Technically speaking, this is still the Christmas season...the rest of 12 Days' List!

Wow...Christmas was last Saturday! I actually took my tree and Christmas decorations down a few hours ago...but now...on to more yummy, festive times.

Making buenelos for New Year's Eve is a traditional Tex-Mex/ Mexican thing down here in the Valley so I need to go buy some "partially" cooked tortillas and plenty of sugar and cinnammon tomorrow so I can get started early on Friday. Basically, for all you non-Mexicans out there...buenelos (with the funny symbol on top of the "n" that I don't know how to type) are fried flour tortilla dough (what we call masa) covered in a sugar-cinnamon mix. Buenelos and Mexican chocolate are essential during the Christmas season! The ultimate sweet Christmas comfort food I grew up with! Just thinking about it makes me want to curl up with a few good books!

Here are the rest of my 12 Days of Christmas book recommendations:

5. The Lives of Girls and Women...the classical book by Alice Munro. Everybody out there...you have got to read this book. This is what stuffy shirts call "literary" but really, this is just good ol' grown up YA before YA existed. First person POV, strong female protagonist, coming-of-age, love story all mixed in with spectacular writing, wit, and humor. You will laugh, cry, and just wish every single YA book was written like this. Don't let the turn of the century copyright date get you...you can't tell. I love contemporary YA more than any other genre, and this book is as contemporary as it gets even though the time setting is not our own, but yet giving you insight to the way the female mind works...and you know that never changes...I seriously give this book a gazillion stars as a rating! But for the older YA crowd!


Summary: (From Penguin.Ca)

Lives of Girls and Women is a coming-of-age story told through the eyes of Del Jordan. As Del moves from childhood through a nervous adolescence and into young adulthood she introduces us to such memorable characters as her vibrant and unorthodox mother, the sad and dangerous men from her small town and the school kids who make fun of her and her family.

6. The Flowers by Dagoberto Gilb. So this is also the type of book classified as "literary" by not necessarily by the stuffy shirt people. This is "literary" by contemporary creative writing standards. You want progressive? You want "now"? You want experimental forms? This is it! This is unadulturated, at times stream-of-consciousness writing with significant male testorone as the driving force and no chapters...here we have a very unique, edgy male voice with a lyrical, passionate, in-your-face tone who sees the world in colors (metaphorically) and grows up to be a better young man than the boy he is at the beginning. By the way...one of the few Latino novels out there accessible to a the older YA crowd.

Excerpt:

How would I be if I lived here? I’d let that come into me, I’d let my mind go to the show it liked. Maybe you could say I would go off to my own world. To me it wasn’t mine, nothing like mine, because it would go to black. I loved that color. It was like when the eyes aren’t open but try to see. What would finally come were colors and lines busting through, flying out and off and cutting in, crazy fires and sparks, and it’d come out speeding, and I’d be like a doggie out the window, those lane dividers whiffing by on the freeway straight below an open car window. I’d start to see shapes floating and straightening and wiggling and see it like it was a music that didn’t make sound but was making a story. Not a regular story and I don’t mean one you would hear some loco nut tell you, one that didn’t have nothing to do with people or places you’ve ever seen. It’s that I can’t describe it better. Just, I have to watch, I have to listen.

I guess I'm out of time...will have to just list the rest...and make these my first set of minni-reviews for 2011! Happy New Year's Eve folks!

7. Sophie Mendoza's Guide for Getting Lost in Mexico by Malin Alegria

8. Incantation by Alice Hoffman

9. Sea by Heidi Kling

10. Circle the Soul Softly by Davida Wills Hurwin

11. ummm...The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan! I will never stop promoting this book!

12. ummm...The Dead Tossed Waves by Carrie Ryan! Ditto!

I want to thank my professor (Jean) for Form and Theory of the Novel this past semester for putting Munro and Gilb on the reading list for class! Two of the best books I have ever read in or out of school. She is not a stuffy shirt (even though I did have to read BORING Middlemarch...don't read it all you YA book lovers)!

3rd, 4th, 5th...? Day of Christmas? Catch up Day...My Heartbeat and If I Stay

Yea...my semester at grad school over! And out of work for two weeks! I have done absolutely nothing for an entire weekend (except for minor cleaning...)!







Now it is time to play catch up with my 12 days of Christmas book reviews...will I make it? I don't know, but I'll sure try!

