Bibliography

Plot Summary:  Afraid your teen has become disassociated from life due to technology?  Get him his very own smoking hot robot companion programmed to reward appropriate behaviors.  When David Sun witnesses a suicide live online and did nothing to intervene, his parents do just that.  Rose is beautiful and funny and every minute learning to be more human–as human as a robot can be.  When David rejects her, she is lost.  She was created, programmed for him.  She decides to do something drastic, and that’s when Charlie steps in and shows her that you don’t have to be human to be a good person.

Critical Analysis:  I liked but did not love this book.  Granted, I am not in the target audience, so take my opinion with a grain of salt.  I think part of my problem was especially at the beginning of the story telling David and Charlie apart.  Later that became easier, but I think it effected my enjoyment of first several chapters and colored the rest of my reading.  Maybe that’s why I liked the latter part o the book better.

There is a definite sense of sly humor and fun infusing the book and the characters that I did enjoy very much.  Rose’s “birth” is very much like a teen trying to come to grips with the person they becoming–who are they in this new body and new adult world?  Later, after David, it feels even more so, as she searches to find her place in the world after losing the purpose she thought was her reason to live.

I loved the details of the corporation, the companions, the secret clinic where the robots could go to have work done.  I also think Cusick does a great job of creating of danger and suspense when the men from the corporation are after Rose and Charlie is doing everything to keep her safe.  This title will appeal to teen boys and girls alike, a rare book that, and find myself looking forward to whatever Cusick does next.

Review Excerpts: “With an almost anthropological eye, first-time novelist Cusick digs into the connections people make–physically, emotionally, and technologically….It’s Rose’s growth, with Charlie’s help after she’s brutally rejected by David, which forms the emotional core of this bittersweet and prescient novel, and which make the teenager-as-robot metaphor work so well.”–Publisher’s Weekly

Bibliography

Plot Summary:  17  year old Louisa Cosgrove wants nothing more than to study to become a doctor, a rare choice for a woman in Victorian England.  When her father, her main supporter, becomes ill and dies, she resigns herself to becoming a lady’s companion instead.  When the carriage pulls up, not at a manor house, but at an insane asylum, Louisa is sure there must have been a mistake.  They don’t even seem to know her true name.  As the truth sinks in, she is determined to survive the horrible conditions, find out who put her there, and get away as soon as she can.

Critical Analysis:  I found this book utterly compelling and was unable to put it down.  I think it was a combination of factors.  The narrative structure alternates between vignettes from Louisa’s past and events happening in her present.  It adds to the mystery, as present Louisa wonders what from her past might have landed her here.  Louisa herself refuses to conform to the expected role of a girl/woman in Victorian times, and this is made even more evident in the secondary characters with which Eagland surrounds her.  Some are sympathetic to Louisa, like her father, and others are not.  As the story goes on, the reader, along with Louisa, learns that most of these characters are not what they seemed, adding if not to their growth, to hers.

The publisher calls this a romance, perhaps a misnomer, or at least misleading, as while there is a romantic thread, this story is focused much more on Louisa than on the romance.  For me, the part of the story that felt the most new and fresh were the scenes in the asylum, both how Louisa was treated and the descriptions of the other women there, their pasts and stories.  To have this shown in such vivid detail and to realize how common a practice it was at times in the past leaves me reeling.  I almost want to seek out some of the diaries or other materials Eagland used for her research, but I’m not sure I could handle it.

Readalikes:  Not long after I finished Wildthorn, I listened to the audio of My Name is Marry Sutter by Robin Oliveira.  Mary Sutter has many parallels to Louisa–upper middle class background, well educated, wants to be a doctor at a time when that was still considered strange.  Mary, however, has the support of her midwife mother, and the benefit (if you want to call it that) of the American Civil War as a training ground.  A story both epic and intimate, of family and of coming of age , of medicine and war,  I highly recommend it as well.

Reviewed from publisher provided egalley downloaded from Netgalley.com  Amazon Affiliate: If you click from here to Amazon and buy something, I receive a percentage of the purchase price.

Bibliography

Plot Summary:  Ordinary Phoebe meets extraordinary Mallory in seventh grade, and they become better than best friends, inseparable.  Years later when Phoebe meets Mallory’s brother, Ryland, she falls for him hard only slowly coming to realize that neither Mallory or Ryland are exactly what they seem.  When she discovers what they really want, she must decide to be extraordinary to survive.

