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…

Discussions are open on the forum now. Feel free to join in, or even start your own discussion threads. Click here to participate.

Have a great Feburary!

Another day, another contest! The lucky winner of the Dream Life by Lauren Mechling is Jennibear! Congrats Jenni! An email should be coming your way right now requesting your postal details.

As January is now officially over, it’s time to draw the giveaway. We had a record breaking number of entrants for this contest, with 106 people entering to win just one single copy of the book, Beautiful Creatures.

We’re excited to announce that the lucky winner of Beautiful Creatures is none other than Jason! Congratulations Jason. An email should be on its way to you right now requesting your postal details.

To everyone else, thanks so much for participating in this exciting giveaway and stay tuned for more free stuff coming your way!

Hi yaReaders,

Our first yaFlicks review was penned into our diaries to be posted this weekend just gone. This is just a quick note to say that we’re aware that we missed the posting date and that your video review should be coming your way in another day or so. We’re new to this whole film editing stuff and we’ve hit a few techical snags. We’re in the process of ironing out the kinks and the video review will be on your screens in no time at all.

It was originally decided that our yaFlicks reviews would appear on the last Saturday of every month. It has now been decided that, going forward, said reviews will appear on the last Sunday of every month.

Peace.

A friend. A father. A kingdom. Which would you sacrifice?

Meet fifteen-year-old Wynter Moorehawke – Protector Lady, qualified girl apprentice in a man’s trade, former King’s Cat Keeper who returns home after a five-year sojourn in the bleak Northlands. All has changed in her absence.

Wynter is forced to make a terrible choice: stay and bow to the King’s will, or abandon her ailing father and join her friend Razi and the mysterious Christopher Garron in their efforts to restore the fragile kingdom to its former stability.

But this changed kingdom is a dangerous place, where all resistance is brutally suppressed and the trio constantly risk assassination, torture or imprisonment…

At last, something in the YA fantasy genre that doesn’t need vampires or werewolves, magic or the paranormal to make an interesting read. The Poison Throne is debut novel from Irish author Celine Kiernan is one novel that I couldn’t put down.

Born to the commoners class, girl apprentice in the ‘man’s’ trade of carpentry and friend to the sons of the King, Wynter is no ordinary girl. For five years Wynter and her father had been confined to the Northlands, cut off from everything they know. So when they finally are ordered to return to the South, Wynter can’t wait to see her friends again, to live the life that she knows best.

Yet as they travel south, not all is as it seems. And when they arrive at the castle itself things are defiantly not the way they should be. What was once the most prosperous, fair, just and right kingdom seems to be descending into chaos and destruction – King Jonathon at the heart. The once benevolent ruler seems to have completely abandoned the people, no longer listening to their wishes, letting the state run into disarray and himself to be consumed by madness.

So it would seem.

In a court where one wrong step could have you fighting for your life, Wynter must navigate the difficult waters as the only daughter of the Protector Lord. Particularly when that Lord is your father and is deathly ill, so ill that even moving around the castle can become so difficult that he must rely of others to assist him.

Razi, the bastard son and illegitimate heir of the king is desperate to continue his doctor’s training yet is being forced into the position of crown prince. A position that not only does Razi not want, but that the people will not accept him in. Especially when the true heir Alberon is still alive despite Jonathon’s every effort to erase him from history. Alberon who used to be Wynter’s best friend and the beloved son of the King.

Wynter is thrown into the midst of a battle for power. A battle that could see one of her two best friends dead. Or both if she isn’t careful. And only two things are certain. Alberon must be found, or the lives of more than just her best friends and father could be in danger…

The Poison Throne is by far, one of the best young adult fantasy books I have read in a long time. From the beginning, Kiernan has created a world so complete and rich, that it automatically pulls you into the story. Atmospheric and intriguing, The Poison Throne evokes and enchanting and convincing alternate universe. A universe full of love, treachery, jealousy, tenderness, war, wisdom and court life. High fantasy at its best, The Poison Throne is an engaging and dynamic read that left me wanting for more, even after the last page.

Pages: 468

Publication date: Ireland 2008, Australia 2009

Rating::

Teaser quote: Slowly Christopher lowered himself to the ground and lifted his strange knife from his belt. Wynter immediately unsheathed her dagger and crouched, ready to fight or flee…

In keeping with our Book of the Month promotion here for January, featured authors of the new supernatural hit, Beautiful Creatures, Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl, chose a Young Adult book and penned a joint guest review for your reading pleasure. Enjoy!

