The Boyfriend

 The Boyfriend by Freida McFadden, 2024 Penguin

     Online dating is not how any young woman dreams of meeting Mr. Right, especially Sydney Shaw. When her latest potential conquest is a flop of the highest caliber - including expecting favors in return for investing his time in their dinner plans - Sydney doesn't think life could get any worse. 

     Tom is a teenager struggling with his attraction to the beautiful Daisy Driscoll. As a sixteen-year-old he knows dating the police chief's daughter isn't in line with his dark desires to cause her harm. When one of their classmates goes missing, Daisy looks to Tom for protection even though his best friend, Slug, is a little bit creepy. Tom worships the ground that beautiful girl walks on. 
     She is proven wrong when she discovers her best friend Bonnie's mutilated and murdered body in her apartment. The murder drives the thirty-four-year-old to be ever more cautious of her surroundings and back to her police officer ex-boyfriend. Jake is investigating a serial murder and keeping tabs on Sydney when she meets and begins dating Dr. Thomas Brewer. Thomas had saved Sydney from her disastrous foray into online dating, but what is his connection to the 16-year-old Tom who is in love with Daisy. 

     As Sydney's and Tom's relationships grow and develop, the parallel investigations into so many deaths around both of them lead to some shocking conclusions. Whether those conclusions are truth, only time will tell. 

     The Boyfriend is a contemporary murder-mystery suspense told from two points of view in two timelines. Sydney surviving Bonnie's murder with her friend Gretchen, ex-boyfriend Jake, and new boyfriend Thomas are in the present day. But how are they linked to Tom in the past with his friend Slug, the murdered teenage girls, and the love of his life: Daisy? McFadden's signature twist is sharp and unexpected. The novel is intended for mature readers with graphic violence and risqué content. 

That's Amore

That's Amore by Janice Thompson, 2014 Revell Publishing

     Several years after her wedding to DJ Neely, Bella is in her husband's hometown to set up a second Club Wed. Shortly before the two relocate with their children Bella discovers that her family will be growing and plans to continue her work in Splendora as long as she can. 

     In Galveston, Bella's sister and her husband have taken the lead in her absence. DJ's business is booming and they turn their eyes back toward Splendora, Texas, and the renovation of Club Wed no. 2. Bubba Neely, DJ's younger brother, and his wife, Bella's best friend, have moved back to his hometown to open a Bar-B-Que joint but face opposition from some town influencers. 

     Neither DJ nor Bubby knows why the mayor opposes both of their enterprises--they'll bring commerce to the small town. As they battle to make a life, even temporarily, in Splendora Bella and her friends struggle with the temptation to give in to wants rather than behaving as her faith prescribes. 

     Halfway through her pregnancy DJ suggests renewing their vows when the chapel at Club Wed is complete. Bella finds the challenges of pregnancy--with twins no less--the frustration caused by Splendora's mayor, the distance from her family, and the minor dramas of small-town life combine to be more than she can handle alone. 

     Bella repeatedly learns she cannot do it all, especially not on her own. This final installment in Bella and DJ's story focuses on faith and family to get through difficult and unexpected times. 

It Had to Be You

It Had to Be You by Janice Thompson, 2010 Fleming H Revell

    On the heels of her second themed wedding, Bella is overjoyed to be planning her aunt and uncle's wedding, quickly followed by her own ceremony. That is until her little sister decides to marry within weeks of Bella's big day. 

     Rosa and Lazarro's forties-themed bash is a joy to plan and the Rossi family reunites across the ocean. Even Lazarro's old mobster friend Sal shows up. The Rossi clan of Galveston Texas believes they can help the old man find salvation. Laz hopes Sal's parrot Guido can help lead him to faith. 

     Sal finds more than Guido and the Rossis helping him toward the Christian faith. The Splendora trio is always willing to lead a man to water. When Sal seems to find a little more than friendship with one of the ladies it seems he may be drawn fully into the light. 

     The family drama pulls Bella and her family from their roots. Old and new rivalries and jealousies challenge each member of the family but draw them back together and to their faith. 

     In planning her own nuptials, maintaining a happy front while her parents remodel as a surprise for Rosa and Laz, and spreading her time thin enough to help Sophia plan her own wedding Bella forgets to take time for herself. Bella is forced to learn to rely on others and her faith to make her dreams a reality. 

     The Rossi family is grounded in their faith and their connection to each other. Bella and DJ get their happily ever after among family and friends, just as they've helped arrange for many couples before them. 

