Reviewed by Olivia

Rating: High Five!

Who I'd Recommend to: Fans of Lost in the Sun, The Thing About Jellyfish, and anything by Jerry Spinelli.

Synopsis (from Amazon):
Wayne Kovok lives in a world of After. After his uncle in the army was killed overseas. After Wayne and his mother survived a plane crash while coming back from the funeral. After he lost his voice.

Wayne has always used his love of facts to communicate ("Did you know more people die each year from shaking a vending machine than from shark attacks?"). Without his voice, how will he wow the prettiest girl in school? How will he stand up to his drill-sergeant grandfather? And how will he share his hopes with his deadbeat dad? It's not until Wayne loses his voice completely that he realizes how much he doesn't say.

Reviewed by Olivia

Rating: High Five

Who I'd Recommend to: Fans of Erin Hunter, the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series, and Cornelia Funke. 

Synopsis (from Amazon):
Peril has been loyal to Queen Scarlet, who used her fatal firescales to kill countless dragons in the SkyWing arena. Now, Peril is loyal to Clay, the only dragonet who has ever been her friend. So when Scarlet threatens Jade Mountain Academy, Peril sets off to find her former queen, stop her, and save the day, no matter what it takes.

There's just one problem: a strangely persistent SeaWing, Turtle, insists on coming along, too. Turtle is worried about his friends, who left to search for Scarlet and haven't returned. Peril is worried that she might accidentally burn Turtle -- or burn him on purpose, for being so annoying -- and frustrated that she keeps saying and doing the wrong things. She can't escape her firescales, and she can't escape her reputation as the deadliest dragon in Pyrrhia.

So when she's offered a chance to trade everything for a second chance, Peril has to decide who she's really loyal to . . . and whether her own scales might actually be worth saving.

Reviewed by Olivia

Rating: High Four

Who I'd Recommend to: Fans of TombQuest, anything Stuart Gibbs, Eragon, Percy Jackson and the Olympians, and Rump.

Synopsis (from Amazon):
“Tell no one what I’ve given you.”

Until he got that cryptic warning, Christopher Rowe was happy, learning how to solve complex codes and puzzles and creating powerful medicines, potions, and weapons as an apprentice to Master Benedict Blackthorn—with maybe an explosion or two along the way.

But when a mysterious cult begins to prey on London’s apothecaries, the trail of murders grows closer and closer to Blackthorn’s shop. With time running out, Christopher must use every skill he’s learned to discover the key to a terrible secret with the power to tear the world apart.

Reviewed by Olivia

Rating: High Five

Who I'd Recommend to: Fans of anything Jerry Spinelli, Ida B., Blackbird Fly, and My Diary From the Edge of the World.

Synopsis (from Amazon): 
You are now entering Ruby Holler, the one and only Ruby Holler! Your lives are never going to be the same—" 
​"Trouble twins" Dallas and Florida are orphans who have given up believing there is such a thing as a loving home. Tiller and Sairy are an eccentric older couple who live in the beautiful, mysterious Ruby Holler, but they’re restless for one more big adventure. When they invite the twins to join them on their journeys, they first must all stay together in the Holler, and the magic of the place takes over. Two pairs of lives grow closer and are changed forever.

Reviewed by Olivia

Rating: High Five!

Who I'd Recommend to: Fans of Smile, ​Blackbird Fly, and the Whatever After series (it has a similar feel).

Synopsis (from Goodreads):
There's a new set of twin boys on the scene, and like Sammie and Charlie, these twins are almost identical. Charlie's friends, and the popular kids, are quick to accept the cuter boy. But when a bonfire on the beach gets out of control, Charlie's group blames it on the other twin. Both Sammie and Charlie know he isn’t the boy to blame, but will they have the courage to come forward to tell the truth and double-cross the popular kids? 

Reviewed by Olivia

Rating: High Four

​Who I'd Recommend to: Fans of the War That Saved My Life, ​Breaking Stalin's Nose, the Devil's Arithmetic, and Jerry Spinelli's Milkweed.

Synopsis (from Amazon):
Felix, a Jewish boy in Poland in 1942, is hiding from the Nazis in a Catholic orphanage. The only problem is that he doesn't know anything about the war, and thinks he's only in the orphanage while his parents travel and try to salvage their bookselling business. And when he thinks his parents are in danger, Felix sets off to warn them--straight into the heart of Nazi-occupied Poland. To Felix, everything is a story: Why did he get a whole carrot in his soup? It must be sign that his parents are coming to get him. Why are the Nazis burning books? They must be foreign librarians sent to clean out the orphanage's outdated library. But as Felix's journey gets increasingly dangerous, he begins to see horrors that not even stories can explain.

Reviewed by Olivia

Rating: High Five!

Who I'd Recommend to: Fans of any other of Pam  Munoz Ryan's books, Cornelia Funke, and (just a little bit) Jerry Spinelli.

Synopsis (from Amazon): Lost and alone in a forbidden forest, Otto meets three mysterious sisters and suddenly finds himself entwined in a puzzling quest involving a prophecy, a promise, and a harmonica.