Critical Analysis:  I read this book weeks ago, but I have been thinking about it ever since.  In this book, even more so than the previous (Impossible) Werlin builds an amazingly intense suspenseful story focused on a small select set of of characters.  Add to this the elements of fairy, friendship, family, history, loyalty, love, and self worth and you have something that is much more than another thriller and beyond another teen paranormal romance.  I am in awe of Werlin’s writing and character and world building skills.

That being said, something about the construction and plot of this book leaves me feeling separate or apart from the characters and the action.  But again, as I type this, I can even see the genius there.  Phoebe herself and in the end Mallory as well are separate and apart from their world.  Phoebe would not be Phoebe nor Mallory Mallory if they were able to turn to a supportive network of family and friends.  Again Werlin has written an, for lack of a better term, adult book that deserves wide readership beyond the teen area.

Review Excerpts: “In the hands of a less talented author, this would be a hot mess. Happily, Werlin crafts her characters so deftly and unrolls the story so cleverly that … readers will be under the spell till the end”–Booklist

“Werlin smoothly blends contemporary realism and fantasy, here basing the story on the real historical figure Mayer Rothschild and spinning his family’s extraordinary success into a supernatural bargain. … Phoebe’s final reckoning with the faeries tests her own inner strength; ultimately her survival depends on it — just as in the real world.”–Hornbook

“”Beguiling . . . This proudly Jewish fantasy offers a compelling tale of friendship and a refreshing antidote to faerie stories about that one special girl deserving of supernatural love.”–Kirkus Reviews

“Werlin raises interesting questions about honesty, love, and what it truly means to be ‘extraordinary.’ ”–Publisher’s Weekly

Reviewed from publisher provided advanced copy.  Amazon Affiliate: If you click from here to Amazon and buy something, I receive a percentage of the purchase price.

Plot Summary:  On her second case for the Agency, Mary Quinn finds herself in the seamy side of Victorian London, pretending to be a boy while she spies on the construction site of the clock tower of the Houses of Parliament where a mysterious death occurred.  Was it murder or an unfortunate accident?  When the handsome James Easton arrives to do some investigating of his won, she worries both that he’ll recognize her and he won’t.

Critical Analysis:  A solid second book in The Agency trilogy.  Interesting enough, I find it more squarely in the conventional mystery column than the previous, and perhaps a little less interesting to me personally.  Except for the climatic scene  near the end, there wasn’t was much danger and suspense as in the first book.

What was very well done was showing the contrast between the classes, the haves and the have nots, made very plain by Mary’s moving between the two, as Mark on the construction site and as a rich lady doling at alms to the dead man’s family.  The return of James Easton is a welcome one, although again not as much fun as book one.  A little more of Mary’s past is revealed, but I hoped for more from her and for her in this story, as in many places it felt like she was less participant than observer.  I would have liked more details about the agency and the women behind it as well, but you can only put so much in one book.

I cheer any and all true mysteries for teens, so this is a welcome addition.  The promise of the third book awaits.  Dare I hope that Lee and Candlewick have considered giving readers more Mary Quinn and the Agency?

Readalikes:  Mary Quinn reminds me a little bit of another Mary who has her series of mysteries:  Mary Russell.  They are both independent and intelligent with secret or mysterious pasts.  Of course, this series by Laurie King also features the greatest detective of all, Sherlock Holmes.

Reviewed from publisher provided advanced copy.  Amazon Affiliate: If you click from here to Amazon and buy something, I receive a percentage of the purchase price.

Plot Summary:  Scholarship student at an elite girls school, Raye jumps at the chance to help queen bee Ella get back at her ex-boyfriend Julian by pretending to be someone she’s not in hopes of sabotaging and embarrassing him.  She didn’t expect to fall for him, and the fall out from Ella and the rest of the group shows her who her real friends are.

Critical Analysis:  Griffin does not break new ground here, and yet this is a compellingly readable novel for several reasons.  First of all, again, another author who recognizes the craft that goes into writing a shorter tighter story.  Griffin could have added more scenes. more details but part of what drives this book forward is the tight intense focus of the characters and their actions.  The reader really feels what Raye feels, because of the construction of the plot.

Second, Griffin has added depth and dimension to what could have been stock characters.  The queen bee with her OCD tendencies in other situations could have been low man on the totem pole.  In the glimpses of Ella’s home life, we are shown just that, she struggles to be accepted by and for approval from her family.  The good guy that Raye falls for is indeed too good to be true, he can’t stand up to those who are bullying and harassing her.  Other writers would have painted him as the hero.  Instead we get a very realistic teen who can’t afford to risk his own image for someone else.

I think this topical timely novel will practically sell itself because of the intriguing cover.  I hope it leads teens to thinking not only about their online lives, but their offline relationships as well.