Swinging on a Star

Swinging on a Star by Janice Thompson, 2010 Baker Publishing

     After Bella's first themed wedding is a success she is challenged by a new theme. Rob and Marian want a Medieval theme and Bella Rossi is more than happy to oblige: she even had a castle built to house the ceremony.
     Rob and Marian have a surprise for their wedding planner. Bella is stunned at the news Rob's best friend is a Hollywood movie star, Brock Benson. They ask if Bella and the Rossi clan can help keep Brock from the paparazzi. Anything to make her bride's day perfect: Bella agrees.
     The young man who deejayed Bella's first wedding, D.J. Neely, has stayed around and the two have been dating. Bella is serious about her beau and enjoys his family and their quirks. When Brock seems to take too much of a shine to the elder Miss Rossi, Bella must figure out how to break it to him that she's taken.
     Her sister has no such claim and enjoys the charming movie star's attention while he hides from paparazzi in the Rossi household. Brock finds family with the Rossis and their flamboyant insistence that on being the very best they could be drives him to seek his own family. The Rossis are happy to be adopted. 

     Despite setbacks Bella and her family band together to make Rob and Marian's wedding an event to remember. Even with a celebrity best man, the focus is on the bride and groom. The challenges help Bella and DJ on their journey closer to each other and forward in their faith. 

     Readers who enjoyed Bella's first themed wedding and meeting DJ will enjoy following their blooming relationship. 

Beware Princess Elizabeth

Beware Princess Elizabeth by Carolyn Meyer, 2001 Houghton Mifflin for Young Readers

     Young Elizabeth has been outcast from court since her mother's execution. When her father dies it takes three days for Elizabeth Tudor to learn of her brother's ascension. Along with her brother Edward, Elizabeth travels to London where she is met by her father's sixth wife, Catherine.
     After the funeral and coronation, Catherine invites the princess and her governess to stay at her house in London. Elizabeth is enamored of her stepmother and happy to have some status in the household. Joining Catherine's house is also Thomas Seymour - the new king's uncle. Elizabeth and her governess Kat notice something between the dowager queen and the king's advisor. The word around the court is that they are lovers.
     But Catherine indicates Thomas Seymour is interested in an alliance with the young princess when she becomes of marriageable age. Kat encourages the romance and Elizabeth is stunned when the arrangement is superseded by a secret marriage between Catherine and her stepson's guardian. Thomas Seymour is at the center of a plot against the throne and is punished accordingly.
    When young King Edward VII falls prey to childhood illness Elizabeth's older half-sister, Mary, becomes queen. Mary is vindictive and seeks to purge the nation of Protestantism, blaming it for the breakdown and destruction of her family. The nation finds hope in its young princess and Mary is threatened by Elizabeth's supporters, she takes steps to prevent outright revolt.
     Beware, Princess Elizabeth is a dramatic telling of real events in Queen Elizabeth I's childhood. Meyer paints a picture of one of England's beloved monarchs for young readers - a picture which fills history's gaps. This tale is intended for middle-grade readers and glosses some of the more sensitive realities of Elizabeth's young life.

I Capture the Castle

I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith, 1948 Wyatt Books

     At seventeen-years-old Miss Cassandra Mortmain lives in an old castle with her penniless family. Cassandra has dreams of becoming a writer like her famous father; in her journals, she attempts to develop her own voice. Throughout the six months chronicles, the Mortmain household in rural Suffolk weathers several significant changes.
     Cassandra’s family includes her father: a famous author, her stepmother Topaz who is an artist’s model and muse, Cassandra’s older sister Rose is a ‘true beauty’ at twenty-one, her younger brother is still in the schoolroom and unreasonably bright, and their adopted live-in servant Stephen Who is unbelievably in love with Cassandra and has lived with the family since his mother’s death.
     In a reflection of Austen’s Pride and Prejudice the manor house which owns the Mortmain castle finds new ownership and occupants. The charming Americans who take up residence are compelling and fascinate the two girls. Rose sets her cap at the elder brother and thus begins the great drama.
   When it appears the elder brother has fallen for the beautiful Rose, Cassandra spends more and more time with the charming young men. She is fascinated by the new music and stories he shares and begins to fall for the older brother. The man then proposes to Rose. Cassandra is enamored of her sister's fiance and takes every chance she can to spend time with him.
     The younger Mortmain sister doesn't begrudge her beautiful sister the man's attention, only wishes for a love of her own. Rose's life and future occupy much of Cassandra's journal as she reflects on the ever-changing dynamic of their family as Rose's prospects change.
     Cassandra grows from an impressionable young girl to a young woman as she navigates relationships new and old. She learns more about herself and the members of her family through the Mortmain family's changing circumstances. Teen readers and those who enjoy traditional British wit will find Cassandra's observations amusing and sometimes refreshingly pointed.

