Review: Forever For a Year by B T Gottfred

Book Review and Content, Contemporary, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , ,

Forever For a Year by B T GottfredForever For a Year
B. T. Gottfred
Henry Holt and Company

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads
Carolina and Trevor begin their freshman year at a new high school. Carolina is determined to make the right friends and impress her bestie’s older, more sophisticated sister. Trevor, new in town and resentful of the issues causing his family to relocate, has no expectation to enjoy his new school. Then he meets Carolina. The two fall head over heels and soar into the glory of first love.

As their feelings deepen, they spend more and more time alone, and kissing leads to touching leads to more. But their professed love and belief that they are each other’s soul mates may not be enough to bind the two together when Trevor keeps a secret and Carolina makes a mistake.

Gottfred captures the roller coaster ride of hormones and emotions. Carolina and Trevor’s relationship has its own gravity which pulls even their personalities into orbit around it. Though Carolina was almost obnoxiously perky at times, Trevor’s brooding temper and deep family issues kept the story from becoming trite. He experienced many of the story’s powerful moments, from the lesson on falling in love vs. being in love to the realization that long term relationships create their own baggage and become difficult. We watch the two believe wholeheartedly in the infallibility of their love and the power of being soul mates to cement their relationship for all time. And then life happens. Lies. Mistakes. Suddenly love isn’t so easy or so permanent. Gottfred really captured those moments and ideas well.

What fell flat for me was the ending. There’s this moment where I felt like the thread unraveled. I agreed with the plot of the ending. It needed to be that way. But after this long, powerful buildup, there was this moment where I felt like the characters kind of just dropped all the emotion and said, “The End,” and that was it. I also struggled with the story when the parents were being unfaithful. I felt like that revelation didn’t carry enough gravity and enough emotional fallout. I felt like it should have affected Carolina and Trevor more individually and as a couple.

Language Content
Extreme profanity used with moderate frequency.

Sexual Content
Explicit sexual content. The language used to describe the encounters is mild as opposed to erotic language, but the experiences are described in detail. Carolina and Trevor have little experience with the opposite sex when they begin dating. They spend a LOT of time behind a locked basement door exploring each other’s bodies and developing a sexual relationship. It’s steamy stuff, but it’s also fraught with the kind of awkwardness that one expects from inexperienced lovers.

Reading the book, I felt like it may be that the author wrote it with this level of specificity as a way to encourage teens who were active or experimenting with sex that many of the uncertainties and insecurities are common. I’m not a fan of explicit sex in teen fiction. I want to say a lot more about my thoughts on this as an approach to teen fiction, but I really think I need to save it for another post.

Trevor and Carolina also deal with feelings about their parents being unfaithful spouses.

I liked that Gottfred showed a spectrum of response to teen relationships. While Carolina and Trevor are pretty serious and heavy with each other, one of Carolina’s friends doesn’t date at all because her parents have set rules against it. One of Carolina’s other friends seems to be hooking up with random boys at parties. There are boys like Trevor, who wants to treat Carolina well in terms of not pressuring her and trying to reciprocate pleasure to her. Another boy pressures Carolina and really only cares about receiving satisfaction himself. Despite the explicitness, I did respect that this wasn’t a tale that painted everyone as getting into everyone else’s pants.

What was really weird, too, was that reading the explicit parts, I actually felt a bit like a creeper. Carolina and Trevor are so young, and they SOUND SO YOUNG. Eep. It was like walking in on a younger sibling and feeling like okay, now I need to forget I ever saw that! I don’t know if it’s because I’m not in the target age range or too old to read this stuff or what. I normally don’t weird myself out reading romantic YA, but this really felt weird to me.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violence
Trevor and another boy get into a fist fight.

Drug Content
Several scenes show teens drinking alcohol.

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

Review: Not if I See You First by Eric Lindstrom

Book Review and Content, Contemporary, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , ,

Not If I See You First
Eric Lindstrom
Little, Brown Books for Young Readers/Poppy

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads

Parker lives by a specific set of rules. She expects to be treated like everyone else. Judgment comes swiftly for anyone who takes advantage of the fact that she’s blind. One betrayal, and you’re cut from her life. Scott, the boy who was once her best friend and became her boyfriend learns this lesson the hard way.

Only now he’s back, transferred to her school, and Parker has no choice but to make the best of it. She prides herself on the ability to know the people around them, to read them even if she can’t see them. But as she grapples with unresolved feelings about Scott in the wake of her father’s death, she learns she may not see others as clearly as she thinks. In fact she may be dead wrong about the most important people in her life.

