Romance – Page 2 – Sneak Peek Books

11 before 12

Kaylan and her BFF, Arianna, have a foolproof plan for surviving middle school: 1. Make a list of eleven things they need to do to become amazing before they turn twelve and 2. Show off their brand-new selves with the best joint birthday party in the history of West Brookside Middle School.

But between cafeteria drama, crushes gone wrong, and some major misunderstandings, Kaylan and Ari lose sight of the one thing they forgot to put on their list: “Keep our friendship strong.” As their party grows nearer, they’re both left listing the ways their friendship is falling apart.

Told from Kaylan’s point of view, 11 before 12 is a one-sided story told by a self-centered, manipulative preteen. Unfortunately, Kaylan is hard to sympathize with for a variety of reasons. She is only nice to her mother when she wants something. Both Kaylan and her brother yell at each other and their mother. Kaylan wants to be treated like a mature grownup, but she acts like a brat and doesn’t take anyone else’s feelings into consideration—not even her best friend’s.

For the majority of the book, Kaylan and her BFF, Arianna, aren’t talking to each other because of a fight. However, they are both “loyal to the list” and continue working on checking everything off the list, including a first kiss. The story has plenty of awkward boy moments and silly conversations that will appeal to preteens. One positive aspect of the story is that Kaylan learns that “there’s really no purpose in dwelling on the past or mistakes or regrets. The only thing we can do is try and learn something and then move on.”

In the end, Kaylan and Arianna repair their relationship. However, the happy ending feels unrealistic and, unfortunately, the reader may wonder why Arianna would want to be friends with Kaylan. While the topics of first kisses and new friends will appeal to tweens, Kaylan’s selfish behavior dominates the story. Pugs and Kisses by J.J. Howard has similar tween-friendly themes with a more relatable main character.

Sexual Content

Ari’s mom says, “I think my first kiss was when I was eleven. I was at camp.
At lunch, a girl tells her friends about her first kiss. She mets a boy at camp and, “We kissed on the last night.”
At a party, Kaylan thinks Tyler “want to kiss me. I really do. Too bad for him I don’t kiss doofus boys like him, especially doofus boys who taunt my brother.”
Kaylan’s friend Saara, had a “first kiss miss.” Saara was at a party playing mancala when, “out of nowhere, he leaned in and kissed me.” Saara said she “backed away” because “it was too weird! I didn’t even know him!”
Instead of going to class, Jason and Kaylan go outside. Jason asks her a strange question. Then when Kaylan is distracted, he “kisses me. . . Well, it’s kind of a kiss. Our teeth crash. Part of his lip ends up on my nose. . . His lips are on my lips, kind of. My lips are on his lips, kind of.” Kaylan gets upset because she thinks the kiss was a “pity kiss.”
Arianna meets a boy at Hebrew school. Arianna says, “So anyway, we went to get some of the gummy snacks out of the vending machine, and we were standing side-by-side, and he just kissed me! Right there!”
At a party, Kaylan takes Jason into the laundry room so they can have a “redo” kiss. “We both lean in a little, and then Jason’s lips are on my lips. This is the redo. And it’s going really well. We’re kissing. We really are.” They both decide that the redo went “really well” and then return to the party.

Violence

None

Drugs and Alcohol

At a party, a group of boys try to get Kaylan’s brother, Ryan, to drink out of a baby bottle. Kaylan wonders, “what if it’s laced with something? Some kind of poison?” When Ryan refuses, “people start saying, ‘What are you, chicken?’ and ‘He really is a baby!’ and ‘Scaredy-cat.’”

Language

Some of the teens occasionally call each other names such as jerk, doofus, dimwit, losers, imbecile, and flea brain. For example, when Tyler asks Kaylan if she likes him, she replies, “how can I like you if you’re that big of a jerk to my brother?. . . Do you even know what it means to be a good person and not a complete turd?”
God, “Oh my God” and OMG are used as exclamations frequently.
Freakin’ and darn are both used once.

Supernatural

None

Spiritual Content

Occasionally Kaylan says a silent prayer. For example, Kaylan’s brother, Ryan, grabs a list out of her hands. Kaylan thinks, “Thank god he didn’t see the sabotage Ryan part.”
Kaylan’s mom starts crying and Kaylan “prays that my mom stops crying.”

Defiance #1

Girls in Baalboden learn to be submissive and obey their male Protectors. While other girls learn how to sew dresses, Rachel’s father has been teaching her to survive in the wilderness and wield a sword. When her father, Jared, doesn’t return from a courier mission, everything changes for Rachel. When her father is declared dead, Rachel is assigned a new protector: her father’s apprentice. Now Rachel is commanded to obey Logan, the boy who rejected her two years ago. Rather than meekly obey, Rachel is determined to find her father and prove that he survived the Wasteland.

Logan is many things: orphan, outcast, inventor, apprentice to the city’s top courier. Logan is focused on learning his trade so he can escape the tyranny of Baalboden. But his plan never included being responsible for his mentor’s impulsive daughter. Logan is determined to protect her, but when his escape plan goes wrong and Rachel pays the price, he realizes he has more at stake than disappointing his mentor.

As Rachel and Logan battle their way through the Wasteland, stalked by a monster that can’t be killed and an army of assassins out for blood, they discover romance, heartbreak, and a truth that will incite a war decades in the making.

Even though Rachel is headstrong and capable of defending herself, she is not a very likable character. Rachel often acts impulsively, which almost leads to her death. She is forced to go into the Wasteland with Melkin. When Melkin attacks her, Rachel kills him. Afterwards, she is overcome by guilt because she believes that Melkin wouldn’t have killed her. Although Rachel’s feeling of guilt is understandable, her reasoning doesn’t make sense. This is just one of many frustrating inconsistencies in this story that just don’t make sense.

While Defiance has some action-packed scenes, too much time is devoted to Rachel finding her father and then returning to the city. When Rachel finally makes it to her destination, she learns that her father has died, but left her a package, which Logan is supposed to destroy. Because of this, Rachel’s long journey into the Wasteland and back to Baalboden seems pointless.

Defiance jumps back and forth between Rachel’s and Logan’s points of view. Even though this allows the reader to understand both of their thoughts, readers may still have a hard time relating to either character. Much of the plot is devoted to the characters’ inner monologues, which revolve around their feelings for each other. Many of their troubles could have been easily prevented if they would have talked to each other. In addition, Logan is inconsiderate, controlling, and only thinks about himself. Unfortunately, there is little to like about Rachel or Logan.

The predictable villain, the characters’ inner monologues, and the plot inconsistencies will frustrate readers. The world building is so vague that it does little to add to the dystopian plot. Unfortunately, Defiance is an underdeveloped, forgettable story. If you’re looking for a must read end-of-the-world novel, you should leave Defiance on the shelf and instead read The Host by Stephanie Myer.

Sexual Content

Logan almost kisses Rachel. His “gaze wanders to her lips, and I can’t see anything but a thin trail of water gliding over her skin, gathering at the corner of her mouth, then slowly drifting toward her neck. . . I ache to press her against the wall and taste her.”
Rachel thinks about Logan. “I remember the intensity in Logan’s eyes as we leaned close to each other in his kitchen. The way his hand felt pressed against my skin.”
When Rachel is too distraught to speak, Logan is worried that she’s “been violated.”
Logan notices Rachel’s breast. “The neckline dips down and curves over breasts I didn’t realize until just this minute were so . . . substantial. I force my eyes to scrape over her trim waist, but in seconds I’m staring once more at the way the glittering line of thread along her neckline barely contains her.”
Logan and Rachel kiss multiple times. For example, while cleaning off in a lake, Rachel and Logan kiss. “His kiss is rough, tastes like lake water. . . and is the best thing I’ve ever felt. I press against him, consuming him like I’ll never get enough, and when we break apart, my pulse pounds against my ear. . .” The scene is described over a page.
Logan grabs Rachel and pulls her close. Logan “can’t hear anything beyond the pounding of my heart and the soft catch of Rachel’s breath as I fist my hands in the back of her tunic and pull her against me like I can’t stand to have a single sliver of air between us.” The three pages of description imply that Logan and Rachel have sex.

Violence

When Rachel argues with the Commander, “he grabs a handful of her hair and twists her around to face him. . . She hisses a quick gasp of pain but meets his eyes without flinching.”
Logan frequently thinks back to his mother’s death. She was killed when she left the house without male supervision. Logan thinks about the Commander’s “whip falling in cruel precision across my mother’s back . . . my mother’s broken body lying lifeless at the Commander’s feet.”
Rachel attempts to leave the compound. A guard begins to follow her. Logan takes a “leap forward, slam my fist into the side of his head, and drag his unconscious body back under the lip of the roof.” Both Rachel and Logan are captured.
After the Commander captures Rachel and Logan, a guard “lays the edge of his sword against my [Rachel’s] neck. I raise my chin as the silver bites into my skin, but I refuse to beg for mercy.” At one point, the commander “swings his sword until the tip digs into the soft skin beneath my [Rachel’s] chin. . . The pain is sharp and quick, and a hot trickle of blood slowly snakes its way down my neck.” The Commander eventually lets the two go. The scene is described over five pages.
Rachel and Logan ignore the Commander’s orders and the Brute Squad grabs Rachel. “The Commander’s sword plunges deep into the chest of the guard beside me. The man makes a wet gurgling noise in the back of his throat as he reaches up to grasp the blade embedded in his chest. Blood pools beneath his palm and slides along the silver in a single, sinuous streak as he slowly crumples to the floor.”
The Cursed One attacks. “It looks like a huge wingless dragon, nearly half the height of the wall, and just as thick. . .” The citizens try to get back into the city wall. The Commander “slashes with the whip, driving people into the side of the wall. One man can’t move out of his way fast enough, and the Commander rides over the top of him. The man lies crumpled and still in the Commander’s wake.” Many people are killed, but their deaths are not described.
In order to get Rachel to obey, the Commander shows Rachel someone covered in cloth. He “smiles and drives his sword into the lump. Whoever is trapped beneath the cloth sucks in a raspy breath and moans. Blood blossoms beneath the cloth and spreads like a fast-blooming rose.” When the cloth is removed, Rachel sees her grandfather Oliver, who dies from his wounds.
Rachel and Logan are walking home when three drunk men try to rob them. Rachel freaks out and “she whips her knife out of its sheath, raises it above her head, and rushes toward the men. . .” Logan jumps in and “slam[s] the butt of my sword into the man closest to me, whirl to block a blow from the other. . .” After a brief struggle, the men run away.
While at a ceremony, Rachel defies the Commander. He “let’s go of my arm to backhand me across the face. I tumble to the floor and see Logan, sword raised, face ablaze, charge the Commander.” People begin to run as Logan “drives his shoulder into the first guard who reaches him, sends the man flying off the stage, and whirls to block the sword thrust of another.”
Rachel joins the fight and “a guard jumps in front of me. I drive my knife through his stomach, twist it to the right, and yank it free while he’s still in the act of telling me to halt. Crimson splashes onto my pretty blue skirt.”
The Commander catches Logan and, “In seconds, he has his sword against Logan’s neck, and his vicious smile twists his scar into an ugly, knotted ball of picked flesh.” Several guards die. Rachel threatens to kill herself, so the Commander doesn’t kill Logan.
The Commander throws Logan into prison. The two men argue and the Commander “lunges for me [Logan], but I duck back. Swinging the chains up, I wrap them around his arm. One swift jerk and I fling him onto the filthy floor of the cell. He lands hard, and I drive my knee into his back, but the guards outside the cell are already on me.” The guards repeatedly hit Logan. “Pain flares to life within me, and it’s all I can do to curl up in a ball and endure as the guards use me as their punching bag.”
The Commander brands Logan’s neck. “The smell of scorched skin fills the air, and I retch as brilliant spots dance in front of my eyes. I drag in a deep breath and try to ride out the worst of the agony, but it refuses to abate.”
While looking for Rachel in the wasteland, Logan finds a soldier on guard duty. When the man hears him, Logan drops “to my knees, grab the dagger in my boot, and thrust it up as his momentum drives his abdomen onto my blade.”
The Commander sends Rachel and Melkin into the Wasteland to retrieve a package. Once they find the package, Melkin tries to take it from Rachel. “He’s in the air, long legs dropping down, his face a mask of murderous intent. I broke his right wrist. The weapon must be in his left hand. . . Flipping my blade around, I push myself off the ground and bury my knife deep into his chest. . . His blood seeps along the knife hilt, thick and warm, and coats my hand.” Melkin dies.
Logan knows that a tracker is hunting Rachel. The tracker “turns, but he’s too late. I slam into him, wrap my hands around his throat, and drive both of us onto the ground. . . His knife arm goes up, and his eyes lock on mine, but before I can react, an arrow sinks into the narrow space between his eyes with a soft thud. He shudders, his body sags. . .”
The Cursed One attacks a battalion. “The beast rears back, swings its head to the left, and strafes the line of Rowansmark soldiers with fire. The flames incinerate most of them on the spot, but a few fall to the ground wailing in agony.”
In the multi-chapter conclusion, the Cursed One attacks a city. “Fire leaps from the creature’s mouth. Two members of the Brute Squad are incinerated and then crushed beneath the thing’s monstrous length as it races forward.”
Logan can hear “the citizens in the East Quarter are screaming in agony . . . And through it all, the monstrous shape of the Cursed One coils, lashing out with its tail to crush wagons, buildings, and people.”
Logan and a group of people throw jars filled with explosives. When they hit the Cursed One the explosives “blow a section of its tail to pieces.”

Drugs and Alcohol

When Logan goes into a tavern, the owner, “slaps a heavy wooden mug filled with ale in front of me, though I haven’t ordered a drink.”
Logan mentions a man who “can’t hold his liquor.”
While in prison, someone gives Logan medicine to help relieve his pain.

Language

Rachel wants Oliver to leave the city. Oliver says, “I aim to be great-granddaddy, if that takes riding an ass across a godforsaken wilderness. I guess that’s what I’ll do.”
Hell is used once.

Supernatural

None

Spiritual Content

When the Commander forces Rachel to agree to his plan, she prays that “I’m not making the biggest mistake of my life.”
When the Commander shows Rachel a man covered in a cloth, she “prayed it would be a stranger.”
During a fight, Rachel prays “Logan isn’t already dead.”
Rachel accidentally tells Logan that he is handsome. Then she prays “he’ll change the subject.”
When the Cursed One attacks, Logan prays “the citizens there heard the screaming of their neighbors and had enough warning to start running.”

Blood Relatives

The absolute last thing goth-girl Raven and her vampire boyfriend, Alexander, need is another hitch in their nighttime-only romance—but dark trouble hovers on the horizon when Raven and Alexander discover four freshly dug graves filled with empty coffins. When a crew of sketchy vampires takes up residence in Dullsville’s lonely graveyard, Alexander finds this motley bunch led by his very own blood-sucking cousin, Claude Sterling. Shocking! Claude and his creepy crew can only spell out more problems for the pair, especially when Raven finds them in daylight in the very last place she could ever imagine. What could Claude and his invaders be doing—or searching for—in Dullsville?