Rampant by Diana Peterfreund

Description from Goodreads:

Forget everything you ever knew about unicorns . . .

Real unicorns are venomous, man-eating monsters with huge fangs and razor-sharp horns. Fortunately, they’ve been extinct for a hundred and fifty years.

Or not.

Astrid had always scoffed at her eccentric mother’s stories about killer unicorns. But when one of the monsters attacks her boyfriend—thereby ruining any chance of him taking her to the prom—Astrid finds herself headed to Rome to train as a unicorn hunter at the ancient cloisters the hunters have used for centuries.
However, at the cloisters all is not what it seems. Outside, the unicorns wait to attack. And within, Astrid faces other, unexpected threats: from the crumbling, bone-covered walls that vibrate with a terrible power to the hidden agendas of her fellow hunters to—perhaps most dangerously of all—her growing attraction to a handsome art student . . . an attraction that could jeopardize everything.

From Margie:

There is a special shelf in our office – and by that I mean our hearts – for books that Kami and I feel the same way about. We don’t always agree. I tilt towards high fantasy and Kami to the urban supernatural. Because I read as fast as I drink Diet Cokes, I approach bookstores as an all you can eat buffet. Because Kami not only writes books but raises two small children and teaches reading, she’s pickier, more of an a la carte reader.

But, when the stars align, we’ll agree on a book that we trade back and forth, recommend and fight over, and alternately claim to have discovered for ourselves. This year, we felt that way about Rampant, so when YA Reads asked us to do a joint review, it leapt off our Special Collections shelf.

There will be the reader, like myself, who hears the words “Killer Unicorns” and says, “I’m in.” It sounds like a parody, but Peterfreund’s take on the mythical beast is straight and deadly serious. The result is an entirely girl-powered mythology of her own, that builds more into what I would consider an Epic than a Series.

Peterfreund’s Astrid, the virginal killer unicorn slayer, is heir to the empty throne in her unicorn-slaying convent qua dorm – with the most kickass bloodline and the most powerful warrior-jitzu that Rome has seen in years. But she’s heir to more than that. On the YA supernatural shelf, Astrid is the heir to the empty throne that Buffy Summers has left waiting after seven long seasons of absolute dominion. Though many will claim the crown, there is only one Slayer in any generation (If you don’t count The Dushku, because really, who does?) and I’m not sure if it’s Astrid or Diana, but between them, the throne is empty no longer.

I recommend this book (as I do) for every teen - or grown-up teen - girl you know, because as it turns out, we’re all a little Slayer on the inside.

From Kami:

When Margie handed me Rampant and said, “You HAVE to read this book,” I started that night. I can’t speed read like M, but I finished it fast because I literally couldn’t put it down. Rampant was the perfect storm for me – urban fantasy with a totally original premise, a completely developed universe, and, most importantly, a strong female protagonist that embraces her power. The fact is, I’m a writer, but I’m also a teacher, and I believe the books children and teens read shape their identities and influence them profoundly.  I won’t hand one of my teen students a book in which a girl defines herself in terms of a boy. Or worse, is willing to give up who she is for a boy.

I’m tired of reading about girls spending all their time pining for a boy. I want to see her face unicorns the size of elephants and slay them. I want to see her walk away from a guy who hasn’t earned the right to be with her. I want to read about a girl with supernatural powers, who isn’t afraid to use them. Because as a teacher, I watch girls hide their intelligence and skill, their capabilities and talents, all the time. Just so they can be more appealing to a boy.

How do we change this? If you’re Diana Peterfreund, you write a book with a strong female heroine, and you let her slay some pretty badass unicorns. Will this solve the problem, and make every girl feel empowered to be herself and slay her own beasts? No. But it will make SOME girls brave enough to try.

And if a book can do that, it should have a place on every girl’s Special Collections self. Or in her purse, with her wooden stake.

You can keep up with Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl at www.BeautifulCreaturestheBook.com.

Join the BEAUTIFUL CREATURES US fansite at www.CasterGirls.com.

In promotion of her new book, Beautiful, author Cindy Martinusen-Coloma is cruising the Internet on a bit of a blog tour and we thought we’d get on the bandwagon. We posted a review of Beautiful two days ago and now we’re excited to bring you an outstanding interview with Cindy herself. Grab a cup of coffee, find a comfy spot on the couch and enjoy!