On the 3rd day of Christmas...My Heartbeat by Garret Freymann-Weyr.

So this book is pretty obscure in comparison to some of her other novels such as Stay With Me, and it's also on the shorter side, but the writing is non-par. Now the cover shows a love triangle, but it is not the typical triangle. Link and James are best friends, but in between there is Ellen who is Link's sister. She has always been crazy about Link but there have always been rumors that Link is not interested in girls the way he is interested in James...

I do not read this kind of book...as I have ranted about before. But this book tells you, in the book jacket, what's at the core of the plot without hiding it. Also, the protagonist is Ellen and her point of view in the matter. Another thing I like is the fact that what you think can't happen does happen and I for one am happy with the ending...which I won't say other than Ellen wins. What happens to Ellen is not what happens to other girls in other books with best friends they can only love from afar. And I just absolutely love this author and her writing style and her characters, especially her female characters and their level of maturity and ability to be introspective in a way that is authentic and truthful.

Above all it has romance and isn't that like one of the highlights of reading something? If you follow my blog then you know I only read books with boy-girl romance and this book is no exception.

Excerpt:

Now I know what's different: I've outgrown the question. I am not attached to James solely through Link. And while he can no longer make me blush, I am old enought for James to break my heart. Breaking his when I outgrow him is no longer the only option.





On the 4th day of Christmas...If I Stay by Gayle Forman

Summary: (from Bordersmedia.com)

Seventeen-year-old Mia is a talented cellist headed for Julliard in the fall. Her life changes in an instant when she and her family get into a car accident one snowy February morning. Suddenly Mia is forced to make the ultimate choice, and it's the only choice that truly matters. If you liked The Lovely Bones, you'll want to read the heartbreakingly beautiful If I Stay.
My thoughts...ok...I wouldn't go so far as to make a comparison with The Lovely Bones because that book gets you from page 1. This one could have a quicker start and the dialogue seems a bit artificial among family members. Oh, but the end...

that's the best and, yes, get those tissues out! Amazingly, you start thinking like Mia and when it seems her soul has just about made the final decision to leave or stay, her soul takes a different direction. Who knows what your soul, heart, and mind are feeling, thinking, seeing until you are actually in that state bordering between life of death and the silver horizon of aliveness?

Here's brief, yet completely effective book trailer to get you going...to go out and buy or check out...or reread!

On the 2nd Day of Christmas...How to Say Goodbye in Robot

On the 2nd day of Christmas...well, you know the tune.

My pick for today is How to Say Goodbye in Robot by Natalie Standiford. This is one of those obscure books (like Eva Underground) many don't get around to reading. It just can't compete with all those paranormal and fantasy and series books out there. I mean who is Natalie Standiford and why does it have a weird title ...that's not my thinking, but possibly that of typical teen or any other reader.

But the title pretty much tells you this is going to be one of those books without the necessarily pretty ending...but ohhhhh...the ending is satisfying...it kind of makes your heart feel heavy and tight but hopeful.

Here's a little bit to get you going. There is a quiet, loner guy but he's not all James Dean or anything. Classmates call him Ghost Boy though Bea also knows him as Jonah. And Bea is Robot Girl. Ghost? Robot? Obviously, with names like that, they are what some people may judge as being emotionally distant.

How to Say Goodbye in Robot features an unconventional romance based on human connection rather than physicality. Ghost Boy and Robot Girl have a long way to go, but if they can have one truly human relationship with each other, even if it seems impossible, wouldn't it be worth it in the large scheme of things?

Quote...to show you how it's different from other YA.

(This is Bea thinking)

I turned a corner and came to a small church. There was a head-stone near the path leading to the church's wooden doors. I stepped closer to read the headstone. It said FOR THE UNICORN CHILD.

That is so cool, I thought. What a funky town this was. I imagined a neighborhood Legend of the Unicorn Child, about a one-horned little boy who'd died tragically, hit by a car or shot by a mugger or maybe poisoned by lawn pesticides. The story of the Unicorn Child was so real to these people they'd erected a stone in his memory.

Then I read it again. The stone didn't say FOR THE UNICORN CHILD. It said FOR THE UNBORN CHILD.



