Melina Marchetta is the author of Australian young adult titles Looking for Alibrandi, Saving Francesca, On the Jellico Road and Finnikin of the Rock. March celebrates the release of Melina’s new book, The Piper’s Son. I recently had the opportunity to catch up with Melina on the phone during her Australian tour, and Melina answered a few of our questions about The Piper’s Son and writing in general. Just a warning, there may be a few spoilery type moments throughout the interview. Enjoy!

Congratulations on the release of The Piper’s Son on Monday. It was an excellent book, and I enjoyed it immensely.

For readers that haven’t read Saving Francesca, I was impressed by the fact that you could read The Piper’s Son, without feeling lost in all the characters. Was this something important for you during the writing of the book?

MM: Defiantly. I didn’t want– in actual fact, I like the idea of people reading The Piper’s Son and then going ‘oh I’d like to go back and see what they were like when they were young’. The thing that probably was the hardest was making sure I wasn’t writing The Piper’s Son without the Francesca readers in my head and that meant sometimes what I was trying to do was maybe spend a bit more time on, say the Will/Francesca relationship. I had to really make sure that didn’t dominate, so that’s why I kind of sent Will overseas, because I had to remind myself not everyone will have an emotional investment in that relationship. So I think that if people have read it will be great to see what they were like five years later but I certainly didn’t want it [Saving Francesca] to be a pre-requisite.

Tom seems to go through some major changes and developments in this books, starting off from a bad place and moving into one that ultimately seems him thrive with new life. Was it difficult to get this development of the character down or did Tom’s progression come naturally?

MM: It came slowly, but naturally. Like I didn’t put– I suppose to have a really basic understanding of where it’s going to go, as the writer you kind of know he’s going to be okay so you just have to work out how to get him to that point and I let it come naturally. I knew that it was going to be once he was in these two locations, one being Georgie’s house and the other being the Union pub and I knew it was going to be through his correspondence with Tara Finke but I had to make sure that that was paced really nicely rather than rushing into it. What worries me sometimes, and I know I was worried about this in the re-writes, was at what point things were happenings sometimes I thought ‘oh god, Tara doesn’t really come into it properly until after page 100, I wonder if people are going to hang out that long’, things like that. But it was kind of the pace of it was really quite important that I let it come as naturally as I could.

To me, Georgie was almost as an important character in the novel as Tom was. Was Georgie always going to have an important role, or did that develop over the course of writing?

MM: I think so; I can’t remember it being any other way in my head that they were going to get a chapter kind of each. I didn’t want it to be a he said, she said, where you kind of get a different perspective of the same incident so I knew it was just going to be his story one chapter, hers the next but somewhere probably a quarter or three quarters into the novel a lot of the times they were together with all their worlds in the same chapters. She was very important to me as a character. I think that has a lot to do with the fact that when I was writing her she was my age and I felt that probably as someone over forty I had probably something to say about relationships and life in general. I love her as much as I love Tom and I love their relationship as prickly as it is. Sometimes what worries me, especially you could tell me this as a reader closer to Tom’s age, I was worried that when people were in Georgie’s chapter they would want to be in Tom’s chapter. Or else people were in Tom’s chapter they wanted to be in Georgie’s chapter. So did you feel that you had a yearning to be in Tom’s chapters when he wasn’t quite on the scene?

Occasionally, but I also really enjoyed reading inside Georgie’s mind and seeing where she was going. I thought she was quite a highlight of the book. I thought there was quite a good balance there.

MM: Because I think that sometimes people– a friend of mine was telling me that, she was actually my age which was surprising, she said I kept on jumping ahead and going to everyone of the letters between Tara and Tom. But then it made me worried. I thought ‘oh god I hope people don’t push Georgie’s story aside’ because to me, what’s taking place in Georgie’s life is very similar to what’s taking place in Tom’s life. They’re both stuffing up relationships, and they’re both grief stricken and they both don’t know how to get out of a particular rut. But they are 20-so years apart, and sometimes there’s no big difference between people, except when you’re older, there are probably bigger ramifications, than when you’re younger.

The London bombings shocked the world on a global scale. What I found interesting was how you decided to show how the aftermath of these attacks can change a family for better and worse. What influenced your decision to use the London attacks as the background to losing Uncle Jim?

MM: Because I think for me, I didn’t want this novel to be about terrorism at all. I didn’t want it to be, I can’t say I didn’t want it to be political, because I think it is a pretty political novel at times. I didn’t want it to be about terrorism but I needed something, sadly I needed something where there wouldn’t be a body, a possibility where there wouldn’t be a body and I suppose a bombing is a classic example of that. Unless someone goes missing, and if someone goes missing then the readership would have thought then ‘oh were going to find him, Joe at the end’. I kind of needed it to be certain, in the same way with Tom Finch. There was a certainty that these men were dead that they couldn’t bury them. I choose London because, I taught for ten years, most of my closest friends have taught in London so it’s such a normal thing for Australian’s to go over to London and teach. I could have based it on the Madrid bombing or September 11, but I just thought there was a bigger chance that Australian people would be affected by something happening in London. I actually remember when it happened, thankfully people didn’t die. But again my cousins, a girl that went to school with my cousin, was on the bus, her fiancé when it happened. This is someone from our suburb so there’s always this idea when something happens overseas, was there an Australian involved, most times Australian’s are somehow involved because we are such big travellers.

The relationship between Tara and Tom takes an interesting climb through the novel. What would your advice to teenagers in similar situations be?

MM: What kind of similar situations? The fact that they are estranged from each other?

I guess the distance and being apart, yet from what we gather from throughout the novel and learn that their parting wasn’t on the best of terms.

MM: I think that, to me it’s a story about forgiveness. Some people say to me that they would never forgive Tom for what he did. Other people say ‘well he was grief stricken’. But I still think that the way he acted was awful. There was a trust thing that happened there and especially coming from a character like Tara Finke, he’s not really a player and she’s not really a confidant person on so many different levels. But I think for me there was just, ultimately I know what he did was wrong but there was such a respect between them as people and I like the fact that he had to actually work instead of trying. Like I think in the past he had found it so easy to charm people but at this particular case because he didn’t have her there in front of him, he actually had to work at wooing her back. And I think he succeeds. And there are so many times when people around him don’t think he is going to succeed at that, there’s no way that she will forgive him and I like the fact that she does, and it’s not because she’s a pushover it’s because Tom has really worked at it that he has opened himself to her in the same that that she kind of opened herself to him. I suppose it’s about trust between people in the end. I would never know what kind of advice to give anyone, whether they were young or older or my age. I think relationships are so, so tricky and they’re so not black and white, there are blurry moments. The same could be said about Georgie and Sam. A lot of people have said to be there’s no way that Georgie should have ever forgiven Sam. I think well there are a lot of blurry moments in that relationship and I had to kind of give it the conclusion that I felt really worked for the story.

What authors influenced you growing up and in your writing?

