Girl on the Other Side by Deborah Kerbel

Girl on the Other Side by Deborah Kerbel

Release Date: October 30, 2009

Publisher: Dundurn Press

Age Group: Young Adult

Pages: 152

Overall: 

You know that one girl in school that has it all, looks, status, money, the whole package? That girl happens to be Tabby Freeman. She’s the “Queen Bee” (think Regina George…at least on the outside).

And we all also know that girl that was quiet, smart, and awkward, the one that just begged to be invisible. That would be Lora Froggett (with that last name I don’t know if she ever stood a chance). She’s that girl that is just trying to survive in the shark infested waters that is known as high school.

While these two girls live in totally separate worlds (and social circles), they have way more in common that they could have thought possible. Behind her perky smile, Tabby’s life is being shredded bit by bit into a million pieces; and Lora is simply trying to keep anyone and everyone from finding out the truth about her family.

Each of these girls is burying a secret that they want to stay a secret, and pain that they must keep hidden away from the world. Even though they are so different and have never really spoken to one another, fate has a plan to throw them together for all the right reasons.

Now it’s time for Tabby and Lora to wait for the dust to settle and pray that there’s no one else waiting when it does. But will the outcome of their revelations help them or hurt them in the end?

This isn’t your typical popular versus unpopular story. Girl on the Other Side is so much more. Lora was the most relatable character, at least for me. I think almost everyone can relate to getting picked on in school at some point. But I personally related more to the having a sick mother, a father that works all the time, and a household to take care of on top of school. It’s not easy and Deborah Kerbel portrayed the situation extremely well and accurately.

Although Lora was the most relatable for me, I was still able to relate to Tabby; especially the real Tabby and not the “Queen Bee,” society princess Tabby. I loved her relationship with her Nanny. It was sweet, pure, and unconditional, the way her parents should have been, but weren’t. I also like how Mrs. Kerbel portrayed how quickly Tabby’s peers and friends turned on her. How quickly you can go from being popular and loved, to being despised and tormented in high school.

I wish there had been more about some of the other characters we were introduced to, because there were quite a few. It felt as if you didn’t really get to know any of the other characters outside of Lora and Tabby. Even though both girls had relatable aspects, they were still fairly stereotypical in terms of clichés.

While I did have my character issues, Kerbel made up for it in the plot. There is, of course, the school, popular versus unpopular issue, but the main aspect I loved was the family drama on both sides. That’s what really made Girl on the Other Side stand out for me. I think Girl on the Other Side is a good story, with a good message to it. It’s an extremely quick read and I wish it had been longer. I do recommend it for anyone who likes a good story, but I think the most beneficial audience would obviously be high school students.

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I received this book as part of 1 ARC Tours.

Windwhyst by Christine O'Neill

Windwhyst by Christine O'Neill

Release Date: September 7, 2009

Publisher: CreateSpace

Age Group: Young Adult

Pages: 316

Overall:

I’m not usually one to read self-published titles, but the premise of Windwhyst was interesting enough for me to ignore its self-published status and give it s a shot. And I’m really glad I did.

Cole Anderson is your usual high school slacker. He’s a graffiti artist, failing his classes, being pretty invisible in school, and has the sarcastic attitude to match. But when he’s caught for defacing school property, Cole is told he must join the restoration team at the abandoned 19th century Windwhyst mansion. He’s joined in that project by his domineering tutor, Thea.

Thea Wallace is your stereotypical teen movie style overachiever. She’s, as Cole puts it, “President of This and That and Your Mom Club” (Windwhyst, page 7). So of course she’s involved in just about anything and everything that can be put on a college transcript, and anything that will help her succeed, while everything else like friends, is just a formality.

While working at Windwhyst, the two stumble upon a hidden room full of treasures. As they are browsing those treasures, they find Augusta and Josiah Lyons, brother and sister and that have been dead for upwards of 250 years. After meeting the Lyons’ and getting over the idea that ghosts don’t exist, they find that the ghosts aren’t something to be feared, but are people too.

