Book 9 - Secrets of My Hollywood Life: On Location

My ninth book is the second book in the "Secrets of My Hollywood Life" series, called On Location, by Jen Calonita. This book follows actress Kaitlyn Burke as she navigates Hollywood. At the start of this book, her boyfriend is the boy she met in the first book when she went undercover at a local high school. So, he's a "normal" boy and she is worried about how he will react when he finds out how hard her life is. She has just been cast in Hutch Adam's new movie. Hutch is kind of a Steven Spielberg type director. She finds out that her nemesis, Sky, who also happens to play her sister on Kaitlyn's tv show Family Affairs, has been cast as the villian. Kaitlyn also has to navigate a jealous ex-boyfriend that wants her back, an outrageous studio executive, and Sky's scheming assistant, all while trying to keep her boyfriend in the dark about it all. During the story, she stops narrating to tell you Hollywood Secrets (hence the title of the book), like why actors date other actors or how they edit pictures in magazines.

Book 8 - Safe Haven

My eighth book was Safe Haven by Nicholas Sparks. All Nicholas Sparks books are romances. But not many are thrillers, too. This one is. Katie is a troubled girl who has just moved to a small town in North Carolina and is working at a restaurant called Ivan's. She is befriended by her neighbor, Jo, and the owner of a local store, Alex. She is eventually romantically involved with Alex and tells him about her past. It turns out that she ran away from her abusive husband, Kevin, and that he is still probably looking for her. But just when she starts to feel at home in Southport, someone from her past shows up and tries to bring her back...

Book 7 - The Accidental Billionaires

My seventh book was The Accidental Billionaires by Ben Mezrich. This is a book about the founding of Facebook (the book "The Social Network" was based on). It's non-fiction, but it's the coolest non-fiction book you'll ever read. It keeps your interest the entire time, almost written like a movie. Mark Zuckerberg develops Facebook in his dorm room and, with his best friend Eduardo Saverin, makes it the huge success that it is today. But, even though they were best friends, Mark cut Eduardo out of the company, causing Eduardo to sue. Unlike the movie, the book is in chronological order, instead of the characters telling the story in court. Overall, it is one of the best books I've ever read and a new favorite.

Book 6 - Renegade

My sixth book was Renegade by Ted Dekker. This book is the third book of the Lost Chronicles, the first two being Chosen and Infidel. While this book was very exciting at parts, it was also very frustrating. Several characters were not acting very smart. In spite of this, the cover and name are the coolest...ever. And it's still a Ted Dekker book, so there are good parts to it. And the ending is a huge cliffhanger...sometimes, I hate cliffhangers.

Book 5 - Northanger Abbey

My fifth book was Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen. I love Jane Austen's books, especially Pride and Prejudice, and this one is no exception. This is actually my second favorite, other than Pride and Prejudice, of course. The book is funny, heartwarming, and even exciting at times. The book is about Catherine Morland, who goes with her friends, the Allens, to the town of Bath. While there, she meets Henry Tilney, and falls in love with him. In an effort to get closer to him, she introduces herself to his sister, Eleanor, and they quickly become friends. Catherine is eventually asked by Henry and Eleanor's father, General Tilney, to visit their house, Northanger Abbey. She is very excited about visiting this house because she is obsessed with graphic novels and Abbeys are very often the setting of these novels. She is disappointed when she arrives at the Abbey, because Tilney has changed everything and it is no longer Gothic. So, she invents her own version of what happened to the General's wife to provide her with some entertainment...but everything, and everyone, is not what they seem...

Book 4 - 13 Little Blue Envelopes

My fourth book was 13 Little Blue Envelopes by Maureen Johnson. I've never read anything by this author before, so I didn't know if I would like it. I LOVED it. This book makes you want to start traveling the world...right now. I wish I had an aunt that sent me letters and money, and told me to go on an amazing adventure. The basic premise of the story is that Ginny, a very reserved and quiet girl, is given 13 envelopes by her crazy aunt that tells her to go to Europe. She can only open one envelope at a time, in order, and only once she has completed the task in the previous envelope. She travels to Europe to meet a friend of her aunt's and that is where her adventure begins. This kind of behavior is common with her aunt...the only thing Ginny can't figure out is how her aunt did this...her aunt is dead.

Book 3 - At First Sight

My third book was At First Sight by Nicholas Sparks. Sparks' books are some of my favorites. He not only makes memorable stories, but characters that the reader can really invest in. This book is his only sequel (if you don't count The Wedding, which was a sequel to The Notebook...since it only had one character from the original story, and was about different people, I don't really see it as a sequel). The characters from the first book True Believer are back and are going to get married. They also are going to have a baby. But they run into trouble when someone starts questioning who the baby's father is. Everything looks like it will work out in the end, but, because it is a Nicholas Sparks book, will it really?

Book 2 - I Am Number Four

My second book is I Am Number Four by Pittacus Lore. This is an amazing science fiction book by an author who is fictional and fits into the story, kind of like Lemony Snicket in A Series of Unfortunate Events. This book is about a boy who is a refugee from an alien planet. There are nine aliens, along with their guardians, on Earth. They can only be killed in order. John and his guardian Henri have to move from place to place in order not to be found. But John has trouble leaving his new town because he has a new friend and a girlfriend. But when the Mogadorians find him, he has to fight to protect everything that he didn't want to leave. Plus, this is being made into to a movie, starring Alex Pettyfer, the adorable Timothy Olyphant, and the awesome Dianna Agron, from Glee. The book was perfect so, as long as they don't change too much, the movie hopefully will be, too.

Book 1 - Nanny Returns

My first book this year was Nanny Returns by Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Klaus. I loved the first Nanny book, this one was even better. This book adresses a lot of the issues left open at the end of the last book. Nan is married to Hayden. Grayer shows up and wants to know why Nan left him. And Mrs. X wants Nan to do stuff for her, again, which she somehow gets roped into doing. These girls really know how to write a book. It's exciting, cool, and keeps your interest. If someone enjoyed The Nanny Diaries, they will definitely love Nanny Returns.