MM: When I was growing up I really loved the Anne of Green Gables novels. The one thing that I, I’ve said it so many times, but I feel as if– have you read Anne of Green Gables?

No, I haven’t.

MM: There’s a moment in it where Anne Shirley, great character, where she hits, she’s in the same classroom as Gilbert Blythe and she hit’s him over the head with a slate, which is their kind of writing tool, and I always say, that moment for me, was just, I was just absolutely mesmerised. I thought it was so romantic thought she hated his guts. I would always say that in every one of my novels there is a moment where my character’s metaphorically hit their potential love interests over the head with a slate. It could be that winning an argument or getting the upper hand, an example in say The Piper’s Son could be here’s Tom thinking it will be easy, text messaging Tara saying ‘How’s it going, babe’ and her response, that for me is the hitting someone over the head with a slate. It happens in Saving Francesca when she kind of meets Will and Will’s such a bastard to her. So they’re moments I kind of adopted and I loved that particular one, so I would say she was a major influence.

Any quirky writing rituals or habits?

MM: They’re just not quirky, they’re just rituals. I always, what do I always do? I mean I do write in bed. I love laptops. The best thing about a laptop is writing in bed and I actually think I do my best writing late at night in bed. I always do like a coffee, but I have to have, if I have a coffee while I’m writing I always, always, always have to have a biscuit with it. There’s no such thing as having coffee on its own. Its comfort stuff. To me writing, I have to stop making it feel like work, and it is work at the end of the day. I quite like the cosy-ness of it. And I have to say that in summer that I love a glass of wine while I’m writing.

The Piper’s Son was released in Australia on March 1, 2010.

Thomas Mackee wants oblivion. Wants to forget parents who leave and friends he used to care about and a string of one-night stands, and favorite uncles being blown to smithereens on their way to work on the other side of the world.

But when his flatmates turn him out of the house, Tom moves in with his single, pregnant aunt, Georgie. And starts working at the Union pup with his former friends. And winds up living with his grieving father again. And remembers how he walked away from Tara Finke two years ago, after his uncle’s death.

In a year when everything’s broken, Tom realizes that his family and friends need him to help put the pieces back together as much as he needs them.

Thomas Mackee feels as if he has nothing left to live for. His family is split apart; he no longer communicates with his closes friends and almost lost everything if not for the compassion of those friends he cut off. For as much as Tom seems to hate the world, the further we go along and find that Tom is struggling with hating himself. After an event that leaves him in hospital, Tom ends up pleading with his Aunt Georgie to let him stay. A decision that eventually puts Tom on the path to who he really wants to be.

Georgie is pregnant. To the man she broke up with for seven years. Who has a son from another relationship. Georgie and Sam have a careful relationship. What it is neither can really decide or talk about. For Georgie and Sam, silence is normal. Until Tom appears and unintentionally creates a channel for communication, and Georgie and Sam might have a chance to finally work out exactly what they mean to each other.

Francesca and Justine work at the Union pub, the pub where Tom’s flatmates stole $2000 from while they were working there. Tom decides that it is up to him to repay the debt. Francesca and Justine knew Tom through high school, and were cast aside when Tom lost his uncle, yet they never stopped caring. Slowly, Francesca and Justine find that they are getting their Tom back, and will do everything they can to help Tom return to who he used to be.

But Tom doesn’t only have his own life to worry about. His father is a former alcoholic whose drinking problem forced Tom’s mum and sister to relocate to Brisbane. His father abandoned Tom to fend for himself, and never once looked back. His favourite uncle was killed in a terrorist bombing attack, the one person Tom relied on for good, true, honest advice. His sort-of ex-girlfriend that he is still in love with is in Same and has moved on, refusing to communicate in any form.

In a life where everything seems so tangled, will Tom be able to work out, what it is he truly wants before it is too late?

The Piper’s Son is the fifth novel from Australian author Melina Marchetta, and is set five years after the events of Saving Francesca. Yet, it is not necessary to have read Saving Francesca to understand the story, as believe it or not, this is the first Marchetta novel that I have read. That may come as a surprise to some who knows Marchetta’s work, but I now know why Marchetta is regarded as one of the best young adult authors in Australia.

The Piper’s Son was one of the most captivating and engaging books I have read this year. I could not get the characters out of my head, constantly wanting to pick up the book and find out what happens next. Through the perspective of Tom and occasional flashes into the mind of Georgie, I’ve discovered two characters that I care about. Tom is troubled and flawed, needing love and acceptance, even if sometimes he shrugs it off and pretends like nothing can tough him. Georgie is that aunt that you wish you have – caring enough to let you stay when you have nowhere else to go and perceptive enough to know that something is wrong, even if you don’t want to talk about it. From the beginning of the novel where nothing goes right for either Tom or Georgie, to the end where you find that maybe, just maybe they can make their lives work in a positive way; you are there with them, each step and failure along the way. Failure that reminds you that they are just a human as anyone else.

Set in a modern day Sydney with references and mentions to recent events from everything to the Lord of the Rings to the London terrorist attacks, Marchetta has created a world that is gritty and instantly believable and recognisable as a world that we belong to.

I highly recommend this to everyone, no matter the style of novel you like to read.

Publication date: March 2010

Pages: 328

Rating::

Teaser quote: He went to the sent box praying that somehow the email got rejected. No such luck. Twenty seconds earlier anabelsbrother sent taramarie a message, now with the words cheers, or see ya, or whenever. But signing off with the word, love.

This is a quick note to all our loyal readers, and to those authors, publishers and associated others that are waiting on me to review books. I’ve been experiencing some problems with my eyes lately, and I’m now on eye drops which blur my vision and make it difficult to read. I promise that as soon as my eyes are back in good working order, I’ll get cracking on your book reviews. Till then, we apologize for any inconvenience and frustrations we have caused.

Nikki

Hunger for nourishment.
Hunger for touch.
Hunger to belong.

Alluring romance, heart-stopping danger, and sinister intrigue combine in the penultimate volume of Melissa Marr’s New York Times bestselling Wicked Lovely series.

Sorcha is mourning Seth’s absence. She’s the unchanging queen and she isn’t supposed to mourn, but still Sorcha does. She frets for Seth’s safety and agonizes that she cannot see him when he is in the mortal world. So Sorcha sends Devlin, her brother and loyal servant, to Huntsdale to check on him, to stay with him in case he should need anything. Little does she know that upon his arrival in Huntsdale, an event takes place that will change Devlin’s path for the rest of eternity.

When Devlin sees Ani in the club, his heart stops short. He’s seen that face before, and as magnificent and beautiful as she is, he knows things about her past that could break her innocent little heart. Not that knowing that stops him in the slightest. When Ani lays her eyes on Devlin, and decides that she wants him for herself, Devlin realizes that although he’s lived a lifetime of loneliness, his future doesn’t necessarily have to be that way. The only problem is, they can’t really be intimate, if you know what I mean, or they risk the possibility of Ani sucking the life right out of Devlin. Who wants to kill the one they love?

