Teenage fans of Alyson Noel's The Immortals series will be familiar with Ever's younger sister Riley. With Radiance, Alyson Noel gives us an entirely new series for a completely different audience. Whereas I recommend The Immortals for teen readers, this novel is completely appropriate for young tweens. For those unfamiliar with the series, Riley, her parents, and her dog Buttercup died in a car crash (big sister Ever lived and is featured in The Immortals series). For a while Riley refused to "cross over," and lived sort of in limbo, visiting Ever and staying on the Earth plane. This story picks up with her living in "Here & Now." Her life is much like it was on earth, with her parents, her dog, school. But she's also training ...
Category Archives: Audiobooks
A Secret Kept
I never got around to reading Tatiana de Rosnay's first novel, Sarah's Key, so I grabbed at the opportunity to read her second novel, A Secret Kept (or actually to hear it on audiobook). I started listening to it the day after I received it, and the way the story unfolded kept me interested and looking for any excuse to squeeze in a few minutes of listening (great motivation to get some housework done!). Antoine Rey is a divorced father of two trying to get over his ex-wife, navigating ennui with his job as an architect and the struggles of parenting teenagers (ACK!). I found him to be slightly wimpy, but as the story progresses, I come to realize that he's not really wimpy, just tired and disappointed with life. A Secret Kept begins ...
Suite Scarlett and Scarlett Fever
Suite Scarlett by Maureen Johnson is a somewhat old fashioned tale. For one, the family lives in a hotel. Isn't that just a perfect setting for a classic teen novel? Secondly, it's a family story. Scarlett isn't one of those YA heroines who spends time hanging out with friends, ditching school and going to parties. All her friends are off having summer adventures while she stays home to help her family run the hotel. When she turns 15, she's supposed to take more responsibility in caring for one of the suites. As it happens, the mysterious and headstrong Amy Amberson, a former actress, moves in and hires Scarlett to be her assistant. She's quirky, and her quirks give level-headed Scarlett an easy "straight man". She plays the same role to older-brother Spencer, ...
The Adoration of Jenna Fox
You may be one of the throng who are waiting for 8/24/10 when Mockingjay is released and concludes The Hunger Games trilogy (linked to Dawn's review if you aren't sure what all the hubbub is about). But The Hunger Games isn't the only dystopian YA lit out there. While you are waiting for your copy to arrive, or for your number to come up on the library's waitlist (my YA librarian said that she has 8 copies on order, and there are already almost 60 names on the request list), here's another book with a strong female lead that you might want to consider: I listened to the audiobook of The Adoration of Jenna Fox a while ago -- a long while, and I've been remiss in posting a review, even ...
The Red Pyramid by Rick Riordan
I didn't realize that the whole story of The Red Pyramid was supposed to be a tape made by Carter and his sister, but it made the audiobook that I listened to even more "spot on" as you listen to siblings Carter and Sophie Kane argue their way through telling the story about how their father disappeared and how they try to use their ancient power to help them. I haven't read the Percy Jackson series, so I can't compare this new Rick Riordan series to that one, but I found this story to be creative and interesting. I absolutely loved the brother/sister angle, as well as the bi-racial element (their dad is black and Carter favors him and their mom is white, and Sophie favors her, so people don't even believe that they are related). This is ...
Read and Sing Along Books
At the Book Expo I came across the Twin Sisters booth. I was familiar with their offerings but it had been several years since I had checked in with them. As far as I knew - they dealt mostly with music CD's and not books. Apparently I'm a bit behind the times because they are doing both books and music! I was delighted to see that they had cleverly combined the two and had created some delightful Read & Sing Along books for babies and toddlers! Twin Sisters kindly sent me some samples of books in this particular series and my boys and I have had a lot of fun checking them out! This series of books highlight songs that you are all probably very familiar with. The title of each book indicates the main track ...
The Sky is Everywhere
One day Lennie has a sister, a prominent place in the band as a clarinet player, a best friend – she’s basically a normal 17-year-old girl. The next day her older sister Bailey dies, and it changes everything. The Sky is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson is about Lennie's journey as she is learning to cope with the unexpected and sudden loss of her sister. It leads her to make unwise choices in matters of the heart, as she struggles with her attraction to her sister’s boyfriend Toby. Complicating matters is the introduction of Joe Fontaine on the scene – the new boy, who only knows Lennie “after” – after the death of sister, not as one of two, the sisters who were as close as best friends, yet different as night and ...
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Jennifer Donovan
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