A Midsummer's Nightmare by Kody Keplinger

Whitley Johnson's dream summer with her divorcé dad has turned into a nightmare. She's just met his new fiancée and her kids. The fiancée's son? Whitley's one-night stand from graduation night. Just freakin' great.

Worse, she totally doesn't fit in with her dad's perfect new country-club family. So Whitley acts out. She parties. Hard. So hard she doesn't even notice the good things right under her nose: a sweet little future stepsister who is just about the only person she's ever liked, a best friend (even though Whitley swears she doesn't "do" friends), and a smoking-hot guy who isn't her stepbrother...at least, not yet. It will take all three of them to help Whitley get through her anger and begin to put the pieces of her family together.

Filled with authenticity and raw emotion, Whitley is Kody Keplinger's most compelling character to date: a cynical Holden Caulfield-esque girl you will wholly care about. (taken from goodreads) 

A Midsummer's Nightmare by Kody Keplinger

Published June 5th 2012 by Poppy

Received: ARC at TLA

Um, I LOVED it! Imagine if you will a family reunion where you wake up 3 hours before everyone else to a silent house. Could there be a better way to fill that time? Nope! I read this in one sitting before anyone else in the house even woke up. Could. Not. Put. It. Down. I HAD to know what was going to happen!

Whitley has just graduated from high school and is about to spend the summer with her dad. She loves summers with her dad, just the two of them, it's great. Funny thing, dad didn't tell her a) he's engaged, b) future step-mom has two kids, c) they will all live together like one big happy family. The new family might have been an easier pill to swallow is she hadn't had a graduation one-night stand with her future step brother. Not exactly the summer she was planning. 

Now that I think about it, I'm kind of amazed that everyone slept through my reading this. There were so many "OH NO HE/SHE DIDN'T" moments where I literally screamed out loud at the characters.So, I guess it is safe to say I was wrapped up in the story and truly cared about every character. 

This was a fabulous summer time escape. And I'm  embarrassed that it was my first Kody Keplinger book. I enjoyed it so much that I read The DUFF the next day. :) 

My Life Next Door by Huntley Fitzpatrick

“One thing my mother never knew, and would disapprove of most of all, was that I watched the Garretts. All the time.”


The Garretts are everything the Reeds are not. Loud, numerous, messy, affectionate. And every day from her balcony perch, seventeen-year-old Samantha Reed wishes she was one of them . . . until one summer evening, Jase Garrett climbs her terrace and changes everything. As the two fall fiercely in love, Jase's family makes Samantha one of their own. Then in an instant, the bottom drops out of her world and she is suddenly faced with an impossible decision. Which perfect family will save her? Or is it time she saved herself?


A dreamy summer read, full of characters who stay with you long after the story is over. (taken from goodreads)
 

 

My Life Next Door by Huntley Fitzpatrick

Published: June 14, 2012 by Dial Books (Penguin Teen)

Received: ARC for review from NetGalley & Penguin

Ok, let's face it, at some point almost all of us have hoped/dreamed/prayed for the perfect boy to move next door. I know I did. I love boy next door stories for that exact reason. Now I have moved on and am dreaming about the house for sale next door. In my new perfect plan someone will move next door and we can have babies at the same time and those two future children will fall in love (I know, I know it's crazy.) Let's just say if that hypothetical future neighbor grew up to be Jase Garrett I would be THRILLED! 


When Samantha is young the Garrett family moves in next door. Samantha comes from a single parent family of three. The Garrett family, well, there are ten of them. Samantha's mother quickly makes it known that she is not to mix with the crazy huge family next door. As they grow up Samantha watches from afar until one day she and Jase finally meet. Their relationship is so sweet and so real. From the very beginning you are cheering for the two of them to find a way. 


The story is great, but it's the characters that made me love it. The Garrett family is, in a word, amazing. Parents who actually like each other, brothers and sisters who pick on each other one minute but stand up for each other a second later. Family. A family I would love to hear from again.


A great summer read. I have a feeling I will be reading this one again. 

G - is for Girl Stolen

Sixteen year-old Cheyenne Wilder is sleeping in the back of a car while her mom fills her prescription at the pharmacy. Before Cheyenne realizes what's happening, their car is being stolen--with her inside! Griffin hadn’t meant to kidnap Cheyenne, all he needed to do was steal a car for the others. But once Griffin's dad finds out that Cheyenne’s father is the president of a powerful corporation, everything changes—now there’s a reason to keep her. What Griffin doesn’t know is that Cheyenne is not only sick with pneumonia, she is blind. How will Cheyenne survive this nightmare, and if she does, at what price? (taken from Goodreads)

Wow! Friends had told me about this one a while back but I finally took the time to read it. It helps a little that it can count across all my challenges. G- for Gatsby, I read it in one sitting, and the ongoing page count. (I love when I can multitask.)

Being kidnapped was always a fear of mine. That might have something to do with me being afraid of just about everything, but still it freaks me out. I kept wondering how I would have reacted had it been me. Cheyenne was a rock star. While I would have been crying in a corner Cheyenne keeps her wits about her and is able to weigh her options. This was one that made me think.

15 years from now . . . .

It's 1996, and Josh and Emma have been neighbors their whole lives. They've been best friends almost as long - at least, up until last November, when Josh did something that changed everything. Things have been weird between them ever since, but when Josh's family gets a free AOL CD in the mail,his mom makes him bring it over so that Emma can install it on her new computer. When they sign on, they're automatically logged onto their Facebook pages. But Facebook hasn't been invented yet. And they're looking at themselves fifteen years in the future. 

By refreshing their pages, they learn that making different decisions now will affect the outcome of their lives later. And as they grapple with the ups and downs of what their futures hold, they're forced to confront what they're doing right - and wrong - in the present. (Taken from Goodreads)

Fifteen years ago I was in the 8th grade and there is no way you could have convinced me that fifteen years in the future I would be a junior high librarian. Facebook came out during my first senior year of college (that's right I took a victory lap) and it is amazing to me how much it has changed things. If you have read my whole blog you know that I recently quit the site. This book was so interesting to me because I think it really tapped into the fact that Facebook doesn't give you the whole story. That we shouldn't judge our lives, or the lives of others, off of the few sentences or pictures shared on any social media site.

I'm curious how this will resonate with my students. I totally connected with it being 1996 and found myself laughing out loud at some of the 90's references. When I left home for college my parents finally let me get a cell phone. I remember when Facebook was only at a few schools. Will students get that? Or to them has it always been there?

This was a one day read. I took a weekend ski trip reading trip with some friends. The boys skied all day and I  read. When the girls decided it was time to go shopping and I had 10% left I synced my Kindle app on my phone and finished the rest sitting in a dressing room. Yup, I needed to know how it ended that badly.