An Abundance of Katherines by John Green

This book was probably my favorite John Green book. As in most of his books, it featured a nerdy and awkward boy (in this case Colin) who falls for a beautiful but smart girl. I loved this book because of it's witty math humor, sweet plot, and the great writing in general. Really recommend this one to people who like nerdy humor romances.

4 Stars
Jessie

A Northern Light by Jennifer Donnelly

Mattie Gokey is a 16 year old girl living in the outskirts of the Adirondacks in the early 1900s. She aspires to be a writer, but help is always needed at home, and the pressures of society urge her to get married. She works as a waiter in a big inn by Big Moose Lake, when tragedy strikes. Grace Brown is pulled from the lake, pregnant, and drowned by her former lover. They night before, Grace hands Mattie a bundle of letters with the instructions to burn them. After her death, Mattie's curiosity overcomes her and she opens the letters.
I really loved this book. Mattie was strong as a lead character. I like how the book was part Mattie's journey to success, and part mystery with the death of Grace Brown. It was also cool to know that Grace's death actually happened.

5 Stars
Jessie

Born to Fly by Michael J. Ferrari

It's 1941 and Bird McGill is enthralled by planes. She wants to be a fighter pilot, but cannot. On December 7, 1941, Bird and her dad take a quick spin in a neighbor's plane before Bird's birthday party, which no-one attends. 2 months later she, and her family are standing on a train station platform, saying goodbye to their dad as he goes off to war. As he steppes onto the train, he hands Bird something she's always wanted: A P-40 Warhawk plane manual.
Soon, she's taking to the skies with Lt. Peppel, setting up dates for her sister (with Lt. Peppel), trying to catch a sub, and a murderer, terrorist, and a spy. She meets Kenji, a Jap, as he's called and his uncle. Uncle Tomo is charged with the murder of a local man and blowing up a plane factory. He denies this adamently. Bird is waiting for her father to return in a few days to tell the truth about the real man who did it, when Lt. Peppel shows up at her house, with that envelope. That one no-one ever wants to see. Bird is caught on the witness stand, stuck. she can't trust the people in her town. One flicks a lighter, another pass a threat note and smiles. In Geneseo, RI, something is afoot.

5 Stars
Ima

Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist by David Leviathan and Rachel Cohn

Written from each character's point of view, Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist is a great, cool, funny read about two New York kids who meet under the oddest conditions and go out for one night of strange unadulterated craziness. This was a relatively short and enjoyable read. It was fun, but not really my favorite. I think I had high standards from all the hype that it had, and it didn't really live up to them.

3 Stars
Jessie

Delirium by Lauren Oliver

Lena lives in a world where love is seen as forbidden and dirty. Citizens are given a cure at the age of 18, a cure for the disease known as amor deliria nervosa. This disease not only applies to relationships between couples but between family, pets, everything. You can never get too close in her world. The Cure is supposed to create stability, uniformity, happiness, perfection. Lena dreams of this cure, along with her best friend Hana. But the summer before her scheduled cure, the unthinkable happens. She falls in love.
This book was well written, and with a moving and sometimes suspenseful plot. Lena's world was fascinating and made you think. I'd read Before I Fall, which was also by Lauren Oliver, and I think they were both great. This is a great book for those who like a bit of romance and books set in a dystopian era.

4 Stars
Jessie

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

The Kite Runner follows the moving story of Amir, privileged boy growing up in Afghanistan. Amir's Afghanistan is the Afghanistan of a wealthy young boy living in Kabul in the 1970's. Big white houses and being the only famliy to drive an American car down the street. Amir's best childhood playmate is Hassan, a Hazara boy who is actually his servant. Hassan is incoherently loyal to Amir, which annoys Amir to no end. Amir constantly vys for his father's attention, which he tries to gain by competing in the local kite running competitions. However, the Afghanistan Amir knows and loves is changing. Hazaras, an already discriminated against race, are being increasingly violated. After a series of scarring events, Amir and his father finally escape to the United States, where his story is not yet over.

This book was fantastic. It really gave me a view into Afghanistan, not the outsiders view of just poverty, war and the Taliban. There were many graphic scenes, so I do not recommend this book for younger readers, or even for some my own age.

5 Stars

Jessie

Corneila and the Audacious Escapdes of the Somerset Sisters by Lesley M. M. Blume

Corneila Street Englhart is a lonely person, growning up in NYC.  Her mother is a famous pianist, known all over the world. Any play-date that Cornelia has is always about the parent getting to know her mother. 15 minutes is a record time for Cornelia.  One day a new neighbor moves into the other apartment in Cornelia's house. Ms. Somerset has been all over the world and each room in her house is done up like one of the places she has been. There are rooms for India, Morocco, England, and many others. And Ms. Somerset tells stories. Stories about her going around the world with her sisters. How she found her butler, Patal, and dog, Duex. Soon Cornelia is able to make friends with the stories the Ms Somerset has told her.

