I spy Teen books

Which one appeals to you?

Two girls. One wild and reckless day. Years of tumultuous history unspooling like a thin, fraying string in the hours after they set a fire.

They were best friends. Until they became more. Their affections grew. Until the blurry lines became dangerous.

Over the course of a single day, the depth of their past, the confusion of their present, and the unpredictability of their future is revealed. And the girls will learn that hearts, like flames, aren’t so easily tamed.

It starts with a fire.

How will it end?

Seventeen-year-old Bliss Walker has been stuck in a home that doesn’t feel like hers for six years. Ever since Mama dropped her off and never came back.

Then, the summer before her senior year of high school, two things happen: Mama returns out of the blue, and Bliss meets Blake, a boy who listens like everything she has to say is worth hearing.

It should be a dream come true. But as the summer spins on, Bliss finds herself facing a painful choice: between the life she’s always longed for, and the world she’s starting to make for herself.

You can’t rewrite the past, but you can always choose to start again.

It’s been twenty-seven days since Cleo and Layla’s friendship imploded.

Nearly a month since Cleo realized they’ll never be besties again.

Now Cleo wants to erase every memory, good or bad, that tethers her to her ex-best friend. But pretending Layla doesn’t exist isn’t as easy as Cleo hoped, especially after she’s assigned to be Layla’s tutor. Despite budding friendships with other classmates–and a raging crush on a gorgeous boy named Dom–Cleo’s turbulent past with Layla comes back to haunt them both.

Pranking mastermind Doe and her motley band of Weston girls are determined to win the century-long war against Winfield Academy before the clock ticks down on their senior year. But when their headmistress announces that The Weston School will merge with its rival the following year, their longtime feud spirals into chaos.

To protect the school that has been her safe haven since her parents’ divorce, Doe puts together a plan to prove once and for all that Winfield boys and Weston girls just don’t mix, starting with a direct hit at Three, Winfield’s boy king and her nemesis. In a desperate move to win, Doe strikes a bargain with Three’s cousin, Wells: If he fake dates her to get under Three’s skin, she’ll help him get back his rightful family heirloom from Three.

As the pranks escalate, so do her feelings for her fake boyfriend, and Doe spins lie after lie to keep up her end of the deal. But when a teacher long suspected of inappropriate behavior messes with a younger Weston girl, Doe has to decide what’s more important: winning a rivalry, or joining forces to protect something far more critical than a prank war legacy.

Fatima lives in the city of Noor, a thriving stop along the Silk Road. There the music of myriad languages fills the air, and people of all faiths weave their lives together. However, the city bears scars of its recent past, when the chaotic tribe of Shayateen djinn slaughtered its entire population – except for Fatima and two other humans. Now ruled by a new maharajah, Noor is protected from the Shayateen by the Ifrit, djinn of order and reason, and by their commander, Zulfikar.

But when one of the most potent of the Ifrit dies, Fatima is changed in ways she cannot fathom, ways that scare even those who love her. Oud in hand, Fatima is drawn into the intrigues of the maharajah and his sister, the affairs of Zulfikar and the djinn, and the dangers of a magical battlefield.

I spy Fiction

Check these beauties out…….

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The Weaver’s Daughter
By Sarah E. Ladd
Paperback: 368 pages
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
Date: April 10, 2018
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Kate’s loyalties bind her to the past. Henry’s loyalties compel him to strive for a better future. In a landscape torn between tradition and vision, can two souls find the strength to overcome their preconceptions? Loyalty has been at the heart of the Dearborne family for as long as Kate can remember, but a war is brewing in their small village, one that has the power to rip families asunder — including her own. As misguided actions are brought to light, she learns how deep her father’s pride and bitterness run, and she begins to wonder if her loyalty is well-placed.Henry Stockton, heir to the Stockton fortune, returns home from three years at war hoping to find a refuge from his haunting memories. Determined to bury the past, he embraces his grandfather’s goals to modernize his family’s wool mill, regardless of the grumblings from the local weavers. When tragedy strikes shortly after his arrival, Henry must sort out the truth from suspicion if he is to protect his family’s livelihood and legacy.Henry has been warned about the Dearborne family. Kate, too, has been advised to stay far away from the Stocktons, but chance meetings continue to bring her to Henry’s side, blurring the jagged lines between loyalty, justice, and truth. Kate ultimately finds herself with the powerful decision that will forever affect her village’s future. As unlikely adversaries, Henry and Kate must come together to find a way to create peace for their families, and their village, and their souls – even if it means risking their hearts in the process.

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School for Psychics
By KC Archer
Series: School for Psychics (Book 1)
Paperback: 368 pages
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Date: April 3, 2018

An entrancing new series starring a funny, impulsive, and sometimes self-congratulatory young woman who discovers she has psychic abilities—and then must decide whether she will use her skills for good or…not.

Teddy Cannon isn’t your typical twenty-something woman. She’s resourceful. She’s bright. She’s scrappy. She can also read people with uncanny precision. What she doesn’t realize: she’s actually psychic.

