Just One Day (Gayle Forman)

Title: Just One Day

Author: Gayle Forman

Publisher: Dutton (Penguin)

Length: 369

Rating: 4/5

Sparks fly when American good girl Allyson encounters laid-back Dutch actor Willem, so she follows him on a whirlwind trip to Paris, upending her life in just one day and prompting a year of self-discovery and the search for true love.

This book is for every girl who wishes she could break out of her good girl image and do something wild.

Allyson does just this. But it’s not easy, and it actually goes horribly wrong. Willem disappears after their one day together, and Allyson is left inept and changed in ways she doesn’t know how to deal with. She spends the next year dealing with the emotional fall-out, but she becomes out a better person for it.

And not necessarily just because of Willem. Yes, the romance is key in the story, but it’s more because for that one day, she was a different person, and she loved it. She’s been changed as a person, and it takes her a while to find herself again. I loved the parallels in this book of how passive she is at the beginning of the book to how much of a go-getter she is at the end.

Call it New Adult or older YA or whatever you like, but I really like this sub-genre of YA that deals with self-discovery of college-aged protagonists. This book reflected (in more extreme ways) the changes I went through in college and while studying abroad, and the challenges I faced through those changes.

A wonderful book of older self-discovery and change, and I am anxiously awaiting the next book, Just One Year, which will be told from Willem’s perspective. 

In Honor (Jessi Kirby)

Title: In Honor

Author: Jessi Kirby

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Length: 235

Rating: 4/5

Three days after she learns that her brother, Finn, died serving in Iraq, Honor receives a letter from him asking her to drive his car from Texas to California for a concert. And when his estranged best friend, Rusty, shows up suddenly and offers to accompany her, they set off on a road trip that reveals much about all three of them.

This book is the perfect road trip read. It’s poignant and fun and ultimately adorable. You will inhale it and wish there was more (and then maybe book your own road trip- that’s what I did!). I loved that this book wasn’t just about a boy and a girl, thrown together and voila: romantic tension. It was about Honor’s relationship with her brother, and Rusty’s relationship with Honor’s brother, and eventually, the relationship between all of them.

Honor, who skips college orientation to fulfill what she thinks is her brother’s dying wish, is just at the right age to really discover who she is, and this book is all about that discovery. Rusty is a bit of a disaster after falling out with his best friend, and then losing him, and he is the perfect foil to Honor, who think she has her life perfectly together. And don’t worry, there is plenty of swooning over Rusty to be done by the reader- who can resist a mess of a Texas gentleman?

The only reason this book didn’t make it all the way to five stars, is that there were a few clichéd things in the beginning of the book that made it hard to get into the story. The start of the road trip was a little too similar to the start of any Supernatural episode (car and soundtrack included). And I’m pretty sure Kyra Kelley (the girl whose concert they’re going to see) was just a stand-in for Taylor Swift. But maybe I’ve just spent too much time listening to Taylor Swift. Let me know if you thought differently!

In the end, this book made me cry, and laugh, and feel along with Honor, and I would definitely recommend it. 

Wild Awake (Hilary T. Smith)

Title: Wild Awake

Author: Hilary T. Smith

Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books (HarperCollins)

Length: 375

Rating: 5/5

Seventeen year old Kiri has plans to endlessly practice the piano and water the azaleas while she is home alone and her parents are on a cruise. She does not plan on getting a phone call from a stranger who claims to have a bag of her dead sister’s stuff. With this call, Kiri embarks on a crazy adventure of love, loss, murder, music, and madness.

This cover is crazy, chaotic, and perfect. Also, there is an azalea etched on the front of the book and it’s amazingly perfect. (I’m a tiny bit biased because I know the designer but shhh that doesn’t change that it’s awesome).

I fell in love with Kiri two pages in- her quirky voice* made me want to be her best friend (come on, I’m way more deserving that her best friend and band mate Lukas!). Half way through (and with me obsessively picking this book back up every chance I got) I realized that she was my brand of crazy/compulsive/awesome.

Kiri is not your typical protagonist: she jumps into hot tubs fully clothed and befriends homeless people. And the boy she falls in love with is not your typical YA male lover: he’s got tattoos and a radio collection and is really good at fixing bikes.

Just as Kiri feels flawed and real, the book is real too. It deals with serious issues like family secrets, murder, mental illness, and self-discovery. With Kiri as your protagonist, you’re on this journey of discovery with her, and sometimes it’s hard and frustrating, and you just want to make things right. But overall, this book does a wonderful job of capturing just how messy, joyous, and heartbreaking life can be.

Check out Hilary’s Tumblr for the book: http://heyireadyourbook.tumblr.com/

And here's me in the store buying the book:

*Hilary and I were penpals for a year, and her voice is just as amazing as Kiri’s. She’s amazing, this book is amazing. Just go read it and save me the torture of trying to put the amazingness into coherent words! 

