The Boy Recession – Flynn Meaney

Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
Released: Aug 7th, 2012
Genre: YA contemp
Review copy from publisher

It’s all about supply and demand when a high school deals with the sudden exodus of male students.

The boy recession has hit Julius P. Heil High, and the remaining boys find that their stock is on the rise: With little competition, even the most unlikely guys have a good chance at making the team and getting the girl. Guitar-strumming, class-skipping Hunter Fahrenbach never wanted to be a hot commodity, but the popular girls can’t help but notice his unconventional good looks. With a little work, he might even by boyfriend material.

But for down-to-earth Kelly Robbins, the boy recession is causing all sorts of problems. She has secretly liked her good friend Hunter for a while now, but how can she stand out in a crowd of overzealous Spandexers?

As if dating wasn’t hard enough without a four-to-one ratio!

From publisher’s website. 

This book was CUTE. And FUNNY. But also WEIRD. Three of my favourite things. And they work so well together when they’re done right. And in The Boy Recession? They are done amazingly.

So much fun this book was. So much. Kelly and Hunter are such different characters from one another but they just meshed. And they are REAL. I love real characters. You know the kind.  Imperfect, often stumbling over their words, making mistakes. Cringe-worthy mistakes. Which, IMHO are the best kind when it comes to characters in books.

And the whole lack of boy situation? So funny and horrible and awkward. Yes, I know I’m using a lot of descriptive words here. I can’t help it. Sometimes I love a book but have a hard time saying why. When I try to explain, full sentences don’t come out. Only descriptive words. Seriously, ask the hubs. He often gets explanation in just a string of descriptive words.

Know those funny, feel good teen movies with just a bit of edge? The ones that do it right? (I’m looking at you, Easy A.) That’s what Boy Recession reminded me of.  Which is all kinds of good in my books.

The Reluctant Journal of Henry K. Larsen – Susin Nielsen

Publisher: Tundra Books
Released: Sept 11th, 2012
Genre: YA contemp
Review copy from publisher

Thirteen-year-old Henry’s happy, ordinary life comes to an abrupt halt when his older brother, Jesse, picks up their father’s hunting rifle and leaves the house one morning. What follows shatters Henry’s family, who are forced to resume their lives in a new city, where no one knows their past. When Henry’s therapist suggests he keep a journal, at first he is resistant. But soon he confides in it at all hours of the day and night.

In spite of Henry’s desire to “fly under the radar,” he eventually befriends a number of oddball characters, both at school and in his modest apartment building. And even though they know nothing about his past – at least, not yet – they help him navigate the waters of life after “IT.”

From Susin Nielsen’s website.

It’s no secret that I absolutely fell in love with Susin Nielsen’s writing in Word Nerd and that love just grew with Dear George Clooney, Please Marry My Mom. Despite the fact that The Reluctant Journal of Henry K. Larsen is darker and deals with a more serious subject matter than the first two books, I absolutely, positively LOVED IT. I devoured it in one sitting and when I was finished, I just felt like a better person for having read it.

OMG this book broke my heart. Just smashed it to little pieces. But it also made my heart swell with love at places. I wanted to jump through the pages and give Henry a big hug and buy him an ice cream. He was such a sweet, awkward, lovable character that I just wanted to do something to make his pain stop. Nielsen wrote him in such a caring yet straightforward manner that he never felt pathetic or whiny to me. He just seemed like a kid who was going through some serious crap and trying to handle it the best way that he could.

I’m not going to say a whole lot about “IT” except that her telling of what happened, the way she presented it, was just amazing. It’s hard to take a situation like that and write about it in a way that doesn’t come across as sensational or crude. But through Henry, Nielsen explains what happened in a way that was both heartbreaking and understated. Perfection.

As always, there’s a slew of wonderfully weird secondary characters in The Reluctant Journal of Henry K. Larsen. I loved them all so much that it would be impossible to pick my favorite.  And even thought they were secondary, they each had a huge part in helping Henry to deal with what happened.

