Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater

Get ready Twilighters…there’s a new book in town. But in this book, nobody sparkles, they shiver…

Grace was brutally attacked by wolves when she was a child. She survived, which was something just short of a miracle. Even though she was attacked by wolves, she has a strange connection with them. She has a strange connection with one in particular who has distinct yellow eyes. He is her wolf.

Sam watches her from the woods during the cold months, but never has the courage to approach her during the warm months. As a wolf, Sam can keep a silent watch over Grace outside of her house, but as a human he fears how she will react to him.

Grace and Sam know they are in love long before they meet face to face. When they finally do meet, Grace is nursing Sam back to health after he is shot in wolf form. He has turned human again, much to his surprise because it is getting cold outside and turning this late in the season usually does not happen. It seems like this meeting was meant to be.

The problem? The next time Sam turns into a wolf will be his last. Grace and Sam have to make the most of their time together before the true cold comes and Sam shivers away forever.

This book switches perspectives between Grace and Sam, plus gives the temperature updates for every chapter. As the temperature falls, the tension grows. Other complications arise when a student at Grace’s school gets bitten by the wolves and starts to go through the change. Grace starts to wonder why she never changed into a wolf after she was bitten, and she starts to remember who saved her from the wolves so long ago.

There are many levels to this book that will keep you reading. Sam has an interesting back story filled with deception from his own parents (who tried to kill him) and his adopted parent, Beck. Grace too has parent issues, but not the deadly kind, just the typical absentee parents who ignore her. Another subplot has to do with Grace’s best friend Olivia, but I can’t tell you what happens or it will give everything away. Just pay particular notice to Olivia during the book. Oh, and another cool thing about the book is that it is written in blue ink!

If you love the Twilight saga, you will be pleased with the romantic love story between Grace and Sam. However, I will tell you that the ending kind of surprised me in a way that made me slam the book shut and say, “That’s how it ends?!?” Although the ending is abrupt, don’t worry readers, there is a sequel called Linger that is coming out July 20, 2010.

Read Shiver and you’ll be thinking about it long after you slam the book shut. Leave comments to let me know what you think!

Paper Towns by John Green

Margo Roth Spiegelman. She has been the subject of Quentin “Q” Jacobsen’s affection since the day they discovered the dead guy in the park when they were nine. Even though they had this common bond, the two grew up to be vastly different: Margo Roth Spiegelman is the high school’s queen bee who will mysteriously disappear for days only to come back to school with stories of great adventure and hijinks. Q, although not a complete nerd, does not show up on anyone’s radar, especially Margo Roth Spiegelman’s. So the night she crawled through his window and drags him, willingly, out on a night of breaking and entering, vandalism, and practical jokes, changes his life forever.

The next day at school, Q hopes that Margo will talk to him, or maybe even look at him and acknowledge his existence because they spent such a marvelous night together getting revenge on everyone who ever wronged her at school. But Margo never showed up at school the next day, nor the next day. Since she was known for her strange disappearances, which were thought of as adventurous and quirky by the other students, but selfish and dangerous by her parents, no one thought much of it. Except for Q that is. He knew something was different this time, plus he starts to find clues---clues to Margo’s recent disappearance, and these clues seem to have been left for him by Margo herself.

The rest of the book follows Q on a mystery—the mystery that is Margo Roth Spiegelman. As he follows the clues, he discovers things about her that no one knew, things that change the way he sees her, and things that could lead to finding her. However, Q worries that he might not find her in time…

This book is dubbed a mystery, and I agree that it is at first, but then it turns into a very seriously deep coming-of-age story that keeps the reader thinking and feeling until the very last page. A teen who reads this will relate to the characters and the cut-throat world of high school, but the adults who read this book will relate to the heartbreak and realization that people can’t always be who we want them to be.

