Book 72 - If I Stay

My seventy-second book was If I Stay by Gayle Forman. For Mia, things are going great. She gets along well with her family, she has a loving boyfriend, and she's probably going to be accepted to Julliard. But things get disastrous when the family are in a car accident. As Mia climbs out of the ditch, she realizes that her parents are dead. As she goes back to the ditch to see if her little brother, Teddy, is there, she sees a very strange sight: herself, laying in the ditch, unconscious. While Mia tries to figure out what's going on, the paramedics show up and start working on her as well as putting her parents in body bags. She follows her body all the way to the ICU in Portland. There, she listens in on doctors and nurses conversations and hears everything they don't want her to. As the rest of her family shows up, Mia walks all around the hospital, thinking about her life before the accident and everything that has changed. The reader takes the journey with Mia, as she thinks about her parents, her life, and whether or not she wants to stay. The nurse explains to her grandparents that it's really up to Mia whether or not she lives. As Mia thinks about it, her family comes in to make sure she doesn't give up.
Grade: A
SC: 5
V: 7
C: 6

Book 71 - Thirteen Reasons Why

My seventy-first book was Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher. This was my second time reading this book and it was just as powerful as the first. Clay Bensen recieves a package one day. The package is a shoebox full of casette tapes. Clay thinks, Who listens to casette tapes these days? But he listens to them because he's curious. After he hits play, the voice of classmate Hannah Baker comes out of the speakers. Clay can't believe this because Hannah is dead. She committed suicide a couple weeks before. As he continues to listen, he is informed by Hannah that, if you have recieved these tapes, you're one of the thirteen reasons why Hannah killed herself. And if you don't listen, the tapes will be realeased and everyone who isn't on the list will hear the horrible things you did. As Hannah tells the story of her high school life and the events that led up to her suicide, Clay follows the map she gave him. And as you learn more and more about the torture Hannah went through, you also learn more and more about Clay. But Clay, and the reader, can't help but wonder, if Clay is such a "nice" guy, why is he on the list at all?
Grade: A++
SC: 7
V: 6
C: 4

Book 70 - Ripple

My seventieth (yay!!!) book was Ripple by Mandy Hubbard. After reading, Prada and Prejudice and You Wish this year, both for the second time, I was very excited about Mandy's new book. She's one of my favorite authors and she didn't disappoint. Lexi is a siren (which is kind of an evil mermaid...when she swims, she sings and that song lures men into the water, where they drown). On her sixteenth birthday, she accidentally killed Steven, the first boy she ever loved. And, since that day, she hasn't let anybody get close to her and she's pushed all of her friends away. So, when Cole, Steven's best friend, starts paying attention to her, she's not thrilled. Not only does this kind of ruin the whole "not getting close to anyone" plan, but he's also known as a player, girls were always throwing themselves at him. But the more Lexi tries to push Cole away, the more she ends up letting him in. As Lexi starts to fall for Cole, a new boy moves to town. This boy, Erik, knows she's a siren and is the answer to her curse. He's a nix, a guy version of a siren and, if they can fall in love, it will break both of their curses and solve all of their problems. But what about Cole? This book was good, but not as good as You Wish.
Grade: A
SC: 6
V: 6
C: 5

Book 69 - Stay

My sixty-ninth book was Stay by Deb Caletti. A lot of things about this book kind of scared me because I was in a relationship that was a lot similar to Clara's relationship with Christian. I think if I wouldn't have ended it when and the way I did, it could have easily turned out the same way. Clara and Christian have a very intense relationship from the start. Clara quickly starts to think Christian is "the one" with his deep eyes, his blonde hair, and his sweet personality. But it quickly becomes clear that, not only is Christian the jealous type, he becomes jealous about things that don't matter. He accuses Clara of trying to get other guys to like her, of cheating on him, and of being flirty. Finally she gets fed up and decides to break it off. But Christian won't take no for an answer. For a while, Clara feels sorry for him and tries to let him down easy, answering some of his messages back and even seeing him a couple times. But after a scary encounter with him, her father decides they need to get away, to a place where Christian can't find them. As Clara and her father settle into their new home at the beach, Clara embarks on a slow romance with a sailor named Finn. But, even as she is falling in love with Finn and working at the lighthouse, she can't shake the feeling that Christian is somewhere close, looking for her.
Grade: A+
SC: 6
V: 7
C: 7