Ani is reckless and restless. That would be the hound in her, though, and is to be expected. She’s got spunk and just the right amount of attitude, but that’s not all she’s got. Even though she doesn’t realize it yet, Ani is special. So special that Bananach – Sorcha’s crazy (and evil) sister – wants her blood all for herself. As we all well know, Melissa Marr doesn’t write happily ever after fairy tales, and things don’t play out smoothly for Ani. Hearts are broken, loves are lost, relationships are forged, bruised and battered, and truths will shatter the Earth from the inside out.

Although I found it a little slow on the uptake, I now see that those chapters were necessary to lay the foundations for what shaped up to be a spectacular, gut-wrenching read. Radiant Shadows is exceptional in every way, and I’ve come to expect nothing less from this phenomenal story-teller. Marr’s characters are deep, tortured, and believable in every possible way. Their faces are burned to the insides of my eyelids, their voices ring out loudly through my ears. It’s as if they’re really my friends, instead of a bunch of fictional people that I obsessively follow in their pursuits.

The Wicked Lovely world is definitely one of my favorite places to visit. Radiant Shadows does not disappoint.

Pages: 340

Publication Date: April 20, 2010

Rating::

Teaser Quote:

“Go upstairs Ani.” Irial swung his feet to the floor. He didn’t glance her way. His attention was all for the Dark King now. “Tell me what you think I should have done differently, Niall. I spent the night talking and giving her a safe place to rest. I gave her the nourishment she can’t find elsewhere without compromising her already absent virtue.”

The Dark King didn’t respond.

When Molly gets kicked out of the Naval Academy, she loses more than just another home, she loses the only two things that truly matter: flying in space and her training partner, Cloe. A dull future seems to await, until a marvellous discovery changes everything.

Her father’s old starship, missing for a decade, turns up halfway across the galaxy. Its retrieval launches Molly and Cole on the adventure of a lifetime, one that will have lasting consequences for themselves and billions of others.

What starts off as a simple quest to reconnect with her past, ends up forging a new future. And the forgotten family she hoped to uncover becomes one she never foresaw: a band of alien misfits and runaways – the crew of the starship Parsona.

Ever looked up into the sky at night and imagined yourself flying around the stars off on some other-worldly adventure? Well, this is Molly’s reality. Or will be. Molly is a navy cadet. And don’t be fooled into thinking the Navy is what we understand the Navy to be. Yes they drive ships, but not the standard H.M.A.S. vessels of today’s waters. Molly and her fellow classmates are learning to pilot starships. Sure they are still in training but running a full visual simulator is darn close to the real thing, right down to the G-force experienced.

But in a standard-procedure simulator test, something seems to go wrong. For Molly and her pilot Cole fail and fail miserably. And as much as they try to convince their superiors otherwise, no-one believes them. For Molly and Cole’s simulator was tampered with. Every procedure runs fine, except the ability to arm and fire weapons. Without weapons, they have almost a no-chance at survival. Cole suspects sabotage. With both of them for examination, it will be Molly that the blame is laid at. Particular since Cole was technically ‘killed’ early into the simulator run and it is so much easier to blame the girl.

For Molly, this means expulsion. No more training, and no more hope of becoming a Naval officer. Resigned to a life at a normal high school, everything suddenly seems less for Molly. If loss of her only home, her connection to her past and her best friend that she can’t stop thinking about wasn’t enough, Molly is an outcast in her new school, merely because she is different. That is, until she gets an opportunity of a lifetime. Her father’s ship has been found. And as the legal owner, Molly is the only one who can go and collect it.

And a seemingly straightforward mission is the start of a whole new adventure that even Molly couldn’t begin to fathom…

Molly Fyde and the Parson Rescue is debut novel from Hugh Howey and the first in the Molly Fyde series. The thing that grabbed me from the first page of this novel was the believability in writing and character. The plot just flowed effortlessly, from describing the complexities of hyperspace, simulation flying and other world social structure to the simple dialogue between two best friends struggling to find what they mean to each other. There aren’t many authors who can get you completely lost in a story, but Howey was one of them. For me, I just wanted to know what would happen next, what the next twist in the story would be. As a credit to the author, I never saw the ending that was coming. It makes you easily want to read the next book in the series as soon as you can.

The characters of Molly and Cole were another highlight to the novel. Reading from Molly’s point of view as she struggled through countless personal and emotional challenges left me caring about what happened to her. The history and connection between Molly and Cole as a pair was believable, and the tension that built up added to the story, instead of taking away from it as so many teen-romances can be known to do. That being said, Molly does have her fair share of moments where I just wanted to knock some sense into her and tell her to get over the small dramatics that really seemed unnecessary.

All in all though, a highly engaging read that I would recommend for anyone who is or was a fan of space adventure.

Pages: 258

Publication Date: 2009

Rating::

Teaser quote: By the time they arrived at the Palan system, he must’ve had eighteen hours of uninterrupted rest. No bathroom breaks. No food. No flirting. Molly couldn’t understand how he contained himself. Even from the last.

Carolyn Mackler is the author of highly sought after titles such as Vegan, Virgin, Valentine, Guy-a-holic, The Earth, My Butt, And Other Big Round Things, just to name a few. In the month of February celebrates the release of Carolyn’s new book, Tangled. It’s our Book of the Month for February and as part of our monthly promotion, Carolyn answered a few of our questions for your reading pleasure. Enjoy! I should probably warn you folks, there are some spoilery type moments throughout the interview.

Firstly, I just want to say congratulations on Tangled. It’s an excellent book and I really enjoyed reading it.

CM Thank you!!  I really enjoyed writing it.

With that in mind, I thought we’d get straight into some questions about the story itself…

Skye is one of those fortunate people that seem to have everything: the beginnings of fame, money, respect from those around her, yet it is obvious from the onset of her story that she suffers quite badly from depression. Was it a conscious decision of yours to write Skye in as the depressed character, or did she just come out that way?

CM:  As I got to know Skye, though the course of writing Jena’s story and then her own story, I realized she was suffering from depression.  But it’s not obvious – I had a dig a little deeper into her to figure that out.

Depression is a serious mental health issue that often goes unnoticed or is confused as teen angst. If there is one thing that you wanted readers to take from Skye’s story, what would that be?

CM: Get help.  Tell someone.  Get help.  You are not alone in depression, and never should be.

Archetypes like Jena show up in your stories often. Although both Dakota and Owen label her as hot, Jena doesn’t think of herself that way. Why do you think so many teenagers, like Jena, have serious self-esteem issues?

CM: Because the world often tells us we’re not right the way we are – billboards, movies, shows, videos – and we internalize those messages, those images of what beauty is.  And it’s so not true!  Beauty comes in all different shapes, sizes, and hair colors.

