Jenuine Cupcakes

Author: Mary Kubica Publication: July 29, 2014 By: Harlequin MIRA Amazon | Goodreads   4.5 Stars! "I've been following her for the past few days. I know where she buys her groceries, where she has her dry cleaning done, where she works. I don't know the color of her eyes or what they look like when she's scared. But I will." Born to a prominent Chicago judge and his stifled socialite wife, Mia Dennett moves against the grain as a young inner-city art teacher. One night, Mia enters a bar to meet her on-again, off-again boyfriend. But when he doesn't show, she unwisely leaves with an enigmatic stranger. With his smooth moves and modest wit, at first Colin Thatcher seems like a safe one-night stand. But following Colin home will turn out to be the worst mistake of Mia's life. Colin's job was to abduct Mia as part of a wild extortion plot and deliver her to his employers. But the plan takes an unexpected turn when Colin suddenly decides...

Series: I'll Be There #2 Author: Holly Goldberg Sloan Publication: August 5, 2014 By: Little Brown Books For Young Readers  Amazon | Book Depository | Goodreads The happily-ever-after of Holly Goldberg Sloan's acclaimed debut, I'll Be There, is turned on its head in this riveting, emotional sequel about friends, enemies, and how those roles can shift in a matter of moments. Emily Bell has it all. She's in love with a boy named Sam Border, and his little brother has become part of her family. This summer is destined to be the best time of their lives--until a charismatic new girl in town sets her sights on Sam. Now Emily finds herself questioning the loyalty of the person she thought she could trust most. But the biggest threat to her happiness is someone she never saw coming. Sam's criminally insane father, whom everyone thought they'd finally left behind, is planning a jailbreak. And he knows exactly where to find Emily and his sons when he ...

Author: Kasie West Publication: July 1, 2014 By: Harper Teen  Amazon | Goodreads  4 Stars She's a tomboy. He's the boy next door… Charlie Reynolds can outrun, outscore, and outwit every boy she knows. But when it comes to being a girl, Charlie doesn't know the first thing about anything. So when she starts working at a chichi boutique to pay off a speeding ticket, she finds herself in a strange new world. To cope with the stress of her new reality, Charlie takes to spending nights chatting with her neighbor Braden through the fence between their yards. As she grows to depend on their nightly Fence Chats, she realizes she's got a bigger problem than speeding tickets-she's falling for Braden. She knows what it means to go for the win, but if spilling her secret means losing him for good, the stakes just got too high. Fun, original, and endearing, On the Fence is a romantic comedy about finding yourself and finding love where you least expect.   I...

Author: Paula Stokes Publication: May 20, 2014 By: Harper Teen 4 STARS Goodreads | Amazon Soccer star Lainey Mitchell is gearing up to spend an epic summer with her amazing boyfriend, Jason, when he suddenly breaks up with her—no reasons, no warning, and in public no less! Lainey is more than crushed, but with help from her friend Bianca, she resolves to do whatever it takes to get Jason back. And that’s when the girls stumble across a copy of The Art of War. With just one glance, they're sure they can use the book to lure Jason back into Lainey’s arms. So Lainey channels her inner warlord, recruiting spies to gather intel and persuading her coworker Micah to pose as her new boyfriend to make Jason jealous. After a few "dates", it looks like her plan is going to work! But now her relationship with Micah is starting to feel like more than just a game. What's a girl to do when what she wants is totally different from what she needs? How do you figu...

Author: Alan Lawrence Sitomer Publication: May 13, 2014 By: Disney-Hyperion  Goodreads 3 Stars McCutcheon Daniels' life is full of bone-cracking violence. As a star fighter in the gritty underground Mixed Martial Arts circuit in the poorest section of Detroit, McCutcheon fights under the tutelage of his volatile and violent father, not so much for himself but to survive as protector of his beloved five-year old sister, Gemma. We get to know McCutcheon as he battles opponents who are literally trying to kill him. Mr. Freedman, his science teacher, spots his intellectual potential, befriends him, and encourages him to enter the lottery for a scholarship to an elite charter school so he can obtain a first-class education. He is at first dead-set against the idea, and of course his tyrannical father forbids it. But the school's headmaster, Kaitlyn, a student assigned to be his guide, and Mr. Freedman continue to encourage him to consider it. His father and the P...

Author: Tiffany Schmidt Publication: February 18, 2014 By: Walker Childrens Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads 4.5 Stars! When Jonah is forced to move from Hamilton to Cross Pointe for the second half of his senior year, "miserable" doesn't even begin to cover it. He feels like the doggy-bag from his mother's first marriage and everything else about her new life—with a new husband, new home and a new baby—is an upgrade. The people at Cross Pointe High School are pretentious and privileged—and worst of all is Brighton Waterford, the embodiment of all things superficial and popular. Jonah’s girlfriend, Carly, is his last tie to what feels real... until she breaks up with him. For Brighton , every day is a gauntlet of demands and expectations. Since her father died, she’s relied on one coping method: smile big and pretend to be fine. It may have kept her family together, but she has no clue how to handle how she's really feeling. Today is the...

ALA = American Library Association MW = Midwinter Conference  2014 = If you need this explained then I can't help you. ;)  I road tripped it to Philly with Hannah from The Irish Banana , her cousin Missy and Andye from Reading Teen . We had 4 adults, 7 bags and ONE HUNDRED MILLION CUPCAKES in the car with us.    Okay, so it was more like 9 dozen cupcakes, but whose really counting? I got to spend the entire weekend surrounded by books and book people, some I've known for awhile and others I've only met on the interwebz. Always a good time. ALWAYS! ALA was my second book conference that I've attended and I can honestly say that librarians and other professional book people are WAY more chill than a lot of the attendees at BEA. Everyone lined up in an orderly fashion and there was very little pushing and shoving, it was more like trying to avoid knocking your bag into someone elses. And best of all, no one tried to tackle me!  ...