**Spoiler Warning**

At the end, are Ellie and Ryan back together? Although that was never explicitly said, it sure seems like they might be…

Well…what do you think? Sometimes in my books, I leave certain things to the readers’ imaginations when the book warrants that kind of ending. This book was about Ellie’s journey of losing her identity and discovering the real essence of who she is and can be. Her sister Megan is on a similar reluctant quest but in a different way. The romantic storylines are definitely part of their journeys, but both girls have a lot of self-discovery and inner explorations to do and their boy relationships only complicate that. It’s as they start finding their way that love opens up as more of a reality.

Ryan was so in love with Ellie, but she didn’t let herself really see more of who he was – the underneath layers. Part of that was because she was hiding a lot herself, and she couldn’t even look at herself very well. It was all about performance. Ellie also wasn’t going beneath the exterior of Ryan – writing him off as just a good-looking jock who was a lot of fun. Ryan is so much more than that.

With Ellie finally discovering many truths, it brings the hope for something to grow romantically. Ryan perhaps? ☺

If Will had said he wanted to date Ellie, do you think she would have given it a go with him?

Ellie and Will’s friendship certainly developed into something more. And in fact, she did go out with him on a number of occasions. But an official date, I think her personal demons would have made her too afraid to be seen in public like that.

To me, it seemed that Ellie didn’t really grieve or even think too much about the fact that Stasia didn’t even live – what was that all about?

That’s an interesting take because I viewed Ellie as not being able to get over Stasia’s death at all. She really struggled with knowing how to cope with it, and so, she often stuffed it away as best she could. But the guilt was always there beneath the surface. I’ve seen during times of trauma, it takes a long time to process and grieve fully because there’s just the moment-by-moment need to survive. Ellie is in that mode after the accident, trying to heal, trying to cope with her new life, haunted by the guilt over being alive, bitter over what’s happened to her, etc. Her grieving of Stasia is mixed up in all of that. From times of grief in my own life and in friends’, I’ve seen how trauma brings about a new state of being compared to what is normal. It takes a long time to sort through that.

I thought it was interesting that, in addition to Ellie’s story, you chose to follow Megan’s as well. What was your motivation for this?

I like paring two opposite characters and weaving their stories together. For these two sisters, they are so different that they really don’t understand each other. When a crisis event occurs, it’s their love and sisterhood that makes them move beyond their differences to start discovering the unique qualities that they couldn’t see before. We all do this – judge someone and put them into categories. I’ve become really close with people that I initially thought were too different from me to become my friends. It’s easy to miss out on really amazing people who bring fresh perspective and a unique viewpoint to our lives because we judge a person like a book by it’s cover.

If you wanted readers to take one thing from Ellie’s story, what would that be?

That our lives don’t have meaning because of what we do (our accomplishments, our style, our careers, our attitudes) but we have and find meaning because we are unique creations, loved by God, with a magnificent ability to love others and to discover who God really is.

Find more information about Cindy and her writing at www.cindycoloma.com

Her friends once thought she was perfect. Now she must face the mirror–and herself–to discover what true beauty is.

Ellie Summerfield has everything a girl could want–she’s beautiful, she’s Senior Class President, has a calendar full of social engagements, volunteer commitments, and church activities. In short, she’s perfect, according to most of the students at West Redding High School. But something is bothering Ellie, like a loose string on a dress she can feel but can’t see. Does she really love her boyfriend, Ryan? Who are her true friends? And is she really happy in her picture-perfect life?

Then in the course of a few minutes, the loose string in Ellie’s life completely unravels. Forever changed, she must face herself as she discovers what it really means to be beautiful.

Ellie is that girl. You know the one I mean: the one with the hot boyfriend; the one with the flawless grades; the one that everyone admires; the one that is most likely to succeed in life. There’s one in every school, and although you’d love to hate her, there just isn’t anything about her to hate.

But then something happens, something bad. Ellie and her friend Stasia are involved in a car accident. Ellie suffers a lot of injuries and winds up in the hospital with severe burns to one side of her body.

Stasia doesn’t even make it out of the car alive.

The doctors assure Ellie, that after a few years and a whole lot of surgery, that she’ll recover and the scarring will almost definitely disappear. But a few years is a long time to walk through life looking like a mutant, and suddenly Ellie decides there is plenty about herself that’s worthy of hating.

In a fit of depression, she cuts herself off from her friends. Every single one of them, including her boyfriend, Ryan. She’s no longer beautiful, so what’s even the point?

