After a year in rural Cottonwood Creek, Iowa, city girl Laurel is still adjusting to a place where parties take place in barns, guys ride around in pickup trucks, and a killer senior prank involves getting pigs into the principal’s office. Fortunately, she has her best friend Aspen on her side. The real problem is that neither the country girl nor the city slicker have boyfriends, nor any prospects for getting them. Clearly, they need to raise their profiles – and they have a summer to do it.

What’s interesting about this book’s description is that it sets you up for a completely different story. For me, I thought the story would focus on Laurel and her transition from city life to the country. At first I was confused and then pleasantly surprised when I realized this was Aspen’s story. A & L Do Summer focuses on the summer before Aspen and Laurel’s senior year of high school. Laurel wants to gain more notoriety before senior year, while Aspen just really wants a boy to be interested in her. She goes along with Laurel’s schemes until she finally realizes that instead of trying to fit her life into this perfect, stereotypical mould, she should just accept it for what it is in order to be truly happy.

Aspen and Laurel are the perfect duo. I particularly love Aspen’s sense of humor and her sarcastic wit. She is the perfect example of the semi-rebellious high school junior – someone extremely curious and willing to try new things, despite the consequences. Laurel could have easily fallen into the annoyingly beautiful, yet oddly unpopular stereotype always written into young adult novels – you know, the flawless best friend of the narrator meant to make the narrator more relatable – but she doesn’t. Instead, Laurel is hysterical and makes so many mistakes it’s hard not to feel bad for her most of the time. I like that she has the desire to be popular – honestly, it’s high school, and who doesn’t? – but she realizes the girls she considers “popular” are really just annoying and fake and that her friendship with Aspen is much more meaningful. Their friendship is so wonderfully captured in the pages of A & L Do Summer that I think everyone will find them relatable in some way.

The best thing about A & L Do Summer, though, is how realistic it is. The book is more focused on character development than plot, which I find refreshing. It reminds me of Phyllis Reynold Naylor’s Alice series, in that way. Essentially, these characters aren’t squeaky clean. They sneak out, drink, and even end up getting arrested (although in their small town, it’s more just to make an example of them than because they’re actually in trouble). Just when you think Aspen can’t possibly get into any more trouble, she does. And then she does again. And again. Her parents react just as any parents would and she faces a lot of consequences. But she also learns a lot about herself and about friendship in the process. It was a treat to read about someone making some of the same mistakes I have and I was able to laugh along with Aspen through most of them.

While I mentioned the story isn’t plot-heavy, there definitely is a plot. Aspen and Laurel face off against the villains of the story numerous times – three boys who gave me goose bumps. So creepy. I was probably more afraid of them than Aspen was. And of course there’s the love interest, Clay, who also happens to be Aspen’s brother’s best friend. Clay is a perfect gentleman – and his rugged good looks don’t hurt – but Aspen’s brother is the one who stole my heart. His relationship with Aspen is the perfect mix of verbal sparring, practical joking, and older-brother-heroics; he bails Aspen out of more than one sticky situation, making me wish he was my older brother. And despite their small fights and age difference, he makes it clear how much he cares about Aspen, especially at the end. It’s easy to see why Laurel has such a huge crush on him.

Basically, A & L Do Summer is the perfect summer read. Every girl will find something relatable about Aspen or Laurel and it’s impossible not to laugh at all the trouble they get into. I mean, walking a skunk around in a baby stroller? What’s not funny about that?

Pages: 275
Publication Date: May 2011
Publisher: Egmont USA
Challenge: N/A
Rating :

Teaser Quote: “The sun brings out his freckles and sparks the red highlights in his hair. ‘I wouldn’t say that. The first time I saw you, you were wrangling pigs. Nothing catches a farm boy’s attention like a girl who knows her way around livestock.’”

“Everything you love for less!

