Tag Archive | sisters

Last Best Kiss, by Claire LaZebnik (book review) – can love overcome memories?

May2

bool cover of The Last Best Kiss by Claire LaZebnik published by Harper TeenBeing true to yourself or
Staying stylish and popular.
How far should you go to keep up an image?

Anna figures out that kissing short and nerdy Finn privately, yet telling people publicly that they’re “just friends” was the wrong thing to do – too late.

When Finn’s parents’ travels bring him back to California in a taller, cooler version, she realizes what she lost in 9th grade. But is it too late to try again?

Find this new paperback retelling of Jane Austen’s Persuasion today at your favorite local library or independent bookstore for a great sunny days read.

**kmm

Book info: Last Best Kiss / Claire LaZebnik. Harper Teen, 2014. [author site]  [publisher site]   Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

My book talk: Anna’s secret relationship with a nerdy freshman ended badly. When he moves back as a hunky senior, can she stand being ‘just friends’ with Finn, realizing what she’s lost?

As a popular 9th grader, it was just easier for Anna to keep quiet about her dates with Finn, then he moved before she could apologize.  Senior year sees him back at their California high school, a tech-apps genius whose slimmed-down, hipster good looks attract lots of girls, including Anna’s best friend Lily.

Considering her ever-absent mom, self-absorbed dad in a weird new relationship, two sisters in college (one happy, one crushed after her girlfriend’s family reviles her), it’s no wonder that Anna really wants someone to care about her and wants that someone to be Finn.

The art teacher pressures her to include something outside her signature style in her college application portfolio, Wade from another school is on the scene now, and a road trip to the new music festival promoted by Lily and Hilary’s dad goes completely crazy.

(One of 6,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com)

Z is Zelia in Control, by Lydia Kang (book review) – future genetics, love & power

Apr30

book cover of Control by Lydia Kang published by Dial Books for Young ReadersGenetic differences are illegal,
the United States aren’t united,
welcome to 2150.

Two sisters with non-standard DNA somehow survive in a society where implanted fingertip IDs control access to public transportation and food delivery. The cartel which develops big money products using illegal genes from these non-persons can’t wait to get them following their doctor-dad’s untimely death…

Chilling sci-fi for our last AtoZ April Blog Challenge entry – first in a new series, filled with danger, science that’s almost here now, and romance blossoming amid the chaos.
**kmm

Book info: Control (Control, book 1) / Lydia Kang. Dial Books for Young Readers, hardcover 2013; paperback 2015.  [author site]  [publisher site]  [book trailer] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

My book talk: After her father’s death and sister’s kidnapping in 2150, Zelia finds allies – and love – among genetically illegal teens being sought by a sinister syndicate.

Beautiful Dylia and medically fragile Zelia are accustomed to moving often with their doctor dad. But they’re not prepared to be orphaned, separated, and fought over by rival groups who claim they have special genetic traits.

Rescued by her Dad’s friend, Marka takes Zelia home to her other 4 teen adoptees – a girl with photosynthetic skin, a guy with 4 arms, and another with 2 active brains. What Cy’s trait is – besides surly sarcasm – remains to be seen. Why is Zelia, who looks like a child at 17 and needs help to breathe, in the safety of Carus when it’s Dylia who has special traits?

Dylia was kidnapped by Aureus group, which creates products using youth with illegal genetic differences – maybe Zel can sequence Dyl’s DNA in Cy’s lab to discover why and find a way to rescue her.

While trying to understand her dad’s connection to Carus, she’s secretly contacted by Q who promises information about Dylia’s whereabouts…for a price.

Can her new housemates help Zel find Dylia? Will they risk leaving Carus?
Is she willing to trade Cy’s growing fondness for this dangerous opportunity?

This medical sci-fi thriller is first in a series, asking tough questions about identity, differences, and society since our ‘now’ leads to our future. (One of 7,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com)

V is Violet, trapped Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea, by April Tucholke (book review)

Apr25

book cover of Between the Deviland the Deep Blue Sea by April Genevieve Tucholke published by DialIntoxicating kisses,
Devil seen in the graveyard,
Suicide, blood, and madness –
O, the things that happen after River comes to town!