Review Excerpts:  “Canny use of details makes Griffin’s characters fully realized and believable….There are darker, more powerful stories of cyber-bullying out there, but strong pacing and a sympathetic protagonist ought to keep readers hooked.”–Publisher’s Weekly

Reviewed from publisher provided advanced copy.  Amazon Affiliate: If you click from here to Amazon and buy something, I receive a percentage of the purchase price.

Bibliography

Plot Summary:  Durango is the chief of a small band of mercenaries who live by their own code of behavior on dystopian Mars.  Joining Durango to defend a community of miners from the cannabalistic Draeu are second in command Vienne, mercenaries for hire Fuse and Jenkins, old timer Ockham, and regulator wanna be Jean-Paul.

Critical Analysis:  At ALA this year, I attended the YA Author Coffee Klatch.  When David Macinnis Gill sat down and started describing this book about a future Mars where the planet stinks because of the intentional pollution to make it livable, I was interested.  When he talked about how the idea for symbiarmor came from an exercise at a writing conference with Orson Scott Card and was taken from a journal with here and now technology, I was intrigued.  When he started talking about an assassin ballerina, I knew I had to get my hands on this book.  (Plus the title alone makes me want to play that Soundgarden song over and over and over again).  I went to the HarperCollins exhibit, they had none left.  But many thanks to the very kind publishing assistant who tracked a copy down and sent it my way.

It was worth the effort.  This book reminds me why I love science fiction.  (And yes, in the technical sense, this is a dystopia, but even more I am reminded of good old futuristic based in science science fiction.)  And witty dialogue and adventure and romance and lots of shooting and blowing things up and monsters both created and real and yes, even artificial intelligence.   There is even some character growth and development in between the plot twists and explosions.  This book has all of that and more, and makes me hope for a sequel as well as the beginning of a trend:  Please sir, can I have some more?

Readalikes:  I was greatly reminded of Timothy Zahn’s Dragon and Thief, which features a symbiotic relationship between a boy and a dragon who requires a host to live.  It also features lots of action, adventure, and futuristic setting and space ships.

Review Excerpts: “If intelligent sophomoric humor exists, Gill is the master at creating it….Readers will have a hard time turning the pages fast enough as the body count rises to the climactic, satisfying ending, which will leave new fans hopeful for more adventures.”–Booklist

Reviewed from publisher provided advanced copy.  Amazon Affiliate: If you click from here to Amazon and buy something, I receive a percentage of the purchase price.

Plot Summary:  Jessica Packwood is your average American teen, getting ready to start her senior year of high school.  This year will be her year, but maybe she should be careful what she wishes for.  On the first day of school Lucius Vladescu shows up.  He is mysterious, handsome and has old world manners.  He’s also arrogant and a snob.  And a vampire who has come to the United States from Romania to claim his betrothed–Jessica, who it turns out, is also a vampire.  What’s a girl to do?  Lucius and becoming a vampire were not in the plan.  But when a beautiful cheerleader sets her sights on him, and then a contingent of threatening vampires shows up, Jessica realizes she must do something…

Critical Analysis:  This book was recommended to me after I read Hearts at Stake by Alyxandra Harvey and commented on one of the library listservs that I would happily take many more lighthearted  or humorous vampire romances over Twlight wannabes any day.  I think the beauty of Jessica’s Guide is that Fantaskey is presenting everything in a straightforward manner but not taking anything too seriously.  To me, if you remove the vampires, you are still left with a somewhat satirical look at life in a middle American high school, and what happens when a teenage girl realizes there is more to life and to herself than what she has been lead to believe.

This is Jessica’s story, but the letters that Vlad writes home give the reader insight into his character and thoughts which are so on point for skewering that same middle American world.  The added details of Jessica dealing with the changes that are happening to her as she prepares to become a vampire, and the addition of details from the book Vlad gives her are again so funny.  And yet, with all the vampires, threats of war and violence, humor, cheerleaders, dates and dances, in the end the reader is rooting for Jessica to take a stand for herself and the person she realizes she loves.  (It is obvious that Kirkus reviewers and I will have to agree to disagree on Fantaskey.)

Readalikes:  Hearts at Stake by Alyxandra Harvey is another humorous, fun, lighter look at vampires.  While the characters are teens, the Drake family and their friends are too busy fighting off other vampires and vampire hunters to worry too much about things like going to school.  However, they do find time for a little romance.