Blood Relatives is based on a YA vampire romance novel that falls under the Vampire Kisses umbrella. Readers will find that the graphic novel Blood Relatives does not follow the same plot as any of the other novels. However, while Blood Relatives is extremely short and lacking in plot, it introduces all of the main characters and villains.

Even though Blood Relatives focuses on Raven and the vampire Alexander’s relationship, Alexander spends most of his time trying to keep Raven safe. However, she is determined to find answers to the mystery, even if that means putting herself in danger. While teens may like the protective Alexander, some of the plot is unrealistic, such as when Alexander’s cousin Claude drags Raven down the school’s hallway and grabs her hair, but none of the students or teachers notice the abuse. In addition, no one questions why four new students, who are all the same age, enroll in school on the same day.

Readers will enjoy the manga artwork, especially Raven’s fashionable goth clothes which include skull barrettes. While most of the black and white artwork is beautiful, some of the pictures do not feel finished. For example, in one picture Raven is crying but her eyes are empty and her face is poorly sketched. In addition, in one picture a “Cool Pax” is magically staying over her eye. Each page has eleven or fewer words. While some of the text is in quote bubbles, other text is printed in black with a white border that makes the text difficult to read.

The simple plot and vocabulary make the graphic novel a quick read. If you’re looking for well-developed characters and a unique plot, Blood Relatives will be a disappointment. However, if you want to bite into a vampire romance that is pure entertainment, add Blood Relatives to your reading list. Make sure you have the second book in the series ready because the first installment ends with a cliffhanger.

Sexual Content

Raven kisses her vampire boyfriend three times. “One night at the mansion we sealed our date with a heart-meltingly passionate kiss.”
While at school, Raven walks by two kids kissing in the hallway.

Violence

Raven runs away from a group of vampires that want to get information from her. One of the vampires grabs Raven by the hair and says, “like perhaps, at your house. . . for a midnight snack.”

Drugs and Alcohol

A group of half-mortal, half-vampires are looking for vials filled “with centuries-old pure vampire blood.” The blood would make them complete vampires.

Language

None

Supernatural

None

Spiritual Content

None

The Cupcake Queen

When her mom decides to leave Manhattan and open a cupcake bakery in Hog’s Hollow, Penny gets dragged along. She doesn’t know how she’ll survive high school without her lifelong friends and big-city comforts. To make matters worse, her father is staying behind, and her mom isn’t talking about what the future holds for them. And as if that weren’t enough, Penny’s clumsiness leads to a cupcake-avalanche mishap at the Queen Bee’s birthday party, which instantly makes her a social pariah.

But small-town life isn’t all bad. Penny finds bright spots in Hog’s Hollow—like her art class and her free-spirited friend Tally. Then there’s Marcus, the cute and enigmatic boy who is always running on the beach. . . and into Penny. Just when Penny is settling in, her parents ask her to make a choice that will turn everything upside down again.

Told from Penny’s point of view, The Cupcake Queen focuses on small-time life in Hog’s Hollow. Anyone who has been a target of bullying will relate to Penny as she tries to find her place in a new town. Penny struggles with the changes in her life, including her parents’ separation. Like many teens, Penny is frustrated that her parents are keeping secrets from her, especially since their decisions have a huge impact on her life.

The story also shines a light on the importance of dealing with loss. Even though Penny’s parents are alive, she feels neglected by a father who doesn’t have time for her. Penny’s friend Tally lives with her aunt because her musician father’s career is more important than her. Meanwhile, Marcus still grieves his mother’s death. Even though each character has faced the loss of a parent differently, the book acknowledges that sometimes, “Life can be pretty hard. . . I’d like to tell you it gets easier, but it doesn’t. It just gets different.”

While The Cupcake Queen has some predictable factors such as a mean girl, a cute boy, and an eccentric friend, the characters are relatable and likable. Tally adds a dash of spice to the story, while Marcus adds a little romance that doesn’t go past holding hands. The Cupcake Queen doesn’t sugarcoat events that are confusing and hurtful. Instead, both Penny and Tally learn that “at some point you just have to let go of what you thought should happen and live in what is happening.”

Middle school readers who want a character-driven story with a sprinkle of romance will enjoy The Cupcake Queen. Penny’s story continues in the holiday-themed book Frosted Kisses. Readers may also want to add How to Steal a Dog by Barbara O’Connor and The Dog Who Lost His Bark by Eoin Colfer to their reading list. Both are engaging stories that skip the romance and focus on parental problems.

Sexual Content

None

Violence

None

Drugs and Alcohol

None

Language

Someone calls manure “cream of crap.”
In a yearbook, someone drew over Penny’s mother. “You know, the usual—glasses, mustache, black teeth. Underneath the photo someone crossed out her name and wrote in Hog’s Hollow Ho.” Penny’s friend tells her, “Don’t let those morons get to you.”
A mean girl calls Penny a loser and stupid.

Supernatural

None

Spiritual Content

None

Loveboat, Taipei

Ever Wong’s parents came to America with little, but they were determined to make a better life for their children. Ever’s father, a talented doctor, was unable to obtain a medical license in the US and the family is barely scraping by. The Wongs are determined to see their daughter become a doctor. The only problem is that Ever has very little talent for medicine and would much rather go to dance school.

Ever wants to spend her summer dancing with her friends, but her parents have different plans for her. Ever’s mother pawns her most valuable jewelry to pay to send Ever to a rigorous pre-med program. Then Ever’s mother sends her to Chien Tan, a summer program designed for Chinese-American high school students learn about their culture through eight weeks in Taipei, Taiwan.

In Taipei, Ever finds herself among a Chinese-American majority for the first time in her life, but she also discovers that many of her peers have grown up quite differently from her. Most of the Chien Tan students have enormously wealthy parents, and nobody else has had to pawn jewelry to pay for their airfare. Many of Ever’s peers are fluent or near-fluent in Mandarin, which Ever never learned.

Sophie, Ever’s roommate, tells her that Chien Tan has the nickname “Loveboat.” It’s the status quo for students to sneak out at night, go clubbing, and abandon their boyfriends and girlfriends back in the States for intense, short-lived love affairs. Away from her family for the first time, Ever begins to break all of her parents’ strict rules: she drinks, dresses immodestly, and kisses boys. She finds herself caught in an intense love triangle between golden-boy Rick and mysterious bad-boy Xavier.

Loveboat, Taipei addresses many issues that readers may find relatable: the pressure of overbearing parents, the pressure to get drunk or have sex for the first time, and the complicated feelings one can have over cultural identity. The romance is well-written and the love triangle is cute, but readers may find it hard to believe that the two most popular boys in Loveboat are both so smitten with the likable, but unassuming, Ever.

Much of the book’s plot concerns the drama around Ever’s love triangle. Through Ever’s perspective, readers see background characters work through their own drama, too. The cast of characters is large to start with, and it gets confusing when the book names too many extra characters who aren’t part of the plot and only exist to populate the background. Chien Tan gives unbridled freedom to kids on the cusp of adulthood. They form hasty relationships, hurt themselves, and hurt each other—emotionally and sometimes physically. For example, Sophie spreads nude photos of Ever out of spite. Readers may think this was unforgivable, but they eventually make up.

Ever’s frustration with her parents is a major theme; despite their disagreements, the family clearly loves each other. The narrative reflects the nature of this complicated relationship. Ever learns to stand up for herself and exercise her new freedom staying true to her own values. Loveboat, Taipei will be a compelling choice for readers looking to read about culture, class differences, and “leaving the nest”.

Sexual Content

The official rules at Chien Tan say, “No boys and girls in a room with the door closed.” However, this rule is often broken.
Ever says that her mother believes that “sex is a by-product of marriage to be endured, preferably through a hole in the blanket.”
Later, after having sex for the first time, Ever says, “Sex isn’t the barely tolerable duty of procreation, like Mom always insinuated. It’s two human beings fitting seamlessly together.” However, she still feels guilty, because she “wanted to wait for love.”
Ever sees a boy she once kissed and remembers, “those big hands on my hips. His tongue pressing my lips apart. He taught me everything I know about kissing that I didn’t learn from practicing on oranges” with her best friend in middle school.
At the Chien Tan dormitories, a couple is ousted from their room. The girl is “clutching her pink dress to her bra.” Ever says that the boy “grabs his shorts–but not before I catch a glimpse of his . . . equipment.” Ever says she is “too stunned to close my eyes.”
Ever says that a girl enjoying a meal makes “moaning noises straight out of a scene I wouldn’t be allowed to watch on TV.”
Someone asks Rick if he and his long-distance girlfriend have been “having phone sex.”
At a club, Ever sees “middle-aged men who line the walls, eyeing girls on the dance floor.”
Ever dances with a boy from Chien Tan. “His eyes sweep my body. His neck gleams with sweat. My hair’s damp. I writhe with him, matching thrust for thrust. His hip wedges against mine as he pulls me deeper, deeper–and then I feel him. Oh my God. Oh my God. Is that what I think it is?” She realizes he has an erection and backs off. Later she thinks, “I’ll have to see him in class every single day, knowing I gave him a boner, and him knowing I know.”
Sophie tells Ever, “Xavier and I hooked up. Last night. We did it.” She tells Ever “far more detail than I need or want: how they’d made out the whole cab ride home, fumbled down the darkened hallway, tumbled into a spare bedroom on the first floor.” Ever notices that Sophie has “a pink, quarter-sized hickey” on her neck. Ever says, “I can’t imagine sleeping with a guy after knowing him only a week.”
Sophie and Ever go to take “glamour shots.” The photos get more and more risqué until Sophie takes a photo naked. “Her bikini lies in a silky, white heap on the floor. She’s naked. Not practically. Actually. Yannie’s lights shine off her golden skin, illuminating bikini patches.” Sophie tells Ever, “This is art, not porn.”
While taking photos, Ever remembers how she always felt “the grip of shame” about her body, especially when she “developed more parts to feel ashamed of flaunting.” She decides to follow Sophie’s lead and pose for her own nude shots.
Later, someone makes copies of Ever’s nude photos and distributes them to everyone. Ever sees the photos, which show “A girl. She’s back-dropped in white, the only object in her rectangular world. Her hands open like fans at her sides. She gazes out at me, chin raised boldly, dark-red lips parted with a seductive intake of breath, coils of black hair swept up to show off every curve of skin from the slope of her neck to her coyly cocked ankle–and everything in between.” The photos get her into a lot of trouble. The Chien Tan students and staff all see the photos, and Ever is mortified and almost expelled.
Ever recalls that some men have “Asian fetishes.” She remembers explaining to a white friend why attracting men’s interest simply because she’s Asian is “not flattering, why it’s based on stereotypes that have nothing to do with who you are.”
A girl in the bathroom seems very embarrassed while she scrubs at a blood stain on her sheets. Ever blushes when she realizes that they’re “not period stains” (The implication is that the girl bled during sex).
Later, after having sex for the first time, Ever sees “a red smear, like a smudge of calligraphy ink,” on the bedsheet. She’s embarrassed and hopes she’ll never have to see the boy again.
Ever passes a couple’s room and hears “soft little moans and kissing sounds.”
Xavier kisses Ever. “His mouth is soft, sweetened by wine. He tucks his fingers into my hair and cradles the curve of my neck. Under his lips, my back arches slightly… His mouth silences me, parting my lips, making me gasp with the unexpected pleasure of his tongue.” They stop a few moments later.
Ever has sex with Xavier, but the scene isn’t depicted. The next morning, “I lie on my side on a cloud of down feathers, nude between cotton sheets and a blue duvet and the weight of Xavier’s arm over my waist. His naked body presses against my back from shoulder to thighs. Last night returns like a dream: Xavier’s hand on my back, guiding me to this room as our mouths moved together, the click of the door sealing our privacy, then his mouth on my eyelids, my cheeks, the hollow of my neck, his hands exploring . . . my fingernails in his shoulders. My body is sore in places I didn’t know could feel sore.”
Ever and Rick bathe in a hot spring together and become intimate. The scene takes place over several pages and concludes with, “His mouth burns a line down to my belly button. It makes my body quiver like a tightly strung instrument. The splash of water echoes as he slips back into the pool. My stomach dips as his hands part my knees. He slides his shoulders between them, and his hands tuck under my thighs and take hold of my hips. He kisses a trail along the inside of each thigh, his breath warm on my skin, so near and intimate. My pals press the stones, all my body throbbing, unbelieving, as he asks permission to continue, and my whisper yes blends with the gurgle of the hot waters. He takes his time. A slow burn that builds and builds, until I am clawing at the stones and my back arches and my toes splash and my body ripens under his grip.” Later, Ever says, “Who knew Boy Wonder was so good with his tongue?”
During Chien Tan’s talent show, one of the boys dresses in drag. A character sees the drag queen and says, “Whoa, she’s stacked.” The drag queen’s “red lace bra is covered only by the middle button of her coat.”

Violence

Ever remembers hearing about a child prodigy who “died by suicide.”
Ever resents Rick and says, “I indulge a fantasy of me using that big, hard body as a punching bag.”
When Xavier gets out of his dad’s car, Ever notices that “a reddish blotch shines on his cheek–a bruise? Did his dad hit him?”
During a conversation with Ever, Xavier reveals that his dad said “[he] should’ve beat me harder to beat [the dyslexia] out of me.” Ever is horrified that Xavier was abused over his dyslexia. Xavier says, “My dad gave me a new set of trophies and told me I was a disgrace to nine generations.” Ever realizes that by “trophies” he means “bruises.”
Ever remembers “Mom with the chopsticks, hitting the inside of my bare thigh once, twice, three times. I don’t even remember what I’d done. The chopsticks only came out occasionally, and left no scars, but the shame has lingered.”
A man making ‘snake-blood sake’ cuts the head off of a snake. “His hatchet bangs down. The snake’s fanged head flies” at one of Ever’s friends. “Its severed end spurts dark red blood . . . Into one vial after another, the man squeezes the snake’s cut end. Dark red blood pulses out, pinking the liquor.”
At a bar, Ever is accosted by “two hundred pounds of meaty guy.” Ever says he “crushes me against the bar. He reeks of alcohol and sweat. I shove back, but it’s like trying to move a brick wall.” A boy from Chien Tan comes along and rescues her by telling the man, “She’s with me.”
A Chien Tan couple has arguments that “usually ended with something broken—a bulletin board, a lamp, his toe.”
When he’s angry, Rick “slams his fist through the center of his rice sack.”
Ever becomes interested in the choreography of fighting with staffs and sticks. She and Rick often mock-duel, but never with the intention to hurt. There are several pages of scenes where they ‘fight’. For example, “The crack of wood on wood punctuates the air, reverberating in my hands. I swing again. Again. Force him back until his foot hits a brick wall. And then he’s shoving me back, stick flying. . . swing a blow at his head. He ducks.”
During one fight, Ever says, “I instinctively whip my stick down—and slam his knuckles.” Ever apologizes immediately, because she didn’t mean to hurt Rick.
Someone tells Ever about “samurai of feudal Japan, soldiers who didn’t fall on their swords like the Romans did, but disemboweled themselves.”
Rick and Xavier get into a fight. “Xavier’s arms are locked around Rick’s neck, both bent double as they lurch into Marc, who grabs at them, earning himself a punch in the stomach . . . They’re inseparable, a force of muscled arms and legs and rage, knocking over everyone in their path.” Chien Tan counselors break up the fight and send them to the infirmary to clean up their bloody noses.
Sophie arrives home with a black eye and claims she “walked into a wall.” Later, Ever discovers that Sophie’s boyfriend Matteo has been violent with her. Ever sees Matteo “in a drunken stupor,” chasing after Sophie. Sophie locks herself in her room and Ever hears Matteo “spewing curses. The door shakes under his weight. I jam the door in place, then hang on tight. Under me, the door convulses as he pounds and pounds.” Later Sophie says that Matteo was mad because she “bit him.” Sophie agrees to let Ever tell the Chien Tan counselors about the incident, and Matteo is expelled and sent home.
Someone talks about how their mom struggled to find employment. “My mom went to work in a hotel and then some asshole manager slapped her butt and she shoved him onto his . . . now she’s cleaning toilets.”
Rick speaks about the tense relationship he has with his girlfriend, who suffers from severe depression and relies on him for emotional support. “We were in her kitchen. Cutting a loaf of bread we’d picked up. And she started crying and saying she couldn’t anymore, couldn’t take her parents, school, life, without me. She grabbed the knife, and I grabbed hold.” He “opens his palm to sunlight. Under its harsh yellow rays, the four inch-long scars line up in their row.” He admits that he eventually only stayed with her because he was afraid she would harm herself. The book later explores how this relationship has harmed Rick.

