Seven Ways We Lie

This is an excited post for me because I KNOW Riley Redgate.  I had the honor of teaching R. in high school, and remember what an amazing reader and writer she was.  A super cool human!  Anyway, I only recently found these books and was excited to get in touch with her and to get started reading all three books!  I am reading her books in pub order and so I first started with Seven Ways We Lie.

The book has seven main characters who all represent one of the seven deadly sins.  Great concept, but the cool thing for me is that it doesn't run the book.  Each character was unique and different.  I saw differences in their voices and liked each of their perspectives, and most of all how Redgate brings all the stories together.

At the beginning of the book, the principal calls an assembly to discuss an issue with the student body:  someone turned in an anonymous tip that a teacher is having a relationship with a student.  Of course the entire school is talking about it, and everyone looks around now wondering who it is?  Which teacher would anyone even want to hook up with and which teacher would be crazy enough to start something with a student.

The book covers all aspects of high school: arts, sports, lunch time, teachers, families, drugs/alcohol/parties, love, coming out, friendships, needing to run out of class and sit in a bathroom stall for a few minutes, and of course, the seven deadly sins.  Each chapter, I was interested to see how the stories came together and how the characters changed.  I loved it!!

I really liked the book and am so happy and proud of R.'s accomplishments.  I can't wait to fangirl in a signing line someday if I am lucky enough to run back into her at a book festival (Yallfest?) or bookstore someday.  I also want to say to the kids out there who write, that Redgate is proof that you can do it.  I'm super pumped to now follow the career of an incredible author.

Be True to Me

Kids!!  I read story set on Fire Island while I was at the beach in SC and it was amazing.  It's been on my To Read list since last summer, when my favorite blogger Jen Hubert at Reading Rants recommended it!  I knew I wanted to wait until summer to read it, so I kept it until this summer.

It is GREAT!  I recently watched Thoroughbreds...and though this book is no where near the same...The movie is a crazy murder movie and the book is about summer romance and a love triangle...the vibe is still the same...sort of.  Anyway, strange comparison aside.  This is a compelling read.

First, I love the setting.  Fire Island, NY in 1976, during the Bicentennial.  I found it incredible refreshing to travel to the seventies.  I loved the details Griffin included about music, politics, culture, and style.  Most, I really liked being in the 70s where there are NO CELL PHONES!!  I don't know...maybe it's silly but I even enjoyed a break from phones while reading.

The good thing is that the setting, while cool, isn't what really drives the novel.  It's the two different perspectives of the two main characters, Jean and Fritz.  Jean is from a wealthy family who summers in Sunken Haven every year.  She always lives in the shadow of her beautiful and perfect sister, Daphne.  This year, however, Jean is excited because Daphne will be in Europe and out of the way.  Jean can have her own summer.  One that she would like to spend with Gil Burke, who she met in the city before heading out to the island.  Gil and Jean shared an amazing New York night together, so she is ready to find him and share an even more amazing summer with him in Sunken Haven.

But, Gil sees Fritz O'Neill when he first arrives.  Fritz, who is a military kid, isn't from the same background as the old wealthy families, but she comes each summer to be with her friend who summers there, too.  Fritz is wild and cool and unlike any of the other girls.

Gil is stuck between Jean and Fritz, who both want and love him.  The book is set in three acts that build to an epic conclusion.  I loved this book because it was romance and thrilling.  The book deals with crushes and first love and first times.  The setting and characters are complex and engaging.  Each person has their own background that really affects how they feel about an interact with the others.  I feel for all of them, even when they are at their worse.  Loved it and excited to read Griffin's new books Tell Me No Lies soon.

Two Incredible Series

 I don't want to say too much about either of these two books since both are #3 in their respective series, but what I do want to say is that if you love fantasy, complex characters, and powerful female main characters, please go start the Ember in the Ashes series and the Throne of Glass series.

I read Ember the year it came out and have waited patiently for each of the next two installments.  Laia of Serra's life changes when her brother is imprisoned and her grandparents killed.  She runs, but eventually starts working as a servant for the Empire to try to find a way to locate and free her brother.  Torch Against the Night follows up wonderfully to the first book, and Reaper - good grief!!  I don't even know where to start.  I wish that I had had time to reread both of the first two books before I read Reaper, but I just didn't have the time.  I was able to pick up ok.  This third book was all action.  I had a hard time keeping track of every group and what they were doing, but I held on enough.  It was very good, and even if I couldn't always keep track of the minor characters and new people, I enjoyed continuing with Laia, Elias, and Helene.  I was pretty wrecked at the end of the book, and am very interested to see how Tahir wraps up the series.

