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Addison Blakely: Confessions of a PK by Betsy St. Amant
Review by Jill Williamson
Addison Blakely has always done everything to please her overprotective dad—who’s also a pastor. The thing is, she has a crush on a bad boy. And the more her dad ignores her, the more she wants to chase after something she wants. But what if it’s the wrong choice?
Two thumbs up! I adored this book so much that I ignored my entire household one Saturday morning because I couldn’t put it down! This is a great story about first love/lust/attraction and how Addison deals with it all. I loved her character, and I was completely sucked in to her world. This story reminded me of Nicolas Sparks’ A Walk to Remember in how the bad boy and the good girl like each other. This was a very sweet story. I highly recommend it to readers 14 and up.
Age Range: 14 and up
Genre: contemporary
Part of a Series: perhaps
Pages: 368
Publisher: Barbour
Released: 2012
*I received this book free for review. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.
Race Against Time by Kimberly and Kayla Woodhouse
Review by Jill Williamson
Zoya witnesses a murder while out with her sled dog team. She tries to flee but gets shot in the process. She is left feeling angry at God for allowing so many bad things to happen to her and her friends. Her mother, Anesia, is at her wits’ end, trying to take care of her daughter and keep her kennel running snoothly. She hires a new man named Sean to help out with the dogs but doesn’t have time to deal with the feelings he stirs up within her. The bad guys come after Zoya again, and Sean vows to protect them. But Sean is hiding something too, and Anesia doesn’t know who to trust.
Another excellent suspense novel from the mother-daughter writing team Kimberly and Kayla Woodhouse. We got to spend some time with Jenna, Andie, and Cole, too, which was nice, because I missed them. This story has a mystery of its own that is connected to events in book one, but goes further. I couldn’t put it down. Very well done.
Age Range: 16 and up
Genre: romantic suspense
Part of a Series: sequel to No Safe Haven
Pages: 352
Publisher: B&H Books
Released: 2011
The Jerk Magnet by Melody Carlson
Review by Jill Williamson
Chelsea’s dad drops two bombs on the same night.
1. He has a new job and they’re moving! 2. He’s getting married!
Woah.
At first, Chelsea is overwhelmed in a negative way. Can’t say that I blame her! But her future stepmom starts to grow on her when she gives Chelsea a live-changing makeover. When Chelsea starts school, it’s like she’s a completely different person—at least that’s how people are treating her. She’s attracting all the wrong guys, and the one she really likes won’t even talk to her. What’s the deal?
I LOVED THIS BOOK! Seriously. At first I thought it was just your regular girl-gets-makeover-and-her-life-becomes-amazing book. I was thrilled to be so wrong! Melody Carlson wrote a great, thought-provoking story about the way we tend to stereotype people based on how they look. This is a wonderful story for all ages, but I highly recommend it for all teen girls. It will really make them think.
Age Range: 12 and up
Genre: contemporary
Part of a Series: Life at Kensington High, book 1
Pages: 218
Publisher: Baker
Released: 2012
*I received this book free for review. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.
An Interview with Robert Liparulo
Click to visit Robert Liparulo's website
Today I’m talking with author Robert Liparulo. And I have to say, I’m excited! I loved his Dream House Kings books, and was captivated by the The 13th Tribe. Robert is giving away a copy of The 13th Tribe, so be sure and enter to win at the bottom of the page.
Thanks for agreeing to do an interview on my blog, Robert! When you were little, what did you want to be when you grew up?
My mother reminded me recently that when I was three, I wanted to be an “alligator, like my father.” He was a navigator in the Air Force. Good thing I didn’t go that direction; I’d have lost my job to a GPS device.