One of the random but very cool things to me about this book is that I constantly kept forgetting that the author is a man. Parker is so believably female and complex that I honestly checked several times because I thought maybe I’d misread the author’s name. (Not that I think men can’t write believable women or vice versa, but it’s always awesome when you find someone who does a spectacular job of it.)

As far as the story, I loved the unpredictable elements. I was surprised by the revelation about facts surrounding Parker’s dad’s death. I thought even the way their relationship worked seemed very real and definitely fit in with the larger story about how Parker doesn’t always peg people close to her as accurately as she would wish to believe.

I felt like there was a good balance between attention given to her blindness without the details about her daily life overtaking the story. I didn’t feel a lack of setting details despite the fact that they were not given through visual cues.

I loved the romance and the quick, witty dialogue. Great lines like that in conversation always make me want to be a better writer myself and feel a lot of admiration for the author who created them.

Other than the use of profanity (there was quite a bit), the story is pretty clean. I enjoyed reading it.

Language Content
Extreme profanity used with moderate frequency. Also some crude language.

Sexual Content
Kissing. At one point Parker reflects on feeling starved for physical contact with people and how that makes her want to go further with a boy than she would normally feel comfortable.

Spiritual Content
Parker spends time thinking in long monologues to her dad after his death. She says she doesn’t believe he’s watching over her or seeing everything going on in her life. The conversations are her way of staying close to him.

Violence
Parker hears a scuffle when a boy tackles two other boys who have been picking on her.

Drug Content
None.

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

Review: Magic to Memphis by Julie Starr

Book Review and Content, Contemporary, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , ,

Magic to Memphis
Julie Starr

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads

A box filled with postcards and mementos that once belonged to her father send seventeen year-old Jessie on a quest to Memphis to find the man who disappeared into his own dreams of musical stardom. Her faithful dog Bear protects her, and a quirky traveler named Finch talks to Jessie about the magic of making things happen. When Jessie begins to embrace this everyday magic, miraculous things begin to happen. But not everyone wishes Jessie well. A sinister man with dark power seeks artifacts in Jessie’s possession, and he’ll stop at nothing to get them back.

I’m not a dog person (go ahead and hate me) but I loved Bear, Jessie’s dog. I liked the way the author used the dog to build relationships between characters. I liked watching Jessie grow as a character. After her cold behavior causes a rift in her band, she learns to swallow her pride and admit she’s wrong sometimes. The music contest was awesome. I loved how that turned out (but I won’t spoil it.)

While I loved the added tension that the crazed killer brought to the story, I felt like he didn’t tie in with the rest of the story as well. He had some inexplicable powers that I kept waiting to be explained or to matter to the story somehow, and that never really panned out. The story isn’t really about him, though, so while it left me scratching my head a couple of times, overall, I enjoyed the tale and the way the author used a box of mementos, the music contest, and the dog to bring a community of people together.

Language Content
Strong profanity used moderately.

Sexual Content
None.

Spiritual Content
References to “magic.” It feels more like a mystic sort of “power of positive energy” type of doctrine. At one point, Finch tells Jessie to imagine her dog well in order for him to recover. She visualizes the dog healed, and soon he is. The sinister guy pursuing Jessie is basically able to control others around him and make them forget things or do things for him, like give him their possessions.

Violence
Bad guy roughs some people up. The carnage left behind is briefly described.

Drug Content
Jessie works at a bar on Beale Street. The band celebrates a victory by drinking beer. (Jessie, at least, is underage.)

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

Review: Li Jun and the Iron Road by Anne Tait

Book Review and Content, Historical, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , , ,

Li Jun and the Iron Road
Anne Tait
Dundurn

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads

Working as a servant to help her family becomes unbearable when Li Jun’s lecherous master makes it clear he plans to take advantage of her. As a Chinese woman in the 1880s, Li Jun has few other options. She makes a daring escape by disguising herself as a boy and living as a street urchin. When she hears of an opportunity to travel to British Columbia to work on the railroad, she realizes this could be the chance she has longed for: to follow in her father’s footsteps and discover what has kept him from returning home.

As Little Tiger, Li Jun befriends James, the son of a railway tycoon, and promises to help him secure enough workers for the job. She proves to be an invaluable team member and a good friend to James, but the draw between them extends beyond the boundaries of work and friendship. Still, Li Jun can’t allow anything to prevent her from finding out where her father is, and what has happened to him, even if she has to confront his killer to do so.

