10 Romantic Reads...

...to maybe try while I am on my honeymoon!

1.  Beastly by Alex Flinn - A modern retelling of "Beauty and the Beast" from the point of view of the Beast, a vain Manhattan private school student who is turned into a monster and must find true love before he can return to his human form.

2. Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl - In a small South Carolina town, where it seems little has changed since the Civil War, sixteen-year-old Ethan is powerfully drawn to Lena, a new classmate with whom he shares a psychic connection and whose family hides a dark secret that may be revealed on her sixteenth birthday.

3. The Book of a Thousand Days by Shannon Hale - Fifteen-year-old Dashti, sworn to obey her sixteen-year-old mistress, the Lady Saren, shares Saren's years of punishment locked in a tower, then brings her safely to the lands of her true love, where both must hide who they are as they work as kitchen maids.

4. Cruel Beauty by Rosamund Hodge -  Betrothed to the demon who rules her country and trained all her life to kill him, seventeen-year-old Nyx Triskelion must now fulfill her destiny and move to the castle to be his wife.

5. The Fault in Our Stars by John Green - Sixteen-year-old Hazel, a stage IV thyroid cancer patient, has accepted her terminal diagnosis until a chance meeting with a boy at cancer support group forces her to reexamine her perspective on love, loss, and life.

6. The Goose Girl by Shannon Hale - On her way to marry a prince she's never met, Princess Anidori is betrayed by her guards and her lady-in-waiting and must become a goose girl to survive until she can reveal her true identity and reclaim the crown that is rightfully hers.

7. Graffiti Moon by Cath Crowley - Told in alternating voices, an all-night adventure featuring Lucy, who is determined to find an elusive graffiti artist named Shadow, and Ed, the last person Lucy wants to spend time with, except for the fact that he may know how to find Shadow.

8. Immortal City by Scott Speer - Jackson Godspeed is the hottest young Angel in a city filled with them. He's days away from becoming a full Guardian, and people around the world are already competing for the chance to be watched over by him. Everyone's obsessed with the Angels and the lucky people they protect - everyone except for Madison Montgomery. Maddy's the one girl in Angel City who doesn't breathlessly follow the Angels on TV and gossip blogs. When she meets Jackson, she doesn't recognize him. But Jackson is instantly captivated by her, and against all odds the two fall in love.

9. The Selection by Kiera Cass - Sixteen-year-old America Singer is living in the caste-divided nation of Illea, which formed after the war that destroyed the United States. America is chosen to compete in the Selection--a contest to see which girl can win the heart of Illea's prince--but all she really wants is a chance for a future with her secret love, Aspen, who is a caste below her.

10. Wings by Aprilynne Pike - When a plant blooms out of fifteen-year-old Laurel's back, it leads her to discover the fact that she is a faerie and that she has a crucial role to play in keeping the world safe from the encroaching enemy trolls.

New School Year...New Books for September! (part 2)

Natural Born Angel by Scott Speer

Half-angel Maddy Montgomery is offered the chance to become a Guardian at a time when the Angels' relationship with humans is heading for war.

Indelible by Dawn Metcalf

Some things are permanent. Indelible. And they cannot be changed back. Joy Malone learns this the night she sees a stranger with all-black eyes across a crowded room—right before the mystery boy tries to cut out her eye. Instead, the wound accidentally marks her as property of Indelible Ink, and this dangerous mistake thrusts Joy into an incomprehensible world—a world of monsters at the window, glowing girls on the doorstep and a life that will never be the same.  Now, Joy must pretend to be Ink's chosen one—his helper, his love, his something for the foreseeable future…and failure to be convincing means a painful death for them both.  Swept into a world of monsters, illusion, immortal honor and revenge, Joy discovers that sometimes, there are no mistakes. 

Boy Nobody by Allen Zadoff

Sixteen-year-old Boy Nobody, an assassin controlled by a shadowy government organization, The Program, considers sabotaging his latest mission because his target reminds him of the normal life he craves.

 Fat No More: A Teenager's Victory Over Obesity by Alberto Hidalgo-Robert

The first grandchild born into his family in El Salvador, Alberto was showered with attention. Soon, though, he became known as "El Gordito," the little fat boy. By the age of seven, he weighed 120 pounds and his pediatrician had started him on a diet. By age nine he had tried ten different diets. His life became a vicious cycle of eating to excess, sneaking food and lying to himself and his parents; teased by peers and strangers, he ultimately turned into a recluse, addicted to food and television. From this low point, Hidalgo-Robert chronicles how he was able to take hold of his life, reinvent himself and become a model for other teenagers who are battling weight issues. This book offers a roadmap for living a healthy life and regaining self-respect and social acceptance. Each chapter contains "battling" tools, examples of good and bad behavior and typical self-deceptions in the war to conquer oneself and live a healthier life.

 If I Ever Get Out of Here by Eric Gansworth

Seventh-grader Lewis "Shoe" Blake from the Tuscarora Reservation has a new friend, George Haddonfield from the local Air Force base, but in 1975 upstate New York there is a lot of tension and hatred between Native Americans and Whites--and Lewis is not sure that he can rely on friendship.

April showers bring May...books :) (Part 3)

Immortal City by Scott Speer

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Jackson Godspeed is the hottest young Angel in a city filled with them. He's days away from becoming a full Guardian, and people around the world are already competing for the chance to be watched over by him. Everyone's obsessed with the Angels and the lucky people they protect - everyone except for Madison Montgomery. Maddy's the one girl in Angel City who doesn't breathlessly follow the Angels on TV and gossip blogs. When she meets Jackson, she doesn't recognize him. But Jackson is instantly captivated by her, and against all odds the two fall in love. Maddy is swiftly caught up in Jackson's scene, a world of glamour, paparazzi - and murder. A serial killer is on the loose, leaving dead Angels' wings for the police to find on the Walk of Fame. Even the Guardians are powerless to protect themselves in the face of this threat ... and this time it's up to Maddy to save Jackson.

 Grave Mercy by Robin LaFevers

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In the fifteenth-century kingdom of Brittany, seventeen-year-old Ismae escapes from the brutality of an arranged marriage into the sanctuary of the convent of St. Mortain, where she learns that the god of Death has blessed her with dangerous gifts--and a violent destiny.

 Last Echo by Kimberly Derting

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Violet, a high school junior, discovers the body of a teen killed by "the girlfriend collector" and is determined to solve the case, but the serial killer is on the lookout for a new "relationship" and Violet may have caught his eye.

 The Project by Brian Falkner

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After discovering a terrible secret hidden in the most boring book in the world, Iowa fifteen-year-olds Luke and Tommy find out that members of a secret Nazi organization intend to use this information to rewrite history.    

The Power of a Praying Teen by Stormie Omartian

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Along with Scripture verses and true stories of teens in action, The Power of a Praying Teen addresses key issues young people face, including purity, peer pressure, insecurity, body/self image, and friendships. Each segment of the book concludes with a prayer teens can follow or use as a model for their own prayers. Easy to access chapters focus on what it means to be maturing in all areas of life, including talking to God in prayer. Young men and women just on the cusp of growing up will find the compassion, help, direction, strength, and stability that comes with knowing and hearing from God in The Power of a Praying Teen.