Siege and Storm (Leigh Bardugo)

Title: Siege and Storm

Author: Leigh Bardugo

Publisher:  Henry Holt and Co (Macmillan)

Length: 448

Rating: 5/5

In this sequel to Shadow and Bone, Alina and Mal are being hunted by the Darkling, who has escaped the Shadow Fold with an even darker power. Alina joins forces with a notorious pirate and returns to face the Darkling and rally the Grisha against him. But as her power grows, she grows further away from Mal, and risks losing everything.

I read this book in one sitting. It was that good. I thought the first book gave me feels, but this one had even more! So many unexpected turns and trials and terrible brushes with the Darkling. And Sturmhond, the notorious pirate, is possible the most fabulous character ever. I was in love with him the second we met.

However, in case anyone is curious, I am Team Mal all the way and was heartbroken every time they grew further apart.

I loved that this book had a powerful, yet flawed female protagonist. Alina is not even close to perfect, but she still stands for what she believes in, and fights to save her country at great risk to herself.

If you haven’t started reading this series yet, DO IT. And if you’ve already read these, check out these great additional stories Leigh wrote:

http://www.tor.com/stories/2013/06/the-too-clever-fox

http://www.macteenbooks.com/Facebook/shadowandbone/tailor.html

The 5th Wave (Rick Yancey)

Title: The 5th Wave

Author: Rick Yancey

Publisher: Putnam

Length: 475

Rating: 4.5/5

Aliens appear in the sky one day, and in a series of four waves, humans are almost completely wiped out. In the dawn of the 5th wave, Cassie tries to stay alive to rescue her brother, who was taken by The Others, disguised as humans. She knows she can trust no one, and the first rule of survival is to stay alone. But then she meets Evan Walker, who may be her only chance to save her brother, and rescue herself. But can she trust him?

This book had a LOT of hype. I was worried I would be disappointed. But this book actually lived up to the hype!

Normally, post-apocalyptic alien stories are not my thing. They tend to get really violent, and really bleak, really fast. But Cassie’s honest and clear voice kept me reading until I was too hooked to be frightened off by a few human-shaped aliens. The history of the invasion is woven into the story, so that you discover each horror as you become more and more attached to the characters and story. The narrator jumping, while confusing at first, was yet another successful way of drawing me into the story.

I yelled at this book a lot. Mostly, NO NO NO NO DON’T DO THAT WHY ARE YOU DOING THAT, which shows you how invested I became in Cassie, and co surviving. Part thriller, part mystery, part love story, this book will grip you and not let you escape, even when the aliens finally reveal themselves. I barely escaped the 5th wave and I loved it. 

The Darkest Minds (Alexandra Bracken)

Title: The Darkest Minds

Author: Alexandra Bracken

Publisher: Hyperion

Length: 488

Rating: 4.5/5

Sixteen year old Ruby breaks out of a government-run rehab camp for kids who developed dangerous powers after a virus took out most children in the United States and threw the country into a panic. Ruby joins up with another group of escaped kids as they search for a legendary safe haven, called East River, for kids like them. But everyone, from the people searching for Ruby, to the teens at East River, has their own agenda, and Ruby is hiding her own dangerous secrets.

Want to know how great this book is? Story time! I was home for Memorial Day weekend, and requested this book from the library, in the off-chance that I would have time to read it. I started it, and didn’t want to put it down (but come on, it’s Memorial Day weekend and there’s no time for reading). Then it was time to leave, and so I took it with me, on the plane to New York, so that I didn’t actually have to put it down. I went to the bookstore in NYC the next day and bought a copy. (And then, yes, I had to ship the library book back to Kansas!)

Why couldn’t I put this book down, you ask? You can’t help but root for the characters, who have known nothing but brutality in the camps since they were children, but who still have some sort of belief that the world isn’t one giant terrible place. Ruby joins up with Liam, Chubs, and Suzume, and together, they become a family that believes in each other, and encourages each other to use their “dangerous powers” for good (and to escape the bad guys, because they’re constantly in danger).

The powers themselves were really interesting (who didn’t want to have a super power growing up?). These kids have real power in their hands—controlling minds, fire, electricity, and more—and some use it for good, and some for evil. This book was great at pointing out the grey areas of good and evil, and how hard it is to navigate that.

With awesome world building, characters, and twisting story full of impossible choices, this is one book you shouldn’t miss.  

Eleanor & Park (Rainbow Rowell)

Title: Eleanor & Park

Author: Rainbow Rowell

Publisher:  St. Martin’s Griffin

Length: 328

Rating: 4/5

Set over the course of one school year in 1986, this is the story of two star-crossed misfits who fight bullies, rejection, and countless other obstacles in their desperate battle for a love that lasts.

This book is beautiful. And tragic. It’s Perks of Being a Wallflower meets Romeo and Juliet with a classic 1980s soundtrack. It will make your heart ache. You will cry. But you will also want more than anything for the love these two 16 year olds have for each other to survive.

Tragic beauty usually isn’t my thing, but what I loved most about this book is how real the relationship between these two was. It takes them forever just to hold hands, and there is magic in the hand-holding. In so many YA books, it’s easy to forget the characters are so young, but in Eleanor and Park, you really feel like these characters are that young (and you remember how you felt at that age.)

This book is worth the hype, and worth the read. Bring tissues.