Stranded (Stranded #1) by Jeff Probst, Chris Tebbetts

A family vacation becomes a test of survival!

It was supposed to be a vacation—and a chance to get to know each other better. But when a massive storm sets in without warning, four kids are shipwrecked alone on a rocky jungle island in the middle of the South Pacific. No adults. No instructions. Nobody to rely on but themselves. Can they make it home alive?

A week ago, the biggest challenge Vanessa, Buzz, Carter, and Jane had was learning to live as a new blended family. Now the four siblings must find a way to work together if they're going to make it off the island. But first they've got to learn to survive one another


The book broken up into very short chapters and in turn each chapter into sections. Stranded was a very quick read and full of smart children stuck in a very desperate situation. 

The four children are stranded, having lost their two adult guides, but luckily still have the boat...and it's stock of food. They must learn how to deal with this emotional situation as well as fight for survival. Including the most important thing, finding water. 

The reader gets a good look of each character, getting to know each and their strongest abilities. They work very well together and very little, if any drama. 

This is a great Summer read for Middle Grade readers, a good start to the series.  It's light and entertaining.

Inside Out (Insiders #1) by Maria V. Snyder

Keep Your Head Down.
Don't Get Noticed.
Or Else.

I'm Trella. I'm a scrub. A nobody. One of thousands who work the lower levels, keeping Inside clean for the Uppers. I've got one friend, do my job and try to avoid the Pop Cops. So what if I occasionally use the pipes to sneak around the Upper levels? The only neck at risk is my own…until I accidentally start a rebellion and become the go-to girl to lead a revolution

Partials by Dan Wells

Vixen (Flappers #1) by Jillian Larkin

Jazz . . . Booze . . . Boys . . . It’s a dangerous combination.

Every girl wants what she can’t have. Seventeen-year-old Gloria Carmody wants the flapper lifestyle—and the bobbed hair, cigarettes, and music-filled nights that go with it. Now that she’s engaged to Sebastian Grey, scion of one of Chicago’s most powerful families, Gloria’s party days are over before they’ve even begun . . . or are they?

Clara Knowles, Gloria’s goody-two-shoes cousin, has arrived to make sure the high-society wedding comes off without a hitch—but Clara isn’t as lily-white as she appears. Seems she has some dirty little secrets of her own that she’ll do anything to keep hidden. . . .

Lorraine Dyer, Gloria’s social-climbing best friend, is tired of living in Gloria’s shadow. When Lorraine’s envy spills over into desperate spite, no one is safe. And someone’s going to be very sorry. . . .

From debut author Jillian Larkin, VIXEN is the first novel in the sexy, dangerous, and ridiculously romantic new series set in the Roaring Twenties . . . when anything goes.

Hardcover, 421 pages

Published December 14th 2010 by Delacorte Books for Young Readers

ISBN

0385740344 (ISBN13: 9780385740340)\

 

This was like The Great Gatsby meets Chicago. This story is told from 3 different point of views, Gloria, Clara and Lorraine. Jillian does a wonderful job of story-telling here. You will get completely wrapped up in all three lives. You will fall in love with Marcus with Clara, Find the importance of making the right choices with Gloria and Learn what friendship really means through Lorraine. It was thoroughly an enjoyable read for me, perfect for a sit back and relax afternoon. There was definitely a love/hate relationship between me and some of the other characters as well.I found myself reading late into the night wondering what could possibly happen next. I cannot wait to see where this story goes with the next book!

Revelations Cover Reveal!

 

Revelations (Bloodlines) (Volume 3)

Author: Lindsay Anne Kendal

Print ISBN: 9781937085797

E-Book ISBN: 9781937085780

Genre: YA Urban Fantasy

Release:

Description:

In this final installment of the Bloodlines trilogy, Keira and her friends face their toughest battles yet. Not only with the ones they believe have set out to destroy them, but also with themselves and each other.  

A shock revelation throws the group into confusion, torn between what each of them think is right and wrong. Keira now has to make a hard choice – does she stay with the people she loves, and fight with them – Or does she leave them, join forces with the person they originally thought was heartless, cold and brutal, but in fact, is doing something she actually agrees with. Something that could benefit and comfort almost every person who has ever lived.  

Revelations will take you to a place you never could have imagined existed. Heart-wrenching passion, death-defying friendship, treachery and pain, mixed with extreme battles, powerful magic and self-belief, make for an unbelievable climax that will stay with you until the end of time.