After talking to the Lyons’, Thea and Cole are approached by PELF, a horror movie-esque company that wants to meet with the ghosts and study them. Thea and Cole come to find that PELF isn’t at all what they seem and is actually much more dangerous and deadly. PELF is the kind of company that would give Norman Bates a run for his money in the creep factor.

With the help of a third, ex-military ghost, the friends set out to defend the world and the lives they all cherish. Now they’re all thrown into a world of murder, history, love, war, laboratories, experiments, and PELF.

Now there is more at stake for Cole than he ever thought possible. He’s faced with difficult decisions in terms of love, life, and the survival of not only himself, but also of Thea and the ghosts. And the project Cole was forced into has now played a bigger role in his life than he ever thought possible.

I actually really liked this story. I adored the characters…at least most of them, and thought they were extremely well developed. Cole and Thea had this very amusing love-hate, push-pull relationship. They’re polar opposites and it totally works for them. The ghosts are very intriguing, they’re full of history and life; even if they’re not actually living per say.

I found the involvement of PELF and its employees to be a totally different twist on a typical ghost story. It made things dangerous and adventurous for our protagonists, and exciting for the reader. Plus with Cole as the narrator, it gave a nice change to the normality of having a female voice, and a different spin on the issues and conversations they all had.

I did find a few grammar and spelling mistakes here and there and while that kind of irked me a bit at the moment, there weren’t enough to take away from the story or to be a big enough distraction. And I have found that it’s fairly common to find some in a self-published novel. Also while reading this story I did come to find a few awesome facts, such as the author, Christine O’Neill, is not only sixteen years old, but Windwhyst was also her NaNoWriMo novel! Now how cool is that?

Personally, if I had seen this book in the bookstore, I probably would have skipped right over it based on the cover alone, but I'm glad I didn't. While the image makes me think of the Windwhyst mansion and I think it's cool that the author took the photo, I wouldn't have used it as a cover. I don't really think it fits the nature of the story, and unlike the story it contains, the cover is a bit blah.

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I received this book for review for Teens Read Too.

Dear Big V by Ellen W. Leroe

Dear Big V by Ellen W. Leroe

Release Date: September 30, 2009

Publisher: WestSide Books

Age Group: Young Adult

Pages: 200

Overall:

When you look up the definition of “prude” in the dictionary, there are no words to define it, there’s only a picture of Courtney Condon. Courtney is the epitome of a good girl, she’s modest, and she’s the founder of Donuts and Coffee, the schools abstinence club. On top of all of that, she is also the only one in the school that can resist the charms of Lance Lindsey, the most gorgeous guy in school and the school’s total player.

Lance is THAT guy, you know the one, we all know the one. He’s gorgeous, charming, has a new girl every week, and thinks he can have anyone he wants. He’s the kind of guy that you think is so gorgeous, but wouldn’t want to even shake hands with without wearing a hazmat suit. But none the less, he is a fairly realistic character, aside from the “when he walks into a room, everybody stares” mentality, that is something that I’ve never seen happen in all my almost 21 years.

Courtney and Lance are thrown together to do the coveted Op-Ed piece for the school newspaper, and this fact amuses Lance and infuriates Courtney. They have this very Cate and Baze (Life Unexpected, new show on CW) kind of relationship going on and it’s pretty hilarious. Now it’s time to see what happens when the Queen of the Prudes and King of the Lewds is thrown together, and with the single-mindedly religious mother that Courtney has, anything is bound to happen.

I really wanted to like this book more. Dear Big V is cute and funny, and the author was able to address sex and abstinence without being preachy and clinical. But overall the book left me feeling…meh. I expected more from it, there was quite a bit of different things thrown into the story and instead of giving them all time to develop and finish well, they were all rushed into the last few chapters, which left me feeling unsatisfied.

Courtney is funny and mildly adorable, but then there were moments (mainly in the beginning) where I just couldn’t stand her. I found her judgmental and close-minded and I couldn’t connect with her, but as she started to grow, I did like her more but I still never fully connected with her. The one character I did adore was Andy, Courtney’s best friend, while she stands for her beliefs, she’s accepting of other people’s thoughts and feelings, plus she’s really funny.

