Perfect Chemistry by Simone Elkeles

Perfect Chemistry by Simone Elkeles is a modern Romeo and Juliet story. Brittany Ellis and Alejandro Fuentes are as different as they can be. Brit is from the North side of town. She is rich, captain of the pom squad, beautiful and perfect with a perfect boyfriend in Colin the captain of the football team. Alex is from the South side of town. He is dark, dangerous, the toughest guy in school and belongs to a gang. No one would ever call him perfect. However, both of their lives are changed when they are paired together as lab partners in Chemistry class. Their open dislike of each other is obvious from day one.

The longer they work together though, the more they learn of each other. Alex sees that Brittany is not so perfect and Brittany discovers that Alex is not so tough. And Brittany and Alex discover that they are a lot more alike than anyone would think. Both are acting like something they aren’t in order to survive in their very different worlds. These similarities draw them closer together. Brittany tries to deny what is happening while Alex makes a bet with his buddies that he will sleep with her before Thanksgiving. And the romance that develops is dangerous, forbidden and fun to read about.

This story is told in alternating chapters by Alex and Brit. We get to see Brittany’s not-so-perfect home life and what drives Alex to join a gang. His chapters are sprinkled with Spanish phrases when he speaks with his family and friends. The ending is a little too neat, but this is a good take on an age old theme of Romeo and Juliet.

Knights of the Hill Country by Tim Tharp

The weather has been great for the start of school. I love the cool evenings and it is really beginning to feel like football weather. In honor of the season, I want to talk about a great football book, Knights of the Hill Country by Tim Tharp.

Hampton Greene is not the smartest kid in school, but he is one of the best football players. Hampton was introduced to what it means to be a member of the Knights football team when he first moves to town when he is nine. He meets his best friend Blaine and together they work hard to become starters of the Kennisaw Knights. Blaine is the star running back, but it is Hampton who makes the defensive plays that save the games. The Knights are working on their fifth undefeated season in a row and both Blaine and Hampton are feeling the pressure.

Hamp and Blaine have always been inseparable and Blaine’s world is black and white. The plan is that they will go to OU together and play football. They will date the most beautiful girls in school and be the Big Men on Campus. However, Blaine hurts his knee and is not as good as he was last season while Hamp has grown faster and better. This causes tension between the two friends. Also Hampton finds himself attracted to Sara who isn’t beautiful and wears baggy clothes and is much more interested in school than football. Hampton has always struggled with school, but working with Sara makes him realize that he is more capable that he ever thought. As this happens, Hampton finds himself growing further away from Blaine and learning to think for himself.

Knights of the Hill Country by Tim Tharp is a great novel that shows how Hampton develops into his own person and discovers the really important things in life. And the football scenes are very well written. This is a great novel for the start of school and the football season!

How to Build a House by Dana Reinhardt

I loved Harmless by Dana Reinhardt. It is a fantastic book that makes the reader wonder what she would do if she were in the same situation. How hard is it to betray your friends? How hard it is to tell the truth when you know it will get you trouble? How quickly do lies pile up?

Since I loved Harmless, I was really looking forward to reading Reinhardt’s book How to Build a House and I was not disappointed. Harper (like Harper Lee, an incredible author of one of my all-time favorite books!) signs up to help a volunteer group of teenagers build a house in Tennessee for a family that lost their home in a tornado. Living in Kansas, it is easy to understand the terrible devastation left in the path of a tornado; this brings to mind the horrible fates of the people living in Greensburg and Chapman who lost homes in storms not too long ago.

Harper’s reason for spending the summer in Tennessee is because she is fleeing her life in California where her family is falling apart. Harper’s mother died when she was two years old and her father remarried when she was five. Jane and her two daughters Rose and Tess become a vital part of Harper’s family. But when Jane and Harper’s father separate, Harper doesn’t know where she fits in this family that is no longer hers. Harper finds solace in building a home for the family in Tennessee and becoming friends with the oldest son Teddy. Harper also finds a substitute home and family with the other teenage workers during the summer and contrasts her relationship with Teddy with her on-again-off-again relationship with her friend Gabriel back home. Her narration moves smoothly back and forth between sections she calls HOME that talk about what happened before and sections she calls HERE which describe what is happening as they build a house.

This is a great book for young women to read. Harper gets sucked into a tragic relationship with a boy back home because she needs somewhere to belong and it takes her time to understand this and remove herself from the situation. It is an empowering book for young women, but all readers will see and understand Harper’s struggles to find a HOME.

Shift by Jennifer Bradbury

Welcome back to a new school year! I love the beginning of school. I know that makes me a nerd and probably explains why I chose to be a teacher. There is just something really exciting about August and the start of a brand new year! Chris in the book Shift by Jennifer Bradbury is not so excited about a new school year. He is starting his freshmen year at Georgia Tech, but because of the events of his summer, he is angry and worried instead of excited about the future.

