Lock and Key

Lock and Key


By: Sarah Dessen
Reviewer: Thing 2, 13
Rating: Loved it!


When you have a drug and alcohol addicted mother life is never easy and 17 year old Ruby decides to leave her life behind the second she turns 18. But before that can happen her mother abandons her, Ruby's sister Cora takes her in, and Ruby completely different new life. Cora and her husband, Jamie live in a fancy neighborhood in a mansion. Cora is a lawyer and Jamie is the creator of a popular social networking site UMe. Ruby believes that Cora has been avoiding her ever since she left for collage so she acts distant and cold.

After finding getting to her new house Ruby decides to run away in the middle of the night. But gets caught and covered by her new neighbor Nate. Cute, popular, & nice, Ruby slowly becomes friends with him and eventually even closer then that.

But something is wrong with Nate. He is keeping and a secret that even Ruby can't get out of him. In this fresh and moving story this book will satisfy all of the Sarah Dessen fans.

Dial L for Loser

Dial L for Loser


By: Lisi Harrison
Reviewer: Thing 2, 13
Rating: Loved it!


" To Mr. Burns and Mr. Myner. Thanks for kicking us out of OCD. From this day forward, stores are the new classrooms. Salespeople are the new teachers. Food courts are the new cafeterias. And Visas are the new seventh-grade ID cards. To the Pretty Committee and the endless shopportunities."

The Pretty Committee is back in their sixth novel as the series continues. After getting expelled from OCD life should be great shopping everyday, no homework, and best of all hours of doing nothing. Yet Massie and the PC feel hollower then an empty lip gloss. So when they get an offer to be in a movie they snatch it up faster then this years Jimmy Choo Sky bag.

But all the way across America they run into some problems. For one the super-cute star Connor seems to be falling for Kuh-laire not Massie and she gets the part. But does Massie really want a role as a LOSER? Then Cam, Claire's ah-dorable crush, gets a picture of her kissing Connor from Massie and breaks up with Claire? Pretty soon there's a full on war between Claire and Massie. But who'll win and will they make up like they've always had?

The Princess Academy

The Princess Academy


By: Shannon Hale
Reviewer: Thing 2, 13
Rating: Loved it!


Miri,a fourteen-year-old girl from Mt. Eskel, has never been allowed to work with the rest of the villagers in the quarry that keeps the community alive. She hates feeling cut off from everyone and being useless. As if that wasn't bad enough the quarry can barely cut enough linder to feed the villagers, making her feel even more useless. In spite of her feelings of isolation, she has a very close friendship with a cute, popular boy named Peder.

Almost at of thin air a messenger from the king arrives along with the usual traders from the lowlands. The messenger announces that the nation's priests have informed the nation that, despite the lack of education the villagers have had and all the prejudice between the mountain villagers and the lowlanders, the crown prince's future bride will come from Mt. Eskel. A "princess academy" is built near the village to train all the girls to become princess material.Every girl between twelve and seventeen must attend. At the end of the year, the prince will visit the academy and choose the girl to be the next princess.

Miri and the other girls attend the academy, and although they struggle to earn the respect of their strict teacher, Tutor Olana, Miri excels at learning and commerce. All the girls are eager to please the prince and win a comfortable life for themselves and their families, and Miri's new knowledge of commerce helps the village prosper in trading with the lowlanders. After a disagreement, the girls use their knowledge of diplomacy to get a more bearable living arrangement with Tutor Olana, including weekly visits home. They finally earn the respect of their teacher and become more comfortable in the academy. Miri also starts to figure out how quarry-speech, a form of unspoken communication used only in the quarry, works and makes friends with some of the other girls, including Britta, a lowlander.

When the prince finally arrives, Miri is crowned academy princess and she gets to have the first dance with him. Although she is uncertain if she reallly wants to marry the prince, since she thinks she still likes her childhood friend Peder. At the academy ball, the prince dances with every girl except Britta, who is sick.But the prince "does a very good impression of a stone statue making Miri even more uncertain. But later in the evening he takes a walk with Miri and shows a more human side. However, he leaves without choosing a bride. So the girls are forced to spend another winter locked up in the academy. But soon trouble strikes and its up to Miri and her newfound talent in quarry-speech to save them.

The Eternal Sea

The Eternal Sea


By: Angie Frazier
Reviewer: Thing 2, 13
Rating: It was okay


In this book Camille Rowen cannot get past her father's death. He died in a shipwreck four months ago yet Camille survives it. Yet Camille has heard of a stone that can bring back the dead and she can't stop obsessing over the fact it could bring her father back to life.

So she sets out to find the stone and falls in love with Oscar Kildare a handsome and fiery first mate even though she's in love with Randall Jackson. So when a fight breaks out over the stone and kills Oscar she decides to save him instead of her father. She may be sad about her father but not sad enough to choose him over Oscar.

Once Oscar comes back from the dead the life together that Camille imagined does not happen. Instead Oscar starts acting distant secretive anddecides to go looking for another stone, the stone of immortality only alone. This book has lots of surprise twists and will leave second-guessing everything.

The Clique

The Clique


By: Lisi Harrison
Reviewer: Thing 2, 13
Rating: Really liked it


"The Clique...the only thing harder then getting in is staying in." Massie....Alicia....Dylan....Kristen.... Claire. Five girls with very different backgrounds and when these girls are forced to be friends together...meow!

Massie, Dylan, Kristen, & Alicia have been BFF's since grammar school and when Massie's Dad's best friend shows up with his ah-noying daughter Claire they will do anything to keep her away. Including dumping food on her, isolating her at the sleepover, and stealing her new friends.

But Claire's a fighter and she's not going down without a fight. She'll do anything to be accepted into the clique and maybe even get back at Massie the clique's alpa who's had it in for her since day 1. They both can do some sneaking and dirty business but will they ever forgive each other and become BFF's?

An Abundance of Katherines

An Abundance of Katherines  

By: John Green
Reviewer: iReadYa, 15 and Thing 2, 13
Rating: Loved it!


"When it comes to relationships, Colin Singleton's type is girls named Katherine." John Green creates a laugh-out loud world in this humorous book.

At the opening of the novel, we find washed up child prodigy Colin wallowing in self pity. His 19th girlfriend, all of them named Katherine, has just dumped him. That's when his best friend Hassan comes in with the news that they're going on a road trip.

They soon find themselves in the little town of Gutshot, Tennessee, with a dead archduke, jobs and no Katherines. Here the two of them meet Lindsey and her pink-loving mother Hollis. And in this small town, Colin develops his Theorem of Underlying Katherine Predictability. In other words, he takes on the impossible and sets out to prove how every relationship will end.

With bloodthirsty wasps and Satan pigs on their tail, this road trip is guaranteed to be one that you'll never forget. Packed with random facts and outstanding anagrams, this novel is a summer must read.