Genre: Romance

Catching Jordan

As a quarterback, senior Jordan Woods dreams to play in the big leagues. The only problem? She’s a girl. That doesn’t stop her from pursuing a football scholarship to the University of Alabama. When a new quarterback comes to town, she realizes that she will have some competition for her position on the field—and for her heart. Ty Green, the new quarterback, is extremely good-looking. Jordan has an instant crush on her competition, but he isn’t her only problem.

Her father, a starting NFL quarterback, won’t come to her games, and she’s under the scrutiny of college recruiters. To make matters worse, her best friend, Sam Henry, is in love with her. But Jordan doesn’t know how Sam feels, and it soon becomes complicated when Sam reveals his feelings. Jordan must figure out how to stand out on the football field and how to navigate dating relationships and young love.

Catching Jordan is a story that pulls readers in with realistic struggles. All her life she has had to fight against the world telling her that a girl could never stand up and play at the college level. Her own dad, a former NFL player, doesn’t want her playing out of fear of injury. She also has trouble trying to navigate dating and love, something she has always avoided out of fear of losing the respect of her teammates.

Although the story has some cliches, Jordan’s character makes reading Catching Jordan worthwhile. Readers will fall in love with Jordan. Even though Jordan is considered “one of the guys,” she has the same emotions as any other girl.  Whether she is venting about her father, or trying to figure out how to kiss, her voice comes across as real, honest, and funny. Readers will be able to connect with Jordan, who will take them on an emotional ride full of laughs and tears.

Even though the story features football, at the heart of the story is fun, flirty romance. However, the story isn’t just about love; it is also about overcoming obstacles and never giving up. Jordan isn’t afraid of standing up for what she believes in and she is willing to reach for her dream, even if it seems unattainable. The strong character development and interwoven football plays make Catching Jordan an excellent read for mature readers. Although the story appeals to sports fans, anyone who wants to read a fabulously fun story should pick up Catching Jordan.

Sexual Content

  • Henry speaks about a cheerleader saying, “I’d never fool around with Kristen—I have standards, you know.”
  • While joking around with some of the players, Henry says, “We’re a package deal.” JJ responds jokingly, saying, “That’s ‘cause all you ever think about is your package.” Just after this joke, JJ starts kissing Lacey, a cheerleader. They “start kissing as if winning the state championship depends on it.”
  • Jordan thinks about how she’s never had a boyfriend or even been kissed when her “friends are off hooking up with cheerleaders.”
  • Jordan asks why Henry is so confused about who he wants to date. He says, “I dunno. . . the sex is okay. . .” She asks him, “Why do you keep sleeping with girls you aren’t dating?”
  • Jordan says that JJ owed her because she covered for him once when “he’d been making out with Lacey and had lost track of time.” Later, Lacey asks Jordan if JJ has mentioned her. Jordan thinks to herself, “You mean, besides to tell me you guys slept together in the back of your mom’s car last night?”
  • Mike’s best friend Jake makes an inappropriate joke, saying, “I can teach you math in bed, Jordan. You know, I’ll add the bed, you subtract the clothes, you divide the legs, and I’ll multiply.” Later, Jake makes another comment saying, “Damn, Jordan. You should play tight end because your ass is wound tighter than a baseball.”
  • After Jordan tells her brother Mike about crushing on Ty, he says, “You might get hungry for his hunk of man meat.”
  • Jordan spends extra time getting ready in the morning to impress Ty. She wears lace underwear saying, “Provided they stay the hell out of my butt crack, they might make me feel sexier later on today.” Speaking of her bra, she says, “It shows off my boobs.”
  • Ty tells Jordan about the night he spent with Henry and some girls. “Henry and Marie made out for, like, an hour. . . Pretty soon I’m the only person still wearing clothes.” He does not describe anything that happened.
  • JJ asks where the fake baby that Jordan and Henry are taking care of for school is, and she replies, “He’s with his father, who’s probably sleeping with Marie Baird right now.” JJ says, “She’s a damn nice piece of ass.” Jordan responds, “Don’t be such a pig.”
  • Jordan is dared to jump in the lake in her underwear. She does, and Ty follows suit and jumps in with her in only his underwear. They start to kiss and become physical. “He drags his hands across my stomach, dipping a fingertip into my belly button, and I feel his mouth on my shoulder. . . I inch my fingertips across his shoulders and elbows as I move my mouth to his throat. . . I shiver when he runs a finger across my bare stomach, right above the elastic of my boy shorts, before exploring my body with his lips.” The scene lasts two pages.
  • Two girls talk badly about Jordan in the bathroom, upset and confused about why Ty would want to be with Jordan instead of them. They say, “Maybe he just wants to screw her because she’s a virgin.” They go on to say, “Maybe she’s a slut.”
  • Jordan is nervous that people will think badly of her when they find out she and Ty are dating. She tells Henry she’s afraid people will call her a “slut.” He responds saying, “Of course not. . . because I think you have to sleep with more than one person, possibly several, to be considered a slut.”
  • Jordan and Ty sleep together. It does not go into any detail. “And I just have to have him. Every bit of him. Now. . . A little while later, we’re still clinging to each other under the covers.”
  • Jordan talks to JJ about how she feels conflicted about dating Ty when she doesn’t know if she loves him. JJ says, “Hey, if the sex is good, what else do you need, eh?” She replies, “Well, um, I bet sex might be better if you’re actually in love.”
  • Jordan and Henry finally decide to become girlfriend and boyfriend. They make out in their hotel room, but don’t do anything else. The scene is not detailed. “We make out for what seems like hours, pausing only for cookies and champagne.”

Violence

  • Jordan gets sacked during a football practice. “I fly backward, slamming to the ground, my head rattling around inside my helmet. Ow.”
  • Jordan says that last year after a game, “JJ punched a guy from Northgate High for grabbing my butt after a game. ‘Show Woods some respect! Or I’ll kick your ass.’”

Drugs and Alcohol

  • Henry and Carter go to a party. The next morning Henry texts Jordan saying, “Carter got trashed and made out with the freshman from lunch.”
  • A cheerleader brings drinks to a hangout at Jordan’s house. “‘Who wants a drink?’ Lacey asks, pulling these lame piña colada wine coolers out of her bag and passing them out to the other girls.”
  • Jordan and Henry drink champagne the night they finally become official. They are underage. “He opens his wallet and pulls out a fake ID, showing it off for me.”

Language

  • There is an extreme amount of foul language in this book. Jordan, the main character and narrator, uses “hell” and “shit” regularly.
  • Profanity is used in extreme. Profanity includes: “hell,” “asshole,” “ass,” “badass,” “idiot,” “shit,” “bullshit,” “shitload,” “damn,” “damned,” “fucking,” “fucked,” “fuck,” “bitch,” “whore,” “tool,” “slut,” “man-slut,” “dyke,” and “skank.” For example, someone says, “If I lose my confidence, I’m going to play like shit, and shitty players don’t get offered spots on Division 1 teams like Alabama.”
  • “Oh my God” and “Jesus” are both used as exclamations.
  • One of the cheerleaders and an opposing player both call Jordan a “dyke.”
  • Jordan calls some of the cheerleaders the “local bimbos” and one of them a “floozy.”

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • Jordan is thinking about the cheerleaders’ lack of knowledge about football. “Especially since he’s been spending time with girls who think a Hail Mary is a prayer to Jesus’s mom.”
  • Henry likes to say that Jordan should start “living life like I’m going to hell tomorrow.”
  • Jordan is thinking about Ty and how he is from Texas. “Texans take their football seriously. It’s practically a religion down there.” Later on, she says, “A Texas football player who doesn’t kneel down and pray to the Cowboys every Sunday?”
  • Jordan and Henry remember when they were younger and they went to Carter’s church Halloween bazaar. “It’s been nine years since Carter invited us to that Halloween bazaar at his church. . . all the booths were Bible-themed. The church had converted this long dark hallway into a replica of the inside of a whale’s stomach, so people could experience what it was like for Jonah after he was swallowed.”
  • Jordan plays poorly at a football game while a scout is watching. She says that she will “pray to the football gods to give” her another chance.

by Hannah Neeley

Edenbrooke

Marianne Daventry is a seventeen-year-old girl in 1816 England who finds no pleasure in becoming a proper lady. She loves to be in the country and twirl, but since her mother passed away and her father ran away to France to mourn, she has been stuck in Bath with her grandmother who shows her little affection. When Marianne’s twin sister Cecily invites her to stay in Edenbrooke, the country estate of one of their mother’s childhood friends, Marianne thinks things might just be looking up for her. She is excited to escape boring Bath and bask in the countryside. However, Marianne’s grandmother will only allow her to go to Edenbrooke if Marianne agrees to become a proper lady.

While on her way to Edenbrooke, Marianne has a frightening encounter with a highwayman, who shoots her coachman. She seeks help at an inn, where she meets a mysterious handsome stranger who helps her. The mysterious stranger leaves before Marianne can discover his full name. Edenbrooke may not be her tranquil escape after all, as romance enters her life in a way she never expected, and her sister tries to win the heart of the heir of Edenbrooke. Marianne is forced to decide if her loyalties lie with her sister or with her own heart.

Edenbrooke is a sappy romance much like any of Jane Austen’s classic novels. Although the storyline is very predictable, readers will fall in love with Marianne and her quick wit. Her desire for true friendship and to feel loved by her family makes her character relatable and believable. Even though it is a romance novel, most of the book is about the friendship the characters first develop and how Marianne’s feelings begin to shift from friendship to romance. Because the story is told from first-person point of view, readers become close to Marianne’s thoughts, making her even more relatable.

Because the story is set in 1816, the author uses older difficult words, such as “incorrigible” and “odious.” Although the beginning is a little slow, once the reader gets past the first chapter, they won’t want to put the book down, because they will be intrigued by the mysterious man Marianne meets at the inn and her mixed feelings for him. Readers searching for a pure, heartfelt, romantic story will find what they are looking for in Edenbrooke.

Sexual Content

  • Marianne’s cousin, Mr. Kellet, is known for being promiscuous. “Nothing put Grandmother in a sour mood as surely as hearing about the latest scandal involving her heir. He was a rake and a scoundrel and had gambled away all of his own money while waiting to inherit Grandmother’s sizeable fortune.”
  • Marianne often compares herself to her sister Cecily, who is much more flirtatious than she is. She thinks her sister, “flirted easily with gentlemen.”
  • Mr. Whittles, a middle-aged man who is rather repulsive, tries to court Marianne. When she is leaving for Edenbrooke, “he grabbed my hand and lifted it to his mouth. The kiss he bestowed on my hand was so wet it actually left a mark on my glove.”
  • Philip often flirts with Marianne and makes her blush. His flirting consists mainly of friendly teasing and playful compliments. On the night they first meet, Philip tells Marianne, “‘I don’t think I have ever met a lady like you, Miss Marianne Daventry, and I would feel very sorry to forget anything about this evening.’ I suddenly could not breathe. My blush spread to my ears, and I knew, deep in my bones, that I was no match for this man, not with my games or my confidence or my wit.”
  • After telling Philip how her mother passed away, part of Marianne, “wanted to lean into the cool glass of the window, away from him, and the rest of me wanted to lean against him, into his warmth.”
  • Marianne and Philip stare into each other’s eyes, and it seems as if they are going to kiss. “His eyes were persuading me that I wanted that something. They were inviting me closer, drawing me closer, convincing me to learn, to fall, to dive into their blue depths and never resurface.” The moment is interrupted when Philip’s uncle walks in because Philip always makes a point to leave the door open when he and Marianne are alone.
  • Philip brushes Marianne’s hair out of her face, “his fingers brushing my cheek and neck in a surprisingly intimate gesture. My heart skittered at his touch, a blush rising to my cheeks.”
  • Marianne has a sudden desire to kiss Philip. “He grinned wickedly. To my astonishment, I suddenly had the strongest urge to kiss those lips, wicked or not.”
  • Philip lets Marianne use his jacket as a pillow when she naps outside. When she thanks him, he flirtatiously says, “You are welcome to use my pillow any time.” She scolds him for being inappropriate.
  • Marianne goes to a far part of the estate to be alone. When she returns, Philip is waiting for her at the horse’s stall, concerned. He asks her if she cares for him. He puts his hand on the wall above her shoulder. “Without thinking, I put my hand on his chest, meaning to push him away. But as soon as I touched him, I froze . . . It took all of my concentration not to slide my hands up his chest, over his shoulders, around his neck, not to curl my fingers into his hair, not to pull his head down to mine . . .” Marianne tells him she cares for him only as a friend and host.
  • Philip teaches Marianne how to write a love letter. He writes, “Where is your compassion when I need it most? Open your eyes, love, and see what is right before you: that I am not merely a friend, but a man, deeply, desperately in love with you.” It is later revealed that Philip was writing about Marianne, in hopes that she will realize his feelings for her.
  • Cecily and Marianne run into Mr. Kellet in town. When Marianne asks why Cecily flirted with him knowing his scandalous reputation, Cecily says it’s because “rakes are the best kissers.” She implies that she has had experience kissing “rakes.”
  • Cecily thinks flirting is perfectly fine, even within a marriage. “Everyone knows it is perfectly acceptable for a lady to flirt,” Cecily said. “As long as she is discreet. And her husband will appreciate having the same freedom.”
  • Marianne talks to Rachel, Philip’s sister-in-law, who says her father would not approve of what her husband and Philip will do on their future trip. She says she tries not to know what they do, and all Marianne, “could think was that the only reason a woman would not want to know what her husband was doing was if he was doing something improper.” Marianne later learns that Philip and his brother are going on a trip to buy racehorses, not to do anything scandalous.
  • Marianne and Philip dance at a ball. “When he touched my waist, he did not rest his hand passively and lightly. Rather, he pulled me toward him, his hand pressing on the small of my back, so that in a step I was so close I could feel him breathe. . . I could not believe I had ever danced this way without realizing how intimate it was.”
  • Cecily tells Marianne that Mr. Kellet kissed her, without details. Marianne is shocked, then she, “remembered that Philip was off seeking the same type of pleasure.” Philip is actually buying horses.
  • Rachel reads a letter from her husband to Marianne. “Philip has fallen in love with a real beauty, with nice legs and beautiful lines. He thinks the price is too dear, but I would not be surprised if he brings her home in the end.” Marianne thinks the description is of a woman, but it is of a horse.
  • Mr. Beaufort, Mr. Whittles’s nephew, proposes to Marianne. She refuses, and “he took my hand and pressed his lips to it.”
  • Mr. Beaufort kidnaps Marianne because he knows of the fortune she will inherit. Marianne thinks, “No one would want me if I passed the night with Mr. Beaufort, no matter what he did or did not do to me.”
  • Mr. Beaufort forcibly kisses Marianne. “He grabbed me around the waist, pulled me to him, and pressed his mouth against mine.”
  • Mr. Beaufort forcibly kisses Marianne again. Marianne, “twisted and turned in his grip, but he only held me tighter and pressed his vile lips against mine.”
  • Philip and Marianne kiss. The scene lasts for two and a half pages, although most of it is dialogue. Neither can understand how the other didn’t know of their feelings. “His lips were firm and insistent, gentle and caressing. His fingers threaded in my hair, holding my head exactly how he wanted it while he kissed me one way, then another, until I trembled in his arms…His arms surrounded me, pulling me close, holding me as if I was infinitely precious.”
  • In the same scene, Philip wipes Marianne’s “tears, and he kissed me again, and again, and whispered things too sublime to repeat, until I was thoroughly convinced, he was madly in love with me, Marianne Daventry, a girl with no great figure, too many freckles, and a propensity for twirling. And then I knew I had met my match.”
  • Philip and Marianne kiss one more time, though not in great detail. “He caught his breath, and then I felt his lips curl up into his wicked grin. It was delicious.”

Violence

  • Marianne’s carriage is stopped by a highwayman. He shoots her coachman. “A loud shot erupted the silence. I jumped, startled. A man cried out, and the carriage jerked forward, then stopped again.” Marianne’s coachman’s wound is not described in great detail. Marianne, “felt a sticky wetness on his shoulder. He had been shot.”
  • The highwayman tries to force Marianne out of the carriage. “He gripped my ankle, then twisted hard. A pain shot up my leg. I fell on the floor of the carriage, face down, and was pulled backward.” He is unsuccessful at pulling Marianne out because her maid shoots at him. It is not told whether she hits the highwayman or not, but he leaves.
  • Marianne tells how her mother died in a horseback riding accident. She tells Philip how her mother, “would take any jump fearlessly, no matter how high it looked. . . My father found her. I am sure you can imagine the rest easily enough.”
  • Marianne’s maid says that Marianne’s grandmother, “threatened to cut out my tongue and eat it for breakfast” if she told Marianne that it was her grandmother’s idea for her to go to Edenbrooke. Marianne jokes that “she would not have eaten it for breakfast. You know she only eats meat at dinner.”
  • Mr. Beaufort convinces Marianne that he has kidnapped her maid in order to make her come willingly with him. He threatens her that she wouldn’t, “want her to be hurt the way your coachman was hurt, do you?” He didn’t actually have her maid.
  • In her effort to escape Mr. Beaufort, Marianne convinces him to close his eyes and, “held the penknife to his throat, and called on my courage. I found it lacking. I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t stab him like this.” She has him open his eyes and, “pressed the knife into his skin until it drew blood.” Later, she “stabbed blindly at his hands.”
  • Marianne shoots at Mr. Beaufort with his pistol but misses.
  • Philip duels Mr. Beaufort to protect Marianne’s honor. “Philip looked perfectly in control, his sword bending the skin of Mr. Beaufort’s neck without piercing it.”
  • Marianne asks Philip not to kill Mr. Beaufort. Instead, Philip gives Mr. Beaufort’s face a cut with his sword, “from his chin, through his lips, to the side of his nose.”

Drugs and Alcohol

  • Mr. Beaufort drinks when he kidnaps Marianne. “He poured himself three glasses, and at the end of the third glass, he set it down clumsily on the table.” Marianne thinks it is wine at first, but she later realizes he is drinking brandy.

Language

  • None

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • None

 

 

The One

As Maxon’s Selection has been narrowed down to the final four girls, competition between the girls is tight. America has noticed her growing love for Maxon, and her jealousy grows as she watches the other girls get closer to the man she loves. The King, however, will do anything to make sure Maxon doesn’t choose America, since she is from a lower caste, and the king can’t manipulate her. The King has started pressuring her to leave the Selection. Plus, America’s previous love, Aspen, has started working as a castle guard, and his presence threatens to unravel the progress Maxon and America have made in their relationship.

As the Selection wears on, rebels against the monarchy are becoming restless and threaten to overthrow the kingdom along with the caste system. Members of the Northern Rebels sneak into the castle and ask for Maxon and America. The rebels strike a deal with them on the promise that if the caste system is ended once Maxon becomes king, the Northern rebels will keep the Southern, more violent and ruthless rebels, at bay. Can Maxon and America trust the rebels? Or will the rebels overthrow the monarchy before the Selection even ends?