How did you find writing Owen and Dakota’s respective points-of-view? I’m always interested in authors who tap into the minds of the opposite gender…

CM: Loved it!  It was a refreshing break after writing about girls, to see how a guy thinks and sees the world.

Jena is much more confident in her pursuit of Owen than she was with Dakota. What exactly changed in her for this to happen?

CM:  Hmmmm….she got her heart broken by Dakota and became stronger because of it, learned that taking risks is a good thing.  Also, once her beloved grandmother had a stroke, Jena decided to believe her grandma’s wise words that she is, in fact, luscious!

The tone of Tangled is much darker than most of your previous novels. Did you set out with the intention to write something edgier, or did it just happen that way?

CM:  It just happened that way as the story evolved in my head.

Whose story came to you first, Jena, Dakota, Owen, or Skye’s?

CM:  I knew it was four from the beginning – though at first the second guy character, Owen, was going to be a friend of Dakota’s.  Then I decided a brother would be much more interesting.

Do you have any quirky writing rituals or habits?

CM  I wish!  With a five-year-old and an infant (both in the background right now), I just want TIME to write these days.  And coffee.

What is in your To-Be-Read pile right now?

Going Bovine, Punkzilla, American Born Chinese, and a book I’ve been asked to blurb.  Oh, and Goodnight Moon for the baby.  And Harry Potter for my kindergartener.  Time!  I want time to read/write/sleep right now.

Do you have an all time fave novel?

About a million.  Seriously.   Check out my website www.carolynmackler.com for a list of my favourite authors.

As if being a purrfect cheerleader isn’t enough responsibility! Tessa Crimson’s the sweet and spunky leader of the SOS (Society of Smitten Kittens), a cheer squad–turned–spy society dedicated to bringing dastardly boyfriends to justice, one cheater at a time. Boyfriend-busting wouldn’t be so bad . . . except that so far, every suspect on the Naughty List has been proven 100% guilty!

When Tessa’s own boyfriend shows up on the List, she turns her sleuthing skills on him. Is Aiden just as naughty as all the rest, or will Tessa’s sneaky ways end in catastrophe?

The Naughty List. Is your boyfriend on it?

Meet the Smitten Kittens. Sounds kind of sexy, huh? Alluring in that mysterious way. If you knew what they were doing, though, sexy wouldn’t even come into it. In fact, the Smitten Kittens are all about busting cheating boyfriends from doing the sexy with people other than their other half. The male adolescent population of Washington High is more than a little naughty, it seems.

The squad – which double as a cheer squad by day – have high tech spy equipment and have a well organized system of spying on the boys at their school. They take requests from girlfriends who suspect their boyfriends are cheating, and investigate till the allegations are either cleared, or confirmed. Unfortunately, they’ve never had the opportunity to clear anyone’s name because every single suspect has been found guilty. Every single one.

Tessa is the only girl left on the squad who actually has a boyfriend. Over time, the others all dumped theirs because they were caught cheating. Then, Tessa’s boyfriend’s name shows up on the list, and with a one hundred percent confirmed cheating rate so far, it isn’t looking good for Tessa and Aiden. But maybe he’s innocent, he seems like a nice guy, after all. Could he be the first boyfriend to ever be cleared of all charges?

Initially, I couldn’t decide exactly how I felt about this book, or for whom exactly the target audience might be. Tessa comes across as a good, wholesome character. She doesn’t curse, and always corrects those around her that do. She uses expressions like strawberry smoothie, for example, instead of actual curse words. She’s an excellent friend to her fellow squad members, a great student, and an all-round shiny, happy girl. At first I thought this was going to be a clean and wholesome novel for younger readers, but then I discovered that Tessa sleeps with her boyfriend and sneaks around in the middle of the night, lying to her parents and Aiden about what she’s doing, and spies on people till dawn. And Tessa is the only one that doesn’t curse; it seems the book is littered with swear words and over active adolescent hormonal activity. I’m not saying that’s a bad thing, either, I’m just saying that Tessa’s character confused me.

I found myself trying to decode the messages that came attached to Tessa’s character. By creating a character like Tessa, is Suzanne Young is attempting to send a message that teen sex is okay? After all, Tessa is a really nice girl that is seemingly good in every other way. Does the fact that she’s sexually active make her a bad role model for teen girls? I really couldn’t decide. I’m inclined to say no, but I felt uncomfortable making that judgement alone. What I did like about Tessa is that, especially at the beginning, she is committed to Aiden and although she is well aware of her sexual allure and uses that on Aiden a lot, she doesn’t really flounce it around in front of everyone else. She isn’t promiscuous and she obviously has a lot of self-respect, which I think is important when setting up a potential role model for teens today.

The whole book left me feeling a little uneasy, which I suppose is actually a good thing because I thought about it for hours after I finished it, trying to figure out whether I liked it, how to categorize it, what the underlying messages were. While there was obviously a formula that went into the plot, it seemed there was a lack of formula that went into creating the characters, setting, tone, etc. I found this quite refreshing and I think others will too.

I think this book would be a great jumping point for book clubs and discussion circles that wanted to talk and debate the issue of teen sex and teen relationships.

Pages: 239

Publication Date: Febraury 2010

Rating::

Teaser Quote: Cassandra was less than thrilled to see the glossy eight by tens of Marcus and Red Heels. It nearly broke my heart, especially when I considered her recently departed virginity. All of it left me feeling, well, bummed.

It seems that voting for the book club this month is quite close. We’ve got Looking for Alaska by John Green and Percy Jackson and the Olympian tied in at first place. Every time we think we’ve got a clear winner to call it done, the other comes up from behind and causes another tie. In second place at the moment, and losing only by one vote, is Blue Bloods by Melissa De La Cruz. If you have voted, now would be the time to head on over to the forum and do so.

We’re going to need your help to get this done!

Isolde is a shy and artistic sixteen-year old who moves into a house rumored to be haunted. When she discovers a shard of green glass, a new world opens for her. Through the glass she sees Lyric, who mistakenly believes he is a ghost, and other ethereally beautiful creatures.

As their mystery unfolds, Isolde learns they are not ghosts, but The Forgotten Ones, fairies cast out of their realm, labelled imperfect for their physical and mental differences. Isolde’s friendship with Lyric and The Forgotten Ones teaches her that sometimes our imperfections can also be our greatest strengths.

Isolde Rackham isn’t like other kids her age. For one, she is home schooled, automatically different to anyone in the small town of Thornville. Two, she just moved to Thornville with her slightly reclusive mother who is also her teacher. As if this wasn’t enough the house that Isolde and her mother moved into is supposedly haunted by a girl who committed suicide some 50-years before Isolde got there. So you might be able to understand Isolde hesitation to just walk around town, yet she can’t avoid going into town forever.