I loved this book so much that I could probably go on and on and on about all the wonderful things that sucked me in and made me sad when I got to the last page. But about all, I loved Henry’s voice. Nielsen wrote him so honestly that it hurt my soul at times, to witness how he was feeling and what he was going through.

Henry’s is a tough story to read and I can only imagine how hard it was to write it. But it’s one that really needs to be heard. And honestly, I couldn’t have pictured anyone but Nielsen telling it.

Grow Up – Ben Brooks

Publisher: House of Anansi Press
Released:  May 12, 2012
Genre: YA contemp
Review copy from publisher

YouTube suicides, possible pregnancies, drug comedowns, and getting straight As — meet Jasper: a seventeen-year-old with his hands full. Weekdays are packed with visits to the psychologist, mounting parental pressure to achieve in school, scouring the Internet for porn, and trying to figure out whether his stepfather murdered his ex-wife. Weekends are focused on finding the next party, the best drugs, and sex — preferably with Georgia Treely — but really with anyone he can get.

From House of Anansi Press website.

First of all, the fact that the author is nineteen is INSANE! This is the first book by a teen that I’ve not only been able to get through, but that I absolutely loved.

This book is wrong on so many levels, which is what makes it absolutely amazing. I mean, Jasper is a seriously f-cked up dude. I would not want to sit next to him on a bus, in a class or anywhere for that matter. The inner workings of this kid’s brain makes me once again thankful for my decision not to have kids. But despite this fact I couldn’t get enough of him. He was so brilliantly written that I was FASCINATED with him from the first line.

If you have any issue with sex or drug use in books, stay away. Far, far away. Cuz Grow Up has plenty of both.  But neither came off as being sensational or thrown in for shock factor. Sex and drugs are just such an integral part of Jasper’s life.

This book is set in Britain, so some of the grammar and such took a bit of getting used to. But there was tea drinking in almost every scene, which made me love it all the more.

While there were a couple of different plots in Grow Up, this was definitely a character driven book. And with Jasper being such a different, strong, weird character, it set the perfect tone.

If you like your YA contempt very real, very gritty, and at times very screwed up, then I can’t recommend Grow Up enough.

Purity – Jackson Pearce

Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
Released: April 24, 2012
Genre: YA contemp
Review copy from publisher

A novel about love, loss, and sex — but not necessarily in that order.

Before her mother died, Shelby promised three things: to listen to her father, to love as much as possible, and to live without restraint. Those Promises become harder to keep when Shelby’s father joins the planning committee for the Princess Ball, an annual dance that ends with a ceremonial vow to live pure lives — in other words, no “bad behavior,” no breaking the rules, and definitely no sex.

Torn between Promises One and Three, Shelby makes a decision — to exploit a loophole and lose her virginity before taking the vow. But somewhere between failed hookup attempts and helping her dad plan the ball, Shelby starts to understand what her mother really meant, what her father really needs, and who really has the right to her purity.

From Little, Brown and Company website. 

I don’t know why, but when I first read the blurb, I was expecting a fairly light, funny book. You know lots of jokes, tongue in cheek dialogue.  Yeah, not so much. What I got instead was a riveting story of dealing with loss, impossible promises, relationships in transition and growing into your own skin. In short, what I got was an amazing read.

I think my favorite part of Shelby’s story was her relationship with her father. While my teen years are far behind me, I remember the struggle between wanting to please my dad and the desire to be my own person. These two didn’t always mesh, and they definitely don’t for Shelby. I think that most readers will be able to sympathize with Shelby and her dad as they try to figure out their relationship as she grows up.

And then there’s Shelby’s relationship with her mother. Despite the fact that her mother has passed away, she’s a strong presence throughout the book.  After all, it’s Shelby’s promises to her that have guided Shelby’s life since her mother died.