Readers will be kept on the edge of their seats in this final installment of the Selection series. The book’s twists and turns will help to drive the plot as America and Maxon make their way to the end of the Selection. This third and final book of the series picks up in excitement and romance that was lacking in the second book, The Elite. Though this book is very entertaining, readers will want to have read the previous two books of the series to understand the dynamic characters, the competition between the girls, and the Selection process as a whole.

America is once again shown as the headstrong, powerful woman that was introduced in the first book of the series. Entertaining characters from the previous books will make their appearances, along with new, well-developed characters that add excitement and more diversity to the plot. Themes of friendship, family, and standing up for oneself are seen throughout the story and will help to encourage readers to stand up for what they believe in. With the book’s heavy focus on America’s family and friends’ love and support, readers will recognize that with the support of their own friends and family, they can do anything.

The One has many surprises and a satisfying conclusion. Readers will want to have the first book of Cass’s continuation of the Selection series, The Heir, on hand.  The Heir jumps 20 years into the future, where readers learn more about Maxon, America, and their children.

Language

  • Damn is used twice.
  • Darn is used once. When he proposes, Maxon states that he’s had the ring for a long time and, “I’ve been sleeping with that darn thing under my pillow.”
  • After there is a misunderstanding of whether or not America has seen Maxon without his shirt on, Celeste is upset and yells, “‘You slut!’”
  • Hell is used three times.
  • The king threatens Maxon, saying that he will force America to go home. The king says to America, “I’ll give you some time to find out where you stand. If you won’t do this, then rules be damned, I’ll be kicking you out by Christmas Day.”
  • Maxon describes himself as being “an absolute ass.”

Sexual Content

  • Competition is rising between the girls, and in order to get ahead of one another, they begin to make physical advances towards Maxon. America begins to think about what she’s done with Maxon and is concerned that, “According to the king, the other girls were making advances toward Maxon—physical advances—and he’d said I was far too plain to have a chance of matching them in that department.”
  • America attempts to seduce Maxon by dressing in a revealing dress. After dinner, Maxon comes up to her room to talk. As he comes into her room, “he focused on me, his gaze traveling up my exposed leg.” They sit on America’s bed and talk, as America continues her attempt to seduce him. “Sliding my hands down Maxon’s arms, I guided his fingers to the zipper on the back of my dress, hoping it would be enough.” They talk some more and Maxon eventually leaves the room. The encounter lasts for three pages.
  • After coming up with a plan to make the king like her, America and Maxon kiss. “With an impish grin on his face, he (Maxon) came very close and gave me a long, slow kiss.”
  • In an argument between the girls, America focuses the attention on Celeste by bringing up an encounter where she saw Celeste and Maxon together. America says, “Celeste was half-naked up against him in a hallway!”
  • During an argument between the girls, someone mentions how far they have gone with Maxon physically. Kriss then questions, “We need to clear this up. Who has done what with Maxon?’”
  • As she is recounting the argument with the other girls to Maxon, America explains to Maxon why she mentioned that she had seen Maxon without his shirt on. America states that “‘The girls know I saw you without your shirt on…now they just think we were in the middle of some big make-out fest.’” She continues to explain that, “‘They (the other girls) know I was your first kiss. And I know everything you have and haven’t done with them.’”
  • America walks in on Maxon kissing one of the other girls. America sees “the back of Maxon’s head as Kriss’s hand slid just barely into the neck of his suit. Her hair fell to the side as they kissed, and, for her first, it seemed like it was going really well.”
  • Maxon and America sneak out onto the roof of the castle while it’s raining. “I raised my face to Maxon’s, placing a hand on his cheek, pulling him down for a kiss. His lips, wet, met mine with a brush of heat.” They kiss several times and the kiss is described in detail.
  • Celeste and America discuss Maxon. Celeste says Maxon is “cute. And a great kisser.’”
  • While Maxon and America are in the back of a truck, they “went over a pretty jarring bump, and he grabbed me. I felt our noses brush in the dark, and the urge to kiss him came unexpectedly fast.” Their kissing is described for about a page.
  • America meets a girl named Paige who lives on the streets and makes money through prostitution. Paige explains to America that, “Just this week I found a group of girls. We work together and share all the profits. If you can forget what you’re doing, it’s not so bad. I have to cry afterwards.”
  • Maxon is telling America how he feels about her. Maxon begins to describe his feelings, and “a devilish smirk came to his face. He moved his lips to my ear. ‘I can think of a few other ways to show you how you make me feel,’ he whispered…I trembled as he ran his open lips over a tiny patch of skin, his breath so very tempting.” This encounter lasts for two pages.
  • When Maxon proposes to America, she “laughed in shock and started giving him kisses and giggling between each one.” Their intimacy grows more intense as, Maxon’s “lips traveled down my neck as he loosened his tie, throwing it somewhere near our shoes.” During their encounter, kissing is described in detail and they somewhat undress before stopping. This lasts for three and a half pages.
  • Aspen walks in on Maxon and America sleeping next to each other in bed. Aspen is alarmed and America is embarrassed. Maxon says, “Don’t be embarrassed. It’s not as if we were naked. And it’s bound to happen in the future.”
  • Maxon starts to leave America’s room after talking about their future. Maxon stops as he is leaving and “tackled me (America) on the bed, covering me with kisses.” This scene continues for half a page.
  • Aspen finds America and Maxon sleeping next to each other. Aspen says to America that he, “‘just can’t believe you slept with him.’” However, nothing happened between America and Maxon.
  • Maxon and America kiss after Maxon is shot. Then America “bent to kiss him. It was every kiss we’d ever had, all the uncertainty, all the hope.”
  • After the battle, one of America’s maids, Lucy, goes to find the boy she loves. After finding him in the hospital wing, Lucy “fell into his arms, kissing his face over and over.”
  • Maxon finally gives America a ring after the battle is over. Maxon kisses America, and she “felt my life settle into place.”
  • A girl talks about what the night after Maxon and America get married will be like. She jokes, “‘Wait until tonight.’”

Violence

  • Southern rebels attack them while America and Maxon are outside the castle with their Northern rebel allies for a meeting. The Southern rebels pull guns on them and as they are trying to escape, America is shot in the shoulder. America “looked down, and in the faint glow of a streetlight, I saw something wet coming from a rip in my sleeve. I’d been shot.” The scuffle occurs over three pages.
  • A girl name Paige finds America in an alley after she is shot. Paige explains her story of how she ended up on the streets. Paige said, “Two weeks after Dad died, she (her aunt) started hitting me. I had to sneak food because she said I was getting fat and wouldn’t give me anything to eat.”
  • Southern rebels overrun the castle in an attempt of taking over the monarchy. Many people are injured or killed. America recounts the invasion as she “watched in confusion as a red-marked guard walked up behind Celeste and put a bullet squarely through the back of her head. The screaming and gunfire exploded at once. Guttural shouts of pain filled the room, adding to the cacophony of chairs screeching, bodies hitting walls, and the stampede of people trying to escape as fast as they could in their heels and suits.” This battle lasts for seven pages.
  • During the attack on the castle, Maxon jumps in front of a bullet for America, and it hits him in the chest. America “scurried under the table to find Maxon breathing with great labor, a large red stain growing across his shirt. There was a wound below his left shoulder, and it looked very serious.”

Drugs and Alcohol

  • People are drinking alcohol at a Christmas party. America describes her involvement in the party. “As the relatives started getting tipsy on eggnog, I slipped away, not up to pretending to be jolly.”

Spiritual Content

  • America prays to God after Maxon is shot. She “pinched my eyes together, begging God to keep him alive.”

Supernatural Content

  • None

by Kate Kucker

I Believe in A Thing Called Love

Desi has a plan for everything. With a plan, anything is possible. That’s how she became the student body president and a soccer star. That’s how she’ll get into Stanford. Desi knows how to plan. She knows how to study. But, when it comes to boys, Desi is a flailure. “Flirt + failure = flailure.”

Desi is a disaster at romance. But when a hot art student moves to her school, Desi decides she wants to capture his attention. After watching Korean dramas, Desi realizes that love is, “like a freaking equation!” Desi is determined to be like the K drama’s unlucky heroine, who always ends up with her true love. Desi follows her, “K Drama steps to True Love,” and goes after the moody, elusive artist Luca Drakos. After a boat rescue, love triangle, and staged car crash, will Desi end up in the arms of Luca?

I Believe in A Thing Called Love will capture the reader’s heart from the first chapter. Told from Desi’s point of view, readers will laugh at Desi’s crazy antics, understand her insecurities, and root for her as she goes after the guy of her dreams. Desi wants to control everything, but this smart nerdy girl is hilariously clueless when it comes to boys. Desi isn’t portrayed as a stereotypical smart girl; she also isn’t perfect, and Desi’s imperfections make her even more lovable.

Desi has a strong and warm relationship with her father. Despite the fact that he is a mechanic and often has grease-stained hands, despite his imperfect English, and his love for watching K dramas, Desi is never embarrassed by her father. Desi’s father isn’t just a background character, but a well-developed part of the story. Desi’s father understands her quirks but doesn’t try to change her. The readers will appreciate the scenes with Desi and her father just as much as the failed romance scenes.

I Believe in A Thing Called Love isn’t just a typical teen romance. Through Desi’s experiences, readers will learn valuable lessons. When Desi is afraid that she is acting weird, Luca tells her, “Everyone’s weird, though. If you’re not even a little weird, you are truly weird. In a bad way. Not in the good way.” When Desi thinks about giving up on love, her father tells her, “You cannot control who you love, Desi, but you can always control how hard you fight, okay?” In the end, not all of Desi’s plans work out and despite the pain of failure, Desi knows life can still be good.

Do not pick up I Believe in A Thing Called Love unless you have time to finish the book because once you pick it up, you will not want to put it down. I Believe in A Thing Called Love takes a humorous look at first love and will leave readers with a smile. Desi is a heroine that will not be forgotten easily. The story ends with a list of K dramas that readers may want to watch. And after seeing Desi put the K drama’s love formula to the test, readers may also become hooked on K drama’s themselves.

Sexual Content

  • Desi thinks back to fourth grade when “a boy asked me if I want to look at his ‘special’ books and I told him I wasn’t allowed to look at pornography. Turns out it was comic books and he didn’t even know how boys were made yet. I was the fourth grade perv.”
  • Desi thinks about how Korean romantic comedies are different than in America. One difference is that “in American shows, the leads would barely blink twice before jumping into bed.”
  • Desi tells her friend, “I’m not an experienced seductress who like, has men drinking champagne from her high heels.”
  • Desi’s friend tells her, “I, too, think one should get laid before entering college.”
  • When Desi talks about her crush, a friend says, “I don’t want to see flailure heartbreak. I was hoping it was just you needing to round out your high school years with a good old-fashioned devirginizing.”
  • Desi goes to a “sex party” that was, “fertile ground for hooking up. . . there were rooms for spin the bottle and seven minutes in heaven.” Desi goes into the seven minutes in heaven closet with a friend. They just sit around and look at their phones.
  • Desi wonders, “Was everyone having sex but me? God.”
  • Desi’s friend Fiona is a lesbian, who has dates with a lot of girls. “Girls lined up for Fiona every year. Sometimes it was the classic bad-girl type and they’d make out rebelliously in the hallway at school.” The story talks about how her family reacted when she came out. “Her family eventually recovered, although they still weren’t thrilled with her active love life. I’m pretty sure that would have applied to boyfriends, too, however.”
  • Desi and another girl see Luca kissing a girl.
  • Desi thinks Luca is going to kiss her. “His eyes met mine and suddenly. . . suddenly it felt real . . . This was it. Kiss time. Holy crap. A wave of heat passed between us—the vibrations of our bodies’ atoms and molecules transferring heat. . . And then he blinked.”
  • Luca and Desi kiss. “Lips met mine, soft, a little chapped, and warm. My eyes were open in true K drama heroine fashion.”
  • Desi, “brushed my lips against his. Soft and a bit hesitant. And he kissed me back just as softly, with a little pressure at the very end.”
  • When Luca picks Desi up, he quickly kisses her. “My skin buzzed, every part of me awake and alive.”
  • When Luca finds out he got a scholarship, Desi and he begin jumping around. “Then suddenly we weren’t jumping anymore—just a whole lot of kissing.”
  • Desi and Luca kiss. “He strode over, pulled me into his arms, and kissed me. Not a gentle, sweet kiss—but an urgent one.”

Violence

  • Desi thinks back to first grade when, “I kicked my first crush, Jefferson, in the nuts during taekwondo class, and he had to be taken to the ER.”
  • Luca covers Desi’s mouth so she will be quiet. She, “responded by biting his gloved hand. I tasted rubber. He yelped and let go of me. . .”

Drugs and Alcohol

  • After binge watching television series all weekend long, someone asks Desi, “What! Are you on speed?”
  • When Desi is at home, her dad took, “a sip of beer.”
  • Desi and her friends go to a “sex party” where there is alcohol.
  • Someone asks Desi, “Are you high?”
  • Someone is upset that Desi didn’t want to be her friend. The girl says, “You would never talk to art freaks who smoked pot.”
  • Desi and her friends go to the beach and her friend, “took a swig of beer.”

Language

  • Profanity is used often. Profanity includes ass, bitch, bitchiness, badass, bullshit, crap, dang, damn, douche, f-ing, hell, holy shit, freaking and shit.
  • Pissed, motherf-ing and fuck are all used once.
  • Oh my god, God, Oh Lord, Oh Sweet Jesus, and Jesus are often used as exclamations.
  • Desi thinks, “I might be a flailure in love, but I was the motherf-ing boss of studying.”
  • Someone asks a boy, “Why do you even hang out with a bunch of girls, anyway, you caveman douche.”
  • When someone suggested getting a hummer limo for prom, Fiona says, “I’d rather eat dick.”

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • None

Learning to Play Gin

Julia James was on top of her game. Her new book 101 Ways to Cheat at Solitaire has sold millions. As the queen of self-help books, she has shown women how to be happy without a man. Julia had no desire to find romance, and she wasn’t prepared for Lance, a gorgeous actor, or the feelings that she had for him.

Suddenly Julia’s books fall off the bestseller list, and her movie star boyfriend moves to L.A. Lost and confused, Julia decides to head to the West Coast to spend some time with her new man. But life in L.A. comes with its own set of complications. Can Julia put her single life behind her and figure out how to win at the game of love?

For maximum enjoyment, readers should read Cheating at Solitaire before picking up Learning to Play Gin because the stories have many of the same characters. The funny, flirty tone does not carry through into the second book of the series. Instead, much of the conflict is internal as Julia tries to figure out how to live her new life. Even though Julia is trying to figure out how to win at love, Lance is absent for most of the book, which leaves the reader wondering why Julia would want to stay with a man more concerned with making movies than making a life with her.

Each chapter starts out with advice on how to play the game of gin; this advice ties into what is going to happen in Julia’s life. The interesting quotes lead the reader to think about the complicated nature of relationships, which is a focus of Learning to Play Gin. The story doesn’t just focus on Julia and Lance, but also shows a divorced couple, a struggling married couple, and a couple who have been happily married for 40 years. The story doesn’t only show the positive, glowing feelings of love that a happy couple feels, but shows how staying in love is often a choice made despite difficult times.

Learning to Play Gin’s slow pace and focus on Julia’s internal conflict makes the story less enjoyable than the first. The ending of the story falls flat because it lacks a clear resolution. Lance appears infrequently in the story, which is a huge disappointment. If you’re looking for a romance with the same fun, flirty tone as Cheating at Solitaire, you may want to leave Learning to Play Gin on the shelf.

Sexual Content

  • While at a party, Julia kisses Lance. As Julia is leaving, “Lance placed one arm on either side of her and leaned down to kiss her good-bye.”
  • Julia and Lance work on their problems. Then, “there was some crying. There was some hugging. And, finally there was a long, sweet kiss.”

Violence

  • None

Drugs and Alcohol

  • As Lance is going to an interview, he notices a bartender. Lance “remembered how it felt to trek home with aching feet and beer-soaked clothes.”
  • In order to help Nina get through her first flight, she gets drunk. Julia thinks, “Maybe I should have gotten her drunk and put her on a plane years ago.”
  • At a party, champagne is served. Lance’s agent wants to introduce him to someone who, “is four drinks into a twelve-drink night and history has taught me you want to catch him somewhere between three and seven.”
  • At Thanksgiving dinner, Julia offers her guest tea, which he accepts “looking like a man who’d give his right arm for a gin and tonic.” Another guest can’t understand why Julia doesn’t drink alcohol and wonders if she is pregnant.
  • When a preteen throws a fit, her mother “searched her purse for a silver flask, which she emptied into her iced tea.”

Language

  • Profanity includes: ass, bitch, damn, crap, hell
  • Lance asks his mother, “Why were you a bitch to Julia?”
  • Lance tells his mother that Julia could go home and be “a lot better without the likes of me, but she doesn’t because I’m the greedy bastard that keeps asking her to stay.”
  • Lance’s mom tells her ex-husband, “I was just getting ready to tell our son he’s being a horse’s ass, and I thought you might want to join me.”
  • In an email, Julia’s mother writes, “When little Robbie Matthews came into church he shook the preacher’s hand and said, ‘Oh shit, I forgot my Bible.’”

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • When Nina’s pants split, Julia “said a silent prayer that, at least, Nina had worn underwear.”
  • Julia goes to a coffee shop that is “like church. No one spoke, but people were saying a lot of prayers. . . They were praying for agents and publicists and six-figure deals. There were praying for what she had.”
  • Lance prays, “Dear God, thank you for this wonderful meal. . . Julia felt pretty sure that Lance could have been struck down that very moment for lying to God.”

Cheating at Solitaire

Julia James has made a career of being single. Her self-help books have helped millions learn to be happy without a man. Her fame, fortune, and future all depend on her staying happily single. When her latest book, 101 Ways to Cheat at Solitaire, is about to hit shelves, the unthinkable happens.

A picture of Julia and a gorgeous out-of-work actor hit the papers. The papers speculate the queen of single has finally found a man. Some women think Julia’s hot romance shows that anyone can find a man and happiness. Other women think that Julia has betrayed all single women. As the debate rages on, Julia’s credibility and book sales hit rock bottom. In order to save her reputation and hide from the press, Julia heads to her home in Oklahoma. The only problem is that the hot actor has decided to hide with her.

Cheating at Solitaire is a fast-paced, fun romance that takes a humorous look at falling in love. Julia is a relatable character who worries about her weight, her reputation, and how to stay on top of the game. She hides her many insecurities and has perfected being alone. Julia clearly does not know how to handle having a hot man around. The interaction between Julia and Lance is humorous and heart-warming. Even though the story focuses on their complicated relationship, it doesn’t follow the typical romantic format.