The Outsiders

The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton, 1967 Viking Press

     Ponyboy Curtis lives with his two older brothers in the lower-class east side of town. The three boys are orphans and part of a street gang calling themselves the Greasers. Ponyboy's oldest brother Darry took responsibility for him and their middle brother called Sodapop when their parents were killed in a car accident. 

     Walking home, one day, Ponyboy is attacked by members of the Socs--Socials from the uptown, west-side of their Oklahoma town--who threaten his life. The Greasers come to the fourteen-year-old's rescue: Johnny, Dally, Steve, Two-bit, and Ponyboy's two brothers. After a scuffle the two groups separate. 

     The Socs and Greasers clash again when Ponyboy and Johnny run into a couple of the Soc girls and, later, their boyfriends. The clash ends with Ponyboy regaining consciousness next to a beaten Johnny and Soc corpse. Fearing for their lives Ponyboy and Johnny escape to a nearby town where they hide out in an abandoned church. 

     Johnny and Ponyboy have a change of heart, but before they can face the music at home they discover schoolchildren in the abandoned church which has caught fire. Again, Ponyboy passes out; when he wakes he, Johnny, and Dally are in the hospital. They check out to partake in a rumble between the Socs and Greasers which has lasting consequences. 

     The Outsiders is a classic tale about teenagers struggling to make their way in a world that doesn't care about their potential, only their choices. Teen readers can relate to the boys' struggles in a story aimed at readers the same age as the characters: mid- to late-teens with violence and moral challenges Ponyboy must face on his way through trial and tribulation. 

Made to Last

Made to Last by Melissa Tagg, 2013 Bethany House Publishing

    Miranda Woodruff has been running a home improvement show for three seasons, but the network has mentioned there are no guarantees of a fourth - despite being halfway through filming. Randi's manager and her show's producer suggest they solve a mystery the show has been hinting at since its beginning. Randi is reluctant to provide a face to the husband she mentions because there is no husband.
     She had met the man she nearly married on a mission trip to Brazil. Robbie was a leader in the team working to build houses for locals and the relationship between Randi and Robbie progressed until Robbie proposed as they prepared to return to the United States. Miranda struggles to reconcile their relationship with her faith and eventually her fiancee leaves and Randi throws herself into the show. Randi's manager and the show's producer convince her that a replacement husband to show her fans will be the perfect stunt to convince the network to keep the production running. They find Blaze Hunziker to play her husband.
     Blaze has his own demons but agrees to help the woman and, hopefully, her show. Randi is blind-sided when a national gossip magazine reporter is scheduled to follow her every moment through this tumultuous time. While Miranda can handle the over-the-top personality Blaze brings, it is Matthew's calm and quiet observations which get under her skin.
     Trying to maintain the facade she's built on her show for the last three seasons, Randi allows Matthew to see her commitment to her community and a struggling faith. At pressure from the show's producer and her manager, Randi continues to pretend a relationship with Blaze while getting to know Matthew and show him her high-mountain life. The two develop a friendship which threatens to become something more despite her supposed marriage.
     When the real Robbie reappears and threatens the whole charade, just as everything seems set. The tension of having the real man who inspired so much feeling back is compounded when the reporter is brought in on the secret. Though the relationship between Blaze and Randi was revealed as fiction turned to real friendship, Robbie's return jeopardizes even the possibility of something between Matthew and Randi.
     The facade crumbles around her and the media discovers Miranda's secret. But she is worried about what her fans will think and how her friends and family will deal with the years of lies. In a romance which centers around the myth of Randi's marriage and keeping her secret, her Christian faith and hopes for the future drive her decisions. Followed by Blaze's quest for forever, Made to Last is a story of forbidden love, which may not be so ruinous when the dust settles.

