Wednesday, February 6, 2013

The Book Review Club (February 2013)

HAPPY FOUR YEAR ANNIVERSARY TO US! Yup. We're your basic group of book junkies. We've been meeting online and reviewing books for FOUR, yes that's QUATRE, yes that's CUATRO, years! Talk about a lot of reading and reviewing. Whew. Kind of blows the mind.

Moving right along...What holiday is almost upon us? Valentine's Day. And what goes great with chocolates and flowers? A good book, of course. Be sure to click through the links under my review. They'll take you to everyone else's reviews. Happy reading!

OUT by Laura Preble (young adult)

In a nutshell: OUT takes place in a world where parallels (same-sex couples) are the norm. Where perpendiculars (opposite-sex couples) are sent to rehab/torture camps.Where the gov't and the church are all powerful. Enter Chris Bryant, son of a well-known preacher. You guessed it. Chris falls in love with a girl. The girl falls in love with him. And now we've got a couple of criminals on the run.

Particular to this book: The author has received love mail and hate mail. It was tough getting OUT published traditionally, and she ended up self-publishing with her agent. Here's the amazon link to OUT. While I'm at it, here's the link to the author's website. Here's the link to the book trailer.

My thoughts: At the end of the day, this is a young-adult novel with a good strong voice. It's the story of a couple of teens who don't fit in, fall in love with each other, and take on the government and the church. Lots of conflict. Lots of twists. Good ending. And more than enough meat to make you think about how you treat others and how much you blindly follow the rules.

**check the comments section. The author just stopped by.**

Without further ado, here are the links to AMAZING AND THOUGHTFUL reviews! You don't want to miss them.

MIDDLE GRADE/YOUNG ADULT BOOK REVIEWS
 Stacy Nyikos: GOBLIN SECRETS by William Alexander (middle grade)

 Alyssa Goodnight of the Writers' Road Less Traveled: THE SINISTER SWEETNESS OF SPLENDID ACADEMY by Nikki Loftin (middle grade)

Sarah Laurence: OUT OF NOWHERE by Maria Padian (young adult, contemporary)

 Staci of Life in the Thumb: THE FAULT IN OUR STARS by John Green (young adult)

ADULT BOOK REVIEWS
 Patti Abbott: THE BLACKHOUSE by Peter May

Ellen Booraem of Freelance Ne'er-do-well: THE CASUAL VACANCY by J.K. Rowling

Stacy of The Cat's Meow: THE SNOW CHILD by Eowyn Ivey

Beth Yarnall: The Madness of Lord Ian Mackenzie by Jennifer Ashley (historical romance)

Linda McLaughlin: MAJOR PETTIGREW'S LAST STAND by Helen Simonson
                                INDIAN MAIDENS BUST LOOSE by Vidya Samsonn (Indian Chick Lit)

Linda McLaughlin AKA Lyndi Lamont: THE SCARLETTI CURSE by Christine Feehan (romance)        

Jenn Jilks of Cottage Country: FACELESS KILLERS by Henning Mankell (mystery)
                                                 IF LOOKS COULD KILL by Kate White (mystery)
                                                 THE DOULA by Bridget Boland



Note to Reviewers: Any errors (broken link, missed review, etc), just shoot me an email or leave a comment. Thank you so much for your reviews!