Drugs and Alcohol

When trying to navigate the airport, Ever runs into a man who stinks of “cilantro and cigarettes.”
Ever soon learns that the drinking age in Taiwan is eighteen—making her legally able to drink. Still, it’s against Chien Tan rules. She says she’s “never even tried alcohol,” and that the last time she went to a wedding, her mom “whisked [my] champagne glasses from under the waiter’s bottle.”
During a study group, some boys “are passing a steel bottle around.” Ever declines the first time, but partakes at later meetings.
Ever breaks her parents’ “no-alcohol” rule by drinking ‘snake-blood sake’. After watching a man chop off a snake’s head and squeeze the blood into the alcohol, she drinks it. “I throw back my head. The warm, salty blood and sake set my throat on fire. It tastes bitter. Like metal. Heat sears my chest, opening up a pipe there I’ve never felt before . . . My head feels stuffed with rice, then it explodes in a million directions. Kaleidoscopic tingles dance through my body.” Later in the evening, she throws up on the street and has to be carried home.
After being in Chien Tan for several weeks, guava cocktails are Ever’s “new favorite.”
Xavier hands Ever “a bottle of . . . a French wine with a white label. I fit its glass top to my lips and take a long pull. Dark cherry, rich and strong. I take a second pull, a third, letting its smoothness warm my body.”
In her messy room, Ever notices that some clothing lying on the floor “has soaked up a can of stale beer.”
After Ever sprains her ankle, a paramedic gives her “a white pill—prescription-strength ibuprofen.”

Language

Profanity is used infrequently. Profanity includes crap, ass, asshole, hell, damn, shit, bastard, bitch.
Oh my God and Jesus are occasionally used as exclamations.
Fuck is used four times.
Ever calls Rick a brown-noser.
Someone calls Ever a slut.
Someone calls Sophie “fucking bitch” and “cocktease.”
Ever remembers seeing a store clerk call her dad a “stupid chink.”

Supernatural

A hotel “has no fourth floor—the Chinese equivalent of unlucky thirteen, because four sounds like death in Mandarin.”

Spiritual Content

Ever describes her parents as “Chinese-Baptist.”
When dancing, Ever says she feels like “a goddess.”
Ever recalls “sorting I Ching sticks with a fortune-teller” while touring Taipei.
One girl at Chien Tan is “really involved with the weekly Bible study she started.”

by Caroline Galdi

Never Evers

Thirteen-year-old Mouse is pretty sure her life is totally over. Now that she’s been kicked out of ballet school, she has to go on her new school’s ski trip basically knowing no one. Well, except too-cool-for-school Keira and crazy Connie-May (and her adorable hamster, Mr. Jambon).

Meanwhile, Jack’s life is just about to begin. He’s on the way to the slopes with his school too, and all he can think about is how to get his first kiss.

With her new friends by her side, Mouse has more fun skiing and building igloos than she expected. And when Jack catches Mouse’s eye, he’s smitten. All’s well—that is, until mega-pop star, Roland arrives on the scene and sets his sights on Mouse too! A week in the snow is about to get complicated. . .

Never Evers is ridiculous, over the top, and funny. The story focuses on two friend groups. One group includes three boys—Jack, Max, and Toddy. Max is totally obsessed with kissing a girl—any “hot” girl. Even though Jack is smitten with Mouse, Max keeps pushing Jack to spend time with another hot girl, which causes some drama. Like many preteen boys, the three friends are immature, use body humor, and talk about “pubes” (pubic hair).

The other friend group includes Mouse, Connie, and Kiera. In order to determine if Jack likes Mouse, the girls make a love spell, which causes some laughable moments. However, unlike the group of boys, the girls are not obsessed with boys. Instead, Mouse is also dealing with getting kicked out of dance school, a mean girl, and making new friends.

Never Evers is full of friendship drama, crushes, jealousy, and misunderstandings. The story’s point of view flip flops between Jack and Mouse, which allows the reader to understand their confusion about the opposite sex. Using humor, the story expertly portrays the confusion and insecurity that many tweens feel about growing up. While the story is often laugh-out-loud funny, it also shows the importance of kindness and having friends who will stand by you no matter what.

While Never Evers is not great literature, it will resonate with tweens who often feel awkward and uncertain. Middle school readers who aren’t ready for more mature romances will enjoy Never Evers. If you’re looking for a similar tween-friendly romance, add Pugs and Kisses by J.J. Howard to your reading list.

Sexual Content

A group of boys talk about a boy who said, “he kissed sixteen girls in five days.
A group of boys talks about their inability to get a girlfriend. “You know Ed’s kissed ten girls now? Ten. He’s a month younger than me and he’s on double digits.”
Mouse has never kissed a boy, but her friend, Keira, has “kissed three other boys.” Keira says, “You’re not missing out on anything, to be honest. It’s a little anticlimactic, really. You think it’ll be this big, life-changing moment, but it’s actually just Elliot Campbell slobbering all over you.”
While on the bus, a boy moons a group of girls.
While talking about Connie’s true love, the bus passes a sign for a French teen singer. Connie says, “Ron is my one true love. But I might let Roland English-kiss me. To warm me up for Ron.”
While watching Romeo and Juliet, Mouse thinks, “Watching sex scenes with your parents is horrendous, but it turns out watching them with a bunch of people your own age is also really bad.”
While lost in the wilderness, Jack and Mouse go into an igloo to keep warm. Jack “buried all my worries and fears deep in the snow, and leaned in to kiss her.” Before he can, a rescue team shows up.
At a dance, Connie kisses a boy. Someone sees them, and says, “That Connie girl’s a man-eater.”
Jack thinks about kissing Mouse. “I knew I shouldn’t feel scared anymore, but I did. It was scary. Doing anything for the first time is scary. But I wanted to kiss her so bad.” He moves closer to Mouse, and, “Then I closed my eyes, took a deep breath and leaned in towards her.”

Violence

While talking to a group of girls, Jamie was teasing Jack and his friends. “Before I could stop him, Max launched himself at Jamie, shoving him hard in the chest and sending him crashing onto the cold, hard ice. . . Jamie was too shocked to even respond.” A teacher scolds the boys.

Drugs and Alcohol

None

Language

“Oh my God,” and “Oh God” are used as an exclamation frequently.
Occasionally there is name calling, such as dummy, idiot, lunatic, loser, jerk, freak, and wierdo. For example, Kiera calls a mean girl and her friends “a bunch of rancid, pathetic losers.”
Crap (or a version of it) is used six times. Jack says, “The only snow I’ve seen is the crappy kind that turns gray and icy and melts within a day.”
Freakin’ is used three times. A boy yells, “You’re a freakin’ maniac, Max!”
Hell is used seven times. When Mouse disappears, Jack thinks, “I couldn’t tell what the hell was going on.”

Supernatural

Mouse and her friends use The Teen Witches’ Book of Spells to cast a love spell. As part of the spell, the girls make a circle out of their clothes and stand in the circle. Mouse’s friend Keira says, “We need paper and a pen. A true belief in magic. A full moon. . . A hair from your head and a mason jar.”
Mouse puts a piece of her hair in a jar. Then she writes a boy’s name and puts it into the jar. Kiera says, “Okay, now we’re going to hold hands, and we all have to sing, ‘Name is written / Hidden singing / Compel the object to my bidding / So mote it be.”

Spiritual Content

Mouse hides in a bathroom stall so she can hear a group’s conversation. While there, she prays, “Please, God, don’t let my phone ring.”
Occasionally the teens pray. For example, when Kiera writes Jack (Mouse’s crush) on her jeans, Mouse prays that Kiera “didn’t wear those jeans again this week.”
Jack asks Mouse if she wants to get a hot chocolate. When she turns him down, Jack prays, “Please, God, let something happen now to end this moment—a fire alarm, an avalanche, a rip in the space-time continuum. . . Anything.”

Stormcaster

Pirate Evan Strangward has been hunted by Empress Celestine for most of his life. Being able to control the weather can only protect him for so long. Now, he’s looking to the Fells for allies to take the fight to the Empress. Evan must warn the queendom that Empress Celestine and her bloodsworn army won’t wait forever to invade.

After four years in Arden, Ash sul’Han is on his way back to his home in the Fells. It’s a chance to see his mother and sister, and all the friends he left behind. But once he finds out his sister, Lyss, was taken by Empress Celestine, he’ll stop at nothing to get her back and save the royal line. Ash might not trust Evan, but he needs the pirate’s help if he wants to infiltrate Celestine’s stronghold and end the war before it gets out of hand.

Stormcaster, the third entry in Chima’s Shattered Realms series, is a wonderful installment in this epic tale. The story primarily follows Evan Strangward and Ash sul’Han. Stormcaster goes back in time to show the beginning of Empress Celestine’s rise to power, as well as Evan’s reason for opposing her. Destin Karn’s backstory is also explored. While this backtracking is extensive, it’s a well-thought-out and interesting addition to the story.

When the backstories are caught up to the present, the rest of the main characters are reintroduced. Ash sul’Han, who was absent from the previous novel, is finally back in the picture. When he makes it home to his queen mother, he finds the world completely changed. Ash is a lovable character, who has matured from his rebellious stage. Now he is willing to do whatever it takes to protect his family. As he struggles to work his way back into a world he doesn’t recognize, Ash embodies the themes of maturity and loss.

Overall, Stormcaster is a fast-paced ride. Since most of the main characters are back in action, each chapter shows the reader another part of the world, creating a fleshed-out and believable setting. Luckily, the shifting views are easy to follow. The story focuses on bringing together most of the main characters, so they can plan how to stop Empress Celestine. Will Ash finally reunite with his sister? Will Evan be able to take down the Empress that’s been hunting him? Readers will find out in the final installment, Deathcaster.

Sexual Content

When Evan and his shipmate Brody look at Empress Celestine, Brody thinks she’s beautiful. Evan notices Brody “was gazing at the young captain in a way that he’d never looked at Evan.” Later, Evan thinks about his love life. “There were other, less complicated lovers in the ports on both sides of the Indio, boys who offered sweet kisses and warm embraces.”
Evan and Destin have an ongoing romance. While sitting close together, “Destin put his hand on Evan’s arm, setting his heart to flopping like a beached fish.” However, Destin is afraid of love. “He’d learned his lesson well—that love was as risky as mercy.” Evan thinks, “Do not fall for this dangerous, moody, mercurial boy. It will lead you to heartbreak or worse.”
After confiding in each other, Evan “gripped Destin’s coat, arched his body up, and kissed him firmly on the lips.”
Destin’s parents have a terrible relationship. Destin tells Evan that his father “kept pounding on my mother—trying to get her to admit to cheating on him. He didn’t want to believe I was really his.” Later on, Evan asks, “If he didn’t love her, then why couldn’t he just set her aside and marry someone else.”
When Ash’s mother, Raisa, speaks about her marriage, she says, “I’m glad, now, that I married young, so that Han and I had more time together. It was twenty-five years, but it just flew by.” Later, she tells Ash, “Falling in love in wartime is chancy, just like having children. We’ve had a lot of pain, but a lot of joy, all the same.”
Madeleine, younger sister to the new King Jarat, says, “They were talking about all the women they’d had, and would have. Jarat said Father never bedded a wolf, but he would, and even a wolf could be tamed.”

Violence

Destin and Evan talk about killing. Destin says, “Killing is always personal. It’s the second-most-intimate thing that can happen between two people.”
When Destin and Evan are captured by Destin’s father, the two are forced to fight each other. Evan punches Destin, and then, “Destin somehow wrenched free of his captors, lurched forward, wrapped his hands around Evan’s neck, and began to squeeze.”
Adrian talks with his mother, and thinks, “Your daughter Hanalea went into the borderlands, and was murdered. Your son went south, and became a murderer.”
Hal fights members of Celestine’s bloodsworn warriors. During the fight with a horselord, Hal “drove his sword beneath his rib cage, all the way to the hilt.” Later, Hal cuts off a man’s head. “The head splashed into the water, but the body continued to stagger around, spraying blood from its severed neck until it tripped over a rock slab and went down.”
One of Celestine’s bloodsworn cuts down an old man. “It seemed that one of them wasn’t moving fast enough, because his horselord guard unslung his blade and cut him down.”
Destin says his father beat his mother. Destin’s father, “beat her all the time. Half to death, once or twice. Sometimes at court, but mostly at his keep on the Bittersweet. He kept a full time mage healer to patch her up again.”
After Evan calls Destin’s father a monster, Destin says, “Oh, he is. He started beating me, too, once I was too big to ignore and still too small to defend myself. . . If I had to do it over again, I’d have opened his throat and stabbed him through the heart with a poisoned blade and cut off his head and hung it over my door.”

Drugs and Alcohol

Hal talks to his former subordinate, Bellamy, at a tavern. Bellamy orders a “Small beer. I’m on duty in a little while. On second thought, I’ll have bingo. A double.”
Lyss bumps into Breon. Breon tells her, “There’s a lot of rum around, if that’s appealing.”
Destin thinks about King Jarat and his entourage. “They were more than happy to take the young king under their tutelage in the study of drinking, hunting, dicing, wenching, and swordplay.”
One of King Jarat’s loyal men comes home drunk one night. Destin sees him as he “stumbled to the garderobe and unbuttoned his breeches, hurrying to unburden himself of excess ale.”

Language

Hell is used a few times. For example, when Evan first meets Destin, Destin tells him, “To hell with your bloody books.”
Damn is used occasionally. For example, when Evan thinks about his job as a shipmaster, he thinks, “He was damned by his own success.”
Bastard is used a few times. Once, “When Destin inquired about Lucky Faros, saying he’d heard good things about the young captain, Kadar had informed him that Faros was an ungrateful, greedy, unreliable bastard he should steer clear of.”
Kadar, the streetlord of Evan’s city, tells Destin, “Go suck the Breaker’s balls.”