I read Throne of Glass and Crown of Midnight over Christmas and never got around to continuing the series since I had so many 2017 and 2018 new books to get to.  This series was recommended to me by one of my favorite students and I loved it immediately.  As a kid, I read Terry Brooks (my dad's entire Shannara series) and this series brings back some of what I loved about those books.  Sweeping settings, fantastical creatures, lurking evil, and characters trying to figure out who they are and what their powers can do.  I love Celaena's story and so far, each book in the series has been complete on it's own.  They each leave you wanting to continue, but have their own satisfying endings, which is nice.  I am going to start Queen of Shadows soon.  This third installment was probably my favorite so far.  I really liked the Celeana/Rowan plot line.  It's a really cool world and an epic story.  I love these and can't wait to keep reading!

It's also super nice to read a series with all of the books out!!  I struggle with this a lot, because I pick up the first book in a series and then wait for the second and third installments.  It's nice to be able to just keep on reading.  Even though it's a pain for me, it's nice when a series is complete and my students haven't read it - because they can just keep on going!

Well, these two are great fantasy reads.  I am going to keep going with both series.  I think I'd like to do a reread of all three Ember in the Ashes books before the fourth books comes out.

Dread Nation

I got this one the day it came out, and I was soooo pumped!  It was great and I can't wait to get it into the classroom library.

The premise is cool - during the Civil War, the dead get up and walk.  The zombies, called "shamblers" will eat you and a bite will turn you.  So this changes the entire course of U.S. history as we know it.  Cities have started building their own defenses, and people have their own opinions about how to stop the shamblers.  One of the things that has been put in to place are training schools, part of the "Negro and Native Reeducation Act" in the book.  As part of this act kids of a certain age go to "school" to learn how to fight the walking dead.

The main character, Jane McKeene, attends one of these schools, the reputable Miss Preston's, and Jane is on the of the best at the school.  Jane was separated from her mother and entire family, and she yearns to get back to them.  But once she graduates from Miss Preston's will she be able to go home and see if her mother is even there??  Or will she be hired as an "attendant" who will protect her white mistress from shambler attacks?  Jane hasn't heard from her mother in so long, she fears the worst.

The girls of Miss Preston's go to a lecture in Baltimore that changes the entire course of her story.  What happens at the lecture plus the mysterious disappearance of a neighboring family get Jane wrapped up in something that is much more serious and sinister than she thought.

I loved Jane's voice and the entire organization of the book.  Each chapter has excerpts from Jane's letters, and I enjoyed reading the real story and piecing together the rest from the letter snippets.  Jane is a tough young woman of color who kicks major zombie butt.  The secondary characters in the novel are all wonderful and important to Jane's story, too.  I loved the setting and the history wrapped up with this new vision.  Jane is spunky and doesn't let others bully or scare her.  I loved this main character and the world Ireland has created.  This is going to be an awesome series and I can't wait for more installments.  The books is action packed, but also eye opening when you consider the darker side of American history and how this book speaks to us today.

There's more evil in the world than just the shamblers.  Good thing Jane McKeene is ready to take on all of it.

Back!! Summer Reading 2018

I haven't been on the blog for waaaaay too long.  I've been reading all this time, though.

This past year, I have really been able to read again at the pace I used to, and I have also (thanks to Donors Choose and BookOutlet.com) really been able to add to my classroom library. 

So the big news is....I am back and want to continue book blogging.  I am starting back by posting my 2018 summer reading list.  This is really just a nice, colorful version of my Goodreads To Read list, but still....many of these books are piled up by my nightstand ready to go.  I am so pumped to relax this summer and dive into as many of these as I can. 

Which of these do you love?  Have you read?  Would you recommend??

Coming up this week are my first reads of the summer:  Dread Nation, Reaper at the Gates, Be True to Me, and Heir of Fire.  I am working on these reviews and am excited to be back in the saddle again here on the old blog.  Thanks for visiting and here's to summer reading fun!!