Such a summer of secrets and frights – River West woos 17-year-old Violet with his gorgeous eyes and tricksy talk, makes awful and outrageous things happen in her sleepy coastal town, smooths over things with her twin Luke as their artist parents stay and stay and stay in Europe.

Read an excerpt from this romance-slash-horror story here. The Speak paperback will be published July 2014, but you shouldn’t wait that long to travel to the old clifftop mansion and discover River’s secret since Between the Spark and the Burn  comes out in August 2014, and you must know the beginning of the tale before you can follow the trail…

**kmm

Book info: Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea / April Genevieve Tucholke. Dial Books, 2013.  [author site]  [publisher site]   Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

My book talk: Violet and Luke expect another boring summer until River arrives to rent their guesthouse – then the teens experience a thrill ride of attraction, mystery, horror, and evil.

With their artist parents in Europe for months, the 17-year-old twins are cash-poor in the big cliffside house. Renting to River West makes perfect sense, until he lies with his charming smile, convinces Violet to stay near him always, and brings death to their sleepy town.

And then there’s the matter of the Devil seen in the cemetery… River’s brother coming to Echo… more death…

Secrets about Violet’s beloved grandmother and their artistic family’s ties to the townspeople must take a backseat to the horror which River’s arrival has unleashed – what evil will arrive on the next train or the next?

Followed by Between the Spark and the Burn  (August 2014), this Gothic romance/thriller makes the idea of ‘devil boys’ all too believable.

T is Tokyo in When You Were Here by Daisy Whitney (book review) – love, loss, secrets

Apr23

book cover of When You Were Here by Daisy Whitney published by Little Brown Books For Young ReadersEmpty home,
full medicine bottles,
not enough information!

Did Mom’s doctor in Japan convince her to stop taking traditional cancer treatments? Why else would she have died just weeks before Danny’s graduation, her big goal during her five year fight?

Kana is like a big sister to Danny in Tokyo as they visit the clinics and temples that Mom frequented. If only he could figure out what went wrong between him and love of his life Holland, who now wears a necklace honoring Sarah, her friend who died at college…

“All the things my mom will never see and never know flash before me. She will never know what I will study in college, who I’ll marry… She will never learn golf or qualify for a senior discount at the movies. She will never grow old,” Danny muses. (p. 206)

Find When You Were Here  at your local library or independent bookstore, and walk Tokyo’s busy streets with Danny as he tries reclaim the joy that his mom found in her too-short life. (paperback comes out June 24, 2014)

**kmm

Book info: When You Were Here / Daisy Whitney. Little Brown Books for Young Readers, 2013 (paperback June 2014).  [author’s Twitter]  [publisher site]  [author in Tokyo videos] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

My book talk: Bereft and angry, Danny travels to Tokyo after graduation, trying to discover why his mom gave up fighting her cancer just two months short of their shared goal.

Even though she was a year older, Holland was perfect for Danny, but when she left for college last fall, she broke up with him, never giving a reason.

His parents did business in Japan, Danny was born there, his dad died suddenly there six years ago. His mom spent her final cancer treatment time there, before returning home to enjoy the last days of her life.

When the young woman who helped his mom in Tokyo asks Danny what’s to be done about Mom’s apartment there, he decides to leave the empty, memory-filled California house (and not-girlfriend-now Holland, home from college) to spend time in Japan and find out what changed his mother’s mind about holding on until he graduated.

Secrets are powerful. Death is inevitable, but perhaps love and hope are possible in this strongly emotional novel where an unconventional Japanese girl and the scent of lilacs help an angry young man search for answers. (One of 6,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com)

Winter of the Robots, by Kurtis Scaletta (book review) – robots good, bad, on the loose!

Jan20

book cover of Winter of the Robots by Kurtis Scaletta published by Alfred A KnopfResearching urban otters instead of making fake robots,
Working with cute Rocky for the science fair,
Solving a mystery in snow-bound Minneapolis –
all great until something or someone attacks them!