Jekel Loves Hyde by Beth Fantaskey, yes this seems obvious as a choice, if you like something read more by that author.  In this case, there are similarities in the set up, a normal high school girl discovers she and the boy she is coming to love are not what she thought, but this book was darker in tone and theme and I thought had a deeper message.

Review Excerpts:  “Fantaskey makes this premise work by playing up its absurdities without laughing at them, endowing Jessica with a coolly ironic sensibility and Lucius with old-world snobberies that Jessica’s girlfriends find irresistible….The romance sizzles, the plot develops ingeniously and suspensefully, and the satire sings.”–Publisher’s Weekly

“Fantaskey’s fast-paced story is full of plot twists and turns that keep readers guessing until the very end. The story is highly entertaining with plenty of action, drama, romance, as well as self-discovery.”–School Library Journal

“Fantaskey’s novel is far more than a romantic fantasy. As Jessica wrestles with issues of identity, she must also grapple with her body’s physical changes and her newfound sexuality…. Jessica is a witty, spunky protagonist with authentic insecurities and inner conflicts.”–VOYA

“Populated with thoroughly flat characters, this vampire romance, despite charming moments, makes Twilight look like a feminist handbook.”–Kirkus Reviews

Reviewed from public library copy.  Amazon Affiliate: If you click from here to Amazon and buy something, I receive a percentage of the purchase price.

Plot Summary:  Elizabeth is determined to be a good wife and mother.  She doesn’t love her new husband, but she is grateful to him until she starts to uncover details about his past dealings with her father.  Her sister, Diana is determined to forget all about Henry, but all the adventure in all the exotic places in the world may not be enough.  Their former ladies’ maid, Carolina continues to rise through society but hiding her past may cost her the one thing she wants most.

Critical Analysis:  I have read and enjoyed all four of the Luxe novels.  Matter of fact, the very first book I reviewed here was the first one, Luxe. I still feel that what Godbersen does so well is combine an interesting soap opera kind of story with a real look at what is really proper behavior and the difference between the classes, especially in the character of Carolina, who was in the lower class but moves to the upper class when she inherits some money.  She learns the hard way that money can buy you friends but not love or respect.  A similar example can be seen in Diana who refuses to conform to what is expected of a lady of her stature.

The best thing for me about this last book is how satisfying it was.  Everyone gets what they deserve in the end, according to how they have behaved throughout the series.  I would say more, but I don’t want to spoil it.  On a personal note, thank you Ms. Godbersen for setting story and character arcs and sticking to them, resisting the temptation to extend the series to more volumes.  Sometimes it is best to leave the reader wanting more.

Readalikes:  As with the first Luxe novel, I am reminded of The Gilded Age by Mark Twain and Charles Dudley.  Not his most well known work, but I think this series is the perfect opening to introduce it to teens and others, and also that it might make a great English or History reading, as the title is where the name for the time period came from.

Review Excerpts: “Readers of this series will not be disappointed with this final installment. It would be best to start with the first book and enjoy each title in order.”–Children’s Literature

Reviewed from public library copy.  Amazon Affiliate: If you click from here to Amazon and buy something, I receive a percentage of the purchase price.

Bibliography

Plot Summary:  In 19th century England, Bet and Will, childhood friends though she is a daughter of a maid and he the son of  wealthy family, concoct a plan so both can get what they want.  Bet, an education, and Will, a chance to become a soldier in the army.  Pretending to be a boy can’t be that hard, can it?  But Bet didn’t think about how to deal with her period, undressing in the same room as a boy, and falling in love.

Critical Analysis:  I found this book to be very refreshing.  First of all, it is less than 200 pages long.  In a time when so many writers for teens have followed in J.K. Rowling and Stephenie Meyer’s wake penning books that seem to go on and on (and often for no apparent reason other than they can) I am glad that there are still writers out there to display the skill that is needed to create a whole world and a story in fewer pages with less words.  Secondly, so glad to see a story like this that doesn’t feel like it needs magic or paranormal elements to make it complete.  Instead Baratz-Logsted gives us a charming heroine living in a well described historical setting.

Bet is probably the best thing about this book.  From the moment she is introduced, you can’t help but want her to succeed, to pull of her attempts to disguise herself as a boy, to get the education she wants.  You root for her to find solutions to problems she didn’t anticipate and hold your breath when she comes close to being discovered.  A close second is the setting, description, and events at the boys’ boarding school.  It reminds me so strongly of other such schools in books and movies, from Dead Poet’s Society to Harry Potter.  I think this is a rare work of historical fiction that might have wide appeal across ages, grades, and genders.