Anna Johnson is not a tea-bag squeezer, a penny-pincher, or inherently thrifty in any way—but she knows how to enjoy the finer things in life . . . for much, much less! In Savvy Chic, she shares her secrets on how to dress, decorate, entertain, and travel in high style without breaking the piggy bank.

All it takes to live well is taste, style, imagination, and rebellious flair—and Savvy Chic will show you how. Fun, fulfilling, and frugally fabulous, here’s your indispensable guide to five-star elegance on a one-star budget.”

I’ve never been one for memoirs. Generally I find them boring – hearing the details of people’s lives, stories about the time they played in the leaves in the fall as a child followed by the best ice cream ever. Of course, there is always a certain amount of wisdom that can be passed on through the stories of people’s lives but it requires a lot of skill to bring those stories back to life.

On the surface, Savvy Chic by Anna Johnson seems like a book filled with tips and tricks about living a stylish life without having to break the bank, with a few anecdotes from the author mixed in. And yes, for the most part it is that, but it’s really more like a book of memoirs with some advice included in the mix. In the end, I don’t feel I learned very much other than if you want to make your financially humble life richer, it’s all a matter of perspective.

The book is divided into six parts – Clothes, Shelter, Income, Food, Travel and Entertainment. Johnson draws on her experiences from working for magazines such as Vogue, her many travels particularly through Australia, the United States and Europe, as well as her life as a recently divorced single mother who has the financially precarious job of being a writer.

The author grew up quite bohemian, and it’s those sorts of ideals she tries to pass along. Most of the time when you are examining your penniless situation it’s a matter of finding the bohemian romance in simplicity in order to keep your sanity before money finds its way back to you.

This is also seen as a way to get back into life. She suggests rarely watching tv, perhaps once a week (if at all), instead, going out to the opening of art galleries, free concerts or to poetry readings. This is all well and good but it made my TV loving, Glee watching heart get a bit squeamish.

I feel that probably younger readers will have trouble relating to Johnson, and her anecdotes since to us, at lot of her ideals might seem a bit….old fashioned? Unappealing? Maybe a bit too bohemian? I personally didn’t find the memoir side of the book very interesting and made the book a bit of a drag to read.

Something I found strange at first, but eventually though it was funny was the constant reference to something Indian – Indian sheets, Indian shirts, Indian sandals, Indian baskets, Indian saris…

Oh my God we get it, you like Indian stuff.

On a lighter note, the book has been BEAUTIFULLY illustrated by the author herself and added a very cute and quirky look to the book.

Of all the sections I found the travel chapters to be the most useful and interesting, as well the chapter in the Fashion section that made you reason with yourself – do you really need these boots just because they’re on sale? It’s good to get a reminder on how to restrain your impulse shopping.

The opening and closing chapters about our feelings and attitudes toward money and possessions were quite thought provoking – in the end do you own your things or do they own you?

Even if you don’t take every piece of advice given, there’ll be something in this book for everyone. A little change in your ways can do you some good, and save you money too.

Pages: 312
Publication Date: December 2010
Publisher: Harper Collins
Challenge: n/a
Rating::

Teaser Quote: “Many large museums and art galleries offer drinks and (free) music on a Friday night. I think there is nothing funnier than looking at masterpieces when rosy and half tanked. That’s probably how half of them were created anyway”.

With her parents both dead, the daughter of Cleopatra and Mark Antony is left at the mercy of her Roman captors. Heir to one empire and prisoner of another, it falls to Princess Selene to save her brothers and reclaim what’s rightfully hers…

In the aftermath of Alexandria’s tragic fall, Princess Selene is taken from Egypt, the only home she’s ever known. Along with her two surviving brothers, she’s put on display as a war trophy in Rome. Selene’s captors mock her royalty and drag her through the streets in chains, but on the brink of death, the children are spared as a favor to the Roman emperor’s sister, who takes them to live as hostages in the so-called lamentable embassy of royal orphans…

Now trapped in a Roman court of intrigue, where her heritage is reviled and her faith is suspect, Selene can’t hide the hieroglyphics that carve themselves into her flesh. Nor can she stop the emperor from using her for his own political ends. Faced with a new and ruthless Caesar who is obsessed with having a Cleopatra of his very own, Selene is determined to honor her mother’s lost legacy. The magic of Egypt and Isis remain within her. But can she succeed where her mother failed? And what will it cost her in a political game where the only rule is to win or die?

