Immortal Max

Sam dreams of owning a pedigree puppy, and will do anything to get one.  So when his friends suggest he walk dogs in their high scale neighborhood during the summer to earn the money he jumps at the chance.  But there is still one problem, he already has a dog, Max, a dog that was brought into the vet where his sister worked near death and seemed to only respond to Sam.  Somehow Max lived and is now their miracle dog.  Sam's mom says no new dogs if it will bother Max.  But after being teased by Justin, Sam just has to get that puppy, and this summer!  But his job and reputation seems to be in jeopardy in the fancy gated community of CountyWood.  Who is vandalizing the houses out there and getting the "townies" and Sam blamed for it?  Justin keeps bullying Sam while he is out walking the dogs and sometimes the dogs comeback hurt, the owners have Sam on his last chance when tragedy strikes, and the dreams of many end, but undying friendships can also be found in strange places.

This is a great book, it would make a awesome addition to any library who needs more bullying stories and undying friendship.  Bullying is huge in the news and in schools now and children need to be taught about it and how to deal with bullying the right way and what can happen if it is left undealt with. The author Lutricia Clifton deals with this subject in a way for younger children to understand and learn all about bullying. 

FOUR STARS

Man of Honor



Honor is back with Storm and Ethan but is she safe?

Seems Gaffer has found out about the elixir and wants it.  Only problem is, it really doesn't exist anymore.  Storm is trying to find a way to make Gaffer happy and keep Honor safe, but while protecting Honor his feeling for Honor burst out and so do Honors making things confusing for both of them.  Neither Of them really want to hurt Ethan but they can't fight nor hide their feelings from a empathic brother. Honor is in a major struggle with her own feelings over how she really feels about Ethan and Storm.  Can she really choose one over the other and which would it be?  At the same time can Ethan and Storm give Honor the time and space she needs to make such a hard decision without killing each other in the process?  But how are the trio going to get Gaffer off of the trail and make sure that Honor stays safe?  How many more times can Honor help people and not hurt herself and will Ethan or Storm ever understand why she keeps helping people even at the risk to her own life?

This book has so much going on and will keep you so engrossed that you just won't want to put it down.  I was told it would have more romance, which I suppose it did but it still had a ton of action and excitement for those of us on the fence about the romance stuff.  I did not think it was possible to top the first book but this one did and totally left me hanging on the edge of my seat for the third book.  I don't want to spoil it for you but the wait is killing me for the third book, come on UPS!!!


FIVE STARS

Painting A Rainbow

This book is slow to develop but if you stick with it you will be rewarded with a great story about World War II and a family secret that needs to be told.

Every summer Holly, Ivy, and all the rest of the family meet up at their grandparents lake house in Otter Lake New Hampshire.  But every since Ivy was 8 she and Holly found a photograph stuck in a board between the wall and floor under their bed.  They took it to their grandmother, GiGi, to find out who it was and to their surprise GiGi put it away and when the girls asked about it their grandfather yelled at them for the only time in their lives they can remember him doing that.  But their Aunt Jenny took them and while drying their tears explain to them that it was a photo of their uncle Jesse who had died in the war, and is very hard for grandpa to talk about, since his days in World War I.

The girls drop it for the time being, but about 5 years later the spark is lite and now some of the other children also want to know more about their Uncle Jesse as well.  The girls are now 13 years old and back at Otter lake for the summer, Holly's parents are in California teaching for the early part of the summer and will meet her later.  Ivy's parent fight all the time and Ivy fears divorce especially when they talk of sending her and her brother away to boarding school.  In the mean time their grandfather has giving them a row boat to refinish and use for the summer, but the girls find out that the boat used to belong to Uncle Jesse and Ivy's dad, Jake, Jesse's twin.  The whole summer is like Uncle Jesse is giving the girls clues to understand themselves, each other, and to understanding his time period, his Japanese friend Kiyoshi, and what really happened to him. 

But can the girls put the clues together?  Can they get the answers to all their questions? Can Ivy save her family? For those answers you will need to read the book yourself.

I really liked this book but like I said it was slow to develop.  But if you give it the time required you will be rewarded with a great story.  It has action as well as learning to face your fears, and that can manifest in many different ways as you will find out if you give this book a chance.

THREE AND HALF STARS

A Touch of Honor

A Touch of Honor is a book centered around a teenage girl named Honor that is in debilitating pain most of the time and no one knows why not even the doctors she is forced to see. Until one day a very cute boy walks into her school and changes her whole world.  Ethan, the cute boy, seeks Honor, a loaner, out and it seems he knows more about her than she knows about herself.  He teaches Honor about her paranormal empathic abilities and how best to control it so she isn't in as much pain but also so it doesn't ultimately kill her like it killed both of their parents.  All is well between the two until Ethan's hot older brother Storm shows up and now Honor is confused, but Storm has his own secrets.  He is working for a man named Gaffer who wants something Honor's birth grandfather left her, only problem is Honor has no clue what it is or where it could be.  The race is on to stay ahead of Gaffer's men should they find whatever it is they are looking for before they do and use it for evil or should Honor and Ethan just run?  Can Honor keep her own feelings in check to stay alive?  Or will everything fall apart?