Decades later, Friedrich in Germany, Mike in Pennsylvania, and Ivy in California each, in turn, become interwoven when the very same harmonica lands in their lives. All the children face daunting challenges: rescuing a father, protecting a brother, holding a family together. And ultimately, pulled by the invisible thread of destiny, their suspenseful solo stories converge in an orchestral crescendo.

Reviewed by Oscar

Rating: High Five!

Who I'd Recommend to: Fans of any other Rick Riordan book, Eragon, and TombQuest.

Synopsis (from Amazon):
How do you punish an immortal? By making him human. After angering his father Zeus, the god Apollo is cast down from Olympus. Weak and disoriented, he lands in New York City as a regular teenage boy. Now, without his godly powers, the four-thousand-year-old deity must learn to survive in the modern world until he can somehow find a way to regain Zeus's favor. But Apollo has many enemies—gods, monsters, and mortals who would love to see the former Olympian permanently destroyed. Apollo needs help, and he can think of only one place to go . . . an enclave of modern demigods known as Camp Half-Blood.

(to see the full review, click the read more button in the bottom right hand corner of this post)

Reviewed by Olivia

Rating: High Five
Who I'd Recommend to: Fans of the War that Saved My Life, anything Cornelia Funke, the Land of Stories, and Book Scavenger.
Synopsis (from Amazon):
"Spirited, restless Gracie Lockwood has lived in Cliffden, Maine, her whole life. She’s a typical girl in an atypical world: one where sasquatches helped to win the Civil War, where dragons glide over Route 1 on their way south for the winter (sometimes burning down a T.J. Maxx or an Applebee’s along the way), where giants hide in caves near LA and mermaids hunt along the beaches, and where Dark Clouds come for people when they die.

To Gracie it’s all pretty ho-hum…until a Cloud comes looking for her little brother Sam, turning her small-town life upside down. Determined to protect Sam against all odds, her parents pack the family into a used Winnebago and set out on an epic search for a safe place that most people say doesn’t exist: The Extraordinary World. It’s rumored to lie at the ends of the earth, and no one has ever made it there and lived to tell the tale. To reach it, the Lockwoods will have to learn to believe in each other—and to trust that the world holds more possibilities than they’ve ever imagined."

Lately, with schoolwork crushing down on us and a few new Author Interviews in the making, we haven't been very good about posting new reviews. About half of the books we read are reviewed, and the other half are pretty much all but forgotten. Hence, we've decided to add a new feature - the Recommendation of the Week. We'll (hopefully) remember to post these once a week - all books that we've loved and cherished but never gotten around to reviewing, for whatever reason. So here it is! Hope you enjoy!

Rating: High Five!

Synopsis (from Amazon):
"I am tired of being used, hurt, and cast aside.

Adelina Amouteru is a survivor of the blood fever. A decade ago, the deadly illness swept through her nation. Most of the infected perished, while many of the children who survived were left with strange markings. Adelina’s black hair turned silver, her lashes went pale, and now she has only a jagged scar where her left eye once was. Her cruel father believes she is a malfetto, an abomination, ruining their family’s good name and standing in the way of their fortune. But some of the fever’s survivors are rumored to possess more than just scars—they are believed to have mysterious and powerful gifts, and though their identities remain secret, they have come to be called the Young Elites.

Teren Santoro works for the king. As Leader of the Inquisition Axis, it is his job to seek out the Young Elites, to destroy them before they destroy the nation. He believes the Young Elites to be dangerous and vengeful, but it’s Teren who may possess the darkest secret of all.

Enzo Valenciano is a member of the Dagger Society. This secret sect of Young Elites seeks out others like them before the Inquisition Axis can. But when the Daggers find Adelina, they discover someone with powers like they’ve never seen.

Adelina wants to believe Enzo is on her side, and that Teren is the true enemy. But the lives of these three will collide in unexpected ways, as each fights a very different and personal battle. But of one thing they are all certain: Adelina has abilities that shouldn’t belong in this world. A vengeful blackness in her heart. And a desire to destroy all who dare to cross her.
 
It is my turn to use. My turn to hurt."

Why We'd Recommend It: Marie Lu writes so powerfully, beautifully, and emotionally that this book is hard to resist. It's an inventive, dystopian, slightly romantic, dark story about a budding villain, a perspective I've yet to see. The world Adelina, the main character, lives in reminds me a little bit of the setting of Divergent, but with more depth and creativity, along with more fantastical details. One of my teachers once said, "I think a book is either a 'description book' or a 'character book,' in which the author focuses more on one or the other." In that case, the Young Elites would definitely be a "character book," because it focuses on the theory that someone is inwardly good or inwardly evil - and if they can do anything to tip the balance in either direction. In fact, it's a bit similar to the School for Good and Evil, but, if possible, even darker and more terrifyingly realistic. There is a touch of romance too - more than in the Lunar Chronicles or Divergent, but it doesn't ever go too far. There's never a sleepy moment, and I was constantly on the edge of my seat. The Young Elites is definitely one of my - and my brother's - favorite books we've ever read.