Chris and his friend Win decided to take the summer after high school and ride their bikes across the country. They want an adventure before they start college. They started in their home state of West Virginia and planned to ride all the way to Seattle to see Win’s uncle. The journey is almost everything Chris hoped it would be. He challenged himself in ways he didn’t think were possible and had many great experiences. However, he and Win get separated just before they reach the West Coast and Chris cannot find him. So Chris gets on a bus and returns home without Win only to discover that there was no uncle in Seattle and that Win has not returned home. In fact, no one has heard from Win. Stranger still is the FBI agent who shows up at school the first week to question Chris about what happened to Win and he seems to suspect that Chris killed Win.

This book is a great mystery of what happened to Win after he and Chris were separated. The book alternates between the present as Chris tries to figure out what happened to Win and the past as Chris recalls the details of the trip. Reading this book is a great way to start a new school year as Chris discovers what happened to Win and learns a lot about himself along the way.

What I Saw and How I Lied by Judy Blundell

I just finished reading the National Book Award Winner What I Saw and How I lied by Judy Blundell. This is one of those books that stays with you even after you finish reading it. There are so many things to think and wonder about. It is the best book that I have read this year—of course, as you can tell from my blog, I haven’t read that many books this year!

This book is set in 1947 right after World War II. Evie’s step-father Joe has just returned from the war and started his new appliance business. Joe refuses to talk about the war and neither Evie, nor her mother, push him. However, one day he starts to get strange phone calls and he tells someone on the phone that they have the “wrong Joe Spooner.” Soon after, he loads Evie and her mother in the car and they head to Florida for a vacation. Evie has never been outside of New York and she is excited. When they arrived in Palm Beach, things are mostly boarded up, but they find an open hotel and begin to enjoy their vacation.

All is great until handsome 23-year-old Peter Coleridge shows up. He was a soldier that served with Joe in Europe, but Joe doesn’t seem to want anything to do with him. However, he immediately charms 16-year-old Evie who promptly falls in love with him. She becomes so absorbed in her feelings for him that she ignores the secrets and lies that seem to fallow him around. But when a tragedy strikes, Evie discovers that she must choose between her family and her love for Peter. Suddenly nothing is what it seems and she doesn’t know who to believe: her devotion to Peter? Her wonderful step-father? Or her mother who has been the one constant in her life? Her choices could destroy her and her family forever!

Suite Scarlett by Maureen Johnson

I loved 13 Little Blue Envelopes by Maureen Johnson so I knew that I would also enjoy her new book Suite Scarlett and I was not disappointed. Scarlett's family owns a small hotel in New York City. Everyone assumes that she must be rich because she lives in a hotel, but that is far from the case! In fact, the hotel has been struggling so much that the family has had to let go of all their staff and Scarlett's parents and Scarlett, her brother and two sisters have had to pick up the slack to do all the cleaning and cooking themselves.

The book begins on Scarlett's 15 birthday. For their 15th birthdays all the Martin children have received a suite in the hotel to care for. Scarlett gets the key to the Empire Suite and almost immediately Mrs. Amberson moves in for the summer. With the help of Mrs. Amberson, Scarlett's life is turned upside down.

Mrs. Amberson is a world traveler, a former actress and a very eccentric person. She tries to help Scarlett's older brother Spencer who wants to become an actor. When she takes over producing a theatre production, she introduces Scarlett to Eric an actor who has just moved to New York. Scarlett now has a budding romance, a new job and the family's failing hotel to worry about. It is sure to be an interesting summer!

Mistik Lake by Martha Brooks

In Mistik Lake by Martha Brooks, Odella's mother harbors guilt from an accident that happened when she was only 16 years old. Sally and three of her friends drove their car out on Mistik Lake and fell through the ice. Everyone was killed but Sally. The people of Mistik Lake say that it wasn't her fault; that she wasn't even driving, but Sally still feels the guilt and finds herself running from everything. When Odella is 16, her mother finally runs away from her family moves to Iceland with her lover. This book is how Odella learns to live with that abandonment, but it is also about why Sally feels the need to always run away from love.

Odella feels a pull to Mistik Lake where her family has a cabin and she and her two sisters spent most of their summers growing up. One summer she meets Jimmy and falls in love. The draw to Jimmy forces her to move back to Mistik Lake to spend the summer before going to college. She finds a job working at the meat counter of the local grocery store with a man who once dated her mother. That summer Odella finally learns the dark secrets about her mother and herself.

This is a gentle read that will be enjoyed by anyone who has ever lived in a small town. The citizens of Mistik Lake are so intertwined that it is hard to separate the families from one another and, of course, everyone knows everyone else's business. Odella, who has lived in a city her entire life, finds it hard to understand how everyone knew her mother and has stories to tell about her growing up. Mistik Lake tells the story of a teenage romance and the adults who have their secrets as they struggled to find love themselves.