House Arrest by K.A. Holt

House Arrest is a realistic fiction book appropriate for middle grade readers and YA readers about a 12-year-old boy who will do anything to help his brother. Timothy's baby brother (Levi) was born with Subglottic Stenosis that makes him unable to breathe normally. He had to have a tracheotomy done to insert a tube in his neck that goes directly into his windpipe. Unfortunately, germs and all kinds of viruses have the easiest access in the world into Levi's lungs. The medicine and medical bills are very expensive and puts huge financial pressure on their family.

His dad left one day and now the only one supporting the family is Timothy's mom. His mother is exhausted and there is barely enough money for food. Timothy's life was falling apart, and he only wanted to help. One day he saw a wallet lying around. He took it and used a credit card to buy a couple months worth of Levi's medicine. Now he has a year of house arrest and a court-ordered journal to write in where he has to prove that he is sorry for what he did. Throughout the book Timothy must come to realize that there are other ways to help his brother and the difference between right and wrong.

House Arrest was great! The book was written in poetry that made it even better. He even mentioned that one time. It is inspirational with the theme of family and sacrifice. Timothy was willing to do anything to help his brother. His mom wanted to take care of the family at all costs and constantly worked. Timothy wrote at one time that his life was pretty much house arrest anyways. He always stays at home and has to help and take care of Levi. Timothy pretty much gave up his life to help Levi. He also just gave up on school. He claimed that taking care of his brother is more important than doing his homework. The amount of emotion from Timothy was huge. In the beginning he steered away from emotion, but then he gave in and really started writing. The anger at his dad was tremendous.

The internal conflict was huge in the book. On one hand, he knows stealing is wrong. On the other hand, he knows that it would have helped. He was very determined to find help for his brother. There were sweet moments in the book, too. He has a crush on his best friend's sister, Isa. Their relationship was sweet and a little relief from the rest of his problems. House Arrest is a book that readers of all ages can enjoy. I would say that the reading level is middle grade, but the themes and the content can also be for YA readers.

The only thing I did not like was the ending. I need there to be a second book. There has to be! If there is not going to be a second book in the future, then the ending is really bad and shows no character development. It also has the biggest cliffhanger in the world. Now I have to make up my own second book story. That was easy, though. If I wanted to, I could write the whole second book right now.

UPDATE: There now is a sequel! Knockout was published in March 2018- I can't wait to read it!

I recommend that you read this book!

Title: House Arrest

Author: K.A. Holt

Publisher: Chronicle Books

Pages: 304 Pages

Series: No

Rating: 4 Stars

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Zeroes by Scott Westerfeld, Margo Lanagan, and Deborah Biancotti

Zeroes is the first book in a YA science fiction fantasy trilogy. These six teens have powers, and they consider themselves not to be heroes, but zeroes. Nate is Bellwether. He is the leader, and has the ability to change the desire of crowds. Chizara is Crash. She can destroy anything electronic. However, this power hurts her physically when she uses it. Riley is Flicker. She is blind, but she can see the world from other people's eyes. Thibault is Anonymous. Nobody can remember him unless they’re looking at him. Ironically, he is a very memorable character and a huge influence. Kelsie is Mob. She can change the mood of a crowd. It can make them happy and united. However, if her emotions slip, then the crowd can experience fear and anger.

Ethan is Scam. He has another voice that takes over. It knows everything about everyone. It can be effective if he wants something, but it gets him into trouble. Ethan's voice gets him into stealing money, and he goes to a bank to make an account. While he is in there, a bank robber comes in. To save his life, Ethan's voice starts taking. Things quickly get out of hand, and he becomes a huge interest to the police, and the world. The other Zeroes unite to help Ethan despite old rivalry. It turns out that the bank robber's daughter has powers, too, and this could change everything that they have ever known.

I love how much the other Zeroes look out for each other. They put aside everything and made it a top priority to keep Ethan safe. A thing that I loved the most is that unlike most superhero books or books about powers, this focuses on the negatives and the challenges that come with powers, not the benefits. Usually people think that it would be so cool to have powers, but lots of people probably do not understand the responsibility that comes with it.

Thibualt was my favorite character. I do not know how he coped with being forgotten. I would be so upset if people constantly forgot me. I liked how he was just outside the picture, like there and not there at the same time. There was a lot of drama between the characters, and that kind of took away from some of the action. However, I liked having the background knowledge and reading their thoughts about each other. I also really liked Ethan's voice. It was very interesting and entertaining to find out all this knowledge about all the characters, even the very unimportant ones. Some of the information was very funny.

I cannot wait to read the second book, Swarm!