For as far back as I can remember, I knew I’d be a writer. In third grade, I used to write poetry, illustrated with chalk, on anything I could find, from a scrap of newspaper to a chuck of asphalt from the street. At the time, I didn’t know I was practicing Mixed Medium Art. I went door to door selling it, and I think people would buy it just to get me off their doorstep. In fifth grade, I wrote an article about the Concorde’s first transatlantic flight. My teacher sent it in to a magazine without telling them my age, and they bought it and published it. Then for years, I wrote magazine articles. I’ve written screenplays, radio dramas, even a software manual . . . anything to write and avoid “regular” employment.
Yes… I don’t think I could ever go back to a 9-5 job, at least not without daydreaming about the good ol’ days of working from home. When did you decide to try writing books?
At first, I wanted to write anything. I started focusing on wanting to write novels when I was 12 and read I am Legend by Richard Matheson. For about half the book, the main character, Robert Neville, tries to get a sick dog inside his home. When he finally does, he spends the night nursing. Stroking the dog, he recalls the way things used to be. The last line of the chapter was: “In the morning the dog was dead.” Not only was the dog cool, its death was symbolic of the death of life as it had once been. I started crying, and I thought, “If words—only WORDS!—can make a pretty tough 12-year-old boy cry, I want to do that.”
But for too many years, I wore a golden shackle writing magazine articles. It was steady work, usually paid well, and I enjoyed it. I interviewed some novelists, and a few of them took it upon themselves to bug me until I started my own novel. They’d ask me if I would be happy as a seventy-year-old having never even tried my hand at novel writing. With their prodding, I finally wrote Comes a Horseman.
Sweet. Was it hard work?
It was a labor of love, so I have mixed feelings about the degree of difficulty. Looking at it practically, yeah, it was tough. I had to make a living, so I couldn’t cut into my article writing to make time for something as iffy as a novel for which no one had yet expressed any interest. So I started getting up at three in the morning and writing until about eight, when I’d start my day job of writing articles, which was already demanding about sixty or seventy hours a week of my time.
Besides the hours and your day job of article writing, what was your biggest obstacle as you learned to become a novelist?
Discipline: The will to write no matter how tired you are, how many doubts you have that your hard work will pay off, how many distractions are dancing around you, chattering for attention. It’s really easy to think of reasons not to write when you’re existing on four hours of sleep a night, when your kids are begging you to attend the school play they’re in (usually I’d go, then get an hour or two less sleep that night), when there’s no one but yourself to hold you to a schedule, a word quota. I kept thinking about what my successful novelist friends said: Will I regret not doing it when I’m older? I didn’t want those regrets.
I’m so glad that it’s paid off for you, Robert. Your books are such a success. What do you consider one of your biggest life adventures?
Well, I’ve skydived, mountain climbed, explored caves, traveled to foreign countries . . . I’m tempted to say it’s raising kids—that’s certainly the grandest—or scuba diving, which I’ve done around the world, with whales and sharks and unsavory people. But I’m going with marriage. If that’s not an adventure, I don’t know what it. I’ve been married to Jodi for 26 years. We’ve had our ups and downs, reared four kids, experienced success and failure together, achieved dreams and watch a few shatter. Through it all, she’s been my strongest supporter and encourager and friend, and I like to think I’ve been those to her, as well. If “biggest life adventure” means something challenging and fun, and at times scary and breathtaking, and simultaneously, something you wouldn’t take back for anything, then mine’s my marriage to Jodi.
*Jill wipes her eyes* Well, on that note, let’s transition to your newest book. The 13th Tribe is a clever story. Here is a little summary:
Click to view on Amazon.com
Nevaeh is a member of the 13th tribe, a group of immortal vigilantes who’ve been trying to earn their way to heaven by killing sinners. When one of their number decides to leave, and take with him a vital tool for their next mission, Nevaeh goes after him, and she doesn’t care who gets in her way.
Jagger has had his share of pain in life. He lost his arm in an accident that also took his daughter, his best friend, and his faith in God. But when his wife and son stumble into the way of the Tribe’s latest attack, Jagger will stop at nothing to save his family, even if that means fighting immortals to the death.
It’s an excellent book. I enjoyed it very much. To read my review of The 13th Tribe, click here.
