Me Before You-- Reviewed by Sarah Roberts

“I will never, ever regret the things I've done. Because most days, all you have are places in your memory that you can go to.”  

Do you believe in fate? That in one moment everything changes, and that the change is where you were meant to be all along? Well in the case of Lou Clark and Will Traynor, fate definitely plays its part.

Lou knows a lot of things in her life. She knows the amount of steps it takes to get from her home to the bus stop, and she knows that she loves her job at The Butter Bun tea store. Lou also knows that there is a possibility that she may not be in love with her boyfriend Patrick.

What Lou doesn't know is that she is going to lose her beloved job, or that what is in store for her is going to be her saving grace.

Will Traynor knows that he has no real desire to live after a motorcycle accident took away the ability to use his legs. He knows that life has become rather dull and joyless, and he knows how he is going to put a stop to it.

What Will does not know, is that Lou is about to enter his dull world and give it a little color. And neither of them know that these changes are going to alter their lives for all time.

I adored this book!! I loved everything about this story. I enjoyed how Lou was not a perfect woman, but rather an out of control and not overly beautiful one. She wasn't perfect and that is what I found so enjoyable. I also loved the comedic moments through out the book, they made me fall in love with this story over and over again. I also enjoyed the romance of this story, it wasn't perfect and it didn't happen immediately. This was a rather beautiful book. I would recommend this book to anyone.

This Is Where the World Ends-- Reviewed by Sarah Roberts

“We knew each other to our fingertips. No, that's not right. We only knew each other in our fingertips, and that was nothing at all, and for a while that was okay. We could have been a love story, a fairy tale, an indie film about high school and selective insanity featuring a boy of angel parts and a girl made of dreaming. We could have been all the best things: bracelets sliding down arms while shots slid down throats, laughter and crashing music in dark and flashing rooms, kisses that started hesitant but didn't stay that way.”  

Do you have a person in your life that you could never separated from? If they disappeared you would go completely insane? That's Janie and Micah.

Janie and Micah are always together. That's the way it's always been since elementary school, when Janie moved next door.  Janie and Micah are total opposites. Where Janie is outgoing, Micah is shy. Micah loves music, and Janie is more into art.

It's a perfect friendship- as long as it's kept a secret.

Everything is perfect. That is until Janie goes missing. Now, as Micah looks for his beloved best friend, things begin to get colored with doubt.

What was once so clear to Micah, now becomes a little blurry. The friendship that was once the realest thing in his life, becomes something to doubt.

I thought this book was wonderful! The characters were amazing. I enjoyed the mystery this book had to offer, and had my attention grabbed in many scenes throughout this book. Although, a little slow in points during the story, I still thought it was a great read. The mystery behind Jill's disappearance I found quite interesting. All in all this was a great book that I would recommend to my friends and family.

With Malice--Reviewed by Sarah Roberts

"Simone was dead, and I had no idea how it had happened."

Have you ever woken up and not remembered what you did the day before? It's slightly scary, but once you see an image you immediately remember. Well, that is not the case for Jill Charron.

Eighteen year old Jill Charron, wakes up only to find herself in a hospital bed. The worst part is, she can't remember how she got there. Jill can't even remember the past 6 weeks of her life.

Jill later discoveries that she was involved in a fatal car accident, which explains the cast on her leg and the stitches. The car accident occurred during the school trip to Italy. Jill was jetted home by her rich father, so that she could receive the proper care. Only problem this care involved a lawyer...and a press team?

Maybe this accident...wasn't an accident.

Jill tries to figure out not only what happened, but what she did. She works to figure out what happened in the six weeks that she can't seem to remember, before she loses what's left of her perfect life.

I thought this book was amazing! I adored the storyline. This was YA, but at the same point seemed to have adult aspects to it. I loved how we saw Jill struggle to recover her memory, and that it seemed real and not fictional. I also enjoyed how there were interruptions in chapters that showed us police reports and interviews with people. This book had a kind of detective feel to it that just made this book so much fun to read. It felt like I was interacting with the characters myself, and I enjoyed that a lot. I would recommend this book to all my friends and family.

I would like to thank NetGalley for allowing me to review this book as well as a the publisher Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Children's Book Group for allowing me to read and review this book as well.

