"Also Known As" by Robin Benway (310 pages)

 

Maggie Silver didn’t choose to be an international spy. In fact, she was born into the role. The daughter of spies, it figures that she would have the special talent of cracking safes, making her one important teenage girl. Ever since Maggie was born, she’s been traveling the world with her parents and helping them solve their assignments. Until now. 

When Maggie finally gets her first solo assignment, she soon learns that surviving high school may be more difficult than cracking any safe or solving any case. Her mission involves befriending the son of a potential national security threat while making sure no one finds out about her secret life. Sounds easy right? Wrong.

What do you do when saving your family’s life could destroy the life of the one you love? Find out in this hilarious and thrilling book. You won’t be able to put it down.

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"Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea" by April Genevieve Tucholke (360)

360 pages devoured in three days. This debut novel by April Genevieve Tucholke will take you by the throat with its fast pace and “darkly romantic” (Melissa Marr) adult gothic/horror story.  Seventeen-year-old Violet spends her days with her brother, Luke, and her best friend, Sunshine, wandering around the Citizen, the family mansion by the sea, worthy of a Fitzgerald novel in its heyday. However, with her grandparents dead and her parents abroad, the Citizen is slowly being retaken by the sea and their fortune is quickly dwindling, Violet spiraling down with it. Until a hot summer’s day when a boy named River West pulls up in his new-old car and confidently asks to stay in the unoccupied guest house. How could Violet say no when he walks with a panther-like gait and smiles crookedly? He makes omelets, paints in the shed, appreciates literature, and disappears for hours on end. When strange things begin happening – a murderer spotted in the abandoned train tunnel and kids running around the cemetery with stakes, claiming to have seen the devil right out of a Nathaniel Hawthorne story steal a girl – Violet can’t help but question River and his connections with all of the incidents. He has her trapped in all of his lies and half-truths, but her suspicion fades with every touch they share. Follow the characters to bonfires and films in the park, witness the murders and blood spilt, and realize that there may be more to River West…a devil lurking nearby.

Reviewed by Kay Scanlan

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"You Know What You Have To Do" by Bonnie Shimko (230 Pages)

In this fictional novel, written by Bonnie Shimko, 15-year-old Mary-Magdalene Feigenbaum’s life is anything but ordinary. Her name is almost as strange as the fact that she grew up in a funeral home with a mortician for a step-father. It is clear that she suffers from depression and anxiety, so things start to move forward when Roxie, her mother, starts taking Maggie to see Dr. Scott. When Maggie begins to feel attracted to her therapist and lies about her life to everyone around her. Everything starts to take a turn for the worst, including the voices in her head trying to convince her to murder people. Shimko explores what it’s like to be a teenager dealing with regular stresses like school, boys and parents, but it becomes almost scary when you’re in the mind of Maggie. It was hard for me to put down the book since nearly every chapter leaves you hanging with a marvelous cliff-hanger. This book is a great read for anyone who enjoys suspense and a hint of twisted humor.  

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Book Trailer - The F-It List by Julie Halpern

Image Credts
"Review": THE F--- IT LIST by Julie Halpern." Tales of a Ravenous Reader:. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Jan. 2014.
Why Spicy Food Is the Key To A Healthy Diet. 05/2011. Photograph. N.p
"Sleeping on the Beach." TrekLens. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Jan. 2014
"Frozen Tongue - Stock Photo." © Michele Piacquadio #12666476. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Jan. 2014.

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"Reality Boy" by A.S. King (353 Pages)

This book was written with well-defined characters who keep you interested through the entire book. Gerald Faust is a very angry boy who is continuously judged at school because of embarrassing moments caught on film when he was a 5-year-old unwilling participant in his mom’s reality television show. Twelve years later in high school, he is still suffering from the effects of that experience and because of his crazy outbursts he is put in special education classes. Gerald is always on edge because as he grows up. Nothing changes. People still think he’s the same boy they saw on television and no one gives him credit for trying to control himself, not even his dysfunctional family. This story is traumatic, heartbreaking, disturbing, and unfortunate, but also has moments of hope. I wouldn't change anything about this book. The writing is perfect. It gives you the perfect image of the toll reality television shows take on kids. This book is told in alternating past and present point-of-views where we see who Gerald is today, while learning what happened in his childhood that makes him so mentally deflated now. Through his journey of breaking free from being a “star” he finds his first love, and most of all, hope.

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