Difference between revisions of "Newest Teens Reviews"
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| + | |title=The Private Blog of Joe Cowley | ||
| + | |author=Ben Davis | ||
| + | |rating=4.5 | ||
| + | |genre=Teens | ||
| + | |summary=Meet Joe Cowley. He's the kind of doofus who will pretend to be from New York, when his life really revolves around a horrid existence in a secondary school near Birmingham, a life shared with his mother and a visit to his dad and Russian mail-order bride every Sunday, and two friends – Harry, who speaks as if he is a member of an ancient Gentleman's Club, and Ad, who's – well, just thick as two short planks. He can barely get through the day without being tormented by his enemies at school, saying the wrong thing entirely or just cocking things up, hence this, his blog, for him to vent and escape a while. But at least he knows his worth when it comes to getting a snog off the school's most desirable girl – doesn't he? And at least he can keep the torments of real life at arm's length – can't he? | ||
| + | |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0192736752</amazonuk> | ||
| + | }} | ||
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{{newreview | {{newreview | ||
|title=A Kiss In The Dark | |title=A Kiss In The Dark | ||
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|summary=Ben Fletcher is a pleasant and fairly quiet boy - so when the 17-year-old gets roped into taking part in the Great Trolley Robbery to grab some booze for a party, it's just his luck that he's the one who ends up getting assaulted by a lollipop lady and put on probation! Forced to keep a journal, give back to the victim of his crime, and take up an approved hobby, he reluctantly chooses knitting - only to find a real talent for it. Can he keep his new-found hobby a secret from his dad and his mates, get the girl of his dreams, and become a champion knitter? | |summary=Ben Fletcher is a pleasant and fairly quiet boy - so when the 17-year-old gets roped into taking part in the Great Trolley Robbery to grab some booze for a party, it's just his luck that he's the one who ends up getting assaulted by a lollipop lady and put on probation! Forced to keep a journal, give back to the victim of his crime, and take up an approved hobby, he reluctantly chooses knitting - only to find a real talent for it. Can he keep his new-found hobby a secret from his dad and his mates, get the girl of his dreams, and become a champion knitter? | ||
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1471401472</amazonuk> | |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1471401472</amazonuk> | ||
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Revision as of 08:50, 3 April 2014
The Private Blog of Joe Cowley by Ben Davis
Meet Joe Cowley. He's the kind of doofus who will pretend to be from New York, when his life really revolves around a horrid existence in a secondary school near Birmingham, a life shared with his mother and a visit to his dad and Russian mail-order bride every Sunday, and two friends – Harry, who speaks as if he is a member of an ancient Gentleman's Club, and Ad, who's – well, just thick as two short planks. He can barely get through the day without being tormented by his enemies at school, saying the wrong thing entirely or just cocking things up, hence this, his blog, for him to vent and escape a while. But at least he knows his worth when it comes to getting a snog off the school's most desirable girl – doesn't he? And at least he can keep the torments of real life at arm's length – can't he? Full review...
A Kiss In The Dark by Cat Clarke
Alex and Kate meet online and there's an instant attraction between them. When they get together in person at a gig, they're just as right for each other as they are online. It seems like this could be a wonderful romance, but there's a secret at the heart of it which could destroy more than just their relationship. Will this seemingly fairytale romance have a happy ending? Full review...
Daughters of Time by Mary Hoffman (editor)
This is an anthology aimed at tweens and younger teens on the subject of some of history's most remarkable women. It's an interesting idea, particularly as the usual suspects are perhaps avoided. No Elizabeth I, Mary Queen of Scots, Victoria, or Florence Nightingale. Instead we get Boudica, Mary Seacole, Aphra Behn and Julian of Norwich, amongst others. It doesn't altogether work for me but there are enough strong stories to make it well worth a look. Full review...
Bone Jack by Sara Crowe
15-year-old Ash has been waiting for his father to come back from the war. He's following in his dad's footsteps as the stag boy in the traditional Stag Chase, and he knows his dad will be proud of him. Running through the mountains whenever he can to train, he's not bothered by the taunts of the other boys who he beat to become the stag, and who will take their places as hounds - he knows their hostility is traditional. But something is stirring in the countryside, and he sees strange visions, while his old friend Mark is behaving seriously creepily. Is Mark just grieving for his father, or is there something more sinister at work? Full review...