The Way I Used To Be -- Reviewed by Sarah Roberts

 

" I don't know that these images flashing through my mind-a movie of someone else, somewhere else-will never really go away, will never ever stop playing, will never stop haunting me."

 

 

 

Sexual assaults happen all over the world. The perpetrator could be your father, uncle, mother, or even your older brother's best friend. Many victims don't speak out, or only gain the courage to speak out when another victim has. That is the case of Eden McCrorey.

 

Eden was always okay with being good. She was in band and loved reading books. Nothing could change that, not even high school. Or so she thought...

 

One night changes everything. One night makes Eden's whole world turn upside-down. What is this fateful night? It's the night that her brother's best friend rapes her. What was once so clear is now complex. What Eden once loved-the person she loved- she now hates with everything in her. Everything she believed to be true, turns out to be nothing but lies.

 

Eden has never felt so alone in her entire life. She knows that she has to tell someone, but she can't seem to bring herself to do that.

 

So she locks it all inside. And she buries the girl she used to be.

 

I thought this book was amazing! I loved how the author chose to tell Eden's story in four parts. We get to go through Eden's freshman year, sophomore year, junior year, and senior year with her -- which is a really brilliant idea. This book will definitely make your emotions run high. You will go from loving Eden, to hating her occasionally, to hating her best friend, and then to understanding her best friend in a sense. I also like how Amber Smith made this book seem realistic. I think that probably some people who have experienced what Eden did, probably have handled it the way she did at first. The only thing that left me on a little cliffhanger was that I wanted to see how Eden's parents handled the whole situation. This is because Kevin ,brother's best friend, was seen as part of the family. He basically became the second son. So I would like to know how the parents handled that betrayal of trust and loyalty. I also would have enjoyed a longer confession to Caelin, Eden's brother. Yes, we see him get pretty emotional, but we don't see that huge talk. So I would've appreciated a little more interaction between the two. All in all, this book was amazing and I would definitely recommend it to all my friends and family.

 

Wink Poppy Midnight--Reviewed by Sarah Roberts

 

 

“When you look into the darkness, the darkness looks into you."

We all fall in love with someone at some point in our lives. We obsess over that one person, even if they treat us like we are nothing. That's exactly the case for Midnight.

 Midnight has been in love with Poppy since the first night she climbed through his window. Her jasmine scent filling his mind, capturing his very heart. The thing is, Poppy only uses Midnight for a good time and then she goes back to treating him like dirt.

So when Midnight moves next to Wink, things begin to change. Midnight begins to think less of the girl with perfect hair, and more of the girl with wild curly orange hair. He feels at peace around the girl stuck in the stories of magic, and on edge around the girl in reality.

So when Wink's stories become reality, ending with the disappearance of Poppy, Midnight begins to discover things about Wink and Poppy he never new existed.

Will this story end in violence, or do the characters get their happily ever after?

I love this story! I like how each character has the chance to narrate their own points of view. I think each character was unique in their own special way and it created a wonderful dynamic. I love how the storyline didn't end up like a normal love story. There is adventure, revenge, love, and even some surprising outcomes in this story. All in all these characters were well written and I enjoyed each and every one of them. I would definitely recommend these to my friends and family!

 



Sex if You're Scared of the Truth Don't Read This - Mary Roberts

Book: Sex if You’re Scared of the Truth Don’t Read This!

Author: U.S. Marine Carl Sommer

Publisher: Advance Publishing - published in 2009

Reviewed by: Mary Roberts 

 - 5 out of 5 stars 

       Carl Sommer addresses in this book a teenage audience. He uses statistics as well as testimonies to get across the idea that sex before marriage is not a healthy lifestyle choice. He discusses the emotional and physical damage that “casual sex” can inflict on an adolescent’s body. Sommer promotes the reader to look at their own life and experiences to see the benefits of abstinence. He also uses stories from his own life to highlight the benefits of waiting until marriage. The book is written with very easy to understand language. It is also written with a sense of seriousness and bluntness. This made the book seem more like a discussion than a lecture and made it a more enjoyable read.

