Review: Golden

Golden by Jessi Kirby Series: Stand Alone Published by Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers on May 14th 2013 Genres: Young Adult-Contemporary/Thriller Source: FTC: Exchange for honest opinion, Publisher Buy on Amazon Goodreads Seventeen-year-old Parker Frost has never taken the road less traveled. Valedictorian and quintessential good girl, she’s about to graduate high school without ever having kissed her crush or broken the rules. So when fate drops a clue in her lap—one that might be the key to unraveling a town mystery—she decides to take a chance. Julianna Farnetti and Shane Cruz are remembered as the golden couple of Summit Lakes High—perfect in every way, meant to be together forever. But Julianna’s journal tells a different story—one of doubts...

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Review: The Girl Who Was Supposed To Die

The Girl Who Was Supposed To Die by April Henry Series: Stand Alone Published by Henry Holt and Co. BYR on June 11th 2013 Genres: Young Adult-Contemporary/Thriller Source: FTC: Exchange for honest opinion, Publisher Buy on Amazon Goodreads “Take her out back and finish her off.” She doesn’t know who she is. She doesn’t know where she is, or why. All she knows when she comes to in a ransacked cabin is that there are two men arguing over whether or not to kill her. And that she must run. In her riveting style, April Henry crafts a nail-biting thriller involving murder, identity theft, and biological warfare. Follow Cady and Ty (her accidental savior turned companion), as they race against the clock to stay alive. Wanting something a bit different to dive into, I...

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Interview with Janet Gurtler

How I Lost You by Janet Gurtler Series: Stand Alone Published by Sourcebooks Fire on April 23rd 2013 Genres: Young Adult-Contemporary Buy on Amazon Goodreads There are a few things Grace Anderson knows for sure. One is that nothing will ever come between her and her best friend, Kya Kessler. They have a pact. Buds Before Studs. Sisters Before Misters. But in the summer before senior year, life throws out challenges they never expected. And suddenly the person who's always been there starts to need the favor returned. Grace and Kya are forced to question how much a best friend can forgive. And the answer is not what they expected. Hello and welcome! Today I have a great interview with Janet Gurtler! Why do you write for teens? I love writing about this time in...

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Review: Prisoner B-3087

Prisoner B-3087 by Alan Gratz Series: Stand Alone Published by Scholastic on March 1, 2013 Genres: Young Adult-Historical Buy on Amazon Goodreads Survive. At any cost. 10 concentration camps. 10 different places where you are starved, tortured, and worked mercilessly. It's something no one could imagine surviving. But it is what Yanek Gruener has to face. As a Jewish boy in 1930s Poland, Yanek is at the mercy of the Nazis who have taken over. Everything he has, and everyone he loves, have been snatched brutally from him. And then Yanek himself is taken prisoner -- his arm tattooed with the words PRISONER B-3087. He is forced from one nightmarish concentration camp to another, as World War II rages all around him. He encounters evil he could have never imagined,...

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Review: The End Games

The End Games by T. Michael Martin Series: Stand Alone Published by HarperTeen on May 7th 2013 Genres: Young Adult- Dystopian/Post Apocalyptic Source: Publisher Buy on Amazon Goodreads It happened on Halloween. The world ended. And a dangerous Game brought it back to life. Seventeen-year-old Michael and his five-year-old brother, Patrick, have been battling monsters in The Game for weeks. In the rural mountains of West Virginia, armed with only their rifle and their love for each other, the brothers follow Instructions from the mysterious Game Master. They spend their days searching for survivors, their nights fighting endless hordes of “Bellows”—creatures that roam the dark, roaring for flesh. And at this Game, Michael and Patrick are very good. But The Game is...

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