On her first trip in she runs into a guy called Matt. Well, not so much run into but Matt’s friends couldn’t leave her alone. So beings the relationship with Matt. At first, it’s a hesitant one, with both of them not really knowing how to act around the other, especially when they are so different to each other. But as time goes by, Isolde finds that she is trusting Matt more and more. Almost enough to tell him her secret – that was if, he wouldn’t think her completely insane for it. After all, how many 16-year-olds do you know that can see fairies?

It started when Isolde found a piece of green glass hidden in the draws of her new home. Then came the fingerprint on the painting – a fingerprint Isolde didn’t put there. And by chance, Isolde glances through the glass and in that moment, Isolde’s life as she knew it was changed forever.

For through the glass she saw a figure, human in shape yet graceful beyond anything a human could achieve. Isolde’s first thought must be that she is seeing ghosts. Yet ghosts aren’t meant to exist. As she gains courage and begins to have conversation with the mysterious figure, Isolde learns that his name is Lyric and that he isn’t the only one out there. Along with Lyric and his family, Isolde embarks on an adventure to discover the true meaning of who they are, why they are out there, seemingly the only ones of their kind. And not everyone is ready for that information to be uncovered…

Behind Green Glass is debut novel from Amanda von Hoffman and is a light and easy read with an engaging and captivating story. I found that reading from Isolde’s point of view to be quite easy and engaging, a skill that not all authors have. The story provided something different in the YA genre – fairies. Apart from Melissa Marr’s Wicked Lovely series, you don’t often see many fairy tales in the young adult section, and with Behind Green Glass, von Hoffman has made a notable contribution to this category. The characters I found intriguing and would have liked to know more about – especially Isolde and her mother’s friendly neighbor Joe Albright.

A genuinely easy to read and engaging story - I enjoyed!

Pages: 184

Publication Date: May 2010 (pre-order now)

Rating::

Teaser quote: Perched in the maple outdoors she saw a figure, human in shape, animal-like in posture. A smooth expanse of bare muscled chest, light tangled hair, glowing irises. The glass slipped from her fingers…

As the title of this post suggests, voting for the book club selection for the month of March is now open. We collected your suggestions and have compiled a poll over on the forum, so to make sure you get your choice heard, you need to head over and vote now.

The selections, as suggested by YOU are:

Looking for Alaska - John Green

Twenty Boy Summer - Sarah Ockler

Feed - M.T Anderson

Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightening Thief - Rick Riordan

Ballads of Suburbia - Stephanie Kuehnert

Blue Bloods - Melissa De La Cruz

Girl in the Arena - Lisa Haines

I Capture the Castle - Dodie Smith

Goddess of the Night - Lynne Ewing

To vote, please head on over to the forum. Any votes left after this post will not be counted.

New friends. Old enemies. Who can you trust?

Alone for the first time in her life, Wynter Moorehawke travels unprotected in bandit-infested mountains, searching for missing Prince Alberon.

But every tyrant and bully who has ever threatened the kingdom is gathering to Alberon’s table, and the forest is alive with spies and wolves. Within these crowded shadows, Wynter remains determined to find the Rebel Prince and heal the rift that has come between King and Heir….

Abandoning her father in the time of his greatest need, Wynter is alone. Completely and utterly alone in an unknown forest, with unknown enemies all around her, Wynter is trying to find her way to Alberon, the rebellious son and heir to the throne. Needing to dodge all manner of bandits and rebel enemy groups, Wynter almost doesn’t make it. Threatened with rape by a bandit who has tracked her, Wynter uses all her skill to get away, only to be tracked by a different group of rebel outcasts. That is, until she is saved but the most random of luck.

For who should she run into but Razi and Christopher who are on the same mission she is?

For they have deceived the King into believing that they were on their way to separate parts of the country – Christopher to return home and Razi to study medicine. Yet neither of them are where they are meant to be, and Razi’s decoy was discovered beaten beyond recognition. With the whole kingdom believing that he is dead, Razi is free to move around freely for the first time in years.

Razi and Christopher would both like to see Wynter return to the castle – especially once they learn that her father has finally succumbed to his illness and has passed onto the next life. But Wynter won’t have a bar of it, and since she is the only one with the knowledge of the exact location of Alberon camp, Razi and Christopher have no choice but to let her accompany them.

As they once again begin the perilous trek to find Alberon, the growing attraction between Christopher and Wynter is clear to all that see them, even if they seem hesitant to admit it to themselves. And a trip wouldn’t be a true adventure without a few more complications. Camped in their way, and their best chance to find Alberon is the bear-tribe of the Merron people – Christopher’s adopted culture.

When one of noble lady’s take a fancy to Razi, it seems that everything is going to be easy than they expect. That is…if they survive the visit to the Merron people. When the customs and language of the People are so different to anything Razi and Wynter have experienced before, there is only so much that can happen before tempers start to fray and lives hang in the balance.

For every step that Razi, Christopher and Wynter take could be leading them closer to a path that doesn’t leave them alive…

The Crowded Shadows is the second novel in Irish author Celine Kiernan’s Moorehawke Trilogy, and delivers a continuation of the characters, story and settings that I fell in love with in the first novel. The characters once again develop at a completely believable rate that as a reader I could identify with – the trials that Christopher and Wynter go through together and separately and the reactions and behavior that Razi displays at different points of the novel enriched the story to a point that I couldn’t put it down.

As we discover more history behind Razi, Christopher and Wynter, the complexities that Kiernan wove into the first novel, built upon and I suspect continue to develop in the final novel, play out in the actions and personalities of each character – we find out why Razi has a temper, how Christopher lost his fingers and Wynter’s true name.

However, this novel does have a slight filler feel to it, with a lot of character development but not much plot advancement, at times hardly seeming to move. As the only drawback to this brilliant work, The Crowded Shadows was an enchanting read that has me wanting the final book in the series now.

Pages: 510

Publication date: Ireland 2009, Australia 2010

Rating::

Teaser quote: Snatching her to him suddenly, he held her against his chest, his scarred hand covering her eyes as though he wanted to hide her…

Two days ago we posted a review of Kimberly Derting’s debut novel, The Body Finder. As indicated by our review, yaReads is a bit of a fan of this one, so when we were asked to participate in Kimberly’s promotional blog tour, we just couldn’t say no. Enjoy!

Violet and Jay have known each other since they were kids, but she suddenly has a huge crush on him. What do you think is the trigger that changes “like” to “love”?

I think Violet and Jay were always perfect for each other, she just didn’t realize it until the other girls at school started noticing him.  Suddenly she was forced to look at him through different eyes.

Everyone has to accept their partners’ little quirks, but what’s one pet peeve that you just wouldn’t be able to stand in a boyfriend/girlfriend?

Laziness.  As Liz Lemon (from 30 Rock) would say, that’s a dealbreaker!  I’m not talking about the kind of guy who likes to hang out and relax. I love my downtime as much as the next girl.  I’m talking about a guy who is genuinely lazy. . . someone who doesn’t help out around the house or pick up after himself, someone who plops down on the couch and just stays there.  All of the time.  You know, that guy!