Supernatural

Wizards, also known as mages, are commonplace.
Wizards and mages produce a power called “flash” constantly. Destin describes flash, “like a kind of magical vapor that dissipates as soon as it appears. Amulets allow us to accumulate enough to work significant charms. Power transfers to it through skin, when you touch it.”
Destin talks about amulets. “They’re used to store and control magical energy, something we call ‘flash.’ There are other magical tools as well, such as talismans to protect against magical attacks, all made by upland clans.”
A blood mage is a type of mage that uses blood in their spells. Brody, Evan’s subordinate, says, “They make people drink their blood, and turn them into slaves.”
Destin is a mage. Evan notes that Destin “had an entire menu of nuanced magic he could work using his amulet and specific words spoken in the wetland language. Power including immobilization, persuasion, interrogation, and the like.”
In Arden, magic is considered a sin. Destin tells Evan, “Back home, magic is considered to be the work of the Breaker, a misfortune, nonetheless, can be put to use for the greater glory of the crown.” He later says, “A mage is a precarious thing to be in the wetland empire, because of the church. The king finds us useful, but he is as changeable as spring weather when it comes to the tension between magic and religion.”
Evan is a stormlord, a mage that uses weather magic. When Destin attacked Evan, “A storm surge of magic welled up in him, and electricity crackled across his skin, as if the power that seethed beneath it was leaking out.” Later, Evan “didn’t consciously reach for power, but it came unbidden. Small whirlwinds erupted all around his feet, sucked up a mixture of sawdust and straw, flung it in the soldier’s face.”
Jenna is one of the magemarked, a group of people that have unique abilities even among mages. Destin tells Evan about Jenna’s abilities: “She claims to be clairvoyant—that she sometimes sees images of the future, sees people as they really are, or can tell when someone is lying.” Later, he also says, “She heals quickly, and is resistant to flame. In fact, she develops a kind of armor for protection.”

Spiritual Content

Kadar, Evan’s former employer, thinks about his gods. He thinks, “It seemed that Omari Kadar, street lord of the Tarvos waterfront, had been abandoned by the gods.”
Evan is worshipped by his Stormborn pirate crew. “In the space of four years he’d gone from being a kind of shipboard mascot to being ‘Lord Strangward,’ the central deity of a Stormborn cult.”
When Evan and Destin get a new ship, Evan wants to perform a ceremony to the gods. Destin’s mother says, “I hope you don’t plan to sacrifice a goat and make us drink the blood. The goats, I need.”
When Ash tells Lila about his mistakes, she says, “If you want absolution, go to a speaker or priest. I’m hardly in a position to give you advice.”
Ash’s mother tells him, “Some speakers say that we must wait to be rewarded in the next life.”

by Jonathan Planman

King’s Cage

After completing her mission to secure an army of newbloods, Mare Barrow finds herself once again trapped in the royal palace of Norta. She’s become King Maven’s pet, forced to play a dangerous role at his side. Her forced words carry weight with the Reds, and create schisms in the Scarlet Guard and Norta as a whole.

Without Mare, the Guard has trouble accepting both the newbloods and Silvers into their ranks. Cameron Cole, a newblood herself, knows exactly what it’s like to be ostracized for her ability. After seeing Mare struggle to control her ability, Cameron fears becoming like her; yet, she’s not alone in the struggle. Farley, a new commander of the Scarlet Guard, continues to fight after losing her lover, Shade. Kilorn, Mare’s best friend, must decide whether to continue fighting or focus on protecting Mare’s family. Cal must figure out what side he will choose. Will he be able to continue to kill his Silver comrades, or will he betray the Scarlet Guard?

But just as loyalties are tested in the Scarlet Guard, so are they in Maven’s court. Evangeline Samos, now betrothed to Maven as the future queen of Norta, wants nothing more than to rule. When noble houses begin to betray Maven left and right, navigating the palace becomes more complicated. Will Evangeline get to rule Norta? Will Cameron and the Scarlet Guard prove too much for the Silvers to handle? Will Mare be able to change Maven for the better and abolish the monarchy?

As the third installment of the Red Queen Series, King’s Cage is an excellent continuation of the story because Mare is back in the thick of political intrigue. She’s right there to see the complicated and unique relationships between the Silvers, allowing the reader to see both sides of the power struggle.

The plot is a roller-coaster of twists and suspense, leading Mare, Cameron, and Evangeline through many life-changing and life-threatening moments. The three main heroines are fascinating to follow because each one is constantly on the edge of danger. For instance, Mare has gotten over her selfish and arrogant nature, but now struggles to stay at Maven’s side. Mare is forced to pretend that she betrayed the Scarlet Guard, yet she manages to stay sane enough to secretly gather intel. Cameron struggles with the fear of turning into a monster. And Evangeline must find a way to rule over Norta without becoming Maven’s bride.

The theme of betrayal is once again central to the plot, as characters and noble houses backstab each other left and right. The action scenes are the best yet with each heroine battling individually at first, but then all coming together in a big battle at the end. The buildup and suspense work well as Mare’s, Cameron’s, and Evangeline’s stories intertwine. Overall, King’s Cage is a great follow-up to a lackluster sequel. The story will conclude in the final book, War Storm, where readers will find out whether Mare will triumph over King Maven.

Sexual Content

During an argument, Maven kisses Mare. Mare thinks, “His kiss burns worse than his brand.”
Maven pledges his hand to the Lakeland princess, “From this day until my last day, I pledge myself to you, Iris of House Cygnet, princess of the Lakelands.”
One morning, Evangeline wakes up to her lover’s kisses. Elane “laughs against my neck, her touch a brush of lips and cold steel.”
Mare is torn up about her love for Maven. “There are still pieces of me, small pieces, still in love with a fiction. A ghost inside a living boy I cannot fathom.”
Mare is humiliated by her guards. “Kitten forces me into the scarlet gown, making me strip in front of them all.”

Violence

Mare’s former tutor says, “I watched babies die without seeing the sun.”
When visiting wounded Silver soldiers, Mare thinks, “Their kind aren’t meant to bleed. Not like this.” The soldiers fought in a battle against the Scarlet Guard.
In a military transport, Mare attacks Maven. Mare “jumps forward, lunging, hands stretched out to grab him by the collar. Without thinking, I shove, pushing, smashing him back into his seat.” Later, Mare thinks, “I fantasize about cutting his throat and staining Maven’s freshly painted walls with Silver blood.”
Mare is forced to attend a feast put on by Maven. It ends in an assassination attempt, which kills Maven’s foreign guest, Prince Alexandret. Mare sees, “Prince Alexandret, slumped dead in his seat of honor with a bullet hole between his eyes.” At the same time, Mare sees Maven wounded, “Silver blood bubbles from his neck, gushing through the fingers of the nearest Sentinel, who is trying to keep pressure on a bullet wound.”
During an attack on the capital, Cal kills Samson. “Fire races down Samson’s throat, charring his insides. His vocal cords shred. The only screaming I hear now is in my head.”
During a sparring match between Mare and Cal, Cal overwhelms her. Mare gets hit with Cal’s fire, and her “flesh ripples with fresh blisters, and I bite my lip to keep from screaming. Cal would stop the fight if he knew how much this hurt.”
In a final battle between Maven’s army and the Scarlet Guard, the first casualty is a Red soldier. Mare sees the soldier fall, and then “shouts as he goes over the edge, plunging thirty feet—before sailing skyward, born of a graviton’s concentration. He lands hard on the wall, colliding with a sickening crack.” In the thick of the fight, Farley, a Scarlet Guard commander, kills some Silvers. “Farley peppers them with gunfire, dropping a few Silvers where they stand. Their bodies slide off into darkness.” The battle is described over 20 pages.
A newblood committed suicide after being outed as a spy. Mare thinks, “I’ve seen suicide pills before. Even though I shut my eyes, I know what happens next.”
Three of the noble houses of Norta attack Maven. Mare watches as “Laris wind weavers toss Iral silks from one side of the room to the other with sharp gusts, wielding them like living arrows while the Irals fire pistols and throw knives with deadly precision.” A few of Maven’s guards are hurt in the fight.
When Cameron infiltrated a prison, she used her ability to kill Silvers. Her ability is to snuff out other abilities, as well as other lives. Cameron thinks, “The memory still makes me sick. I felt their hearts stop. I felt their deaths like they were happening to me.”

Drugs and Alcohol

Maven explains that his mother controlled his father. Maven says, “He was a drunk, a heartbroken imbecile, blind to so much, content to keep things as they were. Easy to control, easy to use.”
While at a party, Mare notices, “Music dances on the air, undercut with the sweet and sickening bite of alcohol as it permeates every inch of the magnificent throne room.”

Language

During a televised speech, Mare is forced to say the former King and Queen “rightfully knew that a Red with an ability would be considered a freak at best, an abomination at worst, and they hid my identity to keep me safe from prejudices of both Red and Silver.”
Bastard is used several times. For example, Cameron calls Cal a “Silver Bastard.”
When thinking of her twin brother, Cameron wonders, “Send him home? To another hellhole?”
Cameron thinks Mare is a “condescending twit.”
Ass is used several times. For example, Cameron calls Cal a “veritable pain in the ass.”
Someone calls Evangeline’s lover a “whore.”

Supernatural

Samson Merandus, one of Maven’s allies, describes his ability. “As a whisper, my ability allows me to bypass the usual lies and twists of speech that most prisoners rely on.”
During an infiltration mission into a Silver compound, Cameron takes the newblood, Harrick, along. She sees a pair of guards as Harrick uses his ability to make their “figures ripple slightly, like the surface of disturbed water.” Harrick can create illusions to manipulate people’s senses.
Cameron’s ability allows her to stop other’s abilities. When Cal confronts her, she notices his flames still “waver before my ability, fighting to breathe, fighting to burn. I could snuff them out if I wanted to.”
When he gets angry, Cal will let loose his fire. “The gleaming bracelet at Cal’s wrist flickers, birthing sparks that travel along his arm in a quick burst of red flame.”
Evangeline can manipulate metal. When Mare is about to be shot, Evangeline catches the bullet mid-air. “Her fist clenches and the bullet rockets backward to where it came from, chased on by splinters of cold steel as they explode from her dress.”
The leader of Montfort, a country far from Norta, can create blue walls out of thin air. He stops Cal and Mare’s sparring match with “another blue wall of something divides the spectators from our spar. With a wave of Davidson’s hand, it blinks out of existence.”
During the final battle, nymphs on Maven’s side flood a city. Mare watches as “the rain shimmers, dancing on the air, joining together into larger and larger droplets. And the puddles, the inches of water in the streets and alleys—they become rivers.” No one is injured.

Spiritual Content

None

by Jonathan Planman

My Lady Jane

According to the history books, Lady Jane Grey became the Queen of England for nine days before quite literally losing her head. But according to authors Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton, and Jodi Meadows, there is definitely more to the story.

Edward hasn’t done very much in his lifetime. Sure, he’s been the King of England since he was a child, but he’s never even kissed a girl—and now he’s caught a deadly illness known as “the affliction,” which means he’ll be dead within a year. Unable to trust either of his sisters to take the throne, Edward decides to rewrite the line of succession, leaving the throne to the future male heir of his cousin, Lady Jane Grey.

Sixteen-year-old Jane would love nothing more than to escape from her life. Her nagging mother and a never-ending string of unfortunate engagements are positively boring compared to the adventures she reads about in her favorite books. She might want her life to be more exciting, but getting married to a complete and total stranger was not what she had in mind.

The stranger in question, Gifford Dudley (please call him G), isn’t too thrilled to be getting married either. Every morning G transforms into a horse and stays that way until sunset. He’s gotten used to the fact that he’s cursed, but he’s not totally sure how to explain that to his pretty new wife.

My Lady Jane is a fascinating alternate history adventure; it is set in a world where people called Eðians have the ability to transform themselves into animals. Despite being based on 16th-century British nobility, Edward, Jane, and Gifford all read as super-relatable to a modern teenager. Stubborn, bookish Jane and sweet, clueless Gifford certainly don’t know how to make a relationship work, let alone run a kingdom. Edward might have been the King of England, but that can’t protect him from being totally awkward around the girl that he likes.

Serious history buffs might not appreciate the extreme liberties that the authors take with the timeline, but the story will definitely appeal to open-minded historical fantasy fans and anyone looking for a good laugh. The story takes readers on a rollicking adventure across England, complete with attempted regicide, a giant bear, and lots of romance. Jane and Gifford’s slow, often awkward progression from unfriendly strangers to loving partners is equal parts endearing and frustrating. Readers will surely be rooting for the protagonists as they learn that sometimes your heart’s desire can be found in the most unexpected places.