Julia’s family is full of interesting characters who add depth to the story and highlight the importance of supporting family. Although Ally Carter has made her name writing teen fiction, her debut novel Cheating at Solitaire is aimed at adults. Nevertheless, the easy-to-read story is still appropriate for teens who are fans of Ally Carter. Cheating at Solitaire doesn’t have the same intrigue as her teen novels, but for readers looking for a funny, flirty romance the story hits the target.

Sexual Content

  • When a picture of Lance and Julia appears in the newspaper, several people “congratulated him on ‘getting some of that.’”
  • Julia was admiring how Lance looked in a suit when, “like a magnet, her hand was drawn to a piece of nonexistent lint. Her fingers lingered a little longer than she had intended, and Lance suddenly grabbed her wrist. He put his other arm around her waist and pulled her lightly to him. Electric sparks sizzled up and down her spine.”
  • There is a rumor that Julia is pregnant.
  • Lance asks Julia if he can kiss her. She gets upset and leaves.

Violence

  • Lance covers Julia’s mouth so she will stop talking. When he moves his hand away, “she bit—hard. . . Lance moved away from her and studied the red semicircle that surrounded the knuckle on his pinkie.”
  • The paparazzi tried to take a picture of Julia. “. . .the photographers closed in, pinning her with no escape. Desperate, she grabbed a makeup case from the luggage cart and swung it at the offending light. She heard a crash and a crunch like breaking glass. Feeling the rhythm, she swung again and again.”
  • A man shoves Julia against a wall. “She crashed and felt her elbow bang sharply. . .” Lance steps in, and the man leaves.

Drugs and Alcohol

  • Lance goes into a restaurant and approaches a woman he does not know. He thinks that he’s “looking at the kind of woman a normal man would probably only approach if he was drunk or on a dare.”
  • Lance and Julia attend a party where “free booze” is served.
  • Myrtle, a neighbor, drinks “judging by the number of whisky bottles Myrtle hauls to the curb on recycling days.” Lance runs into her while she is drunk. “Myrtle was sloshed. She wasn’t stumbling or slurring her words like a cheap, once-in-a-blue-moon drunk. Instead, she had the body control of a full-fledged alcoholic.”
  • A drunk neighbor thinks Lance is a stripper.

Language

  • Profanity is used occasionally. Each word is used once or twice. Profanity includes ass, crap, damn, shit, and hell.
  • A woman tells Julia that her son’s “sorry SOB of a father ran off.”
  • A man calls Julia a bitch.
  • Julia’s aunt “feels like bitching.”

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • Lance is “grateful that God had granted him naturally straight teeth and a better-than-average metabolism.”
  • Julia “said a silent prayer of thanks” that no one noticed her friend wearing the same dress as her.

The Siren

Kahlen and her parents are on a luxury ship when suddenly the passengers begin jumping overboard and the ship sinks. In a panic, Kahlen calls out—she doesn’t want to die. The Ocean itself saves Kahlen and demands that she serve as a siren for 100 years. Kahlen and the other sirens use their beauty and deadly voice to lure humans to their deaths. Kahlen mourns for the strangers that she causes to die, but she is obedient to the Ocean who spared her life.

Kahlen loves her sisters but is looking forward to being released from her siren duties. In twenty years, Kahlen will be a regular human girl. But then she meets Akinli and falls hopelessly in love. Will she risk everything to be with the boy of her dreams? Or will the Ocean kill their love forever?

The story is told from Kahlen’s point of view. Much of the conflict in the story comes from the internal struggle of the sweet, submissive siren. After one date, Kahlen is so in love with Akinli that she cannot live without him. Akinli appears so infrequently that the readers will be left wondering why Kahlen is head over heels in love with him. Although their romance drives the story, there is not enough interaction and chemistry between the two to keep readers emotionally interested in the outcome of their tragic love story.

Although the siren’s world is interesting, most of the time the girls live on land, blending in with ordinary humans. Not only is the sea world underdeveloped, but so are Kahlen’s sister sirens. However, it is clear that the sirens care for each other and will go to any lengths to help each other. Having the Ocean as a character adds interest, but unfortunately, the possessiveness of the Ocean makes the sirens go to great lengths to hide their deeds from her. In the end, the Ocean is much like a possessive, overbearing mother who only thinks of her own needs.

Similar to Cass’s Selection series, The Siren is an easy-to-read story that follows one girl’s struggle. However, The Siren lacks the action of the Selection series. The Siren is like Romeo and Juliet without the fight scenes. For readers who don’t mind spending an entire book reflecting on one character’s internal struggle, The Siren will be an enjoyable read.

Sexual Content

  • Elizabeth goes to bars to find men where she is “quietly luring boys to bed.” She goes home with the men. “Elizabeth could regularly go to a stranger’s apartment, be as intimate as two people could be. . .”
  • Elizabeth says she has “shared plenty of . . . fluids with human men.”
  • Akinli and Kahlen kiss twice. “With my face still cupped in Akinli’s hand, he kissed me. It was brief, but it was enough to send fireworks running down my veins.”

Violence

  • When explaining the background of sirens, Kahlen thinks about a siren that “used her voice to make three girls who had teased her jump into a well . . . She’d put an entire town in an uproar, and the Ocean had silenced her to keep our secret.” Another Siren “murdered a household of people in the night, including an infant, in an outburst. . .”
  • Padma’s father tried to kill her because girls are “too expensive.” When the sirens find her in the ocean, her clothes, “Had been viciously ripped at. There were fresh bruises all over her arms and legs, but most horrifically, when we followed the trail of welts to her ankles and wrists, we saw there were cinder blocks tied to her, keeping her trapped.”
  • The sirens cause a cruise ship to crash and all the people on the ship die. “All around us, people plunged into the water, their fine dresses and slacks seeming grotesque against the backdrop of so much death. . . We sang until the last scream quieted, until the ship was resting on the Ocean floor.” The scene is described over three pages.
  • When a homeless man attacks Elizabeth, “She whispered in his ear to get him off her, and he threw himself into the Hudson.”
  • When the sirens cause a ship to crash, one man calls out to the girls until his voice was “thicker with gargled water” and then he died.
  • Padma and two others kill Padma’s parents because “none of us could allow her to live in the same world as her abusers did.” Their murder is not described.
  • The Ocean threatens to kill Padma. The Ocean “ripped Padma from Elizabeth’s arms, holding her in a vice grip of nothing but water. Padma screamed, trying to move her arms, but was completely paralyzed.”

Drugs and Alcohol

  • Kahlen goes out with her siren sisters and had “two drinks, hoping to take the edge off my nerves.”
  • Elizabeth goes to bars to pick up men. One evening, she chooses a boy who had “more to drink that she realized, and he passed out at their table.”
  • Akinli shows Kahlen a picture of him and another guy; the other guy “had a beer in his hand.”

Language

  • One of the characters says his roommate, “took lessons in how to be an ass.”
  • Damn is used twice.
  • Crap is used once.
  • Hell is used three times. For example, Kahlen yells at the Ocean, “Get the hell out of my head!”

Supernatural

  • The story revolves around sirens who are “servants to the Ocean” for a hundred years.
  • The Ocean is a living being that must feed on humans to survive.
  • The Ocean changes the girls into sirens. When Padma is changed, “The Ocean opened Padma’s mouth and forced a strange, dark liquid down her throat. . .” The change makes it so that the girls do not age, but their voices are deadly.
  • Akinli and Kahlen are dying from a mysterious illness. The Ocean explains, “If he hadn’t heard your voice, he’d be fine. . . Now, what happens to one body happens to the other. And since your voice has taken hold of him, killing him slowly, you fall down with him.”

Spiritual Content

  • Kahlen said a prayer.

Fangirl

Cath is the world’s biggest Simon Snow fan. Simon Snow is her everything—his magical world consumes Cath until her entire world revolves around it. Ever since she was little, she and her twin sister Wren poured over the series, continually reading and re-reading, and eventually writing. In Cath’s case, writing an extremely popular fanfiction that has hundreds of thousands of followers. Cath loves being immersed in this fictional world with her sister, but she must soon face reality.

Cath’s freshman year of college is quickly approaching, and in addition to having to pull herself out of her Simon Snow hole, she has to deal with an entirely new obstacle— her sister. As they have been best friends for the entirety of their lives, Cath is shocked when Wren suddenly decides that she does not want to be roommates for their freshman year. This causes Cath’s social anxiety to spiral as she attempts to survive in a new collegiate world without her sister.

Cath is grappling with her pressure-filled, Simon Snow fanfiction and the rough transition to college. Additionally, her emotionally fragile, single father is alone for the first time in eighteen years, and she can’t help but worry about what might happen to him in her absence. She also must confront new feelings towards a male classmate who only seems to want to talk about writing, and a wild roommate with a fascinating best friend.  Can Cath hold it all together while the world around her feels like it is all falling apart?

Fangirl is a delightful coming-of-age novel that accurately encapsulates the strong emotional response to the transition to university. Cath’s struggles with her mental health and social anxiety are relatable to modern-day teens, particularly those leaving home for the first time. Her relationship with her sister represents the drifting apart from friends and siblings that can occur as a person grows up.

Despite this novel’s enthralling story and heartfelt characters, Fangirl may not be appropriate for younger audiences. As it is set in college, there are mature events and themes. Sexuality, alcohol, and drugs are discussed often, making the story more appropriate for older readers.  Fangirl is also a long and semi-difficult book due to more advanced vocabulary and complex plot lines, making it tough for less advanced readers. For mature readers, Fangirl will be a highly enjoyable read that delves into the depths of a teen’s emotions and life.

Sexual Content

  • When Cath’s roommate has a guy waiting outside their room on move-in day, she is very uncomfortable. She tells him, “I can’t just let strange guys into my room. I don’t even know your name. This whole situation is too rapey.”
  • Cath writes fanfiction about the homosexual romance between Simon Snow and his nemesis Baz.
  • Cath had a boyfriend in high school named Abel, but they weren’t particularly serious or romantic. Wren always calls him an “end table” and accuses Cath of not liking to kiss him.
  • Wren’s high school boyfriend Jesse never seemed all that interested in her, which made her crazy for him. Cath laments, “He never had eyes only for Wren, not even after they had sex last fall. It threw off Wren’s game.”
  • Cath’s roommate Reagan asks if she has, “gay homemade Simon Snow posters.”
  • Levi wants to walk Cath to the library at night because she has a “little red riding hood vibe.” Cath responds by saying, “I don’t think rapists care about self-confidence.”
  • When writing with Nick, Cath tells him that she doesn’t want, “to write about, like, dead bodies or . . . naked bodies.”
  • Cath talks to Wren about the first time that she kissed Abel. “He kissed me that day, on our seventeenth birthday, for the first time. Or maybe I kissed him… I remember thinking… that he made me feel safe.”
  • Cath tells Wren about her writing sessions with Nick. Wren responds by asking, “Does it involve kissing?” Cath thinks to herself, “Wren wouldn’t leave the kissing thing alone. Ever since Abel had dumped Cath, Wren was on her about chasing her passions and letting loose the beast within.” After this point, Cath sees boys everywhere and as a constant distraction to her, particularly their physical qualities.
  • Cath gets a ride home with a girl named Erin who talked too much. “All she talked about was her boyfriend who still lived in Omaha and who was probably cheating on her.”
  • Cath writes Simon Snow fanfiction for her creative writing professor. A friend responds to this information by laughing and asking, “Do you really expect an elderly English professor to be down with gay Simon Snow fanfiction?”
  • Levi wants her to read fanfiction aloud to him. She searches her computer for something, “not too romantic. Or dirty.”
  • Cath describes the time after her mom left their family and says that Wren, “scratched a boy who said they were gay in the eye.”
  • There is an excerpt from Cath’s fanfiction that carries sexual innuendo. Baz asks, “Have you ever done this before?” Simon responds, “Yes. Not like this.” Baz then asks, “Not with a boy?” and Simon responds, “Not when I really wanted it.”
  • Levi leans against Cath when she is reading to him, making her nervous about what their relationship status is. This is followed by Levi sleepily kissing her. A half-page make-out scene follows.
  • When Cath tries to convince herself that she does not want romantic involvement with Levi, she says, “He’s different… He’s older. He smokes. And he drinks. And he’s probably had sex. I mean, he looks like he has.” She then proceeds to think that the last person that he slept with was Reagan.
  • When Reagan helps Cath get ready for a party, she discusses her hair, saying, “If you’re not going to blow it out… you may as well look like you’ve just been fucked.”
  • When Cath gets to a party, she sees Levi kissing a girl, “with his mouth smiling and open. He made it look so easy.”
  • Every time Cath sees Levi, she is reminded of the relationship that they almost had. “She tried not looking at him— because every time she did, she imagined him kissing someone, either her or that other girl, and both memories were equally painful.”
  • When Cath tries to tell her father that she doesn’t want to go back to school, he first asks, “Are you pregnant? Are you gay? I’d rather you were gay than pregnant. Unless you’re pregnant. Then we’ll deal.”
  • After Cath makes up with Levi, Reagan asks, “Did you sleep with him?” She proceeds to ask about their relationship, to which Cath responds, “Things you pressure me to do: one, underage drinking; two, prescription drug abuse; three, premarital sex.” Reagan then tells Cath that she lost her virginity to Levi.
  • Cath talks about her feelings towards Levi and says, “God, she wanted to tackle him and roll around in him like a cat in a field of daisies.” She also says that his eyebrows are, “pornographic.”
  • There are several make-out scenes, each lasting about a half-in page in length. They are fairly detailed.
  • Cath’s mother told her daughters about her unwanted pregnancy. Cath wonders if her mom told them as a warning to, “Stay away from men? Maybe just ‘use a condom.’ Or ‘stay away from men who don’t know how to work a condom.”
  • Levi and Cath talk about having sex, but she is not comfortable with it, so she consents to “touching.” Even in this situation, she must read fanfiction with him to feel comfortable.

Violence

  • Wren’s boyfriend Alejandro punched a “drunk pervert right in the chin” when they were at a bar.
  • Cath gets hit in the ribs by the doorknob of her dorm room door when Reagan barges in. She is not injured.
  • In Cath’s fanfiction, Simon fights a rabbit with his sword. Baz later kills it. “He ran toward the rabbit, holding his sword with both hands over his head, then plunged it with all his strength into one red eye. The rabbit collapsed, utterly limp, a paw falling into the fire.”

Drugs and Alcohol

  • Cath discusses the observation that all of the upperclassmen and professors wear black Ray-Ban frames. “If Cath got a pair of black Ray-Bans, she could probably order a gin and tonic around here without getting carded.”
  • Cath says that Reagan smokes.
  • Cath asks if engineering fraternities, “get drunk and build bridges.”
  • Wren declares that “drinking tequila is more about the journey than the destination.”
  • Reagan asks Cath if she is on drugs. When Cath responds with no, Reagan says, “maybe you should be…” Reagan later proclaims that she is on drugs and that they are, “a beautiful thing.”
  • Cath discusses illegal drinking on campus. She said that it didn’t matter on campus as “there was booze everywhere. Wren already had a fake ID.”
  • When Cath calls her dad, he says, “Don’t hang out with frat guys, Cath, they’re terrible. All they do is get drunk and watch ”
  • On weekend mornings, Reagan always looked like a mess because she, “drank too much and slept too little… She still smelled sweat and cigarette smoke.”
  • Cath is harassed by drunk perverts in a bar. The scene lasts several pages and many characters are inebriated.
  • Cath says that she does not want to go to Levi’s party because she doesn’t want to “drink, smoke, or get high.”
  • When Cath objects to dating Levi, Reagan says, “You’re making him sound like he’s some rowdy mountain man who like, smokes cigars and has sex with prostitutes.”
  • Cath’s date struggles with mental health issues and is supposed to take medication for his problem, but it never lasts as he believes it blocks his creative process.
  • Reagan tries to quit smoking by never lighting the cigarettes that are in her mouth.
  • Wren gets alcohol poisoning and is taken to the hospital. When Cath arrives, she has to answer a list of medical questions. “Was Wren a regular drinker? Did she often drink to drunkenness? Yes. Did she black out? Yes. Did she use any other drugs? I don’t know. Was she on any medication? Birth control.”
  • Nick always writes about girls with nicotine-stained fingers.

Language

  • Profanity is used frequently throughout the novel. This includes shit, fuck, fuck off, thank god, bitch, damn, hell, crap, ass, asshole, goddamn, and horseshit.
  • During move-in day, Reagan says, “If you’ve got feng shui issues, feel free to move my shit.”
  • Simon Snow calls Baz a, “complete git.” He also later calls him a “prat.”
  • Wren’s roommate says that she is on the “skinny bitch ”
  • Levi has an, “especially shitty truck.”
  • Wren flips off a drunken pervert at a bar.
  • When Cath looks in the mirror before going to a party she thinks she, “looked like exactly who she was— an eighteen-year-old nerd who knew eff-all about boys or parties.”
  • One character is always referred to as, “fucking Kelly.”
  • God, Jesus, oh my god, godforsaken, and Jesus Christ are all used frequently.

Supernatural

  • Cath is a huge fangirl for a book series about teenage magicians. Their exploits are often described, as are their uses of magic. This series is very similar in content and tone to Harry Potter.
  • Baz, a character from Simon Snow, is revealed to be a vampire.

Spiritual

  • Reagan tells Cath, “If God put me in your life to keep you from wearing a fucking tail… I accept the assignment.”
  • Levi calls the town that he is from, “god’s country…All the gods. Brahma and Odin would love it there.”
  • When Cath wears a ponytail, Reagan asks her, “Do you have to wear your hair like that? Is it some kind of Mormon thing?” Cath is not Mormon.
  • Cath’s English professor talks about the power of writing. She says, “Think about it, Cath. That’s what makes a god—or a mother. There’s nothing more intoxicating than creating something from nothing.”
  • The English professor says, “I can do whatever I want with my student’s grades. I’m the god of this small thing.”
  • Levi’s mom is active in her Baptist church.

by Morgan Filgas

 

How to Be Popular

Steph has been a social outcast for the past five years because she accidentally spilled a cherry Big Gulp on a popular girl. This year, Steph’s determined to step out of her comfort zone and join the popular crowd. In order to change her social standing, Steph plans to follow the book How to Be Popular.

In the process of gaining the friendship of the popular crowd, Steph must decide if she’s ready to get rid of her nerdy best friends Becca and Jason. Will Steph throw away her old friends in order to party with the popular kids and hang out with the school quarterback?

Steph is a relatable character who, like many, struggles with the desire to be part of the popular group. Steph’s character is well developed, and her point of view is endearing. Steph’s family relationships add an interesting and often comic element to the story. The book revolves around the usual cast of stereotypical high school characters—the mean girl, the cute high school quarterback, and the nerdy friends.