Robert, there’s a trend in books for teens that have immortal characters. And while The 13th Tribe wasn’t written specifically for teens, I think that Toby’s character will be a favorite for younger readers. Why do you think readers are so fascinated with immortality?
I don’t think fascination with immortality is unique to teens, though teens do have the unbridled imagination to embrace the concept. And for them, life is a smorgasbord of adventures laid out before them, so many that all of them can’t be experienced in a single, mortal lifetime. As we get older, we’ve often tasted the adventures that most interested us and have decided that we could do without others, and we’ve been hurt—physically, emotionally, spiritually—so the prospect of day in and day out living forever looses a bit of it’s appeal. (Although, I have to say I wouldn’t mind, say another hundred years or so on earth.)
But think about it: To live forever on earth means (usually) retaining your youthfulness, gaining untold wisdom, probably unimaginable wealth, experiencing everything this planet has to offer. With the eighty or ninety years we have, we can’t do everything we’d like to, not abundantly, so we have to chose: I can spend six, seven years earning a black belt in karate, a few more years climbing the highest mountains, a few more traveling to exotic countries . . . but what about learning ten languages, reading ever book you’d like to, learning to fly jets, become a expert marksman, learn and practice medicine, play the violin at Carnegie Hall? We just can’t do everything, because everything exacts a price in time, of which we have a limited supply. Immortality means never running out of time, getting to do everything we ever wanted, and spending the time to do it right. Of course it’s a fantasy I think everyone entertains at one time or another!
What a lot of people don’t think about are the drawbacks, and that’s what I explore in The 13th Tribe. Things are precious when they’re rare. We don’t truly appreciate things that we can never run out of. Every day, ever hour is precious because they are so few, relatively speaking. After so long, after so many adventures, I’d think life itself would become monotonous. And then there’s the biggie: How many of us would want immortality if it meant never getting to heaven, never basking in the glory of God in His home, never getting to worshiping Him endlessly, as we were designed to do? Sure, give me more years, but don’t make it forever.
I enjoyed how you explored immortality in the story, Robert. It was very well done. Any real-life adventures planned for the near future? If not, what is one dream that you’ve yet to live?
Over the coming year, I have a lot of travel plans, some for business, some with the family. My son Anthony is fascinated with Italy, but we’ve never taken him. We’re planning a blow-out tour of Italy, from the Lipari Islands—where my family name comes from and which has some of the best scuba diving waters in the world—to Naples and Pompeii, Rome and on up through Florence, Venice, Milan, and Genoa. We’ll be gone a while. I’d also like to bungee jump. Never have, but always wanted to.
Now that sounds like an adventure! What fictional adventure are you working on now?
I’m finishing up the sequel to The 13th Tribe. Its working title is The God Stone, and we find out that there’s another group of immortals, but this time they’re exponentially more wicked than The Tribe. And this go-round, I open the floodgates on the supernatural and spiritual: We get to see angels and demons at work in our lives. A lot of action and suspense, and I think a unique and profound look into the spiritual realm.
Wow! I can’t wait to read that one. Robert, I know how time consuming these interviews can be, so I really appreciate your time. Thank you for talking with me today.
Thank you! Great questions!
To learn more about Robert, visit his website at www.robertliparulo.com. Or “like” him on Facebook here. As I mentioned above, Robert is giving away ONE copy of The 13th Tribe to a USA resident. Enter on the Rafflecopter form below.
The 13th Tribe by Robert Liparulo
Review by Jill Williamson
Nevaeh is a member of the 13th tribe, a group of immortal vigilantes who’ve been trying to earn their way to heaven by killing sinners. When one of their number decides to leave, and take with him a vital tool for their next mission, Nevaeh goes after him, and she doesn’t care who gets in her way.
Jagger has had his share of pain in life. He lost his arm in an accident that also took his daughter, his best friend, and his faith in God. But when his wife and son stumble into the way of the Tribe’s latest attack, Jagger will stop at nothing to save his family, even if that means fighting immortals to the death.