Shelby’s attempts to lose her virginity are awkward and heartbreaking.  While the situation could have easily spiraled into the ridiculous, Pearce’s writing keeps things real. She also writes Shelby’s story in a way that it doesn’t enter over-dramatic or whiny territory.

I just loved the tone of this book and how it evoked so many feelings in me when I was reading it. I always find it hard to explain how and why a book made me feel a certain way. But I finished Purity, and felt content. And weepy. Always a good sign when I finished a book.

The Last Song – Eva Wiseman

Publisher: Tundra Books
Released: April 10th, 2012
Genre: YA historical fiction
Review copy from publisher

Spain had been one of the world’s most tolerant societies for eight hundred years, but that way of life was wiped out by the Inquisition. Isabel’s family feels safe from the terrors, torture, and burnings. After all, her father is a respected physician in the court of Ferdinand and Isabella. Isabel was raised as a Catholic and doesn’t know that her family’s Jewish roots may be a death sentence. When her father is arrested by Torquemada, the Grand Inquisitor, she makes a desperate plan to save his life – and her own.

From Tundra Books website.

I admittedly don’t read a lot of historical fiction. I generally really enjoy it when I do, but it’s not a genre I gravitate to. But to me, The Last Song was almost hist-fict lite. I would have liked to have seen a lot more detail about the time period. I felt that the author brushed over some things that could have enriched the story more. Despite the nature of the plot and the time frame that the book takes place, it was a fairly happy novel and I’m not sure that tone did the writing or the characters justice.

It was an enjoyable book, don’t get me wrong. But I found that at times it almost bordered on fluffy. Like I said, I would have liked to have seen some more depth to the plot and the characters.

I think that die-hard fans of hist-fict may find The Last Song a bit light for them. But, I think this is an excellent book for those who want to get into the genre but don’t want to start with anything really long or really heavy in tone.

The Calling – Kelley Armstrong

Publisher: Random House Canada
Released: April 10th, 2012
Genre: YA paranormal
Review copy from publisher

Maya Delaney’s paw-print birthmark is the mark of what she truly is–a skin-walker. She can run faster, climb higher, and see better than nearly everyone else. Experiencing intense connections with the animals that roam the woods outside her home, Maya knows it’s only a matter of time before she’s able to Shift and become one of them. And she believes there may be others in her small town with surprising talents.

Now, Maya and her friends have been forced to flee from their homes during a forest fire they suspect was deliberately set. Then they’re kidnapped, and after a chilling helicopter crash, they find themselves in the Vancouver Island wilderness with nothing but their extraordinary abilities to help them get back home.

From Random House Canada website.

So, it’s no secret that I am a bit obsessed with Kelley Armstrong’s writing. She is, by far, my favorite young adult and adult author. But that doesn’t mean that I approach her books with rose-colored glasses, no. Just because I adore her and her writing doesn’t mean that I am going to fall head over heels in love with all her books. Cuz while I really, REALLY enjoyed The Calling, I wasn’t all crazy for it.

I’m not even sure it’s anything that I can put into words. There’s a lot of action in The Calling, and I think I was craving more character development and such. I also felt that some of the information doled out was chunky, almost like an information dump. But I loved the mystery of the story and also trying to figure out who was on whose side. The whole group dynamic of the teens fascinated me.

As always the writing was awesome (except for the aforementioned issue I had) and I was drawn into the story from the open line. Kelley just has a way of plopping the reader right into the middle of things. The book was face-paced and made for a quick read. So while I wasn’t all drooly over it, I really enjoyed it and can’t wait for the next book.

The Heart is Not a Size – Beth Kephart

Publisher: HarperCollins Canada
Released: March 22th, 2010
Genre: YA contemp
Review copy from publisher

Georgia knows what it means to keep secrets. She knows how to ignore things. She knows that some things are better left unsaid. . . . Or are they?

When Georgia and her best friend, Riley, travel along with nine other suburban Pennsylvania kids to Anapra, a squatters’ village in the heat-flattened border city of Juarez, Mexico, secrets seem to percolate and threaten both a friendship and a life. Certainties unravel. Reality changes. And Georgia is left to figure out who she is outside the world she’s always known.