When a series of bad decisions leads Teddy to a run-in with the police, a mysterious stranger intervenes. He invites her to apply to the School for Psychics, a facility hidden off the coast of San Francisco where students are trained like Delta Force operatives: it’s competitive, cutthroat, and highly secretive. They’ll learn telepathy, telekinesis, investigative skills, and SWAT tactics. And if students survive their training, they go on to serve at the highest levels of government, using their skills to protect America, and the world.

In class, Teddy befriends Lucas, a rebel without a cause who can start and manipulate fire; Jillian, a hipster who can mediate communication between animals and humans; and Molly, a hacker who can apprehend the emotional state of another individual. But just as Teddy feels like she’s found where she might belong, strange things begin to happen: break-ins, missing students, and more. It leads Teddy to accept a dangerous mission that will ultimately cause her to question everything—her teachers, her friends, her family, and even herself.

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Where Hope Begins
by Catherine West
Paperback: 368 pages
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
Date: May 22, 2018
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Sometimes we’re allowed to glimpse the beauty within the brokenness . . .

Savannah Barrington has always found solace at her parents’ lake house in the Berkshires, and it’s the place that she runs to when her husband of over twenty years leaves her. Though her world is shaken, and the future uncertain, she finds hope through an old woman’s wisdom, a little girl’s laughter, and a man who’s willing to risk his own heart to prove to Savannah that she is worthy of love.

But soon Savannah is given a challenge she can’t run away from: Forgiving the unforgivable. Amidst the ancient gardens and musty bookstores of the small town she’s sought refuge in, she must reconcile with the grief that haunts her, the God pursuing her, and the wounds of the past that might be healed after all.

 

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Hurricane Season
By Lauren K. Denton
Paperback: 400 pages
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
Date: April 3, 2018
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Betsy and Ty Franklin, owners of Franklin Dairy Farm in southern Alabama, have long since buried their desire for children of their own. While Ty manages their herd of dairy cows, Betsy busies herself with the farm’s day-to-day operations and tries to forget her dream of motherhood. But when her free-spirited sister, Jenna, drops off her two young daughters for “just two weeks,” Betsy’s carefully constructed wall of self-protection begins to crumble.

As the two weeks stretch deeper into the Alabama summer, Betsy and Ty learn to navigate the new additions in their world—and revel in the laughter that now fills their home. Meanwhile, record temperatures promise to usher in the most active hurricane season in decades.

Attending an art retreat four hundred miles away, Jenna is fighting her own battles. She finally has time and energy to focus on her photography, a lifelong ambition. But she wonders how her rediscovered passion can fit in with the life she’s made back home as a single mom.

When Hurricane Ingrid aims a steady eye at the Alabama coast, Jenna must make a decision that will change her family’s future, even as Betsy and Ty try to protect their beloved farm and their hearts.

Story of Our Lives

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  • Helen Warner
  • Paperback: 432 pages
  • Publisher: Graydon House
  • (February 13, 2018)

What is it about:

They think nothing can tear their bond apart, until a long-buried secret threatens to destroy everything.

Every year they have met up for a vacation, but their time away is much more than just a bit of fun. Over time, it has become a lifesaver, as each of them struggles with life’s triumphs and tragedies.

Sophie, Emily, Amy and Melissa have been best friends since they were girls. They have seen each other through everything—from Sophie’s private fear that she doesn’t actually want to be a mother despite having two kids, to Amy’s perfect-on-the-outside marriage that starts to reveal troubling warning signs, to Melissa’s spiraling alcoholism, to questions that are suddenly bubbling up around the paternity of Emily’s son. But could a lie that spans just as long as their friendship be the thing that tears them apart?

Are you going to read this?  It looks like an interesting book to read!  I saw the cover and I knew I had to put it on my blog.  It is not my usual cup of tea but once in a while I will read something totally different.    Check out the author’s website when you get a chance.  Click on her name up above to learn more about her and her other books too!

 

The Sidekicks

 

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Hardcover: 304 pages
Publisher: Harlequin Teen
Date: October 17, 2017

Ryan, Harley and Miles are very different people—the swimmer, the rebel and the nerd. All they’ve ever had in common is Isaac, their shared best friend.

When Isaac dies unexpectedly, the three boys must come to terms with their grief and the impact Isaac had on each of their lives. In his absence, Ryan, Harley and Miles discover things about one another they never saw before, and realize there may be more tying them together than just Isaac.

In this intricately woven story told in three parts, award-winning Australian author Will Kostakis makes his American debut with a heartwarming, masterfully written novel about grief, self-discovery and the connections that tie us all together.

I think this book looks great. It’s a book of dealing with life, themselves and others.  Self-discovery is important!   It kind of reminds me of The Outsiders in a way and The Breakfast Club (the movie)..how we are different and yet on the same path.  I have not read this book yet but I think I will eventually.  

