This Gorgeous Game by Donna Freitas

Seventeen-year-old Olivia Peters has long dreamed of becoming a writer. So she's absolutely over the moon when her literary idol, the celebrated novelist and much-adored local priest Mark D. Brendan, selects her from hundreds of other applicants as the winner of the Emerging Writers High School Fiction Prize. Now she gets to spend her summer evenings in a college fiction seminar at the nearby university, where dreamy college boys abound and Father Mark acts as her personal mentor.

But when Father Mark's enthusiasm for Olivia's writing develops into something more, Olivia quickly finds her emotions shifting from wonder to confusion to despair. And as her wide-eyed innocence deteroriates, Olivia can't help but ask - exactly what game is Father Mark playing, and how on earth can she get out of it?

This remarkable second novel by the author of The Possibilities of Sainthood, about overcoming the isolation that stems from victimization, is powerful, luminous, and impossible to put down. (Taken from inside flap)

Wow, this book was so good! I could not put it down; I had to keep reading so I could find out what happened. What I liked about This Gorgeous Game is the originality of the story. We see in the news all the time Catholic priests molesting children, which is a tragedy, but it rarely occurs in books. I think the issue of abuse (mental, emotional, and physical) is a topic some authors are afraid to cover. This story is a little different, and though it's not as violent as the things in the news, you still feel emotionally and mentally traumatized right along with Olivia. I loved how the author was able to write Olivia and her emotions so well.

Speaking of Olivia, I liked her character a lot. I was afraid she would be passive and not take control of the situation, but I was able to sympathize with her and understood why she was hesitant to accuse Father Mark of anything. If I was her, I probably would have told someone right away, but I liked that I could understand her motives, even if I didn't completely agree with them. And Father Mark: man, he was creepy. Once again, he was another character written extremely well.

All in all, I think Donna Freitas took a subject that is rarely written about and breathed new life into it. Her writing was simple, beautiful and just felt true, like she was revealing secrets of the world. Olivia could have been a real person with real feelings. This Gorgeous Game explores an interesting topic but is also a page-turner. Read it if you get a chance!

9 out of 10.

Release Date: May 25, 2010

FTC: This book was provided to me through the Henry Holt InGroup.

The Body Finder by Kimberly Derting

Violet has always been different. She was born with a special skill that has enabled her to find dead bodies. It sounds gruesome and macabre, but for Violet it's her life. However, when Violet starts discovering dead human bodies, in an almost serial manner, things change. As her small town begins to panic because more and more young girls are turning up missing and/or dead, it's up to Violet to use her power to find the killer before it's too late.

The Body Finder was extremely creepy, but that's what I liked about it. I love horror/thriller movies, so the fact that this book fit into that genre was awesome. There was a love interest (as usual) and even though it turned out to be the cliched best friend, I still loved the romance. Things actually started getting hot and steamy between Violet and Jay, which I shall attribute to pent-up sexual tension.

Surprisingly, I really liked the supporting characters, who came in the form of Violet's girl friends. They were funny and added something to the plot. I wish we could have seen more of them because most of the time it was The Violet and Jay Show, so I actually kind of forgot about them half-way through the book.

Also, a lot of reviews mention a "twist" that takes place in The Body Finder. There was one, but it wasn't as big of a reveal as I was hoping. It didn't help that I kind of guessed the ending before, but I usually do that anyway so that doesn't mean everyone else won't be surprised. So besides a few things that I didn't like, I thought that The Body Finder was a pretty solid book. It had good description, fun characters, a hot romance and just the right element of suspense.

8.5 out of 10.

FTC: I received this book for the One ARC Blog Tour and mailed it back to the author.

I'm back! & Other Official Business

Wow I can't believe I haven't posted anything in almost a month! Sorry about that, guys. After I reviewed The Karma Club, I went to Disney World for my senior class trip. Then the next weekend was my prom. Now school is kicking my butt as we're nearing the end of the year and I'm getting all these research papers and projects. So I haven't had much time to read, let alone post any reviews. That being said, I'm going to post a review of The Body Finder tomorrow. So if you're interested, look for that.

Now I have other blog business to take care of. I wanted to let everyone know that Linda Weaver Clarke is having a book giveaway on her blog. The book, Famous Family Nights by Anne Bradshaw, includes recipes, games, and crafts to create a fun family night at your house. Enter here. Contest ends May 24, 2010.

Also, Simply Books was featured on OnlineDegrees.net in a list of the 50 best blogs for teen readers. There are a ton of great other book blogs, so check them out!

Lastly, there's this great book resource called YABooksBuzz. According to the email I received, it's like the Rotten Tomatoes of YA Lit and it's actually pretty cool. There's lists of books and they go around to the different blogs and look for reviews and average everyone's scores. It's really neat and I suggest you check it out. Simply Books was included for reviews of Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver.

The Karma Club by Jessica Brody

When you mess with karma, karma messes back.

Maddy has a pretty good idea how karma works - you do good things, good things will happen to you in return and vice versa. But when she catches her boyfriend kissing popular girl Heather, nothing happens to him; instead he get a hot new girlfriend! Maddy decides to take matters into her own hands and starts the Karma Club with her two friends Jade and Angie. They are determined to right the wrongs the universe has forgotten and get payback for all the bad things guys have done to them. But when karma takes control and unfortunate things start happening to Maddy, she'll have to figure out how to balance the universe again.

