Being Friends with Boys

Being Friends With Boys
By Terra Elan McVoy

When Charlotte’s sister Jilly leaves for college and her best friend Lish dumps her to hang with the volleyball team, Charlotte does not have a lot of girlfriends.   She does , however, enjoy an easy relationship with the boys in the all boy band, Sad Jackal.  That all starts to change when Trip quits the band, and Charlotte, who has always served as the songwriter and the behind-the-scenes girl, is asked to sing.  Oliver, the leader of the band, seems jealous of Charlotte’s new fame and attention when she sings at the homecoming dance.  One of the new members, Fabian, seems to be flirting with Charlotte and asking her out secretly.  Charlotte is heartbroken when Trip, who she expected to remain friendly with after his departure from the band, makes new friends, takes a new girlfriend, and stops returning Charlotte’s texts.   And if frustrations with the boys from the band weren’t enough, Charlotte also makes friends with Benji McLaughlin, a boy with a less than stellar reputation at school, but one who seems to be a good friend and possibly more.  When the attention that Charlotte receives for her singing leads to an offer to sing with a girl band, it seems like the perfect solution at first.  Will Charlotte abandon Sad Jackal or will she find a way to remain friends with the boys?

This novel, the first I’ve read by Terra Elan McVoy, is an easy read.  It would appeal to girls who like music, girls who have many friends who are boys, or any girl looking for a romance read because, as you can guess, Charlotte won’t remain “just friends” with all of the boys.

Genre:  Realistic fiction, Romance    

Reviewed by:  Lauren Sprouse (librarian)

Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesic

Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac

By Gabrielle Zevin

Naomi is about to begin her junior year in high school as the editor-in-chief of the yearbook when she takes a tumble down the exterior stairs to the school, hitting her head but saving the yearbook camera.  She is rescued by a new boy, James, who takes her to the hospital.  When Naomi wakes up she has amnesia.  She doesn’t remember much of anything since 6^th grade, which was the year her parents got divorced.  She doesn’t remember that her mother is remarried and that she has a half-sister.  She doesn’t remember her best friend and co-editor-in-chief of the yearbook, Will.  She doesn’t remember her boyfriend, Ace.  And now there is a new boy in her life, James.  She does remember that she is mad at her mother, but she is unclear about the details.  Naomi reinvents herself during this year, until the memories come flooding back.  Then she must move on with her life.  She must decide whether she wants to have a relationship with her mother and which boy she wants to keep in her life.  As in all of Gabrielle Zevin’s books, the narrator, Naomi, is entertaining and likeable.  Readers will be pulled into her journey of rediscovery. 

Genre:  Realistic fiction, Romance

Reviewed by:  Lauren Sprouse, librarian

Chosen by Ted Dekker

 Chosen
by Ted Dekker

True to Dekker style, Chosen doesn’t disappoint. It is full of thrills and Dekker’s imagination is off the charts. Thomas Hunter is Supreme Commander of the Forest Guard in the alternate world of fantasy where humans, known as Forest Dwellers battle the diseased evil humans known as the Horde. The Horde people suffer from what is called a “scabbing disease” and the only way they find any relief is to cover their bodies with a mud like white paste (which gives them a creepy ghost like appearance). The Horde is led by a “man” referred to as the Dark One. Great evil is overtaking Thomas Hunter’s beautiful land. His army is dwindling and the threat from the Dark One is growing. Thomas is forced to recruit fighters aged 16 and 17. From thousands four will be chosen to lead a special mission. The four chosen must find seven “Lost Books of History” before the Dark One does. The seven books hold great power over the past, present and future controlling their world. The story grows in suspense as the search for the Lost Books continues and this is where Dekker’s imagination really shines. The powers of the books can save the humans who live in the Green Forest or destroy them if the books fall into the hands of the evil dark lord of the Horde. The race is on….. This is a fast paced thrilling story of good against evil or light against darkness. The story keeps you on the edge of your seat. Chosen is book one of six and then carries over into another series from Dekker called the Circle Trilogy so there are plenty of books to keep you reading for some time if you like the storyline. Ted Dekker has a fan in me and I plan to read through the series over the summer.                                                 