If someone was going to buy you a box of your favorite candy for Valentine’s Day, what candy would be inside?

I very rarely eat chocolate, which seems kind of like the obvious answer here, so I would have to say. . . Skittles.  I know, it’s kind of wrong, but they are so delicious. I’m still waiting for someone to invent a candy that has both Skittles and chocolate.  A girl can dream, can’t she?

What’s the best part of the winter season for you?

Snow.  Definitely snow!  Snow days, snowmen, snowball fights, all of it.  Last winter, our golden retriever would pull the kids on their sleds through the neighborhood. We called it the Alex Express.  She (and the kids!) had a blast!  And then we’d come in and sit by the fire and drink hot chocolate. It made for the perfect winter day.

What’s your favorite love song (old or new)?

Wow, are you really gonna make me admit this out loud?  I kind of like anything by. . . ehem. . . Barry Manilow.   Yes, it’s sappy, but no one can belt out a love song like Barry.

More recently, though, I kind of love “What About Now” by Daughtry.  It’s very angsty and romantic.

What’s your preferred hot drink to curl up with when reading: tea, coffee, or cocoa?

Ooh, that’s tough, although I am a bit of a caffeine junkie. I drink A LOT of tea, but it really depends on my mood. Coffee and hot cocoa are right up there.  Seriously, check my pantry sometime. . . I’m like the poster child for hot drinks!

What are you most excited about this winter?

The release of The Body Finder, of course!

If you were snowed in, what are the three items you would want to have with you?

Easy!  I would definitely need a good book (or three).  A toothbrush because. . . well, gross.  And a comfy bathrobe. (But let’s not get confused, I did not say Snuggie.  It must be a bathrobe.  Somehow that just makes it cooler!)

Where is your favorite winter getaway?

In Washington, we have this great Bavarian village called Leavenworth.  It’s charming, rustic, and snowy.  It’s like a life-sized Christmas village, with some of the most amazing places to shop, eat, and sleep.

Of course, if I could pick someplace sunny, it would definitely be Maui.  Sometimes you just need a little sun in the wintertime!

Do you believe in love at first sight?

I should. It seems like the romantic thing to say.  But I really don’t.  I think falling in love is worlds different than falling in lust, and it takes time to build something solid and real.  Besides, it’s way better if you fall in love with your best friend. Who else is going to get all of your corny jokes?

A serial killer on the loose.
A girl with a morbid ability.
And a boy who would never let anything happen to her.

Violet Ambrose can find the dead. Or at least, those who have been murdered. She can sense the echoes they leave behind… and the imprints they leave on their killers. As if that weren’t enough to deal with during her junior year, she also has a sudden, inexplicable, and consuming crush on her best friend since childhood, Jay Heaton.

Now a serial killer has begun terrorizing Violet’s small town… and she realizes she might be the only person who can stop him.

Fill with suspense, a gripping romance, and deadly consequences, The Body Finder is an impressive debut novel that’s impossible to put down.

Violet has known that she was different since she was eight years old. That was when she discovered her first murdered body, although at the time, she had no idea that it was the start of a supernatural ability for finding the dead. It’s the kind of thing that can’t be explained by normal or natural circumstances and Violet knows that she needs to keep this to herself. Her family knows, and so does Jay – her best friend – but she’s managed to keep it from everyone else.

She’s in her junior year now and there is a lot going on. Over the past few months, Jay seemed to transform from regular old Jay into an irresistible chick magnet, and it’s driving Violet bananas. She knows she shouldn’t care so much; he’s just her best friend after all. But the more attention Jay receives from her classmates, the more Violet realizes that she doesn’t think of him that way anymore. It seems that Violet has jumped on the Jay-loving bandwagon, too, and she wants him all for herself. But Violet knows her feelings are irrational and sets about pushing them aside. He’s been her friend for far too long…

Then, as if Fate was mocking her in the cruellest way possible, Violet gets the distraction she’s looking for. Teenage girls (girls that she knows) start going missing. When Violet stumbles across the first body, she knows it was murder. The echo left behind is a direct indication that it was so. Then another turns up, and another. When the police have little luck uncovering even a hint of a clue that points to the killer, Violet realizes she might be the only one capable of actually finding him. It’s dangerous, sure, but she can’t just sit by and do nothing.

Would you?

But Violet is just a girl and her serial killer is a skilled hunter. In the game of cat and mouse, who normally wins…?

Jay is a lovable character and it’s easy to understand why the girls are falling all over him. He’s very protective of Violet, he’s handsome – he’s the ultimate package really. Although I couldn’t pin point one particular characteristic that may cause a bit of a fangirl frenzy among readers, I think his loyalty and how much he cares about Violet is going to win him many points with the ladies. While he may not top the Fave Male Characters Of All Time list, he’s not exactly forgettable, either.

Violet seems like a regular teen with regular teen problems. There are so many strong female characters around in YA Lit at the moment that are so supernaturally charged they can’t possibly resemble regular teens. Although she does possess a supernatural ability, Violet strikes me as pretty normal. She experiences regular teen emotions and she’s dealing with regular teen problems on top of the whole murder mystery thing. Overall, The Body Finder feels much more like a teen mystery than a supernatural story.

I was a little creeped out by the pages that were written in the point-of-view of the murderer. Being inside someone’s head that is obviously as messed up as he is gives me the heebee jeebees. It goes to show that you just can’t trust anyone these days…

This one has romance, murder, suspense, mystery, and a whole lot more. All in all, The Body Finder has a little something for everyone and is bound to be a hit with readers or any age.

Pages: 327

Publication date: 2010

Rating::

Teaser quote: “But he was bigger and stronger and his hands reached up behind her to the back of her head, ignoring her denials and pinning her in place. When his mouth finally landed on hers, the combination of his alcohol soaked breath and his brutish unrestrained actions made her quiver sickly beneath him …… she felt like she was going to puke.”

Special Announcement:

yaReads is participating in Kimberly Derting’s promotional blog tour for The Body Finder. Tune back in on Feburary 11 - that’s two days from now, folks - for more Kimberly Derting goodness!

Some nightmares never end.

For Janie and Cabel, real life is getting tougher than the dreams. They’re just trying to carve out a little (secret) time together, but no such luck.

Disturbing things are happening at Fieldridge High, yet nobody’s talking. When Janie taps into a classmate’s violent nightmares, the case finally breaks open – but nothing goes as planned. Not even close. Janie’s in way over her head, and Cabe’s shocking behavior has grave consequences for them both.

Worse yet, Janie learns the truth about herself and her ability – and its bleak. Seriously, brutally bleak. Not only is her fate as a dream catcher sealed, but what’s to come is way darker than she’d feared…

Janie has slotted into her new life as an undercover detective well. It seems to give her a sense of purpose, that her gift is being used for the greater good. But it does have its downsides – like not being able to be seen publicly with Cabe. They’ve been an item for a while now and they’ve never even been on a real date. Janie’s friends don’t know that she’s even involved with someone. That part really sucks.

