Jenuine Cupcakes

Author: Mike Mullin Publication: October 16, 2012 By: Tanglewood Press 4.5 Stars! It’s been over six months since the eruption of the Yellowstone supervolcano. Alex and Darla have been staying with Alex’s relatives, trying to cope with the new reality of the primitive world so vividly portrayed in Ashfall, the first book in this series. It’s also been six months of waiting for Alex’s parents to return from Iowa. Alex and Darla decide they can wait no longer and must retrace their journey into Iowa to find and bring back Alex’s parents to the tenuous safety of Illinois. But the landscape they cross is even more perilous than before, with life-and-death battles for food and power between the remaining communities. When the unthinkable happens, Alex must find new reserves of strength and determination to survive. Thank you Netgalley and Tanglewood Press for this e-ARC. Having just read Ashfall and Ashen Winter back to back, I can say without a doubt: 1) The ...

Author: Nyrae Dawn Publication: August 9, 2012 By: Amazon Digital Services 3.75 Stars! Seventeen-year-old Annabel Conway is tired of the Hillcrest High School elite making her life miserable because she’s not a size two. This summer, she's hiring a personal trainer to help her lose weight. Annabel doesn’t expect her trainer to be a gorgeous guy around her age. Boys like Tegan are jerks. They pretend to like girls like her so they can make an idiot out of them. Been there, done that. Totally not going there again. She kind of hates him on principal. Blond. Muscular. Funny. It doesn’t help that he knows her measurements! Soon, Tegan's so much more than that. He’s the boy who teaches her to box when she has a bad day. Who jogs with her and lets her set the pace. Who kisses her until she melts. He makes her feel beautiful regardless of what the scale says. Unlike her mom, he doesn’t expect perfection, and he doesn't try to shield her from the world like he...

Author: Courtney Cole Publication: June 24, 2012 By: Lakehouse Press 3.75 Stars! I have spent every summer since I was ten years old with my father in London. Every summer, since I was ten years old, has been uneventful and boring. Until this year. And this year, after a freak volcanic eruption strands me far from home, I have learned these things:   1. I can make do with one outfit for three days before I buy new clothes. 2. If I hear the phrase, “You’re not in Kansas anymore, Toto,” even one more time, I might become a homicidal maniac. 3. I am horribly and embarrassingly allergic to jellyfish. 4. I am in love with Dante Giliberti, who just happens to be the beautiful, sophisticated son of the Prime Minister of a Mediterranean paradise. 5. See number four above. Because it brings with it a whole slew of problems and I’ve learned something from every one of them. Let’s start with the fact that Dante’s world is five light-years away from mine. He ...

Author: Jennifer Echols Publication: July 10, 2012 By: Gallery/MTV Books 5 STARS! I think this is Jennifer Echols best work yet!   "Love isn't something you have to deserve" This book is captivating, intoxicating and addicting!  A story about love, friendship and discovering that your self-worth isn't about where you come from but who you are inside.  When this showed up on my doorstep the other day, you would've thought Santa Claus himself had hand delivered a shiny new toy straight from the North Pole, THAT'S how excited I was!   The cover is beautiful! This book combines several of my favorite things - the beach, flying and sassy southern girls who don't take *junk* from anyone. (Unless, of course, it's a hot guy who happens to be holding a secret over her head.)  Eighteen year old Leah Jones is from the wrong side of the tracks, or in this case, the wrong side of the airport runway.  Having grown up in trailer parks her w...

Author: Jordan Deen Publication: May 24, 2012 By: Black Rose Writing 5 Stars! Seventeen-year-old Danny Cummings' life is far from a fairytale, but that's okay since he doesn't believe in happy endings. After spending a year in juvenile hall for maliciously beating his sister's boyfriend, Danny embraces his badass image. Spending most nights drinking, fighting and collecting gambling debts for his Uncle, Danny's life is out of control. His addiction to the bad boy lifestyle won't let him do anything about it, even with his family begging him to go straight. But, when fifteen-year-old Lauren McIntosh stumbles into one of his nightly escapades, the self-proclaimed anti-romantic can't concentrate on anything except Lauren and the fact that she's on the same path his sister was on. Danny knows true love happening for the villain is as common as gamblers paying their debt on time, but he's never backed away from a challenge before and h...

Author: Tom Leveen Publication: April 24, 2012 By: Random House 4 STARS The cover of this book is what originally intrigued me and made me want to read it but I wasn't sure what to expect. After doing so, I found that the picture isn't completely accurate, (Mike doesn't have a mohawk) but I did enjoy it even if I didn't always agree with everything the characters were doing.  "Zero" is a realistic story with believable characters who struggle with real life issues like alcoholism, drug addiction, low self esteem, bullying and body image issues.  Amanda, or Zero as she goes by, is a struggling artist with terrible self esteem.  When the books opens, her life is a total mess, at least according to her.  She's obsessed with the famed Salvador Dali and had planned to attend art school in Chicago, was even accepted but her scholarship was pulled at the last minute due to her lack of technical ability.  Her home life consists of an alcoholic father ...

Author: Amber Dermont Publication: February 28, 2012 By: St. Martin's Press 3.5 Stars This is an intense story about one young man's search to find the best path in life after a series of heartbreaking losses leave him struggling to differentiate the thin line between friendship and love and learning how to forgive himself. Jason Prosper, a snarky eighteen year old whose grown up in a world befitting of his last name, has a love and natural talent for sailing. He's good looking enough and he's never lacked for anything whether it be girls, friends or material things but none of those have ever mattered much to Jason.  He's always felt at home, sailing the seas with his childhood friend and crew partner, Cal, but when Cal commits suicide during their junior year at Kensington Prep, Jason is devastated. Click here to read more...  

