Andye Reads

Review by Leydy THE LAST STAR The 5th Wave #3 Audible Audio Edition Listening Length: 9 hours and 17 minutes Program Type: Audiobook Version: Unabridged Publisher: Listening Library Scheduled Audible.com Release Date: May 24, 2016 Goodreads | Amazon | Audible Following the major motion picture release starring Chloë Grace Moretz, the heart-stopping finale to the New York Times best-selling 5th Wave series The enemy is Other. The enemy is us. They're down here, they're up there, they're nowhere. They want the Earth, they want us to have it. They came to wipe us out, they came to save us. But beneath these riddles lies one truth: Cassie has been betrayed. So has Ringer. Zombie. Nugget. And all 7.5 billion people who used to live on our planet. Betrayed first by the Others and now by ourselves. In these last days, Earth's remaining survivors will need to decide what's more important: saving themselves...or saving what makes us human. "Let no one despair, ev...

Review by Leydy   WHISPER TO ME by Nick Lake Hardcover: 544 pages Publisher: Bloomsbury USA Childrens (May 3, 2016) Language: English Goodreads | Amazon A remarkable story of strange beauty and self-discovery from Printz Award winner Nick Lake. Cassie is writing a letter to the boy whose heart she broke. She's trying to explain why. Why she pushed him away. Why her father got so angry when he saw them together. Why she disappears some nights. Why she won't let herself remember what happened that long-ago night on the boardwalk. Why she fell apart so completely. Desperate for his forgiveness, she's telling the whole story of the summer she nearly lost herself. She's hoping that love-love for your family, love for that person who makes your heart beat faster, and love for yourself-can save both of them after all.    This is not going to be pretty so I will make it short. I’m very disappointed with this story. I really wanted to like the book because I l...

Review by Leydy THE SERPENT KING by Jeff Zentner Audible Audio Edition Listening Length: 9 hours and 7 minutes Program Type: Audiobook Version: Unabridged Publisher: Listening Library March 8, 2016 Goodreads | Audible | Hardcover “ The Serpent King is a book you won’t be able to resist or forget. The Southern boy in me savored every syllable and the reader in me fell in love with every page.” —John Corey Whaley, National Book Award finalist and Printz Award winner Dill has had to wrestle with vipers his whole life—at home, as the only son of a Pentecostal minister who urges him to handle poisonous rattlesnakes, and at school, where he faces down bullies who target him for his father’s extreme faith and very public fall from grace. He and his fellow outcast friends must try to make it through their senior year of high school without letting the small-town culture destroy their creative spirits and sense of self. Graduation will lead to new beginnings for Lydia, w...

Review by Leydy NEED by Joelle Charbonneau Age Range: 12 and up Grade Level: 7 and up Hardcover: 352 pages Publisher: HMH Books for Young Readers (November 3, 2015) Goodreads | Amazon “No one gets something for nothing. We all should know better.” Teenagers at Wisconsin’s Nottawa High School are drawn deeper into a social networking site that promises to grant their every need . . . regardless of the consequences. Soon the site turns sinister, with simple pranks escalating to malicious crimes. The body count rises. In this chilling YA thriller, the author of the best-selling Testing trilogy examines not only the dark side of social media, but the dark side of human nature.  I need this! I want that! Human emotions are tricky. The urge of need and want is often confused, just like in Need. People would do anything and everything for something they “need” when in reality it is what they want. This book, Need , holds a nice premise, however the execution was ...

Review by Leydy NOT AFTER EVERYTHING by Michelle Levy Hardcover: 336 pages Publisher: Dial Books (August 4, 2015) Language: English Amazon | Goodreads Tyler has a football scholarship to Stanford, a hot girlfriend, and a reliable army of friends to party with. Then his mom kills herself. And Tyler lets it all go. Now he needs to dodge what his dad is offering (verbal tirades and abuse) and earn what his dad isn’t (money): He needs a job. It’s there that he reunites with Jordyn, his childhood best friend, and now the token goth girl at school. Jordyn brings Tyler an unexpected peace and, finally, love. But with his family in shambles, he can’t risk bringing Jordyn too deeply into his life. So when violence rocks Tyler’s world again, will it be Jordyn who shows him the way to a hopeful future? Or after everything, will Tyler have to find it in himself? Not After Everything is a story not to be taken lightly. This story deals with suicide, abuse and violet. Yet, this story i...