Sexual Content

According to rumor, King Henry’s second wife was an Eðian, “who every so often transformed into a black cat so she could slip down the castle stairs into the court minstrel’s bed.”
Edward is described as having “the correct genitalia” to rule England.
Edward thinks that if he had been born a commoner, “at least he would have had an opportunity to kiss a girl.”
Edward thinks that producing an heir would be fun because it would “definitely involve kissing with tongues.”
Edward is reluctant to approve of Jane’s marriage because “in the back of his mind he’d been holding on to the idea that perhaps someday he’d be the one to marry Jane. This was back when it was slightly less frowned upon to marry your cousin.”
Edward’s advisor says, “Life would be a lot simpler if I only had to attend to my wife in the hours between dusk and dawn.”
Gifford’s father tells Edward that Gifford is “a little too easy on the eye for his own good, I’m afraid. He tends to attract…attention from the ladies.”
Gifford’s brother mistakes Jane for one of the women he thinks Gifford has been sleeping with. This causes Jane to panic about her wedding because “Her husband to be was a philanderer. A smooth operator. A debaucher. A rake. A frisker.”
Gifford lets his parents believe that he is “carousing with the ladies” so they don’t discover that he’s been spending his time writing and performing poetry.
Gifford’s father says that Jane is “as far as can be anticipated” fertile.
Jane’s mother explains sex using the euphemism “a very special hug.” She says that although the hug might be unpleasant, “it’s part of the wedding night, and part of your duty as a wife.”
At the end of their wedding ceremony, Jane and Gifford kiss. “The kiss came quickly. It wasn’t anything more than a touch of his lips to hers, so light it might not have happened at all.”
Gifford says that “not one in twenty men” would find Jane unseemly, and that “the supple pout of her lips” could inspire poetry.
Gifford, annoyed at how concerned everyone seems to be with the consummation of their marriage, thinks, “at least the nobility of England no longer required live witnesses to the event.”
Edward and Jane seem so close that Gifford thinks they might be “kissing cousins.”
Edward says that he saw a “flicker of surprise and definite male interest” in Gifford’s eyes when he first sees Jane at the wedding.
As Edward watches Gifford and Jane leave their wedding feast, he thinks, “I am never going to consummate anything. I’m going to die a virgin.”
Jane gets angry at Gifford and calls him a “drunken lothario.”
After bonding during their honeymoon, Jane and Gifford almost kiss. As they stand alone in the parlor, Jane realizes they’ve gotten quite close and wonders, “Would he kiss her? Part of her hoped he would. A big part maybe. Multiple parts: her butterfly-filled stomach, her thudding heart, and her lips, which remembered the gentle breath of a kiss during their wedding.”
When Edward transforms back into a human, he finds himself naked and alone in a strange village, where a woman accuses him of being a pervert. She says, “This was a decent village, you know, before your kind came around spoiling it. Thieves and murderers, the lot of you. Like those dogs that watch me get dressed through the window and then run away. Perverts!”
Gracie is an Eðian who can turn into a fox, which is ironic considering how attractive Edward finds her. The narrators take the opportunity to tell the reader that “the term fox, used to convey the attractiveness of a woman, was not invented until Jimi Hendrix sang ‘Foxy Lady’ in 1967.”
Edward wants to kiss Gracie but can’t because “he wanted her to want him to kiss her.”
Gifford and Jane share a single set of clothing while they are on the run from Mary’s soldiers. Jane describes the situation as an “awkward (and scandalous, though they were married, so did it really count as scandalous?) clothing situation.”
Jane reflects on her growing feelings for Gifford. “He teased her, but never with an intent to hurt her feelings. He often held her hand. He called her pet names like ‘my darling’ and ‘my sweet.’ Those things shouldn’t have had such an effect on her, but they did. Being with him made her breath come quicker and her heart pound and her palms get all clammy. It made her wish she could remain human all the time so that they could stay together.”
The King of France tells Edward to find a wife and produce some male heirs as soon as possible. The King says, “I have three sons, myself, and a number of bastards. It’s very comforting for me to know that I will never find myself in your predicament. My bloodline is secure.”
Edward finally asks Gracie to kiss him by saying, “I’ve never kissed a girl before and I want it to be you. Will you?” She considers it, but ultimately she isn’t able to get past the difference in their stations and runs away.
On the morning of a battle, Jane finally kisses Gifford for real. As they were saying goodbye, Gifford “kissed her. Softly at first, but then she pulled him close and pressed her lips harder to his. And that was it. She could feel him giving in by the way his body pressed against hers, the way one of his hands cupped her cheek, and the way the other slid down her arm. She could feel his desire to stay human in the fevered, desperate way he kissed her.” The description lasts about half a page.
Gifford reflects on the kiss. “How had a girl like Jane kissed him like that? With her whole heart and her whole body? She’d probably read a dozen books with titles like The Kiss: It’s Not Just About the Lips. The way Jane kissed, it was like an art. She kissed by the book.”
After breaking into the castle, Jane and Gifford are reunited. They finally say “I love you” to each other, and Gifford is able to stay a human. “The two lovers embraced, while Edward and your narrators turned their heads to give the lovebirds their moment of blessed union.”
After the battle, Edward can’t stop thinking about Gracie. “Because he wanted to tell her that he’d stepped down from the throne and see that surprised look on her face. And (let’s be honest) he still very much wanted to kiss her. He thought about it embarrassingly often.”
Edward tells Gracie that he gave up the throne, and they finally kiss. “Edward closed the space between them in two strides. He didn’t really know what he was doing, only that he had to do something right now or he’d explode. Her warm heart-shaped face was in his hands, his fingers caught in her curls. She opened her mouth to say something and he kissed her.” The scene lasts about a page.
At Jane and Gifford’s second wedding, “Jane didn’t wait for instructions to kiss. She stood on her toes and wrapped her arms around her husband’s shoulders and kissed him as the guest clapped and clapped.”
After the wedding, Jane and Gifford have a conversation that devolves into kissing. “Lips met lips, soft and questioning at first, then suddenly desperate and wanting. And at their first wedding, their wedding-night chamber seemed full of the echoes of strangers eager to have their say, tonight, they were very much alone.” The narrators cut in before it gets too steamy but do assure the readers that “they totally consummated.” The scene lasts for about a page and a half.

Violence

At the beginning of the book, the narrators summarize the historical version of what happened to Lady Jane Grey: “She was queen for nine days. Then she quite literally lost her head.”
There is a group called the Verities who believe that all Eðians are an abomination, “And because Verities were largely in charge of everything, Eðians were persecuted and hunted until most of them died out or went deep into hiding.”
When King Henry discovers his own ability to turn into a lion, he decrees that Eðians aren’t so bad after all. “The head of the Verity Church was not pleased with King Henry’s decision, but every time Rome sent a missive denouncing the decree, the Lion King ate the messenger. Hence the phrase don’t eat the messenger.”
Edward says one of the things he wants to do before he dies is to beat the weapons master in a sword fight because “[he] was the only person [Edward] knew who forgot to let him win.”
Because of rumors of his second wife’s infidelity, “the king had her head chopped off.” It is also briefly mentioned that his fifth wife was beheaded too.
Edward says the only time he’s seen his sister Mary enjoying herself was “when some traitor was beheaded or some poor Eðian got burned at the stake.”
An Eðian group called the Pack has been “raiding and pillaging from Verity churches and monasteries.”
While traveling, Jane and Gifford come upon a group of villagers being attacked by wolves. “A handful of people brandished sticks and pitchforks and various other farming tools, attempting to block the path of the Pack of wolves.” Some of the villagers have been injured and Jane wants to help them, but Gifford stops her. The description of the event lasts about three pages.
When his nurse tries to feed him poisoned food, Edward imagines her “less-than-slender form stretched on the rack while he dropped poisoned berries in her mouth.”
Edward’s sister, Mary, tells him that when she becomes queen, “We will root out this Eðian infestation, starting with that horrible Pack that everyone’s talking about. I’ll see them all burn.”
After Edward refuses to eat his poisoned food, he is attacked by his would-be murderers. “Before he was even fully awake, rough hands were upon him, forcing his arms up painfully. Hooded men loomed all around his bed. Someone had latched one of his wrists to the bedpost.” The description of the scene lasts about three pages.
As a bird, Edward kills and eats a mouse. “Edward-the-bird struck the mouse with tremendous force and snatched it from the face of the earth. The poor thing gave a rather awful shriek, which was understandable, and then went quiet.”
Edward meets Gracie, a Scottish Eðian and thief who threatens him with a knife. “If he told her who he really was chances were that a) she wouldn’t believe him, and she’d cut his throat, or b) she’d believe him, and because he was the ruler of England and she was Scottish and this was the year 1553, she’d get even more pleasure out of cutting his throat.”
Gracie and Edward get into a fight with a farmer. “The bird that was Edward descended on him, talons clawing at the man’s face. The farmer screamed and released his sword. The girl took this opportunity to knee the farmer in the acorns. He dropped to the floor. She kicked him.”
Mary and her army show up to take the throne away from Jane. Jane and Gifford refuse to cooperate with her and are ultimately held captive. “[Jane] tried to wriggle away and Gifford snapped and kicked, but then one of the men held a sword to Gifford’s long neck. Someone else pressed a knife to Jane’s throat.”
When Gifford transforms into a horse, Mary tells Jane, “In the morning, he will be burned at the stake.” Jane can swear allegiance to Mary and the Verities, or she will be beheaded too.
When Gifford and Jane attempt to escape the castle, they are confronted by several guards. “The first guard [Gifford] dispatched quickly in a move that Jane would probably describe as elegant swordsmanship, but he knew was really the result of the sword slipping from his sweaty hand. As he lunged to retrieve it before it hit the goring, he plunged he sword through the heart of a guard who was just rounding the corner.”
Gracie bests Edward in a sparring match. Gracie “bashed him in the ribs. If it’d been a real sword in her hand, instead of half of a broken broomstick, he would’ve been done for.” The scene lasts about four pages.
Gracie tells Edward about how her family was killed by British soldiers because they were Eðians. “That night I woke to our cottage burning. We were all inside, my ma and dad and brothers—I had two brothers—and they’d blocked the door from the outside, boarded the windows too.”
Edward and Gracie come very close to kissing, but they are interrupted by his grandmother. “At that moment we should confess that Edward briefly considered murdering his dear sweet grandmother. And he might have gotten away with it, too, on account of the rest of the world thinking the old lady was already dead.”
Gifford, Jane, and Pet get into an altercation with the Pack and Jane gets injured. “All at once [Gifford] became aware of the blood soaking the front of his shirt and how unusually quiet she was. Jane was never quiet. She was hurt.” The description of the fight lasts about three pages.
In order to get the Pack to help Edward take back his throne, Edward and Gifford must kill the Great White Bear of Rhyl. When the bear attacks them, Gifford tries to play dead. “The bear sniffed G’s leg. G tried to make his leg look less like food. The bear pushed G’s shoulder and pushed again as though trying to turn him over. G wasn’t sure if complying would make him seem more or less dead.” Ultimately Edward is able to kill the bear. The description of the fight lasts four pages.
Edward is concerned about meeting with Mary Queen of Scotts because of the bad end of their engagement. “When King Henry received word that Mary’s regents had accepted another offer of marriage, this one from the King of France, pairing her with the French dauphin, Francis, King Henry had eaten the messenger immediately and remained a roaring lion for days. And then he’d invaded Scotland.”
During their siege on the castle, Jane, Edward, and Gifford run into some guards who want to kill them. “The guard on the right re-raised his sword and took a deep breath as if to speak, but he didn’t get a sound out before a loud bang rang out and he dropped like a stone. Jane stood behind the guard, her frying pan raised to where the man’s head had been.” The conflict is described over three pages.
As Gifford, Edward, and Jane attempt to break into the castle, Gifford’s father and brother confront them. Gifford “looked at his father’s outstretched hand and it made him sick that he shared the same blood as this man… With a flick of his sword, he cut a gash in Lord Dudley’s palm.” The confrontation lasts about three pages.
Gracie tells Edward that she’s the new leader of the Pack because the old leader has died. “He took an arrow to the chest in the first ten minutes of the siege.”

Drugs and Alcohol

At the wedding feast, Gifford gets very drunk because he’s too nervous to tell Jane about his horse curse. “Every time G thought about how to break the news to her, he gulped down a cup of ale. And he thought about it a lot. Every time he looked at his new bride. And he looked at her a lot.”
When he turns back into a human, Gifford goes to a tavern attached to a brothel to steal some clothes because “There it was easy to grab clothes strewn about, the owners of which would be too sloshed to care.”

Language

When he learns he’s going to die from the affliction, Edward says, “bollocks,” twice.
Damn is used once. Gifford tells Jane she should abdicate, “Well tell them thank you so much for the very kind offer of running the country, but no thank you. I have no desire to honor my cousin, the king’s, wishes. Now where are my damn books?”
During a sparring match, Gracie and Edward trade insults, including “Lilly-livered scutt” and “beef-witted varlet.”
Edward calls Mary a “poisonous bunch-backed toad.”

Supernatural

The book is set in an alternate world where certain people, known as Eðians, have the ability to turn into animals. “Certain members of the general public could turn themselves into cats, which greatly increased the country’s tuna fish population, but also cut down on England’s rat population. (Then again, other individuals could turn into rats, so nobody really noticed.)”
King Henry VIII was an Eðian, who “during a fit of rage transformed into a great lion and devoured the court jester.”
There’s a rumor that Jane’s mother is an Eðian, which caused Jane and Edward to try to uncover their own Eðian forms. “Jane had read in a book that Eðians often manifested into their animal forms when they were upset. They’d cursed each other and slapped each other’s faces, and Jane had even gone so far as to throw a stone at Edward, which actually did rile him, but they had remained stubbornly humanly human throughout the whole ordeal.”
Edward’s dog, Pet, reveals herself to be an undercover Eðian. “Pet stood up, then lifted her front paws to the edge of Edward’s bed, her neck thrown back like she was stretching. There was a flash of light, as painful as if Edward had accidentally glanced into the sun, and he closed his eyes. When he opened them again there was a naked girl standing at the foot of his bed.”
Jane is locked up in a tower, hopelessly anticipating her upcoming execution, when she finally unlocks her Eðian powers and turns into a ferret. “A brilliant white light flared about her, making her blink back stars. When she could see again, everything was different. The room was bigger, for one, and she felt…funny. Shorter, which was saying something, but oddly long.”
Edward’s grandmother tries to teach Jane, Gifford, and Edward how to use their Eðian powers. She tells them that the secret to changing into your animal form is to know your heart’s desire. Edward’s grandmother says, “If, in the moment you want to change, you do not know why you want to become a bird or ferret or horse or human, then you will stay exactly as you are.”
When Edward shows up to take his throne back, Mary gets so angry that she turns into a mule. “Then Mary let out a bellow of rage and barreled toward Bess with outstretched hands, as if she would choke the life from her sister. But before she could reach Bess, a light flashed. The onlookers gave a collective gasp. Where Mary had been standing, there was now a chubby mule.”

Spiritual Content

Edward believes he was “designed by God” to be the king of England.
Jane’s mother says that her Eðian form is unnatural, but Jane disagrees. “In one of my books about Eðians, the author said that long ago, in ancient times, all people were able to change into their animal form. Everyone was Eðian. It was considered their true nature. It was considered divine.”
Edward feels bad about having bad-mouthed women, thinking, “He’d only said what Bess had told him to say, and besides, it was true, wasn’t it? Women were the weaker sex were they not? Wasn’t that even written in the Holy Book?”
While Jane is breaking into the castle, Gifford says several prayers. “He closed his eyes and sent a quick prayer to the heavens that he would see her again. He prayed Edward would keep her from harm. He prayed if Edward failed, she would turn into a ferret and hide. He prayed if she was discovered she would slip from the soldier’s clumsy fingers. And that if she couldn’t escape, they would kill her quickly.”

by Evalyn Harper

The Princess and the Fangirl

Everyone knows that Jessica Stone hates everything to do with the beloved sci-fi franchise Starfield. When she signed on to play the beloved Princess Amara, Jess was expecting to use the role as a springboard into bigger and better films. But being an actress in a sci-fi universe comes with an overwhelming amount of criticism. Jess can barely handle the hatred she gets from fans on the internet, and she certainly isn’t looking forward to being surrounded by them at the annual ExcelsiCon.

Starfield fangirl, Imogen Lovelace, practically grew up on the convention floor. Every year her family runs a booth at ExcelsiCon, but this year Imogen has her own mission. She wants to #SaveAmara from being killed off, and she’s got thousands of signatures on an online petition to prove she’s not the only one. When an unfortunate case of mistaken identity leaves Imogen onstage at a panel in Jessica’s place, Imogen takes the opportunity to speak out in favor of saving the Princess.

Jessica is furious, telling Imogen she will ruin her if she even attempts such a thing again. But when an incredibly confidential script to the Starfield sequel leaks online, and Jessica’s script is nowhere to be found, she’s afraid the blame will fall to her. Jess needs to expose the real culprit before the end of the Con or risk losing her career. The solution? Trade places with Imogen so she can scope out the Con herself, a plan that turns out to be much easier said than done.

The Princess and the Fangirl is a modern-day Prince and the Pauper with a fandom twist. Both Jessica and Imogen think they can gain something by stepping into each other’s shoes, but they both end up with an unexpected perspective. Jess is longing for anonymity and an escape from the harsh gaze of the Starfield fandom. She finds herself dropped right into the middle of it all, getting a first-hand look at how the stories she always viewed as inconsequential can bring people together. Meanwhile, Imogen, who is searching for a sense of purpose, is eager to use her newfound influence to right a few wrongs. But her peek behind the scenes reveals a disturbing darker side of Starfield that only Jessica Stone gets to see.