Summary From Booklist:

The hot pink cover featuring a telephone dangling by the cord fairly screams teen romance! but might give the wrong impression of this quirky novel. Bea, the new girl in a school where most of the kids have known each other since kindergarten, befriends Jonah, an outcast deemed Ghost Boy after a cruel middle-school prank. She finds herself torn between normal highschool activities and spending time with Jonah, listening to the bizarre but engaging Night Light, a radio show haunted by some of Baltimore’s loneliest weirdos. Theirs is not a budding romance, but a tumultuous, hot-and-cold friendship; they love each other, but should never even think about a relationship. Credit is due to Standiford for the delicate portrayal of Jonah’s home life, which could have veered into soap-opera territory, especially with the reappearance of his long-thought-dead, mentally disabled twin brother. The heart of this novel is neither cold and metallic nor full of romance and delusion. Instead, it’s very human. Grades 9-12.

On the first day of Christmas...

On the first day of Christmas, my true love (Reading) gave to me...Eva Underground by Dandi Daley Mackall

If you follow my blog, you know historical fiction...with romance...holds a special place in my heart. And what better than historical YA fiction set in 1970's Communist Poland? Down with medieval, renaissance, 19th century heroines!

I picked up this back about a year ago...of course the book jacket had everything to do with it! A train, old architecture, and a passion filled goodbye kiss...ahhhhh. Just my kind of reading.

But Eva Underground is not the flimsy YA novel of girl meets boy and boy is a dangerous rebel who rides motorcycles. Well, the boy is a rebel of sorts but the politcal sort and he's beyond boyhood. He lives for a greater cause and Eva slowly falls for the cause as she lives, breathes, eats, and sleeps the cause in the tiny, rebel-crowded apartment she shares with her father and members of the underground movement. Cultural shock doesn't even begin to give her experience justice, and at the end, the one place she never considers home is more home than her old high school life in Chicago.

The politcal atmosphere of change, fear, hunger are taken from straight from the author's own experiences as a college graduate in communist Poland, so besides suspense and romance this novel provides realism and a historical lesson without my boring class lectures (I'm a history teacher right now...)

Plus...absolutely love the cover!

Brief Summary from Booklist

Gr. 8-11. In 1978 high-school-senior Eva Lott leaves her comfortable life in the Chicago suburbs for Communist Poland, where her father is teaching in the underground education movement. Coping with the recent death of her mother from cancer, Eva now has to contend with the boredom and loneliness of living in a foreign country. After a botched attempt to run away and make her way back to Chicago, Eva develops a friendship with Tomek, a young underground leader, and a romance blossoms, giving her a desire to stay. This otherwise standard coming-of-age love story is made more unusual by a strong sense of time and place. Mackall effectively conveys the harsh realities of living under a Communist regime and the sense of hope for a better future among Poles that came with the rise of Lech Walesa and the Solidarity Movement and the election of the first Polish pope.

Finally...11th an 12th Day...A Day Late!

Up to this point, none of the books have been in any particular order, but the ones I've chosen for day 11 and 12 are truly two of the best YA books I have ever read. The book summaries I added do not in anyway give enough justice to their worth. These are books I have to review! They are both must reads, and I have to say that Marcello in the Real World is probably the one I love just a bit more.

On the 11th day of Christmas my true love gave to me...

North of Beauiful by Justina ChenHeadley

Born with a port-wine stain birthmark covering her entire right cheek, Terra Rose Cooper is ready to leave her stifling, small Washington town where everyone knows her for her face. With her critical, reproachful father and an obese mother who turns to food to deflect her father's verbal attacks, home life for Terra isn't so great either. Fueled by her artistic desires, she plans to escape to an East Coast college, thinking this is her true path. When her father intercepts her acceptance letter, Terra is pushed off-course, and she is forced to confront her deepest insecurities. After an ironically fortuitous car accident, Terra meets Jacob, a handsome but odd goth Chinese boy who was adopted from China as a toddler. Jacob immediately understands Terra's battle with feeling different. When Terra's older brother invites her and her mother to visit him in Shanghai, Jacob and his mother also join them on their journey, where they all not only confront the truth about themselves, but also realize their own true beauty. North of Beautiful is the engaging third YA novel by Justina Chen Headley. This is a gorgeously-written, compelling book featuring universal themes of defining true beauty, family bonds, personal strength, and love.

On the 12th day of Christmas my true love gave to me...

