Tag Archive | conflict

Border Town: Crossing the Line, by Malin Alegria (book review) – sisters, competition, the truth

May27

book cover of Border Town Crossing the Line by Malin Alegria published by Point BooksHigh school cliques.
Social pecking-order.
You’ve got to know where you stand
and when crossing the line is the right thing to do.

Big sister Fabi is sure she has all the answers that ninth-grader Alexis will need to succeed in their high school in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas. But pretty little Alexis isn’t satisfied with being a quiet Mexican-American good-girl and decides to run with the popular crowd, setting her sights on football star Dex, despite his bad-boy reputation in town.

Alexis and Fabi’s extended family ranges from arguing grandmothers who stay on opposite sides of the Garza restaurant to baby brother Rafael (also known as Baby Oops) to their many, many uncles and aunts and cousins.

Like many border towns, questions of immigration and fair work, legal enterprises and criminal activities “from away” are the unspoken undercurrents that disturb the balance of life in Dos Rios and finally demand answers.

This is the first book in the Border Town series, with the Garza family’s next adventures coming soon: Quince Clash (#2) will be published July 1, 2012, with Falling Too Fast (#3) and No Second Chances (#4) following at three-month intervals. Fans of the popular Bluford High series should jump right into Border Town.
**kmm

Book info: Border Town: Crossing the Line (Border Town #1) / Malin Alegria. Point (Scholastic), 2012.  [author’s website] [publisher site] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

My Book Talk: Fabi is excited that her little sister will attend her high school this year, but worries when Alexis won’t listen to the rules that keep them safe in their Texas border town. Crossing the line into the wrong crowd is more than a social miscue – it could endanger their family’s business.

There have always been tensions between long-time residents of Dos Rios and newcomers, between Mexican-Americans and whites. When it comes to the patrons of her family’s Mexican restaurant, Fabiola Garza knows who to joke with and who to be quiet around. Her cousin Santiago can sweet-talk anyone, especially their two grandmothers, one whose answer to every question is a rosary, the other who just adores conjunto musician Little Rafa.

Alexis starts seeing bad-boy Dex, deciding that being popular is more important than attending the voice lessons that her parents work so hard to pay for. Too bad that Fabi’s best friend moved away – she needs Georgia Rae’s advice more often than just weekends.

Chuy is attacked in the restaurant one night, but the waiter can’t identify the robbers. Luckily new student Milo is with Fabi when she discovers him. As other immigrants are robbed of their earnings on payday, the townspeople get worried. Are the drug cartels coming across the border from Mexico now or is anti-Mexican sentiment in Dos Rios turning violent?

When Santiago starts flashing cash around town, the police decide he’s responsible for the thefts. Fabi overhears Dex bragging to his football buddies about mugging immigrants and asks Georgia Rae and Milo to help her uncover the truth.

Can Fabi convince Alexis to stay away from the football star for good?
Can she keep her cousin out of prison?
Can she convince anyone that the judge’s grandson Dex is a thief?

First in the fast-moving Border Town series, Crossing the Line is followed by Quince Clash (book 2), Falling Too Fast (book 3), and No Second Chances (book 4).  (One of 5,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com)

Fated, by Alyson Noel (book review) – spirit worlds, souls unbound, evil or good

May22

book cover of Fated Soul Seeker book 1 by Alyson Noel published by St Martins GriffinShe sees him in her dreams,
those visions that sent her over the edge of sanity,
leading her to an adobe house in the desert,
to the grandmother she’s never known,
to the small town where she sees him, in the flesh.
Bound together by love or for evil?

Happy book birthday to Fated, hitting bookstore shelves today (May 22, 2012) in the USA – lucky UK readers have been devouring this first book in the Soul Seeker series for some time, and raving about it, too.

You may start to see its book trailer on TV or explore the Soul Seekers website or like its Facebook page, but you have to read the book for yourself to discover what Daine finds out about herself, her spirit animal guide, and twin brothers Cade and Dace.  Noel also has released a short story in which Ever from her popular The Immortals series meets Daire.
**kmm

Book info: Fated (Soul Seekers, book 1) / Alyson Noel. St. Martin’s Griffin, 2012. [author’s website]   [publisher site]   [UK book trailer]  [US book trailer] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

My Book Talk:  Time’s flow restarts, and the glowing people observe Daine from shadowed nooks, as she traverses the Moroccan marketplace on the way to her 16th birthday dinner. Not jet lag, no matter what her mother says – why can Daine alone move among the time-frozen people and animals? And why does she suddenly see severed heads on bloody spikes along the city walls, a murder of crows, the glowing ones attacking?

All her life, it’s been just Daine and her makeup-artist mom, traveling from movie set to movie set, her school classes done online, no other family, no problems. But now these visions and Daine’s uncontrollably violent reactions to them have changed all that.

Suddenly, her grandmother calls – for the first time in Daine’s life, she has another relative – and it’s decided that she must go to her rural New Mexico home and learn how to cope with her… abilities? For Paloma (mother of the father who died before Daine was born) is a seer and a healer who claims that these gifts are part of the teen’s heritage.

First time separated from her mother, first time to attend school, first time to ride a horse – Daine gradually shakes off her mental exhaustion to realize that whatever haunted her in Morocco is even stronger here. As she learns from grandmother Paloma about their family lineage as Soul Seekers, she also discovers that nearby vortexes lead to other worlds and that a strong family of ruthless soul-eaters will try to use them – and her – to bring more evil into this world.

A blind girl who sees auras, a vision quest for Daine’s spirit animal, twins separated at birth who mirror the light and the dark of this struggle – who could imagine that this small town of Enchantment would be the site of a soul-battle on Dia de los Muertos, the Day of the Dead? First in the Soul Seekers trilogy, Daine strives to discover if she’s truly Fated to be part of all this. (One of 5,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com)