The Hundred Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared

The Hundred Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson, 2009 Hesperus Nova

     Allan Karlsson turns 100 years old and decides he's had enough of the old-folks home where he's been living in Malmkoping, Sweden. The man is in fair health for his age and decides to leave the facility before the birthday party thrown in his honor and populated by people Allan has no intention of placating. In his slippers and with minimal funding he makes his way to the local bus station.
    At the bus station, a young man entrusts Allan with a rolling suitcase. Despite his best attempts to warn the young man of his impending departure the young man closets himself in the lavatory and Allan takes the suitcase onto the bus with him. Thus ensues the adventure of a lifetime.
    Along the way, the reader discovers the centenarian's life has been full of adventure. Young Karlsson left school to begin work at the local dynamite factory before his teen years, he became an explosives expert and traveled the world. In young adulthood, he spent time in a sanatorium and steadfastly became apolitical. Allan Karlsson took part in the Spanish Civil War, met President Harry Truman and participated in the making of the atom bomb in Los Almos, New Mexico. He traveled to China and through the Himalayas into Iran where he met Winston Churchill. Despite his lack of political or religious affiliation Karlsson has faith that the world will turn out alright, which eventually leads back to Sweden.
     In modern day Allan's adventure involves a criminal organization, several murders, a suitcase full of cash, an elephant, and the interplay between incompetent law enforcement and an overbearing press cycle. Allan Karlson truly believes life is what it will be and one should take it as it comes, acting on this philosophy leads him into some of the greatest turning points of the 20th century with humor and a devil-may-care attitude written for adults.

Looking for Alaska

Looking for Alaska by John Green, 2005 Speak

     When Miles Cavalry decides to attend his father's boarding school in southern Alabama it is driven home to his parents how disconnected he is from his high school in Florida. At Culver Creek, Miles meets the Colonel, his new roommate, Alaska, the girl who lives down the way, and Takumi, the third leg of their stool and an Asian-American rapper. The Colonel absorbs Miles into their social group and re-christens him, Pudge.
     In contrast to his focus on studies Pudge and his new friends are in competition and conflict with the "Weekday Warriors". The rich kids from Birmingham are stereotypical popular kids, and the friends are the pranksters. Though the groups hold a good-natured war their greater enemy is the Eagle, who runs the school. A couple brushes with authority teach Pudge the importance of planning ahead and brazen confidence to get out of trouble.
     With Alaska and her mysteriously fascinating knowledge of all things contraband leading him, Pudge becomes adept at balancing the rigorous acadamia at Culver Creek with smoking, drinking, and attempting to find a girlfriend. Slowly Pudge facts for the unattainable Alaska Young while she self-destructs.
     Just as everything seems to be falling into place Pudge, Takumi, and the Colonel's lives fall apart. Alaska dies in a car accident after a night of heavy drinking. After a period of incredulity the three young men and a sophomore, Lara, search for answers. The search coincides with the syllabus of their religious class and as the four students search for Alaska's truth they find camaraderie and that she managed to tie them even closer together.
     With some graphic promiscuity Looking for Alaska was written for late high school and college readers. It tackles issues of intention and fate with honesty and humor. Readers who enjoyed The Fault in Our Stars will enjoy John Green's first novel.

An Abundance of Katherines

An Abundance of Katherines by John Green, 2006 Dutton Books

     Colin Singleton has graduated high school and his girlfriend (the nineteenth) Katherine has dumped him. Colin's claim to fame, other than the number of Katherine's he's dated, is his propensity for anagrams and status as a child prodigy. After winning a televised competition Colin has funding to do whatever he'd like to get over this latest breakup.
     Hassan is Colin's best friend; the one who reminds Colin which subjects are uninteresting and what is interesting. Hassan is also an avid fan of Judge Judy and has decided to live off his allowance for the foreseeable future, despite the smarts to be accepted to North America's most selective universities and colleges.
     When Hassan suggests a roadtrip to get Colin over the latest breakup the two friends put Colin's winnings to good use--anything to get Colin back to himself, but no Katherines. Starting in Chicago and heading southeast across the United States the boys end up in small town Gutshot, Tennessee where they meet Lindsey Lee Wells. Lindsey helps her mother run the local store and is the town's darling.
     Colin and Hassan decide to stick around for a while - Lindsey's mother offers to pay them to collect the verbal history. While the boys work, sometimes with and sometimes without Lindsey, they find themselves partaking in the local pastimes. Colin begins a mission to find the Theorem of Underlying Katherine Predictability which will predict any relationship and bring justice to all dumpees everywhere.
     Examining his past relationships highlights the quirky nature of childhood love and young romance and teaches Colin that not everything is as simple as it appears. Colin, Hassan, and Lindsey turn a post-graduation, post-breakup road trip into a foray into new culture and possibly new romance.
     The three become friends as they learn to move away from the comfortable of home and childhood and into ever-changing adulthood. Written for teens and young adults, readers of all ages can enjoy the humor and somewhat sardonic tone which balances Colin's human- and emotion-centric search for an answer with complex mathematical rationale.