How to Be Popular is an easy-to-read story that follows a familiar, predictable plot. Although the story contains few surprises, Steph’s journey will entertain those looking for a romance appropriate for middle school readers. If you’re looking for a fun story to take to the beach, How to Be Popular would make a good choice.

Sexual Content

  • Steph finds a “steamy romance novel from the eighties. . . the heroine in one of them turned out to like having sex ‘Turkish-style,’ which in the book did NOT mean ‘while wearing a fez.’”
  • Steph thinks about Mark and Lauren who, “were totally canoodling” and how her friends, “don’t like seeing people putting their tongues in other people’s mouths, on account of the grossness factor.”
  • If Steph looks through her bathroom window, she can see into her neighbor’s window. She likes to watch him undress. She thinks, “my interest in seeing Jason undressed is purely scientific. Which is why I use the binoculars. . .”
  • Darlene has a large bust and Steph thinks boys “flock to her in hopes of someday being able to sink into her soft good-smellingness.” When Steph sits next to Darlene, “all eight of the guys at Darlene’s table yanked their gazes off the front of her chest and looked at me. Or the area just above the sticky part of my thigh-highs, to be more exact.”
  • Someone says that Steph’s grandpa is “warm for your form.”
  • Steph’s grandpa tries to explain how he got his fiancée. He says, “Well, the fact is, Steph, we Kazoulises, well, we’re a passionate bunch, and we know how to please a woman. . . Kitty’s a woman with needs, you know. . .”
  • Steph’s mom thinks Mark is going out with Lauren because Lauren “puts out.” Steph thinks her mom is “out of touch with reality” because “if I were going out with Mark Finley, I would totally put out, too. Even Father Chuck would understand that.”
  • When Steph is looking through her neighbor’s window, she sees him kissing a girl. “BAM!!! They were smashing their lips up together.”
  • In order to manipulate Steph, Mark kisses her. “. . . Mark had leaned down and put his mouth over mine. . . I have no idea whether or not I kissed him back. I was so surprised, I didn’t know what to do. . . I think I just stood there, letting him kiss me. . .” While kissing she “tried really hard to see the fireworks and hear the choir and the birds. . . And I saw them. And heard them. Did I ever.”
  • Steph kisses a boy “so much, in fact, my lips feel a little chapped. But in a good way.”

Violence

  • None

Drugs and Alcohol

  • While watching teens cruise up and down the street, Steph sees a girl “barf up all the Mike’s Hard Lemonade she ingested while sunning herself over at the lake that afternoon.”
  • During an assembly, Steph describes the convocation, “when we all gather in the auditorium to listen to ex-drug addicts and people who killed their friends in drunk driving accidents talk about their experiences.”
  • Several times Steph’s mom says, “God, I need a drink.”
  • A boy from school is planning a party where everyone will get drunk. Someone brings a keg to the party.

Language

  • Damn, dang, and beeyotch are used once.
  • God and oh my God are occasionally used as exclamations.
  • Steph thinks she is a moron.

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • Steph is Catholic and thinks about going to confession. “I am fully going to ask God for forgiveness about this during Communion in church tomorrow. Since I can’t ask Father Chuck. Might as well go straight to the top.”
  • Steph’s “Grandpa stopped going to church after Grandma died. . . But Grandpa says he can worship God just as well on the ninth hole as he can in the church—if not better; since he’s closer to nature, and therefore, God, on the golf course than he is in our pew at St. Charles. I fear for his immortal soul. . . but I figure if God really is all-forgiving . . . Gramps will be all right.”
  • Steph thinks that Darlene is nice because when the mean girls “were in line to get meanness from God, Darlene must have seen a butterfly and gone running after it, or something, since she doesn’t have a mean bone in her body.”

The Nature of Jade

After moving and starting at a new high school, Jade begins having panic attacks. Jade is trying her best to stay calm and focus on her senior year of high school. One thing that calms her down is watching the elephants at a nearby zoo on her webcam. That’s how she sees Sebastian for the first time.

Even before they meet, Jade feels drawn towards Sebastian, a twenty-year-old who has a baby. When she finally meets him, she quickly falls in love with him. She begins spending her free time with Sebastian, his son, and his grandmother. Even though Sebastian’s life is complicated, getting to know him has helped alleviate Jade’s panic attacks. Then Jade discovers that Sebastian has been hiding a terrible secret. Will their new love be able to survive?

Jade’s work at the zoo gives an interesting aspect to their romance. Jade compares the animal world to the human world and her insights can be interesting. Working with the elephants helps Jade deal with her anxiety disorder. Her inner reflection illuminates her thought process and shows how a random thought can lead her down a spiral of fear. However, too much of the story is told through Jude’s inner dialogue, which makes the story drag. Although many teens may be able to relate to Jude’s anxiety, others will find her constant inner dialogue difficult to wade through.

Jade’s story bounces from her family life, her school life, her zoo life, and finally her relationship with Sebastian. Each aspect of her life seems completely separated. This separation doesn’t allow the author to fully develop the other characters in the story. Even though Jude has come to realize that many of her high school relationships are based on familiarity and habit instead of true connections, the reader is left wondering why they should care.

Jade, her parents, and her boyfriend all have destructive secrets. Jade comes to realize that lives are complicated and messy. She discovers that not all actions can be labeled as good or bad. Sebastian and his grandmother both wonder if they are doing the right thing when they hide their whereabouts, which allows the reader to reflect on what they would do in a similar situation. As Jade grows, she learns that people cannot be seen as just a stereotype, because all people are more complicated than that.

Readers who want to look at the complicated workings of the inner mind will enjoy The Nature of Jade. However, the majority of readers may struggle due to the lack of character development, absence of action, and slow pacing of the story.

Sexual Content

  • Jade’s friend has become boy crazy. Jade thinks, “God, sorry if this is crude, but she had begun to remind me of those baboons that flaunt their red butts around when they’re in heat.”
  • Jade’s friend thinks a boy has “the sweetest ass.”
  • Michael tells his friends, “Some of us want to go to med school and become doctors and not just meet some guy and have sex.” His friend replies, “Some of us want to have a social life. You’ve been more intimate with your laptop than an actual female.”
  • Jade thinks that fathers don’t show compassion when their kids are hurt because of a fear that “compassion equals homosexuality.”
  • Someone teases a boy saying he might be gay.
  • When Sebastian found out his girlfriend was pregnant, he would have considered other options, but she hid the pregnancy from him.
  • A girl doesn’t think her friend can have fun at a Christian school. She wants to go to a college that has “Guy fun. Party fun. Drinking fun.
  • Jade and Sebastian kiss several times. The first time they kiss “for a while, not long enough. His mouth is chili-warm. . . He puts his hand behind my neck, pulls me to him and kisses my forehead.”
  • Jade and Sebastian have sex. “Sabastian strokes my hair. We start to kiss. We kiss for a long while. His hands are gentle. I guess that’s the only thing that is necessary to know about Sebastian and me on that hard dock, the blanket around us. He is careful, so very careful with me.”
  • While in the high school library, someone sees Jade’s mother kiss the librarian. The girl tells Jade, “Someone had their tongue down someone’s throat, is what I heard.” When Jade confronts her mother, she doesn’t deny it.

Violence

  • During a football game, Jade’s brother is hurt. He tells Jade, “Number forty-six. Jeez, he just bashed his shoulder into my chest, and when I was on the ground, he steps on my leg with his cleat.”

Drugs and Alcohol

  • Michael went to a party that had “more booze than a liquor store convention.” While there he “had half a beer and I could barely talk.”

Language

  • Profanity is used often when the teens talk. Profanity includes ass, bastard, bitch, crappy, damn, goddamn, fuck, and shit.
  • Jesus, God, oh my God, and for God’s sake are frequently used as exclamations.
  • When Jade hears baboons scream, it frightens her. When her dad shows up, he says, “God, Jade. Zoo animals! Baboons, for Christ sake.”
  • Jade tells her counselor that she feels “like shit.”
  • Jade tells her brother that the guy that tackled him in football is a “bastard. The minute he gets off the field I’m going to kick him in the balls.”

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • Jade’s friend Jenna has begun going to church. Jenna gets upset when some of her friends “take the Lord’s name in vain.”
  • A couple of Jade’s friends think it would be fun to be the Pope for a day.
  • While watching the webcam, Jade sees Sebastian praying.
  • Jade lights candles to different patron saints and prays to them. “There’s a saint for everything . . . They got these cool candles for each different one, a column of tall glass with a picture of the saint on the front, and a matching prayer on the back, one in English and one in Spanish.” Jade says several of the prayers.

 

 

 

Defending Taylor

Taylor Lukens, the daughter of Senator Lukens of Tennessee, has grown up with the philosophy of working hard. She needs to work hard at school and extracurricular activities to get accepted into Yale or another Ivy League school, an expectation of her family—and especially her father. However, when school officials find her with a bag of her boyfriend’s pills, she takes the fall and is kicked out of her boarding school. All of a sudden, her chances of Yale and her father’s reelection get smaller. Will she be able to manage the weight of her lies and her family’s expectations?

Defending Taylor is a story that perfectly captures the pressure that is placed on soon-to-be high school graduates. Taylor struggles between her family’s expectations and her own passions. When she starts to fall for a family friend Ezra, she starts to understand that some risks are positive. With the support of Ezra and her new friends on the soccer team, she tries to follow her dreams and still make her father proud. She realizes that taking the blame for another’s mistakes has cost her a lot and that coming clean is important.

Although this story may seem at first glance to be all about sports, it is not. Soccer is simply a unifying part of the story because it is told from Taylor’s point of view, and soccer is an important part of her life. It helps her build friendships and allows her to do something that she genuinely enjoys. While readers will enjoy the scenes where she is at practice and games, readers should not expect a story revolving around soccer. The story is mainly about Taylor’s budding romance with Ezra and her struggle to live up to her family’s expectations.

Readers will connect with Taylor’s struggles to make friends at her new school and the pressure she feels to please her parents. This story portrays family conflict as a natural part of growing up. While this may seem negative, Taylor’s parents are misguided yet loving family members. There are several good scenes between Taylor and her father. Even though Taylor wants to be perfect, she and other characters are shown to have flaws, making them more relatable.

Defending Taylor is an easy-to-read story that deals with teen issues. The ending is predictable yet satisfying, because everyone finds their way to happiness, even if it’s not where they thought it would be. The story doesn’t shy away from the tough topic of Adderall, Ritalin, and other drugs. Defending Taylor has a good storyline, but the unnecessary profanity and steam sex scenes may turn off some readers.

Sexual Content

  • As Taylor walks the halls of her new public school, she sees “a couple is making out against the wall next to the fire alarm.”
  • Jenna, Taylor’s sister, is being described. She asks for music to be turned down so she can read “a hot sex scene” in one of the historical romance books that she loves. She is also characterized as being “horny” and someone who enjoys sleeping around.
  • Taylor thinks back about her and Ben’s, her ex-boyfriend’s, relationship. “We lost our virginity to each other.”
  • While texting with her friends Steph and Madison, Taylor gets a text saying that she should “lick” Ezra because he is so attractive.
  • Someone makes a joke about Taylor dating Ben, who was a scholarship student. “You’re really dating down, huh, Lukens? You must like ‘em on their knees.”
  • Taylor has had a crush on Ezra since they were younger. When describing their past, she thinks of the first time she wore a bikini around him. “He checked out my boobs.” Later, she thinks, “My first kiss, my first hookup, my virginity. I wanted him to have them all.”
  • Taylor remembers her time with Ben at St. Andrews boarding school. “Sometimes, his hands would inch under my plaid skirt and cup my bottom through my underwear.” She misses him but thinks, “I can take care of my needs myself.” She then remembers how they lost their virginity to each other. “I’d never touched a guy there before, and when I saw him naked, I was afraid that when we did have sex, it would hurt.”
  • When Ben and Taylor are in the woods together, they have sex. “He pushed up my plaid skirt, pulled down my panties, rolled on a condom, then crawled on top of me.”
  • Taylor jokes in her head that she expects a man flirting with her in a coffee shop to “send a horny pelvic thrust in my direction.”
  • Nicole, a girl on Taylor’s soccer team, is rude to Taylor and says, “He said pairs. Not threesomes. Is that the kind of shit you’re into? Two guys at once?”
  • Jack Goodwin, a supporting character, is said to be “shacking up with the help.”
  • At a wedding, someone tells a crude joke. “‘What do you call a bad circumcision.?’ Jack asks. ‘A rip-off!’”
  • Taylor and Ezra are together alone at his apartment. They start kissing and “his hands trail up and down my arms. . . I pull him hard against me. . . His gaze grows heated as his fingers gently caress my breast through my shirt. . . I push my hips into his. . . He discovers the bluebird tattoo on my ankle, kissing it once before his lips begin working their way back up my legs and between them. His hands join his mouth.” Later, he says that their relationship probably isn’t a good idea. Taylor is shocked; she thinks “I just went down on him—I would’ve slept with him if he’d asked.”
  • Taylor and Ezra go on a date after deciding to be together and come back to his house. “He crawls on top of me, moving his hips against mine. I grip his bottom, pulling him closer. He groans at the sensation.” Taylor asks him a question about a previous girl and then they continue to kiss. “I press my hips to his and rock, loving the intimate feel of him.” The scene ends after Taylor accidentally falls off the bed.
  • Taylor and Ezra finally decide to sleep together. “His fingertips slide up and down my spine. . . he presses his hot mouth against my core. I tangle my fingers in his hair until I can’t wait any longer.” They have sex, but it is not described in any more detail.

Violence

  • None

Drugs and Alcohol

  • Taylor gets in trouble at her boarding school for being in possession of enough Adderall to be put into juvenile detention. While at school there, she takes Adderall occasionally to study, but the drugs were her boyfriend’s. She does not take any drugs during the course of the novel.
  • Before Taylor was caught in the woods with all the pills, her and Ben drank “a bottle of Jack Daniel’s” together.
  • When talking about how she always follows the rules, Taylor thinks about how her behavior is not that bad. “Sure, I drink alcohol when I have the opportunity. I drop the F-bomb pretty fucking frequently.”
  • Taylor is worried she will be known as “the druggie girl.”
  • After the reason why Taylor was kicked out of St. Andrews is made public, a student at her new school keeps approaching her for Ritalin. She looks it up and learns it’s as addictive as cocaine.
  • Taylor’s brother Oliver comes home from college. Oliver and Ezra start taking shots in the kitchen after having a talk about Ezra dating Taylor. Taylor ends up stealing two shots. All of them are underage.

Language

  • Profanity is used every few pages. Profanity includes ass, assholes, hell, damn, shit, bullshit, bitchy, bitch, and fuck.
  • God and goddamned are used a couple times.
  • “Jesus, Mary, and Joseph” is used as an exclamation several times.
  • Motherfucking, badass, dick, bastard, and dipshit are all used once or twice.
  • The narrator uses the phrase “having the balls” to do something several times.

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • Jenna is described as being a perfect daughter. Taylor says, “She goes to Bible study, for crying out loud.”
  • Taylor describes her new calculus teacher as having “the most Biblical beard I’ve ever seen.” She thinks, “Seriously, this guy could’ve given Moses a run for his money.”
  • Taylor’s siblings Jenna and Oliver went on a mission trip to Mexico to build houses.

by Hannah Neeley

Paper Valentine

In the last six months, Hannah’s life has been turned upside down because Hannah’s best friend Lillian died and is now haunting her. Not only is Hannah struggling to understand the self-destructive behavior that led to Lillian’s death, but she is also grappling with changes in her elite friend group. When Hannah runs into bad boy Finny, she can’t decide if she should stay away from the boy with a bad reputation or if she should explore her growing attraction to him.

Then, when someone begins murdering young girls and leaving behind paper valentines, Lilian’s ghost encourages Hannah to look into the crimes. As Hannah discovers gruesome details about the murders, the ghosts of the dead girls begin appearing. But why do they appear when Finny is near? And by investigating, is Hannah making herself a target for the murderer?

Over the course of the book, Hannah struggles with depression and dealing with the death of Lillian. To make matters worse, Lillian has changed in death. Lillian criticizes Hannah for spending time with her friends, even though they were Lillian’s friends when she was alive. Lillian is mean to Hannah and says things like, “Hannah doesn’t like to live in real life. Hannah just wants to pretend that we all live in happy fairy-land, where everyone is super-best friends and no one is a heinous bitch and nothing bad is ever going to happen.” Although much of Hannah’s behavior seems week, she is like many teenagers who struggle with wanting to fit in.

Paper Valentine does an excellent job showing the complexities of people. Although most people think Finny is just a delinquent, he also has a streak of kindness. Hannah is able to look past Finny’s ‘bad boy’ image and see his good side. In addition, Hannah realizes that she and Lillian, “were always trying so hard to be perfect . . . when the funny thing was, we didn’t have to.”

Paper Valentine bounces from topic to topic, including the desire to be perfect, depression, eating disorders, child abuse, and ghosts. None of the topics are dealt with in detail and will leave the readers with unanswered questions. The conclusion was predictable, typical, and lacks insight into the mind of the killer. Those looking for an excellent murder mystery may want to bypass Paper Valentine. Despite its flaws, Paper Valentine is an enjoyable, unique story that junior high readers will enjoy. Paper Valentine is a fast-paced story that has a bit of a scare factor due to the ghosts. Readers will enjoy looking for clues to discover the murderer, and Hannah and Finny have some sweet moments.

Sexual Content

  • While watching the news, someone makes a comment about the news correspondents. “I bet they make out like hyenas as soon as Jim Dean starts giving the weather report.”
  • A boy that Hannah knows “used to go out with Lillian in junior high and now sometimes made out with Angelie.”
  • A boy at school would “grab girls around the waist when they walked by his table in the cafeteria last year and say things like, ’Want to sit on my lap and talk about the next thing that pops up.’”
  • When Hannah picks out some lipstick, she’s afraid her friend will think the “colors are perfect for a disco-clown hooker.”
  • When Hannah thinks of pressing her hips against Finny, “the thought of this is electric, beating in my chest like a birthday wish, dark and warm and secret.”
  • Finny and Hannah kiss several times. The first time, Finny “bends his head and kisses me, just once, then lets me go. When Connor would kiss Angelie in the halls last spring, he did it like he was trying to suck the chocolate off the outside of a Klondike bar. It could last hours. This is more like seeing a star fall—thrilling and soundless and then over.”
  • When Finny kisses Hannah a second time, “his tongue brushes the curve of my bottom lip, grazing the hollow underneath, and something leaps and fidgets in my chest. . . I want him to never stop.”
  • When Hannah goes to Dairy Queen, a girl she knows was “leaning against the side of the little brick building, frantically kissing Austin Dean.”
  • A boy asks, “Hey, do you think if I bleached my hair and started vandalizing street signs or something, Carmen would let me near those exquisite titties?”
  • While in a public place, Hannah kisses Finny so that her friends will see. “He doesn’t react right away, but then his hands move to my hips.”

