The Tear Collector by Patrick Jones

I'll admit it, I haven't been reading too much lately. I guess that I have been spending too much time watching the Olympics! Anyway Krista, one of my wonderful library aides, has agreed to fill it with this fantastic book review!

Blood sucking, mysterious, and evil is what everyone perceives as a vampire, but Cassandra Gray does not fit that stereotype in The Tear Collector by Patrick Jones. Her family strives on human tears to fuel them for their days.

Whether it’s breaking up with boyfriends, turning friends against each other, or working at the local hospital, she’ll do whatever she can to get the tears to keep her grandmother going. But she’s getting tired of the lying and deceit especially when she meets Scott.

Meanwhile the next generation needs to be made and it’s Cassandra’s turn in line. She must mate with her seemingly perfect cousin, Alexei. But is he all he is cracked up to be?

Now she must choose between the newfound emotion and her family. Will she risk everything, including exile to be with Scott? Or will she continue to stay beside her family and court with the darling Alexei?

Twenty Boy Summer by Sarah Ockler

In Twenty Boy Summer by Sarah Ockler, Anna has lived next door to Frankie and Matt her entire life. They are best friends who do almost everything together. Everything is perfect, especially on her fifteenth birthday when Anna and Matt share a kiss. Suddenly they are sneaking time away from Frankie to be together. Matt feels that he should tell his sister about their relationship and he swears Anna to secrecy. But then the unthinkable happens; Matt dies in a horrible accident before he can tell Frankie and now Anna struggles with what to tell her best friend.

One year later, Frankie’s family invites Anna to go with them to California for a three week vacation on the beach. This is the vacation that Matt, Frankie and their parents take every year. Although Anna has never been to California, she has heard so many stories from Matt that she feels like she knows all about it. Frankie sees the vacation as a chance for a summer romance. In fact, she invents the challenge of the Twenty Boy Summer. She says that she and Anna are going to meet twenty boys while they are in California. Anna says that she will go along but really the only boy she wants is Matt back.

This is a heartbreaking novel about a family trying to deal with a tragic loss while Anna struggles with her right to feel the same grief.

ABC's of Kissing Boys by Tina Ferraro

In ABC’s of Kissing Boys by Tina Ferraro, Parker is a going to be a junior in high school and is looking forward to all the rewards that come with being an upperclassman. However, one week before school starts, everything falls apart. The soccer coach posts the list of players who will be playing on the varsity team this year and Parker’s name is not listed. She discovers that she is one of only two juniors who are on the JV team. To make matters worse, Parker’s popular best friends tell her that they will not be hanging out with her this fall because she needs to spend time “bonding” with her freshmen and sophomore teammates.

Feeling isolated, embarrassed and left out, Parker decides that making the varsity soccer team will fix all of her problems. So she works out a plan with her college age brother and his best friend the fantastically handsome Luke. "The Plan" involves Luke purchasing a kiss from Parker at the Sports Fair kissing booth. But Luke tells her that in order for the plan to work, the kiss must look real, so she needs to learn how to kiss.

Enter the good-looking freshman from across the street. Over the summer, Travis has grown several inches to over 6 feet tall and he has filled out so that he doesn’t look like a freshman and Parker learns that he is only 364 days younger than she is. Travis also worked at a camp this summer where he learned "lots" of kissing "techniques." Travis convinces her that her plan will only work if he gives her kissing lessons.

When she and Travis are caught together, Parker takes lots of teasing at school and this makes her resolve to make her plan work even stronger. The fact that Travis and Parker’s fathers are having a feud adds to the problems with the situation and gives the story a Romeo and Juliet feel. Of course, Parker learns what is really important but the romance that develops along the way is a fun read.