This book was awesome!  I couldn't put it down.  It really surprised me as I am not much of a romance reader and this book really was not much of a romance book, although, I hope I am not spoiling much if I tell you that they tell me there is a little more romance in the next two books.  But I loved this book so much I am going to chance it and read them.  This really was a stay up late even though you have work in the morning kind of book. 

FIVE STARS

Caleo

Caleo social outcast or savior?  Caleo is book one of the Leech series by James Crawford. 

Caleo with his pale blue skin, piercing blue eyes, and snow white skin , never fit in with any of the high school clicks.  Not to mention his parents died when he was little under abnormal circumstances and he now lives with his grandmother , and twin teenage boarders Jack and Jillian, that are as close to Caleo as a brother and sister could ever be.

But high school and his struggles with his sexuality are the least of his worries at the moment, as strangers show up in town and threaten not only Caleo but also all he holds dear, the family he has left.  This is when Caleo learns of his special gift and the people out there called the leechers.  The leechers want to hurt him and take Caleo's gift and will stop at nothing to achieve their goal, even if it means  hurting Caleo's family to get to Caleo. 

But there are also a faction of gifted leechers that have been sworn to protect Caleo as they see him as their savior and someone to lead them out of this dark and war torn time.  They believe Caleo is going to be the most powerful leecher of all, but Caleo just doesn't see how, he thinks his gift is a dud, but their are secrets to be revealed. Will Caleo turn out to be the savior his friends hope he is and stop the world from crumbling around him?  Can this rag tag team of misfits really keep Caleo safe so he can find his true self?  Or will the leechers get Caleo first?

I loved this book and could not put it down, I can not wait until I have time to read book two of the series, Jack that is out now on Amazon.

FIVE STARS

Change of Heart

 

 

If I had known “normal” could disappear so quickly, would I have appreciated it more? Would I have been less afraid to raise my hand in class? Would I have let my mother’s complaints roll off my back? 

Looking back to how it was before everything changed, I think I’d have done things differently. I’d have stopped to enjoy the smell of the cut grass on the soccer field—and been nicer to my brothers. I’d have eaten that hot fudge sundae, even when I felt kind of fat.

But it’s easy to analyze this stuff when you have the perspective I do now. 

I think when you’re sixteen, you believe you’re invincible. Or immortal. Maybe it’s both? 

When the most stressful thing in your life is winning a soccer game or what to wear to school, you take some really basic things for granted. 

Like the love of your parents. 

Or hanging with your friends. 

Or the beating of your heart . . .

 

Change of Heart by Shari Maurer

Genre: YA/Contemporary/Realistic Fiction

Release Date: December 8th, 2013

Published by Createspace

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/19515015-change-of-heart

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Change-Heart-Shari-Maurer/dp/1494286300

B&N: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/change-of-heart-shari-maurer/1101141766?ean=9781934813362

 

When you’re 16 years old, it never occurs to you that you might die. Emmi Miller’s got a fabulous life. She has tons of friends, does great in school and is an all-star soccer player who played in Europe last summer. It even looks like Sam Hunter, a totally cute baseball player, might be interested in her. And then she gets a virus. No biggy, right? Until the virus goes to her heart and weakens it so much that, without a transplant, Emmi will die. Will Emmi get a heart in time? Is Sam too good to be true? What about her new friend Abe, who has also had a transplant and guides her through these scary times — is he just being supportive or is there more going on between them? And will Emmi realize it before it’s too late?

 

The Author

Shari Maurer did her undergraduate work at Duke University, studying English and Film and Video. In graduate school at NYU, she realizedunnamed that while her Dramatic Writing classmates were all writing serious plays, movies or sitcoms, she kept drifting toward “After School Specials” and she decided to do her internship at the Children’s Television Workshop. She wound up staying there for six years, working on Sesame Street productions around the world.

After her daughter was born with a heart defect, Shari got together with a friend to write The Parents’ Guide to Children’s Congenital Heart Defects which was published by Random House’s Three River Press and named one of Booklist’s “Top Health Books of 2001.”

Shari segued into teen fiction with her novel, Change of Heart, about a 16 year old soccer player who needs a heart transplant. Both of these books were made easier to write because Shari’s husband, Mat, who she met in summer camp when they were 17, is a cardiologist.

In addition to writing young adult novels, Shari spent two years as the “Moms Talk” columnist at the New City Patch, an on-line local newspaper. She got her inspiration for the column, as well as for her books, from her three teenagers, Lissie, Josh and Eric and started the newest chapter in her life when she became the mom of a college student.

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/341621.Shari_Maurer

Website: http://www.sharimaurer.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shari.b.maurer

Twitter: https://twitter.com/sharimaurer

The Giveaway:

Signed paperback and $25 B&N gift certificate. 

http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/e6b07574/