The Blood List by Sarah Naughton
In the mid-seventeenth century, the world is filled with tales of witches, murder and changelings. Sixteen-year-old Barnaby is strong and handsome. His father is a wealthy landowner who indulges his desires, and while his mother doesn't love him - believing him to be merely a replacement for her own baby, who the villagers thought was a changeling and who was mysteriously switched - he's popular with everyone else he knows. Until dark happenings start occurring, which will change Barnaby's life - or possibly even end it. Full review...
Far From You by Tess Sharpe
I have no idea where to begin on this one. I'm not even sure I should attempt a plot summary. Ultra-condensed review is basically along the lines of buy this right now - top five of the last decade for me, maybe top three. Full review...
The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender by Leslye Walton
Ava Lavender is the youngest in a long line of strange women. Her mother is strange. Her grandmother is strange. Her aunts were strange. But Ava, perhaps, is the strangest of all. Because she was born with wings. In The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender, this winged girl narrates the story of her family and how they came to live in the magical Seattle neighbourhood where her grandmother runs a bakery.
It's a tale of magic but it's also a tale of tragedy and disaster and death and lost love. Girls turn into canaries. Ghosts follow living siblings. Pastries cause shared emotions. And as she tells the story, Ava tries to make sense of herself. She isn't normal. Is normal better? Or do her wings come with a special destiny? Full review...
Never Ending by Martyn Bedford
Sent to a clinic which specialises in using unconventional methods to help people get over grief, Shiv is forced to confront the death of her beloved younger brother Declan. Like everyone else in the clinic, she’s convinced that she caused the death herself. Will she finally find the peace that her parents are seeking for her, even if she doesn't think she deserves it herself? Full review...
Going Over by Beth Kephart
Ada is someone whom many of the readers of this book would aspire to be – only fifteen but working at a Kindergarten, changing her appearance at whim with fake beauty spots and punky hair-dye, spending far too many midnight hours creating politicised graffiti. She also lives in one of the most libertarian and Bohemian areas of Berlin. Or, I should say, West Berlin – for this is the early 1980s and the Wall is still standing. And unfortunately for her the love of her life is Stefan, a friend since toddler-age due to their grandmothers being best friends, and she can only see him three or four times a year as he lives in Communist East Berlin. Can her patience with what she sees as his reluctance to risk his life to escape last long enough? Full review...
Curses and Smoke by Vicky Alvear Shecter
Medical slave Tag is desperate to win his freedom by fighting in the arena instead of just treating the gladiators he longs to beat. Lucia, his owner's daughter and his childhood friend, wants to be with him instead of the rich man she doesn't love but is betrothed to. When Quintus, an arrogant younger son of a nobleman, joins the gladiatorial school to train - and to infuriate his father - we see the beginning of a love triangle which could have devastating consequences. But the year is 79 AD, the place is Pompeii, and there's something even worse on its way... Full review...
Scavenger 1: Zoid by Paul Stewart and Chris Riddell
Somewhere out in the further reaches of the galaxy is a spherical construction, speeding the last few surviving Earth humans on their way to a different, new home, a giant biosphere acting as the one remaining Ark for what's left of humankind. And its purpose is even more important as, somewhen, somewhere and somehow, during its flight, the robot inhabitants – the cleaners, butlers, farmers and mechanics – rebelled. Since then they have evolved themselves, and ignored all their original programming, and are intent on wiping out humans instead. We, of course, are fighting back, but when the tiny community of little more than a hundred that serves as the whole world for the young worker known as York gets wiped out, he gets the clearest picture yet of how difficult that battle will be… Full review...
Urban Outlaws by Peter Jay Black
What skills would you need to trick the rich and powerful out of their ill-gotten gains? A posse of brilliant lawyers and accountants with elastic consciences? A cache of guns and bombs? Well, maybe, although it is very possible that all that will do is to turn you into villains as dirty as your marks. And, if you'll forgive the sudden descent into street-speak, that's not the way these five young Urban Outlaws roll. Full review...
White Space by Ilsa J Bick
Seventeen-year-old Emma has problems. The metal plates in her head may be holding her skull together, but they don't stop the headaches, or the 'blinks' - periods of time that Emma loses. When Emma wakes from a blink in the middle of a snowstorm, driving in a valley she doesn't recognise, and crashes into a snow mobile, it doesn't take long for things to start getting weird. Full review...