Title: Zeroes

Author: Scott Westerfeld, Margo Lanagan, Deborah Biancotti

Publisher: Simon Pulse

Pages: 546

Series: Yes, Book 1

Rating: 5 Stars

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Top Ten Tuesday: New YA Book Releases in Early 2017

One of the most exciting things about a new year is new books to read! Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme created by the Broke and the Bookish blog. If you want to participate, click here. The theme for this week is Top Ten Books I'm Looking Forward to for the First Half of 2017.

 

I really want to read all of these exciting new YA books! This list is a mixture of YA realistic fiction, science fiction, and fantasy. Since I cannot decide which I want to read more, the following are in order by the expected release date, with the earliest listed first.

1. Life in a Fishbowl by Len Vlahos

Expected Publication: January 3rd, 2017

Everything Jackie Stone says and does is on live television, 24 hours a day. Her dad is dying of a brain tumor, and they are on a reality television show called Life and Death. 

2. The Book Jumper by Mechthild Gläser

Expected Publication: January 3rd, 2017

The main character in this book, Amy, has the power that I have always wanted- the ability to physically go inside a book and interact with the characters inside!

3. Silver Stars (Soldier Girl Book 2) by Michael Grant

Expected Publication: January 31st, 2017

I am so excited to read the second book in Soldier Girl! Frangie, Rainy, and Rio are once again on the front lines in battle, this time at Sicily, Italy. Read my review of the first book, Front Lines.

4. At the Edge of the Universe by Shaun David Hutchinson

Expected Publication: February 7th, 2017

Tommy and Ozzie have been best friends since second grade, and suddenly Tommy disappears from everyone's memory, except for Ozzie! Ozzie's theory: the universe is shrinking.

5. The Football Girl by Thatcher Heldring

Expected Publication: April 4th, 2017

This book is about what happens to a girl's life when Tessa decides to try out for the football team instead of the cross-country team.

6. Perfect (Flawed #2) by Cecelia Ahern

Expected Publication: April 4th, 2017

Perfect is the second book in the Flawed series where everyone has to be perfect, and those who aren't are branded flawed. In the second book, Celestine continues to fight for rights and equality. Read my review of the first book in this series.

7. Defy the Stars by Claudia Gray

Expected Publication: April 4th, 2017

Noemi Vidal is a teen soldier from the planet Genesis that was once a colony of Earth, but now it is at war for its independence. After a surprise attack, Noemi gets stranded in space on an abandoned ship.

  8. Dreamfall by Amy Plum

Expected Publication: May 2nd, 2017

Cata Cordova's insomnia is so severe that she agrees to take part in an experiment, but while the procedure is happening, a malfunction occurs in the equipment. She, along with the six other patients, are stuck in a dreamworld with all their worst fears, and the only way to wake up is to face them.

9. Cold Summer by Gwen Cole

Expected Publication: May 2nd, 2017

Teenager Kale Jackson has time traveling powers, but he can't control them. He accidentally goes to WW2, where he is a soldier fighting. The next day he is back in his life, but he has been given PTSD, and there is a history article that states his name as one of the casualties of the war.

10. The Original Ginny Moon by Benjamin Ludwig

Expected Publication: May 2nd, 2017

Ginny Moon is a teenager with autism who has just been given an amazing foster home. However, she does not understand why she can't be with her birth mom. The story shows the thoughts and confusion of a girl who just wants her real mom and a normal life. 

Bluescreen (Mirador Book 1) by Dan Wells

Bluescreen is the first book in the YA dystopian series, Mirador. In Los Angeles in the year 2050, the world is controlled by robots, and almost everyone has a djinni. A djinni is basically a chip that is implanted in your head. Imagine putting the smartest computer in the world inside your brain. That's basically what it is, and for the people who have it, being online is their life. They can literally "plug in" to a virtual world and be anything they want. The problem? Privacy is a thing of the past, and everyone can find out anything, especially if they can code. 

Marisa Carneseca is a genius coder. She can hack basically anything, and get anything that she wants. Normally, she is just a normal girl who helps out in her family's restaurant and goes to school and hangs out with her friends online. Everything changes when her friend Anja gets her hands on a new drug called Bluescreen. It plugs into your djinni, and gives you a temporary "high". The problem is that then the user passes out and then sleepwalks for 10 minutes. When Marisa investigates the code written for it, she finds a secret that lands herself in a conspiracy that threatens everyone in the world, and she knows that she has to stop it.

 

I think that the year this book takes place is very unrealistic. 2050 is only 34 years later than we are currently, and to have robots and chips to implant in your head and all this technology would be pretty impossible to happen in that amount of time. In the book the cars are basically the same as what we have here. In a world with robots and virtual worlds they still have normal cars. Somehow I find that strange.

