Tag Archive | love

Road trip tales – time to read with your ears!

May19

Time for a road trip? Tales of escape from and escape to are ready for you read with your ears with free audiobooks from SYNC!

If you download them before late night Wednesday (25 May 2016), you can listen to these complete audiobooks any time using your computer or electronic device.

Click on the title to get to its download site, or visit SYNC to see what’s available this summer week: http://www.audiobooksync.com/

CD audiobook cover of 100 Sideways Miles by Andrew Smith | Read by Kirby Heyborne Published by Tantor Media | recommended on BooksYALove.com100 Sideways Miles
by Andrew Smith
Read by Kirby Heyborne
Published by Tantor Media

Measuring time as the distance that the earth travels during each minute, epileptic Finn longs to escape being just a character in his father’s epic SciFi novel, so a road trip with his best friend to find Finn’s lost love is in order.
This Boy’s LifeCD audiobook cover of by Tobias Wolff | Read by Oliver Wyman Published by HighBridge Audio | recommended on BooksYALove.com
by Tobias Wolff
Read by Oliver Wyman
Published by HighBridge Audio

In this memoir chronicling his mother’s continued flight from abusive relationships, Wolff puts a darkly comedic spin on his battles with the terrible men in her life during his teen years.

What road trip would you write about?
**kmm

Hot Pterodactyl Boyfriend by Alan Cumyn (book review) – transfer student is really different

May17

book cover of Hot Pterodactyl Boyfriend by Alan Cumyn, published by Atheneum/Caitlyn Dlouhy Books | recommended on BooksYALove.com A dramatic arrival,
disrupting school and community,
this wild transfer student!

Yep, her carefully orchestrated high school plan gets derailed by the arrival of a pterodactyl, a teenaged pterodactyl named Pyke. The Autumn Whirl dance and football playoffs will never be the same at Vista View… and neither will Shiels!

Visit the publisher’s page here and scroll down to read chapter 1 for free.

Soar into your local library or favorite indie bookstore to snag this offbeat love story.

Share your most unusual transfer student experience in the comments, please.
**kmm

Book info: Hot Pterodactyl Boyfriend / Alan Cumyn. Atheneum/Caitlyn Dlouhy Books, 2016. [author site]  [publisher site] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

My book talk: When a pterodactyl transfers to her high school, Shiels’ organized plan for maximum college application impact dissolves as flyer Pyke inspires vivid freedom-filled dreams in his classmates, amplifies everyone’s hormones, and disrupts her calmly solid relationship with Sheldon – before the aggression at the football playoff game, that is.

Why did Pyke pick cross-country runner Jocelyne as his girlfriend?
And what about all the crows that accompany him?
Beast? Boy? Both?

Not your average love story and not your average transfer student either!

Live? Die? Choose audiobooks with impact!

May12

Life-changing choices highlight this week’s pair of free audiobooks from SYNC!

Click each title for your free download – just needs your name and email address.

Remember that although these complete audiobooks are only available from Thursday through Wednesday, you have free use of them as long as you keep them on your computer or electronic device.

CD cover of Sin Eater's Daughter by Melinda Salisbury | Read by Amy Shiels Published by Scholastic | recommended on BooksYALove.comThe Sin Eater’s Daughter

by Melinda Salisbury
Read by Amy Shiels
Published by Scholastic

Twylla’s touch kills, so the royal family uses her as executioner. Now the 16 year old must decide whether to be a deadly tool in the Queen’s audacious plan or to follow the possibility of love that can only end in death.

 

CD cover of DIVINE COLLISION: An African Boy, an American Lawyer, and Their Remarkable Battle for Freedom by Jim Gash Read by Brandon Batchelar Published by Oasis Audio | recommended on BooksYALove.com Divine Collision: An African Boy, an American Lawyer, and Their Remarkable Battle for Freedom

by Jim Gash
Read by Brandon Batchelar
Published by Oasis Audio

True story of an American lawyer and a Ugandan teen whose fight for the young man’s freedom changes an entire nation’s legal system.

How would you choose which way to go?
**kmm

Unexpected Everything, by Morgan Matson (book review) – summer plans? poof, woof & wow!

May5

book cover of The Unexpected Everything by Morgan Matson published by Simon Schuster | recommended on BooksYALove.comShe’s got it all planned:
internship, great college, med school…
until step one is revoked!

Andie loves her checklists, her plans to become a doctor, her best friends – and sticks to short-term boyfriends.

Then her fancy internship gets yanked away, her politician father is suddenly home from DC, she lands in a summer job far outside her experience or comfort zone, and she meets Clark…

Happy book birthday week to The Unexpected Everything!  This is a great summer read, like Matson’s Since You’ve Been Gone  (my no-spoilers recommendation here) and Second Chance Summer  (more here) with less road trip, but just as much self-reflection and heart.

