Love & Leftovers (Sarah Tregay)

****

         When Marcie's dad divorces her mom in favor of a handsome bartender, Marcie goes to New Hampshire with her depressed mother for the summer.  She's leaving behind her friends and boyfriend, who call themselves the Leftovers.  Marcie doesn't realize that she's in New Hampshire to stay until Labor Day rolls around and she has to enroll in the local high school.  She feels lonely without her friends and her dad until a classmate starts bringing her coffee and a donut every day, and a romance blossoms.  Marcie doesn't know whether to push him away (she is, after all, still dating somebody else) or start a relationship that will give her the affection she craves.  

         This book, written in verse, was good in a fluffy sort of way.  Marcie's problems were mainly relationship-centered, and she made some pretty terrible decisions, but (against all odds) things worked out for her anyway.  My chief complaint with Love and Leftovers would be that the ending was perhaps a little far-fetched . . . maybe everything just happened a little too soon.  Despite that, it was a good book, especially for summer reading.

         Since I'm going on a road trip over the next ten days or so, I may or may not be able to post for a while.  Internet access is, at best, spotty on this kind of trip . . . Luckily, I can read in the car without feeling sick - we can at least count on a lot of new posts when I get back!

Rating: 4/5

Completed: June 8, 2012

Tempest (Julie Cross)

****

         Jackson Meyer can travel through time, but not in the way one might expect.  As far as he knows, he can only jump short distances back in time, and he can't change the future once he's there.  Jackson and his friend Adam spend the summer testing the bounds of time travel through experiments.  It's all fun and games for Jackson until two strangers burst into his girlfriend Holly's dorm, and Holly is shot.  In his panic, Jackson shoots back farther in time than he has ever gone - two years back, to be exact.  Normally, he would just boomerang right back to 2009, his "home base".  The problem?  Jackson somehow made 2007 his new home base and he can't jump to the future.  In other words, he's stuck in the past and has to find a way back to 2009 to save Holly.

         This was a really cool concept!  First of all, what's not to love about a book that has spies and time travel?  Plus, it was pretty well-executed.  Jackson's jumps weren't too hard to follow thanks to time updates in every chapter.  I loved watching Jackson's interactions in his own past, and it was interesting to see how these interactions did (or did not) affect the future.  Jackson is the kind of guy that you root for and want good things to happen to . . . Tempest left me hanging, wondering whether things will work out.  Hopefully there will be a sequel to this book soon!

Rating: 4/5
Completed: June 7, 2012

How to Save a Life (Sara Zarr)

***

         Mandy is ready to escape.  And the baby she's having is her ticket out of town, away from her mother and her mother's boyfriend.  She chooses a woman named Robin MacSweeney to adopt her baby and asks to stay with Robin until she gives birth.  When she arrives at the MacSweeney's house, Mandy has no doubts about giving her baby to sweet, supportive Robin.  As time passes, however, she realizes that she might be more attached to her child than she thought.  

         Jill MacSweeney's mom is making a huge mistake.  Shortly after the death of Jill's father, her mother has decided to adopt a baby.  Not only does Jill think it's really stupid to adopt without any kind of legal agreement, but she feels as though her mom is trying to replace her dad . . . or maybe Jill herself.  Jill knows she hasn't been the ideal daughter: she's pushed away her mom, friends, and on-again-off-again boyfriend since her father's death.  Though Jill is determined to hate Mandy, she can't seem to do it.  Especially after meeting Ravi, a corporate employee at the bookstore she works for.  Ravi helps Jill to be a better person, and might just be the fresh start she needs.

         I enjoyed reading this book from the perspectives of both Jill and Mandy.  It was interesting to see their very different takes on life.  In some ways, the book was about each girl separately.  Their stories did overlap, though, giving you insight on the girls' relationship.  How to Save a Life wouldn't be half as good if you saw it from only one side.  However, I do wish this book had been a little less predictable; I knew how it was going to end halfway through reading.  On the whole, a good book worth reading.

Rating: 3/5
Completed: June 6, 2012

Curveball: The Year I Lost My Grip (Jordan Sonnenblick)

****

         The summer before his freshman year, Peter Friedman's baseball career is put to a premature end by an injury he's been trying to hide all season.  Peter is diagnosed with an awful-sounding condition and told that he will never pitch again.  He is coming to terms with his injury while trying to find a way to tell his highly insensitive best friend, AJ, that he won't be trying out for the team in the spring.  In the meantime, he lands a job as athletics co-editor of the yearbook with a beautiful girl from his photography class.  And on top of everything else, Peter is at a loss as to how he can help his grandfather, who has been acting very strangely.

         This book is an easy, quick read - it only took me a few hours - but it is also really good.  I love Jordan Sonnenblick's work because he is able to capture the lives of (usually unhappy) teens in a very amusing way.  Curveball is a laugh-out-loud kind of book.  Peter's problems, from his arm injury to his mentally declining grandfather to attractive and flirtatious girls, feel very real and relatable.  This book would be easy to read when you don't have much free time, without losing out on good writing.  If you like it, definitely try Sonnenblick's other books (especially Drums, Girls, and Dangerous Pie and Notes from the Midnight Driver).

Rating: 4/5
Completed: June 4, 2012

Insurgent (Veronica Roth)

****

         Sequel to Divergent.  Mini-spoiler alert!

         The Erudite have taken out Abnegation power using advanced simulation technology. They're not done yet, though - they won't be satisfied until they find a way to control the Divergent.  This is bad for Tris and Tobias, who decide to take refuge at Amity headquarters.  It's not in their nature to hide, however, and it isn't long before they go back to the city and the heart of Erudite territory.  There they see that the faction system is deteriorating and a new order is rising up to fill its place.  In this dangerous world, Tris struggles to reconcile her instinct to protect herself with her need to do the right thing - even if it means sacrificing her own safety to keep others alive.

         I really enjoyed this installment of Veronica Roth's series.  Though I liked Divergent just a teensy bit better (probably because there was more action of the purposeful variety), Insurgent had some exciting plot twists.  The ending really left me hanging . . . can't wait till the next book comes out!  Definitely worth reading.

Rating: 4.5/5

Completed: May 14, 2012