All posts by Kasey

About Kasey

Reads things. Writes things. Fluent in sarcasm. Willful optimist. Cat companion, chocolate connoisseur, coffee drinker. There are some who call me Mom.

Review: The Geography of You and Me by Jennifer E. Smith

Blogger's Favorites, Book Review and Content, Clean Fiction, Contemporary, Romance, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , , , , ,

The Geography of You and Me by Jennifer E. SmithThe Geography of You and Me
Jennifer E Smith
Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Published April 15, 2014

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads

On a hot summer night, the lights go out on the east coast, dropping Manhattan into an unfamiliar blackness. Sixteen year-old Lucy and seventeen year-old Owen, strangers who live in the same building, share a few moments trapped in an elevator which blossoms into hours spent talking under the night sky.

Just as the two begin to connect, their lives propel them apart: Owen to the west coast and his father’s unending job hunt and Lucy to the Europe she’s coveted the last sixteen years. Only postcards span the distance between them until the night they can’t bear to be separated any longer.

The usual romantic formula has the hero and heroine in the same room (or at least the same city) a high percentage of the story. Smith’s bold departure from the expected routine of romance is a risky move that absolutely pays off. As Owen and Lucy explore the new terrain of their lives, their shared longing for one another anchors the story together.

One of the pleasant surprises in the story was the growth in the relationships between each character and his/her parents. Without violating the sacred teen need for privacy, Owen’s dad and Lucy’s mom reveal that despite their issues, they’ve been paying attention. In a genre cluttered by too many flaky caricatures of parents, it was refreshing to see such human examples of loving parents.

The sweet romance and witty banter between Lucy and Owen make this a charming story. It’s a pretty clean read (see below for details) and probably best suited to readers aged fourteen to seventeen.

Language Content
One instance of mild profanity.

Sexual Content
Limited kissing. Brief references to a girl wondering why she hasn’t brought her boyfriend home to her parents’ empty house for some unsupervised time.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violence
None.

Drug Content
Cigarettes/smoking is blamed for Owen’s mother’s fatal car accident. Owen treasures a cigarette that belonged to his mother, but he is not a smoker.

Note: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

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Review: Jova by Chris Ferguson

Book Review and Content, Mystery/Suspense/Thriller, Paranormal, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , ,

Jova
Chris Ferguson
Bravestar Studios
Published December 2, 2013

Amazon | Goodreads

On the night of her senior prom, Jova’s whole world shifts into nightmare. Zombies lunge onto the dance floor, attacking all within their reach. Jova and several other girls escape the mayhem and hole up in the school, struggling to survive each new day. Hunted by cannibalistic men and plague-ridden zombies, the girls defend themselves with hand-made weapons and fierce determination. When the school is compromised, Jova and her friends are forced to flee into the wilds of a destroyed world where even the water is poisonous. Survival depends on choosing the right allies. The future depends on destroying their enemies.

Reading this novel is sort of like walking through a mine field. Random characters and unexpected plot twists burst into the story. Sometimes they connect with the larger plot and other times they pop in and fade out, leaving the reader to do a little head scratching. Some plot elements lack support either from the story world or want of explained logic. The girls barricade themselves inside their old school, but there doesn’t seem to be any food or water sources available in the area. At one point they decide that the way to secure the future is to have babies. It’s difficult to see this as a reasonable idea while they are without shelter and provisions, not to mention that men are extremely dangerous enemies.

What Ferguson does well is focus not only on the threat from the zombies, but explore the other groups who might rise to power in the midst of a zombie apocalypse. Cannibals (though considering the zombie situation this seems dangerous) and drug lords seek food sources and slaves, adding to Jova’s list of bad guys to be destroyed. Girl-power juices run high. These girls are armed and ready to kill.

Language Content
Heavy profanity, moderate frequency.

Sexual Content
Though many of the girls wear purity rings and vow to preserve their virginity until marriage, the loneliness wears on them. Several of the girls begin relationships with one another. Details are limited, but some crude comments and sexual descriptions are included.

As the girls fear more and more for survival, they decide that the best way to secure a future is to find men with whom they can become pregnant (sperm donors, not fathers to help raise their children), by force if necessary. Again, details are limited, but some brief descriptions are included.

