Sarah Dessen's "This Lullaby" Review by Alexis M.

Remy doesn’t believe in love, at all. Every relationship she has, she knows to end right after that initial romantic rush, before things get too serious. Plus, she has a very useful resource… her own mother. She’s been married 4 times and is in the process of wedding number five. However, when she meets Dexter, things change.

Suddenly Remy finds it hard to follow her own relationship rules. He’s everything she hates; messy, disorganized, impulsive, and worst of all, a musician like her father. Remy never knew her dad. The only connection they have is his one and only famous song, “This Lullaby”, that he wrote the day she was born. Dealing with her relationship with Dexter, she finally starts to realize what all those love songs are about.

“This Lullaby” was incredible. I totally loved it and didn’t want to stop reading. The connection between Remy and her friends alone is over powering. Let alone her and Dexter. Truth Squad was an interesting group as well. I definitely would like to see I sequel to see what happens after Remy goes to college and Dexter goes to pursue his music.
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Donna Jo Napoli's The Smile Review by Alexis M.

Elisebetta is supposed to have a party for her thirteenth birthday to hopefully find a suitable husband. A few months before, the death of Lorenzo de’ Medici puts all plans on hold. Her mother decides a while later that people will be in a better mood and will be ready to celebrate. Shortly after though, a horse crash takes her mothers life. In 11 months her father remarries to Caterina, who thinks it is time Elisebetta gets her turn to shine. Through out these events, Elisebetta catches the eye of the great Leonardo Di Vinci. He introduces her to Giuliano de’ Medici who swears his love to her. However, things are changing in Florence and the relationship quickly is distressed.

I absolutely adored this book. To get a point of view of who might have been “Monna Lisa” was very interesting. I didn’t enjoy the end part with Giuliano but it proved her story wasn’t another fairy tale. I highly recommend The Smile and any other of Napoli’s novels.
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Katie Alender's Bad Girls Don't Die Review by Alexis M.

Alexis is very antisocial, anti-cheerleader, and absolutely loves photography. Her parent’s marriage isn’t doing the best and her 13 year old sister, Kasey, has gone totally doll crazy. After a family argument, Kasey and Alexis have some one-on-one sisterly bonding. During this time, Alexis realizes that her life is going from dysfunctional to dangerous. Kasey is changing. Her normal green eyes are suddenly bright blue. Her vocabulary takes a weird twist when she begins using more old-fashioned words. And, she loses track of large periods of time, claiming to know nothing about the sudden change in behavior. Alexis’s house is changing too. Doors open and close by themselves, water boils on an unlit stove, and an unplugged air conditioner makes the house cold enough for the girls to see their own breath. Alexis wants to believe that all this is just her mind playing tricks on her but… when things begin to be life threatening to her, her family, and her new relationship with the vice president of her class… she realizes she’s the only person that can stop it.

I loved this book. It was pretty confusing from making you think one thing for so long and then suddenly changing everything you thought you knew. “Bad Girls Don’t Die” not only had a strong mystery/action theme but also a twist of comedy and romance. It was constantly thrilling and I highly recommend it.

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Amy Kathleen Ryan's Vibes: A Review by Alexis M.

Kristi is basically just an average sophomore… except for the fact that she can read minds. Dealing with this power results in her hearing everyone’s thoughts whether they’re positive or negative. Most aren’t exactly pleasant. Two years ago, her dad left and went to Africa to fight disease. Since then, Kristi and her mom have grown farther apart, her best friend Hildie has stopped talking to her, she’s hid a cat in her bedroom, and she’s gotten some very… unique… fashion tastes. When her dad decides to come back… maybe for good or just temporarily, she learns secrets that she had no clue about. It also doesn’t help that she’s been paired with Hildie’s gorgeous older brother (that she’s had a crush on for years) to do a character project, the new guy Mallory is constantly thinking romantic thoughts about her, and Jason… who’s been the closest thing to a friend since Mallory… is picturing her “ginormous gazungas” in ways that totally disturb her.

This book, while it had very cliché characters, was full of twists and turns in an extraordinary story line. If I were given a super power, I normally would have wanted to be psychic. After reading this though, I saw all the downfalls of this ability and would hate to have to deal with it. An extremely big part of this novel is, things aren’t always as they appear... or sound. There were some things that had terrible conclusions to it, but they were probably more realistic. Overall, Vibes was a pretty good read.

Ann Dee Ellis's Everything is fine a Review by Alexis M.

Mazzy is stuck at home all summer taking care of her highly depressed mother. Her father, who works for ESPN, is off at a business trip that was only supposed to last about a week… as of now, he’s basically abandoned them. Mazzy has no one to turn to except her neighbors and her mother’s old art studio.

