Tell Me Three Things by Julie Buxbaum

Release Date: April 5, 2016
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Age Group: Young Adult
Format: ARC
Source: Publisher
Pages: 336
Buy: Amazon / Barnes & Noble / IndieBound
Description: Goodreads
What if the person you need the most is someone you’ve never met?  

Everything about Jessie is wrong. At least, that’s what it feels like during her first week of junior year at her new ultra-intimidating prep school in Los Angeles. Just when she’s thinking about hightailing it back to Chicago, she gets an email from a person calling themselves Somebody/Nobody (SN for short), offering to help her navigate the wilds of Wood Valley High School. Is it an elaborate hoax? Or can she rely on SN for some much-needed help?

It’s been barely two years since her mother’s death, and because her father eloped with a woman he met online, Jessie has been forced to move across the country to live with her stepmonster and her pretentious teenage son.

In a leap of faith—or an act of complete desperation—Jessie begins to rely on SN, and SN quickly becomes her lifeline and closest ally. Jessie can’t help wanting to meet SN in person. But are some mysteries better left unsolved?

I knew I was going to enjoy Tell Me Three Things the moment I read the jacket copy. Sharp and delightful yet raw and chock full of emotion, Julie Buxbaum's debut YA novel is a contemporary story that truly captures the complexity of living with loss and navigating the waves of change that follow.

Release Days Round-Up: February 14-20

New Releases

Hello, World!!!

Two days. Three bloggers.
One farmhouse in the deep recesses of a rural Virginia county. 

No, it's not the start of a horror movie. Although, despite multiple reassurances, my fellows aren't entirely convinced everyone is leaving alive. Which, given our remote location at present and satellite Internet (you read that right), is a fair concern... 

In all seriousness, we've been away a long while, and we wanted to relaunch with gusto. What did we decide on you ask? We went old school, and we're bringing back the lock-in! 

The Last Time We Say Goodbye by Cynthia Hand

Release Date: February 10, 2014
Publisher: Harper Teen
Age Group: Young Adult
Format: Kindle
Source: Purchased
Pages: 400
Buy: Amazon / Barnes & Noble / IndieBound
Description: Goodreads
There's death all around us.
We just don't pay attention.
Until we do.

The last time Lex was happy, it was before. When she had a family that was whole. A boyfriend she loved. Friends who didn't look at her like she might break down at any moment.

Now she's just the girl whose brother killed himself. And it feels like that's all she'll ever be.

As Lex starts to put her life back together, she tries to block out what happened the night Tyler died. But there's a secret she hasn't told anyone-a text Tyler sent, that could have changed everything.

Lex's brother is gone. But Lex is about to discover that a ghost doesn't have to be real to keep you from moving on.

When I was 17 years old, in my first few weeks as a freshman in college, on a Sunday that started like any other Sunday, I got a call from my parents that someone I’d known for many years, a close friend of my brother’s, had killed himself. I hadn’t seen or spoken to this friend in a while, but that didn’t matter. The shock came immediately.

Side Effects May Vary by Julie Murphy

Release Date: March 18, 2014
Publisher: Balzer + Bray
Age Group: Young Adult
Format: Kindle
Source: Purchased
Pages: 336
Buy: Amazon / Barnes & Noble / IndieBound
Description: Goodreads
What if you'd been living your life as if you were dying—only to find out that you had your whole future ahead of you?

When sixteen-year-old Alice is diagnosed with leukemia, her prognosis is grim. To maximize the time she does have, she vows to spend her final months righting wrongs—however she sees fit. She convinces her friend Harvey, who she knows has always had feelings for her, to help her with a crazy bucket list that's as much about revenge (humiliating her ex-boyfriend and getting back at her archnemesis) as it is about hope (doing something unexpectedly kind for a stranger). But just when Alice's scores are settled, she goes into remission.

Now Alice is forced to face the consequences of all that she's said and done, as well as her true feelings for Harvey. But has she caused irreparable damage to the people around her—and to the one person who matters most?

I needed a big strong book to break me out of both my reading and my reviewing hiatus. (Hiatus sounds prettier than slump, and I’m all about them words.) I wanted something that kept my attention, that pulled at my heart, that made me think about it even when I wasn’t reading it. It seems that book was Julie Murphy’s debut Side Effects May Vary. 

The Alex Crow by Andrew Smith

Release Date: March 10, 2015
Publisher: Dutton BFYR
Age Group: Young Adult
Format: ARC
Source: Publisher
Pages: 336
Buy: Amazon / Barnes & Noble / IndieBound
Description: Goodreads
Skillfully blending multiple story strands that transcend time and place, award-winning Grasshopper Jungle author Andrew Smith chronicles the story of Ariel, a refugee who is the sole survivor of an attack on his small village. Now living with an adoptive family in Sunday, West Virginia, Ariel's story is juxtaposed against those of a schizophrenic bomber and the diaries of a failed arctic expedition from the late nineteenth century . . . and a depressed, bionic reincarnated crow.

With its insane plot, well-drawn characters, and wholly unique narrative style, Andrew Smith’s Grasshopper Jungle was my favorite novel of 2014. Both Grasshopper Jungle and Winger are rock solid offerings from a delightful, off-kilter author, so my expectations for The Alex Crow were understandably high. Unfortunately, the strengths of both Grasshopper Jungle and Winger are weaknesses in The Alex Crow, which feels like a half-hearted and half-baked Andrew Smith effort.