Also, the language was hard to understand. Not in the sense of reading level, but so much information is just thrown at the reader that it is hard to understand. There were so many names of things that I kept having to stop and try to remember what it is. No background information is given about anything, and a reader has to constantly infer. The characters are not very memorable. There is so much technology that it completely takes away from who the people actually are. I just read the book, and when I think of the characters, I literally have to think for a few seconds to remember who they are. That should not happen! 

However, there were a lot of things in the book that I love! For one, the cover. The cover gives a really cool look into the story. The character on the cover is Marisa, because of the robotic arm that she got after a car accident. One can obviously tell how she is feeling, and if you look closely, you can see streaks of electricity on the buildings and in the air in the background. The detail on her clothes and on the buildings is really quite amazing. 

The pace and plot were how every writer should write their books. The pace was perfect. It escalated in the right moments and deescalated where it should have. Right were I would go "wait, what???" Then it would actually slow down for a page so the reader can process what happened. There were a lot of twists that I never saw coming, especially with the different characters being evil or good. The sense of betrayal was convincing and fit in perfectly. 

The book also teaches how dangerous technology and social media can be. Everything can be tracked and you cannot delete every trace of what you post or take it back. What you post on chat rooms, anything can still be seen and traced and hacked. The book was basically a very escalated version of what can happen, and gives a painful reminder about what coders can really do. 

The setting was incredible, and I was able to follow and picture all of the settings. They went a lot of places, and I vividly remember every single one. The ending was a cliffhanger and it was not. It was in the fact that it left room for another book (which is coming) but it still gives an ending to the book and leaves the adventure with a satisfying ending.

I am quite torn about his book, so I will recommend it and readers can judge for themselves. The second book, Ones and Zeroes, will be published on February 14, 2017. I will be reading it!

Title: Bluescreen (Mirador Book 1)

Author: Dan Wells

Publisher: Balzer & Bray

Pages: 352 pages

Series: Yes, book 1

Rating: 3 Stars

Goodreads

A Halo Sun by Christy A. Campbell

I received A Halo Sun for free from the author in exchange for an honest review. A Halo Sun is the sequel to The Sharing Moon, and it is a unique mix of YA realistic fiction and fantasy. Damian Cass was left to burn in a fire set by his dad. Damian did not want to die, and is in the In Between. When the Messenger sends him back with another chance, he ends up trading places with his father. Now he is alive, and his father is dead.

He arrives with no memories and lands in a psychiatric hospital, and hears his father's voice in the back of his head. He has to live with a mother he never knew and a past that is just as horrible as his real one. He is always angry and upset, but one person can change that. Aurora is set on making Damian more happy and open about himself. She has the same secrets as him, and they bond over time.

I liked A Halo Sun more than The Sharing Moon, mostly because of Damian. I liked the choice of Damian as the main character! We saw a tiny bit of him in the first book, and I like that readers can find out more about him. His emotions were very real, and I could connect a lot with him. The amnesia was more visible in A Halo Sun, and that helped the character development. He developed tremendously over the book. There was less romance than in the first one, and A Halo Sun is more about emotion and character development.

There was a lot more about Damian in the book than there was of Aurora, and I unfortunately could not connect with her. Aurora was distant, but she was the ray of sunshine that helped Damian overcome what happened in his past. The plot was great, and there was a very steady climb to the climax, which I loved! The Sharing Moon did not have as much as a build to the climax. Peter, the therapist, was very strange. There is a mystery left at the end of the book about him, and I can still keep guessing!

The writing style was the same as the first book- amazing! I could still believe every word that was written, and readers can dive into the book and be an eye-witness to all the excitement! I enjoyed that the book started at the hospital, and it made me instantly hooked.

I recommend that you read this book!

Read my review of the first book, The Sharing Moon.

Title: A Halo Sun

Author: Christy A. Campbell

Publisher: CreateSpace, Inc. and Lightning Source, Inc.

Pages: 308 Pages

Series: Yes, Book 2 of 2

Rating: 5 Stars

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The Sharing Moon by Christy A. Campbell

I received The Sharing Moon for free from the author in exchange for an honest review. The Sharing Moon is a unique mix of YA realistic fiction and fantasy, and has a sequel. Elijah Solomon died. He lost all of his memories and is a lost soul in the In Between. The Messenger sends Elijah back to a different reality without his memories to change the life of a girl. Seraphina Adams lost her father and lives with her mother, who does not really care about her. She finds it extremely hard to trust anyone and be happy, but Elijah makes it easy. Both of them have to eventually face their past, but they can do it together.

