Books Reviews

Running Past Dark YA Book Review – when a teen loses her twin and needs to move forward

What happens to the twi left behind? Book synopsis:

Scottie O’Doul isn’t looking forward to starting her senior year. Last May, her identical twin sister, Cait, died in a car crash involving the school’s beloved football coach. Scottie knows her twin would never take her own life, or someone else’s, but how can she prove it? As she faces bullying and hostility at school, she starts to wonder if what Cait said was even true. Turning to running to break through her grief, Scottie finds a new world and a new sense of self outside her twinness. She also reconnects with her old boyfriend, who had a terrible accident of his own the same day Cait died. Could there be a connection As she runs mile after mile, Scottie keeps trying to fit the jigsaw pieces together and find the true picture of what happened to Cait and what was really going on at school before the crash.

You don’t have to be a runner to feel Scottie’s energy in this book and the soul searching that happens when a twin is left behind at a young age. It is a bit of mystery with plenty of energy and you won’t want it to end. The book is available on Amazon and other favorite bookstore.

Books Reviews, Children's Books

Sky Ropes book review | A girl’s journey to overcome trauma

Sky Ropes book follows one girl's journey to overcome trauma

Sky Ropes is a book for ages 10 and up from Chronicle Publishing. It comes in Hardback or Kindle and is a story about a girl’s journey to overcome trauma and her bravery. The girl is Breanna and she is attending her school’s teambuilding camp. The major exercise will be ascending Sky Ropes—the highest ropes course in the state. She has zero plans to accomplish this.

Breanna’s trauma is her Father’s abuse. Somehow, the fear from her past is colliding with her fear of that Sky Ropes at the end of camp week. She makes the most of camp with friends. You will get to know her prankster and fun personality, you will feel her trauma and the tense moments she is feeling as the Sky Ropes challenge nears. You will cheer for her and go along the journey of all her internal struggles and realizations in the end. This book is great for those struggling with anxiety, fear and who love adventure stories.

Sky Ropes is written by Sondra Soderborg, a former practicing attorney, child advocate, and teacher at both a high school and a prison. But now on Amazon.

Books Reviews

Two Books for Tweens for their summer reading

Two Books for Tweens for their summer reading

2 new release books for tweens sure to keep them reading this summer are available from Simon & Schuster Publishing. One is a sequel for ages 8-12 and the other explores the perils of youths and gang violence for ages 14 and older.

The One And Only Ruby by Katherine Applegate

The original book The One And Only Ivan stole and even broke our hearts about a silverback gorilla. Then came The One And Only Bob where we followed this dog’s survival story. Now we meet Ruby, the Elephant and not only do we get some elephant facts and glossary but a story about ecological devastation of the ivory trade, circus and zoo life woes. This book is for animal lovers with a heart big enough to break a little as they move through the pages. But, Ruby tells her horror story in a playful way to show how she has overcome. Buy The One And Only Ruby on Amazon!

Borderless by Jennifer De Leon

Synopsis: For seventeen-year-old Maya, trashion is her passion, and her talent for making clothing out of unusual objects landed her a scholarship to Guatemala City’s most prestigious art school and a finalist spot in the school’s fashion show. Mamá is her biggest supporter, taking on extra jobs to pay for what the scholarship doesn’t cover, and she might be even more excited than Maya about what the fashion show could do for her future career.

So when Mamá doesn’t come to the show, Maya doesn’t know what to think. But the truth is worse than she could have imagined. The gang threats in their neighborhood have walked in their front door—with a boy Maya considered a friend, or maybe more, among them. After barely making their escape, Maya and her mom have no choice but to continue their desperate flight all the way through Guatemala and Mexico in hopes of crossing the US border. Buy Borderless on Amazon.

Books Reviews

Retro is a young adult thriller of a dangerous challenge

Retro is a young adult thriller of a dangerous challenge around modern technology

How appealing would it be to earn a college scholarship by participating in a challenge? It is called the Retro Challenge, where contestants live without modern technology, wear vintage clothes, party as if the future weren’t already written, and fall in love as if they were living in a movie. Easy, right?

Well, some very unexpected situations start occurring. It actually begins to get fairly dangerous. Friends are starting to disappear and there are voices and blood stains near trees. Things are getting very strange and our character, Luna, begins to fear for her safety. It is like someone is sabotaging the challenge and she better find out who, real fast!

Retro is a young adult thriller and is now available at Amazon and book stores near you. The Authors are Jarrod Shusterman and Sofía Lapuente. Jarrod is New York Times bestselling coauthor of novel Dry and Sofía is an author, screenwriter, and avid world traveler who immigrated from Spain to the United States.

Order your copy of Retro today!