Marcelo in the Real World by Francisco X. Stork

Marcelo Sandoval hears music no one else can hear--part of the autism-like impairment no doctor has been able to identify--and he's always attended a special school where his differences have been protected. But the summer after his junior year, his father demands that Marcelo work in his law firm's mailroom in order to experience "the real world." There Marcelo meets Jasmine, his beautiful and surprising coworker, and Wendell, the son of another partner in the firm.

He learns about competition and jealousy, anger and desire. But it's a picture he finds in a file -- a picture of a girl with half a face -- that truly connects him with the real world: its suffering, its injustice, and what he can do to fight.

Reminiscent of "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time" in the intensity and purity of its voice, this extraordinary novel is a love story, a legal drama, and a celebration of the music each of us hears inside.

Merry Christmas and 12 Days of Christmas

Merry Christmas to All! Remember the Reason for the Season!

Wow...seems that Christmas got the best of me away from blogging, which is a good thing?

But, here is the rest of my song...

On the 9th Day of Christmas my true love gave to me...

The New Rules of High School by Blake Nelson

Very good "coming-of-age" novel about a teenage boy about to graduate from high school. Love the male narrative that comes in the character of Max.

Max Caldwell is tired. He's tired of having a "perfect" girlfriend, he's tired of worrying about college applications, and he's tired of always doing what he's supposed to do. So for the first time, dependable, reliable Max steps back from his Mr. Perfect, straight-A life to see what happens when he lets go for a while.

He learns quickly that his new approach to life won't bring all the answers, but it sure raises a lot of interesting questions. This fast-paced novel introduces a fantastic cast of characters, from downtown Goth kids to preppy suburbanites, seen through the eyes of a seventeen-year-old who's trying to figure it all out.

On the 10th Day of Christmas my true love gave to me...

Two Parties, One Tux, and a Very Short Film about The Grapes of Wrath by Steven Goldman

Ok...this sounds like you could actually sing the title with The 12 Days of Christmas! You will abosolutely love the male perspective and voice--hilarious!

Mitchell Wells may not survive eleventh grade. He really only has one friend, his best friend, David. His normally decent grade point average is in limbo due to a slightly violent, somewhat inappropriate claymation film. And girls . . . well, does hanging out with his sister count?

When David tells Mitchell he’s gay, Mitchell’s okay with it—but it still seems to change things. Since David’s not out to anyone else, the guys agree to be set up with prom dates. Then, one of the most popular girls in school decides she must date Mitchell, and he’s gone from zero to two girlfriends in sixty seconds.

From his pending English grade, to his floundering friendship, to his love life—the one thing that’s taken a bizarre turn for the better—Mitchell is so confused, he’ll be lucky if he lasts another week in high school! And then there’s the prom . . .

With a wickedly funny voice and a colorful cast of characters, Steven Goldman has written a novel for every reader—even those who like high school.

I will have to put day 11 and 12 tomorrow even though Christmas is today. I've got a couple of pot roasts in the oven!

On the 7th and 8th Day of Christmas

On the 7th Day of Christmas my true love gave to me...

Feels Like Home by E.E. Charlton-Trujillo

I read a review of this recently that critiqued the writing for including stereotyping and derogatory language toward whites and Mexican-Americans, but when I read the novel sometime back, I did not find anything offensive. This story takes place in a small Texas town below San Antonio, and I will tell you that more than likely the views presented in the novel are probably true, and they are even more true as you go into deep South Texas...I live here. To me it's not stereotyping--it's just reality as to how many people think in these regions. As for me, well, I love this novel and actually think of as a model I want to use because it takes place in a small Texas town--one that I recognize. I also love all the references to The Outsider.


Growing up in a dead-end South Texas town, Mickey had two things she could count on: her big brother, Danny—the football hero everyone loved—and a beat-up copy of The Outsiders. But after the accident—after Danny abandoned her to a town full of rumors and a drunken father—all Mickey had left was a smoky memory, her anger, and the resolution to get out of town for good.

But Danny is back—and he's not the golden boy who left six years ago. He's altogether a different person, and the life Mickey has worked so hard to rebuild seems to be falling apart. Danny's anger is something Mickey just can't forgive, and his best friend's mysterious death six years ago keeps coming back to haunt the edges of her mind. No matter how hard she tries, she can't remember what happened that night—and she's starting to realize that remembering is the only way she can move on. She'll have to face the brother who broke her heart, and that beat-up book that will never again feel like home.



