Today I have another good read! Read on to find out why this thought provoking and emotionally stirring book is on my book club recommendation list!

Publisher: Harper Teen
Release Date: September 22, 2015 
Format: ebook (Kindle)
Pages: 336
Source: Amazon 
Genre: YA Contemporary Fiction
Review Date: June 20, 2016
Rating: 4 bookmarks

Synopsis: Kate Weston can piece together most of the bash at John Doone’s house: shots with Stacey Stallard, Ben Cody taking her keys and getting her home early—the feeling that maybe he’s becoming more than just the guy she’s known since they were kids.

But when a picture of Stacey passed out over Deacon Mills’s shoulder appears online the next morning, Kate suspects she doesn’t have all the details. When Stacey levels charges against four of Kate’s classmates, the whole town erupts into controversy. Facts that can’t be ignored begin to surface, and every answer Kate finds leads back to the same question: Where was Ben when a terrible crime was committed?

This story—inspired by real events—from debut novelist Aaron Hartzler takes an unflinching look at silence as a form of complicity. It’s a book about the high stakes of speaking up, and the razor thin line between guilt and innocence that so often gets blurred, one hundred and forty characters at a time.

Hey friends,

Today I have a combo for you, a book and movie adaptation review rolled into one! I listened to If I Stay on audio in December and I had a chance to check out the movie as well! Be sure to watch the coordinating video on my Book Tube channel!

Publisher: Dutton Juvenile 
Release Date: April 9, 2009
Format: Audio MP3
Pages: Hardcover: 201 pages/ Audio Length: Approx 5 hours
Narrator: Kirsten Potter
Source: Library Borrow
Genre: YA Contemporary
Review Date: February 4, 2015
Rating: 3 bookmarks


Synopsis: Choices. Seventeen-year-old Mia is faced with some tough ones: Stay true to her first love—music—even if it means losing her boyfriend and leaving her family and friends behind?

Then one February morning Mia goes for a drive with her family, and in an instant, everything changes. Suddenly, all the choices are gone, except one. And it's the only one that matters.

If I Stay is the first of a book duology by Gayle Foreman.  Overall I enjoyed the book. I liked that the main character Mia was so smart and talented, I liked how she was able to pull strength from memories of her family and friends and move past the horrific accident that changed her life.  The story was complete with its mere 201 pages, and that’s always good.  When the book is so short sometimes I wonder if the story is fully fleshed out, but it is in this case Foreman did a good job telling a story without dragging it out. Not many authors can do that successfully.  While there were aspects that I enjoyed in the story, I did find it a little slow at times.  

I listened to this on audio, and again, I overall liked it. The narrator did a good job, unfortunately the narrator didn't help the pacing of the story.  At this point, I’m unsure if I will continue on with Where She Went, which is the second book in the duology. If I do, I'll probably read it instead of listening on audio.  Maybe that will make a difference.
  
While this book wasn't my favorite, it was okay and I liked it enough. If you enjoy young adult contemporary novels, this may be a good option for you to check out. 

Publisher: St. Martin’s Press
Release Date: October 14, 2014
Format: ebook
Pages: 320 (Hardcover)
Source: Amazon Kindle
Genre: YA, NA, Short Stories, Anthologies
Review Date: Recorded November, 2014
Rating: 4 bookmarks

Synopsis: If you love holiday stories, holiday movies, made-for-TV-holiday specials, holiday episodes of your favorite sitcoms and, especially, if you love holiday anthologies, you’re going to fall in love with MY TRUE LOVE GAVE TO ME: TWELVE HOLIDAY STORIES by twelve bestselling young adult writers, edited by international bestselling author Stephanie Perkins.


Disclaimer: I received this book/ebook from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are genuinely my own.

I recommend this title if you're looking for some fun and light reading this holiday season. They are mostly feel good stories and who doesn't love a feel good story at Christmas time?  If you've read the anthology, please share your thoughts. What were your favorite stories? Which were your least liked ones?  Want to know more? Check out my coordinating video review.

Happy Reading,
~Tamara
On a mobile device? Watch the coordinating video here!

Hey friends!
I have a mini review for you today!  A mini review is my short and sweet analysis of a book.  You'll know in 350-ish words or less if this is a book I recommend.

Publisher: Poppy
Release Date: April 15, 2014
Format: ebook
Pages: 311 (kindle)
Source: Publisher via NetGalley
Genre: YA Fiction
Review Date: September 15, 2014
Rating: 4 bookmarks

Synopsis: Lucy and Owen meet somewhere between the tenth and eleventh floors of a New York City apartment building, on an elevator rendered useless by a citywide blackout. After they're rescued, they spend a single night together, wandering the darkened streets and marveling at the rare appearance of stars above Manhattan. But once the power is restored, so is reality. Lucy soon moves to Edinburgh with her parents, while Owen heads out west with his father.

Lucy and Owen's relationship plays out across the globe as they stay in touch through postcards, occasional e-mails, and -- finally -- a reunion in the city where they first met.

A carefully charted map of a long-distance relationship, Jennifer E. Smith's new novel shows that the center of the world isn't necessarily a place. It can be a person, too.

Disclaimer: I received this book in exchange for an honest review.

I loved that the book seemed so realistic.  The book started a few days before the beginning of the school year. Lucy's junior year and Owen's senior year.  Obviously since they are kids and they go with thier parents.  At this point in time, they have no say over where they live and that's a real struggle for teen loves. Distance makes the heart grow fonder and I think it did for them.  The heat level was really for teens.  A little kissing and that was it.  Again, I liked that this wasn't about teenagers acting like adults, like most YA is now days.