What do you do when a perfectly crafted plan falls apart?
**kmm

Book info: The Unexpected Everything / Morgan Matson. Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2016. [author site]  [publisher site]  [author video] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

My book talk: When problems at her congressman father’s office cause her pre-med internship to vanish, Andie is forced out of her structured life of success checklists and into a summer job as a dog-walker (never had a dog), wanting to stay around new guy Clark (never mind her 3-weeks-only rule for boyfriends), and trying to keep her best friends in sync as an outside relationship threatens to dissolve their group.

A world-famous author in their midst?
Dad home in Connecticut all summer instead of away in Washington DC?
A long-time crush keeps his distance, or does he?

An epic scavenger hunt, bridging the father-daughter gap 5 years after Mom’s death, emojis-only text message challenge, a committed relationship (wait! this is Andie we’re talking about…) – such an unexpected summer before senior year!  (One of 6,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com)

X on the map, any map for Girl From Everywhere, by Heidi Heilig (book review)

Apr28

book cover of The Girl From Everywhere by Heidi Heilig published by Greenwillow | recommended on BooksYALove.comTime traveling,
On a pirate ship,
If there’s a map, she can go there!

Just imagine a Gifted young woman navigating the Temptation and her interesting crew to any port present or past, nations long-swallowed by history, mythic lands – all so that her father the captain can find a way to undo her mother’s death… and perhaps undo Nix herself!

I listened to Heidi speak on a debut YA authors’ panel last week at TxLA, and she was just as funny in person as in this offbeat author interview video.

Sail into your local library or independent bookstore for the February 2016-published first adventure in this two-part sea saga (Heidi is indeed working on the second book now, she assured us!).

If you could travel to any place at any time, where would you come ashore?
**kmm

Book info: The Girl From Everywhere / Heidi Heilig. Greenwillow Books, 2016.  [author site]  [publisher site]  [video author interview] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

My book talk: As her father seeks to undo her mother’s death, 16 year old half-Chinese Nix guides their time-traveling pirate ship to ports real and imagined, encountering mythic creatures and real robber barons, wondering if his quest will undo her as well.

She can guide the Temptation to any port on any map, fictional or factual, so onward goes the ship, seeking every possible cure that could keep Nix’s mother from dying in childbirth – if Slate could only find the map for the exact 1886 Honolulu where they lived.

A crowded 1774 Calcutta market where just-a-friend Kashmir rescues her, sugar barons who want to depose the king of Hawaii, today’s Coast Guard with questions for the grand wooden sailing ship in New York harbor – Nix, Slate, Kash, Rotgut, Bee and her ghost-wife Ayen travel through time and oceans on the captain’s quest.

If her mother survives childbirth in her timeline, what happens to Nix?
Is there room for love when a pirate ship can’t put down roots?
What treacherous waters must Nix cross to fulfill her own dreams?

First of a two-part adventure that spans time, tides, and every human emotion, The Girl From Everywhere wants to remain in existence, despite her father’s longing to undo her past. (One of 6,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com)

U is uncertainty & Rules for 50/50 Chances, by Kate McGovern (book review)

Apr25

book cover of Rules for 50/50 Chances by Kate McGovern published by Farrar Straus Giroux | recommended on BooksYALove.com Hereditary disease.
Test to find out
or live till it grabs you?

Rose’s mother has Huntington’s Disease and is losing control of herself and her abilities bit by bit.  At 18, Rose can take the genetic test that tells whether she inherited the fatal disease or not. Then she meets Caleb…

Would you want to know how you’re going to die?
**kmm

p.s. May is Huntington’s Disease Awareness Month, so look for a Team Hope HD Walk near you.

Book info: Rules for 50/50 Chances / Kate McGovern. Farrar Straus Giroux Books for Young Readers , 2015 [author site]  [publisher site] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

My book talk: As her mother’s condition worsens, 18-year-old Rose wonders whether taking the genetic test to see if she also has Huntington’s Disease would stop her from dancing ballet or planning for college or letting new friend Caleb have her heart.

S is Stone Rider, racing for better future, by David Hofmeyr (book review)

Apr22

book cover of Stone Rider published by Delacorte | recommended on BooksYALove.comRide out of town or die there.
You and the byke as one being,
the desert ready to eat you both…

If Adam can win the treacherous Blackwater race for a one-way ticket to Sky-Base and luxury, without being attacked by gangs trying to race their way to freedom too, or ambushed by bandits, or captured by the mythical Nakoda…

Love, death, and motorcycles that contain the essence of every owner who’s ever ridden them in this futuristic desert world.

