Summer Rental by Mary Kay Andrews

Product Description From Amazon.com

Sometimes, when you need a change in your life, the tide just happens to pull you in the right direction….

Ellis, Julia, and Dorie. Best friends since Catholic grade school, they now find themselves, in their mid-thirties, at the crossroads of life and love. Ellis, recently fired from a job she gave everything to, is rudderless and now beginning to question the choices she's made over the past decade of her life. Julia—whose caustic wit covers up her wounds--has a man who loves her and is offering her the world, but she can't hide from how deeply insecure she feels about her looks, her brains, her life. And Dorie has just been shockingly betrayed by the man she loved and trusted the most in the world…though this is just the tip of the iceberg of her problems and secrets. A month in North Carolina's Outer Banks is just what they each of them needs.

Ty Bazemore is their landlord, though he's hanging on to the rambling old beach house by a thin thread. After an inauspicious first meeting with Ellis, the two find themselves disturbingly attracted to one another, even as Ty is about to lose everything he's ever cared about.
Maryn Shackleford is a stranger, and a woman on the run. Maryn needs just a few things in life: no questions, a good hiding place, and a new identity. Ellis, Julia, and Dorie can provide what Maryn wants; can they also provide what she needs?
Five people questioning everything they ever thought they knew about life. Five people on a journey that will uncover their secrets and point them on the path to forgiveness. Five people who each need a sea change, and one month in a summer rental that might just give it to them.

Sisterhood Everlasting by Ann Brashares

Amazon.com Review

A Letter from Author Ann Brashares

Dear Readers,

When I started writing about the Sisterhood ten years ago, I wanted to create characters with big, open-ended lives--girls who wouldn't fit into a single novel. At the same time, I wanted to tell a proper story with a beginning, middle, and end. So I planned a four-book sequence to tell that story. And as I got to the end, I realized I was ready for the end of that story, but not remotely ready for the end of the characters. They were only nineteen, after all. They had so much life ahead of them! I didn't want to miss it. Would their friendship survive adulthood? Who, if anyone, would they marry? What about having babies? What career would Carmen choose? Would "someday" ever come for Lena and Kostos?

I promised myself that after taking a break from them and trying out some other things I would come back and find them later in their lives. So that's what I've done in Sisterhood Everlasting. I've rediscovered Carmen, Lena, Bridget, and Tibby on the cusp of their thirtieth birthdays. Though it felt right to be away--all of us off doing our different things--it felt wonderful to come back together. I don't think I would have appreciated the characters as much without the hiatus, and I hope the characters feel the same. I discovered I have certain ways of thinking and writing that are unique to those girls, and I had really missed them while I was away.

If you are familiar with the girls of the Sisterhood, I hope you will enjoy the reunion as much as I have. If you are coming to them for the first time, I hope you will find pleasure in the introduction.
So welcome (back) to the Sisterhood. We've missed you.
XO,
Ann

Amy & Roger's Epic Detour by Morgan Matson

LOVED LOVED LOVED this book!!!

From School Library Journal

Grade 9 Up—After Amy's father dies in a car crash, everything that this California girl took for granted changes overnight. Her twin brother Charlie is shipped off to rehab in North Carolina. Her mother accepts a teaching position in Connecticut, leaving Amy home alone to finish her junior year of high school. Then her mom arranges to get Amy to Connecticut via a cross-country drive with a family friend, 19-year-old Roger. The pair quickly ditches the pre-planned itinerary in favor of more spontaneous detours to Yosemite, Colorado, and Graceland. Amy's mother is predictably furious and cuts off her credit card, leaving the teens on a shoestring budget. Along the way Amy gradually opens up to Roger about her father's accident and her repressed feelings about it. During a stop in Louisville, Roger finds closure with the girl who recently dumped him, leaving him available for a relationship with Amy. The theme of her emotional journey meshes well with the realistically rendered physical journey across the U.S. Playlists, pages from a travel scrapbook, well-drawn supporting characters, and unique regional details enhance the narrative. Flashback chapters shed light on Amy's life before her father's death, without breaking the steady pacing. One sexual situation is discreetly described. Overall, this is an emotionally rewarding road novel with a satisfying, if not totally surprising, conclusion. It's similar in theme and tone to Sarah Dessen's The Truth About Forever (Viking, 2004).—Amy Pickett, Ridley High School, Folsom, PA

Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

 

Loved this book!  It is so different from anything I have read in a long time.  I love books that go between two time periods - and this includes some of my favorites - Wales during WWII and present day Wales.  This is a YA book but it definitely has adult appeal.

