YA Review: BAD HAIR DAY by Carrie Harris

BAD TASTE IN BOYS was the first zombie book I’ve ever read, and I loved it. I would have written a review, but it fell in that Christmas vacation window. Since the sequel was already out, I demanded that my library purchase it, so now I get to talk about BAD HAIR DAY instead. I…

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YA Review: LET THE SKY FALL by Shannon Messenger

I should have known I would love this book. After all, KEEPER OF THE LOST CITIES made my top 5 middle grade reads of 2012, but I confess the description for LET THE SKY FALL sounded like something I’d heard before. I was so wrong, and I think that’s part of Shannon Messenger’s charm. She…

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YA Review and Giveaway: PERFECT SCOUNDRELS by Ally Carter

A few weeks ago Ally Carter came to St. Louis on tour. It was a Saturday night, but we don’t get many author visits here, so I told my husband he was in charge for the evening and went to hear her speak. I have never seen so many teenage girls squeeing over an author!…

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SCARLET, A Perfect Follow-Up to CINDER

Those of you who have been following me for a while might recall that my favorite young adult book of 2012 was CINDER by Marissa Meyer. The day after I posted my review of CINDER last fall, I discovered Marissa Meyer was coming to town as part of the Fierce Reads Tour and I got…

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Why I Love My Library

Agent Michelle Witte started a #librarylove hashtag today on Twitter. I didn’t go back and read the original article she linked to, but the gist of it was that a few–and I stress few–authors felt like people were “stealing” their books by getting them from the library. I’m not going to go into that, but…

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YA Review: SOMETHING STRANGE AND DEADLY

I’m excited to be writing my first YA review of the year. I picked up SOMETHING STRANGE AND DEADLY mainly because I’d read so many helpful blog posts by Susan Dennard. I wanted to support her book since I’ve learned from what she shares online, so … good marketing strategy on her part! But, even…

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Why Pride and Prejudice Stands the Test of Time

I’ve read PRIDE AND PREJUDICE by Jane Austen so many times I’ve lost count. I first read it in 9th grade, when my English teacher told us to pick a classic to read for extra credit. I selected it because I’d read numerous historical romance novels where the heroines read this “scandalous” new book. I…

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My Favorite Reads of 2012

At the beginning of the year, I set a goal of reading 75 books in 2012. I’ve read 80 books so far, and I still have a week and a half left! It helps that so many of them were middle grade. It’s gotten to the point where I wonder why adult books are so…

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YA Review: A MILLION SUNS

ACROSS THE UNIVERSE is one of those books everyone was talking about last year, and I finally picked it up in January. Although I thoroughly enjoyed it, I didn’t have the urge to immediately go read the next one. Part of that was due to the fact that I was focusing on reading MG as…

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YA Series Recommendation: MATCHED by Ally Condie

I picked up MATCHED shortly after it came out in 2010 and loved it. So when Ally Condie made a stop in St. Louis on her CROSSED tour last fall, I had to go see her. It was my first author event, and I loved hearing about her inspiration for each book. These books are…

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MMGM: Zora and Me, plus a giveaway!

Sometimes you pick up a book and you’re not sure you’ll connect with it. Then you start reading and it’s like magic. You’re drawn into a world completely different from your own, and yet you feel like you’re a part of it. That’s how I felt about ZORA AND ME by Victoria Bond and T.R….

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MMGM: THE BFG

I got a little behind on my reading this week due to some non-writing commitments, but there’s a book I’ve been wanting to feature for a while that’s a favorite from childhood–THE BFG. Earlier this year, I kept seeing people post questions about their favorite books as children. Honestly, I could think of very few…

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