Shhhhh!!!!

The Silent by Rebecca Kenney was a breath of fresh, morally competent air for me in a swamp of angsty, spoiled, self-indulgent teens that so regularly romp through YA literature.  Threats come against our heroine's school and she is asked by local authorities not to act, but to watch and listen.  Much more likely to happen than her being secretly trained as an undercover spy, fitted out with a minicam and bullet-proof vest and storming the school with an assault rifle and high heels.  She's a regular, Christian girl dealing with real-world issues, and she handles them with integrity.  I recommend this story for anyone who needs a refreshing break from promiscuity, underage drinking, and kids with superpowers.  Read it.  You'll like it.

This is Erebos

Ursula Poznanski, you wily minx.  Erebos is about a highly addictive video game that spills over into real life.  You complete a quest in the game, then are asked to complete a random task in the 3-D world.  It may seem random, or weird, or dangerous, but you do it.  Why? Because the game won't let you back in until you do. And you have to play. You. HAVE. to. Play.  What struck me as funny was that the book mimicked the game a little too well.  I found myself ignoring my chores, running late, and missing sleep because I just wanted to read a little more (please just a little more!)  The story was addicting. I had to know how far Nick would go. I had to find out which schoolmates matched up with each game character.  I had to know why this game even existed.  And all of my hard work paid off.  I found the answers.  And Ms. Poznanski didn't leave a cliffhanger to allow for an easy fall into the YA trilogy pit of despair! She gets a cookie AND a full life meter for that feat!

Girls of a Feather

Feather by Susan Page Davis turned out to bee more than I dared hope for.  Historical fiction gives me tingles while post-apocalyptic stories give me shudders of anticipation.  I was tingling and shuddering all over the place!  Now, as you will quickly learn, not everything in life is all happy-go-lucky.  Getting kidnapped, in fact, has its downsides.  But the truly courageous rise above persecution and lift their fists in triumph!  Yeah, well, courage only gets you so far; it also helsp to have a marketable skill.  You fletch arrows?  We shoot arrows!  Ba-da-bing, Feather finds her place in the enemy camp and ends up doing alright for herself.  Her brother, poor little left behind Karsh, seems to be having a harder time with Feather's situation than she is.  I really did enjoy that it was not all sheer dumb luck that improved Feather's circumstances, but something she actively did.  Yay for adding value to a sitaution!  But can I say that her new buddy Tag's little pet seemed a tad far-fetched to me?  4 out of 5 golden arrows to Ms. Davis.  Nicely done.

Did I do that?

Did you ever read one of those books where you knew what was happening, knew what was going to happen, but still really enjoyed the way the author got from A to B?  That's how I felt about One Moment by Kristina McBride.  So Maggie and her beau are hanging out with friends when some tragedy strikes and he falls to his death off of a cliff!!! *GASP* (No spoiler alert here because you learn this in the first few pages.)  Maggie subsequently can't remember what happened. Convenient, eh?  I think you already have enough to go on to figure out whose fault the fall was...But it doesn't matter!  You get sucked into this annoyingly captivating high school world where it seems important that you FIND OUT WHY!  I wasn't completely moved by the story; I didn't have a great epiphany about what's important in life.  But I did enjoy the ride.  3 out of 5 beaded bracelets for this one.  Could have been 4 if the author had given teens more credit and foregone the underage drinking.  Yes, it happens, but not to everyone and those that abstain need more attention in recent literature.