Ellie spirals further and further into a pool of depression and self-pity until one day, an old friend from way back in her past, someone that she sees as imperfect and flawed in his own way, walks back into her life.

Will has always had a crush on Ellie, even when they were little kids, and nothing has changed now. Just because her face isn’t the same as it used to be, doesn’t make her any less beautiful, in his eyes. For Will, beauty isn’t something that’s just on the outside. For Will, beauty comes from within.

Will he be able to save Ellie before she hits the bottom of the barrel? You’ll have to read for yourself to find out.

Although Ellie’s horrible self-pity was hard to endure, it was not unrealistic. As a character, I found the way she responded to the events and issues thrown at her to be very believable. I felt sorry for Ryan and her friends when Ellie simply cast them aside, but I never once thought that she was being unfair, or that her character was unrealistic.
Of all the characters within Beautiful, I admired Will and Ryan the most. Although Ellie pushed Ryan away with everything she had, he never stopped loving her, and just like Will, believed that her beauty went far deeper than the scars on her face.

A solid read that I’m sure the girls will love.

Pages: 266

Publication Date: 2009

Rating::

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…

Kaylee has spent her adolescence riding on the coat tails of her best friend, Emma. Emma is one of those beautiful, cool and popular types, and although Kaylee doesn’t quite make the cut, the fact that she’s Emma’s best friend means that she’s been accepted by most of the cliques around school. But Emma’s the one that gets all the attention, Kaylee’s usually just along for the ride. So when Nash, one of the cutest boys in school, starts paying attention to her, Kaylee can’t believe her luck.

But Kaylee has a secret. She can sense when someone is about to die. It’s all consuming and comes in the form of something resembling a panic attack. When she starts flipping out in front of Nash at a club one night, she thinks her chances with him are shot.

Nash sees something in Kaylee that he’s never seen in many people before. He sees who she is for real and it doesn’t bother him in the slightest. In fact, he actually likes the creepiness that comes along with Kaylee. Nash thinks that together, he and Kaylee could be amazing – in more ways than the obvious.

Kaylee doesn’t understand why she can sense immanent death, and the last time she tried to tell someone about it, she ended up in the loony bin, all drugged up and the center of one kooky psychological study. After she got out of the hospital, she knew that she had to keep her secret to herself. Then girls start dying all around her and Kaylee knows enough about her ability to identify their deaths as anything but coincidence. She’s not so sure she can keep her secret to herself for much longer. There is something about Nash that makes her want to trust him, makes her want to confide in him. When she does, Kaylee almost doesn’t believe what he tells her.

Almost.

Kaylee’s character development throughout the story is solid and believable, and her reactions to Nash’s news about what, and who, she is hits the nail right on the head. Nash is dynamic, and something tells me that he’s going to be paramount to the popularity of this series, but I have a feeling that we are yet to see just how powerful, how strong Kaylee is. I suspect she’s going to grow into one heck of an amazing role model for young readers everywhere.

With the right amount of romance and supernatural action all mashed together, Vincent’s prose is simple and easy to read, making My Soul to Take an easily digested treat.

My Soul to Take is a supernatural feast. I have a feeling that readers, both young and old, are going to love this series.

Pages: 279

Publication Date: 2009

Rating::

Teaser Quote: I froze in the middle of my fuzzy purple rug, horrified by the very thought of standing between a reaper and his intended harvest. “Nash, he was doing us a favor.” But they both ignored me…

My Soul to Save has also been voted by our loyal forum members as our bookclub read for the month of February. We’ll be kicking off discussions from February 1, 2010. Click here to join in the fun.

Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl’s debut novel, Beautiful Creatures, is our Book of the Month during January. The authors took some time our of their busy schedules to answer some questions about their story and their beloved characters. Enjoy.

*Author photo credit: Alex Hoerner

What is it like co-authoring a book? Does this process ever get complicated or confusing at any stage?

Margie: You know, since this is our debut novel, we really don’t know any other way to do it. The most complicated part is definitely juggling our schedules so we can work. The easiest part is the writing. We’ve been friends longer than writing partners, so we can finish each other’s sentences – and that’s how we write, too.

Kami: We can fight like sisters, but it’s always about the mundane – the schedule – how cold our office is – why there is no ice for the Diet Coke. We’ve never disagreed about the story. And this year has been so overwhelming for us in so many ways, I can’t imagine going through it alone.

When you write, do you get together and write, or do you writing individually and then come together and edit?