Genre:  Fantasy
Reviewed by:  Andrew Rhode

The Storyteller

The Storyteller
by Jodi Picoult

I stayed up until nearly 2 AM this morning to finish Jodi Picoult’s newest release The Storyteller.  It is just one of those books that I couldn’t put down.  As is typical of Picoult’s style, the book has several narrators.  The first is Sage Singer.  Sage is a baker.  She lives in the same small New Hampshire town where she grew up baking bread from family recipes that have been passed down through her Jewish ancestors for generations.  She feels all alone in the world since the death of her mother in a car accident that also left Sage’s face disfigured.  Working as a baker allows Sage to work at night where there is no one to see her face.  She attends a weekly grief group to deal with the death of her mother, and it is there that she strikes up an unlikely friendship with an 85 year-old-man named Josef who has recently lost his wife.  Josef is a well-known and well-loved figure in the town, where he taught German for many years and coached little league baseball.  Sage and Josef seem to identify with each other somehow, Sage with her scars and Josef with his grief.   But that all changes when Josef tells Sage that he is really a Nazi war criminal and that all these years he has passed as a good man.  And if that is not enough, he asks that Sage do him a favor.  He wants her to help him die.  Sage agrees only to listen to his story.  As she does, she realizes that as the granddaughter of a Holocaust survivor she can never forgive Josef and that he should pay for his crimes.  Sage contacts the FBI and speaks with Leo Stein, a persecutor with the office of Human Rights and Special Prosecutions.  Leo is a Nazi hunter.  He is also a Jew and a young man.  He agrees to meet Sage, and there is an undeniable attraction from the beginning on his part, at least.  But Leo has no way to confirm the story that Sage claims Josef told her. Sage believes that her grandmother, Minka, can confirm it if only she would tell her story.  All these years, Minka has never told her family the story of her survival, but Sage and Leo convince her to tell it now.    And it turns out that Minka is a great storyteller.  Not only does she tell the story of her survival, but she tells the story of how her storytelling saved her.  . . . The lives of these characters begin to intertwine:  Minka, Josef, Sage, Leo, and even the characters from Minka’s imagined stories are all interconnected and unforgettable.  And of course, the story includes a final, surprising plot twist that we have come to expect of Picoult.  This is a great book.  It is one I will be thinking about for many days. 

Genre:  Realistic Fiction, Historical Fiction

Reviewed by:  Lauren Sprouse (librarian)

Just One Day

Just One Day
by Gayle Foreman

If you were a fan of If I Stay and Where She Went by Gayle Foreman, I can’t in good conscience tell you that you will enjoy her newest book, Just One Day.  It isn’t terrible, but it just isn’t in the same league as her first two books.