Elijah is almost too perfect. He is a beam of light and pure goodness. Seraphina is the darkness, the one who is insecure with a really hard past and likes to give up. They balance each other out, and they were meant to be. I liked the mystery of the Messenger. I kept trying to picture this mysterious character that can leave notes whenever and wherever. Elijah's dreams were very engaging. I loved his amnesia, and it was incredible to watch him begin to regain his memory.

The book tackled some important issues and everything felt real, like it was all happening right in front of me. I could feel the emotions of the characters while I was reading, even though the characters do not exist in real life.  There was way more thoughts and actions than dialogue, and I felt that was a wise choice.

I liked that the characters called their parents by their first names. It made them feel like real people, and that they had a purpose. In a lot of books I read, the parents and adults are just figures in the background, but in The Sharing Moon the parents were real characters that had big impacts. All the characters held a significance, even if they were little background characters.

The only thing that I would change if I was the author would be to make a more distinct difference between reality and the dreams. Sometimes I had to go back and think whether or not a scene was a dream. There was a little too much romance for my liking, but there was not anything inappropriate.

I recommend that you read this book! I cannot wait to read the second book, A Halo Sun, which I have also received for free from Christy A. Campbell.

Title: The Sharing Moon

Author: Christy A. Campbell

Publisher: CreateSpace

Pages: 318 Pages

Series: Yes, Book 1 of 2

Rating: 4 Stars

Goodreads

The Bad Decisions Playlist by Michael Rubens

The Bad Decisions Playlist is a YA realistic fiction book about chasing your dreams and making good choices. Austin Methune has always wanted to be just like Shane Tucker, a famous musician. Ironically, Shane shows up and announces that he is Austin's father. They are alike in more ways than one. They both have a bad history of doing stupid things and being irresponsible.

Austin hopes that with Shane around then he can have the chance to turn around his life and help make his dreams of music come true. That opportunity shows up a lot sooner than he thought, but only the second part. The first part, turning around his life? Not so much. It turns out that being famous has more responsibilities than he thought- and full of decisions for him to screw up. 

Austin's character was very isolated and I could not connect with him. He was a little too far away for my reach. He was a horrible friend and as much as he knew it, he did not want to change. He did not realize that there are consequences for your actions, and he wanted to grow up too fast. I would have liked to see more emotions from Austin. I wanted to yell at him for how careless he was being. I also did not enjoy the amount of romance. I felt that some of the scenes were a little too detailed, and steered away the focus. Speaking of the focus, I really liked the music! I thought the lyrics were really good.

The inspiration piece of the story is the difference of dreams and reality. Sometimes, you have to put aside your dream and do the essential stuff to get there in the first place. Austin wanted to jump ahead. Unfortunately, that happened for him. Shane was a huge influence on Austin. Shane was everything that Austin wanted to be, at least, all that Austin saw. He was so caught up in hope that he did not see the heartbreaking truth in who he was and why he really cared about Austin. The book teaches about focusing on reality and not getting carried away by hopes and dreams.

I recommend that you read this book.

Title: The Bad Decisions Playlist

Author: Michael Rubens

Publisher: Clarion Books

Pages: 304 Pages

Series: No

Rating: 3 Stars
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Lodestar (Keeper of the Lost Cities Book 5) by Shannon Messenger

I was literally jumping for joy when I received Lodestar, the fifth book in the middle grade fantasy series Keeper of the Lost Cities! I have been eagerly waiting for a year for the release of this next installment in my all-time favorite series!

Sophie and her friends have been allowed back in the Lost Cities, but nobody is safe. The Neverseen are planning something really big, and keep hurting more and more people and animals that are close to her. The only clues are from a friend who is infiltrating the Neverseen, and a symbol that even Sophie and Dex have trouble translating. When the Neverseen cross one of the biggest lines ever, and the possibility of war getting closer and closer, Sophie knows that she must act quickly.

One of my favorite things in the book was the telepathic conversations between Sophie and Keefe. Some of them went a couple pages in length at a time, and it helped to seal the gaps made by Keefe not being there. I really loved that even though the interactions with them are telepathic, this helped me connect with Keefe more in this book than the previous books.

Lodestar is the longest book in the series so far, and filled with a lot of events. There were so many things constantly happening! However, there was not an obvious difference between the small events and the bigger, main events. The only thing I would change if I was Shannon Messenger is to create a bigger distinction between the smaller events and the huge, earthshaking main events.

I am so upset about the character that died!!! I know it had to happen, but I really wish it was not this really important character. I understand why he/she died, but I wished I could reach my hand into the book and shake the character or do CPR to save his or her life. However, it takes a really amazing author to make a reader feel that way about a character. I honestly felt my eyes tear up a little bit.

