Between the Lines by Jodi Picoult

My rating: 4 of 5 stars





If you are hoping to read a new Jodi Picoult's highly intense, ripped from the headlines, dramatic YA book..... you are probably not going to like this one.

This novel is a collaboration between Jodi Picoult and her daughter, Samantha Van Leer who presented her mother with a story idea. Her mother decided to encourage her daughter's writing ideas with this  book being the result. That being said... here is my review:

Ever wonder what happens to the characters in a story once the reader closes the book? This witty and creative spin on happily ever after is told from three viewpoints: The fairy tale story "Between the Lines" as it was written, Prince Oliver's character who desperately wants to break free from his life in the book, and Delilah, the teenager who's difficult life has made her obsessed with the story and romantic Prince Oliver. 

I found the story to be different yet clever although the ending was not what I was expecting. It was fun to read! I could imagine a young girl's imagination coming through the pages as we find out what happens to the characters once the fairy tale book concludes with the words "The End". Although I enjoyed the story I would, as Jodi Picoult suggests in her acknowledgments, recommend the book to readers "too young to address the issues discussed in her adult novels."



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Heist Society by Ally Carter

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Book Description

Publication Date: February 9, 2010 | Age Level: 11 and up | Series: Heist Society

When Katarina Bishop was three, her parents took her on a trip to the Louvre...to case it. For her seventh birthday, Katarina and her Uncle Eddie traveled to Austria...to steal the crown jewels. When Kat turned fifteen, she planned a con of her own--scamming her way into the best boarding school in the country, determined to leave the family business behind. Unfortunately, leaving "the life" for a normal life proves harder than she'd expected. Soon, Kat's friend and former co-conspirator, Hale, appears out of nowhere to bring her back into the world she tried so hard to escape. But he has good reason: a powerful mobster has been robbed of his priceless art collection and wants to retrieve it. Only a master thief could have pulled this job, and Kat's father isn't just on the suspect list, he is the list. Caught between Interpol and a far more deadly enemy, Kat's dad needs her help. For Kat there is only one solution: track down the paintings and steal them back. So what if it's a spectacularly impossible job? She's got two weeks, a teenage crew, and hopefully just enough talent to pull off the biggest heist in history--or at least her family's (very crooked) history.
www.amazon.com

This is a great book series by Ally Carter! Katerina Bishop is from a family of professional thieves and she wants out! But leaving the family business is a lot harder than she thinks! Soon her inherited skills comes in handy to save her father from a heist he is falsely accused of causing. "Heist Society" and her second in the series, "Uncommon Criminals" will have you on the edge of your seats. Coming soon... "Perfect Scoundrels" (book 3 in the Heist Society series). due out February of 2013.
Also check out Ally Carter's Gallagher Girls Series!!

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Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Book Description

Publication Date: April 3, 2012

A moving and haunting novel for readers of The Book Thief

Fifteen-year-old Lina is a Lithuanian girl living an ordinary life--until Soviet officers invade her home and tear her family apart. Separated from her father and forced onto a crowded train, Lina, her mother, and her young brother make their way to a Siberian work camp, where they are forced to fight for their lives. Lina finds solace in her art, documenting these events by drawing. Risking everything, she imbeds clues in her drawings of their location and secretly passes them along, hoping her drawings will make their way to her father's prison camp. But will strength, love, and hope be enough for Lina and her family to survive?

This powerful tale of heartbreak and hope is sure to haunt readers long after they finish the last page.

www.amazon.com 

Most readers hear about life in the horrifying concentration camps in Germany during World War II. This book bring us touching realistic story of a family's experience during World War II in Lithuania Families were send, like cattle, to concentration camps in the farthest reaches of Siberia, left to freeze to death or starve. The story is about fifteen-year-old Lina and her families struggle for survival... gripping...

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The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Book Description

Publication Date: October 18, 2011

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Shiver and Linger comes a brand new, heartstopping novel.

Some race to win. Others race to survive.

It happens at the start of every November: the Scorpio Races. Riders attempt to keep hold of their water horses long enough to make it to the finish line.
Some riders live.
Others die.
At age nineteen, Sean Kendrick is the returning champion. He is a young man of few words, and if he has any fears, he keeps them buried deep, where no one else can see them.
Puck Connolly is different. She never meant to ride in the Scorpio Races. But fate hasn't given her much of a choice. So she enters the competition - the first girl ever to do so. She is in no way prepared for what is going to happen.
As she did in her bestselling Shiver trilogy, author Maggie Stiefvater takes us to the breaking point, where both love and life meet their greatest obstacles, and only the strong of heart can survive. The Scorpio Races is an unforgettable reading experience.    www.amazon.com

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A seamless blending of reality with fantasy.... loved this book!!