Painting the Moon review

Okay I finished Painting the Moon by Traci Borum.  I haven’t been quick to get this up because I was battling an evil cold along with mom duties.  So sleep and living was more important!

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This book was so cute and such a light read.  I loved how Noelle returned to the cottage that she adored when she was a child.  Many memories came to her when she was dealing with the cottage that her Aunt left her.  I loved going down memory lane with Noelle.  Some of the memories were of her friend Jill as the other was mostly about Adam.

Her aunt also left a few surprises along with a few surprises along the way.   I loved even though Noelle was trying to figure out what some of the mysteries were, so was I!   Even Adam was intrigued by it and she managed to tell him what she found out.  This showed me that there was a spark between the two.  When you find out what the mystery is you might be shocked.  It did surprise me!

I noticed friendships of old and new came to Noelle.  Mac the groundkeeper became friends with Noelle quickly.   Jill was a friend of Noelle’s from the past and immediately connected with her again along with their friend Adam.    Noelle was reminded of her feelings for Adam but they did not last due to a few situations.   Adam I think had feelings for Noelle but he was engaged to be married.  Does Adam fall for Noelle completely or does he continue with his engagement?

Lots of things are going on in this story and I managed to follow it with no problem.  If you are looking for a fun, fluffy, and simple read, then you have to pick up this book.  Besides the cover is sooooooo pretty!  It makes me want to go to that place.   So check Traci out and her books!

Traci Borum

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You Had Me at Good-Bye – Book Review

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You Had Me at Good-Bye
By Tracey Bateman
275 pages
Publisher: FaithWords

What is this book about:

Everything is on the line for aspiring editorial diva Dancy Ames when she’s fired by her publisher. Could this be the time to risk it all on her writing career–and maybe even love?

Dancy Ames has an enemy: Jack Quinn. The man who swoops in, steals her dream job at Lane Publishing, and fires her, saying she just doesn’t have what it takes to be an editor. Now that she’s unemployed, Dancy must find a new career. Coffee barista, English teacher, literary agent. Hmm. Maybe she’ll write a novel–a nasty invective, featuring a relentless job-stealing, coffee-drinking stalker who falls in love with a coffee barista. She’s got time on her hands, so when her friends dare her to send Jack a proposal, under an assumed name, she takes them up on it. If he likes it, she’ll have her ultimate revenge. But what will she do when it turns out that Jack is interested in her book–and maybe more?

My Take:

The cover jumped out at me!  Most of the books that I pick up, the covers usually catch my eye.  I flipped the book over and read the description of the story.  I thought “Hey this sounds like a cute read.”   I took the book home as it took me about 2-3 days to read with everything else I was doing in life. (Single mom here!!)   The story was fast pace as I liked how the family and friendship dynamics were mentioned.   Dancy is quite an interesting character to read and what journey she goes on.  Jack was a cool guy in this book and he has a secret which made me laugh.  It was a fun book to read.   One thing I will point out is that there is talk of church and God which was fine but that topic does not seem lecture you which is a good thing.   Lots of fun points in this book that was very light hearted. So take a chance to read this little gem!

 

 

 

The Future of Us Review


Disclaimer: I bought this book to read to give it an honest opinion!





(Various covers of the books)

The Future of Us

Author: Jay Asher & Carolyn Mackler
Paperback,
356 pages Published January 5th 2012
by Simon & Schuster Childrens Books

Overview
It’s 1996, and Josh and Emma have been neighbors their whole lives. They’ve been best friends almost as long – at least, up until last November, when Josh did something that changed everything. Things have been weird between them ever since, but when Josh’s family gets a free AOL CD in the mail,his mom makes him bring it over so that Emma can install it on her new computer. When they sign on, they’re automatically logged onto their Facebook pages. But Facebook hasn’t been invented yet. And they’re looking at themselves fifteen years in the future.

By refreshing their pages, they learn that making different decisions now will affect the outcome of their lives later. And as they grapple with the ups and downs of what their futures hold, they’re forced to confront what they’re doing right – and wrong – in the present.


My Review
This story was fast paced and quirky! The cover caught my eye and after I read the back of the book of what the story was about, I decided to give it a go!

The whole idea of finding about yourself in 15 years is quite something! I wouldn’t mind a peek, wouldn’t you? So this is what happens with Emma and Josh. They somehow get a blast into the future with Facebook and see where they are. They try to figure out what they want in life for the future. Decisions that you make now will affect your future, how true that is! Will Josh and Emma succeed in what they want for the future?

I love the talk of the 90s from this book, reminds me of my days of high school and a bit of college. I kind of miss it. The good ole days!

The book goes back and forth between Josh and Emma which I liked a great deal but at times it seemed a little slow too. You can actually understand and feel each character. It’s a fun, unique and quick read. Give it a shot if you are interested in this type of book. I did and glad I did since it allowed me to have a bit of variety in my reading diet.

Story: B
Cover: B

Good Reads Book
Carylyn Mackler Website
Jay Asher Blog