Very LeFreak Review

 
Title: Very LeFreak 
Author: Rachel Cohn 
Pages: 320 
Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers 
Publication Date: January 12, 2010 
My Edition: Hardback 
Reading Level: YA, Ages 14+
(sex, drugs, language, alcohol) 
Borrowed From: the Library

Summary from Goodreads: 

Very LeFreak has a problem: she’s a crazed technology addict. Very can’t get enough of her iPhone, laptop, IMs, text messages, whatever. If there’s any chance the incoming message, call, text, or photo might be from her supersecret online crush, she’s going to answer, no matter what. Nothing is too important: sleep, friends in mid-conversation, class, a meeting with the dean about academic probation. Soon enough, though, this obsession costs Very everything and everyone. Can she learn to block out the noise so she can finally hear her heart?

Rachel Cohn makes her Knopf solo debut with this funny, touching, and surely recognizable story about a girl and the technology habit that threatens everything. As time goes on, Josh goes against his parents and his own better instincts to keep Maddie from completely capsizing. Along the way, he begins to question his own rigid understanding of God and whether, as his mother says, a girl like Maddie is beyond redemption. Maddie leads Josh further astray than any girl ever has . . . but is there a way to reconcile his love for her and his love for his life in the church?

Review:
Very LeFreak was a very strange but funny and unique novel about a pretty messed up girl. Very (real name Veronica) has grown up with a single mother who is basically a hippie. They moved around from place to place on a whim. Her mother was very carefree until she died while Very was still in high school. She goes to live with her aunt who she barely knows and isolates herself in the attic away from her aunt. Very is a very smart girl and goes to Columbia University. She starts to have lots of problems with school and her friends because of technology addition through iPods, iPhones, and laptops by IMing, texting, memeing, emailing, ect, ect. Her friends finally intervene to help her which means being sent to ESCAPE, and the rehab causes many changes in her life.

The characters were all very different and original. Very was the most original character I have read in a while. She is very hard to explain, and I don't really know if I even like her. Her character is just very complex and nothing like myself. The whole story was pretty racy with lots of language use, sex, and drug & alcohol reference. I didn't mind it too much because that is what the main character was like for someone who came from a dysfunctional childhood. I was very shocked by the last 100 pages because so many unexpected things happened. The book was very fast paced and easy to read. I love Rachel Cohn's books, but this one was good but just one of her greatest.

Rating:

Waiting on Wednesday (31)

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event hosted at Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that I'm eagerly awaiting. This week I can't wait for Dash & Lily's Book of Dares by both Rachel Cohn and David Levithan! I have read many of Rachel's books and loved them and really liked Nick and Norah's and Naomi and Ely's by both of the authors, so I can't wait to see how this stacks up to the others : ) Also, the cover is so cute and fun. I'm very excited to read it when it comes out on October 12, 2010!

Dash & Lily's Book of Dares

By: Rachel Cohn and David Levithan

Description from Goodreads:

Told in the alternating voices of Dash and Lily, two sixteen-year-olds carry on a wintry scavenger hunt at Christmas-time in New York, neither knowing quite what--or who--they will find.

Saving Maddie Review

Title: Saving Maddie 
Author: Varian Johnson 
Pages: 231 
Publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers 
Publication Date: March 9, 2010 
My Edition: ARC Paperback 
Reading Level: Young Adult 
Received From: Goodreads First Reads

Summary from Amazon: 

Joshua Wynn is a preacher’s son and a “good boy” who always does the right thing. Until Maddie comes back to town. Maddie is the daughter of the former associate pastor of Joshua’s church, and his childhood crush. Now Maddie is all grown up, gorgeous—and troubled. She wears provocative clothes to church, cusses, drinks, and fools around with older men. Joshua’s ears burn just listening to the things she did to get kicked out of boarding school, and her own home.

As time goes on, Josh goes against his parents and his own better instincts to keep Maddie from completely capsizing. Along the way, he begins to question his own rigid understanding of God and whether, as his mother says, a girl like Maddie is beyond redemption. Maddie leads Josh further astray than any girl ever has . . . but is there a way to reconcile his love for her and his love for his life in the church?

Favorite & Funniest Lines:

     "You look like a chipmunk," she said has she took the bottle from me. "You're supposed to drink it, not store it for the winter."

Review:
Saving Maddie was an interesting, well-written, and unique story full of religion, finding your true self, and romance between two "preacher kids." The story was very different than most young adult novels and had many entertaining characters. Since I'm not very religious, I hesitated a little to read a book containing a lot of religion aspects about a preacher's son and his best friend who is a preacher's daughter. The author wrote the story so the religion wasn't such a strong element of the plot but was enough to understand the characters.

Interestingly enough, I liked reading  a male protagonist in his point-of-view instead of a female main character like most of the YA books I've read. Joshua is described as the "good guy" but it's starting to define him which he starts to really dislike. His best friend Maddie moved away when they were still children, but she comes back many years later as a changed woman. She has grown up, and now does things he has never dreamed she would. 

With Madeline back in town, chaos stirs up Joshua's life. She doesn't want to be changed and really hates her father who won't let her back home. Her life is really screwed up, but when Joshua and her start talking and become closer physically, she finds herself changing. Sex, drugs, and alcohol is brought up, but it isn't shown to be cool and shows how teenagers are really faced with those issues. Because of that, I really liked how the story and the characters were very realistic. I was intrigued by Saving Maddie, so I'm really interested in reading Varian's other YA novel.