Review by Leydy THE AUGUST FIVE by Jenna Helland Age Range: 12 - 18 years Hardcover: 320 pages Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR) (November 10, 2015) Goodreads | Amazon In a world rocked by revolt, your worst enemy can become your greatest hope Fourteen-year-old Tommy Shore lives a life of privilege: he has the finest clothing, food, and education available and servants to take care of his every whim. He is the son of the chief administrator of Aeren-the most important man on the islands. Fifteen-year-old Tamsin Henry has grown up knowing only poverty, but she is the daughter of a revolutionary who longs to give her and their people more.  Ordinarily, Tommy and Tamsin would never cross paths, but on the day of a violent and deadly revolt, chance brings them together. Now the world waits to hear the fate of the August 5, five men led by, and including, Tamsin's father and captured during the uprising. As tensions between the government and the rebels escalate, Tommy...

Review by Leydy AN INHERITANCE OF ASHES by Leah Bobet Age Range: 12 and up Grade Level: 7 and up Hardcover: 400 pages Publisher: Clarion Books (October 6, 2015) Goodreads | Amazon The strange war down south—with its rumors of gods and monsters—is over. And while sixteen-year-old Hallie and her sister wait to see who will return from the distant battlefield, they struggle to maintain their family farm. When Hallie hires a veteran to help them, the war comes home in ways no one could have imagined, and soon Hallie is taking dangerous risks—and keeping desperate secrets. But even as she slowly learns more about the war and the men who fought it, ugly truths about Hallie’s own family are emerging. And while monsters and armies are converging on the small farm, the greatest threat to her home may be Hallie herself.   I don’t even know where to begin. I don’t even know how to categorize An Inheritance of Ashes. This book has a little of everything and is more of a dystopian st...

Review by Leydy DREAM THINGS TRUE by Marie Marquardt Hardcover: 352 pages Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin (September 1, 2015) Language: English Goodreads | Amazon Evan and Alma have spent fifteen years living in the same town, connected in a dozen different ways but also living worlds apart -- until the day he jumps into her dad's truck and slams on the brakes. The nephew of a senator, Evan seems to have it all - except a functional family. Alma has lived in Georgia since she was two, surrounded by a large (sometimes smothering) Mexican family. They both want out of this town. His one-way ticket is soccer; hers is academic success. When they fall in love, they fall hard, trying to ignore their differences. Then Immigration and Customs Enforcement begins raids in their town, and Alma knows that she needs to share her secret. But how will she tell her country-club boyfriend that she and almost everyone she's close to are undocumented immigrants? What follows is a...

Review by Leydy THESE SHALLOW GRAVES by Jennifer Donnelly Age Range: 12 and up Grade Level: 7 and up Hardcover: 496 pages Publisher: Delacorte Press (October 27, 2015) Amazon | Goodreads Jo Montfort is beautiful and rich, and soon—like all the girls in her class—she’ll graduate from finishing school and be married off to a wealthy bachelor. Which is the last thing she wants. Jo dreams of becoming a writer—a newspaper reporter like the trailblazing Nellie Bly. Wild aspirations aside, Jo’s life seems perfect until tragedy strikes: her father is found dead. Charles Montfort shot himself while cleaning his pistol. One of New York City’s wealthiest men, he owned a newspaper and was a partner in a massive shipping firm, and Jo knows he was far too smart to clean a loaded gun. The more Jo hears about her father’s death, the more something feels wrong. Suicide is the only logical explanation, and of course people have started talking, but Jo’s father would never have resorted to tha...

Review by Leydy ONE by Sarah Crossan Hardcover: 400 pages Publisher: Greenwillow Books (September 15, 2015) Language: English Goodreads | Amazon Tippi and Grace share everything—clothes, friends . . . even their body. Writing in free verse, Sarah Crossan tells the sensitive and moving story of conjoined twin sisters, which will find fans in readers of Gayle Forman, Jodi Picoult, and Jandy Nelson. Tippi and Grace. Grace and Tippi. For them, it's normal to step into the same skirt. To hook their arms around each other for balance. To fall asleep listening to the other breathing. To share. And to keep some things private. Each of the sixteen-year-old girls has her own head, heart, and two arms, but at the belly, they join. And they are happy, never wanting to risk the dangerous separation surgery. But the girls' body is beginning to fight against them. And Grace doesn't want to admit it. Not even to Tippi. How long can they hide from the truth—how long before they m...