            Personally I completely agree with the author’s ideals. His thesis statement throughout the book is that sex before marriage is both emotionally and physically unhealthy. One of the first things he discusses are STDs and “safe sex” both of these topics are often either accepted or just completely ignored. He states that “19 million people are infected each year with some kind of STD.” (pg. 37).  This is a striking statistic that he uses to successfully combat the mindset that an STD can’t happen to you. He discusses the ABC’s of “safe sex”: abstinence, be faithful, use a condom (pg. 36). He also discusses the flaws inthe rules. Another major point he brings up is the mixed signals teens receive in their education. “Many health providers mention abstinence as being 100% effective  for the prevention of STDs and pregnancies, but then go into great detail about how to have safe sex” (pg. 37). This is a valid point that really brought up the question what are we really being taught to do? Sommer later combats the ideas of pornography. He explains that the images are unhealthy for the function of both men and women. For men he argues that it gives them a view of women as objects. It also increases their chances of violent behavior. According to Sommer “In a study of convicted child molesters 77% of those who molested boys and 87% of those who molested girls admitted to habitual use of pornography”( pg. 62). Sommer covers many of the emotional reasons not to have Sex. One major effect he covers is depression. “When compared to teens who are not sexually active, teenage boys and girls who are sexually active are significantly less likely to be happy and more likely to be depressed.”(pg. 65). This is important because the damage done emotionally by have premarital sex can be just as devastating as the diseases one can gain. Sommer does a great job of bringing up the different scenarios that surround the ideas of premarital sex. He creates fake dialogues of people being pressured into intimacy. He also gets testimonies of people who have stood up against this idea of casual sex, such as Miss America winner Erika Harold who was determined to share her view of abstinence in her platform, and Miriam Grossman M.D. who wrote an over under an alias informing the public of the emotional trauma caused by premarital sex. In this novel Sommer informs the reader about the risks they’re facing when they say yes before marriage, while still giving them hope that abstinence is possible. Even for those who have already failed. This book was a quick and very insightful read that I completely recommend to anyone who wants to find out the truth about sex.

Review of Crewel by Jennifer Albin

3.0 out of 5 stars - Dystopian world of time weavers

This is the story of a girl who is basically kidnapped and taken to a fortress where she is to be trained as a "Spinster" -- one who weaves strands of time and life together to create and maintain the new civilization in a future version of Earth. These women are controlled by men who dictate where they work, how they live, and keep them imprisoned away from their previous lives, friends, and families

I read this book because I was scheduled to attend a YA workshop that featured the author as the guest speaker. I wanted to listen to what she had to say about her book (typical teen fare with the requisite love triangle that is soooooo old and actually ruined the story) before I wrote the review. Although the ending is a total cliffhanger, I don't feel very compelled to see what happens next nor do I care what happens to the characters. None of whom I identified with or liked. There are some interesting themes and topics covered that make the book one for more mature teens.

The author said that she was inspired to write the book because she fell into an obsession over the painting by Remedios Varo : Embroidering the Earth's Mantle. The picture is quite interesting and I can see how she imagined the world of Arras and the concept of weavers or "Spinsters" from that work of art.

The book reminded me of Lois Lowry's series that include THE GIVER and GATHERING BLUE. The author said she had not read either. It is the first in a trilogy.

DC

Just like that--reviewed by Nallely S.

by Marsha Qualey

* * * * Stars

Hanna just broke up with her boyfriend, and no one understands why. Stressed and tired, she takes a midnight walk to a lake near by. Depressed, and mad, she sees two teens drive by on a snow mobile. Later she realizes she just witnessed a tragedy. She's convinced she could have prevented it from happening. Soon she finds out she's not the only one involved. Will, a boy she soon develops a relationship with is connected to the tragedy. Hanna finds herself in a turmoil, having been captivated by Will and trapped by the image she can't forget of that night. Follow Hanna and Will in this beautiful tragedy.

I gave this book a 4 because although I did enjoy it, I didn't really feel the plot. I felt that Qualey could've elaborated more. It was a fun read and I loved Will's sisters and Hanna's mom. Hanna rushed things when she shouldn't have! Hanna felt guilty for something she really didn't have power over and that kind of bothered me because although she could have said something to the guy and girl, they wouldn't have really listened to her. Since they were there on there own accord. Overall I liked this book. ^ ^  I really wish there was a sequel but the ending pretty much made me happy! ^ ^

-Nallely <3