But it’s necessary, and they both know it. That doesn’t make it any easier, though. Especially when Janie gets assigned to a case that entails Janie trying to seduce a teacher. Someone at Fieldridge High is doing the dirty with students, and Captain wants Janie to find out exactly who it is.

And Cabel hates every single second of the assignment. When Janie gets herself into a bit of trouble, Cabel does something that only adds to her already big pit of bad.

As if having to seduce her teacher wasn’t enough, Janie starts noticing that stuff with her body isn’t working quite right either. She does some digging and stumbles across a piece of information that breaks her already busted heart.

Although it’s only 248 pages long, a whole lot happens in this novel. Janie and Cabel take their relationship to several places of unchartered territory. I’m sure girls all over the country will swoon, scream in despair, sigh in relief, and throw their books against bedroom walls as the events unfold before their eyes.

McMann has mastered the art of ‘less is more’ and crafts her tale in surprisingly few words. Her writing style is unique, enjoyable, and more than a little addictive. The narrative moves along at an engaging pace and never once did I find myself wanting to skip over paragraphs, sentences, or even single words.

With just the right amount of romance, heartache and suspense, Fade is a real page-turner. I recommend that you set aside a block of time before beginning this one, though,  because once you start, there will be no stopping till you hit the end.

Janie and Cabel’s world is one that I love to lose myself in. I am one hundred per cent invested in their story and I can’t wait to see what happens next.

Publication year: 2009

Pages: 248

Rating::

Teaser Quote:

“Are you familiar with these?”

Janie smiles, reaches inside her bag, and pulls out an identical package.

“Excellent.” Captain nods. “Cabel. What’s your job?”

“Watching in agony, sir.”

Captain supresses a smile.

As part of our Book of the Month promotion for February, and thanks to HarperTeen, we’ve got five copies of Carolyn Mackler’s fantastic new novel, Tangled, on offer for giveaway.

Blurb from Amazon:

Paradise wasn’t supposed to suck.

Not the state of being, but a resort in the Caribbean.

Jena, Dakota, Skye, and Owen are all there for different reasons, but at Paradise their lives become tangled together in ways none of them can predict. Paradise will change them all.

It will change Jena, whose first brush with romance takes her that much closer to having a life, and not just reading about those infinitely cooler and more exciting.

It will change Dakota, who needs the devastating truth about his past to make him realize that he doesn’t have to be a jerk just because people think he’s one.

It will change Skye, a heartbreakingly beautiful actress, who must come to terms with the fact that for once she has to stop playing a role or face the consequences.

And it will change Owen, who has never risked anything before and who will take the leap from his online life to a real one all because of a girl he met at Paradise. . . .

From confused to confident and back again, one thing’s certain: Four months after it all begins, none of them will ever be the same.

All you need to do is leave your details in the comments field below. Competition open to US residents only and closes on February 28, 2010.

The truth changes everything.

Dear Leonardo,

Truth is important in art, don’t you think?

Truth is important full stop.

Matt

It’s Matt Hudson’s fifteenth birthday and all he wants is some art lessons. Instead, he gets a card from his dead mother. How can someone who died ten years ago send you a card?

Simple answer – they can’t.

This awful truth changes Matt’s life forever.

On the morning of your fifteenth birthday you think it would be a happy situation and a reason to celebrate. Not for Matt Hudson. For Matt, it’s the 10^th reminder that his mother isn’t here to wish him a happy birthday, that it’s just him and his father, Dave, who will probably not even remember and will make up for it with pizza for dinner.

Or that’s how Matt thought it would go.

He wasn’t expecting a card. Especially a card from his mother that is supposed to be dead. Suddenly Matt’s world is turned upside down. Was it just his imagination? Someone’s idea of a practical joke? For Matt can find no record of her anywhere. Relatives refuse to talk about her, no records of any kind linked to the name and a search on Google doesn’t even bring up anything with her name. After all, Zara Templeton isn’t exactly a common name.

Except for a bible found in his Dad’s draw with her name on it, Zara has all but disappeared.

Yet as Matt digs deeper, there are records of Zara. Except she calls herself Zora now. There are mentions of her as an artist. Matt even sees one of her paintings and knows for sure that this has to be his mother. For where else would he have got his talent and interest in art except from his mother?

As Matt discovers more, the anger in him builds. Anger at being lied to for 10 years of his life. Anger at events that took his mother out of his life, but above all, anger at his father for pretending like nothing is wrong, that he hasn’t just created one big lie. For what could make a father lie to his son about his mother?

Dave had his reasons. For Zora would abandon Matt as a child – leave him in shopping centers and home alone for days on end. Zora suffers from bipolar. And she refuses to take medication on the basis that it limits her creative ability.

At first Matt doesn’t believe him. And as events get more and more out of control, risking everything and everyone he loves, Matt comes to realise that maybe his father was right. But will Matt understand before he loses the one person who has stuck by him through thick and thin?

Letters to Leonardo is the moving story of how one family comes to terms with the biggest changes in their life and how it affects both them and those around them. Dee White’s debut novel is oddly compelling and real. The voice of Matt is so strong and true that you feel the confusion and the indecision that Matt feels, and his struggle to understand and deal with the events that has unfolded in his life. White provides an inside into a topic that isn’t often spoken about in ways that can be identified with and understood.

Pages: 246

Publication date: 2009

Rating::

Teaser quote: You were little. It was for your own good. I had to protect you…

What happens when your life doesn’t go according to plan?

Ryden Malby had a plan. Step One: Do will in high school, thereby achieving Step Two: Get a college scholarship. Step Three: Limit her beer intake in order to keep said scholarship (which wasn’t always easy). Now that she’s finally graduated, it’s time for Step Four: Move into a gorgeous loft apartment and land her dream job at the city’s best publishing house. So far, Ryden’s been three-for-three, but she’s about to stumble on Step Four…

When Jessica Bard, Ryden’s college nemesis – the prettiest, smartest, most ambitious girl at school – steals her perfect job, Ryden’s forced to move back to her childhood home. Stuck with her eccentric family – a stubborn do-it-yourself dad, an overly thrifty mom, a politically incorrect grandma, a very odd little brother – and a growing stack of rejected job applications, Ryden starts to feel like she’s going nowhere. The only upside is spending time with her best friend, Adam – and running into her hot next-door neighbour, David. But if Ryden’s going to survive life as a post grad, it may be time to come up with a new plan…

Ryden Malby seems to be on the up. College scholarship, best friend that she has known forever, and promising prospects at top publishing firm Happerman and Browning. It’s The Plan after all. Moving away from home and an eccentric family that Ryden wishes she weren’t related too is all Ryden has ever wanted. It’s graduation day, and if she can get through the ceremony without some form of disaster, tomorrow will be the start of her new life.