Lily of the Nile is Stephanie Dray’s first novel in the trilogy following Princess Selene. Selene, daughter of Cleopatra and Mark Antony, loses both her parents in the war between Egypt and Rome. Not only does Egypt lose its rulers, but it also loses any chance of hope when Selene and her twin brother, Helios – the rightful heirs to the throne – are taken to Rome as prisoners of war and the emperor’s hostages. While Helios schemes and plots escape, Selene plays a more political game as she attempts to curry the emperor’s favor and save Egypt. Along the way, her faith and loyalty are tested. Tumultuous inner conflict threatens her sense of self and she almost breaks from the pressure of trying to be what everyone else wants her to be. But in the end, Selene realizes who she can trust above all else: herself and her faith.

When our protagonist, twelve-year-old Selene, was first-introduced, I wasn’t sure I wanted to hear her story. I thought of her as just a child – why would I listen to the story of someone who couldn’t possibly understand everything going on around them? But I quickly learned Selene was one of the smartest, sharpest, and strongest heroines in literature. She was wise beyond her years and a shrewd observer. As a master of logic and reasoning, it was impossible for anyone not to respect her. Stephanie Dray described Selene so realistically that I felt as if I knew her inside and out. We saw her fears, doubts, and confusion. We understppd why she made certain decisions and we saw how carefully she chose her words. Never before had I seen the intricacies of the human mind and behavior so clearly fleshed out in a novel.

And Selene wasn’t the only three-dimensional characters. The emperor, Octavian, and his sister, Octavia, were two characters that never ceased to surprise me. At first, they were easy to hate; they were The Enemy. But as the reasoning behind their actions came to light, the world stopped seeming to black and white, and instead delved into so many shades of gray that, like Selene, I was left questioning my own beliefs. Lily of the Nile truly makes you consider your ideas of right and wrong and offers a glimpse at what it really means to be the ruler of a nation.

As someone who could never sit still through a history lesson, but loves historical fiction, I was enthralled by Dray’s descriptions of Egypt and Rome. Not only were Dray’s descriptions rich, but the magnitude of her knowledge of customs, traditions, and everyday life was astounding. Every facet of Roman life fascinated me and the clarity with which the politics were laid out left me feeling educated and even, at times, enlightened. Dray’s specificity so thoroughly transported me to another time and place that I almost thought the events of Lily of the Nile were happening all around me which, as a lifelong reader, is one of the greatest feelings in the world.

And while I loved the realistic aspects of Lily of the Nile, the magical elements certainly didn’t hurt. It was exciting to see some of the myths we grow up learning come to life. I loved the intertwining of religion and heka (magic) that allowed Egyptian rulers to gain respect and even fear. Following along as Selene came into her powers and renewed her faith in the goddess Isis was a thrilling journey and gave Selene a strength that was all her own, something she could claim in Rome’s patriarchal society. While the book may begin a little slow, the ending, in my opinion, is thunderous and well-deserved. My only problem is that it ends on a cliff-hanger and now I’m left anxiously anticipating the sequel.

Pages: 340
Publication Date: January 2011
Publisher: Penguin Group USA
Challenge: Historical Fiction/Debut Author
Rating :

Teaser Quote: “I held my hands aloft to read the twisting hieroglyphics while the barren woman knelt on the marble, weeping. The crowd gathered with eyes glistening and dreamy. Some trembled. Others murmured prayers and clutched hands. As I looked upon their faces, I knew that I’d unleashed something more powerful than myself.”