The ‘keep out’ signs at the abandoned site are there for a reason, Jim, but staying out won’t keep the mysterious whatevers inside the fence!

Scaletta wrote about the deadly snake that Linus encountered at Mamba Point – is this new snow-cloaked peril even more dangerous?

**kmm

Book info: The Winter of the Robots / Kurtis Scaletta.  Alfred Knopf, 2013.  [author site]  [publisher site]  Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

My book talk: Metal skritching, big clawprints in the snow – the abandoned tech site hides something scarier than Jim and his friends can imagine…and it’s ready to escape!

Maybe it awoke when Jim decided not to be genius Oliver’s sidekick for the 7th grade science fair. Or when their new partners’ ideas got Dmitri kidnapped and Rochelle stuck in the junkyard fence looking for otters. Or when the security cameras they borrowed from Jim’s dad spotted something moving way too fast in the Minneapolis snow to be an otter.

After the creatures chase them out of the old Half Street research site, Jim and Rocky decide to send in robots with cameras to figure out what’s going on, even if Oliver won’t help.

Robot competitions, school closed for snow days, pocket burgers – here’s Jim’s chance to impress Rocky, to uncover whatever is haunting Half Street, and to show Oliver that he can build robots, too…if the things don’t attack the science fair partners first!  (One of 6,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com)

Coda, by Emma Trevayne (book review) – music=death, must play anyway

Jan17

book cover of Coda by Emma Trevayne published by Running PressIn the future, personal music is illegal.
Mainline the Corp’s music now and die later of mindrot.
Skip the Corp’s music-drug today and be mind-wiped tomorrow.

Chrome skin implants to gleam under the lights at the music club where the lower levels get their music fix every night, the credits for it earned by letting the Corporation siphon off brainwaves… this future’s so bleak that self-named Anthem’s craving to make his own music is like a torch – and the Corp is all-too-ready to stamp out any individual spark.

This first book in the Coda series is available now in paperback – grab it today at your local library or independent bookstore!

How far would you go to express yourself?
**kmm

Book info: Coda / Emma Trevayne. Running Press Teens, 2013.  [author’s Tumblr]  [publisher site]   Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

My book talk: Only the Corporation may create music, deeply encoded and addictive, but a few citizens like 18-year-old Anthem sneak away to play their own punk-rock songs at the risk of being mind-wiped if caught.

In this not-so-distant future, video cameras everywhere record all your actions and implanted chips tell the Corporation if you’re not listening to enough life-shortening music tracks daily. Anthem’s younger sister and brother are his main reason for living; making his music is the only reason he feels alive. But a few stolen hours of playing his made-from-scraps guitar aren’t enough anymore…

Can Anthem and his friends find a way to perform in public?
Will they live long enough to keep his little brother and sister safe?
Why did the Corp turn music into a drug and a weapon?

Deciding who to trust, daring to love an Upper Level, the chance for revolution – this Coda may signal a change in the music of their lives or a crashing final chord.   (One of 7,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com)

Beautiful and the Cursed, by Page Morgan (book review) – danger and dark secrets in Paris

Oct14
UK book cover of The Beautiful and the Cursed by Page Morgan published by Hot Key Books

UK cover

US book cover of The Beautiful and the Cursed by Page Morgan published by Delacorte Books

US cover

Brother missing,
Gargoyles watching,
Protectors or predators?

A different sort of paranormal creature stalks Paris as the 20th century peeks over the horizon – first novel I’ve read with gargoyles as central characters!

Read this one for

  • a new paranormal hero/villain
  • interesting family dynamics
  • a look into 1899 Paris

Book two in the series, The Lovely and the Lost,  is scheduled for May 2014 publication – more gargoyle intrigue impacting the human world, no doubt!
Hoping its cover is more like the UK cover of The Beautiful and the Cursed.

**kmm

Book info: The Beautiful and the Cursed / Page Morgan.  Delacorte Press, 2013.   [author site]  [publisher site]  Review copy and cover images courtesy of the publisher.