And to being with, everything seems to be going great. Until Adam, her best friend who is driving her to look at the gorgeous loft apartment and to her interview crashes. From there everything seems to fall apart. Being beat out for the dream job but perfect, valedictorian college classmate Jessica, being denied the keys to the apartment, Ryden is forced back to the last place she ever wants to be – home.

Facing countless months of un-employment when she can’t even keep a job at her own father’s luggage store, Ryden feels that nothing will ever be right again. A small light in that future however is David – her older and hotter next-door neighbour. Scoring her a small job as an assistant on the set of the commercials that he directs, Ryden finally feels like she has some to talk to. That is, until she messes up again, angering Adam to the point that he decides to take the offer of a law course in New York. Completely on the opposite side of the continent to Ryden, and it seems no amount of apologies will get Adam to talk to Ryden.

In a world with plans go off track, Ryden must work out exactly what it is she wants, and what she is willing to give up to get it.

Post Grad by Emily Cassel is adapted from the screenplay of recent movie release of the same name, starring Alexis Bledel. I haven’t seen the movie from which the novel was adapted, but I have it on good authority that it was a fun, easy film to watch. Shame that the same can’t be said from the novel. I found the plot weak and that the characters lacked development over the course of the events. Nothing ever happened for a reason, things just happened. With an entirely predictable ending, there was nothing in this book that really got me caring about what actually happened to Ryden.

The most notable parts of the book were Ryden’s eccentric family. They at least, made it interesting to read – their bizarre and somewhat random acts breaking up the monotony of the rest of the plot.

To me, Post Grad was a concept that had a lot of potential, but was poorly executed in terms of plot and character development.

Pages: 243

Publication date: America 2009, Australia 2010

Rating::

Teaser quote: If you ever truly want to be stared at, try driving down Wilshire Boulevard in your mother’s pink Le Baron with an enormous, half-shattered coffin strapped to the roof.

Paradise wasn’t supposed to suck.

Not the state of being, but a resort in the Caribbean.

Jena, Dakota, Skye, and Owen are all there for different reasons, but at Paradise their lives become tangled together in ways none of them can predict. Paradise will change them all.

It will change Jena, whose first brush with romance takes her that much closer to having a life, and not just reading about those infinitely cooler and more exciting.

It will change Dakota, who needs the devastating truth about his past to make him realize that he doesn’t have to be a jerk just because people think he’s one.

It will change Skye, a heartbreakingly beautiful actress, who must come to terms with the fact that for once she has to stop playing a role or face the consequences.

And it will change Owen, who has never risked anything before and who will take the leap from his online life to a real one all because of a girl he met at Paradise. . . .

From confused to confident and back again, one thing’s certain: Four months after it all begins, none of them will ever be the same.

Jena is one of those girls that talks way too much when she’s nervous. Babble, babble, babble. At least that’s how she sees herself, anyway. When her mom announces that she and Jena are accompanying her friend Luce and her daughter Skye on vacation to the Caribbean, Jena’s nerves hit boiling point. Spend an entire week with Skye, prancing around in a bathing suit? Please god, no! Skye is beautiful, popular, and a successful teen actor. Her life is oh-so-glamorous compared to Jena’s, and Jena can’t help but feel like a spazz in her presence. Who wants to spend an entire vacation stressing about being in someone else’s shadow like that?

Enter Dakota. He’s also on vacation in the Caribbean with his family and he notices Jena. She’s hot (his words, not mine) and she looks just like the distraction he needs right now. Much to Jena’s surprise, they end up hooking up, but that’s because he hasn’t met Skye yet. Dakota can be a real jerk sometimes, and his vacation in the Caribbean proves no exception.

Cue Skye here. She knows it is wrong, but when she sees Dakota with Jena, Skye knows all it will take is for her to bat her eyelids in his direction and he’ll come a wandering. And he does. It’s cruel, yes, but it makes Skye feel good, even if it is only for a moment or two. As if Jena didn’t already feel lousy enough about who she was … did Skye really have to stoop that low?

This is where Owen comes in. Owen is Dakota’s brother. Deemed a wimp by his brother and his father, Owen’s social life is non-existent. He lives for his blog and the anonymity that having an online profile provides. Where Dakota is athletic and built, Owen is asthmatic and a weedy computer geek. Dakota has picked on Owen all his life and let’s just say that Owen – like Jena – has some self – esteem issues of his own.

If you ask me, Skye isn’t really such an awful person. She’s just got issues. She’s got a charmed life – all the money, beauty, and material possessions anyone could ever hope for – but she’s still not happy. And it’s not because she’s a spoiled brat (although she certainly exhibits traits that would attest to that now and then), it’s because she’s depressed. Money and stuff can’t cure depression and I love how Mackler touches on this within Skye’s journey.

Unfortunately, Dakota does not have the same excuse. He’s not mentally ill, he’s just a jerk. In his defense, though, he’s had a bit of a hard life – but that’s no excuse, if you ask me. What we learn from Dakota, though, is that people can change, and that, my friends, is one of the most important lessons in life.

I loved Owen and Jena. To me, they represent forgiveness and second chances. Even though they are both treated badly by Skye and Dakota, when push comes to shove, they are able to forgive, forget, and make amends. The world needs more people like Owen and Jena.

The thing I loved about this book the most of all is that it demonstrates that the world is full of all kinds of people. Different colors, races, sporting abilities and intellectuality, and those differences are just that, differences. We’re all just people inside and we all deserve to be loved and treated with respect, regardless of where we come from, what we do for a living, or what we look like. Although it may be subtle, Mackler drives this message home, with each character coming to realize this in their own special way.

A mix up of male and female narration, Tangled provides examples of a variety of adolescent troubles. With just a splash of romance and a whole lot of angst, Tangled is bound to be a hit with both male and female readers alike. This one is a rare gem in a pool of glass beads.

I’ve been a fan of Carolyn Mackler’s work for a long while now, and Tangled does not disappoint!

Pages: 310

Publication Date: 2010 (available now)

Rating::

Teaser quote: Lube the conversation? This guy was definitely not from Earth.

Some of you may (or may not) have noticed that our Book of the Month for Febraury is Tangled by Carolyn Mackler:

Paradise wasn’t supposed to suck.

All the usual Book of the Month festivities are scheduled, except this month, instead of Carolyn writing a guest book review, she’s going to be writing a guest blog and engaging you guys in some discussion about a relevant topic of her choice.

Secondly, our Bookclub Read this month, as voted by YOU, is My Soul to Take by Rachel Vincent:

She doesn’t see dead people, but…

She senses when someone near her is about to die. And when that happens, a force beyond her control compels her to scream bloody murder. Literally.

Kaylee just wants to enjoy having caught the attention of the hottest guy in school. But a normal date is hard to come by when Nash seems to know more about her need to scream than she does. And when classmates start dropping dead for no apparent reason, only Kaylee knows who’ll be next…

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Have a great Feburary!