This book was really different. The way it’s written, made things jump around a lot and majority of it didn’t make sense. It wasn’t till the end of the book that everything started to click together and explain why things were the way they were. Everything Is Fine did have very serious topics like depression, diabetes, and death but it also put humor into Mazzy and the way she thought as she was going through this. The book overall was okay.

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Julie Schumacher's Black box a review by Alexis M.

Elena and Dora are sisters, best friends, and complete opposites. Dora is loud, fun, and unpredictable while Elena is more quiet and calm. After Dora is diagnosed with depression and has to stay in the hospital, Elena isn’t sure who her sister, or herself, is anymore. Elena doesn’t really have any friends since she went to a private school until high school so the only people that really acknowledge her are friends of Dora and Jimmy Zenk. Jimmy supposedly has failed at least one grade and wears black every single day. He has his own secrets and advice for Elena. Dora and Elena’s parents have started to fight in the kitchen every night after the think Elena is in bed. Once Dora is discharged, Elena has even more responsibility and has to figure out what secrets she needs to keep and which she needs to tell.

Black Box was addicting. It was full of surprises I wasn’t expecting and was impossible to put down. Not only did it deal with depression, but it also had a lot of moments about trust. How far should you keep secrets and that not everything is it seems. It also shows that sometimes knowing the truth is better but sometimes it’s worse. Elena’s thoughts about everything added humor and drama to the novel. Overall, it was an amazing book.
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Coert Voorhees' The Brothers Torres Review by Alexis

Frankie Towers is always looking up to his brother Steve. They’re complete opposites. Steve is a popular senior who always gets exactly what he wants. Girls, soccer scholarships, etc… While Frankie spends his time making things explode with his best friend, Zach, working at his parents restaurant, and being crazy and obsessed about his crush, Rebecca Sanchez, that he thinks he’ll never have a chance with. After Frankie gets into a fight with Steve’s longtime nemesis, John Dalton, Steve takes Frankie and begins to help him get a higher social status. Things with Dalton continues to simmer and after another incident, Steve is bent on retaliating. Frankie must choose to respect his brother… or respect himself.

‘The Brothers Torres’ was okay. This wasn’t one of my favorite books but it wasn’t horrible either. I found it confusing because it uses a lot of Spanish words randomly in the dialogue, and not knowing a word of Spanish, I had no clue what they were saying. I’d recommend this coming of age novel to anyone who speaks Spanish or is going to read it with a translator near by.

Shanna Norris' Something to Blog About Review by Alexis

Libby Fawcett. Classic teenager. School, boys, and those mean popular girls that you wish would just go *POOF!*. Now here’s the dramatic twist… She set her hair on fire in front of the whole class, including her crush Seth Jacobs who she’s tutoring in chemistry, the subject she is also failing, and now she finds out her mom is dating the father of her archenemy, Angel Rodriguez. To vent her feelings and anger, Libby starts a secret blog. And let’s just say… it doesn’t stay a secret for long.

I seriously couldn’t put this book down. While things did get predictable at times, it was still very funny. Things kinda were resolved quicker and less complicated than they would have been in real life, making things seem a little too perfect. ‘Something to Blog About’ could have been longer and definitely should have a sequel. This would make a great beach book. Over all, it was fabulous and I can’t wait to see what Shana Norris writes next.

Yvonne Collins and Sandy Rideout's Girl V. Boy Review by Alexis

Luisa Perez isn’t really into school spirit. Actually, Luisa and her friends, Rachel and Izzy, take pride in avoiding activities that are labeled “extracurricular”. But, when her school is competing for an extra month of winter vacation and the boys of Dunfield, or as the students call it, ‘Dumpfield’, start competing against the girls, it turns the fundraiser into a ’battle of the sexes’ and Luisa and her friends start to change their minds. When asked to write an anonymous column for her school paper about the girls half, she just has to say yes. One week she’ll write and the next week’s the article will be written by an anonymous reporter for the boys. As time goes on, “Newshound” (Luisa) and “Scoop” (Mystery Man) begin to debate the actions of boys and girls as well as discuss the fundraiser. Who could this new enemy be? Luisa is determined to find out… and the results will shock her.

‘Girl V. Boy’ was an interesting novel. I can say, “Scoop” did start to get on my nerves, while “Newshound” was full of useful advice. I realize I like the girls point of view because well, I’m a girl and that’s sorta was what I was thinking but it was interesting to see a guys take on things. Umm… the only other advice I can give you about this book is don’t read the back because it totally reveals the surprise ending.