Allyson Healey has led a charmed life.  She graduates from high school never having had to have a job, in the fall she is attending a private college on her parent’s dime, and she is in England when the story begins, finishing up a summer tour of Europe, also a gift from her parents.  Just as she is about to join her group to see the Royal Shakespeare Company perform Hamlet, she and her lifelong friend Melanie meet some actors from a group called Guerilla Will.  This group is performing Twelfth Night that same evening.  They advertise themselves as doing “Shakespeare without borders.  Shakespeare for the masses.  Shakespeare for free.  Shakespeare for all.”   But what really attracts Melanie and Allyson is the cute boy who is part of the company.   They decide to ditch the RSC in favor of seeing this group perform instead.  After the performance Allyson meets the cute boy, Willem, who played the part of Sebastian.   Even though her tour of Europe is about over, and she should be spending her last two days in London, Willem talks her into taking the train to Paris with him.  This is very out of character for Allyson, who hasn’t even enjoyed her time in Europe and is definitely a rule follower and not someone who would normally hop a train to a foreign country with a boy she just met.   In Paris, Allyson starts to reinvent herself as Lulu, who is open to trying new things and having new experiences.  She also starts to fall in love with Willem, even though she knows they will only have one day together and most likely never see each other again.  As they travel through Paris, Allyson (Lulu) learns little of Willem’s past.  He has been travelling for two years.  He is from Amsterdam, and he seems to have a lot of girlfriends.  Everywhere Willem takes Allyson, he seems to know lots of girls, but Allyson is still taken with him.  After she spends the night with him, she awakes to see that he has abandoned her and taken with him her very expensive watch that was a graduation gift from her parents.  Allyson is devastated.  She returns home and begins college, but she can’t help feeling that she lost some of herself in Paris.  The rest of the book becomes a journey as Allyson tries to reinvent herself and discover who she really is apart from her parent’ s expectations.  Spoiler alert:  Willem does return to the story, and it is very clear by the end that there will be a sequel.  Also, by the end, I will say that the reader is very interested in the story.  This book doesn’t have the immediate pull for the reader the way that If I Stay and Where She Went do, but if you stick with it, I think you will still enjoy it.

Genre:  Realistic Fiction, Romance

Reviewer:  Lauren Sprouse, librarian

Bitter End

Bitter End
by Jennifer Brown

Bitter End, by Jennifer Brown, is the type of book that grabs your attention and never lets go. The story follows Alex, a girl who is dealing with some big issues: normal high school life, her lifelong need to found out why her mother left her when she was a child, and her first love, Cole. Her best friends, Zach and Bethany, have been by her side her whole life, and the three of them are planning a trip to Colorado after graduation. They have been meeting every week for years, trying to decide what they will do on their trip and how they will travel there. Alex has another goal for the trip: to learn about what drove her mother to leave her family behind all those years ago. As the months go by, Alex becomes distracted by her relationship with Cole, and her friends begin to worry about her changing moods and behaviors. Alex thinks that they’re simply jealous, but they are actually seeing how controlling and demanding Cole is becoming of Alex; they want to save their friend before it’s too late. Read Bitter End to see what Alex does to cope with the increasing demands in her life—once you get started, you won’t be able to put it down.

Rachel Dailey

Genre:  Realistic Fiction

The Selection

The Selection

by Kiera Cass

The Selection is an amazing book.  Not to be cliche, but I felt like I was right there with America Singer, main character, the entire book. Kiera Cass is surrounded with talented writers writing the same sort of star-crossed lover themed books, but what set her apart for me is how relatable it was. She creates this triangle where America is at the top and has to choose between a prince or her young love. Everyone remembers their first love/crush, but they just don't know how close they are to meeting their prince.

Kaileigh Robertson

Genre:  Romance, Dystopian

Ark Angel

Ark Angel by Anthony Horowitz

Genre:  Adventure

Ark angel is the sixth installment of the "Alex Rider" series by Anthony Horowitz. This book follows teen spy Alex Rider as he confronts an Eco-Terrorist group know as Force-Tree, who threaten to destroy Ark Angel, the first hotel in space, the brainchild of billionaire Nikolei Drevin,and the British government. Alex is ordered two weeks R&R by his doctor for after being seriously wounded by a sniper's bullet. It just so happens that Nikolei Drevin's son Paul is in the room next to Alex, recovering from Appendicitis. When Force-Tree comes to kidnap Paul for ransom Alex springs into action, switching his room with Paul and being kidnapped himself. Only when he is about to have his finger chopped off does he admit his true identity. After his narrow escape, he is invited to come and spend two weeks with Nikolei and Paul on their private island in the Caribbean, which is just what the doctor ordered, but did he really order what happens?