Spiritual Content
The girls spend time in prayer and chapel services during their time in the school. They discover a cave with Satanist worship symbols and indications of human sacrifice. One girl crosses out the bad symbols and draws symbols for good spells over them. Later, Jova cries out to God to answer for why terrible things have happened to her and her friends. The sky crackles with thunder in an intense moment in which Jova confronts God with her faith and disappointments. While she receives a response, it is less a Moses-on-the-mountain moment and more a miracle moved on and not mentioned again.

Violence
The girls tackle zombies and vile men called hunters, who feast on human flesh and repeatedly try to kill them. There’s a fair amount of gore and some icky zombie descriptions. A naked man allies himself with the girls and convinces them to eat human flesh.

Drug Content
A man turns his friends over to an enemy in exchange for a large amount of heroin.

Note: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

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Top Ten Tuesday: Ten Eagerly Anticipated Books from My Summer Reading List

Contemporary, Dystopian or Post-Apocalyptic, Fantasy, Lists, Paranormal, Romance, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , , , , , ,

This is a weekly theme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish and my first time participating. Though my reading list seems to only grow longer the more I read, here are the ten books I most look forward to reading next.

Where Things Come Back by John Corey Whaley This has been on my list for awhile. A blogger I enjoy and an author I admire both recommended it. I can’t wait to see for myself.

City of Heavenly Fire by Cassandra Clare I can’t tell if I’ll be embarrassed for my infatuation with this series in ten years. At present I am hooked on the romance and snappy dialog Clare consistently delivers.

Shadows by Robin McKinley As a long-time fan of McKinley’s books, I was delighted to see this one hit shelves. Her stories always suck me in and let me forget things like responsible bed time.

Unthinkable by Nancy Werlin When I saw that there was a story about the beginning of the curse featured in Werlin’s amazing novel Impossible, I had to have it. I’m so excited to delve back into that story world.

It’s Addicting by Laura L. Smith I’ve fallen in love with the four girls this series follows after reading the first two books. I’m looking forward to finding out how things turn out for each of them.

Deep Blue by Jennifer Donnelly I’ve read A Northern Light (and highly recommend it) as well as Revolution (which I didn’t care for as much.) When I heard the buzz about this novel, I couldn’t wait to see what Donnelly, who has written such strong and serious prose, would bring to the underwater world of mermaids.

Mockingbird by Kathryn Erskine I’ve seen this book on several big you-must-read-these-books lists. Reading the description (a young girl with aspbergers loses her brother and mentor to a school shooting which leaves her family devastated) it’s easy to see that this one has potential to pack a big punch. I love angsty YA but it’s impossible to beat a story that adds to that mix the need to re-examine how I see the world. I think this novel has the potential to do just that.

Blue Gold by Elizabeth Stewart I can’t remember where I heard about this book. There’s little review information on amazon.com at present, which either means it’s an undiscovered gem or a brilliant idea that isn’t executed well. The story follows three girls involved with a cell phone. One from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where the mineral to make the cell phone was mined, one from China, where the chips in the phones are manufactured and one from North America who owns a cell phone. I’m curious. I’ll bite.

The Geography of You and Me by Jennifer E. Smith This one is next on my reading list. Even a lover of angsty novels needs a little romance now and then to break things up. I’m eager to visit the places the story travels – San Fransisco, Prague – and to relive those early moments of falling in love through each character.

On a Clear Day by Walter Dean Myers From the author who wrote the award-winning Monster comes a story about a group of futuristic teens who commit to sabotage the stranglehold eight companies have on the world government. I’ve read this style of story before and been left disappointed, but I’m totally intrigued. If anyone can make this a powerful, memorable story, it’s gotta be Myers, right?

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Review: Pie by Sarah Weeks

Blogger's Favorites, Book Review and Content, Clean Fiction, Contemporary, Middle Grade 8-12, , , , , , ,

PIE
Sarah Weeks
Scholastic
Published October 1, 2011

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads

Beloved Aunt Polly’s death leaves Alice miserable and the small town of Ipswitch floundering. Her world-famous restaurant serving free pies must close, but as the will is settled, everyone wonders who will get Polly’s award-winning pie crust recipe? No one is more surprised than Alice when Aunt Polly’s attorney presents her with Lardo, her aunt’s grumpy cat and sole inheritor of the coveted recipe. News ricochets through town. In its wake a mysterious villain vandalizes Polly’s shop and catnaps Lardo (in case the rumors that the recipe is tattooed on the feline’s enormous belly are true.)