Violence

  • When someone was bothering Hannah, Finny came to her aid. “Finny had Connor by the collar of his shirt and was holding him so their foreheads were almost touching, but he didn’t say anything. He just leaned over me while Connor yanked on Finny’s wrist, trying to get loose. . . With his hand on the back of Connor’s neck, Finny held Connor away from me. . .”
  • Hannah talks about the murder of Monica Harris. “One of the city garbage collectors found her out in the parking lot behind the Bowl-A-Rama in her pink polyester jacket, beaten dead with a piece of two-by-four and her own ice skates.”
  • Hannah looks at the crime scene photos and sees, “Her face is shockingly white—dead white—and there are dark finger-shaped bruises all over one shoulder. In the blue evening light, the bruises look black. Almost as black as the blood that’s splashed in the weedy grass around her.” The photo is described over five paragraphs.
  • When Finny was younger, a dog bit off his finger. He also has cigarette burns on his back. The abuse is not described.
  • While in elementary school, Hannah was mean to Finny, and he washed her face with snow. “The snow was weeks old, crusty with ice, and when he scrubbed my face with it, the crystals were so sharp they made me bleed.”
  • A boy is in foster care because “his dad was using him for a punching bag.”
  • Hannah and a group of people find a dead body. “I’m looking into the face of a girl, and there’s blood in her hair and splashed down the side of her neck. There’s a smell. . . Her face is pale blue in the light. . .” The scene is described over three paragraphs.
  • The murderer tries to kill Hannah. “He turns and grabs me by the shoulders, slamming me hard against the wall of the bridge. . . When I try to squirm away, prying at his fingers with my free hand, he gives me a shake that nearly pops my shoulder out of its socket. . . That’s when he slaps me. . .” The murderer hits Hannah’s head with something heavy. She is injured but survives. The scene takes place over a chapter.

Drugs and Alcohol

  • A shop owner “runs off prints of scowling tattooed drug dealers and drunk, disorderly frat boys standing against a dirty wall outside one of the college bars.”
  • The Qwick-mart has “smashed beer bottles” on the ground outside.
  • Hannah remembers when Lillian was younger and “took that bottle of Sour Apple Pucker from her mom’s liquor cabinet, and we drank it in the back of her garage.”
  • Lillian thinks her mother, “spent the last three years drinking a perfectly decent chardonnay on the couch and waiting for me to stop being so dramatic.”

Language

  • Profanity is used often. Profanity includes ass, asshole, bastard, bitch, crappiest, damn, fuck, goddamn, pussies, hell, shit, shitty.
  • Thank god, Jesus, and God are used as exclamations. For example, Hannah’s friends tell her, “God, you’re such a weenie sometimes.”
  • Finny tells someone, “Don’t be a douche.”
  • Ghost Lillian calls a boy a pervert.
  • When a girl’s thong is showing, someone says, “Damn! That is just too much ass for those jeans!”
  • Finny took a stolen bracelet away from a boy and gave it back to Hannah. When she asks if the boy was mad, Finny replies, “Do I give a shit? He can fucking deal with it! I told him that maybe he’s free to act like a total dick any other time, but not to girls and little kids. Not when he’s with me.”

Supernatural

  • Hannah’s friend is a ghost. Hannah narrates, “Ghosts are the kind of thing you go your whole life with everyone telling you they aren’t real. I believe in them anyways, because the world is full of things that no one actually understands. Mostly though, I believe in them because my best friend died six months ago and now she’s with me all the time, materializing silently out of the shadows, creeping closer, reaching out.”
  • Several times, Hannah uses an Ouija board to talk to the spirits of the murdered girls.

Spiritual Content

  • The murderer tells Hannah, “As far as those little bitches knew, I was God.”

 

 

 

Star-Crossed

Matti has never wanted to be on stage before, but when her teacher announces that the eighth-grade play is Romeo and Juliet, Matti wants a part. Everyone expects Matti to be on the sidelines, but can she convince her teacher she deserves to be on the stage?

Matti had a crush on Elijah, but when the play begins everything changes. Gemma—a smart, pretty, British girl—gets the part of Juliet. Matti starts to wonder why she feels fluttery whenever she is near Gemma. If Matti was crushing on Elijah—a boy—could she also have a crush on a girl?

Many middle schoolers will relate to Matti as she struggles to understand her feelings. She also must figure out who she can trust with her secret. Even though she loves her friends, can they be trusted to not only accept that she has a crush on a girl, but can they also be trusted to keep Matti’s secret until she’s ready to reveal it?

Matti struggles with telling people she has a crush on a girl. When she tells her best friend and her sister, they both accept the news without shock and encourage her to pursue her crush. The story never delves into the negative reactions that others may have to her news.

Star-Crossed has plenty of dialogue and drama to keep readers engaged until the end. Throughout the story, the characters discuss Romeo’s and Juliet’s behavior and feelings of love. Although Matti’s story parallels Romeo and Juliet, the discussion of the play slows down the plot.

Middle school readers will fall in love with Matti and her friends. The characters include the typical mean girl, but also adds some unique characters. Tessa and her Shakespearean insults add humor. Matti’s inner thoughts add depth to the story. In the end, Matti’s story contains drama, crushes, family, and friendship conflict that will keep readers entertained. Star-Crossed is a romance appropriate for younger readers who want to learn about Romeo and Juliet.

Sexual Content

  • When Matti thinks about the play, she thinks, “All I could think about was Gemma kissing Liam, Liam kissing Gemma—and wondering why that image made my insides knot up.”
  • During play practice, the kids are teasing a boy about having to kiss Gemma. When the boys are talking, Gemma “marched over to Liam and smooched him on the lips.”
  • Matti wonders if she has a crush on a girl. If she did have a crush on a girl, “would it mean that you were gay, or a lesbian, or whatever word you were supposed to call it, if you liked only one particular girl?”
  • When Matti sees Gemma, her “heart zoomed.”
  • Matti reveals that she has a crush on a girl. Her sister responds by asking, “Have you ever kissed a boy?” When Matti says no, Cara replies, “Too bad. Because kissing a girl works the same way.”
  • Matti thinks that she can crush on boys, even though she currently has a crush on a girl.
  • During play practice, Gemma “smooched” Matti’s mouth. Then the two practice the scene that requires the two to kiss. When they have to kiss at play practice, “it made me (Matti) swimmy-headed.”

Violence

  • None

Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • When talking about others or to others, often there is name-calling including dirtbag, moron, malt-worm, and doofus. For example, some said, “in my opinion Elijah’s a stuck-up dirtbag.”
  • Tessa went to a Shakespeare camp and learned Shakespearean insults that she uses throughout the story. A list of the Shakespearean insults is included at the back of the book.
  • When someone calls Tessa ugly, Tessa says, “I’m ugly? You’re like a toad; ugly and venomous. Thy face is not worth sunburning.”
  • One of the characters says “bollocks” several times. The character also calls someone a “prat” and a “dimwit.”
  • Dang is used three times.
  • Oh My God, OMIGOD, and God are often used as exclamations.
  • Holy Crap is said once.
  • While discussing Romeo and Juliet, a student asks, “Isn’t that kind of gay?” The teacher explains, “People may choose to identify themselves as gay, and it’s a word of pride. But the way you’re using the word, it’s just an insult, and there’s no room for that in this production, or in this school. “

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • None

 

Five Feet Apart

Stella Grant has cystic fibrosis, making her no stranger to hospitals and surgeries. Despite her precarious lung function, she’s pretty used to being in control. That is until a handsome hospital newcomer, Will Newman, arrives, sending Stella into a whirlwind of feelings she’s never experienced before. Feelings she didn’t think she’d ever get to experience.

Will is bad news for Stella. His floppy black hair and sea-blue eyes are no danger compared to his incredibly aggressive and contagious form of CF, B. Capaecia. Not to mention that he refuses to follow the doctor’s orders or participate fully in his treatments, which drives Stella absolutely mad.

A not-so-classic forbidden love story ensues. Stella and Will must figure out how to navigate their relationship while maintaining their required distance apart. With their feelings growing and changing, those five feet apart began to feel larger and larger.

Five Feet Apart is a sweet romance with elements of fierce friendship and family turmoil. Stella and Will start out seeing each other as complete opposites but come to realize they have a lot in common. The most important thing they discover is how much they care for one another. Five Feet Apart is not only informative about Cystic Fibrosis, but also witty and entertaining.

Teens will be drawn into the character’s drama right from the start. Both Will and Stella are likable characters, who have their quirks and unique attributes. The story alternates between Will and Stella’s point of view, which makes it hard not to feel for and relate to both characters.

Following the same type of formulas as The Fault in Our Stars and Everything, Everything, Lippincott delivers an emotional, easy-to-read novel chronicling young love. Even though the story’s plot is familiar, Five Feet Apart is worth reading because it describes not only the common turmoil of teenage romance but also puts these commonplace emotions in an uncommon setting, which makes the story thought-provoking and fresh. Romantic and heartwarming to the extreme, this book will command the reader’s attention from start to finish.

Sexual Content

  • Stella is resting during the evening, when she gazes “out the window as the afternoon fades and sees a couple about my age, laughing and kissing as they walk into the hospital.”
  • Stella realizes that Will is letting his friends use his bed for sex. “Oh my god. Gross. He’s letting his friends do it in his room, like it’s a motel.” Stella confronts Will, saying “You letting your friends borrow your room for sex isn’t cute.” Will takes this to mean Stella has something against sex, to which Stella proclaims, “‘Of course not! I’ve had sex.’”
  • Will is reflecting on his encounter with Stella and says she actually looked kind of hot.
  • Stella is describing Poe’s romantic life. Stella describes his past relationships, “Before Michael it was Tim, the week after this it could be David.”
  • Stella has convinced Will to follow his medicine regimen in exchange for her letting him draw her. She tells him there will be no nude drawings allowed.
  • Will asks Poe if he and Stella have ever “hooked up.”
  • Will jokes to Stella that since he can’t meet Bob Ross, he’ll “just have to settle for sex in the Vatican.”
  • Stella is preparing for her first date with Will. Stella “put on some mascara and lip gloss, smiling at the idea of Will seeing me not just alive, but with makeup on, his blue eyes gazing at my gloss-covered lips. Would he want to kiss me?” She also enlists Poe’s help to pick out an outfit. “I pull out a pair of skimpy, silky boxers, eyeing them. I couldn’t. Could I?”
  • Will and Stella are on their first date. While on the date, “She reaches for her silk tank top, her eyes fixed on mine as she pulls it slowly off to reveal a black lace bra. She drops the tank top onto the deck of the pool, my jaw going with it. Then she slips down her shorts, stepping carefully out of them and straightening up. Inviting me to look.” Will looks at her, but knows he can’t do anything more than that.

Violence

  • None

Drugs and Alcohol

  • Will is reminiscing on his time in public high school, “where my old classmates are slowly chugging their way to finals.”

Language

  • Oh my god and my god are often used as exclamations.
  • Stella says goodbye to her friends leaving for Cabo. “Your plane is at, like, the ass crack of dawn tomorrow.”
  • Stella says the food at prom didn’t suck. She later says she’s been at this hospital for a “freaking decade.”
  • All of the CF patients mention not wanting to “piss off” Barb, because she’s such a “hard ass.”
  • Will and Stella often refer to their circumstances as shitty or bullshit.
  • Will is dreaming about his future once he turns 18. “I could sketch the landscape, draw a final cartoon of me giving the middle finger to the universe, then bite the big one.”
  • Damn is used often. Barb and the adults in the story often use “damn” when a surgery doesn’t go well.
  • Fucking is used occasionally. Some examples are “Are you fucking kidding me,” “That is a complete mind-fuck,” and “All you see of me is my fucking disease.” For example, when Will is in a fight with his mother on his birthday, he screams “all you see of me is my fucking disease.”
  • Poe and Stella call each other a bitch and an asshole during a fight. These words are only used in this encounter.

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • Will finds Poe sitting in the hospital’s church. When Will asks why he’s there, Poe replies “My mom likes to see me in here. I’m Catholic, but she’s Catholic.”
  • “So what do you think happens when we die?” Will asks Stella.

by Tori Gellman

The War Outside

Margot’s German-American family lived in a small Iowa community. After attending a rally, her father is detained in the family internment camp in Crystal City. In order to keep the family together, Margot and her mother follow him. Since being in the internment camp, her mother’s health is deteriorating and her father is changing. Instead of being a loving father, he is spending time with Nazis and learning how to hate.

Haruko wants to pretend that Crystal City is just another town. She’s made friends and goes to school. On the outside, she looks calm, but on the inside, she is stricken by fear. She questions her father’s innocence and wants to know what he is hiding. Her soldier brother, who is fighting in the Japanese-American unit of the US Army, is also keeping secrets. Haruko wants to know the truth, but will the truth help her family or destroy it?

A dust storm throws Haruko and Margot together. Despite being of different ethnicities, the two start a secret friendship. The two begin to trust and rely on each other. Can this fragile friendship last in the desert prison camp or will the two discover that hate is stronger?

The War Outside gives readers a glimpse of the fear caused by World War II and explains why the internment camps came to exist. Margot’s family highlights how being imprisoned in an internment camp begins to change everyone. Margot’s father’s anger begins to control his actions, and he begins spending time with Nazi sympathizers. Margot struggles with the fact that she loves her father, but doesn’t approve of his actions. Margot knows that “marching with a Nazi swastika is not like algebra, where you can get the wrong answer but be right some of the time. This is all wrong.”

The story is told from the perspectives of both Haruko and Margot, which allows the reader to understand the motivation of both characters. The struggles of the internment camp bring Haruko and Margot together, and they both have romantic feelings for each other. While the girls’ attraction is hinted at, the topic is not explored in depth which makes it hard to relate to the girls’ strong feelings for each other. In the end, Haruko wonders how she can make a decision based on a moment, “for a person I have known barely a month? For a feeling that was so fast and so strong, and that I can barely even describe?” The reader is left wondering the same thing—why are the two girls so devastated by the other’s actions?

There are several family conflicts that should have been explored in more detail. Even though it is clear that the girls love their families, the story lacks family interaction that would have brought their relationships into focus. In the end, the characters lack development, the ending seems rushed, and the conclusion falls flat. Although the story is an interesting read, it will be easily forgotten.

Sexual Content

  • Margot and Haruko hide so they can talk. As they are talking, “I (Haruko) press my index and middle finger to my own mouth, which suddenly feels hot and swollen, and hold them there for a minute, and then I take those same fingers and press them against Margot’s. Her lips are chapped. She closes her eyes. . . I feel my pulse, very faintly, in the tips of my fingers, pressing against the cool of Margot’s lips, and slowing so that every beat crashes in my ears.” The two are interrupted.
  • While talking to Haruko, Margot “has a sudden urge to touch her nose, her hair, to go with her to the icehouse where it’s dark and private. There is throbbing, deep in the pit of my stomach.”

Violence

  • Haruko accidentally hit her sister. Her sister’s “mouth falls open and she reaches to where there are four white finger-shaped lines appearing on the side of her face.”
  • Haruko thinks back to when “a car drove past and the window rolled down and the driver threw a bottle of soda at us that splashed all over our clothes.”
  • While in the internment camp, Margot finds out that someone “painted swastikas on the barn and burned the house to the ground.” Her family has no home to return to.
  • Margot’s father tries to hit his pregnant wife. When Margo stops him, she “reached for his hand and he pulls away from me, and then I’m off balance and spilling to the ground. My mother rushed towards me, but she’s forgotten about the fallen chair. Her foot twists around the rung, and instead of shooting her hands out in front of herself for support the way I did, she’s kept them wrapped around her midsection, protecting her baby.” Her mom ends up with a bruised face.
  • There is news that at another internment camp, a riot began and, “guards fired into the crowd with a machine gun. . . Two people died.”
  • Two girls drown in the swimming pool. They are “pulled out of the pool, limp as rag dolls.” When people get upset, a guard points a rifle at the people.

Drugs and Alcohol

  • The general store sells cigarettes and German beer.
  • Some of the men at the internment camp are “building secret distilleries to get drunk on grain alcohol.” This is discussed several times.

Language

  • Thank God, for God’s sake, and Oh God are used as exclamations several times.
  • Someone calls Haruko a “yellow bitch.”
  • A man tells Margot that she would like his son because he’s “not an ass like me.”

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • During a funeral, the mourners “sing hymns that most of us know by rote. We recite the Apostles’ Creed, we recite the lord’s prayer.”

 

Saint Anything

Sydney’s older brother, Peyton, holds the spotlight in their family—first for his charm, and then for his stints in rehab and his poor decision-making skills. When he lands in prison after hitting a young boy while drinking and driving, the spotlight turns on Sydney. With this new scandal, she decides to switch schools, hoping for anonymity and a chance to start over.

She starts over by becoming friends with the Chatham family, a family that shows Sydney what it looks like to have parents who are present and supportive and friends who accept you for you. Dessen does all this without feeling cheesy or unrealistic. Readers will see the lesson shown when Sydney is finally able to stand up for herself and the people she loves. Readers will appreciate the character development of Sydney as well as her parents.

Saint Anything is a heartfelt story that doesn’t only focus on romance but also captures the ups and downs of real life. With just the right amount of romance, suspense, and family drama, Saint Anything explores Sydney’s personal growth as she deals with tragedy.

Sydney’s character is genuine and relatable. Her story explores the complicated nature of family relationships. Readers will walk away feeling satisfied at having read a story that not only had a well-developed plot, but also realistic characters and an engaging conflict. The realistic dialogue and uncomplicated vocabulary make for an easy-to-read, engaging story.

Dessen writes a beautiful story that focuses on dealing with grief, guilt, and loneliness. The heart-warming story, with well-developed characters, shows readers the importance of becoming comfortable in your own skin. Saint Anything is the perfect book for those looking for a sweet romance that focuses on family and friendship.

Sexual Content

  • Margaret says to her friend, “Thank me forever for hooking you up with the guy you’re crazy about?”
  • Margaret walks up the stairs with a boy, implying that they are going to have sex. She asks Sydney what she is doing, and Sydney thinks, “Considering she was alone with the guy Jenn had clearly stated she was crushing on, in Jenn’s house, on her way to where there were only bedrooms, I wanted to ask her the same thing.”
  • While on a walk in the woods, Mac and Layla kiss. “I took my hand from Mac’s, then reached up to touch his cheek. When I did, his fingers moved to my waist, pulling me in closer. It was fluid and easy, like everything had been since we’d met, as I stood on my tiptoes and finally, finally kissed him.”
  • Layla thinks about Mac while reflecting on their new relationship, “Not just that he was a good kisser (very good, actually) and had the tightest set of abs I’d ever seen or touched.”
  • When Layla and Mac say goodbye, “he leaned in, kissing me once on the lips, then on the forehead. I felt safe enough to close my eyes.”
  • Spence and Layla kiss before going downstairs to the recording studio. As Spence is headed towards the studio, Layla “allowed herself to be pulled in for a kiss. To her surprise, not to mention mine, it quickly became open-mouthed and full-on tongue.”
  • Sydney’s mom speaks of Mac, “enunciating his name like you might the word herpes or molestation.”

