Hook Line and Sinker

Hook Line and Sinker by G. P. Guarente
Everything time a boy disappoints Fiona Delmar she buys a fish for her aquarium. The Pet Shop Boy helps her choose, and she adds another one. A cute story, flashbacks to the previous boys, and a local production of Grease the musical make this a great teen romance.198 pgs.

Regencies

The Abducted Bride by Dorothy Mack, 219 pgs.
A Grand Deception by Elizabeth Mansfield, 297 pgs.

Oddly, both novels involve one girl who looks almost identical to another pretending to actually be the other girl to fool extended family and society while the first girl is missing. Oh, what tangled webs we weave.....

teen reads

The Realm of Possibilities by david levithan -- highly recommended, particularly the section called "The Patron Saint of Stoners" in which an honor student writes "Finding pot is to Clara as Giving birth is to man." Free verse poetry, 205 pages.

Plastic Fantastic by Simon Cheshire, about a boy who idolizes a pop star and then gets trapped in an elevator with her. Told in flashbacks from the elevator, this was better that it had to be, especially at a light 152 pgs.

I picked 6 regency romances from the library shelves at random, and was disappointed when I got home and realized I had read four of them already. Alas, alack, etc.

And I read Testing Kate by Whitney Gaskell for www.freshfiction.com. 321 pgs.

My Dirty Little Book of Stolen Time

I loved it. I blogged about it here. 305 pgs.

playing catch up

Okay, okay, so I am a bit behind. But this month I have read:
Twilight Magic by Shari Anton, for freshfiction.com. 316 pgs.
and some short stories by O. Henry for book group. ~ 60 pgs.
and Enemy Women by Paulette Jiles for book group (it was rich--chapters started with historical journals and notes). 321 pgs.
I also read The Marriage Diaries by Rebecca Campbell for freshfiction.com. 288 pgs.
and Accidental It Girl by Libby Street –368 pgs
And Pretty Things by Sarra Manning- 263 pgs.
And the new issue of the magazine SEED - science is culture, it's pretty awesome.

Guitar Girl

Sarra Manning's Guitar Girl was more serious that I thought it would be, judging from the Cherry-Red-haired teen on the cover, and the opening chapter about a girl being sued by her record company for 5 million pounds. That said, it's girls with guitars, and it ROCKS!
I checked it out. 217 pgs

Love on the Lifts

Yes, there is a theme of vacation-themed teen romances lately. Summer is almost over and I am taking some vicarious vacay through YA fluffiness. Luckily, the library just got all of Rachel Hawthorne's paperbacks in.
Love on the Lifts is about three teen girls who spend three weeks of winter break at an Aunt's lodge near a ski resort, only the Aunt's nephew and two friends are also (unexpectedly) invited. Romance ensues.
I checked it out. 313 pgs.
Island Girls (and Boys) is about three teen girls the summer after high school who work on an island south of Texas for a campground company and stay in one of the girl's grandparent's beach house (while they are out of the country) and hook up with some drifters on motorcycles, as well as other various strays, while still learning marginally about adult responsibilities like paying the utility bill. Drifters do tend to move on eventually, but nevertheless, romance ensues. (the most serious moments concerned the dangers facing the hot guy who has already joined the Army and must report for duty at the end of the summer.)
I checked it out. 301 pgs.

In the best tradition of fluffy teen romance, no one in these books worries about much outside of their immediate emotions, there is no judgement even from the grown ups about kids hooking up with each other on vacation and even sleeping together (although rarely our protagonist) , so one has any STDs or drug issues, and the dialogue is witty.

Stately Pursuits

Stately Pursuits by Katie Fforde
Hetty's mother convinces her that the best way to deal with her recent heartbreak (her boss/lover just broke up with her in a most-un-sensitive way) is to house-sit for her elderly and hospitalized distant relation on an estate in the English countryside. Soon after she arrives, Hetty realizes that her relation's finances are not up to snuff, and she and the locals begin scrambling to help the old man cover the payments on an outrageous loan. The heir-apparent, called Conner, but nicknamed Conan the Barbarian, plans to tear down the house after the old man dies, and Hetty tries to convince him otherwise in a delightful romantic comedy.
I checked it out. and listened to it, because it was narrated by Jenny Sterlin, who is wonderful. 11.5 hrs.

Scrambled Eggs at Midnight

Scrambled Eggs at Midnight by Brad Barkley and Heather Hepler
Calliope is 15, and has moved 23 times in the last 4 years. Her mother makes jewelry and works at Renaissance Faires as a taven wench in the summers . She packs Cal up in the Datsun and moves on whenever the mood strikes her. They sleep in a tent, or sometimes a cheap motel. The mail forwarding can barely keep up with them. Needless to say, Cal is used to leaving things behind.

Eliot has lived for the last 7 years at the isolated Christian weight loss camp that his parents run in the mountains near Asheville, North Carolina. His family used to be wonderful, before his dad stopped selling swimming pools for a living and found religion. Eliot is used to putting on a happy face for the campers and keeping up appearances.

When Cal and Eliot meet in a bookstore in town, the first thing Cal noticed about Eliot is that his lips are green, a science experiment gone (quite obviously) awry. When Eliot notices Cal's, he sees fireworks exploding in red, green and white - her hair, her eyes, her bright smile. Eliot has fireworks on the brain because he is secretly constructing them in the garage behind the camp.
Sometimes all you need in life is to find just one other person who understands you.

I checked it out. 262 pgs