Could you gamble it all for one chance to be free?
**kmm

Book info: Stone Rider / David Hofmeyr. Delacorte Press, 2015.  [author site]  [publisher site]  Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

My book talk: Only way to Sky-base and the good life from the grubby town where the Colonel owns everything and controls everybody? Gotta win the Blackwater Trail race through unforgiving desert with bandits, cannibals that might not be myths, and a hundred other riders on their motorcycles that are part living things.

Adam has lost his father and his brother, all reasons to play it safe gone now. When the stranger Kane keeps the Scorpion gang from stealing Adam’s entry fee for the race, maybe the teen has a ally…

Will Adam survive long enough to tell Sadie how he feels?
Can he remember all race lore that his brother told him?
Who is Kane, really?

In this future world, there is no future as long as the Colonel has control of the mines and the people – unless Adam can ride his way to freedom.  (One of 6,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com)

P is brother’s Personal Effects & personal secrets, by Kokie (book review)

Apr19

book cover of Personal Effects by EM Kokie published by Candlewick | recommended on BooksYALove.com Dad is a bully, no secret there.
Brother is a war hero,
his secrets run deep.

His big brother T.J. joined the Army and got killed in Iraq, and Dad still wants Matt to enlist after high school. Surely something in his service footlocker will tell Matt why T.J. told him never to enlist…

This strong debut title won several awards and has been out in paperback for a while, so you should be able to find it at your local library or independent bookstore easily. (I read an advance copy long, long ago, just found it while moving bookshelves… sigh).

How well can you truly know someone?
**kmm

Book info: Personal Effects / E.M. Kokie. Candlewick Books, 2012 (hardcover), 2014 (paperback). [author site]  [publisher site]  Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

My book talk: Matt doesn’t know what to make of the letters he finds in T.J’s footlocker, the one they finally sent home from Iraq, long after the closed-casket funeral.

Since then, it’s been an eternity of being Dad’s punching bag, of hearing that the Army is his only option in life, even after T.J. warned Matt to never, ever enlist.

But he needs answers, what the shrinks call ‘closure’ about his big brother’s death, so the Pennsylvania teen takes a road trip (never mind that he should be studying for junior year finals) to the Ohio return address on all those love letters to T.J. and finds out that he really didn’t know him at all.

Family ties he never imagined could exist, wondering if his best friend Shauna will ever be anything more, imagining the freedom to choose his own future…

N is Natalie, fighting addiction in Other Broken Things, by CJ Desir (book review)

Apr16

book cover of Other Broken Things by CJ Desir published by Simon Pulse | BooksYALove.com “Powerless over alcohol”… well, maybe
“Fearless moral inventory”… don’t want to go there
“A Power greater than ourselves”… ummm

Nat attends Alcoholics Anonymous meetings only because her probation after the car wreck requires it, not because she needs to.

Finding connections there with her mentor and with a cool older guy is a bonus, especially after her party-friends at school snub her.

But there’s something more, and maybe she does need help to get through all this.

Check with your local library (National Library Week is every week, right?) or independent bookstore for this January 2016 title with strong characters who are weak at their cores.

Fearless moral inventory…
**kmm

Book info: Other Broken Things / C. Desir. Simon Pulse, 2016.  [author site]  [publisher site]  Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

My book talk: After Natalie’s drunken car wreck and rehab, the Chicago teen must attend AA meetings, where she meets a mentor who cares more than her suburbanite parents do and a much older guy who might just get her past the reasons she stopped boxing and nearly partied herself gone.

M is Madly & magic & oh my! by Amy Alward (book review)

Apr15

book cover of Madly by Amy Alward published by Simon & Schuster BFYR | BooksYALove.comA love-poisoned princess is dying,
rarest ingredients needed for the cure,
the Wilde Hunt is on!

Princess Evelyn is utterly, totally, Madly in love – with herself! Now Nova’s best spell-creators must discover the unwritten, illegal love potion recipe so the antidote can be found.

Samantha races against other potion-makers like royal boyfriend and family rival Zain to save the Princess, while trying to save herself from falling in love with Zain. Hmmm… maybe that’s mere magic, too.

Would you ever use a love potion?
**kmm

Book info: Madly (Potion Diaries #1) / Amy Alward. Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2015.  [author site]  [publisher site]  [book trailer] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

My book talk: Born potion-maker Samantha must outwit competitors to create the antidote for Princess Evelyn’s love potion turned deadly and outsmart her own heart as she tries not to fall in love with the princess’s almost-fiance Zain – who is also her greatest rival on the Wilde Hunt for rare ingredients.

This first book in The Potion Diaries series sees Sam discover secrets from the time before Zain’s family cornered the potions market with synthetics, worry over her younger sister’s magic Talent, taste adventure and danger beyond Nova’s borders, and turn away from love… if she can. Princess Evelyn gets her chapters, too, as the love potion draws her deeper into its power. (One of 6,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com)