John Green is one of my all time favorite authors. He is funny and witty, which is reflected in his writing style. After you read Paper Towns, read his other two books Looking for Alaska and An Abundance of Katherines. Also, follow his blog, which is in my links to the side and watch is Vlog Brothers videos on Youtube. You won't be sorry.

UPDATE: Paper Towns is being made into a movie by the same people who made Juno! AWESOME! Read it now before the hype begins...

City of Bones (The Mortal Instruments book 1) by Cassandra Clare

For a very long time (since it came out in 2007), I have wanted to read this book. First of all, the cover is sexy and alluring (see for yourself), secondly, it was on the New York Times Bestseller list, and third, I knew it had a supernatural element to it, which is my “thing.”

City of Bones is the first book in the Mortal Instruments trilogy. The book opens with a mysterious scene where we meet fifteen-year-old Clary Fray, a redheaded girl who does not listen to anybody but herself. She is at Club Pandemonium in New York City with her best guy friend Simon when she witnesses something suspicious: a teenage boy is being lured into a back room by a seductive girl. The part that gets Clary’s attention is the two other teenage boys who are secretly following them. But when she goes to investigate (while Simon goes to get the police of course), she discovers that a world exists outside of human reality. The teenage boy who Clary thought was in danger is actually a demon and is “murdered” right before her eyes. The body disappears into the ground with no evidence left for the police or anyone else to discover. The three remaining people in the room are shocked to realize that Clary can see them because normally “mundanes” or normal humans cannot see their kind unless they want them to. These three call themselves Shadowhunters, which we find out later are a subgroup of humans who kill demons.

Subsequently, Clary gets home late from Pandemonium that night and her mother, Jocelyn, gets deeply angry. She drops the bomb on Clary that they are moving away from the city with her mom’s friend Luke to live in his farmhouse in upstate New York. Clary freaks out because she does not want to leave her life in NYC. She has friends, school, and summer art classes that she wants to attend. To spite her mother, she runs off with Simon to hang out in the city.

The plot quickly picks up when Clary’s mom suddenly disappears. Clary comes home to find the apartment destroyed and a multi-legged, fang teethed, drooling monster waiting for her. She has to fight the monster off, but narrowly escapes death thanks in part to her own quick thinking and one of the Shadowhunter teenagers from the club, Jace, who drags her unconscious body back to the Institute.

The best part about this book is the characters. Each one has a story including Isabelle (the seductive girl from the club), and Isabelle’s older brother Alec (other teenage boy from the club). Hodge, the fatherly librarian with a mysterious past, reminded me very much of Giles from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which always makes me smile. Another great character is the big bad Valentine who is searching for what is known at the Mortal Cup. He will do anything to get it, which makes him delightfully evil. Magnus Bane is a leather pants and eye liner wearing warlock who has a huge hand in the deception that has surrounded Clary her entire life. And of course there is Jace, the love interest of Clary, er, at least that is what we think!

There are many twists and turns in this story that have to do with fathers, mothers, siblings, wolves, vampires, warlocks, portals, and a mortal cup. These secrets keep you reading. The best storyline, however, is in the third part of the book in a chapter called "The Werewolf’s Tale". I was getting bored with the plot right before this chapter, but then I was revitalized by the mysteries that were revealed.

Cassandra Clare has been criticized for borrowing heavily from Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Star Wars, which I will say I do see the similarities…they are certainly hard to miss. Many people are put off by these likenesses and claim this author completely ripped off Star Wars plot lines and many Buffy characters. The resemblances do not bother me because I think it is hard to have a completely and totally original idea that is not somehow inspired by things we have read, seen, or done in our lives. I do not fault Cassandra Clare for that. However, this is not one of my favorite books; I didn’t hate it, but I didn’t love it either. I do know students who have read this book and love it, but it just wasn’t for me. I won’t be reading the rest of the trilogy, City of Ashes and City of Glass.