Review by Leydy A STEP TOWARD FALLING by Cammie McGovern Hardcover: 368 pages Publisher: HarperTeen (October 6, 2015) Language: English Goodreads | Amazon Cammie McGovern follows up her breakout young adult debut, Say What You Will, with this powerful and unforgettable novel about learning from your mistakes, and learning to forgive. Told in alternating points of view, A Step Toward Falling is a poignant, hopeful, and altogether stunning work that will appeal to fans of Jennifer Nevin, Robyn Schneider, and Jandy Nelson. Emily has always been the kind of girl who tries to do the right thing—until one night when she does the worst thing possible. She sees Belinda, a classmate with developmental disabilities, being attacked. Inexplicably, she does nothing at all. Belinda, however, manages to save herself. When their high school finds out what happened, Emily and Lucas, a football player who was also there that night, are required to perform community service at a center for disabled...

Review by Leydy THE DETOUR by S.A. Bodeen Age Range: 12 - 18 years Hardcover: 224 pages Publisher: Feiwel & Friends (October 6, 2015) Language: English Goodreads | Amazon Livvy Flynn is a big deal - she's a New York Times-bestselling author whose YA fiction has sold all over the world. She's rich, she's famous, she's gorgeous, and she's full of herself. When she's invited to an A-list writer's conference, she decides to accept so she can have some time to herself. She's on a tight deadline for her next book, and she has no intention of socializing with the other industry people at the conference. And then she hits the detour. Before she knows it, her brand new car is wrecked, she's hurt, and she's tied to a bed in a nondescript shack in the middle of nowhere. A woman and her apparently manic daughter have kidnapped her. And they have no intention of letting her go. The Detour is about a Young Adult author who happens to think she i...

Review by Leydy DRIFT AND DAGGAR by Kendall Kulper Age Range: 12 and up Grade Level: 7 and up Hardcover: 368 pages Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers (September 8, 2015) Language: English Goodreads | Amazon In Mal's world, magic is everything. But Mal is a "blank," the anti-magic. Blanks can't be hexed or cursed or saved or killed by magic. And everyone is afraid of them--even Mal himself. So Mal hides what he is--except from Essie Roe, a witch and his best friend. On the day Essie reveals his secret and casts him out from the only home he's ever known, Mal experiences the true shock of betrayal. Now Mal travels the world in search of rare, illegal magical relics. When his partner in crime, Boone, hears rumors of a legendary dagger that can steal a witch's power, Mal knows he's finally found his means of revenge. But as the chase for the fabled knife takes them from Boston to Paris to Constantinople, Mal realizes there are secrets...

Review by Leydy THE ONE THING by Marci Lyn Curtis Age Range: 12 - 18 years Grade Level: 7 - 12 Hardcover: 336 pages Publisher: Disney-Hyperion (September 8, 2015) Goodreads | Amazon Maggie Sanders might be blind, but she won't invite anyone to her pity party. Ever since losing her sight six months ago, Maggie's rebellious streak has taken on a life of its own, culminating with an elaborate school prank. Maggie called it genius. The judge called it illegal. Now Maggie has a probation officer. But she isn't interested in rehabilitation, not when she's still mourning the loss of her professional-soccer dreams, and furious at her so-called friends, who lost interest in her as soon as she could no longer lead the team to victory. Then Maggie's whole world is turned upside down. Somehow, incredibly, she can see again. But only one person: Ben, a precocious ten-year-old unlike anyone she's ever met. Ben's life isn't easy, but he doesn't see...

Review by Leydy  WHAT WE SAW by Aaron Hartzler Hardcover: 336 pages Publisher: HarperTeen (September 22, 2015) Language: English Goodreads | Amazon The party at John Doone's last Saturday night is a bit of a blur. Kate Weston can piece together most of the details: Stacey Stallard handing her shots, Ben Cody taking her keys and getting her home early. . . . But when a picture of Stacey passed out over Deacon Mills's shoulder appears online the next morning, Kate suspects she doesn't have all the details. When Stacey levels charges against four of Kate's classmates, the whole town erupts into controversy. Facts that can't be ignored begin to surface, and every answer Kate finds leads back to the same questions: Who witnessed what happened to Stacey? And what responsibility do they have to speak up about what they saw?  Mark your calendar! September 22nd is the day to purchase this book. And you don’t want to miss out! Not only does this book has solid story bu...