Margie: We work separately. If we are in the same room, we’re still separated by my enormous earphones. Music vs. no music – we can’t write in the same airspace!

Kami: But we edit together, hashing out huge, color-coded whiteboards that plot all the character arcs, magic developments, and story beats. Our office is in Margie’s house, and it’s like the war room.

Was focalizing the story through Ethan’s POV a conscious decision, or did it just kind of happen?

Margie: We knew Lena was our mystery, and our supernatural. We wanted a strong female character with power, and we wanted to follow Ethan as he found his way into her story.

Kami: We also knew we were doing something less typical in YA, by allowing the reader to experience insecurity, first love, and fear through the eyes of a guy. To see what guys are thinking about girls, for once.We also fell in love with Ethan, the guy we never dated in high school…

As two female authors, was it difficult to write a romance-centered story from a male point of view?

Margie: Not really. We have six brothers between us. Also, there is so much already out there that is written from a teen girl’s perspective, it might have been harder to find our own voice if we hadn’t written from Ethan’s POV.

Kami: Sometimes it’s easier to write from a perspective that is definitely not your own. And Ethan is a great guy. He’s easy to write, because we love him so much.

Did you have prior knowledge/personal interest in magic and witchcraft, or was this something you had to research for Beautiful Creatures?

Margie: Just a lifetime of reading Diana Wynne Jones and high fantasy! I can’t imagine writing a book that didn’t have some sort of magic in it. Ever since I first read Susan Cooper’s The Dark Is Rising series in third grade, I have been living in a fantasy world. And yes, I can still recite the poem from the front of that book.

Kami: We are both huge fantasy readers, so magic and magical lore has always been swimming around in our minds. I don’t consider the magic in BC witchcraft, per say. But I have always been interested in the way religions from Africa and the West Indies influenced Southern culture. I’m so superstitious that I might as well be Amma.

When it comes to naming your characters, what kind of process do you go through?

Margie: We have raided our family genealogy for generations, to begin with… But we also do lots of research on the meaning of the names.

Kami: We used French-Creole names for Lena’s family, and traditional or more obscure Southern names for the folks in Gatlin.

A little birdy told us that Beautiful Creatures has just been optioned by Warner Bros and is set to be made into a film. Can you confirm or deny this?

Margie: Was the little birdy named Variety? ☺

Kami: Yes. We are so thrilled that Warner Brothers optioned the film for a supremely talented writer/director, Richard LaGravenese, and a hugely capable producer, Erwin Stoff.

How much input/control will the two of you have (if any at all)?

Margie: When Richard and Erwin came into the picture, we knew we could trust them. Their track records speak for themselves.

Kami: And we knew Warner Brothers would be the perfect home for Beautiful Creatures. Really, we couldn’t be happier. We’ll stick to writing and leave the rest to them.

What’s in your to-be-read list at the moment?

Margie: I am just finishing a draft of a work in progress, the newest middle grade book by my old friend, Pseudonymous Bosch. He’s the Roald Dahl of my generation, I adore him.

Kami: I am completely in love with the draft of Holly Black’s WHITE CAT, which I’m reading for the second time. Her new Curse Workers series is going to be huge! And I just finished her short story collection, POISON EATERS.

What are your all time fave YA novels?

Margie: TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD by Harper Lee. In case you couldn’t tell…

Kami: Well, she took my favorite. After TKM, it would be THE OUTSIDERS by S.E. Hinton & FREAK THE MIGHTY by Rodman Philbrick.

Is it true that this series is set to be a five-book series?

Margie: We are just finishing our sequel now.

Kami: It comes out this same time next year. We are really excited about it!

Can you tell us anything about the next instalment?

Margie: Mortal danger. True love. Broken hearts.

Kami: Ethan and Lena are up against unbelievable odds. And there’s sweet tea.

You can keep up with Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl at www.BeautifulCreaturestheBook.com.

Join the BEAUTIFUL CREATURES US fansite at www.CasterGirls.com.

Visit Little, Brown’s Beautiful Creatures website at
www.SomeLovesAreCursed.com.

Lauren Mechling co-authored the Tenth Grade Social Climber series and is the author of the Dream Girl series. The second novel in the Dream Girl series, Dream Life, hits book stores in January 2010.

To celebrate its release, we’re offering one lucky yaReader the chance to win a signed copy of Dream Life. All you need to do it leave your details below in the comments field.

To read what people are saying about the Dream Girl series, click here

Competition closes January 30, 2010.