Violence

  • Sydney’s brother is in jail. He was driving under the influence and hit a young boy riding his bike, “head-on.” The accident is not described.
  • Margaret is speaking to Sydney about her public school and says, “I hear there are fights there every day. And that’s with the girls.”
  • A boy attempts to sexually assault Sydney. “He grabbed my wrists. . . then tightened his grip on my wrists, pushing them back, back, against my ears. That was when I got scared. . . I tried to turn my head as he put his lips on mine, squeezing my eyes shut, but he grabbed my face, jerking me back to face him. I could feel his fingers digging into my chin. . . but then my palm was connecting with his face, the sound of skin to skin loud, a smack, and he stumbled backward. . .” Sydney’s dad stops the attack. “. . . I saw my dad. He had one arm hooked around Ame’s neck, tight, the fist clenched, and was pulling him backward down the hallway, away from me.”

Drugs and Alcohol

  • In the beginning, Sydney explains the backstory of how her brother ended up in jail. She describes a background of breaking and entering, smoking pot, and possession of pills in his locker.
  • Peyton’s friend has a habit of smoking cigarettes. He would “duck out occasionally to the garage to smoke cigarettes, using a sand-bucket ashtray my mom (who abhorred the habit) put out.”
  • Peyton “drank several beers, took a few shots,” and then “got into his car, and headed home.”
  • In the past, Rosie became addicted to Vicodin that the doctor prescribed to her for a knee injury. She got into trouble when she attempted to get more by faking her prescriptions. “She got a bit too fond of the Vicodin they gave her. Tried to pass off some fake prescriptions.”
  • When Jenn’s parents are out of town, Margaret, Jenn, Meredith, and Sydney drink piña coladas. Meredith and Sydney are not fans of alcohol, but they stay to make sure Jenn is okay. Jenn drinks too much and Sydney helps her to bed.
  • A newspaper story speaking about Peyton’s past states, “After a string of arrests for breaking and entering and drug possession, among other things, he’d completed a stay in rehab and had been sober for over a year. But on that February night, after an evening spent drinking and getting high. . .”
  • Layla and her friends go into the woods behind their house and drink one or two beers before coming back home. Irv says, “Beer me, someone.”
  • Layla’s boyfriend has started taking drugs. Layla tells Sydney the extent of it. “Just pot. Some pills. They make him different. But when I nag him, he gets mad, then doesn’t answer my texts.”
  • When Layla’s boyfriend shows up at her house, she “got a strong whiff of alcohol.”
  • While in the recording studio, Spence, “proceeded to drink most of his bottle of vodka.”

Language

  • “Oh, my God” and “My God” are used several times as exclamations.
  • Layla’s dad says, “Blah my ass,” and then apologizes for his language.
  • Rosie flips another character off.
  • Layla speaks about her brother’s ex-girlfriend. “She was a mean hippie. Who even knew such a thing existed? Bitch.”

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • Layla and her brother went to church when they were young. She speaks about meeting a friend “whom I’d known since our days at Trinity Church Preschool.”
  • Mac explains that the pendant he wears around his neck is “actually a pendant of a saint.” He explains further saying it is of “Bathilde. Patron saint of children. I guess she [his mom] figured we’d need all the help we could get.”
  • Sydney thinks about Mac’s mother, “Like my mom, she was that center of the wheel, with everyone connected drawing strength from her. She needed a saint of her own.”
  • Mac and Layla deliver pizza. “At the next stop, we interrupted a teenage Bible study and were greeted at the door by a beaming girl with braces, who invited us in for a slice and some testimony. Even though we declined, she tipped generously. Jesus would have approved.”
  • Mac speaks about saints and the pendant again, saying Mrs. Chatham “always liked the idea of protection, but especially since she got sick. I’m not wholly convinced. But I figure it can’t hurt, you know?”
  • Mac speaks about saints and his mom. “But there are a few that can be applied pretty broadly. Like the saint of wanderers, travelers, the lost. Or whatever. . . My mom’s favorite is Saint Anthony, the finder of lost things.”
  • Sydney speaks about her saint pendant. “My Saint Anything. I liked the thought of someone looking out for me, whoever it might be. We all need protecting, even if we don’t always know what from.”

by Hannah Neely

Midnight Sun

Katie can’t be in the sun. Even the smallest amount of sunlight will cause her great pain because of a rare disease, forcing Katie to sleep during the day and lead an isolated life at night. Her best friend Morgan and her widowed father are her only companions until one night, Katie goes to the train station to play her guitar. As she plays her music, a chance encounter opens her world and her heart.

All-star athlete Charlee Reed thought his life was planned out for him until he met Katie. When he sees Katie playing her guitar, everything changes. He doesn’t know about Katie’s rare disease, but he’s determined to steal her heart.

Midnight Sun’s plot is typical, predictable, and cliché. Despite that, many teens will relate to Katie’s desire to be normal and her struggle to lead a life that matters. Katie’s love interest Charlie—handsome, kind, and generous—is every girl’s dream. The two quickly fall in love and force each other to step out of their comfort zones and follow their dreams.

Midnight Sun follows the same format as The Fault in Our Stars and Me Before You. Romance fans will enjoy this book because of its strong character development. This story encourages readers to follow their dreams and tells them anything is possible. However, the use of cursing and texting abbreviations such as FOMO seems unnecessary. Because of Charlie, Katie seems to accept the progression of her disease and her impending death with little emotion. Although she wonders what death will be like, her acceptance of dying young does not ring true.

Cook missed an opportunity in this novel to focus on the dangers of drinking. Even though Charlie, drunk and foolish, injured himself and lost his scholarship, Charlie still goes to a party and plays beer pong. During the party, drinking to excess is depicted as fun, without much risk. Although this book has some flaws, it is an easy-to-read story that will please readers looking for a character-driven romance.

Sexual Content

  • Katie fantasizes about Charlie. She wishes she could invite him into her room, “Run my fingers through that gorgeous hair. Kiss him.”
  • Morgan is excited that Katie is “meeting up with the guy you’ve lusted after for a decade.” They have a conversation about hooking up. Morgan says, “I am not losing my virginity to a guy I’ve talked to exactly twice in my life.”
  • Charlie and another girl used “to hook up once in a while . . . But it’s not something I’m proud of or want to repeat or anything.”
  • Charlie tells Katie that kids often grind when they dance. Then he shows how it’s done. “He puts a hand on my lower back and starts swaying his hips side to side like a pendulum. I follow his moves.”
  • Charlie kisses Katie. She thinks, “It is pure magic, so everything I ever hoped it would be, I can’t even move or think or breathe for a second. But then instinct kicks in and I feel everything, everything. My nerve endings tingle, my brain is on fire, my heart is a goner.”
  • Charlie and Katie kiss several times. It is described, but not in graphic detail. The first time, “he softly kisses me. He adds just the right amount of lips, tongue, and time.” Later, they kiss again and Katie thinks his lips “taste like sugar and cream and pure goodness . . . I’ve never felt so buzzed on life.”
  • Morgan kisses a boy, but it is not described. Later, Morgan said that she did “make out” with the boy.

Violence

  • None

Drugs and Alcohol

  • Katie, Morgan, and Charlie go to a party where teens are drinking and playing beer pong. Charlie explains the rules of beer pong and then he and Katie play. Katie doesn’t drink, but her friends do.
  • Katie, Morgan, and Charlie go to a party where the host bought a keg, but doesn’t know how to open it. Morgan complains, “This really is a tame, safe, parent-friendly party!”
  • While playing guitar at the train station, Katie sees a man who “seems drunk.”
  • At a party, someone says, “And that girl over there, she has a prescription drug problem.”
  • When Charlie is drunk, his friend “bet me I couldn’t jump off the roof into the pool and I clipped the edge and I’m an idiot.” He injured himself jumping, which led to him losing his scholarship.

Language

  • Profanity is used often. Profanity includes ass, bitches, crap, damn, jerk, freaking, hell, shit, and WTF.
  • “Goddamn” is used once.
  • Morgan said, “Tonight is going to be fan-fucking-tastic, and so are you!”
  • A girl calls Morgan a “douchebag.”
  • “Oh my God,” is used as an exclamation several times.
  • Morgan tells Katie, “it took gigantic cojones to come to this party.”
  • When Morgan gets her diploma, she “strikes a pose and mouths, Yeah, bitches!”
  • A friend of Katie’s dad “has great stories about what a little pain in the ass my dad was as a kid.”
  • Morgan calls a popular girl a “whore” and “flaming crotch rot.”
  • An advice columnist writes, “everyone has their shit sandwich. The only difference is some people aren’t willing to talk about it.”
  • Morgan tells Katie, “You’re a hot, young, badass woman in charge of her own life, and you text him whenever you damn well please.”

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • Katie wonders what happens after a person dies. She wonders if death is “just you, in the dark, awake and aware. I sincerely hope not, because that would be unnecessarily cruel.”
  • Katie’s mother died in a car crash when she was younger. Katie wonders what happened when her mom died. “Was there a white light, did her grandparents escort her to heaven? Will she get me when it’s my turn? Or will it just be blackness, a big void, a curtain coming down and that’s it, like I never existed at all?”

 

 

 

 

 

Chemistry Lesson

Maya has her summer all planned. She has an internship at MIT and the perfect boyfriend, but before the summer fun can start, Maya’s boyfriend breaks up with her. Maya, who is still grieving her mother’s death, has one thing on her mind—getting Whit back.

When Maya finds her mother’s old notebooks, she thinks she’s discovered the perfect way to get her boyfriend back. With the help of her mother’s lab intern, Ann, Maya makes a love serum. But before Maya can use it on Whit, she needs to test out the serum on two test subjects. Maya embarks on an adventure that leads her to discover the unpredictability of love.

The best part of Chemistry Lesson is the relationship Maya has with her best friend, Brian. Realistic, funny, and kind, Brian shows what true friendship should look like. Another positive relationship in the story is between Maya and her father. Both are trying to deal with the loss of Maya’s mother and struggle with the grieving process.

Although the storyline has an interesting premise, Maya’s willingness to ignore moral codes to get Whit back seems farfetched. Whit’s early disappearance from the story leaves the reader wondering why Whit is worth all of the effort to create a love potion. For a person who is so smart when it comes to science, Maya is completely clueless when it comes to guys. By completing the experiment, Maya does learn about herself and others, but her naivety when it comes to boy-girl relationships comes off as false.

Chemistry Lesson is a quick, easy read that has a diverse cast of characters. Even though the story focuses on a love potion, the love scenes won’t stir up much emotion. For those looking for a fun, unique love story, Chemistry Lesson will hit the mark.

Sexual Content

  • Brian is gay, but the only reference to his sexuality is when Maya asked, “Were you ever this upset about Matt?”
  • Maya’s aunt has a female partner “of more than 20 years.” Pam tells Maya that when she “had crushes on women and men while I was with Pam,” but because she was older, she was “able to ignore the crushes.”
  • Maya’s friend Yael told Maya “how a woman she’d met in undergrad pursued her for months only to dump her for a guy on the rugby team.”
  • Maya and her boyfriend, Whit, decided “we’d have sex in four weeks—once Whit moved into off-campus housing, where he’d have his own room.” Maya was “unable to stop myself from imagining what was going to happen in less than a month.”
  • When Maya’s boyfriend breaks up with her, her friend tells her, “This whole ‘losing my virginity thing is a heteronormative concept anyway.”
  • Maya makes out with Kyle. The scene is described over three pages. As they kiss, “He tipped me back so that my head rested against a couch pillow, and then he was half on top of me, one leg on the couch, one on the floor. . . He shifted so that his knee fell in between my legs.” Maya stops Kyle. Then he said, “This kind of thing happens all the time in college.”
  • Maya thinks back to visiting Whit at college where, “I’d seen students bring strangers back to their rooms and then say goodbye forever the next morning.”
  • One of Maya’s friends “hooked up with one of the techs from next door.”
  • Maya makes out with a boy at a party. “He pulled me close and hugged me, and I reciprocated with my arms around him. Then I felt a tickling wetness on my neck. . . He put one hand on my butt like it was no big deal . . . I couldn’t do much besides keep my mouth open as his tongue began wagging from side to side inside it.” The scene is described over four pages.
  • Someone tells Maya, “sometimes the best way to get over someone is to get under someone else.”
  • When Maya is in Whit’s room, she teases him for having Bananagrams in his nightstand. She says, “You’re supposed to have condoms and drugs in there.”

Violence

  • None

Drugs and Alcohol

  • For an experiment, Maya takes drops. When her friend catches her taking the drops, she tells him, “I’m ingesting a pheromones-masking formula to get Whit back.”
  • Maya thinks back to “the wine that Whit once stole from his parent’s liquor cabinet so we could share it on one of our first real dates.”
  • After dinner, Maya’s aunt poured her a “full glass of sweet wine.”
  • Maya goes to several parties where there was alcohol. At one, “Most of the kids were drinking beer procured by someone’s older brother.”
  • When trying to explain an experiment, one of the characters mentions Viagra.
  • Maya, her father, and her friend go to an outdoor play. Her father brought “water bottles filled with his special juice drink.” Maya’s father said, “I’m teaching her that alcohol isn’t something you consume in excess for the purposes of getting drunk.”
  • Maya goes to a party where teens are drinking and she “could see a pack of adults smoking something in a circle.”
  • When Maya hurts herself, she takes Percocet for the pain.

Language

  • When someone makes fun of Kyle’s singing, he “lifted his middle finger in our direction.”
  • When Maya visits her aunt, her aunt uses profanity including “goddamned.” The aunt’s accent is so thick that the curse words sounded like “fahckin’ or ‘gawhddamned.’”
  • “Oh my god” is used as an exclamation.
  • Profanity is used infrequently but includes bullshit, dammit, hell, and shit.
  • After Maya sings karaoke, her friend says, “you sounded like a fucking robot.”
  • “Jesus” is used once as an exclamation.
  • When Maya falls down, a guy says, “Holy shit, she’s down.

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • None

Since You’ve Been Gone

Emily was ready for summer. She had it all planned out: she and her best friend Sloane would find fun part-time jobs, go on weekend trips, and take everyday adventures together. However, everything changes when Sloane mysteriously disappears, leaving behind a list for Emily to accomplish. Seeing this as the only way to get her best friend back, Emily is determined to finish the list. The list contains thirteen tasks designed to push Emily’s comfort zone like “riding a horse” or, even scarier, “kissing a stranger.”

Emily embarks on a completely unexpected summer filled with risky exploits, play-writing parents, and new friends that allow her to discover who she is as an individual, not just half of a whole.  Since You’ve Been Gone is a delightful novel that makes the reader long for those days of summer that seemed endlessly filled with possibilities. Fans of Morgan Matson’s other books will be thrilled by this adorable adventure that is in her same spellbinding style.

This book is perfectly appropriate for teen readers and is relatable in many aspects through the struggles Emily faces to discover her individual identity. Nonetheless, there is a great deal of romance throughout the book and sexual content is found on several occasions, so parents of younger readers may heed caution. Despite this, Since You’ve Been Gone is a delightful book full of hilarious scenes in which the readers feel as though they are part of a group of friends. The characters and plot make Since You’ve Been Gone well worth reading.

Sexual Content

  • Sloane and Emily make a plan to find “summer boys.”
  • A boy absentmindedly stares at Sloane when she is at a craft fair, and he unknowingly picks up a macaroni necklace during his entrance of her beauty.
  • Items on Sloane’s list include skinny dipping and kissing a stranger.
  • When Emily goes to The Orchard, a popular hangout place, a couple of parks next to her car and “started furiously making out in the front seat.”
  • When Emily sees Frank lift up his shirt to reveal his surprisingly ripped abs, she “felt my feet tingle.”
  • When Emily meets Dawn for the first time, Dawn is crying about the fact that her boyfriend is cheating on her with her best friend.
  • Sloane’s boyfriend, Sam, was “sliding his arms around Sloane’s waist and kissing her cheek.”
  • Emily’s parents’ play has a kissing scene that Emily and Frank almost have to perform.
  • Emily makes out with a stranger in the small pantry of Frank’s house. “His lips were on mine . . . he wrapped his arms around my waist, and started kissing me for real . . . And soon I was kissing him back, my pulse racing and my breath catching in my throat, his hands twined in my hair. It was only when his hands slipped under the hem of my shirt . . . that I came out of the make-out trance.”
  • Emily’s former boyfriend Gideon is a “good kisser.” They kiss a few times in the book.
  • Sam kisses Emily, making Sloane break up with him.
  • Emily and Frank kiss in her car as the rain is pouring down on them through the sunroof. “And it was a kiss that felt like it could stop time . . . We were kissing like it was a long-forgotten language that we’d once been fluent in and we were finding again, kissing like it was the only thing either of us had wanted to do for a long, long time, kissing with the urgency of the rain that was pounding down all around us . . . His hands were tangled in my hair, then touching my bare back, and I was shivering in a way that didn’t have anything to do with the cold.”
  • At the conclusion of the novel, Frank and Emily engage in a passionate kiss that is not described in detail.

Violence

  • When attempting to break into her own house, Sloane falls over the windowsill and lands “with a thump that I could hear even from the ground.”
  • A character commits arson in the play Bug Juice that Emily’s parents wrote.
  • Frank hits Collins on the back affectionately and Emily remarks, “I had no idea why boys, when they become affectionate, got violent.”

Drugs and Alcohol

  • At the apple orchard where many parties are held, there are ladders, and “only the bravest‒or drunkest‒people ventured up them.”
  • The Orchard is described as having, “a small group smoking. There was a keg and a stack of red Solo cups, an open cooler at his feet.”
  • Emily gets a cup of beer that was “mostly. . . a cup of foam.” She “took a tiny sip, wincing at the warm, metallic taste, wondering how much longer I had to stay.”
  • Collins hits on a girl who is, “smoking a cigarette and talking on her phone.”
  • Sloane acquires fake IDs for herself and Emily to go into a bar and hear one of their favorite bands perform. Emily does not go in the first time, but returns after Sloane has gone missing. Within the bar, she sees “the shelves of liquor stretched up almost to the ceiling.” When she orders a diet coke, the bartender asks her if she wants it “with rum,” to which she refuses.
  • At Frank’s birthday party, Emily gets tipsy.
  • When Emily sleeps over at Sloane’s house, she is sent to get a bottle of wine from the fridge for them to drink while they binge watch Psychic Vet Tech.

