Review: A & L Do Summer by Jan Blazanin

A & L Do Summer by Jan Blazanin

Paperback, 274 pgs.

Published: May 10, 2011 by EgmontUSA

Source: Won

I’d like to say something clever, but my tongue is paralyzed. This guy is tall and built and—okay, maybe he’s not exactly handsome. Wait, that’s not true. He is exactly handsome. From ten feet away I can see the electric blue of his eyes. All of that put together makes him the Superman of redheads. 
 
After a year in rural Cottonwood Creek, Iowa, city girl Laurel is still adjusting to a place where parties take place in barns, guys ride around in pickup trucks, and a killer senior prank involves getting pigs into the principal’s office. Fortunately, she has her best friend Aspen, an Iowa native, to show her around. The real problem is that neither the country girl nor the city slicker have boyfriends—or any prospects for getting them. Clearly, they need to raise their profile—and they have a summer to do so.

I was in a funk.  Nothing sounded good.  I started 5 different books and just felt blah.  Finally I realized that I needed a light, funny summery read and luckily I had just the book!  It was sitting on my shelf just waiting for the day that I desperately needed it.  I could only hope that it pulled me out of the funk.  And it totally did!  At least through this book, I had no problems reading it.  And actually read it in less than a day as I really did not want to put it down.  I totally devoured it!

Okay, so totally disregard that summary.  It makes it sound like this is Laurel's story, and it's not.  Aspen is the one who narrates.  Laurel is the one who pulls her into trouble over and over again.  And while the trouble isn't ALL Laurel's fault as they tend to have some bad luck, but every time she had some brilliant (NOT brilliant) idea I groaned out loud.  But I gotta say, each of those ridiculous things they did had me giggling quite a lot.  While at times it felt a bit too much, more on the ridiculous side, I still thought it was a very fun ride.  And I loved that each girl had a pretty strong personality.  And I don't really get why they weren't better known around school (they claim they are invisible), they totally should have been able to claim their own, have their own popularity for something.  Hilarity, I suppose. ;)

The book has a bit of romance but I actually wished it was a bit more prominent.  We get Aspen's thoughts (lustful daydreams) but not a lot happens.  And then when stuff DOES happen, it was left as an afterthought (we don't see it, we're told after the fact).  That was disappointing.  But I can't complain about insta-love at least!  And they had interaction, it just always seemed so short and I didn't feel like we got to know him real well.

Full of the importance of  family, friends, and animals with a touch of romance, this is a book that most anyone should pick up for a light summery read that provides plenty of giggles.

Review: The Adventurers Troll Creek by Mackenzie Reide

The Adventurers Troll Creek by Mackenzie Reide
Paperback, 212 pgs.
Published July 14th, 2011
Source: For Review

The last thing Dana Redding wants to do is waste her summer vacation in the middle of nowhere. It's bad enough that her mom has found a new guy she plans to marry, but now Dana is forced to spend two week's visiting this guy's kids. While exploring the local countryside, Dana, Jack, and Amy stumble upon the entrance to an old abandoned mine, where they uncover dangerous town secrets. Racing against time, weather, and armed theives, the three kids must struggle together to get out of the mine alive. For more information visit, www.theadventurers.com

This ended up being an absolutely fantastic adventure mystery.  This is the kind of book I read when I was young but is hard to find these days.  Everything now is about paranormal and mythology and magic and all that.  This is just a good ol' adventure with an awesome mystery in it.  

The characters are great!  They felt realistic to me while still being very strong.  They managed to cope with things that would have been very scary to deal with and the author didn't hold back in putting them in tough situations.  

The story was fantastic and had me engaged from the beginning.  Sometimes middle grade books don't hold me as well just because they are aimed at younger readers but this one did.  It was a fast read that I cruised through in no time.  And the writing was fantastic!  I never saw a single flaw in the way the story was carried out or in the editing.  It was absolutely terrific!  

This is a book I very highly recommend for middle graders and up who are looking for a realistic adventure with an awesome mystery.   

5/5 stars!

Disclosure:  I received this book for review purposes.  All opinions expressed are my own and I was not paid or influenced in any way.

Book Review: Past Perfect by Leila Sales

Past Perfect by Leila Sales

Hardcover, 322 pgs (I read an ARC)

Published Oct 4th, 2011 by Simon Pulse

Reading Level: Young Adult

Source: Borrowed

 All Chelsea wants to do this summer is hang out with her best friend, hone her talents as an ice cream connoisseur, and finally get over Ezra, the boy who broke her heart. But when Chelsea shows up for her summer job at Essex Historical Colonial Village (yes, really), it turns out Ezra’s working there too. Which makes moving on and forgetting Ezra a lot more complicated…even when Chelsea starts falling for someone new.Maybe Chelsea should have known better than to think that a historical reenactment village could help her escape her past. But with Ezra all too present, and her new crush seeming all too off limits, all Chelsea knows is that she’s got a lot to figure out about love. Because those who don’t learn from the past are doomed to repeat it….

 Such an amazing book!  This was a jump around and scream WOW book. This book was PERFECT!  It was a light hearted contemporary with a very funny main character (well, all the characters, really), a very sweet romance and a summer of FUN.  And it was the perfect book for my mood (and that's what I keep seeing in other peoples reviews too!). 

This book seriously gave me the giggles.  Chelsea is a very funny character, she says, does and thinks in such a way that it's just funny (yeah, sorry, my description kind of fell flat there...).  And I LOVED her!  Such an awesome character that really jumped off the page at me.  And yes, she had flaws, but she wouldn't be very real if she didn't, right?  

Now it's not all funny.  Chelsea is getting over an ex, dealing with some issues with her new crush because he's kind of (well, really) off limits (even if it is for a kind of silly reason...).  We watch as she realizes that maybe things weren't so perfect between her and her ex, as she figures out some complicated friendship things and discovers that living in the past isn't all that great.  

Honestly, there's not much to say about this one without major spoilers.  It's just seriously amazing with characters that pop, a setting that rocks (and is unique), a romance (and kissing!) that will make you swoon and a bit of adventure to bring back those fun summers of your youth (at least if you're an adult like me ;)  I borrowed this one but I'm seriously going to need my own copy cause this is book I'd like to reread over and over again!