Category Archives: Reviews

Read This!: THE DISTANCE FROM A TO Z by Natalie Blitt

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The Distance from A to ZThe Distance from A to Z by Natalie Blitt

Summary: Seventeen-year old Abby has only one goal for her summer: to make sure she is fluent in French—well, that, and to get as far away from baseball and her Cubs-obsessed family as possible. A summer of culture and language, with no sports in sight.  That turns out to be impossible, though, because her French partner is the exact kind of boy she was hoping to avoid. Eight weeks. 120 hours of class. 80 hours of conversation practice with someone who seems to exclusively wear baseball caps and jerseys.  But Zeke in French is a different person than Zeke in English. And Abby can’t help but fall for him, hard. As Abby begins to suspect that Zeke is hiding something, she has to decide if bridging the gap between the distance between who she is and who he is, is worth the risk.

I pretty much mainlined this book in two days because I could. not. put. it. down. If you are a fan of the sweet and swoony, but sometimes steamy, teen romance, if you love the Anna/Lola/Isla books of Stephanie Perkins, then drop everything else immediately and get your hands on this book. It was absolutely made for you.

Abby grew up in a family of baseball fanatics, and she used to enjoy baseball herself – until she started to feel like a changeling child for daring to think that something else might be more interesting. For her, that’s French – she loves everything French, and wants nothing more than to immerse herself in the French language so that she can spend her last semester of high school in Paris and attend university there. To that end, she enrolls in an 8-week intensive summer program at a quaint New Hampshire college, where she meets kindred spirit/roommate Alice (theirs is one of my favorite YA friendships ever) and handsome athlete Zeke. Abby’s had her share of bad experiences dating athletes, so she puts off his flirting from day one – but he is in the same intensive French course she is, and, as the only two high school students, they are forced to pair up. What follows might have been predictable, fluffy rom-com fare in less competent hands, but Blitt builds up a believable and tense push-and-pull between Abby and Zeke as both try to balance their own fears and secrets with the undeniable passion growing between them. Their romance blossoms in French, finally translates to English, and will take root in your heart.

THE DISTANCE FROM A TO Z is out now.

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Read This!: THIS IS WHERE IT ENDS by Marieke Nijkamp

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This Is Where It EndsThis Is Where It Ends by Marieke Nijkamp

Summary: Told over the span of 54 harrowing minutes from four different perspectives, terror reigns as one student’s calculated revenge turns into the ultimate game of survival.

This was a difficult, heartbreaking read, with a horrifying topic handled with spare grace. It took me a couple of days to recover! I love the way the author shows multiple perspectives of the shooting, drawing us in to the intertwining stories of a diverse group of students undergoing a terrifying ordeal. Sometimes it’s through straightforward narration, sometimes through tweets and texts and blog posts. Hard to read, but rewarding in its reaffirmation of the humanity that ties us all together.

THIS IS WHERE IT ENDS is out now.

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Read This!: FIRSTS by Laurie Elizabeth Flynn

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FirstsFirsts by Laurie Elizabeth Flynn

Summary: Seventeen-year-old Mercedes Ayres has an open-door policy when it comes to her bedroom, but only if the guy fulfills a specific criteria: he has to be a virgin. Mercedes lets the boys get their awkward, fumbling first times over with, and all she asks in return is that they give their girlfriends the perfect first time- the kind Mercedes never had herself.  Keeping what goes on in her bedroom a secret has been easy- so far. Her absentee mother isn’t home nearly enough to know about Mercedes’ extracurricular activities, and her uber-religious best friend, Angela, won’t even say the word “sex” until she gets married. But Mercedes doesn’t bank on Angela’s boyfriend finding out about her services and wanting a turn- or on Zach, who likes her for who she is instead of what she can do in bed.  When Mercedes’ perfect system falls apart, she has to find a way to salvage her reputation and figure out where her heart really belongs in the process. Funny, smart, and true-to-life, FIRSTS is a one-of-a-kind young adult novel about growing up

This book reminded me a bit of THE DUFF by Kody Keplinger – both books take a frank, unvarnished look at teenage sexuality, both feature likeable protagonists who struggle with real intimacy, and both are populated by winning characters that suck you right into the story.

Mercedes is a flawed, relatable girl whose unconventional response to her own sexual trauma is to devote herself to making the first time better for other girls – by training their boyfriends in secret. Her own relationships spin wildly out of her control – with Zach, the one guy she really cares about but can’t bear to get close to; with Angela, the naïve best friend who has no idea about Mercedes’ extracurricular activities; with Faye, the new girl who challenges Mercedes’ ideas about herself; with her mother, who long ago stopped trying to be any kind of maternal figure. And Mercedes tries to exert control through her secret sexual life. Of course, in the age of social media and rampant slut shaming, her lessons can never stay secret, but when it all falls apart, Mercedes finally learns the most important lesson of all – that she has people in her life who love her, and that she is worthy of that love.

FIRSTS is available now.

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