This story is technically a sequel to Geekerella, bringing readers back to ExcelsiCon one year later. There are a few cameos from familiar faces, but Geekerella can still stand on its own. Fans of romance will enjoy the fact that each of the girls has an adorable love interest, while the mystery of the leaked script will keep readers on their toes. Both Jessica and Imogen struggle with self-image issues that teen readers will find very relatable. And, like in Geekerella, Poston’s commentary on fandom is clever and meaningful: behind every Princess, there is a normal girl.

Sexual Content

Jess contemplates her role as Princess Amara, thinking about how she’d accepted the role expecting it to launch her career into more meaningful roles that wouldn’t require her to look “hot in a suffocating dress while running in heels.”
Imogen makes several sci-fi references, including a mention of “sexy David Tennant,” the actor who played the Tenth Doctor on the television series Doctor Who.
While onstage next to Darien, the actor who plays Prince Carmindor in the Starfield movie, Imogen thinks of him as “the love of [her] Tumblr life.”
Jess is jealous of how the Starfield fandom has grown to love Darien while they continue to harass her. “Darien sort of got the same blowback when he was announced to play Federation Prince Carmindor—which is how he met his girlfriend, btw—but it died off as the fandom embraced him. Now they write love letters about his inky-black eyelashes and immaculate abs while I get dissertations on how the small mole on the left side of my mouth has ruined the beauty of Princess Amara.”
Imogen tosses a #SaveAmara pin to a cosplayer in a “sexy Xenomorph” costume.
When one of Imogen’s moms asks the other to put a Captain America figurine on the top shelf of their display, she makes a joke that could be taken sexually. She says, “I could’ve sworn he belonged on the bottom.”
Imogen says that her little brother met his boyfriend in the astronomy lab. Although she thinks they probably “spent more time studying each other’s astrological compatibility than learning solar physics.”
Imogen doesn’t look like either of her moms. Imogen says, “…although Kathy carried both Milo and me. I look like the sperm donor apparently.”
Ethan, Jessica’s best friend, changes his shirt in front of her. Jessica thinks, “Sure he’s pretty cute, but my eyes don’t really linger. He’d be a catch if someone burns all of his nerd shirts and puts him in some jeans that actually show he has a butt.”
When Jessica looks through the comments on her social media, they include, “I can tell her where she can put those pretty lips” and “fixed her chest with small kitties lol [censored photo].”
Imogen literally runs into Ethan, spilling coffee all over him. Before she recognizes him as Jessica Stone’s rude assistant, she thinks that he’s hot. “He’s very very Hot like I-want-to-be-stuck-in-an-elevator-with-you hot, not we-are-now-mortal-enemies-because-I-just-spilled-my-coffee-on-you-while-not-paying-attention hot.”
Before trading places, Jessica makes a list of rules for Imogen to follow. Rule number four is, “Don’t flirt with anyone.”
Jessica doesn’t give her number out freely because someone “put it on an unsavory message board.”
Imogen thinks that contact lenses feel like “condoms for [her] eyeballs.”
Harper, Imogen’s friend, is selling her fan art out of a booth next to someone “hawking sexy pin ups of burly men.”
When Jess first sees Harper, her mind blanks because Harper “is very pretty, with delicate features, brown skin, and natural hair pulled into twin puffs on the sides of her head.”
Harper’s artwork is displayed on a board in the boot. Jessica describes it as a “copious amount of fan art of Princess Amara in the arms of various characters—men and women.”
Actor Vance Reigns is introduced as the villain for the Starfield Imogen finds him very attractive. “He is face meltingly hot. His shoulders and chest are broad, his torso tapers down to thin hips and sturdy legs. I mean, not that his legs wouldn’t be sturdy, but you know the kind of legs where you just know, under the molten-golden trousers, that he can basically smash watermelons between them? Yeah that’s the kind of thighs I’m picturing, and I think my knees have gone numb and dear god he’s too close.”
When Jess sees a picture of Princess Amara embracing a female Starfield character, she says, “I can’t help but blush seeing a girl with my likeness kissing the likeness of Fiona Oro who plays Zorine.”
Imogen notices that Ethan is wearing Captain America-themed shoes, “And then I’m just thinking of Ethan punching Nazis, and that’s kinda hot, actually.”
When Ethan heads off to watch a panel, Imogen says, “Have fun with the tres horny bois.”
Imogen thinks she can tell that Ethan likes Jess “by the way I caught him looking at me while I was posing for pictures with a seven-year-old Carmindor, the softness of his gaze, the curl of his lips upward ever so slightly. He must’ve forgotten for a second that I wasn’t the real Jess. Those looks are probably only for her.”
At the Stellar party, Jess sees two girls kiss goodbye. She thinks, “I don’t mean to stare but their kiss is so simple and easy, like saying see you later, that I don’t think any thought was put into it, I wish I knew what that was like.”
Harper and Jess tell each other about their first kisses. Harper says, “My first kiss was a seven-minutes-in-heaven thing. I was at a birthday party in middle school. It was…terrible.” Jess’s first kiss was on a movie set. Jess says, “He was older and I was, like, fifteen. His stubble was scratchy and it gave me a rash—and he smelled like weed. He’d been smoking all day.”
Jess realizes she has feelings for Harper. Jess thinks, “I have a crush on this girl with curly dark hair and ink smudges on her brown fingers and trouble tucked into her maroon-colored lips.”
Imogen, overwhelmed by her feelings, jumps on Ethan in the pool. “Turns out he’s a lot heavier than I thought, especially for a beanpole. And his torso is very solid. Are those abs I feel? Oh sweet baby Daleks, please don’t tell me Ethan actually has a nice bod.”
While in the pool, Imogen and Ethan are very close. Imogen thinks, “I have to remind myself that I can’t like him, but it’s hard when a droplet of water beads at the end of a lock of raven hair in front of his face, and falls on his cheek, and rolls down his cheek slowly, languidly, like I want to run my finger down his jawline. It’s like there’s no one else but us in the world, and his eyes navigate steadily to my lips.” They almost kiss, but Imogen pulls away at the last second.
After having spent the night talking to Harper, Jess thinks, “I am not a serial dater. I simply never cared… I’m not built to take a random person into a bedroom, I’m not wired to want those things, and so it made all those dates and chaste kisses with celebrities so easy.”
Jess dislikes the internet because it makes it easy for fans to forget about the people behind the characters. “Your hot take shouldn’t dehumanize me, or tell me that I’m wrong, or that I’m worthless, or a slut who slept on some casting couch for the role.”
Imogen’s ex-boyfriend shows up at a meet-and-greet. When they hug, “his hands slip low.”
While at dinner with Vance Reign, Imogen (disguised as Jess) discovers Vince has been trying to get the real Jess to go on a publicity date with him for a long time. He tries to kiss her, but she pushes him away.
Jess crashes the final Starfield panel. When she starts to leave, the director asks her where she’s going. Jess responds, “The horizon is wide, and I have a girl to kiss.”
Jess apologizes to Harper very publicly, and when the two of them are reunited, they kiss. Jessica says, “I give her the Starfield salute—You and I are made of stars—and I hope that’s enough. She smiles and presses her hands to mine in the same pose, and then slowly, finger by finger, they fall together—And she kisses me.” The description of the kiss is about half a page.
Imogen kisses Ethan. She takes “his face in my hands and pull him down to kiss me. He tastes like Cheerwine, his hands rising to cup the sides of my face.” The description lasts about half a page.
Jess and Harper meet to get coffee and kiss again. Jessica says, “I kiss her in front of the entire world, the first word on the first page of the rest of my life.”

Violence

When Jess discovers Imogen has taken her place on stage, she has some murderous thoughts. “I am going to kill her. I don’t even know her name but I don’t need her name to put her in an unmarked grave. I am going to chop her up into so many pieces that when alien archeologists find her bones in a thousand years they won’t even realize she was once human.”
Imogen’s younger brother calls her an embarrassing nickname. She tells him, “If you weren’t my brother and I didn’t love you, I’d strangle you with your own jockstrap.”
In a leaked scene from the Starfield sequel script, “A group of soldiers push CARMINDOR, tied up and beaten, into the middle of the council. CARMINDOR stumbles and collapses onto the dais. Blood drips from his mouth where he has been punched repeatedly.”
Imogen tells Ethan a story. “When I had to debate a guy over women’s reproduction he told me that women are too fragile to have control over their own bodies. I got kicked out of the club for kneeing him in the nards.”
Imogen’s ex-boyfriend, Jasper, shows up at a Jessica Stone meet and greet, causing trouble. Ethan steps in to get him to leave. “Jasper whirls around, fists clinched, ready to swing. I don’t have time to shout to Ethan that a punch is coming before he raises a hand and deflects the blow with his lower arm, grabbing Jasper by the shirt and pull-throwing him out through the nearest curtain.”

Drugs and Alcohol

Imogen claims to always be in the wrong place at the wrong time, like “delivering someone’s homework to a frat party when the cops show up.”
Harper invites Jess to join her at the Stellar Party, a space-themed party that her friends throw every year, where they “drink a little, sing some karaoke, stuff like that.”
In the hotel room where the Stellar Party is held, “on the kitchenette bar is a wall of liquor bottles and sodas.”
There is a drink at the Stellar Party called “Oh No.” Harper says, “Oh No is way more vodka than common sense.”
Imogen hugs her brother and notices that he smells like Stellar Party, “vape juice and Oh No.”

Language

Imogen uses the phrase “Starflame” in place of curse words frequently. “‘Starflame!’ I curse. ‘I’m so sorry.’”
When Imogen and Ethan run into each other a third time, she calls him a “nerfherder,” an insult from the Star Wars “‘He is possibly the worst nerfherder in the—’ I say, while at the same time he says, ‘She’s that monster of a girl I was telling you—’ We both stop mid-sentence.”
When Imogen puts on a wig in order to pass as Jess, she thinks “the whole bit about long hair being more feminine is Noxballs.”
Ethan gets upset at Imogen and calls her a “Rapscallion look-alike.”
After the incident with her ex-boyfriend, Imogen appreciates that the remaining fans in line are decent people, but she thinks, “I hate that some of the dickwads in their midst are not.”
Natalia Ford, the actress who originally played Amara, rescues Jess from a crowd of angry fans. Jess notices that she’s wearing a shirt “covered in a pattern of tiny, artistically rendered middle-fingers.”
Right before the final panel, the director is looking for Darien, who is busy helping enact the girl’s plan to reveal who stole the script. Imogen tells him, “He went to take a piss.”

Supernatural

None

Spiritual Content

When Imogen runs into her ex-boyfriend, she asks herself, “God why do I feel so horrible?”

by Evalyn Harper

What Light

The Christmas season holds a special place in the heart of Sierra’s family. Her parents first met at a Christmas tree lot and quickly fell in love. Now her parents own a Christmas tree farm in Oregon. Every winter, the family travels to California to set up their Christmas tree lot. Because of this, Sierra has never had a normal Christmas holiday, but she has never wanted anything different, having friends in both Oregon and California.

Sierra has always been able to keep her two lives apart, but all that changes when she meets Caleb, a handsome boy with a bad reputation. Even though Sierra is warned to stay away from Caleb’s cute smile, Sierra is drawn to him. The more she gets to know him, the more questions she has about his bad reputation. Sierra is determined to show others that Caleb’s past mistakes should not define him, but with mounting pressure from her parents and friends, Sierra wonders if Caleb is worth the trouble. Amid growing suspicion and misconceptions, Sierra wonders if love really can conquer all.

What Light is a beautiful story about first love, forgiveness, and family. Readers will fall in love with Sierra, who doesn’t hide her intelligence when trying to attract a boy. Instead, she continues to use advanced vocabulary and enjoys the fact that Caleb tries to stump her with new words. Readers will be drawn to Sierra because of her sweet, trusting nature and her love of all things Christmas. Another positive aspect of the story is Sierra’s parents, who use positive communications skills to guide Sierra through her first love, even as they worry about the possibility of Caleb breaking her heart.

As teen romances flood the market, What Light will draw readers in with relatable characters who have healthy relationships. This sweet story steers away from sex, swear words, and other objectionable material. Any reader who is looking for an engaging holiday romance should grab a blanket and a cup of hot cocoa and curl up with What Light. Like a Hallmark Movie, this story will leave readers with a smile and the belief that love can indeed conquer all.

Sexual Content

Heather talks about her boyfriend and says, “If the choice is between listening to him or kissing him, kissing is a much better use of his mouth.”
When Sierra talks to Heather about her boyfriend, Sierra says, “You and Devon hang out a lot, and I know you make out a lot, but does he know you really like him?”
Sierra’s friend tells her to, “put a stupid mistletoe over his head and kiss him already!” During the conversation, the friend also says, “You should probably kiss him, though, before you make any bigger decisions.”
The first time Sierra and Caleb kiss, “he touches my cheek with his hand and guides me toward him. His lips are so soft against mine, sweetened with peppermint. I lean further in and get lost kissing him. I slide off him to the mat and then he rolls himself on top of me. I wrap my arms around him and we kiss with more intensity. We pull back to catch our breaths and look into each other’s eyes.”
Caleb kisses Sierra and “once again I lose myself in his kiss. I trace my lips from his jaw to his ear.”
While on a date, Caleb “kisses me softly. I reach up and touch his cold cheeks, which make his lips feel even warmer. I wonder if every kiss with Caleb will feel this new and magical.”
Caleb and Sierra kiss several other times, but the kisses are not described.

Violence

Caleb tells Sierra about a time when he was younger. He was angry at his sister and ran after her with a knife. When Caleb’s sister ran from him, “she got to her room and slammed the door. . . I stabbed her door with the knife over and over. I didn’t way to hurt her. . . but I could not stop stabbing the door. I heard her screaming and crying to our mom on the phone. Finally, I dropped the knife and just slumped onto the floor.”

Drugs and Alcohol

Sierra’s friend went on one date with a boy who was “caught with an open can of beer in his friend’s car.”
On New Year’s Eve, a boy promises to be “the designated driver for the entire cheer squad.”

Language

God is used as an exclamation twice. Oh my God is used as an exclamation once.
Hell, damn, and crappy are all used once
Caleb’s sister calls her brother “bone-headed.”

Supernatural

None

Spiritual Content

Sierra teases a boy, saying, “You probably consider your sweet tooth a major sin.” The boy replies, “No, I don’t remember that one being mentioned in church, but laziness has been, and I am that.”
A little girl tells Caleb that her family has “said a prayer for you.”
A family’s car breaks down on a long trip and the family has to rent a motel room. When the woman recounts the experience, she says, “Thank you, God, they had a pool there or the kids would have killed each other.”
Caleb and Sierra have a brief conversation about church. Caleb is a believer, and although he attends church, the story doesn’t go into his beliefs.
Sierra says a prayer. “Please don’t let this be the last time I see Caleb.”

Drama

When Callie’s middle school decides to produce Moon over Mississippi, Callie doesn’t want to be on stage. She loves theater, and as part of the stage crew, she wants to create a set worthy of Broadway. But bringing her big ideas to life won’t be easy with a middle school budget and her lack of carpentry knowledge.