I’ve read—and loved—all Liparulo’s DreamHouse Kings books, but this was my first time reading one of his books for adults. I knew very little about this novel as I started it and found myself completely sucked in to this storyworld and these characters. I especially loved Jagger and his wife Beth. Liparulo came up with a fascinating premise for his Tribe. The story was an action-packed mystery adventure that, once all the players were introduced, just kept on surprising me. This is a great read. Be sure and get yourself a copy!
Age Range: 16 and up
Genre: supernatural
Part of a Series: Immortal Files, book 1
Pages: 416
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
Released: 2012
Waking Hours by Lis Wiehl
Review by Jill Williamson
When a local high school girl is found murdered, forensic psychiatrist Dani Harris is put on the case. It’s a strange case for Dani in more ways than one. First, these students went to the same high school she did. Second, the murder was terribly gruesome and possibly ritualistic. Third, bizarre dreams are waking Dani each night at the exact same time. And fourth, Tommy Gunderson, her high school crush, has decided to help Dani with the case. Is this a straightforward homicide or something much more sinister?
I love a good murder mystery, and Lis Wiehl is quickly becoming one of my favorite authors. She writes incredible characters. In this book, the case built bit by bit in a manner that kept the book glued to my hands until I finished it. I had my theories as to who had committed the crime, but I wasn’t positive. The supernatural element was intriguing, and I can’t wait to see how the rest of this series develops. A great read.
Age Range: 16 and up
Genre: supernatural/mystery
Part of a Series: An East Salem Novel, book one
Pages: 336
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
Released: 2011
*I received this book free for review from the Amazon Vine program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.
F.A.I.R.I.E.S.: Baptism Under Fire by M.C. Pearson
Review by Jill Williamson
After twelve-year-old Mellie has a fight on the beach with her older sisters, she runs off and follows a magical creature into an underground fairy kingdom. Here Mellie decides to join the F.A.I.R.E.S. (Fantastical, Aerial, International, Reasonably Inconspicuous, Emancipation Squad) and begins training.
Imagination runs wild in this book! Pearson brings young readers through a looking glass and into a world bursting with adventure, heroism, and fascinating creatures. Readers will be inspired to be true to the One and left with anticipation of more to come.
Mellie grows a lot in this book, so stick with her if she grates on you at first. I really enjoyed the training school that Mellie and the other fairies went through. One thing that bothered me was the romance. Mellie was only twelve, which I felt was too young to be falling in love and kissing. So, the talk of dating, and the eventual romance, was awkward for me, considering such young characters—like young adult situations in a middle grade novel. I felt like Mellie should have been fifteen or sixteen. Even the girl on the cover looks sixteen or eighteen. All in all, this book is fun, unique, and has a wonderful message about the One.
Age Range: 12 and up
Genre: contemporary fantasy
Part of a Series: yes
Pages: 482
Publisher: FIRST Wild Card Press
Released: 2011
I am Ocilla by Diane Graham
Review by Jill Williamson
Ocilla can’t remember anything but her name. She is rescued from a prison, she and her rescuers are pursued by many dark things, and only Ocilla can stand against the evil that is threatening to consume the Five Kingdoms. But until her memory returns, how will she have any idea how to save anything?
I am Ocilla is a literary ball of string, combining fantasy, allegory, and mystery that slowly unwinds to reveal a beautiful picture of one woman’s identity in Christ. Prophecy, a cursed land, talking animals, fairies, dragons, and a chosen one—this book is a creative journey, not just for the mind, but for the soul. It’s an interesting way to tell a story. If you like fantasy, you should give this one a try.
Age Range: 14 and up
Genre: fantasy
Part of a Series: perhaps
Pages: 272
Publisher: Splashdown Books
Released: 2012
Team Novel Teen Blog Tour: Halflings by Heather Burch
Today Team Novel Teen is reviewing a book by a brand new author. That’s always exciting for me because I remember what it was like to have my first book out. Halflings is the first book in a trilogy from Heather Burch about half-angel/half-humans. If you like romance and love triangles, you must read this book! I can’t wait to see what will happen next because I’m hooked on Halflings!