Book 68 - Just Listen

My sixty-eighth book is Just Listen by Sarah Dessen. I really like Sarah's writing. It's very easy to read, but the subject matter is deep. You can really relate to the characters. Annabel is the youngest of three girls, the oldest, Kirsten, being the outgoing sister and her middle sister, Whitney, taking up a lot of attention because of her eating disorder. So, Annabel feels like she's never been able to express herself as well as her sisters, Kirsten talking all the time and Whitney never needing to talk to make you understand how she feels. So, when a traumatic event happens, she keeps it to herself. Even though it means losing all of her friends, especially her best friend, Sophie, who is now vicious towards Annabel. It seems like this year will be the worst yet. Until she meets Owen, an outsider with an anger issue. Since he was forced to take anger management classes after attacking a classmate, Owen is very open about everything, the exact opposite of Annabel. As she starts spending a lot of time with Owen, learning all he has to know about music, she starts to feel like speaking up. But speaking up would mean telling everyone she loves about what happened at the end of the year party, that ruined everything. Will Annabel keep to herself? Or will she trust Owen enough to tell him her secrets?
Grade: A+
SC: 6
V: 5
C: 5

Book 67 - Cloaked

My sixty-seventh book was Cloaked by Alex Flinn. I loved Alex's book Beastly, so I decided to give this one a try. Unlike Beastly, which is based on Beauty and the Beast, this book is based on several lesser known fairy tales, including "The Frog Prince" (before Disney made The Princess and the Frog), "The Elves and the Shoemaker", and "The Salad", which sounds exceedingly strange. Johnny is a poor teenager, working in his mother's shoe repair shop. His best friend, Meg, works in the coffee shop next door, but even her family has more money than Johnny and his mother. One day, Johnny meets the princess of Aloria, Victorianna, who does nothing but drink and party. So, when Victorianna shows up, telling Johnny that she needs his help because her brother was turned into a frog, Johnny just thinks she's drunk again. But, as it soon becomes clear that she's serious, he just thinks she's crazy. But, when she gives him a magical cloak that can transport him anywhere he wishes, he has no choice but to believe her and set out in search of the missing frog. Armed with his cloak, an earpiece that will let him talk to animals that were once human, and the promise of a marriage with the princess if he succeeds, Johnny finds out that, what he really wanted all along, was right next to him the whole time.
Grade: B
SC: 4
V: 5
C: 3

Book 66 - Split

The sixty-sixth book I read this year was Split by Swati Avasthi. 16 year old Jace Witherspoon arrives on his estranged brother Christian's doorstep one night with a bloody face (courtesy of his father) and a secret. Christian, of course, knows the secret. That their respectable father, Judge Witherspoon, has been beating up their mother for years. After Christian escaped, he started in on Jace. Now that Jace is gone, they are more worried about their mother than ever. As they try to figure out how to get her out, Jace's own secrets are threatening to come out. And, if they do, Jace knows Christian won't let him stay. This book gives readers a glimpse into what happens after a person makes the split from the life of torture. But starting over is the hardest challenge of all.
Grade: B+
SC: 3
V: 8
C: 6

Book 65 - Along for the Ride

My sixty-fifth book was Along for the Ride by Sarah Dessen. I have seen her books at the bookstore and wondered why they were so popular, so I decided to give one a try. And I totally see why a lot of girls love them. It was very entertaining and written in a way that was totally easy to read. LOVED IT! Auden decides to spend her last summer before college with her father and his new wife and baby at the beach. She has totally written off her father's new family as a stuck-up girly-girl and her daughter that will soon be a mini version. But when she arrives, she realizes that the family dynamic is not at all as she pictured. Instead of being all happy and lovey-dovey, her father spends all of his time writing his book while Heidi is left alone to care for Thisbe (the new baby), who won't stop crying for anything. As Auden finds herself helping Heidi in many ways (including helping her at Heidi's cute girly boutique), she also starts to bond with the girls that work there. As she learns about clothes, fashions, and hanging with the girls, she also starts to learn about love as she becomes very interested in Eli, a loner and fellow insomniac who shows her the nightlife of her new town.
Grade: A+
SC: 5
V: 2
C: 2