The award for the author who writes the best cliffhangers in the whole world is Shannon Messenger! I always thought that the cliffhangers in the other books in this series were phenomenal, but, this one was spectacular! I need the sixth book right now! Oh, by the way, Shannon Messenger recently announced that there will be two more books!!! They will be released in Fall 2017 and Fall 2018.

I highly recommend that you read this book!

Read my reviews of the other books in this series:

• Keeper of the Lost Cities (Book 1)
• Exile (Book 2)
• Everblaze (Book 3)
• Neverseen (Book 4)

Title: Lodestar (Keeper of the Lost Cities Book 5)
Author: Shannon Messenger
Publisher: Aladdin
Pages: 688
Series: Yes, Book 5
Rating: 4 Stars
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The Accident Season by Moïra Fowley-Doyle

The Accident Season is a unique cross between YA realistic fiction and fantasy. Every October, Cara and her family become very accident-prone. Some years are worse than others, like the time when her father died, and sometimes it is just cuts and bruises. This accident season when Cara, Sam and Bea are 17, it is going to be horrible. This time, Cara has had enough, and is beginning to ask why these things are happening. However, the answers are dangerous, were never meant to be uncovered, and lead to a dark family history and the real truth about a loved one's death.

The fantasy part was confusing. It was not explained enough for a reader to understand the meaning. This is more of a book to read for the adventure and the mystery, and to connect with the characters. Trying to understand and asking a lot of questions kind of ruins the book. While I wish that there was more of an explanation, I think that the style was done on purpose.

The story was intriguing and had a great pace. It was the appropriate length, and I loved the length of the chapters, not too long, not too short. I really like the three sentences on the cover. They summed up the idea pretty well. I loved the part about "we stay alive." That was an awesome message. The cover is very attractive, and I loved it right away, especially the color scheme.

I loved the accidents! They were funny and unpredictable. Some of the accidents were worse than others, but some of them were funny. One example is that in anger, Bea throws her phone at a shelf, and the shelf collapses into the wall and then goes through the wall and falls on Cara. Some of the accidents were so extreme. I liked that.

A lot of times when there is a group of three friends, there is a third wheel. This was not like that. They were all equally friends for the most part. Cara wanted what was best for her siblings, and was not afraid to find the answers to protect them. Bea relied on magic and her cards to give her advice and see the future. I liked how Cara and Sam tried to help her stop. Bea was going through a tough time, and I loved how Sam and Cara tried to protect her.

I recommend that you read this book!

Title: The Accident Season
Author: Moïra Fowley-Doyle
Publisher: Corgi Childrens
Pages: 280
Series: No
Rating: 4 Stars
Goodreads

Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson

Speak is an inspirational YA book about speaking up for yourself and finding your voice. When Melinda starts Merryweather High School, she is alone and an instant outcast. On the last day of summer, she called the police on the biggest party ever. Nobody knows why she called the police except her. Since she has not told anybody what really happened, nobody will talk to her, and Melinda barely talks at all.

She goes through her freshman year hiding behind silence and the comfort of a hidden janitor's closet. Her grades are worse than ever, and her teachers do not like her. The only thing she likes is art. In art, she can express herself without saying a word. An art project helps her face what really happened at the party, and maybe speak up. 

This book is pretty popular, and I had been meaning to read it for a long time, but I never got around to it. I wish I had read it sooner! I loved Melinda. She was an easy character to connect to, and the book was like reading the thoughts inside her head. There were so many details and explanations for things.

I liked the format of the dialogue in the book. Most of the dialogue was like a play, and was like lines in a script. What I liked was that there were no quotation marks. While that is not how you normally are supposed to write dialogue, it really worked for the book. I think that it relates to a theme of silence about not having them. It would have been cool to see them being used at the end, to symbolize her speaking.

Melinda's parents were constantly mad at her and yelling to her about her grades. I wish just once the mother would ask if she was okay. Geez lady, your daughter stops speaking and you do not ask what is wrong? That made me mad at the parents, but in a way that was a really good thing. I really love characters that make you feel a certain way about them, especially anger.

The one thing that annoyed me was that the huge event where she finally can speak up was too short. I felt like the book should have been longer. The pace was strange. It moved too fast and too slow at the same time. This made it a really interesting book to pay attention to, as I suspect that the pace was strategic. A lot of things in the book seemed carefully planned.

I recommend that you read this book!

Title: Speak
Author: Laurie Halse Anderson
Publisher: Puffin
Pages: 198
Series: No
Rating: 4 Stars
Goodreads