My book talk: Searching for her missing brother in 1899 Paris, Gabrielle finds gargoyles come to life, mysterious alliances, and danger at every turn as time runs out for his safe return.

Grayson was overseeing repairs at the gargoyle-bedecked old abbey that Mama had bought as an art gallery, but he wasn’t there when she arrived in dead of winter with his teen sisters – how unthoughtful!

But Gabby and Ingrid soon discover that his disappearance has interested not only the police, but also the warring factions of unworldly beings – the Dispossessed in human guise and the masters of Underneath, whose hellhounds have burst into the Paris nights.

For the gargoyles are indeed the Dispossessed, forced to stay in the world after their death because of their crimes in life, forever guarding and protecting the humans residing in their building, able to assume human form as needed, yet never letting people see them so.

And as for the hellhounds… their dark masters require more human blood and have broken a long-standing treaty with the Dispossessed to acquire it more quickly.

How can the gargoyle Luc protect Gabby and Ingrid when they keep leaving the abbey grounds?
Did one of the Dispossessed turn traitor and open the way for the hellhounds?
Where does Grayson fit into all this?

First in a series featuring a new type of paranormal hero, The Beautiful and the Cursed  brings the dark corners of the City of Light into sharp focus as two sisters risk much to find their brother.  (One of 6,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com)

Monster in the Mudball, by S.P. Gates (book review) – ancient hunger, on the loose!

Oct9

book cover of Monster in the Mudball by SP Gates published by Tu BooksTrapped for decades,
she awakens hungry,
violently hungry…

Every time ancient Zilombo is reborn, the monster from deep in an African lake has new and frightening powers that help her hunt – this time in England!

Try out three chapters for free here and you’ll be hooked as Jin, Frankie, and Mizz Z go after The Monster in the Mudball  along the Oozeburn River’s littered shores.

Do you hear the shivery jangle of a bottle cap anklet…  or is it just me?
**kmm

Book info:  Monster in the Mudball (An Artifact Inspector Book) / S. P. Gates. Tu Books, 2013.  [author biography]  [publisher site]  Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

My book talk: A baby, a monster older than the world, and a mysterious inspector – Jin and Frankie need the last one to help them rescue the first one from the middle one, before Zilombo eats him!

No one would expect that dusty old ball of mud contained an African monster which would gladly eat anything, especially when the mudball had been high on a shelf in a small British house for 20 years. How the dried dirt became mud again, hatched out its oversize feet and huge-clawed hands, escaped from its exile just before the Inspector of Ancient Artifacts arrived on her annual inspection… Jin knows, and Mizz Z the inspector knows that his baby brother is in great danger if this Zilombo monster isn’t caught – soon!

After such a long imprisonment, ancient Zilombo needs food and a hiding place, so she runs toward the scent of water, finding a secret spot near the river and sniffing for the delicious scent of that Smiler baby – oh, how she will enjoy eating it!

Jin and Mizz Z are on Zilombo’s trail, recruiting big sister Frankie along the way, but they may be too late, as baby Smiler chooses this night to take his first steps at Grandma and Grandad Tang’s riverside house.

Why does Mizz Z know so much about this ancient monster?
What new powers does Zilombo have in her newest form?
Can Jin and Frankie really save their baby brother?

Wild adventure along the muddy banks of the deceptively calm Oozeburn River as Jin, Frankie, and Mizz Z try to recapture the monster with her jangling ankle bracelet of soda bottle caps before she strikes again.  (One of 6,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com)

Linked, by Imogen Howson (book review) – illegal twin, found again

Oct7
US book cover of Linked by Imogen Howson published by Simon Schuster

US cover of Linked

Separated at birth,
each thinking she was alone,
yet connected by thoughts,
their suffering begins again.

“Telepathic twins in space” was UK author Imogen Howson’s working title for Linked,  and it describes the basic plotline well. Looking forward to scheduled 2014 sequel Unravel.