5 Stars
Ima

Bloomability by Sharon Creech

This book is about a 13 year old girl named Dinnie. She grew up just about everywhere, Kansas, Oklahoma, Oregon, Arkansas... The list goes on. One day, her aunt and uncle show up to take her to Switzerland, out of the blue. Dinnie put up a bit of a fight, but did make it to Switzerland. There, under the Collina d' Oro, The Hill of Gold, in Lugano, , Dinnie goes to an American-international school where her uncle is headmaster. She makes friends with many of the students from all corners of the globe. She doesn't realize it then,

but she his finding where and what her true "Bloomabilities" are.

5 Stars
Ima

The Rising Star of Rusty Nail by Lesley M Blume

This book is about a very talented girl named Franny. She has the

ability to play the piano, with feeling, and, to the point, is a prodigie. She lives in the middle of nowhere, that is Rusty Nail, Minnesota, in the year, 1953. One day, a young man who grew up in the town has come home from NYC, and bringing with him a Russian woman. The town gossips start a committee against the "Commie" and ostracize her. Franny and her rambunctious friend Sandy decide to spy on her one night, soon after she moves in. Franny soon finds that the Madame is someone very special indeed.

5 Stars
Ima

The Demon Spirit by R.A. Salvatore

In this book, elbrayan the ranger has killed the demon dactyl, but his spirit still remains. The father abbot of the Abellican church, father abbot markwhart, has been possessed by the evil demons spirit, causing the father abbot to kill unmercifully, and torture heedless to the devastation he is leaving for his church. Can elbrayan kill markwart, and save the world? Read this amazing book

to find out.

5 Stars

Rory

The Demon Awakens by R.A. Salvatore

I thought this book was very good. A ranger trained by the elves,

elbrayan, has to try and stop the evil demon dactyl from raising an

evil army to take over the world. He and his wife, pony, have to try and stop him, but can they do it? Find out, and read this excellent book by R.A. Salvatore.

5 Stars

Rory

Tall, Dark & Hungry by Lynsay Sands

When Terri flew from England to help her cousin with last minute plans for her wedding, she thought being put up with the groom's brother was odd, but it just gets weirder. She isn't sure what to make of the secretive, seductive Bastien, let alone his cousin, Vincent, an eccentric stage-actor who seems to be taking his latest role as Dracula a little too far. Before long Terri is falling fast for Bastien and he seems to be thinking the same way, but her painful past makes it hard for her to let herself get close to a man who seems to have more than a few problems of his own.

This is very much fluff-fiction, but it was entertaining. I found the characters interesting enough to keep me reading, despite their being stereotypical romance characters. I think the fact that they had some more serious backstory helped with that. I found the romance improbable and ridiculously fast-moving, but that's true of many light romances.

The writing was not the strong point of this book. It lacked a sense of the author's own touch, becoming so generic that it stood out. I also found the author's overuse of long, but common, words when a simpler one would suffice a bit distracting. On the other hand, some of the dialogue was pretty snappy, and the humor wasn't overdone most of the time.

2 Stars
 
Emme

The Awakening by L. L. Foster

Gabrielle can see demons in a way that other people can't, she sees their real form. She can see the unnatural kind of evil that hangs around them. Trained by a priest in killing these creatures, Gaby's life is spent looking over her shoulder and trying not to stand out lest she is caught. But when Detective Luther Cross starts investigating her connection to a body the cops found, Gaby ends up with a whole new set of problems, one of which is that she finds herself attracted to him.

I really liked that the author took a more realistic approach to what it would be like to have the kind of job Gaby has. It isn't shown as glamorous, and Gaby is continually having to worry about hiding what she does. I also found it very interesting that she is shown as religious and believing that her ability to find and kill demons is a gift from God. Most authors try hard to get rid of religion in genre fiction, but the simple fact is that religion is a huge factor in our society. It was nice to see an author write a book that isn't preachy, but acknowledges religion as being a part of a lot of people's lives, including the main character.

The writing wasn't bad, but was rather flat and simple. There were also some spots I felt were rather melodramatic, and could have been toned down a bit with better word choice.
4 Stars
Emme

Hawkes Harbor by S. E. Hinton

Jamie Sommers is a confusing case to his doctor at Terrace View Asylum. He is a young man who will cheerfully and calmly tell stories of narrow escapes from hungry sharks in his days as a sailor, but starts panicking as soon as the sun starts to go down. From what the doctors have found out, Jamie was never a coward and lived a dangerous life few would risk, until he moved to Hawks Harbor. There he went mad under the apparent employ of a strange, old-fashioned man.

This book was very enjoyable. Some people may find it too jumbled and oddly paced, but I thought it was a good way of conveying Jamie's mental state. Jamie himself wasn't a particularly interesting character, but the development of some of the supporting characters (Kell and Grenville, especially) made up for that lack. Character interaction and the dialogue felt very real and solid. The writing sometimes took a turn t'wards the melodramatic, but for the most part was steady and clear.

This is a supernatural horror story that doesn't rely solely on things that go bump in the night to creep you out. Some of the most frighteningly intense scenes only contain threats, but one can easily see how Jamie would go crazy under the constant threat.

The book is pretty short, but manages to pack quite the emotional wallop into the 250 pages. If you like horror that is almost entirely psychological, you may want to give it a go.

4 Stars
 
Emme