On the 8th day of Christmas my true love gave to me...

The Secret Life of Prince Charming by Deb Caletti

Deb Caletti is one of my favorite authors! I'll admit I wasn't crazy about the title, but the title gives the total wrong impression. I love how this novel weaves in the stories of several women and their search for Prince Charming, a.k.a. the perfect man.

Maybe it was wrong, or maybe impossible, but I wanted the truth to be one thing. One solid thing.

Quinn is surrounded by women who have had their hearts broken. Between her mother, her aunt, and her grandmother, Quinn hears nothing but cautionary tales. She tries to be an optimist -- after all, she's the dependable one, the girl who never makes foolish choices. But when she is abruptly and unceremoniously dumped, Quinn starts to think maybe there really are no good men.

It doesn't help that she's gingerly handling a renewed relationship with her formerly absent father. He's a little bit of a lot of things: charming, selfish, eccentric, lazy...but he's her dad, and Quinn's just happy to have him around again. Until she realizes how horribly he's treated the many women in his life, how he's stolen more than just their hearts. Determined to, for once, take action in her life, Quinn joins forces with the half sister she's never met and the little sister she'll do anything to protect. Together, they set out to right her father's wrongs...and in doing so, begin to uncover what they're really looking for: the truth.

Once again, Deb Caletti has created a motley crew of lovably flawed characters who bond over the shared experiences of fear, love, pain, and joy -- in other words, real life.

On the 5th and 6th Day of Christmas

On the 5th day of Christmas my true love gave to me...

Playing with Matches by Brian Katcher

I'll admit I wasn't crazy about the book jacket...I would have liked some better art design, but the novel makes up for all that. For some reason, I find books with a male narrative to be very engaging. Maybe it's because there is an overabundance of novels with a female voice or maybe it's just because I'm a female and it's interesting to hear the male take on things. The guy from Playing with Matches is sometimes a jerk, but I gotta hand it to him for being so bold...most guys remain shallow and stuck on looks for quite some time.

SEVENTEEN-YEAR-OLD LEON SANDERS has a mug that looks like it should be hanging in a post office somewhere. If he didn’t have his twisted sense of humor, he’d have nothing at all. So it’s no wonder to Leon and his friends that the gorgeous Amy Green will never even look twice at him.
However, there is one girl who might: Melody Hennon. Everyone at Zumner High keeps their distance from Melody because she was burned in a childhood accident. Leon has avoided her, too, until the day he tells her a bad joke and makes her laugh. Although Leon worries what people will think of him dating Melody, he’s happy to have someone in his life who thinks he’s special. That is, happy until Amy Green asks him out after Leon saves her from getting detention. Will Leon give up a shot with the Beauty so that he can live the fairy tale with the Beast?

On the 6th Day of Christmas my true love gave to me...

How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff

I love it, that's all I will say...just read the excerpt below and you will know why. And, it's about a world war in contemporary times.

This is a story about love.

It's also a story about hate, which is why I left New York in the first place. You don't fly halfway across the world to live with a bunch of people you never met, just for a laugh.

I guess if I'd known where it was all going to lead, I might have thought twice about stepping onto that plane. I might have worried a little more about Edmond being my cousin.

And me being 15.

But I didn't. And in the end, those things didn't matter as much as you think they would.

In the end, the world had bigger things to worry about than us.

On the 4th Day of Christmas...

On the 4th Day of Christmas my true love gave to me...

Circle the Soul Softly by Davida Wills Hurin

This is the kind of book I want to write...literary YA! It's one of those books I just picked up at the library off the shelves. It's how I find most of my books. If the title and book description catch my eye then I give it a shot and usually I am not disappointed. This one is up there on my list of favorites. In case you are wondering...yes, there is a love story in here.


An elite school. Glamorous students who have fancy cars and mansions for homes (and all the haughty attitude to go with it). This is Katie O'Connor's fabulous new life since her family's recent move to Brentwood –– a perfect opportunity for a fresh start, at least in theory.

The only time she can overlook the hostility of her classmates is when they share the stage for plays. Onstage, directed by her awesome drama teacher, Tess, she has the confidence and talent that she cannot seem to muster in her everyday life. And it doesn't hurt that one of Katie's fellow actors is smart and cute and interested in her. But beneath the glossy surface, there are secrets buried deep, even in Katie's own past.

