On My Holds List (80)

My Librarian friend Jess from I Read to Relax came up with a great idea.  It's to highlight the books on hold at the library. I usually have 20-40 items checked out at the library and another 20 items on hold. 

Some YA Books I'm Waiting to Read:

Biggest Flirts: Love Jennifer Echols and this new series looks super cute!

Now and Forever: Love Susane Colasanti . What would happen if your boyfriend became a Rock God.

Secrets of Lily Graves: Love Sarah Strohmeyer. Secrets - murder- and lies.

Books I'm Dying to Read: May Edition

Here's a list of books I can't wait to get my hands on come May - and there's a lot of them! 

Curses and Smoke:  A forbidden love story set with a natural disaster waiting to happen. 

Girl with a Wind Up Heart: I'm a book behind, but I really love this series

Castle Behind Thorns: Life in an enchanted castle! Sounds really great.

Revenge of the Flower Girls: Triplets plan to break up their sister's wedding.

Caitlin's Lucky Charm: New MG series by Lisa Schroeder 

Divided: sequel to Dualed. West thought she was safe now, but she was wrong

Everything Leads to You: Romance in Hollywood

The Pilot and the Little Prince: A book about the author and the inspiration behind his most famous book.

Tuesday Tucks Me In: Moments of the day between a soldier and a service dog

Art of Lainey: Love is a battlefield and Lainey's about to win back her ex.

Biggest Flirts: Love Jennifer Echols - could two flirts become series about each other?

Now and Forever: Love her books! What if your boyfriend becomes the biggest rockstar on the planet?

That Summer: Julia inherits a house in England that will change her life - love Lauren Willig's books.

Wild Storm: No Cover - love the Richard Castle books.

On a Clear Day: Re-release of two of Macomber's previous books, which I haven't read. Really love her books.

Stubby: the War Dog: I actually have this one and hope to read it this weekend

Greatest Star on Earth - love this sister team and I really liked the first book

This is a Moose: Saw pages for this at a preview and it looks super cute.

Broken Hearts, Fences, and Other Things to Mend: New summer series about romance, ex-BFFs and fun in the sun.

Secrets of Lily Graves: Secrets come out when a girl's murdered making Lily and her almost boyfriend suspects.

Life by Committee: Sounds a little like My Life Undecided by Jessica Brody, which I loved.

We Were Liars: Everyone's raving about this book

Wish You Were Italian: Summer romance in Italy!

Chapel Wars: Wedding chapel to save - in Vegas!

After the End: What happens after you discover everything you thought was a big fat lie?

Killer Instinct: Lane is obsessed with serial killers...

Royally Lost: Sounds like a teen version of Roman Holiday

Deep Blue: Mermaids, assassins, and a quest!

Since You've Been Gone: When her BFF goes missing, Emily finds a random list. Could the list actually help her or its it too crazy?

The One: Dying for the ending of the Selection trilogy!

Review: How Zoe Made her Dreams (Mostly) Come True

Zoe and her cousin become interns at Fairyland Kingdom.  Jess has her heart set on being a Princess, but Zoe's just amazed that she was accepted in the first place. It's been a rough couple of years, following the death of her mother. Jess has been with her every step of the way. Together, they imagine a summer filled with fun. 

Jess doesn't win the coveted Princess role, leaving her a very small chance of winning the $25,00 scholarship. Zoe isn't given a cast role, instead she's a Lady-in-Waiting for the Queen. She's the Queen's minion. 

She learns very early in the summer tips and tricks to make the Queen happy. She tries to obey at all times, even though she doesn't agree with the policies. It hardly makes her popular with the other interns. Still she tries hard to make everything run smoothly. If only she could figure out the identity of the boy who rescued her as he could be her Prince Charming. 

My Thoughts: Full Confession - I read this one day when I needed something happy and cheerful. It was just what I needed! I loved this book; I devoured it. I loved the "insiders" tips on the casts. I liked how the accommodations were different for the various cast levels. I like how the princes have access to an exclusive perfume. I liked learning all the rules the cast members have to obey. I liked watching Zoe try to figure out ways to thwart the rules while making sure the park runs smoothly. I also enjoyed her try to figure out the identity of her prince charming. I loved her interactions with Jess. All in all, a great fun read that made my heart happy. 

Cover Thoughts: Cute
Source: My Library

Review: Smart Girls Get What They Want

* This book come out June 26th and you'll WANT to read it*

Gigi, Bea, and Neerja are best friends. They have brains and they're not afraid to show it. They worship Neerja's older sister until they discover her year book. It's not full of friendly signatures. In fact, it's like Parad didn't exist. Gigi and her BFFs vow not to let that happen to themselves; they will step out of their comfort zone and become part of high school.

When Gigi and Mike both answer the bonus question correctly on the hardest exam given, they're assumed of cheating. They have to do a project together and a letter will go into their records. Gigi can't believe it. She's so annoyed with this new procedure that when another scandal makes the current student rep resign, she decides to run.  She hopes to protest the letter and the new cheating policy. As she digs deeper into school politics, she hopes to save art classes.

However, in order to get the students to notice her, she's going to have to get her face out there. She listens to one of the popular girls and stops eating lunch in the honors lounge. She starts talking to her classmates and learning about them.

Bea decides to risk her parents' wrath and join the ski team. Neerja tryout for Romeo and Juliet, hoping time with her crush will land her a date. Gigi also tries out for the play even though she hates public speaking. She joins the ski team even though she's terrible at skiing. In supporting her friends with their decisions, she makes new friends and sees high school just a little bit differently.

My Thoughts: I'm a big fan of Sarah's adult books, so I was thrilled to hear she had a YA debut coming out. I've been waiting for about a year to read it.


I love that the three girls are super smart and that they want to  excel in their students but also have a social life. I love that Gigi styles in her hair in a thermodynamic way, it made me giggle. I found it charming that she rewards herself with episodes of Bones. She drools over Booth, but her hero is Bones.


I like how each girl blossoms when they step out of their comfort zone and start to mingle. I like how surprised they are by other students and how they misjudged people. 


Besides the great friendship between the three girls, I enjoyed watching them become friends with other girls. I liked the interactions with Sienna and Ava. The "Man Clan" was hilarious! I loved the guys pegged into that role. They were funny, sports, and entertaining. I found Mike annoying at first, but quickly he became one of my favorite characters. I adored his nickname for Gigi - Einstein. I like that he teased her. The romantic relationships were also a key factor in the book and there were a couple swoon worthy moments.


 We certainly need more smart girls in teen literature. 


This book almost makes me want to go back to high school to change certain parts of my experience to make it more well rounded like these girls.

Cover Thoughts: Perfect! The glasses which conveys brains and the fashionable outfit are both true to Gigi.


Source: from the publisher with a nudge from Sarah (THANKS!)


Fun Fact: Sarah's busy creating tweets about smart girls - follow her @ #smartgirls

Morning with an Author: Sarah Strohmeyer

This year, after our annual library fundraiser, we had a Morning with an Author at the library with awesome author Sarah Strohmeyer.

Here we are together:


10 fun facts:

10. She's super sweet.
9. She lives in Vermont
8. She used to be a reporter
7. She tells amazing stories both in life and in her books
6. She just turned in manuscript- about martinis
5. Which meant, she had to try a bunch of them
4. She's very entertaining - we laughed a LOT
3. She puts stories people tell her in her books
2. She has a very funny story about a Hollywood meeting
1. She's going to be writing a YA novel!

Here she is with some library staff:

Here's a READ poster:
Here's a book trailer I made for the event featuring The Penny Pinchers Club

PS. You can also read about her visit at Papermom