Andye Reads

Review by Sara... GIRL IN PIECES  By Kathleen Glasgow Series: No Hardcover: 416 pages Publisher: Delacorte Press (August 30, 2016) Grade Level: 10 Up Language: English Goodreads | Amazon For fans of  Girl, Interrupted, Thirteen Reasons Why,  and  All the Bright Places  comes Kathleen Glasgow’s debut novel about a girl who has lost everything—almost even herself.     Charlotte Davis is in pieces. At seventeen she’s already lost more than most people lose in a lifetime. But she’s learned how to forget. The broken glass washes away the sorrow until there is nothing but calm. You don’t have to think about your father and the river. Your best friend, who is gone forever. Or your mother, who has nothing left to give you.   Every new scar hardens Charlie’s heart just a little more, yet it still hurts so much. It hurts enough to not care anymore, which is sometimes what has to happen before you can find your way back from the ...

Review by Jackie... OUR CHEMICAL HEARTS By Krystal Sutherland Hardcover: 256 pages Publisher: G.P. Putnam (September 6, 2016) Language: English Goodreads | Amazon John Green meets Rainbow Rowell in this irresistible story of first love, broken hearts, and the golden seams that put them back together again.   Henry Page has never been in love. He fancies himself a hopeless romantic, but the slo-mo, heart palpitating, can't-eat-can't-sleep kind of love that he's been hoping for just hasn't been in the cards for him—at least not yet. Instead, he's been happy to focus on his grades, on getting into a semi-decent college and finally becoming editor of his school newspaper. Then Grace Town walks into his first period class on the third Tuesday of senior year and he knows everything's about to change.   Grace isn't who Henry pictured as his dream girl—she walks with a cane, wears oversized boys' clothes, and rarely seems to shower. But when ...

Review by Sara... FRANNIE AND TRU By Karen Hattrup Hardcover: 320 pages Publisher: HarperTeen (May 31, 2016) Language: English Goodreads | Amazon When Frannie Little eavesdrops on her parents fighting she discovers that her cousin Truman is gay, and his parents are so upset they are sending him to live with her family for the summer. At least, that’s what she thinks the story is. . . When he arrives, shy Frannie befriends this older boy, who is everything that she’s not–rich, confident, cynical, sophisticated. Together, they embark on a magical summer marked by slowly unraveling secrets.   All of these debut books are starting to read as if they are the same. This was no different than the rest I have read recently. It started promising and then turned boring, leaving me to wonder what I just read. This is the story of cousins Frannie and Tru(man). Frannie overhears her mother talking one day and mentions that Truman (who goes by Tru) is gay. Tru'...

Review by Sara... THE FALL OF BUTTERFLIES By Andrea Portes Hardcover: 386 pages Publisher: Harper Teen (May 10, 2016) Language: English Goodreads | Amazon Willa Parker, 646th and least popular resident of What Cheer, Iowa, is headed east to start a new life. Did she choose this new life? No, because that would be too easy—and nothing in Willa’s life is easy. It’s her famous genius mother’s idea to send her to ultra-expensive, ultra-exclusive Pembroke Prep, and it’s only the strength of her name that got Willa accepted in the first place. But Willa has no intentions of fitting in at Pembroke. She’s not staying long, she decides. Not at this school—and not on this planet. But when she meets peculiar, glittering Remy Taft, the richest, most mysterious girl on campus, she starts to see a foothold in this foreign world—a place where she could maybe, possibly, sort of fit. When Willa looks at Remy, she sees a girl who has everything. But for Remy, having everything co...

Review by Sara... THE BLOOD BETWEEN US By Zac Brewer Grade Level: 8 up Hardcover: 274 pages Publisher: HarperTeen (May 3, 2016) Language: English Goodreads | Amazon Growing up, Adrien and his sister, Grace, competed viciously for everything. It wasn’t easy being the adopted sibling, but Adrien tried to get along; it was Grace who didn’t want anything to do with him. When their scientist parents died in a terrible lab fire, there was nothing left to hold them together. After years apart, Adrien and Grace are now forced to reunite for their senior year, at the elite boarding school where their parents were teachers. Being back around everyone he used to know causes Adrien to examine the person he’s become, even while being back around Grace turns him into someone he doesn’t want to be. But all of those questions are cast aside when Adrien starts to suspect that Grace might be stealing their parents’ research and claiming it as her own—or worse, that she had a hand in...