Reviewed by Carl Puuri

All These Things I've Done

All These Things I've Done

by Gabrielle Zevin

Thanks to the snow gods and Roanoke County Schools for assigning a snow day yesterday so that I could finish this very fine read by Gabrielle Zevin.  This is perhaps my favorite teen read of 2013, so far at least.   All These Things I’ve Done is set in Manhattan in the year 2082.  The world as we know it has changed quite a bit.  Many things we take for granted are now illegal:  phones with cameras, paper without a permit, even chocolate and caffeine.  No new clothing is manufactured.  Food is rationed and water is very expensive.    The main character and narrator of this novel is sixteen-year-old Anya Balanchine, the orphaned daughter of organized crime boss Leonyd Balanchine, leader of the famed Balanchine Chocolate.    Anya lost her mother to a mob hit that was meant for her father when she was six years old.  That same hit also left her brother Leo brain damaged.  Three years later the mob finally succeeded in killing her father as well.  Now Anya lives with her grandmother, Galina, her younger sister, Natty, and her brother Leo.  Anya’s grandmother is supposedly their guardian, but in reality she is dying, so Anya is really the caregiver of the family.  It is Anya who makes decisions for the family.  It is Anya who contacts the family lawyer when her mob relatives are stirring up trouble.  It is Anya who takes care of her older brother.  Still, Anya manages to attend a prestigious private Catholic school.   She has a new boyfriend, Winn Delacroix, who is the son of New York City’s top cop, which is ironic since she is the daughter of the city’s most famous criminal.  In some ways she lives a privileged life, until her creepy ex-boyfriend is poisoned by a chocolate bar that Anya gave him and the police believe she is responsible.   This novel is full of action and twists as Anya must negotiate to protect her herself, her immediate family, and her boyfriend, whose father would prefer that he not date the daughter of a famous crime boss, from the law and from her own mafia connections.  Will she ultimately have to accept her birthright and become the next Balanchine Chocolate crime boss?  Only time and the sequel, Because it is In My Blood, will tell. 

Lauren Sprouse, Librarian

Beta by Rachel Cohn

Beta by Rachel Cohn

Genre:  Science Fiction, Dystopian

Rachel Cohn is one of my favorite teen authors.  Usually she writes realistic fiction, and her
characters are quirky and witty.  This novel, Beta, is a departure from Cohn’s usual style, but it will not disappoint readers.   The novel is set in the future.  The ice caps have melted, and Earth is now a watery planet.  Flooding is prevalent on the mainland.  The novel, however, takes place on the island of Demesne, a new island that was created after the eruption of volcanoes under the sea.  The island is the playground of the elite, wealthy families that are left on the planet after the Water Wars.  The ocean surrounding the island was reengineered by scientists to create the Io Sea, which “ripples in patented violet crests and offers a totally transforming experience” (17).    Even the air has been reengineered to “pump premium oxygen into Demesne’s atmosphere” (17).    And, of course, to serve these elite families, the scientists have created clones.  The clones serve as butlers, maids, construction workers, etc.  They are cloned from humans who have died, but they have no souls, so they are supposed to be happy in their work.   The main character in this novel is a “beta” meaning she is a new form of clone.  She is a teenage clone, and in the past the teenage clones have all turned “Awful,” which Dr. Larissa Lusardi, the world’s expert on cloning, has attributed to teen hormones.  The beta clone is named Elysia.  She is bought by Mrs. Bratton, the wife of the chief executive officer of Demesne and taken to live in their home.  Her role, unlike the role of the family’s other clones, is to be a “replacement” daughter for their daughter who has recently left for college.  Mother loves Elysia because she doesn’t have any of the sullen attitudes that her real daughter Astrid has.  It isn’t long before Elysia discovers that she is different from most clones.  She can taste food, which she isn’t supposed to be able to do.  She loves chocolate and macaroni and cheese.  She also has memories of her “First,” the girl from which she was cloned.  As Elysia tries to hide these “defects” from her family, she also discovers that she is not as unique to clones as she was led to believe.  There are other clones who are unhappy with their situations and who yearn for more.  Will Elysia find what she wants?   Spoiler Alert:  There will be a sequel, and there is no release date yet.

Lauren Sprouse, Librarian