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Young Adult Fiction

Summer of Sarah Dessen : Along For The Ride

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“People don’t change. If anything, you get more set in your ways as you get older, not less”

– Sarah Dessen, Along For The Ride

Synopsis : It’s been so long since Auden slept at night. Ever since her parents’ divorce—or since the fighting started. Now she has the chance to spend a carefree summer with her dad and his new family in the charming beach town where they live. 
A job in a clothes boutique introduces Auden to the world of girls: their talk, their friendship, their crushes. She missed out on all that, too busy being the perfect daughter to her demanding mother.

I’ve had this audiobook for at least 3 years, so when I started commuting this was on of the first audiobooks I  “read”.

Going into Along for the Ride I was excited to read another Dessen novel that takes place in Colby, NC. The same small beachside town town as Keeping The Moon.

Growing up in the world of academia Auden West is book smart,  motivated, intelligent; but more importantly, she is alone and she likes it that way. . . or so she thinks. The summer before college Auden takes her first big risk and spends the summer with her dad and new stepmother in  Colby, NC in search of The Best of Times, but she finds so much more.

Dessen is the queen of Manic Pixie dream guys romance,  but the romance isn’t the main story happening in Colby, NC.  What really stuck out for me in Along For The Ride were the friendships, families and characters.

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Audiobook Review:: My Soul To Take by Rachel K Vincent

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  • Release Date : July 29th 2009
  • Pages : 279
  • Audiobook Length : 8hrs 21 minutes
  • Genre : Urban Fantasy
  • Publisher : HarlequinTeen

Synopsis: She doesn’t see dead people. She senses when someone near her is about to die. And when that happens, a force beyond her control compels her to scream bloody murder. Literally.Kaylee just wants to enjoy having caught the attention of the hottest guy in school. But a normal date is hard to come by when Nash seems to know more about her need to scream than she does. And when classmates start dropping dead for no apparent reason, only Kaylee knows who’ll be next.

In Texas, beautiful teenage girls are dropping dead. No one knows why. Not even  Kaylee Cavanaugh who can predict these deaths with a deep ear-splitting scream. Kaylee thinks she is crazy, but with the help of the popular jock, Nash Hudson, secrets will be revealed and the deaths of these girls will be solved one way or the other.

I enjoyed this novel. I liked the way we see how Kaylee is dealing with her special “ability” before she knows what  it is. At first she is confused, frustrated and angry; but even more she is afraid of herself because last time she screamed it landed her in the psych unit. It doesn’t help that her father is living thousands of miles away in Ireland and has left Kaylee with her aunt, uncle and Sophie, her spoiled cousin.

The paranormal elements weave into the story nicely and I found the setup believable. There are a few twist and turns and it’s exciting to see how the story develops.

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Audiobook Reivew : Pure By Julianna Baggott

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  • Publication Date : Feburary 8th 2012
  • Genre : Post-Apocalyptic 
  • Pages : 431
  • Audiobook Length : 14 hours 9 minutes
  • Publisher : Grand Central Publishing (Imprint Hachette Book Group)

 . . . Pressia barely remembers the Detonations or much about life during the Before. In her sleeping cabinet behind the rubble of an old barbershop where she lives with her grandfather, she thinks about what is lost-how the world went from amusement parks, movie theaters, birthday parties, fathers and mothers . . . to ash and dust, scars, permanent burns, and fused, damaged bodies. . .There are those who escaped the apocalypse unmarked. Pures. They are tucked safely inside the Dome that protects their healthy, superior bodies. Yet Partridge [feels] . . . Different. He thinks about loss . . . that this Dome has become a swaddling of intensely rigid order. . . When Pressia meets Partridge, their worlds shatter all over again.

Pure is the ultimate survivalist story

I started reading the galley of this book a few months ago and  found its  vivid descriptions and imagery a little dark; or as Kat said on Twitter “It makes The Hunger Games look like a Disney film.” However, I’m glad I gave this book a second change.

Pure is one of the best post-apocalyptic novels I’ve read all year. It mixes what YA survivalist novels like Eve by Anna Carey and Under The Never Sky by Veronica Rossi  have done, but in such a uniquely dark and unbound way. It takes the story of the protected “insider” meets the savage “outside world” and turns it completely on its head.

