Review: Breaking Up Is Hard To Do By: Bruce and Carole Hart

Breaking Up is Hard to Do by Carole Hart
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Two people, two different schools, two different cities - yet the first love and first breakup is common.
Julie Stillwell lives in New Jersey, she works on the school paper as a photographer and as the director of the school play. When one of the main actors gets sick she must come up with a plan to find a new replacement in under six days - enter Roy Buckley, a boy known to be smart and up to trouble. When she makes him a star, will he still find her in his light?
Sean Manning is the football star in a school in New York City. His father and coach have big plans for him, yet he is just going through the motions. That is until his crush, Sara Beth Cavanaugh starts to turn turn to him despite her still being the girlfriend of his friends that graduated a year before. Is Sara using him? After a huge injury, can he find what he is looking for?
A good story going back and forth between the characters, bringing to light not just a girl's view but a boy's as well in the crazy stage of first love and the drama included.

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Review: Waiting Games By: Bruce and Carole Hart

Waiting Games by Carole Hart
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Okay, so I went back into the trunk after reading Sooner or Later again, I had to continue the story of Jessie and Michael.
Jessie's parents now know about Michael and the age difference and have a plan to take her away on vacation in the summer - away from Michael. In the meantime, Michael is being pulled away by his band, a new manager, and the influence of a roadie JoJo.
Jessie has sex with Michael, spends the summer wondering if she is pregnant and what or who is is doing. During that time a distance of not just geography begins as she celebrates another birthday and grows up.
A great story that reveals the intensity of teen relationships and the milestones of a teen girl. It also has the consequences of decisions and choices that one makes.
I am wrapping my Bruce and Carole Hart novels in a ribbon and giving them to my new teen girl to enjoy.

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Review: The Time Of My Life By: Cecelia Ahern

The Time of My Life by Cecelia Ahern
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Life is requesting an appointment and will not be stood up. What if life would and could do just that? And what if life wasn't an abstract thing or being but an actual person?
I guess it depends on whether you are running from it or embracing it.
Lucy Silchester just shy of her birthday receives such a request, that soon becomes a demand. She will have to face life. Unfortunately for her, she has been trying to lie not just to others but herself and has found that she is a big knot of lies and denial.
Life has to follow her throughout her day, from work to home, to the dreaded dinner with her family. Despite their intial meeting filled with her anger and disdain - something begins to happen.
I love Cecelia Ahern's novels and find that there is a certain whimsy, a certain lesson, a way that she can make the reader get lost in the tale and find a piece of them in it. This is no exception- be prepared to laugh, cry, reflect because life wouldn't have it any other way. A definite must read.

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Review: The Elite By: Kiera Cass

The Elite by Kiera Cass
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The Selection has been continued in The Elite. The group of girls have been brought down to a handful, America Singer is still in the running - question is does she really want to be?
The past love of Aspen is now face to face, being that he is now a guard at the palace. Competition holds her fears as she has already developed feelings for Prince Maxon, and when those feelings are tested - well, sometimes we fail.
America seemed a lot more unsure of herself in this book, and Maxon - well, he didn't quite sparkle as much either. The weight of the rebellion is at the door of palace (and inside) and the truth of the how the country was created, along with the caste system, is revealed. Sometimes uncovering a truth like that can bring an enemy willing at all costs to protect it out - and it does.
I enjoyed this installment in the series, found myself staying up after 3am to read it. Fast paced, emotionally driven, a new dimension to the characters is created - including the secondary. Does it hold up to the first, no, but I can't wait for the next.

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Review: Chosen at Nightfall By: C C Hunter

Chosen at Nightfall by C.C. Hunter
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Ms. hunter pulled me through this series and ended it in an amazing way. I could not put this down, found that my earlier disappointment in the last one was short lived.
Kylie left Shadow Falls to be with her grandfather and her kind, but Mario has other plans. Kylie is being visited by a persistent ghost and the complications with her love for Lucas definitely keeps her busy.
From start to finish the book was action packed with great twists - for good and bad- and I was under it's spell.

On a sad and happy note, Kylie's story might be complete, but there will be a new series for her friend and roommate Della Tsang (which I can't wait to sink my teeth into).

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Review: Sooner or Later By: Bruce and Carole Hart

Sooner Or Later by Carole Hart
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I came across this book in one of my trunks. I have kept it since the first time I read it and fell for Bruce and Carole Hart's writing.
As I turned each page, the flash of me as a teen filled with wonder, excitement, and lost within the pages hit - which had me devouring the book in under an hour.
A great an easy read filled with the high emotions of a 13 year old girl trying to come into her own as she is attracted to a 17 year old boy. I might have read Judy Blume, but the Harts understood me.
Jessie Walters is like every girl was when I was growing up, I even think I was a form of Jessie. She quickly finds herself attracted to Michael Skye and the torment, deception, angst begins.
This is the first of Jessie and Michael's trilogy.
Simple writing, fast read - but 5 stars because for an hour I was a teen again.

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Review: Spellcaster By: Claudia Gray

Spellcaster by Claudia Gray
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Captive's Sound a city with many dark secrets and an evil that lies inter weaved within the town and the people that live there.
Nadia has come to Captive's Sound with her father and brother after the abandonment of her mother. Nadia's entrance has been noticed and before entering the town, she and her family are in an accident. Luckily, Mateo is there to save her.
Both Nadia and Mateo have dark secrets that flow in their veins. Nadia born a witch and trained to some degree, but not completely since her mother left and Mateo a boy born within a family that has been cursed for over 400 years, whom are granted visions.
Not everything is as it seems and soon unravels..
I have not picked up a book by Ms. Gray but was amazed at the originality, the pace, the storyline, and development within the pages. I was bewitched and could not put this one down. It does appear as though this might be the beginning of a series, one that I am looking forward to continuing.

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