Book 64 - The Water Wars

My sixty-fourth book was The Water Wars by Cameron Stracher. Dystopian style books are really "in" right now and I enjoy reading them as much as the next person. This book was pretty good, it just felt like there wasn't very much character development...it actually seemed too short to get a true picture of the characters. The other dystopian novels I've read (The Hunger Games series in particular, but also including Matched and The Forest of Hands and Teeth series) exceeded this one by far. Vera and her brother Will meet a stranger named Kai, who pours water out of a cup onto the road like he has more than enough. But no one in this future has enough water. So, Kai sitting in the middle of the road, in plain view of anyone passing, is very odd. Even more odd, Kai tells the siblings that he knows of a place with a river. But people haven't seen rivers in years. When Kai and his father are kidnapped, Vera and Will decide they have to rescue their friend. To do this, they go to the end of their territory and meet pirates, "environmentalists" who don't seem to care for the environment at all, and a greedy company that wants all of the water left in the world for themselves.
Grade: B-
SC: 3
V: 5
C: 3

Book 63 - Trapped

My sixty-third book was Trapped by Michael Northrop. To me, this book was like The Breakfast Club mixed with The Day After Tomorrow. Northrop's style of writing was pretty cool; the way he kept hinting at the bad things that would happen later made you want to read faster. The only thing I didn't like was the ending. I don't like when books end in a way that you don't know what happens to the main characters. This is one of the worst I have ever read in that way. Scotty Weems is on the basketball team and the only thing he is thinking is his first game, which has been canceled because of the stupid snow. Even though it's coming down pretty hard, Scotty and his friends Pete and Jason stay in the shop classroom for an hour or two after everyone leaves. When they finally realize that this snow storm is going to be pretty bad, they make their way to the gym, where a teacher and four other students are waiting for their rides. By this point, Northrop has informed us that, not only will this storm be considered the worst in the history of the United States, but not everyone in our little group will survive. The seven kids have to try to figure out how to survive and how to get along, being that most of them are not only from different grades but different cliques as well. Kind of like The Breakfast Club, except with less swearing and more death.
Grade: B
SC: 4
V: 6
C: 2

Book 62 - Stolen

My sixty-second book was Stolen by Lucy Christopher. This book is about a British girl named Gemma. She and her parents are on their way to Vietnam so that her mother, who is a curator, can buy some paintings there. While on a layover at the Bangkok airport, she meets Ty, a very handsome, but much older than her, man. While drinking their coffee, Gemma starts to feel weird and it becomes clear to the reader that Ty has drugged Gemma. After he takes her far away from Bangkok, she eventually wakes up in a cabin in the middle of the desert. Gemma eventually learns that Ty has been watching her for a long time. But, even more suprising than that, she starts to realize that Ty might not be as despicable as he first seemed.
Grade: A-
SC: 5
V: 6
C: 6

Book 61 - Inkdeath

My sixty-first book was Inkdeath by Corneila Funke. This is the third in the Inkheart series, following Inkheart and Inkspell. I have been working on this book for a month, reading a little bit a time. It is WAY to big to carry around (it's 663 pages long), so I've been reading it on the side. I finally finished! This book has many story lines. When the book starts, Dustfinger is dead, having sacrificed his life for Farid's. Now, the Inkworld is under the rule of the cruel Adderhead and is now in bloody chaos. So many events happen in this book, that its impossible to write them all down (um, did you read that it is 663 pages long?!). But, if you're a fan of Inkheart and Inkspell, you'll like this book.

Book 60 - Uncommon Criminals

My sixtieth book was Uncommon Criminals by Ally Carter. In this sequel to Heist Society, we find teenage thief Katerina Bishop in Russia, stealing a painting from the head of the KGB. The difference between Kat and the rest of her family is that she steals items that have already been stolen and returns them to their rightful owner. Kat is also known to the thief world as the girl who robbed the Henley with a team made entirely made of other teenagers. That is why she doesn't think its odd when a woman named Constance asks her to steal the Cleopatra Emerald. Especially when Constance tells her that a man that goes by the name of Visily Romani told her to ask for Kat. After she and her team (composed of Kat, her best friend WW Hale the Third, and her cousin Gabrielle) return the emerald, it becomes clear that Kat was conned by this woman that had called herself Constance. Even more disturbing, it is revealed that the woman, now going by Maggie, knows her Uncle Eddie, the king of thieves, and his hermit twin brother, Charlie. And to add to the already growing problem, Maggie is claiming that this emerald is the Antony, the missing half to the Cleopatra. Kat has to con Maggie while also trying to make sure that she doesn't end up like Maggie; alone, having conned and pushed away everyone who cared about her.