From HarperCollins Canada website.

It’s weird. The first time I picked up The Heart is Not a Size, I only got a few pages in before I set it down. People had gushed about it, but I wasn’t feeling it. But it was for review and I always try to read review books (in a timely manner, when I can). So after letting it sit on my shelves for over a year, I decided to give it another try. And read it in one night. I dunno, I must have been in a mood the first time I tried.

I’m not a very visual person. When I read a book, I don’t often picture it in my head. Strange, but true. But sometimes when I read a book, I can imagine it as a movie, almost scene by scene. And that’s what this book was like for me. I could picture it as the type of coming of age movie that I would watch over and over again.

This is a story about friendship and how we sometimes struggle to do the right thing for a friend and it ends up blowing up in our faces. I loved that the book centered on Georgia and Riley’s friendship. That it wasn’t all about the boys and the romance. Sure, there may have been hints of romance, but it wasn’t a completely integral part of the story. It wasn’t the point of the book.

I think female readers in particular will be able to identify with The Heart is Not a Size. I am a fair distance from the age of Georgia and Riley but their friendship and story had me thinking of some of the friendships I had when I was a teen and how important they are to who I am now.

So I’m definitely glad I gave it another go. And I’m happy that the lovely peeps at HarperCollins Canada sent along a review copy.

Summer Lovin’ Blog Tour -While He was Away – Karen Schreck

One year—he’ll be gone for one year and then we’ll be together again and everything will be back to the way it should be.
The day David left, I felt like my heart was breaking. Sure, any long–distance relationship is tough, but David was going to war—to fight, to protect, to put his life in danger. We can get through this, though. We’ll talk, we’ll email, we won’t let anything come between us.
I can be on army girlfriend for one year. But will my sweet, soulful, funny David be the same person when he comes home? Will I? And what if he doesn’t come home at all…?

I don’t often do this in reviews, but I HAVE to take a second to talk about the cover for While He was Away. I don’t know if it’s the gorgeous pink coloring of the sky, the fact that they’re holding hands or my strong desire to have those wedge shoes, but this cover caught my attention majorly. When the book arrived I was in the middle of reading another book, but kept going over to my desk to glance at it. I just I think it’s amazing.

And the inside of the book was just as fantastic and captivating as the cover. I felt a pretty strong connection to Penna from the beginning and didn’t wander too far from my box of Kleenex throughout the whole book. See, here’s something that some of you might not know: my husband doesn’t live with me full time. He works in another province for two week stints then comes home for six days. So while he isn’t a soldier and doesn’t leave for a year at a time, I could still empathize with what she was going through, all the emotions she was feeling before David left and after. And let me tell you, Schreck nailed that perfectly. PERFECTLY. Hence the Kleenex.

The blurb doesn’t give much away, so I don’t want to either, but I do want to let you guys know that there’s a lot more to this book than just Penna and David’s long-distance relationship. Penna has some serious family shit going down, and while it’s traumatic and stressful, it also helps keep her mind off of David (as much as that’s possible). I loved the layering of Penna’s stories and how everything was connected.

I was expecting a bit of a gooshy, romantic read and I was pleasantly surprised by the depth of the novel. I read it in one sitting and was moved by the beauty of the prose and the details of the story. Anyone who is a fan of YA contemp should absolutely run out and buy While He was Away, as should anyone who’s interested in the genre. Actually, all of you should go buy it. It was that good.

Thanks bunches and bunches to Source Books for the review copy.

Emily for Real – Sylvia Gunnery

If it’s just him, I cut a clean diagonal right across the middle, letting one half fall dead on the bed and throwing the other half on top of the pile. If it’s a picture of him with me, I carefully slice him off, and for some reason I save the piece with me in it. After a while, there’s a pile of Brian corpses lying there staring at nothing, and the pages of my album are all patched up with slices and triangles and scraps of pictures of me.