Language

  • Phrases using the word “god” as an exclamation are used frequently.
  • Profanity is used frequently throughout the novel. Profanity includes holy crap, hell, and damn.
  • Collins jokingly insults Frank and says, “You complete moron. I thought I was going to have to get the ladder and pull you out like a damn cat!”
  • Emily thinks that some people at a party think that she is a “narc.”
  • A girl in a bar says, “Jared has been cheating on me with some skank named Penelope.”
  • Frank says to Emily, “Don’t be stupid.”

Supernatural

  • When thinking of Sloane’s mysterious disappearance, Emily says, “I was negotiating with some cosmic dealer who could guarantee this for me.”
  • An example of the trivial text exchanges between Sloane and Emily is, “Have you noticed it’s been a while since anyone’s seen the Loch Ness monster?”

Spiritual Content

  • None

by Morgan Filgas

Crossing the Line

Dalila Sandoval, the daughter of one of the wealthiest lawyers in Mexico, is focused on her future. She is turning 18, but she already knows exactly what she wants from life—until she meets Ryan Hess. He is a “bad boy” who doesn’t fit into her life, but when she looks into his blue eyes, a flame of desire comes alive.

Ryan Hess has one goal—to prove he can become a great boxer. He flees an unhappy family life and travels to Mexico in the hope of convincing a famous retired boxer to train him. He does not want to be pulled into Dalila’s life or her problems, but he can’t stop himself from falling for her. Despite their immediate attraction, forces outside of their control quickly rise to conspire against them. Is there any way their love can survive?

Dalila and Ryan are two star-crossed lovers who, like Romeo and Juliet, fall in love quickly. Each chapter flip-flops between Ryan and Dalila’s point of view, allowing readers to understand both character’s thoughts and feelings. The beginning of the story is predictable, and the supporting characters are underdeveloped. Despite these drawbacks, readers who enjoy a good love story will be drawn into the couple’s drama and enjoy the unique angle of a rich girl from Mexico falling for a poor American.

Crossing the Line is not a book for those wanting a plausible story based in reality. Ryan spends all his time thinking about proving himself in the boxing ring, but once Dalila steals his heart, he quickly forgets about his dream. Dalila has no qualms about lying or using her body to beguile Ryan. Even though Ryan knows that Dalila is manipulating him, he overlooks her flaws and vows to stay by her side as she tries to figure out if her father is involved in the Mexican Mafia.

Crossing the Line is full of mystery and has a whirlwind ending full of surprises. The story follows the typical story line—boy and girl don’t want to fall in love, but are forced together by outside forces. For older readers who want a steamy, action packed romance, Crossing the Line will keep you entertained.

Sexual Content

  • When Ryan was new to town, a girl and he “hooked up at a party.”
  • After Ryan’s mom found out she was pregnant, her boyfriend, “ran off with some bimbo stripper he’d met at a dive bar.”
  • When Ryan was younger, his mom “had a history of bringing random guys to the trailer, but she wasn’t a whore. She was hoping one of them would stick around enough to take care of her.”
  • While at a concert, Ryan’s friend said, “I think that girl over there with the spider tattoo on her face just grabbed my ass. I feel violated.”
  • Dalila’s friend “might be a flirt, but she’s not into one-night stands or hookups.”
  • Dalila tries to convince a police officer that she is Ryan’s girlfriend. “I bury my hands in his thick hair and touch my lips to his. I’m determined to make this make-out session look convincing. . . the touch of his soft but firm lips against mine sends delicious sensations zinging up my spine. I’ve kissed boys before, but I’ve never felt goose bumps all over like this.”
  • The day after Ryan’s fight, Dalila tends to Ryan’s wounds. “And when she bends over to tend to the cut on my cheek, her cleavage makes my groin twitch.”
  • At Dalila’s birthday party, she and a friend take a walk in the gardens. “Before I can pull back, he presses his lips to mine and wraps his arms around my waist, pulling me close. I’m not ready for this. . . I push him away, glad when our lips separate.” The boy thinks she is playing games and “presses his body to mine again, so close that I can feel how much of a distraction he wants to be.” Ryan sees the two and the boy leaves.
  • Ryan and Dalila kiss several times. Once when they kiss, Ryan’s “breath hitches as she steps so close, I can feel the heat of her skin against mine. Without hesitation, she reaches up on her toes and her sexy, full lips meet mine. They’re soft and wet and full of passion. I hate myself as I take hungry possession of her mouth . . . My lips are still on hers as my tongue instinctively darts out, taking this kiss to the next level. . . her tongue darts out and meets mine.”
  • Ryan tells a story about when he, “got an erection during the swim unit freshman year. One of the girls noticed and screamed it out to the entire class.” He tells another story about his mom’s boyfriend. Ryan did not like him so he took a girl’s phone and “text[ed] the guy all this sexual stuff hoping my mom would see it.” Ryan’s mom broke up with the man.
  • Dalila goes to where Ryan is staying and takes a shower. Thinking about her in the shower, Ryan’s “body is reacting, willing and ready to be called into action.” The shower scene takes place over four pages and the two end up in the shower together. Dalila’s “breath hitches as he leans down and gently licks my wet skin, the sensation sending shock waves through my veins. . . His hot, wet tongue graces my earlobe and then his lips place tiny, light kisses on my mouth. A fire burns within me that I’ve never experienced before. . . This feeling is like a drug and I want more.” They do not have sex, but “we both explored and experimented and drove each other insane. . .”
  • Ryan and Dalila’s truck breaks down in the middle of the desert. Alone at night, they kiss and Dalila, “still straddling me, lifts my T-shirt that she’s been wearing all day over her head. Her fingers go to the front hook of her sexy lace bra and she releases the material, making me feel like the luckiest guy on the planet. It falls down her shoulders revealing her full, perfect breasts. I swallow and my breathing gets ragged as her hands reach for my zipper.” They then have sex, but it is not described in this scene.
  • Later, Ryan and Dalila have sex again, and it is described over two and a half pages. “She steps closer and reaches out, touching my chest with her soft, delicate fingers. . . I close my eyes and feel the brush of her gentle kisses on each bruise, starting with my shoulders and moving down to my chest and lower. . .When her panties and shorts fall to the floor, she focuses her gaze on the ground. . . My fingers trace a path from her taunt stomach to those perfectly shaped hips and I settle my palms on her amazing backside. I pick her up by her bottom.”

Violence

  • Ryan thought about committing suicide, but someone saw him, “sitting on a park bench with a pocketknife it my hand,” and talked him out of it.
  • Ryan thinks back to a time when he got in a fight at school. When the boy talked badly about him, he “whacked willie with a solid left hook. Willie fell and I was immediately on top of him, punching him repeatedly as frustrated tears streamed down my face. My fist kept flying until three lunch supervisors hauled me away.”
  • Ryan sees a boy slip something into a girl’s drink and he confronts the boy. When the boy goes to give the girl a drink, Ryan’s “fist connects with Skyler’s jaw. The guy stumbles backward and falls to the floor.”
  • Ryan’s stepfather tells Ryan that his father “killed someone, shot him in a bar fight.”
  • Ryan goes to an underground bar and fights other men, but the fighting is not described.
  • At Dalila’s birthday party, someone shoots at her family’s compound. Ryan shields Dalila. “Another pop pop pop fills the air and I suck in a horrified breath. . . Fresh blood drops from Ryan’s side onto the floor.” Ryan only has a flesh wound.
  • After spending the night together, Ryan takes Dalila home. Her father’s bodyguards beat up Ryan. “Without a word or grunt, he punches me in the gut. His fist feels like a steel mallet. Fuck, that hurt. . . Gerardo punches me in the gut with that mallet fist of his two more times. I don’t want to crumple to the ground when the clowns release me, but the pain takes over my resolve and all of a sudden I’m eating dirt.”
  • A man and his gang attack Ryan. “I take a few of them out before I’m surrounded. I’m not giving up, not even when someone whacks me on the back with something other than a fist. The punches and kicks don’t stop, and slowly my body gives up.” Ryan blacks out and is dumped in an alley.
  • Dalila hears a gun shot. When she runs towards the sound, “my entire body goes numb as I see Papa holding a gun. He’s standing over a body lying in a pool of blood.” Later she finds out that her father did not kill the man.
  • Someone kills Dalila’s abuela as revenge. Ryan and Dalila find “Abuela Carmela, who’s lying on the floor, soaking in her own blood. . . Dalila’s hand flies to her mouth and a helpless cry pierces the air at the sight of her grandmother riddled with stab wounds.”
  • At the end, several cartel members surround Ryan and Dalila. Ryan threatens them and “I see the fire flash out of the barrel of his gun.” Ryan is shot. “Something cold pierces my gut and my shoulder. I know I’ve been hit.” Someone grabs Dalila “and attempts to run out with her as his shield. . .” Before he can do that, “shots ring out” and the man “falls to the ground, his body riddled with bullets. He’s dead.”

Drugs and Alcohol

  • Ryan’s mother is an alcoholic. At a funeral Ryan wonders, “how much alcohol she downed before she showed up here.” Ryan refers to his mother’s drinking often.
  • Ryan smokes a cigarette at a funeral.
  • At a dinner party, the guests are served “some kind of amber-colored brandy.”
  • At a concert, people are able to order a drink from the bar. A boy offers to buy a girl a beer, but she just wants a soda. The boy buys the girl a soda, but slips something into it.
  • Ryan meets a man in a bar; the guy has a “half-empty bottle of beer in front of him.”
  • Ryan’s mother said she heard, “you were running drugs across the border.”
  • Dalila goes out with her friends and sees a boy she knows. The boy is with his friends. “One of them is laughing loudly and the other has bloodshot eyes. They’ve definitely been drinking.”
  • Ryan goes to an underground bar where “there’s a big dude at the door who looks like a poster child for the overuse of steroids. In lethal doses.” The people in the bar are also drinking.
  • Dalila’s parents throw her a birthday party and one of the boys was holding a beer.

Language

  • Profanity is used in the extreme. Profanity includes: ass, bastard, bitch, crap, dick, damn, douch-bag, fuck, hell, motherfucker, piss, pendejo, puta, and shit.
  • When Ryan sees a girl, he flips her off.
  • Ryan’s motto in life is “fuck being a hero.”
  • Ryan’s stepfather calls him a bastard several times.
  • When Ryan stops a boy from kissing someone, the boy says, “Oh, and the next time you cock-block me like that, I’m gonna make sure you never get hired in Mexico again. By anyone.”
  • After Ryan is shot, he stays the night at Dalila’s family home. His friend tells Ryan, “I’ll bet my left nut that sleepin’ on an expensive mattress will make you crave the good life, especially if the rich chick finds her way into it.”

 

Supernatural

  • None

 

Spiritual Content

  • When Ryan reminds his stepfather that they are not family, his stepfather says, “Thank the mighty Lord for that.”
  • The story talks about the Day of the Dead.

Stay Sweet

For Amelia, working at Meade Creamery means more than just having a summer job. After four years of working at the ice cream shop, Amelia has a strong bond with the all-girl staff. The older girls teach her about life: who the best teachers are, how to wear lipstick, and the perfect amount of sprinkles to put on a sundae.

When the creamery’s owner suddenly dies, the grandnephew Grady takes over the business. The nineteen-year-old hopes to prove he is capable of running a business. But Amelia and the other girls feel threatened by his presence. She doesn’t want a boy to come in between her and the perfect summer. Can Amelia show Grady the importance of the traditions behind being a Meade Creamery girl?

Stay Sweet focuses on Amelia’s desire to keep the Meade Creamery open so traditions don’t die. The story is written in the third person, however, which leaves the story feeling emotionally flat. Instead of having well-developed characters that are worthy of falling in love with, the characters’ thoughts and feelings fail to shine through.

The characters are not likely either, which makes becoming invested in this story even more of a struggle. Amelia allows herself to be taken advantage of by Grady. Amelia’s best friend, Cat, is a jealous, self-centered, awful person and a terrible friend. And Grady’s handsome looks may be the only likable part of his character. The WWII diary entries of Molly Meade bring some interest to the story, but the script font makes the entries difficult to read. In the end, Molly is the only girl who is not portrayed in a stereotypical way.

Although Stay Sweet encourages girls to live their dreams, the characters’ flaws interfere with the message and leave the reader feeling indifferent for most of the story. Stay Sweet is not a memorable summer romance.

Sexual Content

  • Amelia thinks about all she has learned while working at the creamery. The older girls taught her “the unvarnished truth of what it was like when they lost their virginity.”
  • One of the girls “donated” a box of condoms because “girls shouldn’t ever depend on a guy to bring protection.”
  • Amelia knows someone who would “stress-French after SAT prep classes.”
  • Cat predicts that Grady will “try to get with one of the girls this summer.” She makes the girls swear to stay away from him.
  • Grady and Amelia kiss. Grady “pulls her even closer to him. There is warmth in his eyes. . . They are kissing . . . what she wants to concentrate on are his lips on hers, how he can’t seem to get close enough to her, how his curls feel softer than she ever imagined.”
  • Grady and Amelia get caught in a rainstorm. When they get inside, “he pulls her close to him and kisses her. Their wet bodies stick together.” They take off each other’s shirts. Then “they are kissing and walking, heading toward the living room couch half-dressed.” Amelia’s friend walks in on them and stops them from going further.
  • In one scene where Amelia and Grady kiss, “his hands slipping up her neck and into her hair. When she tries pulling away, he leans forward, holding his lips to hers, extending the kiss for a second, two, three. Like he doesn’t want it to end.”
  • Molly’s journal talks about when her boyfriend left for the war. He took “my face in his hands, wiping away my tears with his thumbs. He kissed me on the lips, then brought my hand to his mouth and kissed it, almost on the top of the engagement ring.”

Violence

  • None

Drugs and Alcohol

  • When Grady and his father have a serious conversation, Cat says, “This is why kids at Truman are so stressed out! They’ve got these alpha parents pushing them. I’ve heard like over half of the student body is on Adderall.”
  • Grady’s parents try to FaceTime him, but he ignores it because “they got to Amsterdam today, which means they’re high.”
  • The creamery girls have a party at the ice cream stand and leave a huge mess. “Icy beer has splattered all over the drums of ice cream.”

Language

  • The teen characters often use profanity in their conversations, including: “ass,” “badass,” “crap,” “damn,” “hell,” “hella,” “pissed,” “shit,” and “son of a bitch.”
  • “Oh my god” and “Jesus” are used as exclamations several times.
  • Cat and Amelia get into an argument and Cat yells, “That’s a screw you.”
  • When Cat finds out that Grady will be the boss, she said, “I’m worried he’s going to ride our asses all summer.”
  • When Grady tastes the creamery’s ice cream, he says, “Holy shit.”
  • “Holy crap” is used several times.
  • Cat tells Amelia, “I’m pissed at you for keeping secrets, I’m pissed at you for hooking up with Grady, and I’m pissed that you fired me. . . But holy shit, Amelia, you fucking fired me.”

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • At Molly’s funeral, the pastor says, “Now, the good Lord sprinkled Molly and Wayne with the same stardust he must use to make movie stars.” Later in the service, he says, “Now, Wayne, as you know, never made it home from the war, may God rest his soul. But God did not forsake . . .”
  • In Molly’s journal, she prays, “Please, God, send him home to me.”
  • Molly is afraid that it is a sin to be so lucky, so on Sunday she is “going to put a little something extra in the collection plate and pray a few more rosaries than I normally do. That way God will know how very grateful I am.”

Dream a Little Dream

Liv is used to strange and new things. For all of her life, she has bounced from city to city as she moved from one place to another. This time she and her sister, Mia, are packing up their belongings for England because their mother has garnered a teaching position at Oxford University. Little does she know that this move will be the strangest yet.

Liv finds herself thrust into a world of gossipy blogs, a rich new family, and vivid dreams that make her question her reality. She soon finds herself entangled in bizarre dreams in which she is led to the most popular boys in school, one of which is her new “brother.”  Before she can even adjust to her new life, she is swept away into deals with a demon to free the boys from a terrible fate. Liv’s curious mind drives her closer to the heart of the mystery of the dreams as she searches for the truth underneath all of the madness.

Dream a Little Dream is an entertaining and suspenseful novel that leaves readers on the edge of their seats as they wonder what will happen next. Many of the characters are introduced at the same time, which causes confusion.  However, the story has a creative and engaging premise that is very enjoyable. The reader is able to discover this new world along with Liv and relate to her confusion, fear, and curiosity. The book has a surprising plot twist that adds to the enjoyment of the novel, but what follows that event leaves much to be desired. The attempt to leave room for a sequel ruins the ending and causes the reader to be confused rather than curious about the next installment in the series. Additionally, the novel describes how characters conduct rituals to make deals with a demon, which may be concerning to some parents.

Sexual Content

  • Liv’s mom has a relationship with an English lawyer, who makes her happy. They are described as kissing a few times, but nothing more than that.
  • Florence is described as having, “voluptuous breasts.”
  • The school blog wrote about sports and said, “Aesthetically speaking, those sloppy shirts they wear are the worst (even polo kit has more sex appeal), but all the same I don’t object to the sweaty sight of our four musketeers.”
  • In one of the “dreams”, Henry and Liv hold hands. They also discuss kissing, but only briefly.
  • In reference to Jasper’s dreams, “Most of the people in his dreams are stark naked.”
  • Liv’s mom talks about how when she was fifteen, she “was sitting up at night writing poetry. I was unhappily in love. . . At that age you fall in love with someone else every three weeks.”
  • Liv tells Anabel that she looks like Botticelli’s Venus, to which she responds, “Yes, but only when I’m standing around in a seashell with no clothes on.”
  • Anabel says that Arthur is the great love of her life and that, “it was like a tsunami rolling over us. I knew we were meant for each other, I knew he was the man I’d been waiting for all my life.”
  • Mia and Liv jokingly say that they have an “Operation Marrying Off Lottie” in which they will find their au pair a soulmate so she’ll have something to do when they don’t need her anymore.
  • Grayson and his girlfriend Emily kiss at a party intensely to the point which Liv thinks that it is, “kind of embarrassing to watch.”
  • Liv and her friends walk into a cinema and find a couple in the top row of seats in the dark. The man “began frantically adjusting his clothes . . . he came storming down the steps, his shirt still unbuttoned.” When the woman comes down, Arthur says, “How nice to see you again, Mrs. Kelly . . . and give your husband my regards if he happens to be at the party too.”
  • The four boys repeatedly ask Liv if she is a virgin. It is later revealed that she is.
  • Anabel breaks the rules of the game by having sex. She then has to forfeit and her dog is killed by the demon. It is later revealed that she killed her own dog with poison in order to trick the boys.
  • In the dream world, Henry and Liv kiss several times. They are not described in detail, but are usually described as “soft kisses.”
  • A gossipy girl talks about Arthur and says, “I get goosebumps whenever I set eyes on him. But Henry Harper is totally sweet too. And sexy.”
  • Henry and Liv make out during her sixteenth birthday party. “For a few seconds I forgot to breathe, then I felt my arms rising and going around his neck of their own accord to draw him closer. We weren’t kissing cautiously now, but much more intensely.” They all so make out during a school dance. “I’ve no idea how he did it, but when he kissed me nothing else mattered.”