About the Author

I have lived in Droylsden, Manchester, all my life. I live with my parents and my younger sister, Cheryl. I never knew what I wanted to do with my life until I began writing. This is my dream.  

I get most of my inspiration from music, I’ll sit there listening to it and suddenly I’m no longer in the room. My stories play like videos in my mind, then I go and write them down.

I’m a very dark person, I love anything spooky, supernatural, or unexplainable, and so that’s the genre I want to write in for the rest of my life. I love watching scary films, although I find it very hard to find one these days that actually frighten me.

Sisters Red (Fairytale Retellings #1) by Jackson Pearce

 Scarlett March lives to hunt the Fenris--the werewolves that took her eye when she was defending her sister Rosie from a brutal attack. Armed with a razor-sharp hatchet and blood-red cloak, Scarlett is an expert at luring and slaying the wolves. She's determined to protect other young girls from a grisly death, and her raging heart will not rest until every single wolf is dead. Rosie March once felt her bond with her sister was unbreakable. Owing Scarlett her life, Rosie hunts ferociously alongside her. But even as more girls' bodies pile up in the city and the Fenris seem to be gaining power, Rosie dreams of a life beyond the wolves. She finds herself drawn to Silas, a young woodsman who is deadly with an ax and Scarlett's only friend--but does loving him mean betraying her sister and all that they've worked for?

Hurrah! for Kick Ass Ninja girls! (they are not ninja's but are very stealthy) In her Novel Sisters Red, Jackson Pearce gives us a current day re-telling of Little Red Riding Hood. These sisters are attacked when young while living with their grandmother by a man/wolf, in which the older sister Scarlett is physically scarred while trying to defend herself and her sister from the big bad wolf, A fight in which they loose their grandmother. From then on they make a pact to become hunters and destroy all the disgusting, hairy, girl eaters, along with their neighbor Silas, they will fight until the death to defend other young girls from a very painful death.

 
My Opinion: This book was a great take on an old story. It represents the highest form of "girl power" the spice girls would be happy. I particularly like the romance scenes. They were not written to Harlequin-like and "icky" they were subtle and perfect. I am not a huge romance fan, but can appreciate it in small doses. The wolves were disgusting and acted like perverts and you wanted to see them demolished

The Blood Countess (Pandora English #1) by Tara Moss

Pandora English is no ordinary small town orphan. When she's invited to live with her mysterious Great-Aunt Celia in New York City, she seizes the opportunity to escape her stifling hometown break from her tragic past and make it as a writer. Things, however, are not what she is expecting. For starters, her great-aunt's gothic mansion is in a mist-wreathed Manhattan suburb that doesn't appear on maps. And then there's Celia herself - a former designer to the stars of Hollywood's Golden Age - who is elegant, unnaturally young and always wearing a veil. Pandora lands a job at a fashion magazine and her first assignment is covering the A-list launch of the latest miracle cream, BloodofYouth. But something is not right about the product, nor Athanasia, the drop-dead beautiful face of the brand. It seems there may be a secret ingredient in BloodofYouth, a secret worth killing for..

Mass Market Paperback, 389 pages

Published 2010 by Pan Macmillan Australia

So I came across an audiobook on this one, I was a little nervous at the beginning. I am not exactly into Fashion or the Modeling world so the first half of the book, I was not so sure about. But it had enough mystery in it a that I kept listening. But in the middle of this book, a whole bunch of interesting things happen and then some action thrown in. And I do love me some action, female kick-ass scenes with just a little romance. So let me tell you a little about this book.
Pandora English: parents deceased. She goes to New York to live with a "great aunt" that looks younger than what could have been her mother.
Her great Aunts house: not on the map, invisible to most people unless you have the exact address or are taken there by somebody else: 2 it used to be a Paranormal Studies institute and some beings are still living there. 3 A Huge Gothic Style mansion that I would kill to live in.
With some fashion help and a little bit of pushing her Great Aunt seems to help her get the perfect job working for a fashion magazine by the name of PANDORA... coincidence?
There are strange things happening around the fashion world, the magazine is handling the article for the release of a new product to take away the years...and it may or may not include blood as it's "special ingredient" And the models look an awful like Vampires, and...why does her great Aunt hate garlic?
Last but not the least: she makes out with a ghost.