Blue Bloods by Melissa De La Cruz

Blue Bloods is the story of 15 year old Schuylar’s coming of age in New York City’s affluent Upper East Side. The descendent of the city’s benefactors and builders, she uncomfortably claims her place at the exclusive prep school, Duchesne, amongst the wealthiest and best dressed teens of the city, led by teen socialite Mimi Force.

Schuylar has never fit it in. Schuylar’s family no longer is moneyed and she dresses from vintage eBay and Salvation Army finds, preferably black. Anchored by her only and best friend Oliver, she finds herself thrown into this world in a way she never could have imagined. She finds that she is a part of this exclusive group through the blood coursing through her veins, vampire blood, Blue Blood. Only the vampires are being hunted, and Schuylar most of all.

Mystery mixes with romance and fantasy as Schuylar tries to find out more about her coma-ridden mother, how one of her classmates has died, drained of blood, and how to find her grandfather, who may hold the keys to saving her life and the lives of other Blue Bloods. She also is trying to figure out what her relationship is with the gorgeous Jack Force, Mimi Force’s twin brother.

The world de la Cruz takes you to in Blue Bloods is rich with “Chic Lit” appeal, dropping designer names like candy, full of sexual coming of age and charged with high school drama. It’s also takes you for a history trip back to the founding of Plymouth Plantation where her vampire ancestors traveled; trying to escape from those that hunted them. It is those Silver Bloods who are now hunting them again.

The characters are allusions to the high school clique set, rich kids, jocks, and goth, that teens will be able to identify with yet which is fantastically out of reach in it’s excess that some will drool over.

This read is a good recommendation for Twilight fans, vampire book fans and also for some who prefer books like Gossip Girl. Though, if recommending to Twilight fans, the disclaimer that while Twilight is a teen coming of age book that happens to have vampires in it, Blue Bloods is the story of a girl finding her way. And oh, by the way, she finds out she’s a vampire, reborn and coming of age. This will also appeal to some boys who read fantasy but will not find a broad audience in that gender. Also a recommended read for teens that liked City of Bones

Love You, Hate You, Miss You

Written by: Elizabeth Scott

This book is very inspirational. It makes you realize that all teenagers have reasoning behind what they do and why they do it.

In this book there are two teenage girls, Amy and Julia. They become best friends when they are younger and form a strong bond between them as they get older.
Amy picks up a bad drinking habit. She feels that her parents don’t love her and don’t want her to be around. Julia is very into drugs and smoking pot. She feels like her mom is to overbearing and feels like she needs to do drugs and drink to get away from it.

When I was reading this book it made me realize that being 15 or 16 isn’t as easy as they make it out to be. It shows that high school is very judgmental and that it isn’t easy to drop a friend and then instantly have more. You have to learn how to survive; and in Amy and Julia’s case, they learned to survive by doing drugs, drinking and partying. There parties were all about hooking up, getting high, and being trashed. But one night Amy met a boy named Patrick, and that one almost “hook up” ended up changing everything for her later in. When these two teenage girls thought that partying was the way to live, it all came crashing down when Amy persuaded Julia to leave a party after she had just seen her so called “boyfriend” with another girl. That night changed Amy’s life. She had lost Julia for good that night.

Soon enough Amy had to face the world. It was a hard experience for her. But it was something she was going to have to take on, on her own. She felt alone, scared, ashamed and did nothing but blame herself.

This book is very moving. It gives you a strong understanding of what most high school teens go through. I recommend this book to teenagers and young adults. It opens your eyes to a whole new meaning of “teenage” partying. There are 276 pages but yet it still leaves you wanting more.
Reviewed by; TL

Paper Towns

Written by: John Green

Think you know your friends? 17-year-old Quentin Jacobsen thought he did until one night, about a month before graduation, when his childhood friend and next-door neighbor, Margo Roth Speigelman, knocked on his bedroom window in the middle of the night and persuaded him to join her on an all-night, prank-pulling exploit.

Quentin, or "Q" as his friends call him, is a bit nerdy (which isn't surprising since both of his parents are therapists), so although he had a huge crush on the cool, sophisticated, and mysterious Margo - he knew he didn't stand a chance with her. But, does the fact that she chose him to be her accomplice change everything? Maybe. But it will be quite a while before he finds out because the following morning Quentin learns that Margo has disappeared - again. Clues left by Margo lead Quentin to think that she is in danger. He doesn't know why she left or where she has gone, but he intends to find her so he and his friends do some investigating and set off on a road trip to find her.

You'll like this book if you like adventures and if you like to think about people and relationships. The characters are quirky and fascinating and reading about them will make you think - do you really know your friends?

Marcelo in the Real World

Written by: Francisco X. Stork

17-year-old Marcelo Sandoval has a form of Asberger’s Syndrome. He hears music in his head, he’s obsessed with religion, and he sleeps in a tree house. Marcelo goes to a special needs school called Paterson, where he helps to take care of the ponies. Paterson feels safe and comfortable to Marcelo and he would like to stay there forever, but his father thinks he should join the “real world” and attend a regular high school in the fall. Marcelo and his father strike a deal. Marcelo will join the “real world” and work in the mailroom at his father’s law firm for the summer and if he is successful, he will be free to choose between returning to Paterson in the fall or going to a regular high school.

As Marcelo quickly discovers, the “real world” is very complicated and the summer at the law firm poses a lot of challenges. He meets many new people, but whom should he trust? When Marcelo stumbles upon a mystery, he finds himself in the middle of a sticky situation that tests his loyalties to his father, his co-workers, and the law firm.

Once you start reading “Marcelo in the Real World”, you won’t want to put it down. Not only is it a great mystery, but, seeing the world through the eyes of someone on the autism spectrum is a fascinating, heartwarming, and sometimes heartbreaking experience.