Rating:

IMM (28): HAPPY EASTER!

IMM was started by The Story Siren. In My Mailbox is where I post the books/swag I won, received for review, bought, borrowed, or ect. This is the book I got this week, and the summary is from amazon:

Butterfly ARC  By Sonya Hartnett   Growing up during the 1980s in the safe complacency of the Australian suburbs, Plum Coyle should be happy. But on the cusp of her fourteenth birthday - and on the fringe of her peer group - she lives in terror of the disapproval of her cruel and fickle girlfriends, and most of all, she hates her awkward, changing body with a passion.So when Plum's glamorous next-door neighbour Maureen, a young wife and mother, befriends Plum, Plum responds with worshipful fervour. Plum feels herself reinvented. With Maureen, she becomes the girl she's always wanted to be. But Maureen has an ulterior motive for taking Plum under her wing . . .

What books did you get this week?

Boys, Bears, and a Serious Pair of Hiking Boots Review

Title: Boys, Bears, and a Serious Pair of Hiking Boots 
Author: Abby McDonald 
Pages: 293 
Publisher: Candlewick Press 
Publication Date: April 13, 2010 
My Edition: ARC Paperback 
Reading Level: Young Adult 
Received From: LibraryThing's Early Reviewers

Summary from Amazon: 

Can a boy-hungry Jersey girl survive the wilds of Canada with her eco-identity intact? A witty new YA novel from the author of SOPHOMORE SWITCH.

Jenna may hail from the ’burbs of New Jersey, but Green Teen activism is her life. So when her mom suggests they spend the summer at Grandma’s Florida condo, Jenna pleads instead to visit her hippie godmother, Susie, up in rural Canada. Jenna is psyched at the chance to commune with this nature she’s heard about — and the cute, plaidwearing boys she’s certain must roam there. But after a few run-ins with local wildlife (from a larger-than-life moose to Susie’s sullen Goth stepdaughter to a hot but hostile boy named Reeve), Jenna gets the idea that her long-held ideals, like vegetarianism and conservation, don’t play so well with this population of real outdoorsmen. A dusty survival guide offers Jenna amusing tips on navigating the wilderness — but can she learn to navigate the turns of her heart?

Funniest lines: (I actually laughed out loud when I read them!)

     "Don't stress--it's just PMS!" Grady says, laying out with his baseball cap covering his eyes. "It's always PMS with these chicks--argh!" He cries out as Fiona upends her soda over his bare chest. He scrambles to his feet, soaked with the sticky liquid. "What the hell?"

     "Whoops," she answers, dead pan. "Must be that darn time of the month."  

Review:

Boys, Bears, and a Serious Pair of Hiking Boots was a cute, funny, fast-paced novel full of quirky, lovable characters. Jenna, the fun main character, is a environmentalist "Green Teen" who thinks the world needs to go green but starts to realize it may not be as important as she once thought after experiencing life in Canada. She goes to live with her godmother in Canada instead of going to Florida with her mother and grandmother, and she discovers a whole new place full of nature and a very small town. 

Jenna has to deal with the goth girl stepdaughter who hates her new stepmom and especially Jenna who she now has to share a room and a bathroom with. The relationship between Fiona and Jenna was pretty tedious until Jenna calls her out which causes to Fiona to finally change. Fiona was a great character, and she was basically the antagonist until the end when she really changes for the better.

My favorite part of the book was the small town Johnson boys who were so fun to read about! At first, they just mess with Jenna and act a little rude, but she starts to become really close with them. A romance starts with one of the boys and a best friend relationship with another. The relationship between Jenna and one of the boys was pretty cute, but he wanted to keep it a secret which never seems to work out...

The ending left a lot open to interpretation which was good and bad. I doubt there will be a sequel, but if there would be, I would love to read it! Overall, Boys, Bears, and a Serious Pair of Hiking Boots was a great, fast read which I read in about two sittings. I thought it would just be a fun, quick, fluff read, but it had a lot more substance to it. It has lots of adventure, social issues, friendship even ex-friendship, romance, and just good old mother nature which includes a bear, a moose, and more. I highly recommend reading it, and I can't wait to check out other books by Abby McDonald!

Rating:

200 Followers Contest Winners and Cover Voting Again!

Hey all, I hope everyone is having a great holiday break! I picked the 200 Followers winners and out of 39 people and 234 entries, these are the winners!

Winner One ~ who gets to pick one book from the picture above:

        Eleni X. of La Femme Readers        

Winner Two ~ who gets to pick one book from the picture above that winner one didn't choose:

          Lisa S. of The Little Reader          

Winner Three ~ who gets a swag pack of many bookmarks and two stickers:

       Meghan D. of Meghan's Book Blog      

Congrats to the winners...I'll be emailing you all shortly! Please respond back quickly by Sunday, so I send them out early next week.

P.S. I asked what everyone's favorite book so far this year was, and the book most mentioned was Some Girls Are by Courtney Summers! I will definitely have to read it soon : ) Also, I will have a review up later tonight.
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Yay, my cover for Princess Bookie's cover contest made it into the second round! Go HERE to vote for your favorite and maybe mine ; )