Review by Leydy (Once Upon a Twilight) TONIGHT THE STREETS ARE OURS by Leila Sales Age Range: 12 - 18 years Hardcover: 352 pages Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR) (September 15, 2015) Goodreads | Amazon Recklessly loyal. That's how seventeen-year-old Arden Huntley has always thought of herself. Taking care of her loved ones is what gives Arden purpose in her life and makes her feel like she matters. But lately she's grown resentful of everyone--including her needy best friend and her absent mom--taking her loyalty for granted. Then Arden stumbles upon a website called Tonight the Streets Are Ours, the musings of a young New York City writer named Peter, who gives voice to feelings that Arden has never known how to express. He seems to get her in a way that no one else does, and he hasn't even met her. Until Arden sets out on a road trip to find him. During one crazy night out in New York City filled with parties, dancing, and music--the type of night wh...

Review by Leydy STONE RIDER by David Hofmeyr Age Range: 12 and up Grade Level: 7 and up Hardcover: 336 pages Publisher: Delacorte Press (July 14, 2015) Goodreads | Amazon " Intense, original, compelling . . . bristles with attitude. So cool. Just read it."--Michael Grant, New York Times bestselling author of Gone and BZRK In the vein of The Outsiders and the early Western novels of Elmore Leonard, this inventive debut novel, a cross between the cult classic Mad Max movie series and Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, blends adrenaline-fueled action with an improbable yet tender romance to offer a rich and vivid portrayal of misfits and loners forced together in their struggle for a better life. Adam Stone wants freedom and peace. He wants a chance to escape Blackwater, the dust-bowl desert town he grew up in. Most of all, he wants the beautiful Sadie Blood. Alongside Sadie and the dangerous outsider Kane, Adam will ride the Blackwater Trail in a brutal race that will test t...

Review by Leydy    CHARLIE, PRESUMED DEAD by Anne Heltzel Hardcover: 272 pages Publisher: HMH Books for Young Readers; 1 edition (June 2, 2015) Language: English Goodreads | Amazon In Paris, family and friends gather to mourn the tragic passing of Charlie Price—young, handsome, charming, a world-traveler—who is presumed dead after an explosion. Authorities find only a bloodied jacket, ID’d as Charlie’s. At the funeral, two teens who are perfect strangers, Lena Whitney and Aubrey Boroughs, make another shocking discovery: they have both been dating Charlie, both think Charlie loved them and them alone, and there is a lot they didn’t know about their boyfriend. Over the next week, a mind-bending trip unfolds: first in London—then in Mumbai, Kerala, and Bangkok, the girls go in search of Charlie. Is he still alive? What did their love for him even mean? The truth is out there, but soon it becomes clear that the girls are harboring secrets of their own. No one knows w...

Review by Leydy UNDERTOW Undertow #1 by Michael Buckley Series: Undertow Hardcover: 384 pages Publisher: HMH Books for Young Readers (May 5, 2015) Language: English Goodreads | Amazon First, we feared them. Then we fought them. Now they might be our only hope. Sixteen-year-old Lyric Walker’s life is forever changed when she witnesses the arrival of 30,000 Alpha, a five-nation race of ocean-dwelling warrio...

by Leydy THE LAST GOOD DAY OF THE YEAR by Jessica Warman Hardcover: 288 pages Publisher: Bloomsbury USA Childrens (May 19, 2015) Language: English Goodreads | Amazon Ten years ago, seven-year-old Samantha and her next door neighbor Remy watched helplessly as Sam's little sister was kidnapped. Later, Remy and Sam identified the man and he was sent to prison. Now, Sam's shattered family is returning to her childhood home in an effort to heal. As long-buried memories begin to surface, she and Remy wonder what they really saw. The more they re-examine the events of that fateful night, the more questions they have about what happened to Turtle . . . and they become more certain that Turtle's killer is still out there, hidden amongst the members of their tight-knit community. Master storyteller Jessica Warman keeps readers guessing in an arresting page-turner that questions whether the potential for evil lurks within us all.  I went back and forth with this one - honestl...