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No Safe Harbour: The Halifax Explosion Diary of Charlotte Blackburn, Halifax, Nova Scotia, 1917 by Julie Lawson

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



Basic summary. Charlotte Blackburn's Diary of her life in Halifax, Nova Scotia in 1917. World War I is on and Canada's involved, young men are heading out to war including Charlotte's brother. Little did she realize that was seemed like war was going to be coming to Halifax when two ships carrying explosives collides in the harbour causing the largest made-made explosion in recorded history until the A-bombs dropped on Japan.

If I hadn't picked up this book at the Maritime museum in Halifax, Nova Scotia, I never would have learned about this terrifying part of Halifax history. Not long after Halifax's involvement is the recovery of the passengers of the Titanic and beginning of Canada's involvement in World War I, Halifax deals with an explosion that devastates most of Halifax, killing thousands in seconds. Graphic, realistic, fascinating! This was an amazing book to read and will hopefully encourage it's readers to investigate this part of Canada's history in more detail.

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The Notorious Benedict Arnold: A True Story of Adventure, Heroism & Treachery by Steve Sheinkin

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Book Description

Publication Date: November 9, 2010 | Age Level: 11 and up | Grade Level: 6 and up

Most people know that Benedict Arnold was America’s first, most notorious traitor. Few know that he was also one of its greatest war heroes. This accessible biography introduces young readers to the real Arnold: reckless, heroic, and driven. Packed with first-person accounts, astonishing battle scenes, and surprising twists, this is a gripping and true adventure tale.

The Notorious Benedict Arnold is the winner of the 2011 Boston Globe - Horn Book Award for Nonfiction.                                                                                               www.amazon.com

This is a fascinating book about the turn of events leading up to the traitorous acts of Benedict Arnold. It's a look at his childhood and how it forged his overpowering need for acknowledgement and often reckless ambitions. His actions saved the American Revolution yet also caused him to betray the country he so boldly defended from the British. I absolutely loved this biography!! It reads like a high-action work of fiction. It showed me that ambition or, in some cases, lack of ambition changed the outcome of the war.  I would highly recommend this book to... anyone!

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Uncommon Criminals by Ally Carter

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Book Description

Publication Date: February 9, 2010 | Age Level: 11 and up | Series: Heist Society

When Katarina Bishop was three, her parents took her on a trip to the Louvre...to case it. For her seventh birthday, Katarina and her Uncle Eddie traveled to Austria...to steal the crown jewels. When Kat turned fifteen, she planned a con of her own--scamming her way into the best boarding school in the country, determined to leave the family business behind. Unfortunately, leaving "the life" for a normal life proves harder than she'd expected. Soon, Kat's friend and former co-conspirator, Hale, appears out of nowhere to bring her back into the world she tried so hard to escape. But he has good reason: a powerful mobster has been robbed of his priceless art collection and wants to retrieve it. Only a master thief could have pulled this job, and Kat's father isn't just on the suspect list, he is the list. Caught between Interpol and a far more deadly enemy, Kat's dad needs her help. For Kat there is only one solution: track down the paintings and steal them back. So what if it's a spectacularly impossible job? She's got two weeks, a teenage crew, and hopefully just enough talent to pull off the biggest heist in history--or at least her family's (very crooked) history.
www.amazon.com

Katarina Bishop is a modern day Robin hood! She didn't want to be in the family business! Since she couldn't walk away from the world she grew up with, the world of professional thieves. Katerina has decided to use her talents to find stolen art and jewelry and give them back to their rightful owners. She likes this life and likes the powerful feeling of working on her own.

In this book Katerina is asked by Constance Miller, an elderly lady who's parents were the archeologists who discovered the tomb of Cleopatra including the famous Cleopatra emerald. Kat decides to take on the challenge of stealing the famous cursed emerald back with the help of her friends. It's a simple con but it all backfires on her. Kat is up against a new foe who knows all the cons, all the tricks and has a links to her family's past She'll have to get the emerald back with the help of her friends and by playing by her own rules. LOVED THIS BOOK SERIES!!

This book is cleverly written and full of action. I can't wait to read the next book!

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