In every one of these sliced-up pictures, I look stranded.

Seventeen-year-old Emily’s world crumbles when her boy friend dumps her, and when she thinks her life can’t possibly get any worse, a series of secrets are revealed that threaten to tear her beloved family apart. Emily’s heart has been broken into a hundred pieces and she feels like there is no one to turn to, until an unexpected friendship blossoms with a troubled classmate named Leo. Sometimes moody but always supportive, Leo is Emily’s rock in an ocean of confusion and disbelief.

But Leo doesn’t have an easy life either. He struggles to be both mother and father to his little sister while his mom battles her alcohol addiction. His deadbeat dad darts in and out of the picture, and Leo would rather he stay away, permanently. The two friends lean on each other, and in the end discover the inner strength to face whatever life throws at them.

I don’t think I can quite capture my love for the relationship between Emily and Leo. I found it absolutely refreshing to read about a friendship between a boy and girl that stays just that: a friendship. When I was a teen, most of my best friends were boys, so I really identified with it. It was so realistic and honest and I just loved it. I also loved how they were both pretty messed up and damaged and didn’t really like each other at first, but slowly became close and trusted each other.

While I loved their relationship, I was a bit overwhelmed with Emily’s family secrets. The revelations, to me, seemed a bit forced and really came at a pretty fast pace. I realize that it’s possible for family stuff to go down that way, but I just felt that it was a bit rushed. But despite this, I really loved Emily for Real and would recommend it to anyone who enjoys YA contemp with strong themes of friendship.

Thanks to Pajama Press for the review copy.

172 Hours on the Moon – Johan Harstad

Everyone said sending teenagers into space would be their opportunity of a lifetime…

It’s been decades since anyone last set foot on the moon. But three ordinary teens are about to change that–and their lives–forever. Mia knows this will be her punk band’s ticket to fame and fortune. Midori believes it’s her way out of her restrictive lifestyle in Japan. And Antoine just wants to get as far away from his ex-girlfriend as possible. But little do they know that something sinister is waiting for them on the dark side of the moon. And in the black vastness of space, no one is coming to save them…

I love the premise of this book. I don’t read a lot of sci-fi and I dig the idea of crossing sci-fi with horror. I just, well, I wish the execution of the idea was a bit better. Now, this was a translated work, so maybe something got lost during the translation, but 172 Hours on the Moon left me feeling a bit cold and definitely wanting more (and sometimes less) from the story.

Overall the book wasn’t bad. I really enjoyed the diversity of the three teens that were chosen to go to the moon. I just didn’t necessarily need as much background information about them. As I was reading about them before they were chosen, I couldn’t help wishing that the author had cut out some of that part of the book and had concentrated more on the actual time on the moon. I already knew from the blurb that they were chosen, so I didn’t really need a lot of lead up to it.

I loved the space training part and also when they actually go to the moon. I just wish it had been a bit more detailed and that the author would have spend more time there. I would have been perfectly happy if the book had started with them at the training base or even with the shuttle launching.

The story is told in third person from the point of view of the three teens and some other secondary characters. I really, really didn’t get the point of some of these secondary characters. For me they didn’t add a thing to the main story. Antoine’s ex-girlfriend gets a couple of chapters as does a former janitor with NASA. I honestly think that if these sections had been cut out, the book wouldn’t have suffered and would have been a lot tighter.

But I absolutely LOVED the tone of 172 Hours on the Moon. The whole feel of the writing and the story reminded me of The Thing, one of my favorite horror movies. I also whipped through the latter part of the book when they’re on the moon. Shit goes down and it was awesome, in a scary way. And I also loved the fact that the author didn’t wimp out at the ending. At all. It was horrific and as far as I’m concerned, perfect.

So while I had a lot of issues with this book, there were also some things I loved about it. Would I recommend it? I’m not sure. I think this one is going to appeal to some and not others.

Thanks to Hachette Group Canada for the review copy.