Darkness Before Dawn

Title: Darkness Before Dawn
Author: J.A. London
Language: PG-13 (several swear words)
Content: PG-13
Level: Upper Middle School/Highschool
Recommendation: Good read, but optional

Summary: Only sunlight can save us.  We built the wall to keep them out, to keep us safe.  But it also makes us prisoners, trapped in what's left of our ravaged city, fearing nightfall.

After the death of my parents, it's up to me-- as the newest delegate for humanity-- to bargain with our vampire overlord.  I thought I was ready.  I thought I knew everything there was to know about the monsters.  Then again, nothing could have prepared me for Lord Valentine.. or his son.  Maybe not all vampires are killers.  Maybe it's safe to let one in.

Review:  This book was a good read that kept me entertained.  There are several swear words and a few references to underage drinking that might offend some readers.  I believe the characters are developed enough to keep a students' interest throughout the series, but the genre is getting crowded with similar books.  

Unspoken

Title: Unspoken
Author: Sarah Rees Brennan
Pages: 373
Languages: PG (10+ swears, 0 "f" 0 "b")
Recommendation:  Good Read
Level: High School

Summary: Kami Glass is in love with someone she's never met—a boy she's talked to in her head since she was born. This has made her an outsider in the sleepy English town of Sorry-in-the-Vale, but she has learned ways to turn that to her advantage. Her life seems to be in order, until disturbing events begin to occur. There has been screaming in the woods and the manor overlooking the town has lit up for the first time in 10 years. . . . The Lynburn family, who ruled the town a generation ago and who all left without warning, have returned. Now Kami can see that the town she has known and loved all her life is hiding a multitude of secrets—and a murderer. The key to it all just might be the boy in her head. The boy she thought was imaginary is real, and definitely and deliciously dangerous

Review: A new paranormal novel that is mysterious, exciting, enthralling, and inventive.  Although quite dark, the magic and mystery in this book kept me turning pages.  A good read for anyone who enjoys magic, mystery, action, suspense, or paranormal activity.

Stronger

Title: Stronger
Author: Michael Carroll
Pages: 370
Level: Middle School/High School
Language: G
Content: PG (violence)
Recommendation: Good Read For Guys

Summary:  The critically acclaimed Super Human series reaches its shocking conclusion.  All Gethin Rao wants is to be like every other boy his age. But normal twelve-year-olds aren't blue. And they certainly aren't thirteen feet tall. That's what happens when his superpowers kick in. And from that moment on, his life is never the same. Treated as a villain—a monster—Gethin spends the rest of his life on the run or as a prisoner in a secret military facility.

When he finally escapes, he falls in with a group of superpowered teens and becomes the one thing he never thought he'd be: a hero. But as the years pass by and he takes the name Brawn, Gethin learns that being a good guy is a lot more difficult than he thought.

Review: Think comic book in novel form.  Readers who enjoy comics and superheros will be drawn into this book.  Although at times the book seemed disjointed, due to flashbacks of how Brawn became super human, I wanted to know what happened to him!  I read this book, even though I hadn't read any of the other Super Human books,  but am now intrigued to read more.

Clockwork Angel

Title: Clockwork Anglel
Series: The Infernal Devices
Author: Cassandra Clare
Pages: 512
Language: G
Content: PG
Level: Middle/High
Recommendation: Good Read

Summary:  Magic is dangerous-- but love is more dangerous still.

When sixteen-year-old Tessa Gray crosses the ocean to find her brother, her destination is England, the time is the reign of Queen Victoria, and something terrifying is waiting for her in London's Downworld, where vampires, warlocks and other supernatural folk stalk the gaslit streets.  Only the Shadowhunters, warriors dedicated to ridding the world of demons, keep order amidst the chaos.

Review: Took a little to get into the story, but once you get to know Tessa Gray you will fall in love with her.  A great read for 8th graders and up!  There are some scenes of romance and fighting that might make some readers uncomfortable.  I am excited to continue reading this series.

Blood Red Road

Title: Blood Red Road (Dust Lands Series)
Author: Moira Young
Pages: 459
Language: PG13:  48 minor, 25 major, 23 vains, no "f"s
Content: PG
Level: High Middle/High School
Recommendation: Good Read

Summary:  Saba has spent her whole life in Silverlake, a dried-up wasteland ravaged by constant sandstorms. The Wrecker civilization has long been destroyed, leaving only landfills for Saba and her family to scavenge from. That's fine by her, as long as her beloved twin brother Lugh is around. But when a monster sandstorm arrives, along with four cloaked horsemen, Saba's world is shattered. Lugh is captured, and Saba embarks on an epic quest to get him back.  Suddenly thrown into the lawless, ugly reality of the world outside of desolate Silverlake, Saba is lost without Lugh to guide her. So perhaps the most surprising thing of all is what Saba learns about herself: she's a fierce fighter, an unbeatable survivor, and a cunning opponent. And she has the power to take down a corrupt society from the inside. Teamed up with a handsome daredevil named Jack and a gang of girl revolutionaries called the Free Hawks, Saba stages a showdown that will change the course of her own civilization.

