The Scent of Rain and Lightning by Nancy Pickard

A friend of mine recommended this book to me and am I glad she did!  It was fantastic!  So well written with an element of the unexpected.  This book is about a family on a ranch and one night one of the sons from the family on the ranch gets murdered.  It starts at present day when the daughter of the man who was murdered learns that the killer has been let out of prison.  It then goes back to tell the story of events leading up to the murder (which is most of the book) and returns to present day near the end of the book.  It was interesting!

Entwined with You by Sylvia Day

This is third in the Crossfire series...I thought it was only going to be a trilogy but by the end of this book there was a part that said their adventure isn't over yet.  Which I'm glad about because there was a lot to still write about by the end of the book.  It was so long since I read the second book that I was a little lost, and there are small details I couldn't remember.  But the story wasn't too bad.  Things are starting to look up for the couple and they appear to be in a stronger relationship. 

Loving Frank by Nancy Horan

I didn't like this book in the least.  I found it boring, not my style but yet I had to keep going, once I've invested 60 pages of my time into it, I just don't like throwing a book to the side.  It got interesting near the end when things are looking up.  Boy that was trickery.  Just when I had hope for the characters there is a terrible twist of fate!  Anyway it was ...oh god I think last month's book club book.  Not being in the club anymore it has gotten harder to keep track of.  My next read (although I am 2/3 through another book I had on the go at the same time as this) has been recommended by a friend and she couldn't put it down so I'm hoping it will make up for this one.

Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver

 

This book was strange.  Spoiler alert* So the girl dies pretty quickly in this book...and then she keeps re-living the day of her death over and over!  But when she knows that's happening, each day she tries to change the outcome and does something different.  I kept waiting for the end to be like she was just in a coma and would be coming out of it...but that didn't happen!  So I was pretty upset.  I wanted a happy ending.  It just seems like she dies anyway.  Which is sad.  So I didn't like that very much.

Th1rteen R3asons Why by Jay Asher

Wow, this book was incredibly written.  The story is about this girl, Hannah, who has committed suicide.  But before she did this she made a series of cassette tapes outlining the reasons why she did what she did.  And she sends the tapes to the first person on the list, who then has to forward the tapes to the next person, and so on, after listening to them.  What I love about how it's written is the story of Hannah intertwines with one person, Clay, who is on the list somewhere, and it is going through his story of getting the tapes and listening to the tapes.  So you get to read a bit of Clay, and what is happening in his present, and then a bit of Hannah, and her reasons.  It's emotional and gives you a lot to think about.  Would have been great to read in jr. / sr. high school as a teenager.  I think this book should be in school curriculum.  Will need to read more books by him!

Stolen by Lucy Christopher

This book was recommended to me through an e-mail from Chapters based on books I've bought and searched.  I really enjoyed this book.  As the cover states, it is written as a letter to her captor.  She is in an airport, getting ready to go on a vacation with her parents in Vietnam.  She waits in a coffee shop in the airport while her parents are waiting near the boarding gate.  He pays for her coffee, drugs it, and then takes her.  I love the way it is written.  It is a very interesting book, one I didn't want to put down.  I may read some other books from this author.  Oh, it is also a Young People book so it isn't too scary and nothing really bad happens as far as the kidnapping goes.  So no worries!

Perfect by Ellen Hopkins

 

I read this book because it was suggested to me in an e-mail from Chapters based on books I've bought and searched.  They thought I might like it.  And I did.  At first I thought it was a book of poems.  Although they are set up to look that way, it is an entire story of four teenagers.  All of whom encounter very different, very real problems that any teenager in school could encounter.