Exit, Pursued by a Bear

Exit, Pursued by a Bear by E.K. Johnston, 2016 Dutton Books for Young Readers

     Cheerleading is the only sport worth anything at Palermo Heights High School and it means to world to Hermione Winters and her best friend Polly Oliver. The two friends kick off senior year with cheer camp - where they act as co-captains and the year looks to be off to a stellar start.
     Camp goes well, things get a little tense between Hermione and her boyfriend, Leon, but they figure it out. The last night of camp all the cheerleaders, male and female, attend a dance - pretty much a supervised party.
     At the dance Hermione spends time with her friends, but when she suddenly wakes up in the hospital all she can think is that an entire twelve hours of her life is gone. Polly is the one who tells her - someone slipped something in Hermione's drink at the party and raped her.
     Back at home Hermione has become "that raped girl" and their small town doesn't know how to handle her trauma, and Hermione isn't going to give her townsfolk an easy way out. Hermione continues to be cheer captain, she continues to focus on her friendships, she pushes herself through the examinations and the procedures  involved in the criminal investigation, she continues to focus on what she's always wanted and try to work through the trauma of her experience.
     Exit, Pursued by a Bear is the story of how we should deal with sexual assault and a story of friendship in changing lives. Polly and Hermione have always known they will make decisions at the end of Senior Year which will take them in their own directions, but Hermione's experience reminds the girls they will still need each other for life's sudden events. Parents may want to pre-read the book prior to allowing younger readers free rein.

Where the Red Fern Grows

Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls, 1961 Doubleday Press

 
     Billy Colman is a 10 year-old living with his family in the Ozark Mountains of Oklahoma. All Billy wants are two 'coon hounds; the family can't afford the dogs so he works odd jobs for two years and finally arranges with Grandpa to buy the dogs through a catalogue.
     When the puppies arrive Billy is the proud owner of a female hound he names Little Ann and a male hound who he names Old Dan. As puppies the duo scare away a mountain lion they run into in the mountains and the trio forms a strange and unique bond.
     As they grow and Billy trains them Little Ann and Old Dan gain a reputation in the area - Ann is small but brilliant and Dan is doggedly determined. They're challenged by the neighboring Pritchard boys to find a mysterious 'ghost coon'. The Pritchards' dogs fight with Billy's hounds and in the process Rubin, one of the boys, tries to kill Little Ann and Old Dan and is injured when he accidentally falls on Billy's axe .
     The Pritchard boy's injury haunts Billy and to cheer him up his family enters the dogs in a competition. Little Ann immediately wins the beauty contest and they are entered into the Championship where the dogs tree three 'coons, but as they begin the chase for the winning racoon a blizzard sets in. Billy, his father, and his grandfather finally find the dogs half-frozen with a 'coon up a tree.
     Billy and his family are ecstatic when Little Ann and Old Dan win the championship with its $300 jackpot. They return home and continue hunting in the mountains. When Old Dan stands between Billy and a mountain lion the Colman family must deal with the reality of a hunting dog's life. Little Ann likewise is affected and Billy is reminded of a native legend of the Red Fern planted by angels.
     Where the Red Fern Grows is told by an adult Billy reflecting on his childhood. Readers will follow in Billy's joys and sorrows as he fights for what he wants, achieves his dream, and deals with the reality of owning a working dog. Rawls's novel is ideal for later elementary readers, though readers of all ages can enjoy his plainspoken, down-home language.

