Book Review: The Lovely Bones

The Lovely Bones

by Alice Sebold

The Lovely Bones is the story of a family devastated by a gruesome murder, a murder recounted by the teenage victim. Upsetting you say? Remarkably, first time novelist Alice Sebold takes this difficult material and delivers a compelling and accomplished exploration of a fractured family's need for peace and closure. 

The details of the crime are laid out in the first few pages: from her vantage point in heaven, Susie Salmon describes how she was confronted by the murderer one December afternoon on her way home from school. Lured into an underground hiding place, she was raped and killed. But what the reader knows, her family does not. Anxiously, we keep vigil with Susie, aching for her grieving family, desperate for the killer to be found and punished. 

Sebold creates a heaven that's calm and comforting, a place whose residents can have whatever they enjoyed when they were alive and then some. But Susie isn't ready to release her hold on life just yet, and she intensely watch her family and friends as they struggle to cope with a reality in which she is no longer a part. 

Book Review: The Kept Woman

The Kept Woman

by Susan Donovan

When a Good girl divorcee playing by the rules has left Samantha Monroe with an AWOL ex husband, maxed out credit cards, and the task of raising three children on a hairstylist's salary. Its time for a new game plan. When Sam learns that politician Jack Tolliver needs someone to play the part of his fiance for six months in return for a generous paycheck, she's ready to sign up on the spot. 

Meets a Bad Boy Politician. Jack needs Sam and her kids to help tone down his image from a womanizing cad to a dependable dad. But he was expecting Sam to be a frumpy single mom, not a wickedly smart, sexy redhead. Keeping nosey  newshound from discovering that his engagement is a charade is going to be a tough job, but one mind blowing kiss from Sam and suddenly Jack is ready to put in all the overtime necessary.

Love wins in a landslide. Now with a scheming opponents itching to bring Jack down, Sam's ex returning to stir up trouble, one stubborn pre-schooler, two squabbling teenagers, a crazy dog and some out of this world sex, jack and Sam are discovering that playing make believe can be complicated but not nearly as much as falling inlove. 

Book Review: The Fault in Our Stars

The Fault In Our Stars

by John Green

Despite the tumor-shrinking medical miracle that has brought her a few years, Hazel has never been anything but terminal, her final chapter inscribed upon diagnosis. But when a gorgeous plot twist named Augustus Waters suddenly appears at Cancer Kid Support Group, Hazel's story is about to be completely rewritten 

Book Review: The First Phone Call From Heaven

The First Phone Call From Heaven

by Mitch Albom

The First Phone Call from Heaven tells the story of a small town on Lake Michigan that gets worldwide attention when its citizens start receiving phone calls from the afterlife. Is it the greatest miracle ever or a massive hoax? Sully Harding, a grief-stricken single father, is determined to find out. An allegory about the power of belief-- and a page turner that will touch your soul. 

Book Review: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
by Stieg Larsson

Mikael Blomkvist, a once respected financial journalist, watches his professional life rapidly crumble around him. Prospects appear bleak until an unexpected (and unsettling) offer to resurrect his name is extended by an old school titan of Swedish industry. The catch - and there's always a catch- is that Blomkvist must first spend a year researching a mysterious disappearance that has remained unsolved for nearly four decades. With few other options, he accepts and enlist he help of investigator Lisbeth Salander, a misunderstood genius with cache of authority issues. Little is as it seems in Larsson's novel, but there is at least one constant: You really don't want to mess with the girl with the dragon tattoo.

Book Review: Back When You Were Easier to Love

Back When You Were Easier to Love

by Emily Wing Smith

What's worse than getting dumped? Not even knowing if you've been dumped. Joy got no goodbye, and certainly no explanation when Zan, the love of her life and the only good thing about stifling, backward Haven, Utah unceremoniously and unexpectedly left for college a year early. Joy needs closure almost as much as she needs Zan, so she heads for California, and Zan, riding shotgun beside Zan's former best friend, Noah.

Book Review: Adorkable

Adorkable

by Sarra Manning

Welcome to the dork side. It's going to be a bumpy ride..

Jeane Smith's a blogger, a dreamer, a dare-to-dreamer, a jumble sale queen, CEO of her own lifestyle brand and has half a million follower on twitter.

Michael Lee's a star of school, stage and playing field. A golden boy in a Jack Wills hoodie.

They have nothing in common but a pair of cheating exes. So why can't they stop snogging?

Book Review: Love Is The Higher Law

Love is the Higher Law

David Levithan

First there is a Before, and then there is an After. . . .

The lives of three teens—Claire, Jasper, and Peter—are altered forever on September 11, 2001. Claire, a high school junior, has to get to her younger brother in his classroom. Jasper, a college sophomore from Brooklyn, wakes to his parents’ frantic calls from Korea, wondering if he’s okay. Peter, a classmate of Claire’s, has to make his way back to school as everything happens around him.

Here are three teens whose intertwining lives are reshaped by this catastrophic event. As each gets to know the other, their moments become wound around each other’s in a way that leads to new understandings, new friendships, and new levels of awareness for the world around them and the people close by.

Book Review: To All The Boys I've Loved Before

To All The Boys I've Loved Before
by Jenny Han

To all the boys I've Loved Before is the story of Lara Jean, who has never openly admitted her crushes but instead wrote each boy a letter about how she felt, sealed it, and hid it in a box under her bed. But one day, Lara Jean discovers that somehow her secret box of letters has been mailed, causing all her crushes from her past to confront her about the letters: her first kiss, the boy from summer camp, even her sister's ex-boyfriend, Josh. As she learns to deal with her past loves face to face, Lara Jean discovers that something good may come out of these letters after all.