Once the actors are chosen, Callie finds herself in the middle of drama onstage and offstage. The actors don’t all get along, and Callie has a confusing crush on an eighth-grader. When two cute brothers enter the picture, things get even crazier.

Drama focuses mostly on the stage crew, which gives the readers a unique look at the hard work that takes place behind the scenes. Told from Callie’s point of view, many fans will be able to relate to Callie as she deals with the confusing world of middle school. Callie is naive, cheerful, and obsessed with having a boyfriend. Callie seems to fall in love with any boy that is nice to her, which causes her heartache. However, Callie does seem to finally realize that having a boyfriend isn’t necessary.

The drawings are colorful and do an excellent job of showing the character’s emotions through their facial expressions. Reluctant readers will appreciate that many of the pages do not have words, but instead tell the story through drawings. Readers will love the manga-infused art, which shows the jealousies and misunderstandings of the cast members.

Although Drama does revolve around the students’ production of Moon Over Mississippi, a majority of the story focuses on the characters trying to discover themselves and their sexual orientation. Like a soap opera, the characters in the book are very interested in who likes who, and who broke up with who. When Callie’s friend tells her that he is gay, Callie easily accepts it and promises to keep the information secret. Drama highlights the importance of being accepting and open-minded, and not judging those who are exploring their sexuality—whether they are straight, gay, or bisexual. Although many readers will enjoy the graphic novel Drama, Callie and the plot are not unique or memorable. There is too much romantic angst and not enough action focusing on the production of the play.

Sexual Content

Callie has a crush on Greg. When Greg tells her that he broke up with his girlfriend, she kisses him on the cheek. Greg asks, “What was that for?” Callie tells him, “Oh, I don’t know. Just something I’ve been wanting to do for a while.” They have a short conversation, and then Greg kisses her on the lips. The next day at school, Greg ignores her.
In order to make Greg jealous, Callie walks by the baseball field with two of her guy friends.
One of Callie’s guy friends tells her that he’s gay. Later, when they discuss the eighth grade dance, the boy says he won’t ask another guy because “my dad would probably flip out, and I’m not sure if he’s ready for that. I’m not sure if I’m ready.” The boy says his parents suspect he’s gay, but “we don’t discuss it.”
Callie and a group of theatre kids go into the school’s basement to look at the costumes. They find a girl and a boy hiding behind a rack of clothes, kissing.
During the school production, a boy breaks up with the lead girl right before the play is about to begin. The girl melts down and refuses to continue acting in the play. In an act of desperation, one of the boys dresses in an evening gown and steps in for the missing girl. During the kissing scene, two boys kiss. There is an illustration of the shocked expressions of the audience.
A boy likes another boy, but he’s unsure if they will become a couple because “West still doesn’t know if he’s really gay. Or, I dunno, Bi, or whatever.”

Violence

None

Drugs and Alcohol

None

Language

Callie calls her brother a “fuzzbrain.”
Callie’s friend calls Greg a “dork.”
A boy calls his brother a “jerk-face.”
“Heck” is used twice. “Darn” is used once.

Supernatural

None

Spiritual Content

None

Paper Girl

Zoe hasn’t left her family’s Denver penthouse in over a year. Doctors continually tell her that her anxiety will get better if she takes little steps, but she knows that she can’t do that. That would mean going outside into the real world, and the thought of that is too terrifying to contemplate. It is much better to stay inside where it is safe, in a world that she constructs out of paper. Nothing can hurt you inside. Nothing can scare you.

Everything changes when her mom decides to hire a tutor for Zoe. But it isn’t just any tutor. . . it’s Jackson, a friend of her older sister Mae. Jackson is the only person from the outside world that Zoe wishes she could see. He’s the boy that she has been thinking about non-stop for a year. How can she let him into her world?

Zoe’s world is flipped upside down as Jackson enters her life and makes her realize that the world outside her door might not be as scary as it seems. The story doesn’t just focus on Zoe, but also shares Jackson’s perspective. Jackson faces many difficulties as he deals with homelessness, an alcoholic father, and the struggle of raising money for college.

Zoe and Jackson don’t realize that they have been communicating while playing online chess together. For over a year, they have been sharing their problems with each other. Online is the only place that they feel free to share their struggle. Will the two ever be able to connect in person? Paper Girl is a captivating read that sheds light on the diverse struggles of adolescence.

Paper Girl discusses mental health at length, as the main character has debilitating anxiety that restricts her from leaving her home. She often meets with therapists and doctors in order to grapple with her illness. Through first-person narration, the audience is able to feel her struggles firsthand, giving a vivid picture of life with a mental illness. Jackson’s father is also depicted as a rampant alcoholic, and although the audience never directly sees him in this state, it is referenced frequently. The characters face realistic hardships, which at times will disturb readers. However, Zoe and Jackson’s story also highlights the importance of having compassion for others who are trying to navigate life. The story does not only focus on the character’s hardships but also adds in a satisfying romantic plot.

Paper Girl is a delightful and easy read, making it an enjoyable experience for the audience despite having some heavy subject matter. The depth and relatability of the characters draw readers in, inviting them to enter Zoe’s paper world. The small details of the characters’ interactions and the sweet romance create an endearing charm that keeps readers on the edge of their seats, eager to see what happens next.

Zoe’s family is an integral part of Zoe’s journey, and although they are not always understanding, they truly want what is best for her. Another positive aspect of this story is that therapy is portrayed in a positive light.

Zoe’s journey is powerful, as she and the audience learn how to battle inner demons to live a fulfilling life. Beautifully written, Paper Girl is a must-read that has relatable characters who struggle with anxiety and are afraid of being judged by others. Paper Girl will evoke emotions of frustration and sadness, as well as give readers a message of hope.

Sexual Content

Zoe’s parents kiss in a scene, making her feel mildly uncomfortable. “Dad kissed Mom on the lips long enough to make me cringe.”
In Zoe’s fantasy world, she would “flirt with [Jackson] a little.”
Zoe’s fear of seeing Jackson was, “the equivalent of the naked dream.”
When Jackson’s elbow brushes Zoe’s, he thinks, “her skin was so smooth and warm and I wanted to touch it again.”
When Zoe thinks about Jackson wanting to get to know her, it “makes my whole body buzz.”
Mae teases Zoe about Jackson and says, “You think he’s hot and you want to kiss him?”
Mae kissed her boyfriend, Robert, “all the time, and even though I made faces, she seemed to like it.”
Zoe fantasizes about Jackson and thinks, “Jackson’s kisses were probably like his smiles. Overwhelming. Brilliant.”
In another fantasy, Zoe imagines that she and Jackson would walk around Denver. “He’d kiss me, right in the middle of the sidewalk. He’d slide his hand down the hem of my shirt, where a sliver of bare skin was exposed and—”
Gina, Zoe’s therapist, tells her a story of when she was in college and threw up on a guy’s shoes. “I offered to take him out that weekend, and though he didn’t want new shoes, he still went out with me. And we dated for a year.”
There is a scene where Zoe and Jackson stand on a balcony staring out at the night sky. During the entire scene, Jackson has his arms around Zoe’s waist.
Mae says that Zoe “has it soooo bad” for the comic book character Mr. Fantastic, and that he has “sexy glasses.”
Mae casually asks Zoe if Jackson is a good kisser. When Zoe says that she has yet to kiss him, Mae recommends that she, “pull him over to Mercury and say something about gravity not working or something then kind of fall into him. . . with your lips.”
Zoe and Jackson share their first kiss. “His found mine without hesitation. They were warm, like his hands, and softer than I expected. Gentle. My mouth parted, ready to say his name, but he took this as an invitation to step even closer, so his hand slid up my back and the other found my cheek with those same warm fingers.” Later, after trying again, Zoe says, “I was right, Jackson was a great kisser, and I never wanted him to stop.” They kiss several more times throughout the novel.
After they kiss, Jackson’s “fingers slid up my spine, making my world tilt.”
When Zoe tells Jackson that she wants to make a paper asteroid belt, he says, “Oh God, you make that sound sexy.”
While they are making out, Jackson is surprised when Zoe, “shifted in my lap to straddle my legs.” After this, the elevator unexpectedly dings, surprising them, and they hastily get up to look normal. Jackson “yanked down the front hem of my shirt to cover the effect Zoe had on me.”

Violence

Mae and her friends play a game when they watch horror movies, where they compete to see who comes closest to guessing the number of people who will die. Some of the movie is described. “She fired off another shot. The killer collapsed in a heap . . . In a last burst of unnatural and bloody vengeance, the Prom Night Slasher jumped on Alisha, using his bare hands to strangle her.”
Zoe worries that Jackson’s dad, who is an alcoholic, had “gotten violent.”
Zoe’s therapist, Gina, got jumped in college. “‘He had a knife. I tried to fight, but. . .’ She pushed aside her scarf to reveal a jagged scar that ran down her neck to her collarbone. ‘It almost killed me.’”

Drugs and Alcohol

Jackson’s dad is referenced many times as being an alcoholic and a drug addict. Eventually, he goes to rehab and gets his life back on track.
Jackson is homeless. His father still receives his mail and official paperwork, so he isn’t caught by social services, but “I wasn’t sure how much of that agreement Dad remembered, since he’d made it while working toward an epic high on heroin.”
Jackson thought his Dad had sold his clothes “for drug money.”
When Jackson’s Dad calls him for the first time in months, he grows suspicious and thinks of his schedule. His dad, “didn’t typically start the party until two a.m. First, a few beers, then tequila, and if that didn’t get him where he wanted, he’d hit the heroin.”

Language

Profanity is used frequently throughout the book. Profanity includes: damn, hell, crap, bastard, shit, holy shit, and dammit.
Jackson’s online chess partner was “kicking my ass.”
Zoe calls her math makeup homework “crappy.”
Jackson said that he’d been, “riding a ship through the shit storm of life with my father at the helm.”
Oh my God, God, and oh God are used as exclamations several times.
Jackson calls Zoe a “badass.”

Supernatural

None

Spiritual Content

None

by Morgan Filgas

Losing the Field

Tallulah has always been the overweight girl no one wants to spend time with. She focuses on her studies, ignores the teasing, and bides her time until graduation. But when Nash, the boy she’s had a crush on for years, makes a joke about her weight, she becomes bent on revenge. Tallulah thought she and Nash were friends because Nash was the only person who seemed to be genuinely nice to her. After his teasing, Tallulah walks and walks all summer, losing weight and increasing her anger towards Nash, the boy who broke her heart. When her senior year starts, she’s the most attractive and revenge-bent girl in school.

Tallulah’s year isn’t what she expects though. Once Nash realizes his mistake, he and Tallulah become friends. Then they become more than friends. He is a brand-new person this year too, after a football accident leaves him with a permanent limp and he can’t play anymore. They find understanding and friendship in each other. They have to cling to this new relationship as car accidents, rumors, and inappropriate teachers all threaten to destroy their feelings for each other.

Losing the Field is a dramatic take on a tumultuous senior year of high school. The characters are easy to connect with, but at some points the plot and dialogue are overly dramatic. However, the plot does bring up important topics such as body image, bullying, substance abuse, and friendship. The main character Tallulah teaches readers that your outside appearance doesn’t matter as much as what’s on the inside, and she stands up for herself by telling the truth, even in a difficult situation.

This story is entertaining but predictable. The characters get themselves into hard situations because of misunderstandings and eventually come back together when they have learned the truth. Profanity is used often and is used to differentiate between the voices of Tallulah and Nash. The chapters are written in alternating perspectives and Nash uses expletives and coarse language in his narration.

The story does deal with a teacher who makes inappropriate advances on a student (Tallulah). Nothing beyond a kiss and words are exchanged, but it is presented as a serious issue. Tallulah does the right thing by telling the truth to the administration and voicing her objections to the teacher’s advances. The teacher is fired, though Tallulah decides to not press charges.

Readers looking for an easy-to-read book about teenagers in love will find Losing the Field a good read. Although Tallulah lost weight, she did it for the wrong reason—to get a guy. The story does hint that in order to be beautiful, you must be thin. Another negative aspect of the story is that the non-stop drama becomes hard to believe. While the book was about Tallulah and Nash’s relationship, this part of the storyline should have been better developed. It is also a misleading novel in its presentation; this book is not about sports. Nash did play football, but that is a minor plot point. Overall, Losing the Field is a quick, easy read for someone looking for a dramatic and action-packed plot. While Losing the Field is the fourth in a series, readers do not need to read the others in order to understand the plot of this book.

Sexual Content

Tallulah says to Nash that she can’t be late to class because she doesn’t want it to affect her college acceptance. Nash thinks, “Jesus she was serious. And it was sexy as hell.”
Nash’s ex-girlfriend sees him and Tallulah together at a restaurant only days after they officially broke up. Nash’s ex-girlfriend accuses him of being a player, and Tallulah gets upset and defends Nash. She says, “Oh, y’all just broke up on Tuesday? Was Hunter aware of that? Because the groping session that was going on in the hallway during second period Monday between the two of you made it seem you were perfectly available.”
Tallulah tells Nash that she knew Blakely, his ex-girlfriend, wasn’t right for him, but that his love life wasn’t her business. He corrects her and says, “Sex life, Tallulah. There was no love there.” Tallulah is embarrassed he said “sex” and when he realizes this, he says, “What if I say ‘blow job’?” He says this just to embarrass her. They share a first kiss after this conversation that is not described in any detail.
Before Nash heads to the sidelines of the football game, he kisses Tallulah. “Closing the distance between us, I slid a hand around her waist and tugged her close before placing my mouth firmly on hers. Just enough pressure to taste her.”
When Nash meets a famous YouTube vlogger the day after the football game, he asks him why he’s moving to Lawton. The vlogger says, “When your mother catches your father fucking your little brother’s college-age nanny in the pool, then shit happens.”
Tallulah and Nash go to his house to make out while his parents are at work. They kiss and take their tops off, but don’t go any further. “His eyes were locked on my chest. My breathing making it heave with each deep intake. . . He tugged me down on top of him, and I felt the rigidness under his pants as it pressed into my stomach.” Tallulah is nervous, and Nash says, “Tallulah, my pants are staying on. This is all I want. To hold you. I promise.” The scene lasts two pages.
A teacher and coach at school named Mr. Dace develops an inappropriate relationship with Tallulah. He asks her to help him with grading after school one day because she is his teacher’s assistant. While she’s helping him, he leans in and kisses her. “Coach D leaned in closer. . . (Coach D) closed the space between them.” Tallulah is shocked. “I jumped up, tripping. . . I had no words and wanted to leave just as his mouth covered mine. This was definitely not okay.” She runs away to the girl’s bathroom. Mr. Dace follows her to tell her how much she means to him and how much he loves her. Nothing else physical happens. This scene lasts four pages.
Nash’s ex-girlfriend is suspended from school. Nash “even told me about Blakely being suspended for being caught in the guys’ restroom giving Hunter a blow job in one of the stalls.” The guy was also suspended.
Dace makes advances on Tallulah again when she comes in early to help enter grades. She is uncomfortable being in his classroom with him alone. He invades her personal space. “It had moved past inappropriate now. . . He turned his head, and our faces were inches apart. . . He leaned in like he was going to kiss me again. . . I jerked my head to the side to miss his mouth and it landed on my cheek.” Tallulah runs out of the classroom, and the principal walks in to confront Mr. Dace after being alerted of the situation by a student who saw what happened. The scene lasts three pages.
Nash and Tallulah kiss after they reconcile at the end of the novel. “His palm touched my back and he pressed me closer. . . Then his lips touched mine.”