Author: Megan Bostic Publication: January 17, 2012 By: HMH Children's Books 4 Stars!  Warning: Tissues required! I like the cover but the mustang should be red considering it's red in the book. I'm not sure why that bothers me but it does a little. This book isn't very big but packs a huge punch, right to the heart.  Seventeen year old Austin has terminal cancer and most likely won't live to see his eighteenth birthday.  There's still so much life left in him and even though he won't get the chance to live it, he wants to make sure those around him do.  In this heartbreaking book about love, loss and learning to let go, Megan Bostic shows us just how precious life really is.  Austin doesn't have much time left so he wants to make it count not only for himself but for the people he cares about.  With the help of his long time BFF Kaylee, he sets out for the weekend to check a few things off his bucket list, things like, overcoming his fear o...

  Author: Brian James Publication: March 27, 2012 By: Feiwel & Friends 3 Stars! I am sucker for a pretty cover and this one is no exception! It's also very fitting for the storyline.     "Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily, life is but a dream... " Set within the walls of a psychiatric ward, Life is But a Dream is a story of love and hope that follows the journey of Sabrina, a young schizophrenic who struggles with finding normalcy amidst the noise and colors the threaten to swallow up her life.  (Author Brian James' prose is so beautiful in it's imagery that you feel as if your reading a song instead of a book.)  Sabrina's parents send her to the Wellness Center after her "episodes" reach a breaking point and she's suspended from school as a result.  It's there that she meets Alec, a boy dealing with his own anger issues and whose convinced that everyone else is the problem and they're the ones who are normal.  (Tha...

Author: Christine Hinwood Publication: April 14, 2011 (Read Feb 2012) By: Penguin Young Readers Group 3 Stars Pretty Cover I'm rarely at a loss for words but that's where I find myself with this book.  I liked it but I also had a few issues with it.    The summary made it sound like the story is about Cam Attling, a soldier returning from war, the only one in fact, from his town of Kayforl to survive.  He returns with only one arm, on a horse from the enemy.  He has to face questions and accusations from family and friends like... What happened to the other men?  Why was he the only one to survive?  How did he end up with one of the new Lord's horses?  He's called, "Traitor" and "Crippled" behind his back and to top it off his betrothal to Graceful Fenister is called off by her father even though she doesn't agree with the decision.  No one is quite sure what to do with him now that he's home which leaves a battered and broken ...

Author: Jenny Hubbard Publication: June 14, 2011 (Read February 2012) By: Delacorte Press for Young Readers 3 Stars All games in life require strategy and involve some sort of risk.  Each player must make their next move based on the information at hand but what if they don't have all the pieces to the puzzle?  Who do you trust?  Well, then it becomes a game of chance. For Alex, Glenn and Thomas, what began as an afternoon of relaxation, including a childish game of Rock, Paper, Scissors ends in death and sets in motion a real life game of Truth or Dare. Click here to read more...  

Author: Therese Fowler Publication: May 3, 2011 (Read Jan 12, 2012) By: Ballantine Books 4 Stars! This was like a modern day Romeo and Juliet tale with the topic of sexting at it's core. (A surprisingly relevant subject for both teens and parents.) Amelia and Anthony are young, in love and have big plans for their future but her father's need to control every aspect of her life forces them to keep secrets.  They do plan on telling her parents about their relationship but think it's best to wait until after graduation, after she turns eighteen and will legally have the freedom to make her own decisions.  But everything they've worked hard to protect shatters in an instant when Amelia leaves her laptop sitting on the kitchen counter one morning. When her father, Harlan decides to test his computer hacking skills out "just for fun", he gets more than he bargains for.  He expects to find Amelia's school projects but instead, he stumbles upon pictur...

Thank to you NetGalley and Flux for this copy of Pieces of Us.  It's not often that I'm at a loss for words but this book that's full of hurt and pain left me speechless and emotionally drained.  It's gritty and real, dealing with issues that run the gamut from parental neglect to a taped date rape that goes viral.  Four teens, two brothers and two sisters.  For years they've spent their summers at their grandparents lake house, the one place they feel they can be themselves, unlike at home where they spend their school year trying to be who everyone else expects them to be.  They think the choices they make in their "winter" lives won't carry over to their "summer" ones but every choice has a consequence.  When one of those choices goes horribly wrong, all four will be forced to face the truth before it threatens to destroy all of them.  What this story lacked was understanding and forgiveness from the characters. Each is so broken it...

This is the story of 17 year old Jasmine and her struggle to not only follow her dreams of playing guitar in a real band but of finding out who she really is apart from her controlling father.  She'll find the band but will she be able to convince them she has what it takes?  Will she be able to convince herself? Jasmine quickly discovers the life of a true musician is a complicated one, especially when there are egos, reputations and even hearts to protect. If she can keep her focus on her dream and not let her own heart get distracted by a certain bass player she just might make her dreams come true and prove something to both herself and her father. Being a music lover myself, I enjoyed how author, Tara Kelly gives the reader a backstage pass into the music world and we get to see the good, the bad, and the mundane.  Being able to experience the performance through the eyes of the characters whether it's hearing the roar of the crowd, feeling the guitar strings sli...