Grab this book if you like:

  • Mystery with a twist
  • Teens against a corrupt society
  • Action and adventure
  • Colonies in space
  • SciFi with grit

How far would you go to save part of your family, if it meant leaving the rest behind?
**kmm

UK book cover of Linked by Imogen Howson published by Simon Schuster

UK cover of Unlinked

Book info: Linked / Imogen Howson. Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2013.  [author site]  [publisher site]   Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

My book talk: Elissa’s nightmares bring pain and bruises with them – not mental illness, but telepathy with her unhuman twin sister. Now they must escape the planet whose government wants to use them, regardless of the costs.

Brain surgery is the teen’s last hope of ending the visions of white-masked figures, the brutal pain, the bruises that bloom on her skin as she watches. Thankfully, their planet-colony has advanced medical care, thanks to the wealth that their unique spaceship engine technology brings in.

When Elissa discovers that her nightmares are the real thoughts and torture of another girl on Sekoia, she has to act. When she finds out that Lin is her sister, she doesn’t even know a word for it – twin? When she helps Lin escape, the girls become wanted criminals, and Elissa’s police chief father must catch them both!

How can two children be born at the same time, yet be separated?
Why are those people torturing Lin and other ‘unhuman’ children?
Can they convince brother Bruce to get them off-planet in a space academy ship?

A mystery, a terraformed planet filled with colonists and secrets, a race to safety… Lin and Elissa are linked through their minds – will they die that way?  (One of 6,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com)

Ravens of Solemano, by Eden Unger Bowditch (book review) – journey of secrets, families lost?

Sep25

book cover of Ravens of Solemano by Eden Unger Bowditch published by Bancroft PressBelongings vanish, then reappear.
Mysterious coins and curious murals.
Fabulous food, but no parents to share it with.

The remote village hides the five Young Inventors and their teacher well, but it also hides many secrets, perhaps even the origins of the Mysterious Men in Black who guard, guide, and confuse them! Hopefully, its ravens can hide the children from evil Komar Romak long enough for them to solve a baffling problem which endangers the world.

Just published on Sept. 24th, The Ravens of Solemano  surprises with clever puzzles, endearing characters (except for Romak),and links to historical figures famous and obscure. Ask for it today at your favorite local library or independent bookstore – if they don’t have it, use the Book Info below to request it.

Of course, you’ll enjoy these further adventures of the Young Inventors Guild even more  if you’ve already read The Atomic Weight of Secrets (my no-spoiler recommendation here) , so check it out, too.

If the expectations of the world are on your shoulders, can you ever put family first?
**kmm

Book info: The Ravens of Solemano: The Order of the Mysterious Men in Black (Young Inventors Guild, book 2) / Eden Unger Bowditch. Bancroft Press, 2013.   [author site]  [publisher site]  Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

My book talk: A daring escape, a too-brief family reunion, then the five Young Inventors must solve cryptic puzzles in a puzzling village before their dreadful enemy strikes again – now the world itself is in danger!

Fortunately, their schoolteacher Miss Brett is with Jasper and little sister Lucy, Wallace, Noah, and Faye as they must travel across the sea from the explosion site where they spent such a short time with their parents, on the run from evil Komar Romak. The Men in Black hustled the children and Miss Brett to safety aboard the strangest ship, crewed by more like them. Such wonders in its library and labs!

But a murdered man’s message sends danger their way, even before the Young Inventors reach the Italian village of Solemano with its ever-present ravens, mysterious garden labyrinth, and many puzzles to solve. Miss Brett helps the children settle in and resume their experiments – their inventive minds find much to ponder here.

Underground passageways with possible clues, garden statues that are not what they appear to be, friendly villagers with secrets of their own. How long will the children stay in Solemano? The Men in Black who guard/protect them cannot (or will not) say.

Has Komar Romak discovered their hiding place yet?
Can the Young Inventors discover enough of Solemano’s secrets to protect themselves?
Will they ever see their parents again?

This second tale in the Young Inventors Guild series takes readers far away, into an imaginatively peopled land of puzzles and parallels as the brilliant children who first met in The Atomic Weight of Secrets  must work together to save themselves and the world. (One of 6,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com)

Save