Walking Disaster, by Jamie McGuire, is one of the most entrancing books I have ever read. I originally read the first one, Beautiful Disaster where the story is told by the girl’s point of view. In this one, it’s from the guy’s point of view. The most beautiful, heart stopping, breath-taking story I’ve ever read involves twists and turns, drops and stops. Travis Maddox explains, “I decided a long time ago I would feed on the vultures until a dove came along. A pigeon. The kind of soul that didn’t impede on anyone; just walked around worrying about its own business, trying to get through life without pulling everyone else down. With its own needs and selfish habits. Brave. A communicator. Intelligent. Beautiful. Soft-spoken. A creature that mates for life. Unattainable until she has reason to trust you.” Then Abby Abernathy hits him like a train. He sees her and he knows that she is his Pigeon. While he chases her, she tries as hard as she can to not be caught. She knows his type, she’s seen the havoc that bad boys cause. Abby and Travis are the good and bad in each other and they cannot figure out if that is good or bad. This book is for anyone who is interested in the lost bad boy that eventually finds his person and finds his way. For anyone who is interested in pure love and beating the odds. Find out if Travis and his Pigeon can make it in Walking Disaster.

Anonymous. 

Lane is sent to a sanatorium because of his illness and finds a familiar face, Sadie. She’s not the girl she was four years ago. She is still as mesmerizing as she used to be, but now she’s not awkward; she’s beautiful. In Sadie’s point of view, Lane is that jerk from summer camp four years ago. How dare he not apologize for his actions? How could he just act like nothing happened? Like she would forget what he did? Extraordinary Means, by Robyn Schneider, is full of dark humor, romance and finding the positive in the negative. I found that the more in depth you were in the book, the harder it was to put it down. The friendship and love that this book is filled with is something that is really beautiful to read. Although the book is not all happy, it is still a book worthwhile. If you are someone who is interested in the light in the darkness and the darkness in the light, this is the book for you. Extraordinary Means is really extraordinary.  

Anonymous. 

In The Distance Between Us, by Kasie West, Caymen Meyers lives a boring life. She’s stuck running a dreadful doll store with her mother due to low income. Until one day, when Caymen is working, the ultimate representation of a rich boy strolls on into her life. All prepped in his finest attire, hair sleeked back and the overbearing confidence, Xander rudely beckons her over to help him. Caymen is not impressed. Xander Spence is enchanted by her dry humor and smart remarks. Although Xander reeks of richness, Caymen can’t help but to fall for him. The two become close acquaintances and try to help one another learn who and what they want to be. As Caymen starts to fall for Xander life gets in the way. The doll store income starts to decrease rapidly, her mother is acting weird and Xander’s money may just be too much for her to handle. I found out that once you get past her “boring life” and more into the nitty gritty, it’s impossible to put it down. The second Caymen went out of her comfort zone I was put in a trance and I could not get enough of it! For anyone who is interested in books that involve unlikely lovers, this is the book for you. Can the two face it all? Or are the rich and poor bound to be separated? Find out in the addicting novel, The Distance Between Us.

Anonymous. 

Reading First There Was Forever, by Juliana Romano, my blood would start to boil. Not because the book was bad, but because of how infuriating the characters are. Overall, the book is intriguing and I was interested in what would happen in the end.  Hailey, Lima’s best friend since life, has always had a crush on Nate. When Hailey finally gets her chance to win Nate over, Lima gets left behind. The only issue is, Nate wants Lima and not Hailey. Nate and Lima start to hangout the more Hailey pulls away from Lima. Is Lima too loyal to the girl who keeps hurting her to let her have her own happiness? Or is Nate the wrong choice for her? This book is probably for those who like drama and mean girls and love all in one big package. Find out if Lima will make the right choice in, First There Was Forever.

Anonymous.  

I read Beautiful Oblivion, by Jamie McGuire, in a short few hours due to the compelling story between Camille Camlin and Trenton Maddox. I cried a few times due to the sheer love and happiness throughout the book. There’s never a time when the book is dry. Cami is independent and in a long distance relationship, who befriends Trenton. The only issue is, Trenton falls for her. They become best friends and hangout often. Trenton works incredibly hard to win her over, but Cami is loyal. This book is meant for anyone who loves a sappy read. Read Beautiful Oblivion to figure out if Trenton can win over Camille, or if she will stay with her unnerving boyfriend. 

Anonymous. 

We All Looked Up

Tommy Wallach

What would you do if the world you knew had a deadline? Would you run away from home? Make amends? Try and find the love you think you deserve? Throw a huge end of the world party? Well, welcome to the lives of five teenagers. Meet the athlete, the outcast, the slacker, and the overachiever. Before everyone knew about the deadline they were given from the incoming asteroid that was what they were known as. But those titles slowly start to slip away as they go through finding their selves. This book touches on everything; first love, hope, dreams, heartache, and on. It lets them show their true selves before their time is up.

Seeing the lives of others when you have a deadline, is crazy. There’s so many different personalities and it’s just one big adventure of trying to live before you don’t have the chance to anymore. If you like your emotions changing every other page, then this is the book for you. I’d recommend it to most all high school students. 