Ironheart by Allan Boroughs
India Bentley's father went missing looking for oil in Siberia. Except it wasn't just oil he was searching for - rather, he was trying to find the lost fortress of Ironheart, whose old world secrets could save humanity - or destroy the world. When she meets tech-hunter Verity Brown and her android bodyguard Calculus, India manages to become involved in a daring adventure with some seriously unsavoury characters. Can she save her father, and the world? Full review...
Panic by Lauren Oliver
Every summer, a game takes place in Carp. The stakes are high and the prize is big, a life changing amount of money for the person who can hold their own the longest and outlast their competitors. Anyone from the graduating class of high school can enter, and many do, but in the end, only one can win. Along the way the contestants’ limits are tested, pacts made and broken, and secrets revealed. From some of the challenges, there may be injuries, traumatic or even fatal, but the lure of the prize money is so great that many choose to ignore the risks. Full review...
Half Bad by Sally Green
Before I start, I'll declare an uninterest. I'm not really into the paranormal genre, and I'm definitely not into paranormal romances. I like fantasy and I've nothing against the supernatural. It's just the predictability of the paranormal genre that puts me off. I prefer books that surprise me rather than books that comfort me by giving me what I expect. So, you realise, I'm coming at Half Bad from the perspective of an un-fan. And I loved it! Full review...
The Facts of Life (Rachel Riley) by Joanna Nadin
Never let it be said that we here at The Bookbag do not try and give you the reviews nobody else can. This is a case in point – the review of the sixth and final Rachel Riley book from someone who has never read any of the other five. As such a person I can add to all the superlatives the series has got from elsewhere the bonus information that should your tastes in books be as fickle as those of the reviewing gods, you can start this brilliant series at the end and not really suffer a jot. You would be patently bonkers to choose to do so, but the option's there. Full review...
Rock War by Robert Muchamore
Jay comes from a large family - he's one of eight kids squashed into a flat above the chip shop that his mother runs. Jay isn't really like his brothers, who are tough and always in trouble. Jay is skinny and weedy and consumed with musical ambition. But his band, Brontobyte, just doesn't have what it takes, largely thanks to its spoiled brat, hopeless drummer, Tristan. If he wants a future in music, some major changes are in order. Full review...
Infinity Drake: The Sons of Scarlatti by John McNally
Finn (real name Infinity) Drake is off for a week away in the Pyrenees with his Uncle Al. He's supposed to be at school but Grandma has gone off on a knitting cruise, so she will never know. But before they can be on their way, Al is summoned to a crisis meeting with secret government officials. A lethal bio-weapon - the Scarlatti wasp - has been stolen and released by an uber-villain (who else but an uber-villain) and the world's only chance is to use Al's top secret invention to shrink a combat team to destroy it. Full review...
Sleuth or Dare: An AKA Novel by Robin Benway
When safecracker Maggie Silver's parents are falsely accused of a crime, she's uprooted from her newly peaceful existence as a normal high-school girl and forced to flee, along with best friend Roux and boyfriend Jessie, to Paris. Can the three of them, aided by some new friends and honorary uncle Angelo, clear her family's name? Full review...
Trouble by Non Pratt
Hannah is 15 and pregnant. She can't tell anyone who the father is - but new boy at school Aaron steps up to offer his services as a fake father. Hannah accepts, and the pair start their journey to parenthood. But who really is the dad, and why is Aaron willing to make such a massive commitment to a girl he doesn't even know that well? Full review...
Rooftoppers by Katherine Rundell
Sophie is shipwrecked in the English Channel on her 1st birthday, with her mother presumed dead, but she's lucky enough to be found by scholar Charles. He raises her as his ward and they have a happy, if seriously unconventional, existence until the authorities intervene on her 12th birthday. With the orphanage beckoning, Sophie and Charles run away to France in the hope that her mother may be alive after all. Full review...
Dead and Buried (Murder Notebooks) by Anne Cassidy
It's been five years since Rose's and Josh's parents disappeared and Rose is determined finally to start getting on with her life. She hasn't seen Josh for a few weeks and although she misses him, she can't but help feeling a sense of relief. But then policeman Henry turns up at her door with more bad news: the body of a teenage girl has been found buried in the garden of her old home, the one she shared with her mother, Josh, and his father Brendan. With their parents implicated, Rose and Josh have no choice but to try to solve one last murder... Full review...