I enjoyed The Karma Club. It was a quick read, but I really liked the concept of it. Karma is something a lot of people believe in, and yet it doesn't pop up in young adult literature (or popular culture in general) too often. I wonder why that is? I don't know if it's real, but I definitely like the idea of karma - who doesn't want to be rewarded for the good things they do? Obviously, we know the world doesn't keep perfect score but that's okay. At first in The Karma Club, Maddy thinks that karma is taking a vacation and decides to do bad things to the people that have done bad things to her and her friends. This sounds a little like revenge, but Maddy is a likable enough character that you sympathize with her. And some of the plots they come up with are hilarious. But as bad things start happening to Maddy, she realizes that you can't go after the bad people, you just have to make sure you do good things. It was a really positive message, how you can only control your actions and even though karma isn't perfect, it's not an excuse to not help others. By the end of the book, Maddy is a regular Mother Teresa. I thought that it was awesome that such a light-hearted book as The Karma Club came with a message so deep and almost profound. It's actually thought-provoking, believe it or not. I think The Karma Club is fun book if you want some laughs, or are looking for something to give you a new perspective on life. And those books are hard to come by.

7 out of 10.

Release Date: April 27, 2010

Check out the Amazon page for a great book trailer!

FTC: This book was provided to me through the Henry Holt InGroup review program.

Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver

It seems like Samantha Kingston has it all: three best friends, a cute boyfriend and adoring students at her high school. Sam is popular, and though she feels guilty at times for the way she and her friends treat other students, she still loves her life. That is, until Friday, February 12, when Sam and her friends get into a car accident, and now Sam is reliving the day over and over again. She doesn't know what to do or how to break the cycle; all Sam knows is that she's been given a chance to do-over her last day, and she better make the most of it.

I really enjoyed reading Before I Fall. The novel was so original, because even though I have read books that involve a dead protagonist, this one had one day repeating over and over again. This concept might seem boring, but each day Sam does something different and the author reveals new information that makes you want to keep reading. I also really liked Sam as a character. In the beginning, she's not the nicest person: she's rude to other students at school and shows no respect to her parents at all. I liked that Sam wasn't perfect; sometimes you read these books where the protagonist is pretty, nice, has a normal family. Sam had all these things but she was just a jerk to a lot of the other kids at her school. However, as the novel progresses, Sam begins to appreciate life more and see the mistakes that she has been making. I also loved that the book didn't have the normal, cookie-cutter happy ending. It was unexpected but the author took a different route than most other people would, which I liked. Overall, I thought Before I Fall had a great message, to appreciate every day, and I think the author executed her ideas flawlessly in a well-written story.

8 out of 10.

FTC: This book was provided to me through the Flamingnet Student Review Program.

The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka

"When Gregor Samsa woke up one morning from unsettling dreams, he found himself changed in his bed into a monstous vermin."

With this startling, bizarre, yet surprisingly funny first sentence, Kafka begins his masterpiece, The Metamorphosis. It is the story of a young man who, transformed overnight into a giant insect, becomes an object of disgrace to his family, an outsider in his own home, a quintessentially alienated man. A harrowing - though absurdly comic - meditation on human feelings of inadequacy, guilt and isolation, The Metamorphosis has taken its place as one of the most widely read and influential works of twentieth-century fiction. (Taken from back cover)

The Metamorphosis had to be one of the weirdest books I have ever read. Well, it's more of a novella because it's only 55 pages which is nice. I like short books, especially when they're for school. And the writing was really easy to read. It was written in the early 1900s, but it's part of the Modernist period, so the language is pretty similar to what we're used to seeing. That being said, the subject matter was so bizarre. The main character, Gregor, wakes up one morning and discovers that he has transformed into a giant cockroach. Now, I don't like big bugs. Little flies and spiders I can handle, but I'm afraid of anything tarantula-sized. So reading this book started freaking me out because I was imagining a big huge cockroach just sitting there in someone's house. So if you're afraid of bugs, I don't recommend this book. Besides the weirdness, the book did a good job of showing Gregor's isolation and solitude. His family practically disowns him and shuts him up in a bedroom, coming in every once in awhile to clean and give him some food. The author, Franz Kafka, had some of the same problems with his family, feelings of inadequacy, alienation, etc so you could tell where he got the inspiration for The Metamorphosis. It was a weird, slightly frightening book, but it has some good material for an essay so it might be a good choice for a research paper or something similar.

6 out of 10.

FTC: I borrowed this book from school.

Book Signing: Cinda Williams Chima

So tonight I got to see Cinda Williams Chima live and in the flesh. For those of you who don't know, and some might have never heard of Cinda because she's not terribly popular, she wrote the Heir Chronicles which include The Warrior Heir, The Wizard Heir, and The Dragon Heir. She was out and about to promote her new book The Demon King, which is the first of a 4 book series called The Seven Realms. If you can't tell these are fantasy books and very good.

Cinda came out at 7 to a fairly intimate group. There were maybe 20 people there, a mix of parents and kids. I think me and my friend Molly were the oldest (besides the parents, of course) but I didn't feel like too much of dork because the books do have characters who are like 16 years old. Anyway, she was very interesting and very very nice. Cinda talked a lot about what's it's like to be a writer and all the books she has planned for The Seven Realms series. She also let us in on a somewhat secret: that she's writing two more books for The Heir Chronicles. It hasn't been officially released yet, so you didn't hear it from me.

A lot of the stuff Cinda said can be found on her website, so I'm not going to type it all out here, but I learned some interesting facts about her (like her name is based off a character in a book, which I think is so cool) and that she hates to outline before writing.

This is me and Cinda holding a copy of The Dragon Heir. It was released in October, but I still haven't read it, so this was a good time to buy it. Here is what she wrote in my book