We're an Open Book
Cam “Skip” Smith is going to graduate from a prestigious prep school. Cam Smith is going to Princeton in the Fall. . . just as long as no one finds out Cam Smith is really Philips O’Rourke, the youngest member of a thieving, scheming family. Skip thought he left his family behind when he ran away at thirteen but they are pulling him in for one last job. This job could be the “big one”, but it could also be fatal.
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In Lamar Giles debut novel, new kid in town Nick Pearson finds himself mixed up in a murder with a side of corruption. As Nick searches for answers to a murder that could upend all his secrets he dodges bullies, crashes a party and tries to keep his parents together. Move over Veronica Mars, Nick Pearson is on the case.
Lamar Giles writing is clever. He lays out tension, plot and conflict in front of you while still sneaking in a bit of misdirection. He has a great way of ending chapters on mini cliffhangers and you just HAVE to know what happens next. I totally did not see the ending coming. I was like “what !?” This isn’t really a spoiler but. . .literally anyone can die. Which takes the tension up to eleven
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- Release Date: September 30th 2014
- Pages: 352
- Genre: Science Fiction
- Publisher: Arthur A. Levine Books (Scholastic)
A few months ago I read Alaya Dawn Johnson’s The Summer Prince as my starting point to support the We Need Diverse Books campaign and to start including more diverse books in our blog. The Summer Prince started out kind of rocky for me but morphed into an intricate, creative poignant dystopian tale. When I saw Johnson’s next book on NetGalley I jumped at the chance to review it.
In the political, power-hungry world of Washington D.C. Our main character 18-year-old Emily Bird occupies a curious space as a black upper-class teen in D.C. society. Bird grits her teeth and bares it as her mother, who raised herself up from the lower-income Northeast DC neighborhood, pushes Bird to join the Ivy league crowd whether she wants to or not. But when Emily loses hours of memories right before a pandemic flu turns D.C into a quarantine zone, she becomes a girl of her own making. With the help of Coffee, the son of a Brazilian diplomat and new friends, they will uncover her memories and who is trying to keep her from remembering….
- Release Date: February 4th, 2014
- Genre: Sci-Fi/Adventure
- Audiobook length: 15 hours 40 minutes
- Publisher: Macmillan
Cress is the third book in Marrisa Meyer’s Lunar Chronicles Series. In this book, we get introduced to Cress who briefly appears at the end of Cinder. Cress is a highly imaginative teenage girl who has spent most of her life in isolation aboard a satellite. When the chance comes for her to embark on a real adventure with the crew from the previous novels; her will, smarts and survival skills are put to the test….
Publication Date:
Pages: 240
Genre: Contemporary
Publisher: Arthur A. Levine (Scholastic)
The Great Greene Heist caught my attention during the #weneeddiversebooks campaign when John Green promised 10 signed copies of TFiOS to any bookstore who hand sold 100 copies of The Great Greene Heist. The synopsis felt Curseworker-ish (sans magic), which was enough for me to delve into reading my first Middle Grade as an adult.
13-year-old con artist Jackson Greene is cleaning up his act. After the Kelsey Job, or the Mid-Day PDA as his friends have dubbed his last con, Jackson is hanging up his cons for good. That is until he gets recruited by his best friend Charlie de la Cruz to rig the school election for his sister Gabby, the girl whose heart Jackson will do anything to fix.
The atmosphere in this novel felt very campy and sort of like a satire. I don’t know if this is a typical of middle grade or if it’s just this novel. The students exist in a school where they are never in class, principals easily accept bribes and all clubs have a budget that the school council president controls. As I read this I imagine it as more as a cartoon or Nickelodeon sitcom than real life.
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- Release Date : May 13th 2014
- Genre: Contemporary
- Pages : 240
- Publisher : Delacorte
Okay This is going to be
a hard review to write. One of the reasons I had to read We Were Liars was
because I kept hearing that this was the
book to read, but you can’t know what it is about. . . you just have to read it.
Honestly, if you
don’t see it coming (which I did but the book made me doubt myself) I think this book will shock you and have you flipping back and re-reading over and over again.
We Were Liars
centers around Cadence Sinclair and
the extended Sinclair family. Each summer he family summers on their private island. Blonde, pretty and
privileged on the outside the Sinclairs seems to have everything, but on the inside greed,
jealousy and denial threaten to take over.
Something happens on Cady’s 15th summer at the island that she has no memory of, now two years later she’s going to find out how far the lies go.
This was exactly the type of contemporary novel that works for me because it takes on so many topics. Lockhart explores race, class, romance and family in a way
that makes you doubt what you know and what you think you know about the characters.
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