Shattered (Slated Trilogy) by Teri Terry
Kyla - or is she Lucy? or Rain? or Riley? - was slated as a teen criminal in Lorder-run Britain. All memory of her past life was erased and she was sent to live with a new foster family, controlled by a wrist bracelet that could kill her if she stepped out of line. But that was some time ago. Since then, some of Kyla's memories have resurfaced and she has discovered that she isn't a run-of-the-mill Slated. Used as a weapon by an anti-Lorder terrorist group, Kyla's brain has been messed with in more than one way. Full review...
The God Beneath the Sea by Leon Garfield and Edward Blishen
When a baby falls from the sky into the sea, Thetis, goddess of the sea, takes him into her care and names him Hephaestus. Raised lovingly by Thetis and her sister Eurynome, Hephaestus still grows to question who he is and where he came from. The sisters tell him he was born on Olympus, and so begins the twisting turning tales of the Titans and the Gods - their battles for supremacy, their betrayals, their vengeance. Full review...
The Spectacular Now by Tim Tharp
Sutter Keely, The Sutterman, has life pretty good. Sure, he's got no long-term plan and may spend his life folding shirts, but he's having a ton of fun, he's hugely popular - even his ex-girlfriends still like him - and his relationship with the wonderful Cassidy will get back on track soon enough. Then he meets the sci-fi obsessed, shy, put-upon Aimee, and decides he can make a difference in her life. The plan is to help her gain some confidence, become popular, and find a nice guy - but Sutter doesn't bargain on things going further than he was planning on. Will he change Aimee's life for the better, or for the worse? Full review...
Vengeance by Megan Miranda
Vengeance is a follow-up to Fracture, in which Delaney almost died, drowned under the ice of a lake. Things never got back to normal after that. Delaney can sense death. She is irresistibly drawn to people who are about to die. And people take a long time to get over the accident. Delaney survived for 11 minutes under the ice - how was this possible? And Carson, the boy who pulled her out, is dead. There are mutterings that Falcon Lake is cursed. It wanted Delaney and, denied her, is now taking others in some kind of freakish revenge. Full review...
The Children of the King by Sonya Hartnett
In a prosperous area of London during World War II the two Lockwood children, twelve year old Cecily and her older brother Jeremy, are dispatched, together with their socialite mother, to stay with family in the north to keep them safe. On their arrival, at Cecily’s insistence, they take in a young evacuee, ten year old May. As they wander the countryside close to Cecily’s Uncle Peregrine’s country estate the two girls find two strange boys hiding in the ruins of Snow Castle and do not tell the rest of the family about their discovery. As the children attempt to cope with their changed circumstances and the fear of an approaching enemy, each evening Uncle Peregrine tells the children a dark and sinister story of intrigue in the Royal courts of long ago and so begins the story within a story. This intriguing book then goes on to combine two periods of English history in an extraordinary adventure that is not only an historical novel but a moving coming of age story too. Full review...
Tilly's Promise by Linda Newbery
Tilly often wished things would change in the sleepy little village she called home, but she gets more change than she bargained for when war breaks out. First her sweetheart joins up, then Tilly signs on a nurse and finally her brother Georgie is called up, despite the fact that he is completely unfit for service. Georgie is different, big and strong but with the mind of a child - how could he possibly survive the horrors of war? So many promises are made, Tilly promises her sweetheart Harry she will wait - Harry assures her he won't be away long - sure it will probably be over by Christmas (famous last words). When Georgie is posted to Harry's unit, Tilly extracts a somewhat reluctant promise from him to look after her brother. More promises will be made - but promises are hard to keep in wartime. As Georgie and Harry face the harsh reality of life in the trenches, Tilly finds herself near the frontline as a nurse. Everything seems to have changed. Will even love remain the same - especially in the aftermath of a broken promise? Full review...
Boys Don't Knit by T S Easton
Ben Fletcher is a pleasant and fairly quiet boy - so when the 17-year-old gets roped into taking part in the Great Trolley Robbery to grab some booze for a party, it's just his luck that he's the one who ends up getting assaulted by a lollipop lady and put on probation! Forced to keep a journal, give back to the victim of his crime, and take up an approved hobby, he reluctantly chooses knitting - only to find a real talent for it. Can he keep his new-found hobby a secret from his dad and his mates, get the girl of his dreams, and become a champion knitter? Full review...