Review: This book was supposed to raise the bar for dystopian novels.  Although I love the main character, and the book was full of action and character relationships, it fell short for me. The storyline is good, but some of the elements of the story just didn't fit for me and I could also do without the language.

Bewitching

Title: Bewitching
Author: Alex Flinn
Pages:  338
Language: G
Content: G
Level: High school/middle school
Recommendation: Good Read

Summary: Bewitching can be a beast. . . .

Once, I put a curse on a beastly and arrogant high school boy. That one turned out all right. Others didn't.  I go to a new school now—one where no one knows that I should have graduated long ago. I'm not still here because I'm stupid; I just don't age. You see, I'm immortal. And I pretty much know everything after hundreds of years—except for when to take my powers and butt out. I want to help, but things just go awry in ways I could never predict. Like when I tried to free some children from a gingerbread house and ended up being hanged. After I came back from the dead (immortal, remember?), I tried to play matchmaker for a French prince and ended up banished from France forever. And that little mermaid I found in the Titanic lifeboat? I don't even want to think about it.

Now a girl named Emma needs me. I probably shouldn't get involved, but her gorgeous stepsister is conniving to the core. I think I have just the thing to fix that girl—and it isn't an enchanted pumpkin. Although you never know what will happen when I start . . . bewitching

Review:  Although the book offered some interesting "insights" to many fairytales, I began to wonder how many tales the author could fit into one book.   The author jumps from one fairy tale, to a modern day story, and back to tale after tale, weaving the stories into the reasons she is in the modern story to begin with.  I have liked several of this author's book, so I wanted to give this one a try too, but it fell a little short for me.  The book however, would be a good, easy read for many kids.

The Selection

Title: The Selection
Author: Kiera Cass
Pages: 327
Language: PG (7 minor swears)
Content: PG
Level: High School
Recommendation: Good Read

Summary:  For thirty-five girls, the Selection is the chance of a lifetime. The opportunity to escape the life laid out for them since birth. To be swept up in a world of glittering gowns and priceless jewels. To live in a palace and compete for the heart of gorgeous Prince Maxon.  But for America Singer, being Selected is a nightmare. It means turning her back on her secret love with Aspen, who is a caste below her. Leaving her home to enter a fierce competition for a crown she doesn't want. Living in a palace that is constantly threatened by violent rebel attacks.  Then America meets Prince Maxon. Gradually, she starts to question all the plans she's made for herself—and realizes that the life she's always dreamed of may not compare to a future she never imagined.

Review: The Bachelor meets the Hunger Games without any violence.  I began reading, anticipating an extreme dystopian society, but find although the United States has been overtaken, society is much more civilized than other dystopian novels.  There is a only a brief chapter that tells the reader what has happened to the United States to now be under the rule of a king, and leaves me wanting a little bit more history.  America, (the character, not the country) is full of vim and vigor, and I love her spunky attitude.  This book would be a good, easy read for girls, but I can't see any guys picking up this chick lit!

The Alchemy of Forever

Title: The Alchemy of Forever
Author: Avery Williams
Pages: 246
Language: PG (2 swears)
Content: PG/PG13
Level: High School
Recommendation: Optional

Summary:  Incarnation is a new series that introduces a fresh mythology perfect for fans of bestselling series like The Immortals by Alyson Noel and Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl. Ater spending six hundred years on earth, Seraphina Ames has seen it all. Eternal life provides her with the world’s riches, but at a very high price: innocent lives. Centuries ago, her boyfriend, Cyrus, discovered a method of alchemy that allows them to swap bodies with other humans, jumping from one vessel to the next, taking the human’s life in the process. No longer able to bear the guilt of what she’s done, Sera escapes from Cyrus and vows to never kill again.  Then sixteen-year-old Kailey Morgan gets into a horrific car accident right in front of her, and Sera accidentally takes over her body. For the first time, Sera finds herself enjoying the life of the person she’s inhabiting—and falls for the human boy who lives next door. But Cyrus will stop at nothing until she’s his again, and every moment she stays, she’s putting herself and the people she’s grown to care for in great danger. Will Sera have to give up the one thing that’s eluded her for centuries: true love?

Review:  I am not quite sure how many immortal series can continue to make a mark in this genre.  This book was an okay read, but didn't stand out as a stellar beginning to a new series.  The story does have a few twists to keep the reader in suspense, but the book just didn't grab me the way I hoped it would.   It is your basic immortal story . .. boy chases girl, girl falls in love with mortal, what will they ever do?