Last fall my husband and I took a trip to Vancouver and Alaska for the first time. I’ve since fallen in love with the history of the area—places and people I had never known about before. Though this is a work of fiction, I enjoyed being able to glimpse the landscape of the 1880s and in particular, the development of the railroad in Canada. Li Jun is clever and brave, an easy heroine to admire, and the mystery of what has happened to her father pulls the story forward through the historical setting and kept me guessing all the way to the end.

At a little over two hundred pages, this novel was a quick read. I think I read it in one evening.

Language Content
Brief strong profanity.

Sexual Content
Li Jun’s master gropes her in a dark garden. It’s clear he means to do more, and she’s afraid. Li Jun and James share a moment together in his room. She removes her top, and they fall into his bed, but she stops him from removing her pants.

Spiritual Content
Some references to Chinese culture and beliefs concerning the souls of family members who’ve died. The bones or ashes of the dead must be returned home to China or else the person’s soul will wander forever.

Violence
Dangerous men try to hurt James and Li Jun. Short description of mining accidents. There’s not a lot of gore or graphic explanation.

Drug Content
None.

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

A Time for Giving Thanks

News and Fun, ,

As I took time this week to pause and look at my life, I am filled with gratitude. Our refrigerator is packed with food. Our table is surrounded by family and friends. We have medical care which provides for our needs when we are sick (and we’ve all been sick this week!)

Though we had to say goodbye to both of our longtime pets – two cats we’ve had for more than ten years – we also adopted a new cat from a local shelter. He had a rough start, so he was fearful and skittish when we brought him home. But there was something in his face that made me believe he just needed an opportunity to love. It’s proven to be true. After just a few months in our home, he is possibly the most affectionate cat I’ve ever met. He’s been a Godsend, and we adore him.

This past year, my daughter and I have bonded over Anne of Green Gables, Lemony Snicket, and her budding theater interest. We’ve talked about what it means to become a teenager, a woman, to speak your mind with kindness and conviction. Every day she grows, learns, challenges me to be a better person, a better mother.

As a serial over-committer, I’ve challenged myself to slow down this holiday season. As various hitches and bumps arose around our Thanksgiving plans, I feel like I lost sight of what these celebrations are all about. Giving thanks. Being with family. Celebrating the greatest gift we’ve ever received.

I’ve only made a few commitments to review books over the next several weeks, and I’ll continue to honor those. I’ll continue to post here at The Story Sanctuary through the holiday season, but I will follow my heart where my reading choices are concerned. (Probably this means reading some of the hard copies of books I’ve been squirreling away on my shelves since last Christmas…)

Thank you, dear readers, for taking this journey with me. I hope this season provides you with many blessings around your table. I’m thankful that you’ve chosen to spend time here, listening to my thoughts. I love middle grade and teen fiction, and it’s a joy to share that passion with you.

Happy Thanksgiving to you all!

 

Checking Out the NKJV Faithgirlz Bible Edited by Nancy Rue

Book Review and Content, Christian World-View, Nonfiction, , ,

Faithgirlz Bible (NKJV)
Edited by Nancy Rue
Zonderkidz
Published October 6, 2015

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads

The Faithgirlz Bible is a Bible with additional devotional and study content specifically focused on teen and preteen girls. This edition is the New King James Version (NKJV), but a New International Version (NIV) edition is also available.

When I saw that Nancy Rue edited this version, I’m not going to lie, I was pretty excited. I love the way she relates spiritual and moral principles in her novels, so I felt like she’d do a great job bringing that insight and excitement to scripture and make it even more accessible to girls.

Each book of the Bible begins with a short introduction naming important characters and giving a brief context for when and why the book was written as well as how it fits into the larger picture of the Bible. Within the passages, there are some quiz questions. For instance, in Matthew 27, the quiz states: “I think I can follow Jesus’ instructions by…” Three answers follow. On the opposite page, an answer key lists scriptural references for each possible answer that discuss what the Bible says about each of the three options. I thought that was a really fresh, neat idea and a great way to pull values from the Bible and relate them to daily life.

Short “Oh, I get it!” sections pose a question from the passage on the page and explain an answer. Why did Jesus do this or not do that? A paragraph explanation with some more leading questions follows. Encouraging scriptures are also quoted in “Treasure This” asides, drawing attention to those great promises we hold onto.

This is a Bible I wholeheartedly recommend to preteens and teens alike. It’s really accessible and easy to relate to. The tone of the extra notes is positive and encouraging, but it doesn’t shy away from asking deep questions and really inviting readers to think about how Christian beliefs and scripture intersect their daily lives.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookLook Bloggers  book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Save