Nightmares and dark memories continue to plague Katie's consciousness, and in order to deal with the present, she needs to come to terms with the past. If only she could remember it.

On the 3rd Day of Christmas...

On the 3rd day of Christmas my true love gave to me...

Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney

Ok this is definitely not literary but I love it--it's hilarious and what makes it funnier is that I'm an adult and a parent, so I see the funniness of everything (is funniness a word?)--I find humor in Greg's predicaments (many of you will relate very well) and in the portrayal of his parents because I see a lot of the parents in me and in my husband. I picked this one up a couple of years ago at a book fair in the school library, scanned it, loved it, bought it for my son, and read it very fast before he did! And, he loves it, too. He has made sure to get the rest of the series since then.

Boys don’t keep diaries—or do they?

The launch of an exciting and innovatively illustrated new series narrated by an unforgettable kid every family can relate to

It’s a new school year, and Greg Heffley finds himself thrust into middle school, where undersized weaklings share the hallways with kids who are taller, meaner, and already shaving. The hazards of growing up before you’re ready are uniquely revealed through words and drawings as Greg records them in his diary.

In book one of this debut series, Greg is happy to have Rowley, his sidekick, along for the ride. But when Rowley’s star starts to rise, Greg tries to use his best friend’s newfound popularity to his own advantage, kicking off a chain of events that will test their friendship in hilarious fashion.

Author/illustrator Jeff Kinney recalls the growing pains of school life and introduces a new kind of hero who epitomizes the challenges of being a kid. As Greg says in his diary, “Just don’t expect me to be all ‘Dear Diary’ this and ‘Dear Diary’ that.” Luckily for us, what Greg Heffley says he won’t do and what he actually does are two very different things.

Since its launch in May 2004 on Funbrain.com, the Web version of Diary of a Wimpy Kid has been viewed by 20 million unique online readers. This year, it is averaging 70,000 readers a day.

12 Days of YA Christmas

Ok, so here is my answer to the 12 Days of Christmas...the 12 books I most absolutely love and that I think you should read! I've only reviewed a few of them, but I have definetely read them all and think they represent some the best YA out there...just so you will know, I have preference for literary YA rather than just mainstream, sell a lot of copies, and become an overnight sensation type of books.

Dec. 14th...So, on the 1st day of Christmas my true love gave to me...

The Indigo Notebook by Laura Resau...if you've read her other novel, Red Glass, you will really enjoy this one. This came to me as an Advanced Reader's Copy...I have an interview with Laura on a previous post. Check the October archives.

Zeeta's life with her free-spirited mother, Layla, is anything but normal. Every year Layla picks another country she wants to live in. This summer they’re in Ecuador, and Zeeta is determined to convince her mother to settle down. Zeeta makes friends with vendors at the town market and begs them to think of upstanding, “normal” men to set up with Layla. There, Zeeta meets Wendell. She learns that he was born nearby, but adopted by an American family. His one wish is to find his birth parents, and Zeeta agrees to help him. But when Wendell’s biological father turns out to be involved in something very dangerous, Zeeta wonders whether she’ll ever get the chance to tell her mom how she really feels—or to enjoy her deepening feelings for Wendell.

Dec. 15th...On the second day of Christmas my true love gave to me...

Last Dance at the Frosty Queen by Richard Uhlig This is one of those books I just picked up from the library shelf...guess 'cus I'm from Texas and over here we have Dairy Queen. But, it turned out to be a really great read. I recommend it for the older teen and adult since it has scenes inappropriate for a younger audience.

On the dock of a lake in a tiny town at the corner of Nowhere & Nowhere, he sits counting the seconds until his high school graduation—at which point Arthur M. Flood intends to leave his hick life far behind in the brown Kansas dust. That's the plan. Until . . . up from the lake's muddy depths swims a girl. She's not a mermaid, but she is the one who shakes up Arty's life, makes him mad and mad for her, and helps him find a pathway to his past, his future, and where his heart truly lies.

Teens will recognize their own emotional landscape in this steamy, funny, coming-of-age tale in which the heart tries to hide, only to be utterly exposed by love and lust, lost and found.

(These are just product descriptions from the books--not my reviews)

Will post another one tomorrow! I had to put 2 today because I barely got this idea today!