Alice’s mother refuses to listen to Alice’s claims that the cat has been abducted and instead rages against her sister’s leaving her out of her will. It’s up to Alice and the local grocery delivery boy to solve the mystery and rescue Lardo amid the whole town’s frantic attempts to recreate Polly’s famous pies.

An unexpected guest reveals the final pieces of Aunt Polly’s will, leaving Alice and her mother dumbfounded. While Alice knows the knot of grief inside her will never fully disappear, she finds a way to cope with the loss and keep her aunt close in her memory and in her sweet baked treats.

Though it grapples with a young girl’s first experience with grief, PIE is an overwhelmingly sweet story, packed not only with tender moments and humor but over a dozen pie recipes, ranging from the all-American classic Apple Pie to the unexpected Green Tomato Pie. This is a great story to read aloud – with frequent breaks to do a little baking! What a great opportunity to bond with middle readers both in literature and in the kitchen.

Language Content
No profanity or crude language.

Sexual Content
None.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violence
None.

Drug Content
None.

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Review: Who Could It Be at This Hour by Lemony Snicket

Book Review and Content, Clean Fiction, Middle Grade 8-12, Mystery/Suspense/Thriller, Paranormal, , ,

Who Could It Be At This Hour?
Lemony Snicket
Little, Brown and Company
Published October 24, 2012

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads

Thirteen year-old Lemony Snicket is ready to begin a thrilling adventure as an apprentice to a detective. His first assignment leads him and his confident companion to the small town of Stan’d-by-the-Sea. Snicket soon discovers the object he’s been hired to recover is part of a complex plot which will risk more than his apprenticeship to solve.

As Snicket works to uncover clues with the aid of his bungling mentor, he often finds himself asking the wrong questions, and later regrets the consequences. His partner, though more experienced, often overlooks evidence or logic, and though Snicket disagrees with her decisions, he remains positive and respectful toward her. The story maintains the 1950s feel of a classic spy novel.

Fans of Snicket’s earlier infamous series will find a slightly more sophisticated tone draped over the same tongue-in-cheek humor and playfulness in the first volume of the series All the Wrong Questions. Recommended for ages eight to twelve.

Recommended for Ages 8 to 12.

Language Content
No profanity or crude language.

Sexual Content
None.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violence
Snicket discovers a woman tied up in a basement which is filling with water. He frees her.

Drug Content
None.

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Review: Of Triton by Anna Banks

Book Review and Content, Clean Fiction, Fantasy, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , ,

Of Triton (Syrena Legacy #2)
Anna Banks
Feiwel & Friends
Published May 28, 2013

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads

When her Syrena boyfriend Galen recognizes her mother as the long-lost princess promised to his older brother, Emma realizes her life just got way more complicated. With a Syrena mother and human father, Emma is a half-breed. Humanity would label her a freak and Syrena law demands that she be put to death. Galen and his sister work to reunite their brother Grom with Emma’s mother, but none of them realize the tidal wave of repercussions the return of the lost princess will cause.

Fans of Banks’ earlier novel exploring the world of the Syrena will only find more to love in this upbeat romance jam-packed with royal political intrigue and forbidden romance. Some of the scenes involving the underwater Tribunal meeting, a trial which will decide the fate of the Syrena royals, do tend to drag on with little action and much dialogue, the story otherwise moves quickly and tensions between characters run high making this a great summer read. Of Neptune,the final chapter of the Syrena Legacy hit stores early this month and promises to be a thrilling conclusion to Emma and Galen’s story.

Language Content
Mild. More often, Emma uses terms like “flipping” or “shizzle” rather than profanity. Fits her character and spares readers looking for a cleaner reading experience.

Sexual Content
It’s clear that Emma feels deeply attracted to Galen and wants to consummate that attraction, but the two have little opportunity. Sirenna law prohibits mating between partners who have not been paired at a proper mating ceremony, and despite the force of his attraction to Emma, he is committed to respecting the traditions of his people.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violence
Conflicts between hot-tempered Sirenna sometimes become physical altercations, though few weapons are used and few details embellish the violence. A fisherman harpoons a young whale. A young girl is stabbed with a spear. No graphic details.

Drug Content
None.

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