Bite Me! by Melissa Francis

Very strange! I just discovered this book this morning at Books-A-Million while I did a little buy 2 get 1 free shopping! When I got home and checked my Twitter, I saw the author, Melissa Francis, is promoting the book! I was intrigued so I went over to her blog http://fictionistas.blogspot.com/ to check things out. Here is a little synopsis straight from her website:

AJ Ashe isn't your typical seventeen-year-old vampire—as if there is such a thing! She's stuck in the middle of a huge fight between her two BFFs. Her ex-boyfriend—whom she's still totally in love with, by the way—is now her stepbrother. A former classmate—who, um, she may or may not have turned into a vampire—is stalking her. And now, apparently, the fate of humankind lies in her little undead hands. What ever happened to the good old days, when all a vampire girl had to worry about was the occasional zit and hiding her taste for blood?

Even though I haven't read this book yet, why don't you all go buy a copy, read it, then let me know your recommendation? Leave them in the comments below!

Update on Suite Scarlett sequel, Scarlett Fever

I just got an email from Maureen Johnson yesterday (not a personal email; I'm not that cool. She just updates her blog followers via email occasionally). She said her book Scarlett Fever will be coming out in February of 2010! That is just a few short months away. Also, she is currently writing the sequel to 13 Little Blue Envelopes in London! She is a busy lady!

Suite Scarlett by Maureen Johnson

I don’t know why I feel I need to tell you all how I discovered a book or why I read it, but alas, I do. It’s a compulsion. So, I will tell you how I came to find this little gem of a book by Maureen Johnson. It all started when I stumbled upon MJ’s blog (see link under my blog list) via Justine Larbalestier’s and Scott Westerfeld’s (also see my blog list). She was so splendidly funny and entertaining; I thought I would check out her actual books. Her first book I read, 13 Little Blue Envelopes, (which I will review for you at a later time) really drew me in to her writing style and character voice. Since I enjoyed that book, and saw that she had many other books, I thought I would give more a try. At the time on her blog, she was promoting the release of Suite Scarlett in paperback. She was giving away advanced copies of the book to her blog followers. Well, I didn’t win one, but it motivated me to order the book and read it so I could book talk it to you guys!

Suite Scarlett is about a girl named Scarlett Martin who lives in her family’s hotel, The Hopewell, in New York City with her parents, her oldest brother Spencer (who is an actor and a hit with the ladies), her older sister Lola (who dates a rich guy, but works at Bendel’s), and her younger sister Marlene (who had cancer when she was younger, but has fully recovered). When the book begins, it is Scarlett’s fifteenth birthday. In the Martin household, on your fifteenth birthday, you are given the responsibility to take care of a suite in the hotel. Scarlett is given the best suite in the hotel called the Empire Suite. She is slightly relieved because the Empire Suite is the most expensive one and it is rarely inhabited. It will be easy to take care of this suite, or at least that is what Scarlett thinks.

The next day Scarlett gets a big surprise when a permanent summer guest arrives at the hotel and specifically requests the Empire Suite. This guest is Mrs. Amberson who is a crazy, kooky, older, ex-starlet. Scarlett’s summer completely changes. Mrs. Amberson expects Scarlett to be at her beck and call, insists on calling her O’Hara, and unabashedly flirts with her brother Spencer.

Meanwhile, Scarlett’s parents are having trouble keeping the hotel open because of money problems, Spencer is told he has to go to college or finally get a role in a real theatre production, Lola and her boyfriend have some trouble, and Marlene is a pain in the butt to everyone. Scarlett feels like she needs to be there for everyone in her family, but is having trouble with her new summer guest who keeps getting Scarlett into trouble one way or another.
One day when Scarlett is helping Spencer rehearse for a role, she meets Eric. Eric is a hot, young, southern gentleman who moved to NYC to pursue his acting career. Just when Scarlett thought her days couldn’t get more complicated, she develops a huge crush on Eric. Not to mention that Mrs. Amberson gets her hand in the action and causes major mayhem. How will Scarlett survive the summer with all this chaos?