Here is the cool teaser trailer.
Here is the blurb:
After being inexplicably targeted by an evil intent on harming her at any cost, seventeen-year-old Nikki finds herself under the watchful guardianship of three mysterious young men who call themselves halflings. Sworn to defend her, misfits Mace, Raven, and Vine battle to keep Nikki safe while hiding their deepest secret—and the wings that come with. A growing attraction between Nikki and two of her protectors presents a whole other danger. While she risks a broken heart, Mace and Raven could lose everything, including their souls. As the mysteries behind the boys’ powers, as well as her role in a scientist’s dark plan, unfold, Nikki is faced with choices that will affect the future of an entire race of heavenly beings, as well as the precarious equilibrium of the earthly world.
And here is my review.
Review by Jill Williamson
Some strange things are happening to Nikki Youngblood. She’s been chased by ugly dogs and followed by some really cute guys. And she’s not sure why. The next thing she knows, all three guys enroll in her school and are in all her classes! How weird is that? But the more she learns about Mace, Raven, and Vine, the more she learns about why those weird things were happening to her. One thing is certain: life will never be the same!
Whoo! Now this was a fun read—and a quick one too. (I love quick reads.) Heather Burch has crafted an intriguing storyworld with her Halflings (half angel/half humans) and their history. I was drawn in from page one and couldn’t wait to see how this story would turn out. Luckily I knew in advance what I was in for. This is the first book in a trilogy. So I knew there would be a bit of a cliffhanger headed my way as to the overall mystery. No matter. It was still a fun, romantic read. I have no guesses as to which angel boy Nikki might choose—or if she even will! But I can’t wait to read the next two books. I hope it won’t be too long of a wait because I am hooked on Halfings!
AgeRange: 15 and up
Genre: contemporary fantasy
Part of a Series: A Halflings Novel, book 1
Pages: 288
Publisher: Zondervan
Released: 2012
Team Novel Teen is a group of bloggers dedicated to spreading the word about clean teen fiction. Check out other posts about Halflings by Heather Burch by clicking on the links below, and check out www.NovelTeen.com for more information about Team Novel Teen.
ADD Librarian • The Book Fae • Bookworm Reading • Colorimetry • Fiction Fire • My Story Shelf • Jill Williamson • Katie McCurdy • Oh, Restless Bird • Rachelle Rea • SLY Games • Terri Harr • Virtuous Girlhood
H2O by Austin Boyd and Brannon Hollingsworth
Review by Jill Williamson
Kate Pepper has a great job that she loves, but her handsome boyfriend—and boss—is very controlling. But Kate takes life one day at a time, working hard and hoping for the best. When she begins having visions, everything in her life shatters. The touch of water brings the visions on, so Kate moves into a bizarre existence, doing everything she can to keep from touching water. But life isn’t getting any better. Kate must face the content of her dreams to keep from drowning.
I’ll be honest, I didn’t like this book at first. It was Xavier, the boyfriend. I was horrified at how he treated Kate, and I almost didn’t want to have to read any more! But it was worth it. The overall story was fascinating. (And Kate finally gets away from that horrible man.) The visions were an intriguing plot twist that I enjoyed. Overall this book reads like a women’s fiction novel about relationships, the drive for success, and where you put your hope. Kate put her hope in her own strength, and when she had no strength left, she almost didn’t make it. A fascinating story. Give it a try.
Age Range: 16 and up
Genre: supernatural/women’s fiction
Part of a Series: no
Pages: 400
Publisher: AMG: Living Ink
Released: 2011
*I received this book free for review. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.
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About Me
My name is Jill.
I'm a believer, wife, mom, youth leader, fiction addict, podcaster, superhero, and writer of really cool, weird books for teens.
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