Violence

At school, a couple of girls get in a fight over the new superstar vlogger Haegan Baylor. The fight lasts two pages, is not described in detail, and is more drama than actual violence. “Pam had a handful of Julie’s red curly hair, and Julie was slapping the shit out of Pam’s face.”
Nash is in a car accident with Haegan. They are both extremely high after smoking weed. Their car collides with another car. Nash “heard the horn then. It was loud, the tires screeching almost sounded like screams. . . the clash of the vehicles slammed so hard my body jerked violently against the seat belt. . . His head was turned the other way, and he seemed limp. . . I shook his arm and his head fell forward, but not before I saw his eyes. Open and vacant. No life there.” Haegan dies in the crash. The scene lasts four pages.

Drugs and Alcohol

Nash’s cousin brings Nash to a party after school because Nash has been feeling sorry for himself. It’s an effort to cheer him up, but all Nash thinks is how irresponsible it is to be drinking on a school night during the football season. Nash tells his cousin, “Stay focused. Get rest. Not drink beer for God’s sake.” Later during the party, the football coach shows up. He says, “if I call the cops, they’ll only care about the teens consuming alcohol and the smell of weed in the air.”
While walking towards the football field, Nash runs into a stranger smoking weed. The stranger throws his joint on the ground. Nash tells him, “This is Alabama, man. Pot’s not fucking legal.”
After seeing Coach Dace kiss Tallulah, Nash is very upset. He tells Haegan, “I need to get smoked.” They go to Haegan’s car to smoke pot when the chapter ends. In a following chapter, the scene picks back up. “Getting lit was probably the worst idea I’d had in a long time. . . We’d go to fucking jail if we were pulled over.” They continue to drive somewhere while high. It ends in a deadly accident.
While visiting Nash after the car accident, his cousin asks him if he has any beer. Nash doesn’t, saying, “My parents are being strict with that shit. Mom is worried I have a drug problem.”

Language

Profanity is used frequently. Profanity includes Holy shit, shit, fucking, fuck, fucked, bullshit, ass, hell, dick, damn, asshole, shit, shitty, bitch, helluva, bastard, dammit, douche, douchebag, and motherfucking.
Ryker, a kid at school, said, “Damn, I hope she don’t wear swimsuits in the summer. No one needs to see that.”
After Nash calls himself a cripple, Ryker says, “Jesus, Nash, don’t call yourself that.”
After it surfaces that Mr. Dace and Tallulah were involved, a girl says, “You deserve this, you little whore.”
Tallulah is viciously bullied after the school finds out about Mr. Dace and her being involved intimately. Students write “SLUT” in red lipstick on her locker and call her various names. People tell her. “Go home, you whore,” “No one wants you here, slut,” and various other insults.
Jesus, goddamn, and God are all used as exclamations a couple of times.

Supernatural

None

Spiritual Content

None

by Hannah Neeley

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

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

Heist Society

Katarina Bishop knows how to steal. She knows how to lie. After all, at the age of three, her parents took her to the Louvre to case it. Katarina’s family—all of her family—is made up of masters at thievery. She had hoped to leave the family business. She had hoped to live a normal life. But when Kat’s friend, Hale, appears, Kat realizes that walking away from her old life and her family may not be possible.

Hale wants Kat to return to her life of crime, and he has a good reason. A powerful mobster’s priceless art collection has been stolen. The mobster is convinced that only one thief could have taken his priceless paintings—Katarina’s father. In order to help her father, Kat goes on a hunt to find the missing paintings. The job would be risky for even the most seasoned thief. Kat is determined to find the paintings. She has two weeks, a teenage crew, and hopefully enough talent to pull off the biggest heist in her family’s history. And in the end, she hopes she can steal back the normal life she left behind.

Is there any way a fifteen-year-old girl can pull off this con?

For a story that revolves around a mobster and the threat of death, Heist Society tells a suspenseful story that will have readers engrossed in Kat’s story. The plot contains twists and turns that will have readers guessing what characters can be trusted. The interplay between the diverse characters makes the story interesting and enjoyable. By the end of the story, readers will wish they could join Kat’s family at the kitchen table and plan a heist of their own.

Similar to Carter’s Gallagher Girls series, Heist Society is appropriate for younger readers but will engage readers of all ages. Heist Society delves into the themes of family, loyalty, and good versus evil. Fast-paced, easy to read, and just plain fun, Heist Society will allow readers to fall into the world of the super-rich and leave with lessons on artwork stolen during the Holocaust.

Sexual Content

Gabrielle’s beauty and short skirts are mentioned several times. When she goes into a museum, “there was something about her that simply demanded the guards’ attention. Some said later it was her short skirt. Others wisely observed that it was more likely the legs that protruded beneath it.”
As a distraction, Nick kisses Kat. “. . . She was in Nick’s arms and he was kissing her right there in the middle of the Henley’s hallway.”
When Kat dresses for an event, her cousins notice her boobs. Her cousin asks, “Seriously, Kat . . . when did you get boobs?” The conversation about her boobs takes place over two pages.

Violence

None

Drugs and Alcohol

One of the characters pretends to be drunk to distract the museum guards.

Language

None

Supernatural

None

Spiritual Content

None

Stealing Parker

Parker loves her family, her church, and her life. But all that changes when her mother divorces her father and leaves with her new lover—a woman. When Parker’s church and best friend turn their back on her, Parker sets out to prove that she likes boys. But when the boys’ assistant coach catches her eye, Parker’s life spirals out of control.

As Parker struggles with how to deal with her secret relationship, she is besieged with more problems. Parker’s father is in denial. Her brother is always high. And her best friend, Drew, is hiding the fact that he is gay.

Parker works through her insecurities and frustration through a prayer journal, which gives the reader insight into Parker’s emotional state. The reader will be able to understand Parker’s desire to be loved and how that leads her to kiss so many boys, although the illegal relationship between Parker and the boys’ baseball coach leads to frequent and steamy sex scenes and ends with an investigation.

Finding Parker hits on difficult topics relevant in today’s world. Parker explores her faith in God and how that faith impacts those who are gay. The story also tackles the difficulties of high school friendships; most of Parker’s friends abandoned her after her mother came out, classmates that don’t even know her talk trash her, and even her best friend stops talking to her. Finding Parker brings realistic problems to light and shows the dangers of being promiscuous. In the end, Parker learns to love herself and accept her mother’s new lifestyle.

Although Parker is a well-developed and relatable character, her sexual relationship with the adult coach contains graphic sexual details. The story contains mature content, which some readers may want to avoid.

Sexual Content

Parker’s mom “announced she’s a lesbian and ran off with her friend who was more than a friend.”
Parker has kissed many boys, trying to prove that she isn’t a lesbian like her mother. She lost weight so she wouldn’t look “butch.” “All the guys know I look good. They know I want them and I love kissing and sometimes rounding a couple of bases (I never go further than second).”
Parker thinks about when, after church she, “let him kiss me beside the turtle sandbox thing, so people will know I like boys.”
When Parker decides to manage the boy’s baseball team, the coach tells her not to date or “mess around” with team members. The coach said, “the girl who managed the team last year, uh, well, we had some incidents on the bus and in the locker room.”
Parker and her friend talk about her “one-night thing” with Matt Higgins. She thinks, “I didn’t enjoy kissing Matt Higgins very much. He kept trying to go up my shirt.”
A boy said, “Everyone knows she (Parker) puts out.” Parker gets upset and thinks, “I’m still a virgin.” She then thinks about how she can’t insert a tampon.
At last year’s prom, Parker’s date “kept trying to feel me up in the middle of the gym.”
Parker has a few minutes, “before we need to leave for church, so I unzip my dress. . . lie down on my bed, and slip my fingers under the elastic of my underwear, wondering what it would feel like if a guy touched me there.”
Parker thinks that Seth likes a girl but “he’s too embarrassed to get involved with her, considering the whole scandal with her dad, the district attorney, screwing his secretary and all.”
Parker has a crush on the baseball assistant coach. During class Parker lets out a moan when she, “picture(s) myself tangled up in his crumpled sheets, our legs knotted. The idea scares me a little because I’ve never gotten naked with anybody.”
While at practice, someone yells, “Corndog’s got a hard-on for Coach!”
When a group of boys try to get Corndog to tell them how far he’s gone with his girlfriend, Corndog said, “Hell, no. I can’t tell you. She’d rip my balls off.”
A boy tells a story about, “how he saw a hot pink dildo laying on the concrete behind the cafeteria . . . ”
Parker and Corndog write notes back and forth discussing someone’s penis size.
At a party, a girl “French kisses” a boy she doesn’t know.
Parker has a sexual relationship with the assistant coach, who is an adult. The first time they kiss, “He digs fingers into my hip. . . My mouth found his, and I wrap my arms around his neck. . . I deepen the kiss. His tongue explores the inside of my mouth. My knees go wobbly.”
Parker and the assistant coach begin making out in the parking lot of the laundromat, behind the dumpsters. The first time they meet there, they make out. “He tastes like mint toothpaste. My hands are on his neck and his are in my hair, and I can tell he’s experienced. . . He pushes me backward and climbs on top, his weight heavy, yet comforting.”
Parker gets a hall pass and goes to the assistant coach’s office. “Then his lips were on mine and he lifted me onto his desk. He pulled my hips to his and kissed me until I was so dizzy I could barely breathe. Brian began to grind against me and I was so drunk on him, I couldn’t think at all.” They stop because someone knocks on the door. Parker then thinks about a couple nights before when, Brian went up my shirt again and unsnapped my bra, and ran his hands over my bare breast. Him running his calloused fingers over my skin . . . I couldn’t stop trembling. . . His teeth sank into my shoulder.”
One night when Parker and Brain were making out, “he kissed my breast and felt me through my jeans. I wasn’t comfortable enough to touch him yet. But he took my fingers and put my hand there anyway.” They stopped when a “cop knocked on the truck window and told us to move along.”
Brian asks Parker to give him a blow job, but she doesn’t. Instead, he “pushes my panties aside, making me moan softly as he works a finger inside of me. . . Later I straddle him and he wraps his hands around my waist and we kiss and kiss. . .”
Brian and Parker park behind the dumpsters and, Parker “felt him too. He shut his eyes and leaned his head back against the seat while my fingers moved up and down. I could tell by the noises he made that he liked how I made him feel, but it was almost as if I could be anybody. It didn’t matter who I was, it was only that somebody was giving him pleasure.”

Violence

None

Drugs and Alcohol

At a party, a boy gets drunk and falls in a ditch. “. . . He was so drunk he started screaming about how he’d broken his leg. And Marie Baird had to convince him that his leg was already broken.”
The assistance baseball coach takes Parker out to eat and orders a beer.
Parker’s brother, Ryan, has a drug problem. She makes him eggs to “hopefully clean out whatever he drank/ate/snorted/shot-up last night.”
Parker goes to a party where teens are drinking beer. Some play beer pong and someone “takes a shot directly out of a Smirnoff bottle and wipes his mouth, then does another shot.”
Parker finds her brother passed out with “an empty bottle of Robitussin in his fist.” Parker and her friend take him to the hospital.
Parker’s mom tells her she needs to get on birth control.
Parker’s best friend is gay but hasn’t told anyone. Parker attempts to get him and another guy together. Later, Parker finds out that her best friend likes the same boy she does.

Language

Profanity is used often and includes ass, bitch, dick, fucking, hell, pissed, and shit.
When Parker and her friend look at a book of Kama Sutra, the friend said, “Jesus Christ, is that move physically possible?”
God is used as an exclamation often.
Someone lectures Parker on “how I screw over his friends.”
After being mean to Parker, Corndog apologizes, “Last night I heard my mom crying, and I got upset. That’s why I was a dick today. I’m sorry.”

Supernatural

None

Spiritual Content

The story contains entries from Parker’s prayer journal beginning when she was little. In the first entry, she writes, “as I prayed, I didn’t ask you for anything. I only thanked you for giving me Mom.”
Parker blames God for ruining her family. She often asks, “Why did God let this happen to my family?”
When Parker’s mother came out as a lesbian, members of the church began ignoring the family. However, Parker’s dad makes her attend church. They have a conversation about if the Bible says, “thou shalt not become a lesbian?” Her father replies “no.”
When the pastor’s daughter spreads rumors that Parker is “a butch softball player who probably likes girls,” Parker wonders where God went.
Parker makes a list of “Reasons Why I’m the Worst Christian of All Time.” Her list includes, “I don’t see how a loving God would split a family up like he did mine.”
When Parker was little, the pastor accuses her of lying and, “gave me a lecture on how lying is a straight path to Hell.”
When Parker flirts with the assistant coach, she thinks, “When God created the Earth, he had such a sick wicked sense of humor. He made everything that’s wrong feel really, really good.”
Parker’s dad breaks up with his girlfriend because his church friends tell him to. Parker prays, “Please help my family. Hasn’t our church taken enough from us?”
Parker and her mom have a conversation about God and church. Parker’s mom said, “God still loves me and he loves you too . . . All that matters is your personal relationship with God.” Parker’s mom tells her that she doesn’t need to go to church because “I can talk to God while I’m walking the dog or running in the woods just the same as if I’m at church.”

Tales from a NOT-SO-Popular Party Girl

Middle school can be traumatizing for any girl. But for Nikki, middle school is a nightmare. Nikki dreams about going to the Halloween dance with Brandon, but so does popular mean girl MacKenzie. Then in a strange turn of events, MacKenzie resigns as the dance chairperson and so do all of the cool kids, leaving Nikki and her two friends in charge. Now Nikki and her friends must decide if they should cancel the dance or if they can plan it all on their own.

To add to the drama of Nikki’s life, her little sister has a tooth fairy phobia that has become Nikki’s problem. Her parents drag her to a funeral where she has an uncontrollable fit of hiccups. And to cap it all off, she has to dress as a rat at a little kid party and paint faces—on the same night of the Halloween dance.

Dork Diaries is written in the form of a diary, which allows Nikki’s thoughts and feelings to take center stage. The diary contains a lot of text talk such as BTW and OMG. Plus, there are many references to pop culture stars such as Jessica Simpson and Tyra Banks. Although Nikki’s days are filled with funny events, the books show a stereotypical junior high full of mean girls, boy drama, and cool kid drama.

Throughout the book, there are cute drawings that add to the storyline. Because the story is written in diary format, most paragraphs consist of one to two sentences and the vocabulary is typical of a preteen. Although the story is entertaining, there is no educational value.

Sexual Content

When Nikki thinks Mackenzie is going to the dance with Brandon she says, “She was buying a new lip gloss JUST for Brandon. I knew what THAT meant.”

Violence

When Nikki was embarrassed she thinks, “I was so angry I wanted to grab them both by their necks and squeeze until their little heads exploded.”
A cool girl purposely bumps Nikki’s food plate, which splashes chocolate onto Nikki’s dress.

Drugs and Alcohol