Promise Me Something

Promise Me Something by Sara Kocek, 2013 Albert Whitman & Company

     Reyna Fey has always gone to school with her three best friends, but when they transition from middle school to high school she is on her own at a new school. Reyna has the chance to make friends with Olive, another freshman who doesn't make sense. At first Reyna is annoyed by this girl who is completely normal one minute and in the next says something so out of the ordinary Reyna is at a loss.
     The less she sees her middle-school friends Reyna spends more and more time with Olive. The two girls develop a close friendship and Reyna introduces her new friend to the old clique when Olive points out the injustices around their school, Reyna is disconcerted. Distracted by romance with a boy in their history class and the history teacher's obvious bigotry toward a fellow, openly-gay classmate, Reyna cares little about what is not directly in front of her.
     In the midst of her drama at school Reyna's father is recovering from a car accident which nearly took his life. Reyna struggles with the anger she feels toward her father's girlfriend, her soon-to-be step-mother, for causing the wreck.
     When Olive shares her secret with Reyna, she doesn't know how to handle it. But she just learn whether a true friendship with an outcast is worth the cost or settle for fake friendships with the popular clique. Reyna is forced to grow up, as many high school students are, and her struggles are those of a real person in a difficult situation. With themes of suicide, sexuality, peer pressure, and perception versus reality Promise Me Something is appropriate for more mature readers - high school and older.

Our Happy Time

Our Happy Time by Gong Ji-Young, 2014 Marble Arch Press

     Privileged pop singer Yu-Jung Mao faces a round of therapy after her third suicide attempt. She is an angry woman and unwilling to undergo the battery of questions from doctors and nurses she sees as nothing but hypocrites. When her aunt, a nun with the Catholic Church, offers her an out Yu-Jung takes it.
     With Aunt Monica, Yu-Jung visits Seol's detention center and meets Yun-Soo. Yun-Soo is a death row inmate incarcerated for the rape and murder of a teenager, and the murders of her mother and their housekeeper. Yun-Soo is at first bitter and refuses to see Aunt Monica and the sweets she provides, but over time he begins to accept the kindness she brings.
     Yu-Jung is surprised that a man she sees as morally bankrupt and little more than an animal can make her reconsider how she views and interacts with the world. But as they spend more time together, both Yu-Jung and Yun-Soo come to understand no one is wholly good, nor wholly evil.
     When the expected comes unexpectedly Yu-Jung is transformed, but her choices will ultimately define her, just as Yun-Soo's have defined him.
     Meant for a mature audience, Our Happy Time addresses topics from murder and corporal punishment to what it means to be human. Young Adult readers can enjoy the unrepentant sarcasm of Yu-Jung as she challenges what she believes about herself and society surrounding her.

The Summer Invitation

The Summer Invitation by Charlotte Silver, 2014 Roaring Brook Press

     Aunt Theo has always been a force greater than nature in Fran and Val's home--a friend of their mother from way back when. When Aunt Theo invites Frances and Valentine to her home in New York City for the summer, both girls are overjoyed: not only will seventeen-year-old Valentine and fourteen-year-old Franny get a summer in the city that never sleeps, but they will have  a summer with only twenty-eight-year-old Clover as their chaperone.
     The girls enjoy the city and meet fascinating people who have both influenced and been influenced by their mysterious Aunt. Franny discovers there's more to life than after-school activities and modern conveniences. Watching her sister fall in love for the first time, Franny learns that even the things that seem to fall into place aren't what they seem.
     Anticipating Aunt Theo's return and the party to welcome her home, the girls grow and develop through the summer. Val matures into Valentine, Franny accepts she will never have her sister's popular beauty, and each girl has a story to bring back to her friends at home in San Francisco.
     Val and Franny's adventures in the Big Apple are new and exciting for the girls, though some of the subject matter may be mature for younger readers. Teens and young adults will enjoy the carefree life they live on their summer vacation in New York City.

The Joys of Love

The Joys of Love by Madeleine L'Engle, 2008 Farrar, Straus & Giroux

     On a stage balanced over the ocean's edge Elizabeth Jerrold is an apprentice of the summer theater company. Acting is her dream and this summer is her chance to make the dream come true. After four years of chemistry at college, Liz convinced her aunt to fund this summer job in exchange for her cooperation. But when Aunt Harriet calls to summon Liz back to Virginia for immoral behavior, Elizabeth fights for one last week to work under her idol, Valborg Andersen. 
     Events conspire to allow Liz one more week, but that week holds more than she bargained for. When the politics of the theater rip away the prime opportunity for Liz to break into professional acting, her friends step in and make it a week to remember. 
     Practicing scenes, managing the box office, and free time on the beach fill the friends' free time while they each discover their own hopes and dreams. Liz fights the expectations placed upon her to find her path; from Ben, the sweet, loyal young man who stays by her side through trouble; to the sophisticated director/producer who flits from woman to woman with the sense of his own importance Elizabeth must choose between the choices presented, or step off the boardwalk adn trudge her own path across the sand. 
     Liz's story, while steeped in romance, is more than the usual young adult meandering about a life's plan gone awry. She is passionate and, at twenty, has an integral belief in who she is. Teens and young adults can enjoy and relate to her story as she grows to accept those things she cannot change, but also battles to chance those things she can.