By Becca... Welcome to the first stop on the GIRL AGAINST THE UNIVERSE Blog Tour, hosted by Irish Banana Reviews. You have no idea how ridiculously excited I am to be on this blog tour, because this book.....I CAN'T EVEN WITH MY LOVE FOR IT. Thank you so much Hanna and Paula for having me on this tour! Check out my review full of all kinds of fun FANGIRL-ING and then enter a sweet giveaway below! GIRL AGAINST THE UNIVERSE By Paula Stokes Hardcover: 400 Pages Publisher: HarperTeen (May 17, 2016) Language: English Age Range: 13 and Up Goodreads  |  Amazon ABOUT GIRL AGAINST THE UNIVERSE: Maguire is bad luck. No matter how many charms she buys off the internet or good luck rituals she performs each morning, horrible things happen when Maguire is around. Like that time the rollercoaster jumped off its tracks. Or the time the house next door caught on fire. Or that time her brother, father, and uncle were all killed in a car crash—and Maguire walked away with ba...

By Becca... THE UNEXPECTED EVERYTHING By Morgan Matson Age Level: 12 and up Grade Level: 7 and up Hardcover: 528 pages Publisher: Simon & Schuster (May 3, 2016) Language: English Goodreads | Amazon Andie had it all planned out.  When you are a politician’s daughter who’s pretty much raised yourself, you learn everything can be planned or spun, or both. Especially your future. Important internship? Check. Amazing friends? Check. Guys? Check (as long as we’re talking no more than three weeks) But that was before the scandal. Before having to be in the same house with her dad. Before walking an insane number of dogs. That was before Clark and those few months that might change her whole life. Because here’s the thing - if everything's planned out, you can never find the unexpected. And where’s the fun in that? It's no secret that Morgan Matson is 110% one of my top three favorite contemporary authors. I legit love her books more than I could ever possi...

Review by Sara... THE LAND OF 10,000 MADONNAS By Kate Hattemer Age Range: 12 and up Grade Range: 7 and up Hardcover: 320 pages Publisher: Knopf (April 19, 2016) Language: English Goodreads | Amazon Five teens backpack through Europe to fulfill the mysterious dying wish of their friend. Jesse lives with his history professor dad in a house covered with postcards of images of the Madonna from all over the world. They’re gotten used to this life: two motherless dudes living among thousands of Madonnas. But Jesse has a heart condition that will ultimately cut his life tragically short. Before he dies, he arranges a mysterious trip to Europe for his three cousins, his best friend, and his girlfriend to take after he passes away. It’s a trip that will forever change the lives of these young teens and one that will help them come to terms with Jesse’s death. I was really excited when I received this book to read because the premise sounded like a great read and the cover looked amazi...

By Becca... Today, I welcome Erin L. Schneider, author of SUMMER OF SLOANE, on the second day of Irish Banana's Summer of Sloane Blog Tour! Thank you so much Hannah and Erin! This was such a fun post to collaborate on, and I'm excited to persuade EVERYONE to read this epic book! Check out Erin's Q&A post below, and then stick around for an awesome giveaway! SUMMER OF SLOANE By Erin L. Schneider Hardcover: 304 pages Publisher: Disney-Hyperion (May 3, 2016) Language: English Warm Hawaiian sun. Lazy beach days. Flirty texts with her boyfriend back in Seattle. These are the things seventeen-year-old Sloane McIntyre pictured when she imagined the summer she’d be spending at her mom’s home in Hawaii with her twin brother, Penn. Instead, after learning an unthinkable secret about her boyfriend, Tyler, and best friend, Mick, all she has is a fractured hand and a completely shattered heart. Once she arrives in Honolulu, though, Sloane hopes that Hawaii might ...