Book 59 - Red Riding Hood

My fifty-ninth book was Red Riding Hood by Sarah Blakely-Cartwright (based on the screenplay by David Leslie Johnson). I saw the movie first and got the book because the movie was really good. This book was actually written after the screenplay, so it's pretty much the same as the movie. Several things happen differently and there are several added parts, but if you have seen the movie, you can pretty much skip the book. The book (and the movie) is about Valerie, who is wild and adventurous. Her sister Lucie is careful, but much loved by everyone who meets her. One night, Valerie sneaks out to meet Peter, a woodcutter who Valerie loves, but has been gone for years because of a crime his father committed. Before they are able to talk, they realize there is a blood moon, which means the wolf that stalks the town. For years, the wolf has been kept at bay by the monthly sacrifice. But now, no one is safe. Including Valerie's beautiful sister, Lucie. When an expert Wolf hunter arrives, the villagers learn that the creature lives among them. It could be anyone in town. It soon becomes clear that Valerie is the only one who can hear the voice of the creature. The Wolf tells her she must surrender herself before the Blood Moon wanes... or everyone she love will die.

Book 58 - The Last Little Blue Envelope

My fifty-eighth book was The Last Little Blue Envelope by Maureen Johnson. In this sequel to 13 Little Blue Envelopes, Ginny is home again after her backpack with the letters in it was stolen. But she gets an email from a mysterious boy named Oliver. Oliver tells her that he found all of her letters after he bought her backpack. He even has the last letter that she never got to open. When she arrives in England, it becomes clear that not only is her "boyfriend" Keith dating someone else, Oliver is not at all what he seems. He tells Ginny that, since he found the letter, he will tell her what it says and they go together. Ginny realises that, if she wants to find out what her aunt wrote, she has to take Oliver on her adventure and split the money they get from the sale. Their adventure takes Ginny and Oliver, along with Keith and his new girlfriend Ellis, to various places in Wales, Amsterdam, and finally Ireland to find three pieces of art that her adventurous Aunt Peg wanted her to put together. She's gone most of the journey hating Oliver for what he's doing, but she starts to realize that he might have good reasons for wanting the money.
Grade: A+

Book 57 - The Dark and Hollow Places

My fifty-seventh book was The Dark and Hollow Places by Carrie Ryan. It's the third book of the Forest of Hands and Teeth series. This book is about Annah, who is revealed in the last book to be a relative of someone in the series. Annah was devastated when Elias left her to join the Recruiters three years before this book starts. Since then, she has become hard and tough, having to learn to take care of herself even more. The scars she got from the barbed wire help keep people away from her, but the scars also give Annah a reason to keep people away from her. As she's planning to leave the Dark City, she sees something that makes her go back in. And when she gets back in, she sees that the city is being taken over by a Horde, thousands, maybe even millions, of Unconsecrated swarming over the city. And it turns out the only place that is safe is the Sanctuary, an island that is surrounded by a wall (the reader can only assume that the Dark City is New York and the Sanctuary is Manhattan). As she's trying to get there, she meets a mysterious stranger named Catcher who saves her from the Unconsecrated many times. As they try to get to the Sanctuary, Annah learns many things about Catcher, including that she might love him. This book was very hard to review without giving too many things away. This was my favorite book in the series. The other two were great, but this was much better.
Grade: A++
SC: 5
V: 10
C: 3

Book 56 - Teen, Inc.

My fifty-sixth book was Teen, Inc. by Stefan Petrucha. This book is about Jaiden Beale, who's parents were killed a few days after he was born when a faulty oven knob caused their oven to explode. The company, NECorp, was sued and, to make their company look better to the public, decided to file for guardianship of Jaiden. After the court agreed to let the company try to raise him, and that the company had to pay him $40 million when he turned 18, he grew up raised by a corporation, with handlers instead of parents. Eventually, when he started high school, they let him start going to public school, because he wasn't developing socially enough. Then, Jaiden's life gets even worse when his handler Nancy calls him into the meeting room to discuss dating options. They have profiles from the most promising girls from Jaiden's class in school. He storms out instead of telling them that the girl he is really interested in, Jenny Tate, wasn't in the group of profiles. That day, some luck does come into his life when he is paired up with Jenny for a biology assignment. The lawyers from the company ruin their friendship when they storm in, demanding Jenny's signature saying she knew about Jaiden. After she runs off, Jaiden thinks his life is over. Little does he know, the troubles have just begun. After he finds out that the corporation isn't as "green" as they claim to be, he has to choose between thinking of the corporation as a family or thinking of it as it really is: a group of people that will do anything to make a little money.
Grade: B
SC: 3
V: 4
C: 3