Young Unicorns

The Young Unicorns by Madeleine L'Engle, 1968 Farrar, Straus & Giroux

     After their cross-country vacation the Austin family settles into New York for a year in the big city. Dr. Austin has been asked to assist in the creation and perfection of a micro-beam laser. While he is working on the project his children meet a variety of people: Emily is a blind musical prodigy, her companion is Josiah "Dave" Davidson who helps Emily get around; Emily's music teacher Mr. Theo, Cannon Tallis working at the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine, and several unsavory characters from Dave's past with a gang, the Alphabats.
     The friendship with Emily and Dave leads to a mystery involving a Genie, the local bishop, and Dave's former gang. Cannon Tallis works to protect the Austin children from the grimy underworld they discover, and the connection to their father.
     While Dr. Austin's laser has several medical and technical benefits, the mystery which enthralls John, Vicky, Suzy, and Rob Austin reveals forces willing to use it for unknown nefarious purposes. Along with the Austins and their friends, Cannon Tallis works to unearth the forces roiling around the small-town family in the big city.
     The Young Unicorns is a change of scene for the Austin family and links to other stories in L'Engle's universe, while focusing on the story from Dave's point of view. Cannon Tallis is recently returned from the events of The Arm of the Starfish and the Austins are returning from their adventures in The Moon by Night. Written for middle school readers, The Young Unicorns holds interest for readers of all ages.

A Stone Creek Christmas

A Stone Creek Christmas by Linda Lael Miller, 2007 Silhouette

     Olivia O'Ballivan is one of several veterinarians in Stone Creek, but she has a special affinity for animals that sometimes gets in the way of being human. When the cry of a lost reindeer brings her out in the snow late one November night she meets the contractor her brother, a retired country music star, hired to build a new animal shelter.
     Tanner Quinn isn't the greenhorn Olivia first believes him to be, but his distance from everything in his life seems to tear him down. When his daughter's pony becomes depressed at the girl's absence Olivia is pulled further into Tanner's life than either of them first want. When Tanner's daughter runs away from her fortress of a boarding school Olivia gets to see the man under the mask.
     Their attraction flares and they fight to keep everything under wraps with a precocious twelve-year-old in the house. Before long both realize their emotional baggage is not enough to prevent their future together. In true romance novel fashion they support each other against their respective demons and agree to a Christmas Proposal.
     A Stone Creek Christmas is a light and pleasant read appropriate for more mature readers, encompassing moments of stark sexuality and themes of abandonment and substance abuse.

The Moon by Night

The Moon by Night by Madeleine L'Engle, 1963 Farrar, Straus & Giroux

     For a summer between their lives in Thornhill and a stint in New York City the Austin family adventures across the United States. They are to visit Dr. Austin's brother and his new family, Maggy Hamilton (an orphan who has been living with the Austins) and her legal guardian Elena, Mr. Austin's new wife.
     Leaving Connecticut the family camps at campgrounds and alongside the road heading ever westward. In Tennessee they meet a teenage gang, in Texas they rescue children from a flood, in Utah they discover an abandoned baby. The journey is an adventure through contemporary society with traces of the Cold War, and anti-US sentiment at a campground in Canada.
     The fourteen-year-old Vicky Austin meets Zachary Gray at a campground in Tennessee and the young man fascinates her. The Gray family has everything they could want in material possessions: their luxurious camp trailer is pulled by a top-model hearse-like station wagon. But the Grays seem to lack what the Austins take for granted--their loving relationship.
     Despite his charm, or maybe because of it, Zachary is confident in his pursuit of Vicky throughout the country. The rest of the family doesn't like him, but the elder Austin daughter is growing up and searching for her independence so encourages his attention. When another young man, more appropriate in her family's eyes, takes an interest Zachary becomes jealous.
     Trouble seems to follow Zachary Gray and Vicky cannot save him from himself. She struggles with developing her sense of self and the summer of her "difficult year" pushes Vicky toward a more adult take on life. The second Austin Family novel is meant for middling readers--late elementary school through early high school--and can remind readers of the struggles that come with growing older.