One of the best parts about this book is the extremely likable Scarlett Martin. After reading, I want to be her friend and help her get out of all the messes she gets into! Plus Scarlett wants to be a writer someday, which is an interesting touch to her personality. Also, the setting is fun and fabulous. Using New York City as the back drop for this story makes the plot, which is filled with crazy hijinks, believable. The Hopewell Hotel is an extremely unique place to have a character live and the way Maureen Johnson describes it, I want to visit there myself.

Maureen Johnson’s writing is very smooth and easy to read. Her natural wit that I loved from her blog comes straight through in her novels. She adds quirky details to the story just for pure entertainment (i.e. Naked Lady). I have a feeling that some of these events from the book may have actually happened to Maureen herself!

Good news! Suite Scarlett’s sequel, Scarlett Fever, will be coming out soon. I’m not positive on the release date, but I know it is written and in proof form right now. I will keep you posted on the sale date. And, just so you know, I have another Maureen Johnson book in my book reading queue called Devilish, which includes soul selling and demons! I can’t wait!

Evernight by Claudia Gray

I bought this book one day about a year ago on a whim. Well, frankly because I liked the cover and when I skimmed the prologue, I saw there were vampires involved. A month or so ago I needed a new book to read, so I went to my bookshelf (which is now sadly deceased because I accidentally got Pledge on the floor, which made the bookshelf slide down the wall, which then made it crash onto the floor. No books were harmed in the accident) and pulled this book off the shelf. As soon as I started reading, I was hooked!

Evernight Academy is an eerie, old Gothic style private school for privileged rich kids (ooow, spooky). Bianca Olivier is dreading the first day of school because she is convinced she will not fit in with the too perfect, well-bred students. Plus the place just really freaks her out. She sleeps in a room with gargoyles right outside the window and there is something sinister and spooky about the whole campus.

Unfortunately, Bianca has no choice but to attend the school because her parents are both teachers there, but she is determined not to like it, until she meets Lucas.

Lucas Ross is a bad boy outsider whose ancestors were once banned from Evernight Academy for breaking a rule about dueling. He and Bianca hit it off right from the beginning because they both feel that they don’t truly belong at this school. Neither one of them want to be like the other snobby students who flaunt their money, experiences, and status. Plus Lucas thinks there is something evil at the school and he is determined to find out what it is.

A great aspect of this book is the character Balthazar who is one of the students at Evernight Academy. Even though we suspect he might be evil, he is very sexy and alluring. At one point I was kind of hoping Bianca would start dating him!

However, Bianca and Lucas have an undeniable attraction to each other, which reminds me of the epic romance between Buffy and Angel (If you do not get this allusion, please watch seasons two and three of Buffy the Vampire Slayer; that is your homework for this post). Like Buffy and Angel, there are strong tensions between the two of them that will make the reader want them to be together, but there is also a strong forbidden love theme going on here, which makes it almost impossible for them to be together.

Claudia Gray, which is actually the author’s pen name, does a great job creating suspense in this novel. From the opening scene where Bianca is running away from the school and someone starts to chase her, to the part where Bianca has to save her friend Raquel from a terrifying predator, the action will have you biting your nails until the end. Also, Gray introduces some major plot twists that I didn’t see coming. The first one really threw me off guard and had me skimming back through the beginning of the book to see if there were clues I missed that should have led me to this discovery. The second plot twist is just as mind blowing and leads straight into the climax of the story. Without giving anything away, I will say that these plot twist have Bianca questioning everything she has ever thought was true and real in her life. I hope you all are as surprised as I was with these plot twists!

If you read this book and like it, you will be happy to know that it is the first of a four book series. The second book, Stargazer, is already out and in my hot little hands to start reading. I will let you all know what I think about it! Oh, and if you are wondering why I never mentioned anything about vampires in the plot of this book, I guess you will have to read the book to find out why!

For more on this book and others by Claudia Gray, check out her website http://www.claudiagray.com/index.htm