Category Archives: Reviews

Read This!: THE LAST GREAT ADVENTURE OF THE PB&J SOCIETY by Janet Sumner Johnson

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The Last Great Adventure of the PB&J SocietyThe Last Great Adventure of the PB&J Society by Janet Sumner Johnson

Summary: Some things are better together. Like peanut butter and jelly. Or Annie and Jason. So when her best friend’s house is threatened with foreclosure, Annie Jenkins is bursting with ideas to save Jason’s home. She could sell her appendix on eBay. (Why not?) Win the lottery. (It’s worth a shot!). Face the evil bankers herself. (She’s one tough cookie, after all.) Or hunt down an elusive (and questionably real) pirate treasure. Whatever the plan, it has to work, or this is undoubtedly THE LAST GREAT ADVENTURE OF THE PB&J SOCIETY.

Ten-year-old Annie is big-hearted and impulsive, so it’s a good thing she’s got her best friend Jason to keep her grounded – he’s the peanut butter to her jelly. When Jason’s father loses his job and his family’s house is threatened with foreclosure, Annie knows she has to do something to help. A series of wacky plans ranging from the ridiculous (“win a radio contest”) to the surprising successful (organizing a neighborhood-wide anonymous food donation program) ensue, but through it all Annie and Jason find themselves up against the unwelcome idea that change in their lives is inevitable. One such change is the newly friendly attitude of their elderly neighbor, Mrs. Schuster, who regales them with tales of unlikely pirate treasure buried in their Utah neighborhood. From the hilariously funny opening, where Annie and Jason perform a ritual burial of a smushed PB&J, to the bittersweet, hopeful ending, this winning tale will have you rooting for these two loyal, likable protagonists and their deep friendship.

THE LAST GREAT ADVENTURE OF THE PB&J SOCIETY is out now.

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Read This!: BEYOND THE RED by Ava Jae

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Beyond the RedBeyond the Red by Ava Jae

Summary: Alien queen Kora has a problem as vast as the endless crimson deserts. She’s the first female ruler of her territory in generations, but her people are rioting and call for her violent younger twin brother to take the throne. Despite assassination attempts, a mounting uprising of nomadic human rebels, and pressure to find a mate to help her rule, she’s determined to protect her people from her brother’s would-be tyrannical rule. Eros is a rebel soldier hated by aliens and human alike for being a half-blood. Yet that doesn’t stop him from defending his people, at least until Kora’s soldiers raze his camp and take him captive. He’s given an ultimatum: be an enslaved bodyguard to Kora, or be executed for his true identity—a secret kept even from him. When Kora and Eros are framed for the attempted assassination of her betrothed, they flee. Their only chance of survival is to turn themselves in to the high court, where revealing Eros’s secret could mean a swift public execution. But when they uncover a violent plot to end the human insurgency, they must find a way to work together to prevent genocide.

In science fiction stories, we often see tales of aliens invading Earth. But what if the humans attempted to invade another planet? And what if they failed? Ava Jae offers a tale set generations later, on a world where the humans left behind are either enslaved or living as nomadic rebels. This book has my favorite opening scene I have read in some time. Ava Jae is a master of worldbuilding through action and dialogue, and the plot was thrilling and delightfully unpredictable. I was immediately taken with Eros, the half-blood rebel who becomes a slave, and Kora, the teenage queen he comes to serve. Their alternating voices are compelling, pulling the story along and creating a nuanced picture of the conflict from both sides. Eros is both the last person Kora can trust, and the only person she can. The forbidden attraction between them practically smokes off the pages. Be warned: there is a short period of glorious kissing. And then there isn’t. And you will want there to be. Long story short: I want the next book in the series, like, yesterday.