Violence

  • When Liv went to a middle school in Berkeley, California, a girl gang, “had threatened to force my head into a toilet.” They later actually do shove her head into a toilet and it is described in detail in one of Liv’s dreams. These bullies also say that they squash people’s hands in doors.
  • In a dream, Henry sees his old cat. “He looked just the way he was when I last saw him: all-over blood and with his guts coming out . . .”
  • In one of her first vivid dreams, Liv repeatedly hopes that Lottie won’t show up with a hatchet.
  • In a nightmare, there is a group of enraged basketball fans. Liv says, “It sounds like they are going to kill him any moment now!” The mob begins to chant, “Burn him now, burn the traitor. Burn him now, not a day later!”
  • Liv jokingly remarks about London and says, “Street gangs indulging in shoot-outs the whole time, sex fiends lurking in front gardens, and isn’t that Jack the Ripper just coming around the corner.”
  • During a ritual, Liv, Grayson, Arthur, Jasper, and Henry all take turns cutting their hand with a hunting knife and dribbling their blood into a Chalice full of red wine. This scene is described in detail over several pages.
  • Liv has many dreams about Hamlet after she sees the play, and in these dreams, there are references to the stabbings and deaths of many of the Shakespearean characters.
  • During her sixteenth birthday party, Liv requests that Mia stop her from looking like a “lovelorn sheep” in any way that she can. Mia decides to distract her anytime she looks at Henry in that manner. “I was black and blue around the ribs and had been hit by assorted flying objects: several chestnuts, a spoon, and a blueberry muffin.”
  • Arthur intends on offering Anabel as a human sacrifice in the dream world in order to satisfy the demon. This never happens, but later in the novel, Anabel captures Liv with the intention of killing her as a virginal sacrifice to the demon.
  • When Liv tries to stop what she thinks is the sacrifice of Anabel, she “swung up my right foot and caught him just under the chin as I jumped. Still in the air, I turned at an angle of 280 degrees, and when I landed, my left forearm caught him in the stomach.”
  • An iron torch holder falls on Liv and she blacks out. Following the incident, she has to get several stitches.

Drugs and Alcohol

  • At the airport, Liv is stopped for suspicion of drug smuggling because a drug dog smells something in her backpack. It is just German cheese with a strong odor, but the ordeal causes Liv a lot of embarrassment.
  • On several occasions, Jasper helps himself to some of his mother’s sleeping pills in order to remain in the dream world longer.
  • Liv’s mom is accused of smoking pot when she was fifteen, but she defends herself by saying, “Nonsense. I never smoked pot until I went to college.”
  • Grayson tries to deter Liv from going to a party by telling her mother, “These parties are rather wild. I mean there’s a lot of alcohol flowing, and what with Liv being only fifteen.”
  • Liv describes Arthur’s house as looking like “a private clinic for the drug-addicted kids of millionaires.”
  • Jasper makes drinks that contain large amounts of alcohol during an important scene that lasts several pages. He is also later described as “tipsy.”
  • During a party, Arthur drinks gin straight from a bottle.
  • The British teens that Liv meets tell stories of when they were drunk on Halloween.
  • In one of Anabel’s dreams, Arthur walks toward her heroically while carrying a bottle of wine.
  • A drunk truck driver killed one of Anabel’s ex-boyfriends. The accident is not described.
  • At the school dance, Jasper “had somehow managed to get tipsy, although there were no alcoholic drinks.”
  • Anabel and Arthur leave the school dance under the guise that she is terribly drunk. They are actually setting a trap to lure Liv, so Anabel can kill her for the virginal sacrifice.
  • At the conclusion of the novel, Anabel is “lying in a hospital bed in Surrey, stuffed full of mind bending drugs and tied down.”

Language

  • Profanity is used frequently throughout the novel, including hell, bloody hell, shit, and damn.
  • “God,” “my God,” “thank God,” and “oh my God” are used frequently as swear words.
  • Grayson is described as a “stupid show-off” and later as an “idiot.”
  • Mia thinks that her aunts named Gertrude and Virginia have “shitty names.”
  • Liv strongly dislikes Persephone and says that she, “follows me around everywhere, talking to me the whole darn time!”
  • A character is called a “midget.”

 

Supernatural

  • During a ritual, Liv, Grayson, Arthur, Jasper, and Henry all take turns cutting their hand with a hunting knife and dribbling their blood into a Chalice full of red wine. This scene is described in detail over several pages.
  • Liv does not believe in “unlucky numbers any more than I believed in horoscopes, or four leaf clovers and chimney sweeps that brought you luck.”
  • The main characters of the novel conjure a demon and in return for freeing him, have immeasurable power and their dearest wish granted. “If you followed the rituals in this book, Anabel claimed, you could conjure up an ancient demon from the underworld, a demon that could help you gain immeasurable power and grant your dearest wishes.” Their immeasurable power is in the form of dreams in which they can control what happens with a simple thought and enter the dreams of others to learn their deepest secrets and desires.
  • The initial approach to conjuring the demon was not serious. “Conjuring up a demon on Halloween . . . It was fun . . . it seemed to me as harmless as telling your fortune by reading tea leaves. No one expects the tea leaves to develop an independent life of their own and come tormenting you in your dreams by night. Or go about murdering dogs.”
  • When Liv wakes up from a horrific nightmare, her family comes running to make sure that she is okay. Florence asks her, “Did you see a ghost?”

Spiritual Content

  • To upset Florence, Liv makes sarcastic suggestions as to the horrible things that she and her family might be. She says they are, “hopelessly disorganized, or a kleptomaniac, a Republican, a Jehovah’s witness, or anything.”
  • The demon that the group conjures is the “Lord of Shadows and Darkness.” Anabel believes that he is all-powerful and dedicates herself to him like a god. This devotion stems from a time period in her youth when she and her mother were a part of a satanic cult.

          by Morgan Filgas

 

Not If I Save You First

When they were ten, Maddie and Logan were best friends. Maddie thought they’d be friends forever. Maddie never cared that Logan was the president’s son. But fate dealt their friendship a deadly blow. When her Secret Service Agent father almost dies trying to save the president’s son, everything changes.

After he almost dies, Maddie’s father exchanges the White House for a cabin in the middle of the Alaskan wilderness. Maddie had no phone. No internet. No friends. And no Logan. When she first moved to Alaska, Maddie wrote letter after letter to Logan, but he never replied.

Six years later, Logan appears outside of her cabin and Maddie wants to kill him. Before she can take action, an assailant appears, almost killing Maddie and dragging Logan off into the wilderness. Maddie could go back for help, but the weather is treacherous and getting worse. Maddie goes after Logan, but she’s not sure if she’s going to save him or kill him.

In typical Ally Carter style, Not If I Save You First begins with suspense and leaves the reader turning pages until the very end. Maddie is a strong heroine who doesn’t need to rely on a guy—not even the Secret Service men—to save the day. She hides her strength and smarts behind a girly persona, which makes her incredibly likable. Her conflicting emotions regarding Logan add interest and suspense to an action-packed story.

Unlike her other books, Not If I Save You First contains violence that is often described in bloody, but not gory, detail. The storyline revolves around a kidnapping, which is a more realistic storyline than Carter’s previous books. Because of this, readers can put themselves in the character’s situation. The story has several plot twists that will surprise readers and the ends with an epic fight between good and evil. When readers finish Not If I Save You First, they will feel as though Maddie is a new friend.

Sexual Content

  • When Maddie kisses Logan, he wishes he wasn’t in handcuffs because he “couldn’t hold her, touch her, pull her close and keep her near and never, ever let her go.” He’s disappointed when he discovers that she kissed him, so she could give him the keys to the cuffs.
  • Logan and Maddie kiss several times. One time, “he was growing closer and closer and then her lips were on his again, warmer now. She tasted like snow and berries and it was the sweetest thing that Logan and ever known.”
  • When Maddie and Logan are at school, Logan kisses her, “right there in front of their school and his Secret Service detail—right in front of the world. So she kissed him back again. And again. And again.”

Violence

  • Russian terrorists attempt to kidnap the president’s wife. In the process, one of the terrorists shoots at the president’s son. Maddie’s father jumps between the man and the president’s son and shoots at the terrorist. The terrorist, “looked down at his chest, at the place where blood was starting to ooze from beneath his ugly tie, and he dropped to his knees. Then the floor. He didn’t move again.”
  • While trying to protect the president’s wife and son, Maddie’s father is shot. Even though he is hurt, he tries to go help the first lady, and “he was still dragging himself toward the box. Blood trailed behind him. . .” During the altercation, the president’s son was shot too.
  • A man kidnaps Logan and in the process, hurts Maddie. “And Maddie spun just in time to see the butt of a gun slicing towards her. She actually felt the rush of air just before the sharp pain echoed through her face, reverberating down to her spine.” When she tries to get up, the man kicks her, “a sharp pain slammed into her stomach.” The man then pushes her off a cliff and leaves her to die.
  • Logan attempts to escape, knocking the man to the ground. “The two of them rolled, kicked and tangled together. Logan managed to strike the man in the stomach, but it was like he didn’t even feel it.” Logan stops fighting when the man has him pinned down.
  • Logan attempts to escape again. Even though his hands were cuffed, “he slammed them into the man’s gut, pounding like a hammer with both fists. . .” The man pulls a knife and begins “cutting into the soft flesh between his pinkie finger and its neighbor. . . then he saw the bright red drop of blood that bubbled up from his too-white skin.”
  • Logan tries to take a satellite phone from the man. “Logan elbowed him in the ribs, but a moment later he was pinned against the ground. . . Facedown in the mud, the cold seeped up from the ground and into Logan’s bones. . .” When Logan’s face is pushed into the mud, Maddie appears and the fight stops.
  • To prove that he doesn’t value Maddie’s life, the man, “pulled back his hand, and hit her hard across the face. Her head snapped and Logan actually heard the blow. . . His hand was around her throat, fingers not quite squeezing, but close.”
  • The man shoots a ranger. “He fired. Once. Twice. And the ranger fell.”
  • In a plot to escape, Maddie blows up a bridge. “. . . the old ropes and wood exploded in a wave of color and fire and heat. . .”
  • The man recaptures Maddie and, he “jerked Maddie against him, sliding the barrel of the gun along the smooth skin of her cheek like she needed a shave.” Logan tries to help her and the two men fight, so Maddie “kicked Stefan’s shin, right where the bear trap must have caught him, because he howled in pain, dropping the gun and bringing both hands to his legs.”
  • Another bad guy surprises Maddie by grabbing her and “the man pulled her back against him and squeezed her tight, his own gun suddenly pressed to her temple.” Later Maddie, “dropped to the icy ground and kicked at his legs, knocking him off balance. . .” She shoots at the trees causing limbs to break and fall on the man. “. . .When the ice-covered limb landed atop him, he didn’t move again.”
  • The climax takes place over several chapters in which punches are thrown, people are shot, and Maddie’s father has a knife held against his throat. In order to save a life, Maddie throws a knife at a man, and, “he looked from the knife in his own hand to the blade that was stuck hilt-deep in his chest, right where his heart would have been if he had one.” The man dies.

Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • Freaking is used twice.

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • None

 

The Unexpected Everything

Andie has her life carefully planned out, beginning with this summer. She is going to attend John Hopkins University’s prestigious young scholars program, giving her a one-way ticket to one of the best colleges in the country for pre-med. This all changes when a scandal rocks her world and she must deal with her father, ranking Congressman Alexander Walker, being home for the first time in five years.

Her summer plans quickly change as she finds out that her crucial benefactor removed his letter of recommendation from her young scholars application due to her father’s circumstance. Now she’s stuck walking dogs all summer, leaving a tragic gap in her transcript.

Much to her surprise, her summer takes a turn for the better and her life is irrevocably changed by the adventures that ensue. She finds herself having the best three months of her life as she spends time with her friends, grows closer to her formerly distant father, and meets Clark, a cute teenage author. Her unexpected summer leads her to discover her true self and what’s important in life.

The Unexpected Everything is a delightful read that makes audiences yearn for those warm summer days spent with friends. This book is satisfying like drinking lemonade on a porch on a hot July day. The characters are endearing and their little charms will draw readers into this cute, though slightly predictable tale. The Unexpected Everything is a romance novel in which the main characters discuss sex. The abundance of sexual content may not be appropriate for some readers. For readers ready for a steamy romance, this enjoyable book is well worth the read.

Sexual Content

  • Andie is perpetually in cycles of dating boys for three weeks. She develops a crush, dates them, and then sets them free. Her friends nickname her a “serial heartbreaker.” Her dates are “a formality before we got to the making out part at the end.”
  • Toby believes that she is cursed to never have a boyfriend and constantly begs her friends to be her “wingwomen.”
  • At a party, Andie sees two people, “standing in the shadows of the living room, talking close, only minutes away from starting to hook up.”
  • Andie makes out with the same guy, Topher, at parties when they are both available. They never go beyond making out because Andie continually says that she is not comfortable with that. “Sometimes making out with Topher was like quenching a thirst, and sometimes it made me thirstier.”
  • Andie describes the diner as a place where she’d “made out with guys in the darkness of the parking lot, guys who tasted like milkshakes and French fries. And it was where we’d all gathered the morning after Palmer slept with Tom for the first time.”
  • Palmer is upset that being a stage manager, “means watching your boyfriend macking on some random college freshman.”
  • Bri thinks Andie saying, “I’ve got dogs to walk” sounds “vaguely dirty.”
  • After getting asked out by Clark, Andie “found my eyes drifting down to his mouth. By the end of tonight, we might have kissed.”
  • When Clark and Andie hold hands for the first time, Clark’s hand, “sent a spark through me that I felt all the way in my toes.”
  • On her kissing philosophy, Andie says, “Normally, I kissed first. I liked to take matters into my own hands, squash that moment, and get right into the make-out session.”
  • Make-out scenes between Andie and Clark are described in vivid detail. “We lingered there, our lips brushing gently. And then he raised his hand and cupped it under my chin, drawing me closer toward him, and we started kissing for real.”
  • In the world of Clark’s novels, an elder says, “Believing that such a thing—just a kiss—has ever, for even a second, existed in this world.”
  • During a pool party, Palmer and Tom make out on the diving board.
  • Over the course of her relationship with Clark, Andie’s “formerly rigid boundaries—just kissing and nothing more—had gotten a little fuzzier… everything was just feeling so good and so right that I was having more and more trouble remembering why I’d decided that was all I could do… And as I started to care very little for anything that wasn’t the two of us, alone in the darkness, it fell to Clark to pick up the slack.”
  • Before a scavenger hunt, Clark, “pulled me [Andie] in close to him, dipping me into a Hollywood-style kiss.” He then takes her keys to try to have an advantage in the competition.
  • Clark and Andie’s relationship becomes very serious. When they decide to watch a movie, they wouldn’t actually watch it. “Even if there were a movie playing, it would simply be in the background, a pretense for fooling around.”
  • In one instance, Andie and Clark are passionately making out and it escalates. “He leaned down to kiss me, and I kissed him back, and then we were kiss-walking across the room, until we fell down onto the bed together, and then there was only his lips and his hands and our breath, falling into a rhythm until I couldn’t think about anything except him, and us, and now.” They don’t actually have sex in this scene or any scene in the book.
  • Clark and Andie block off a certain date on which they decide to have sex. There is much anticipation as each prepares in their own separate ways, but the night is called off when they get into a fight.
  • Andie walks in on her two friends, Wyatt and Bri, making out with each other. This was a dramatic revelation as Bri’s best friend, Toby, had a huge crush on Wyatt. This event is the stimulus for the destruction of their friend group as they know it. It is later revealed that Wyatt and Bri were “hooking up.”
  • When Andie reconnects with Topher after breaking up with Clark, she forgets her former policy and slips her hand under his shirt. Topher goes along with it, which makes her realize that she is in love with Clark.
  • In the final scene, Andie and Clark reunite in a bookshop. “Clark was picking me up, and I wrapped my legs around his waist and we kissed, and it was like I was blocking out the commotion all around us.”

Violence

  • When Wyatt greets Tom, he always hits him in the back. Tom always says that “it hurts.”
  • Andie’s parents met when her dad was a public defender and her mom was a police sketch artist. They bonded over the sketch of a murderer they nicknamed “Stabby Bob.”
  • In Clark’s books, the main character, Tamsin, dies “a terrible death in the highest tower.”
  • When on top of a roof, Bri kicks Toby’s legs in a petty argument. Palmer throws a Sprite bottle at them to stop their bickering and to keep them from falling off.
  • In a fictional story that Andie and Clark make up in a silly game, the main characters kill each other.

Drugs and Alcohol

  • At a party as a freshman, Andie was, “drinking a beer from a red Solo cup, like an idiot.”
  • Following the prom, Toby and Wyatt “tipsily made out.”
  • At parties, Andie brings a soda bottle and fills it with “anything but brandy.” “It was the only way I let myself drink at parties.”
  • At a party, “the kitchen counter was covered with bottles and mixers and a half-filled blender, and through the open doors to the patio, I could see a keg. The people who always headed to the edges of people’s yards to smoke were smoking.”
  • Palmer is described as being amazing at “manly stuff” and had been “the one who taught us how to tap a keg, pack a bowl, and play quarters, beirut, and beer pong.”
  • At a place called the Orchard, teenagers congregate to party and drink alcohol because it is on the border of two towns and neither side’s police force wants to interfere. The characters go here often and drink. It is described as having “someone selling overpriced keg beer or cans from a cooler that never seemed to get very cold.”
  • After Wyatt has had beer, he annoyingly plays acoustic guitar.
  • During an argument with her father, Andie “could feel the anger coursing through me like a drug.”

Language

  • At a party, the host was, “telling people that the party was over and to either help him clean up or get the hell out.”
  • Toby says, “This Dr. Rizzoli guy sounds like a dick.”
  • Andie thinks a dog is saying, “get the hell away from me and the girl with the leash.”
  • Profanity is used a few times throughout the book. This includes “goddamn,” “shit,” “damn,” and “heck.”
  • While watching play rehearsal, Andie asks Palmer, “What the hell was going on.”
  • “Oh God,” “Oh my god,” “god,” “thank god,” and “swear to god” are said frequently as curses.
  • Andie’s father asks her, “Where the hell have you been?”
  • In an excerpt from Clark’s book, “Tamsin cursed under her breath.”
  • When Andie talks about the seriousness of her relationship, Toby says, “I didn’t read anything about hell freezing over today.”
  • Andie calls Bri’s cat a “jerk” and Clark’s dog “stupid.”

Supernatural

  • A vocal warm-up that the actors in the play practice makes a reference to ghosts.
  • Clark writes fantasy novels that have magic spells, dragons, and curses.

Spiritual Content

  • None

by Morgan Filgas

 

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