 

Amazon Best Books of the Month, June 2011: As a kid, Jacob formed a special bond with his grandfather over his bizarre tales and photos of levitating girls and invisible boys. Now at 16, he is reeling from the old man's unexpected death. Then Jacob is given a mysterious letter that propels him on a journey to the remote Welsh island where his grandfather grew up. There, he finds the children from the photographs--alive and well--despite the islanders’ assertion that all were killed decades ago. As Jacob begins to unravel more about his grandfather’s childhood, he suspects he is being trailed by a monster only he can see. A haunting and out-of-the-ordinary read, debut author Ransom Rigg’s first-person narration is convincing and absorbing, and every detail he draws our eye to is deftly woven into an unforgettable whole. Interspersed with photos throughout, Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children is a truly atmospheric novel with plot twists, turns, and surprises that will delight readers of any age.

Smile by Raina Telgemeier

From School Library Journal

Grade 5 Up—When she was in sixth grade, Telgemeier tripped while running and lost her two front teeth. In the years that followed, she went through a torturous series of dental surgeries and repairs, the trauma of which was mirrored by the social struggles she experienced during her adolescence. A minor complaint is that there is no mention of when all of this took place, and readers may be puzzled by seeming anachronisms such as old-school Nintendo games. Telgemeier's full-color artwork is confident and light, and her storytelling is appropriately paced. This straightforward and entertaining autobiographical comic is sure to please.—Douglas P. Davey, Halton Hills Public Library, Ontario, Canada

Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Miki Falls Book Four: Winter by Mark Crilley

From School Library Journal

Grade 7 Up–The final volume of the series reveals the reasons behind Miki's crash through a window at the very beginning of the first volume, Miki Falls: Spring (HarperTeen, 2007). Readers are returned to that moment of tension, when the teen has chosen to flee–possibly causing herself great physical harm–rather than give in to the demands of the Deliverers. Hiro and Miki are hoping to start life outside the confines of the Deliverers' Rules. But just as they are on the cusp of success, all seems lost once again. Crilley does not allow his characters to take the easy way out, and Miki's stubbornness remains her constant virtue: she is unwilling to give up on her love, which she knows to be true, no matter what. The author makes ample use of panel styles, letting the art flow beyond panel boundaries and across pages, including one gorgeous spread. He makes excellent use of the space, sometimes allowing one panel to flow at the bottom of two pages with storytelling panels above it, often allowing bits of the art, faces in particular, to overlap from one moment to the next. Teens will find much in Miki to admire, and they will identify with a happy ending achieved only at a great price.–Alana Abbott, James Blackstone Memorial Library, Branford, CT

Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Miki Falls Book Three: Autumn by Mark Crilley

From School Library Journal

Grade 7 Up–In the first two books, readers learn that Miki is a high school senior trying to find her place in the world, but Hiro, though a teenager, is also a Deliverer, a member of a secret organization that captures love from dying relationships and gives it to new couples. Deliverers are forbidden to fall in love with humans. Supernatural abilities aside, Miki Falls remains a series about two star-crossed lovers. After Hiro's fellow Defender, Reika, confronts them, Miki proposes that they run away, and Hiro suggests the home of Toshiko Yamada, an octogenarian who left the fold of the Deliverers decades earlier. There, they believe they will be safe for a time. Drawn in black-and-white pencil, the characters look ready to step off the page into a television series. While they are recognizable as Japanese, Crilley clearly has an American influence, and his fashions look to be straight out of a neighborhood Target store. Miki, blissfully, has none of the typical histrionics exhibited by other female manga characters, and Hiro has the same confusion over loyalty and love that many boys would have. The passion is mild and the story line vaguely familiar (as are most stories with star-crossed lovers), making this series a good pick for middle school students. Libraries looking to purchase Autumn should make sure to also purchase Spring, Summer (both 2007), and Winter (2008, all HarperCollins).–Sarah Krygier, Solano County Library, Fairfield, CA

Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Miki Falls Book Two: Summer by Mark Crilley

Product Description

Has Miki fallen too hard?

It's summer, and Miki Yoshida is learning all about love. Her senior year has blossomed with promise ever since she gained Hiro Sakurai's confidence. Now, she's resolved to keep his trust as he reveals more about his secret mission and warns:

"Don't get involved."

But Miki fears his work might do more harm than good, and she takes control—with disastrous results. How can trying to make things right turn out so dangerously wrong?

From Amazon.com