Michael Vey, Prisoner of Cell 25

Title: Michael Vey, The Prisoner of Cell 25
Author: Richard Paul Evans
Pages: 326
Language: G
Content: PG
Level: Middle/High School
Recommendation: Must Read

Summary: My name is Michael Vey, and the story I’m about to tell you is strange. Very strange. It’s my story. To everyone at Meridian High School, Michael Vey is an ordinary fourteen-year-old. In fact, the only thing that seems to set him apart is the fact that he has Tourette’s syndrome. But Michael is anything but ordinary. Michael has special powers. Electric powers.Michael thinks he's unique until he discovers that a cheerleader named Taylor also has special powers. With the help of Michael’s friend, Ostin, the three of them set out to discover how Michael and Taylor ended up this way, but their investigation brings them to the attention of a powerful group who wants to control the electric children – and through them the world. Michael will have to rely on his wits, powers, and friends if he’s to survive.

Review: I was hesitant to read this new series from Richard Paul Evans, as it is quite a departure from his normal work. I was pleasantly surprised. The storyline was interesting, and it was refreshing to read a fantasy book that departs from all the rest. Great book for boys and girls alike.

Low Red Moon

Title: Low Red Moon
Author: Ivy Devlin
Pages: 244
Language: PG
Content: PG-13
Level: Middle/High
Recommendation: Optional

Summary: Avery witnessed her parents' death-but as much as she wants to remember who killed them, her mind is a blank. Then Avery meets Ben, mysterious and beautiful, with whom she feels an intense connection. When Ben reveals he's a werewolf, Avery still trusts him-until she learns that he, too, can't remember the night her parents died. This must-read for teen paranormal fans combines the breathless romance of Twilight with a moving tale of loss-and a compelling mystery to boot.

Review: This book reminded me of a lower level "Twilight" but with wovles . . . .There is quite a bit of violence in the book. I had a hard time finishing this book, even knowing that there would be a twist at the end. It is an easy read though, for students who need a simple book.

The Lost Hero

Title: The Lost Hero

Author: Rick Riordan

Pages: 576

Profanity: G
Mature Content: G
Level:  Middle School
Recommendation:  Good Read

Summary:  Jason has a problem.  He doesn't remember anything before waking up on a school bus holding hands with a girl.  Apparently she's his girlfriend Piper, his best friend is a kid named Leo, and they're all students in the Wilderness School, a boarding school for "bad kids."  What he did to end up here, Jason has no idea-- except that everything seems very wrong.

Piper has a secret.  Her father has been missing for three days, and her vivid nightmares reveal that he's in terrible danger.  Now her boyfriend doesn't recognize her, and when a freak storm and strange creatures attack during a school field trip, she, Jason, and Leo are whisked away to someplace called Camp Half-Blood.  What is going on?

Leo has a way with tools.  His new cabin at Camp Half-Blood is filled with them.  Seriously, the place beats Wilderness School hands down, with its weapons training, monsters, and fine-looking girls.  What's troubling is the curse everyone keeps talking about, and that a camper's gone missing.  Weirdest of all, his bunkmates insist they are all-- including Leo-- related to a god.

Review:  This book is written very well for the age group (10 and up).  If I wanted to suggest a book to a student or a child, I would not hesitate to recommend this novel.   There is nothing inappropriate in this novel as far as language and sexual content, but the heroes are on a quest and they are required to to fight occasionally.  Rick Riordan does not make it gory or extremely violent, but keeps the readers interest by making this novel action-packed!  I do not think that the characters and plot line were very well developed.  One of the three main characters, Leo, has ADD  and it's apparent.  I feel as if the plot line has ADD as well.  It's just a little too choppy to allow for a fluid reading.

Daughter of Smoke and Bone

Title: Daughter of Smoke and Bone

Author: Laini Taylor

Pages: 432

Profanity: PG-13 (some swears, no "F"s)

Mature Conent: PG-13 (references to body parts, sexual situations, some violence)

Level: High School

Recommendation: Optional

Summary: Around the world, black handprints are appearing on doorways, scorched there by winged strangers who have crept through a slit in the sky. In a dark and dusty shop, a devil's supply of human teeth grown dangerously low.And in the tangled lanes of Prague, a young art student is about to be caught up in a brutal otherwordly war.Meet Karou. She fills her sketchbooks with monsters that may or may not be real; she's prone to disappearing on mysterious "errands"; she speaks many languages--not all of them human; and her bright blue hair actually grows out of her head that color. Who is she? That is the question that haunts her, and she's about to find out.When one of the strangers--beautiful, haunted Akiva--fixes his fire-colored eyes on her in an alley in Marrakesh, the result is blood and starlight, secrets unveiled, and a star-crossed love whose roots drink deep of a violent past. But will Karou live to regret learning the truth about herself?

Review: The story tells a history of angels, demons, and the worlds they live in through the eyes of a teenage artist in Prague. Critical pieces of the story are told throughout the book and keep the reader enticed to find the who's, what's, and where's that are crucial to the story. This novel is not a typical angel/demon novel, and the plot twists and turns as more information is revealed. Not recommended for young, conservative, or sensitive readers.