I'd like to think they are each others first love. Will they stay together? Who knows, they are really young. Yet, enough it's really cute and heartwarming for a teenage love story.

Happy Reading,
~Tamara

Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers 
Release Date: First published August 13, 2013 | Audio unabridged edition released by Hatchette Audio on August 13, 2013
Format: Audiobook
Pages: 276 (Hardcover) / Audio Length: Approx 6 hoursNarrator: Noah Galvin
Source: Audiobook SYNC
Genre: Young Adult
Review Date: Recorded August, 2014
Rating: 4 bookmarks

Synopsis: Leonard Peacock is turning 18. 
And he wants to say goodbye.

Not to his former best friend, whose torments have driven him to consider committing something tragic and horrific.


Nor to his mum who's moved out and left him to fend form himself. But to his four friends.
A Humphrey-Bogart-obsessed neighbour
A teenage violin virtuoso
A pastor's daughter 
A teacher

Most of the time, Leonard believes he's weird and sad but these friends have made him think that maybe he's not. 

He wants to thank them, and bid them farewell.

Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers 
Release Date: December 23, 2013
Format: ebook
Pages: 288 (Hardcover)
Source: NetGalley
Genre: YA Fiction
Review Date: February 5, 2014
Rating: 4 bookmarks

Synopsis: It's time to meet your new roomie. When East Coast native Elizabeth receives her freshman-year roommate assignment, she shoots off an e-mail to coordinate the basics: television, microwave, mini-fridge. That first note to San Franciscan Lauren sparks a series of e-mails that alters the landscape of each girl's summer -- and raises questions about how two girls who are so different will ever share a dorm room.

As the countdown to college begins, life at home becomes increasingly complex. With family relationships and childhood friendships strained by change, it suddenly seems that the only people Elizabeth and Lauren can rely on are the complicated new boys in their lives . . . and each other. Even though they've never met.

National Book Award finalist Sara Zarr and acclaimed author Tara Altebrando join forces for a novel about growing up, leaving home, and getting that one fateful e-mail that assigns your college roommate.

Disclaimer: I was given an e-galley courtesy of the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

This book took me by surprise. Of course I liked the synopsis or I wouldn't have read it, but I didn't expect to like it so much.  The fact that this book centered around the summer between the last year of high school and the first year of college is unique and creative. It seems like we always hear about freshman year once it's begun, but what happens before the day you move into your new home?  

Elizabeth and Lauren could not be more different, yet at the root of things they are essentially the same.  We got to know each girl and their own personal issues and what it was like for them leading up to being away from home for the first time.  It all begins when Elizebeth (EB for short) reaches out to Lauren via email after learning from the housing department that they will be roommates in the fall at UC Berkley.   Lauren lives in nearby San Francisco with her parents and their large family of five siblings and EB lives in New Jersey with her mother, she has no siblings and divorced parents. 

Throughout the book their delicate relationship teeters back and forth as they email back and forth over the summer.  You can't really tell if they will be lifelong friends, frenemies or enemies or even roommates at all.  It's amazing to see how two strangers are able to connect because of a mutual fear, for lack of a better word, of the unknown going in to their first year away from home. Throw in family, high school friends, changing relationships, boys, dating and the whole stress of going away to school quadruples for these girls.

Publisher: Dutton Books
Release Date: January 10, 2012
Format: ebook, Kindle
Pages: 313
Source: Amazon purchase
Genre: YA Fiction, YA Romance
Review Date: May 7, 2013
Rating: 4 bookmarks

Synopsis: Diagnosed with Stage IV thyroid cancer at 13, Hazel was prepared to die until, at 14, a medical miracle shrunk the tumours in her lungs... for now. 

Two years post-miracle, sixteen-year-old Hazel is post-everything else, too; post-high school, post-friends and post-normalcy. And even though she could live for a long time (whatever that means), Hazel lives tethered to an oxygen tank, the tumours tenuously kept at bay with a constant chemical assault. 

Enter Augustus Waters. A match made at cancer kid support group, Augustus is gorgeous, in remission, and shockingly to her, interested in Hazel. Being with Augustus is both an unexpected destination and a long-needed journey, pushing Hazel to re-examine how sickness and health, life and death, will define her and the legacy that everyone leaves behind.

I read this for book club. I would have never picked this up on my own, but I'm glad I read it.  Most of the reviews for The Fault In Our Starts are so very complimentary that I really wanted fall in love with this book like everyone else did.  Don't get me wrong, it's not bad nor is it boring. The book is good. It's actually pretty good, but I seriously missed what was so mesmerizing that mostly everyone else seemed to loved it to pieces. 

Publisher: Arthur A. Levine Books
Audio Publisher: Listening Library, Pub Date: January 10, 2012
Release Date: January 1, 2012
Format: Audio
Pages: 304 (Hardcover) / Listening Length: 7 hours, 28 minutes
Source: Sync YA via Overdrive
Genre: YA Fiction / Christian Fiction
Review Date: June 28, 2012
Rating: 3 bookmarks

Technically this is a YA fiction book, but probably should be classify as a Young Adult Christian fiction book. I was not expecting that because neither the book description nor any of the genres that this book was placed on goodreads.com gave any indication. I don't have an issue reading religious books, but I like to know what I'm getting into before I begin. I listed to this on audio over several days. It was entertaining and the story was light enough that I could listen and do other tasks. I picked up a free audio download courtesy of Sync YA via Overdrive.

In El Paso Texas two sisters Kate & Mary Romero, 18 and 16 respectively, lives change drastically after this Pastor father dies. After their father passes they really only have each other. Thier mother has been in a persistant vegetative state for some years and requires a nurse to help care for her.