BEYOND THE RED is out now.
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Read This!: SEVEN WAYS WE LIE by Riley Redgate

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Seven Ways We LieSeven Ways We Lie by Riley Redgate

Summary: Paloma High School is ordinary by anyone’s standards. It’s got the same cliques, the same prejudices, the same suspect cafeteria food. And like every high school, every student has something to hide—whether it’s Kat, the thespian who conceals her trust issues onstage; or Valentine, the neurotic genius who’s planted the seed of a school scandal. When that scandal bubbles over, and rumors of a teacher-student affair surface, everyone starts hunting for someone to blame. For the unlikely allies at the heart of it all, the collision of their seven ordinary-seeming lives results in extraordinary change.

Seven teens. Seven flaws. One secret that binds them together and pulls them apart.
I loved the variety of voices in this book: Olivia, the girl called a “slut” for being unapologetically sexual; her distant, angry sister Kat; her best friend Juniper, who seems to have it all together but is falling apart inside; her other best friend Claire, who wears her insecurities and grudges like armor; Matt, the stoner who finally finds something worth giving a damn about; Lucas, the golden-boy swimmer hiding his pansexuality in their small Kansas town; Valentine, the Sheldon Cooper-like misanthrope that Lucas can’t get enough of. My favorite character was Valentine; despite the fact that he flat-out admits that he finds most people boring and distasteful, his morality guides everything he does. When he learns that a teacher and student at the school are involved in a relationship, he reports it anonymously. But when he figures out who the student is, he is determined to confront her and get the facts before he does undue damage, and when her secret gets out to the others, he convinces them to consider all the consequences before proceeding. Redgate uses the multiple points of view beautifully to build the story, showing the reader the same characters through multiple lenses and highlighting the complexities of individuals and relationships.

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Read This!: THESE VICIOUS MASKS by Tarun Shanker and Kelly Zekas

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These Vicious Masks (These Vicious Masks, #1)These Vicious Masks by Tarun Shanker and Kelly Zekas

Summary: England, 1882. Evelyn is bored with society and its expectations. So when her beloved sister, Rose, mysteriously vanishes, she ignores her parents and travels to London to find her, accompanied by the dashing Mr. Kent. But they’re not the only ones looking for Rose. The reclusive young gentleman Sebastian Braddock is also searching for her, claiming that both sisters have special healing powers. Evelyn is convinced that Sebastian must be mad, until she discovers that his strange tales of extraordinary people are true—and that her sister is in graver danger than she feared.

What a terrific story! I loved Evelyn, our restless, sometimes reckless, heroine, to whom propriety matters but saving her sister matters more. I loved Mr. Braddock, our dark and brooding hero, who would rather not be dark and brooding, but can’t help it. I loved Mr. Kent, Evelyn’s ardent, smooth, sometimes-smarmy suitor. I REALLY loved Tuffins, the butler with a heart of gold. (I need a Tuffins. I think we all do.) And I loved the way the Victorian setting, complete with its underbelly of humans with secret powers and even more secret motivations, leapt off the page. Running through it all is Evelyn’s distinctive wry narrative voice. Can’t wait for the second book!

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Read This!: THE SERPENT KING by Jeff Zentner

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The Serpent KingThe Serpent King by Jeff Zentner

Summary: Dill has had to wrestle with vipers his whole life—at home, as the only son of a Pentecostal minister who urges him to handle poisonous rattlesnakes, and at school, where he faces down bullies who target him for his father’s extreme faith and very public fall from grace. 
He and his fellow outcast friends must try to make it through their senior year of high school without letting the small-town culture destroy their creative spirits and sense of self. Graduation will lead to new beginnings for Lydia, whose edgy fashion blog is her ticket out of their rural Tennessee town. And Travis is content where he is thanks to his obsession with an epic book series and the fangirl turning his reality into real-life fantasy. Their diverging paths could mean the end of their friendship. But not before Dill confronts his dark legacy to attempt to find a way into the light of a future worth living.

The characters in this book, especially Dill and Lydia, are people I wanted to hang out with long after I turned the last page. I loved the way this book showed three young people taking on the world in all its vibrantly hopefully and tragically unfair glory.

THE SERPENT KING is out now.
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