel A Northern Light, artfully weaves two girls’ stories into one unforgettable account of life, loss, and enduring love. Revolution spans centuries and vividly depicts the eternal struggles of the human heart.

 Have you ever read a book and then walked away going, "Dang, I learned a lot from that!" when you never meant to? That is what I felt after I read Jennifer Donnelly's novel. History class gave me a tremendous knowledge base for so much, but reading about a character and having the author's research come to life is nothing that can compare to sitting in a lecture. Throughout this novel, I felt that I truly was living in the character's lives and experiencing all that they were. The emotions that Andi went through were gut wrenching and so very well written that readers can't help but feel her pain as it bleeds off of the page. Jennifer Donnelly has a way of sucking readers in and making them have an instant connection to the characters and their lives. 

I was lucky enough to meet Jennifer in Chicago at NCTE this year and was absolutely star struck. I had been reading this book on the plane and had no clue that she was going to be there. When I walked into the room and saw her, I couldn't believe it. It was fate!! Haha!! When she spoke to us about writing (on a panel with Neal Shusterman, no less) she talked about how the stories that her mother told her are what gave her the idea for this story and so many others. It made me want to go back and think about all the stories that were told to me as a child and find inspiration in them. If a novel like this one comes from it, then I need to run and do it now!! 

Happy reading everyone :) 

Thursday, April 12, 2012

Leverage by Joshua C Cohen

Genre: YA Realistic Fiction
Publisher: Dutton Juvenile
Hardcover, 425 

The football field is a battlefield

There's an extraordinary price for victory at Oregrove High. It is paid on - and off - the football field. And it claims its victims without mercy - including the most innocent bystanders.

When a violent, steroid-infused, ever-escalating prank war has devastating consequences, an unlikely friendship between a talented but emotionally damaged fullback and a promising gymnast might hold the key to a school's salvation.

Told in alternating voices and with unapologetic truth, Leverage illuminates the fierce loyalty, flawed justice, and hard-won optimism of two young athletes. 

I have been branching out and reading books that I may not normally pick up and I am glad that I did with this one. I will be the first to admit that I have a hard time reading books like this because, well, I really don't know why. Maybe they are too real? That may not make sense. As a teacher I see the war of social classes everyday and as much as we all want to say that we had a great childhood and no one made fun of anyone... yeah right! Even within a seemingly similar group of people (the athletes in this case), there are things that separate even them. 

I love, love, love the accurate portrayal of the characters and the difficulties they face. I think that novels like this should be must reads for parents of preteens and teens because they give a glimpse of something that, unfortunately, many teens face today. There are so many books out there that people want to label as "controversial" because they deal with issues like teens facing the pressure of steroids or sex or whatever you want to fill in the blank with. Cohen has done an amazing job shining light onto this topic (in my opinion) and I have already pointed some of my students in the direction of this book... especially my male athletes. Great conversations will continue to come from this book. 

Oh and I could spend hours analyzing this novels cover. Don't you just love it?! It is so simple, yet so powerful! 

Happy reading everyone!

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

There You'll Find Me by Jenny B. Jones

Genre: YA Realistic Fiction, YA Christian Fiction
Publisher: Thomas Nelson Publishers
Paperback, 314 pages

Grief brought Finley to Ireland. LOVE WILL LEAD HER HOME.
Finley Sinclair is not your typical eighteen-year-old. She's witty, tough, and driven. With an upcoming interview at the Manhattan music conservatory, Finley needs to compose her audition piece. But her creativity disappeared with the death of her older brother, Will.

She decides to study abroad in Ireland so she can follow Will's travel journal. It's the place he felt closest to God, and she's hopeful being there will help her make peace over losing him. So she agrees to an exchange program and boards the plane.

Beckett Rush, teen heartthrob and Hollywood bad boy, is flying to Ireland to finish filming his latest vampire movie. On the flight, he meets Finley. She's the one girl who seems immune to his charm. Undeterred, Beckett convinces her to be his assistant in exchange for his help as a tour guide.

Once in Ireland, Finley starts to break down. The loss of her brother and the pressure of school, her audition, and whatever it is that is happening between her and Beckett, leads her to a new and dangerous vice. When is God going to show up for her in this emerald paradise?

Then she experiences something that radically changes her perspective on life. Could it be God convincing her that everything she's been looking for has been with her all along?


I wanted a break from the fantasy/paranormal kick I have found myself in and boy did the Lord knew what he was doing when I picked up this one. I have to say that, as a Christian, I haven't found very many good books that are YA Christian fiction. Some are overbearingly religious (so much so that I am offended by them and others make me wonder why they were even placed in the genre). Jenny B Jones blows all of that out of the water. Her novel does an amazing job showing the true nature of a Christian no matter what their age is- that we struggle with things just as much as everyone else and even though we are believers, we still have times of distress.

Finley is dealing with the loss of her brother and believes that the way to put it all at peace is to go to his beloved Ireland during her senior year in high school through a foreign exchange program. Little does she realize that her life will be completely and utterly altered by her decision to do so. She meets Beckett Rush (teen heart throb) and vows that she will not fall for him or let him get in the way of discovering what God has in store for her. She relies on her brother Will's journal to show her the Ireland that he was able to feel God through. Along the way she meets the bitter Mrs. Sweeney and forms a bond with her that she could never see forming in the beginning. Throughout the novel, Finley was definitely alive and well in my head and heart. 

This is such a well written novel and I love the fact that the religious aspect of the book isn't overpowering and thrown in the readers face. It is such a wonderful portrayal of the real struggles that all teens face no matter who they are or what they believe.  

Visit Jenny here and check out her other books.  (She's a cool cat teacher too!!)

Happy reading everyone :)


 
Blog Design by Imagination Designs
Graphic by Giftseasonstore