S.K

More Than This

Patrick Ness

Seth is drowning. He can feel himself dying, his shoulder smacking off a rock, his skull cracking off of it a few seconds later. Then there’s nothing, and he’s awake. He’s attached to tubes and lined in silver metallic tape up and down his body. Tearing off everything, he runs out of this place that he has landed in, and outside, finding no one.  Seth soon finds himself walking around his old home town, and it’s deserted. There’s nothing there except memories to haunt him. Carrying along he meets a boy and a girl who are in the same boat as him. They’re all wondering, Where are they? What happened? How do they get out?

If you’re in for a mind bending, tricking book, with twists and turns at every other page, check this one out. It’s slow to start but it’s worth the wait. 

S.K

Solitaire

Alice Oseman 

Meet sixteen-year old Tori Spring; the pessimist, a hard core pessimist. She hates most things, such as school, work, and other people. She likes, sleeping, blogging, and her brothers. Her best friend is obsessed with boys, her brother is on the verge of committing suicide, there’s this weird quirky kid who won’t leave her alone, and someone from her past comes back to haunt her.  With all of this crazy popping up into her life, comes even more. This group named solitaire, who play petty yet dangerous tricks on her school, keep connecting with her.

Somehow everything has to do with Tori. There’s all of these pranks going on that affect things to do with her, her favorite things, people close to her... it surrounds her and she doesn’t know why! This book is a hard one to get through because you don’t figure out anything until the last few chapters, it’s a mind game and a plot twist. But it’s a great read, if you’re able to deal with it.

S.K

Infinite in Between

Carolyn Mackler

Zoe, Jake, Mia, Gregor, and Whitney all meet in their freshmen orientation group, in which they hide and write a letter to their future selves promising to read them together on graduation day. In this book you’ll be taking a gaze into their lives throughout their four years of high school. You’ll be able to go through and see all of the struggles and problems they need to get past in order to leave the place they all hate. Whether it be trying to stay out of the spotlight of your famous mom, to being able to accept yourself and wait for others to be accepting, this story goes through a world of emotions. This story goes month by month and is written from the point of view of all the teenagers.

Seeing all the struggles and problems they go through, it lets you relate to this book and that’s why it’s a good read for our age group. Most personalities are shown in this book and it really highlights all the stages of high school. Especially as a senior I thought it was as a good book to read as a senior. It brought back many memories of my high school career. I’d recommend it to anyone feeling nostalgic or in need of a good laugh. 

S.K

Extraordinary Means

Robyn Schneider

Meet Lane, he was diagnosed with tuberculosis, and that’s how he landed at the Latham House along with 150 other kids, who are stuck between waiting to die and wanting to live.

“…we were asked to believe in unlikely miracles. In second chances. We woke up each morning hoping that the odds had somehow swung in our favor”

At the Latham House, Lane comes across the people you’d want to have in your life for the rest of your existence, and for them, it quite possibly could be. While waiting for death, and trying to live, somewhere along the line, he’s able to find himself. With the help of a few new friends, caring teachers, somewhat sympathetic doctors, he starts it up and just goes with it. This book will take you on a journey through the mind of someone with an expiration date. There’ll be new friends, first loves, heart ache, laughs, and cries. If any of that sounds appealing to you this is a good book to pick up because once you do you won’t be able to put it down.

S.K

Saint Anything

Sarah Dessen

Sydney had a best friend, someone who she could look up to and count on, that would never leave her, or she thought… then the drinking and drugs came, and he was gone in a flash. Fast forward to the accident; an accident that would change so many lives and that leaves a grief in her heart forever. He’s gone for real this time, leaving a toll on his whole family. Her parents are stressed and they drop all the pressure of it all on her and it leaves her feeling simultaneously invisible and angry. Letting all of this get to her, she transfers schools wanting a new start, and she never could’ve imagined the people that come into her life.

Meet the Chatham family; the two complete opposite sisters, the ailing mother that manages to be the glue to keep her family together, the crazy dad, and of course the quiet and observant older brother. Spend a day or two with them down at their pizza place, and you’ll never get rid of them. Sydney finally finds a family, a best friend and if she gets lucky, someone who will finally be able to see her for her. Will she be able to overcome the grief and guilt that haunts her thoughts and shatters her heart? If you’re in the mood for a sob story with a few twists and turns, gut wrenching heart aches, and some laughing out loud, Saint Anything is the book for you. 

S.K 

The Strain Review

            It was just a normal day at the JFK International airport, when a Boeing 767 stopped dead on the airstrip. Upon further investigation, a Doctor Ephraim Goodweather, head of the Canary project in the CDC, is called to inspect the plane, but what he finds is more than could ever expect. The passengers are as dead as the plane they’re in, but this is a virus that not even the CDC stands a chance against. After all of the passengers are brought to the morgue, something causes them to stir. An estranged encounter with Abraham Setrakian, Ephraim starts to wonder just how much he knows about the events that are about to unfold. After hunting him down, Ephraim learns that this is more than bodies rising, but total annihilation of the world they know if they can’t stop The Master. Guillermo Del Toro and Chuck Hogan write a thrilling story That gives new twists around every corner. Follow the struggle of Ephraim, Setrakian, and other companions they find as they race to defeat The Master before his plans unfold. Read all about it in The Strain. Review by Mark Marquis