Readalikes:  The book reminded me strongly of the first Song of the Lioness book, Alanna: The First Adventure by Tamora Pierce where Alanna trades places with her brother Alan disguising herself as a boy so that she can train to become a knight.

Review Excerpts: “…Bet’s descriptive, intimate, first-person narrative incorporates historical details and diverse characters….Despite some improbable elements, historical-fiction fans will likely find Bet an appealingly lively heroine as she pursues her dreams and makes unexpected discoveries in learning, life, and love.”–Booklist

“Baratz-Logsted amusingly describes the lengths to which Bet goes to pass as a boy (cutting off her hair) and keep her secret (insisting on changing clothes in the dark). Readers will root for Bet to the very end, as she proves that from lemons can come the sweetest lemonade.”–Publisher’s Weekly

Reviewed from publisher provided advanced copy.  Amazon Affiliate: If you click from here to Amazon and buy something, I receive a percentage of the purchase price.

The program I enjoyed most was “Focus on Young Adult Romance.”  Moderated by teen librarian extraordinaire Amy Alessio featuring YA romance authors Ally Carter, Melissa de la Cruz, Simone Elkeles, and 2008 RWA librarian of the year Susan Gibberman, I wish I had recorded the whole program, but here are some highlights.

Simone on becoming a YA writer and reader:  She hated reading as a teen.  When she was an adult and had a kid of her own, in the winter they would go to the library to “mess up the kids’ section.”  She happened to pick up an Oprah book and read it straight through.  However, it was sad.  So she then picked up her first romance and loved it.

Ally on becoming a YA writer and reader:  She too was a reluctant reader, bored with the books available.  She says she went from Berenstein Bears to Barbara Taylor Bradofrd.  Then she heard about S. E. Hinton, a teen girl from Oklahoma who wrote great books, one of which was made into a movie with Tom Cruise.  Ally thought, I’m a teen girl from Oklahoma, that’s what we do.  Romance for teens is different, the happily ever after can be different from a date to a moment to a dance to an agreement to see other people.

Melissa on writing:  She writes paranormal romance for teens and teens love paranormal romance because it is a fantasy of forever love, it provides an escape.  She writes about the pleasure of reading, her parents read for pleasure and read widely.  She reads for pleasure and entertainment.

Simone on injecting romance into a book:  Romance is my focus, my characters wouldn’t be their true selves if they didn’t fall in love with this person who helps them become that true self.

Ally on injecting romance into a book:  Romance is what happens when people aren’t trying to kill you.  (Her series is set at a spy school.)  All teenage girls with crushes are spies, these girls just have the training to back it up.  Romance allows us to show another side of the characters.  It’s not realistic to portray teenage girls and not have them interested in romance.  Her characters aren’t looking for big major love, but are interested and curious about the opposite sex.

Melissa on injecting romance into a book:  Teens think about boys, sometimes it seems like it is the center of their universe, but not really, they also have family and friends who are always there.  This is what she tried to capture in her books.  I don’t set out to write a book for teens, I write a book that appeals to me.  I remember it (being a teen) misery, crushes, friends you trust so much.  Everything is a first, an adventure, love is first love.

Simone on realistic romance:  Characters must act like who they are.  Gang members fight, cuss, have sex.  Girls not so much.  Avoid teaching a lesson and teenspeak.

Ally on “clean” realistic romance:  I’m a gosh dang darned kind of person so I write gosh dang darned kind of books.  I’m not censoring myself, my 15 year olds (characters) are young because they have been in this sheltered world.  It is realistic because they are trying to figure boys out and where they fit in a man’s world.

Melissa on realistic romance:  I was a good girl, but being a teen was all about rebelling.  In my mind I snuck out, I wanted to be naughty, bad.  She lived in New York, saw how kids in the city were, the trendy scene where everyone was smoking, drinking, “so old,” living the Gossip Girl life.  Her characters may look like teens, but in reality they are 1000s of years old New York City kids.  Sometimes that gets her in trouble, when one of her characters had an affair with a 40 year old, editors wanted to make them a little younger.  I’m going to keep doing what I do because that’s what I like, write what I want to write.

Simone on diversity in YA romance:  She’s written books with Latino, Israeli and now gay characters.

Melissa on diversity in YA romance:  I’m everyone’s Asian friend with a Spanish last name.  Her Blue Bloods series has roots on the Mayflower, but other books have diverse characters.  The world of Blue Bloods allows for vampires with diverse backgrounds, like a very old Asian vampire.

Ally on diversity in YA romance:  A spy school needs to be diverse, it would be a bad spy school without diverse students.  Someone in the school can disappear in any corner of the world.