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Audio Book Review : This Dark Endeavour by Kenneth Oppel

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  • Release Date: August 23, 2011
  • Page Number: 304 pages
  • Audiobook Hours: 8 hours 7 minutes
  • Genre: Historical/Fantasy
  • Publisher: Simon & Shuster for Young Readers

Synopsis: Victor and Konrad are the twin brothers Frankenstein. They are nearly inseparable. Growing up, their lives are filled with imaginary adventures… until the day their adventures turn all too real. They stumble upon The Dark Library, and secret books of alchemy and ancient remedies are discovered. Father forbids that they ever enter the room again, but this only peaks Victor’s curiosity more. When Konrad falls gravely ill, Victor is not be satisfied with the various doctors his parents have called in to help. He is drawn back to The Dark Library where he uncovers an ancient formula for the Elixir of Life. Elizabeth, Henry, and Victor immediately set out to find assistance in a man who was once known for his alchemical works to help create the formula

This Dark Endeavor is a man before the myth story of the boy who will become famous for creating the most notorious monster of all time.

 I went into this audiobook with only a fleeting knowledge of the novel Frankenstein  written by Mary Shelley. While you don’t have to read the classic novel to understand this book it may help you make some connections.

16-year-old Victor Frankenstein and his twin brother, Konrad  lead a life of privilege in their father’s estate in Geneva. But when Konrad falls ill, Victor finds himself on a dark journey to save his brother using forbidden methods he doesn’t fully understand. To me this book can be best described as steampunk meets alchemy meets Downton Abbey. Which seems totally weird, but in this book it works.

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Book Review : Innocent Darkness by Suzanne Lazear

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  • Release Date : August 8th 2012
  • Genre : Fairytale/Historical
  • Pages : 408
  • Publisher : Flux Books

Synopsis:Be careful what you wish for…In an alternate version of 1901 Los Angeles sixteen-year-old Noli Braddock’s hoyden ways land her in an abusive reform school far from home. On mid-summer’s eve she wishes to be anyplace but that dreadful school. A mysterious man from the Realm of Faerie brings her to the Otherworld, only to reveal that she must be sacrificed to restore his dying world.  Her best friend, V . . . appears to help Noli escape and return to the mortal realm . . . but if she does  the entire Otherworld civilization will perish.

The Huntsman travels to the  mortal world seeking out those special girls with the spark; wild, creative and unbound. The Huntsman whisks these sparky girl away to Otherworld where they are loved, celebrated and
every whim is indulged

 Then they are sacrificed. Blood spilled to keep Otherworld alive.

 And 6 years later the Huntsman hunts again.

 Magnolia “Noli” Braddock is a girl filled with the spark. However, in her upper-middle class neighborhood her willful, rebellious behaviour along with her penchant for mechanical prowess is seen as troublesome and not suitable for young lady.

Noli is sent to Findlay School for Girls, a reform school notorious for producing mindless and proper marriageable girls. She has been taken away from her  home, her mother and her best friend V Darrow. Deep in despair she  learns the hard way why she should never talk to strange Faeries; when she meets Kevighn Silver-Tongue. The Huntsman.

I think alot of the mixed rating for this novel lie in the misleading cover and genre. This novel isn’t  a historical and isn’t a zeppelin/gadget filled Steampunk.  I think the best way to describe this novel is that it is tried and true Fairytale. It is what I expected and what I got. 

We’ve got Faeries, a damsel in distress, princes, queens and true love. The novel has a clever plot with smooth pacing and quite a few plot twist. This novel is also a bit more steamy than most YAs, which I suppose is a reflection of the Victorian-era setting of the novel.

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Audiobook Review: Tempest by Julie Cross

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  • Release Date: January 17th 2012 
  • Pages: 334
  • Audiobook: 10 hours 51 minutes
  • Genre: Science Fiction
  • Publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin

Synopsis:  The year is 2009.  Nineteen-year-old Jackson Meyer is a normal guy… he’s in college, has a girlfriend… and he can travel back through time. But it’s not like the movies – nothing changes in the present after his jumps, there’s no space-time continuum issues or broken flux capacitors – it’s just harmless fun.That is… until the day strangers burst in on Jackson and his girlfriend, Holly, and during a struggle with Jackson, Holly is fatally shot. In his panic, Jackson jumps back two years to 2007, but this is not like his previous time jumps. Now he’s stuck in 2007 and can’t get back to the future. 

Forget everything you know about time travel. It’s 2009 and  19-year-old Jackson Meyer can travel through time, but it’s nothing too exciting; until the day he gets stuck in the past. 

This book is interesting because it falls more into the New Adult category than Young Adult. Our protagonist, Jackson is a  student at NYU  and falls into the older side of YA protagonists at 19. His girlfriend Holly, an NYU freshman,  doesn’t know he can time travel and is the basic pretty, middle class girl with standards and  modesty about her success. 

I knew this book has lukewarm ratings so I was hoping the audiobook would help me like it more. I found the narrator to be spotty and at times his voice for a character would become inconsistent. Some of his voices were even kind of annoying.  His voice for Holly’s friend Jana was just so ridiculous I couldn’t take it seriously.

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