One of my biggest issues with Courtney is that after a few kisses and literally only a few very brief conversations with Lance, she was telling her best friend that she thinks she’s falling in love with him. I know that in high school and being that age makes you think simple physical attraction can be love without really knowing someone, but that was just a bit much, and very unrealistic. I found it hard to believe that a character like Courtney could confuse love and lust so easily.

Maybe if I was younger and still dealing with the same issues as Courtney, I would have responded better, or maybe with the lack of connection I felt with the characters themselves, I wouldn’t have. There’s no way to really know. I do think that younger readers could benefit from Courtney’s plight; I would love for my niece to read this and maybe save her some heartache later down the road. I think it’s a good book for a look on abstinence, it doesn’t come of clinical and preachy like most others do, and for that alone, I do think readers will respond better. Maybe others will love Dear Big V, but it just wasn’t something I related to.

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I received this book as part of Around the World Tours.

Magic Under Glass by Jaclyn Dolamore

Magic Under Glass by Jaclyn Dolamore

Release Date: December 22, 2009

Publisher: Bloomsbury

Age Group: Young Adult

Overall:

Nimira is a trouser girl, which is basically a girl who sings and dances for pennies in front of drunk, unruly men. Nimira is beautiful, exotic, and in her country she would be revered for her profession, but not here. Here she is treated like someone lowly, someone not worth the time of the wealthy.

Nimira has always dreamed of walking away from this life, of becoming more than a trouser girl. And when Hollin Parry walked into her life, everything changes. Hollin hires Nimira to sing with a piano playing automaton (thank god for the game Syberia, or I wouldn’t have known what an automaton even was!), an automaton that is rumored to be haunted and has already scared off more than a few other girls in the past.

There’s something about the mysterious automaton that draws Nimira in, and with good reason. In reality, the automaton contains the spirit of the long lost fairy prince, Erris, and that’s not the only secret that Nimira stumbles upon.

Hollin lives in a world of secrets. Scary secrets. Secrets that have been long hidden, there’s the rumors of ghosts, demons, witches, and a group of sorcerers that torture fairies for sport and are on the cusp of starting a fairy war. This wasn’t exactly the world Nimira imagined when she left with Hollin.

I must start by saying that I absolutely adore the characters! Nimira brings this perfect mixture of strength, knowledge, and innocence. Hollin almost constantly toes the line between a villain and a hero, but he’s still a totally fascinating character; flawed, yet noble. Erris is charming and sincere; he’s strong, even without a “voice.” Then there’s the little used Linza, she’s that raw youth, the purity of being naïve, but still knowing.

What makes Magic Under Glass so encapsulating isn’t only the characters, it’s also the world that Jaclyn Dolamore has created around these characters. It’s beautiful, magical, mysterious, and dangerous all rolled into one. All you need is romance and you’ve got a fabulous story that will keep you occupied for hours, and Jaclyn Dolamore totally delivers.

Nimira’s voice is strong and her situation made her compelling, it was easy to care for her. All I wanted was for her to find the safety and security that she desired. The relationship between her and Erris was this beautiful, Romeo & Juliet-esque romance. It’s the kind of story that a hopeless romantic (such as myself) will adore. And there’s even beauty in the relationship that Nimira and Hollin have, even in all its complexity.

It almost felt as if Magic Under Glass was too short, at least for me. I wanted more time with Nimira, Hollin, and Erris, I wanted more time in their world. The ending seemed like it was abrupt and came out of nowhere. But there was also the impression that it was setting up a sequel. I hope there will be a sequel, and if there is, I will be first in line to read it. This is definitely a story I need to know what happens and I must know where Nimira and Erris’ journey takes them next.

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I received this book as part of Around the World Tours.

*This rating is based purely on the image itself. I know all about the controversy with the cover of Magic Under Glass, and while I do not think what Bloomsbury did (again) was right, I do like the image. I think it's a very beautiful image. And this rating also applies to the new cover, which I think is absolutely GORGEOUS!