Andye Reads

Review by Paola   DREAMSTRIDER by Lindsay Smith Age Range: 12 - 18 years Hardcover: 400 pages Publisher: Roaring Brook Press (October 6, 2015) Language: English Goodreads | Amazon A high-concept, fantastical espionage novel set in a world where dreams are the ultimate form of political intelligence. Livia is a dreamstrider. She can inhabit a subject's body while they are sleeping and, for a short time, move around in their skin. She uses her talent to work as a spy for the Barstadt Empire. But her partner, Brandt, has lately become distant, and when Marez comes to join their team from a neighboring kingdom, he offers Livia the option of a life she had never dared to imagine. Livia knows of no other dreamstriders who have survived the pull of Nightmare. So only she understands the stakes when a plot against the Empire emerges that threatens to consume both the dreaming world and the waking one with misery and rage. Livia is the only dreamstrider in the Barstadt Empire. ...

Review by Paola A MADNESS SO DISCREET by Mindy McGinnis Hardcover: 384 pages Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books (October 6, 2015) Language: English Goodreads | Amazon Mindy McGinnis, the acclaimed author of Not a Drop to Drink and In a Handful of Dust, combines murder, madness, and mystery in a beautifully twisted gothic historical thriller perfect for fans of novels such as Asylum and The Diviners as well as television's True Detective and American Horror Story. Grace Mae is already familiar with madness when family secrets and the bulge in her belly send her to an insane asylum—but it is in the darkness that she finds a new lease on life. When a visiting doctor interested in criminal psychology recognizes Grace's brilliant mind beneath her rage, he recruits her as his assistant. Continuing to operate under the cloak of madness at crime scenes allows her to gather clues from bystanders who believe her less than human. Now comfortable in an ethical asylum, Grace finds f...

Review by Paola THE MARVELS by Brian Selznick Hardcover: 640 pages Publisher: Scholastic Press (September 15, 2015) Goodreads | Amazon Two seemingly unrelated stories--one in words, the other in pictures--come together. The illustrated story begins in 1766 with Billy Marvel, the lone survivor of a shipwreck, and charts the adventures of his family of actors over five generations. The prose story opens in 1990 and follows Joseph, who has run away from school to an estranged uncle's puzzling house in London, where he, along with the reader, must piece together many mysteries. Sometimes you look at a book and think "I'm going to love this book." I had a good feeling about The Marvels and I'm happy to report that I was right. This book is gorgeous inside and out. It just oozes magic and wonder from the very first page.    source I think the best way to read this book is to go into it without knowing anything about it. I read the blurb after ...

by Paola THE SCORPION RULES by Erin Bow Series: Prisoners of Peace Hardcover: 384 pages Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry Books (September 22, 2015) Language: English Goodreads | Amazon In the future, the UN has brought back an ancient way to keep the peace. The children of world leaders are held hostage—if a war begins, they pay with their lives. Greta is the Crown Princess of the Pan Polar Confederacy, a superpower formed of modern-day Canada. She is also a Child of Peace, a hostage held by the de facto ruler of the world, the great Artificial Intelligence, Talis. The hostages are Talis’s strategy to keep the peace: if her country enters a war, Greta dies. The system has worked for centuries. Parents don’t want to see their children murdered. Greta will be free if she can make it to her eighteenth birthday. Until then she is prepared to die with dignity, if necessary. But everything changes when Elian arrives at the Precepture. He’s a hostage from a new American alliance,...

by Paola DUMPLIN by Julie Murphy Hardcover: 384 pages Publisher: Balzer + Bray (September 15, 2015) Language: English Goodreads | Amazon Dubbed “Dumplin’” by her former beauty queen mom, Willowdean has always been at home in her own skin. Her thoughts on having the ultimate bikini body? Put a bikini on your body. With her all-American-beauty best friend, Ellen, by her side, things have always worked . . . until Will takes a job at Harpy’s, the local fast-food joint. There she meets Private School Bo, a hot former jock. Will isn’t surprised to find herself attracted to Bo. But she is surprised when he seems to like her back. Instead of finding new heights of self-assurance in her relationship with Bo, Will starts to doubt herself. So she sets out to take back her confidence by doing the most horrifying thing she can imagine: entering the Miss Teen Blue Bonnet Pageant—along with several other unlikely candidates—to show the world that she deserves to be up there as much as an...

Review by Paola  MATERIAL GIRLS by Elaine Dimopoulos Hardcover: 336 pages Publisher: HMH Books for Young Readers (May 5, 2015) Language: English Goodreads | Amazon In Marla Klein and Ivy Wilde’s world, teens are the gatekeepers of culture. A top fashion label employs sixteen-year-old Marla to dictate hot new clothing trends, while Ivy, a teen pop star, popularizes the garments that Marla approves. Both girls are pawns in a calculated but seductive system of corporate control, and both begin to question their world’s aggressive levels of consumption. Will their new “eco-chic” trend subversively resist and overturn the industry that controls every part of their lives? Smart, provocative, and entertaining, this thrilling page-turner for teens questions the cult like mentality of fame and fashion. Are you in or are you out? Material Girls takes place in a world where teenagers control the economy. Seventh graders have the opportunity of getting "Tapped" (work for a ...

Review by Paola THE REVENGE PLAYBOOK by Rachael Allen File Size: 1046 KB Print Length: 368 pages Publisher: HarperTeen (June 16, 2015) Sold by: HarperCollins Publishers Goodreads | Amazon Don't get mad, get even! In this poignant and hilarious novel, Rachael Allen brilliantly explores the nuances of high school hierarchies, the traumas sustained on the path to finding true love, and the joy of discovering a friend where you least expect. In the small town of Ranburne, high school football rules and the players are treated like kings. How they treat the girls they go to school with? That's a completely different story. Liv, Peyton, Melanie Jane, and Ana each have their own reason for wanting to teach the team a lesson—but it's only when circumstances bring them together that they come up with the plan to steal the one thing the boys hold sacred. All they have to do is beat them at their own game. Liv, Peyton, Melanie Jane, and Ana wouldn't be friends under norma...

Review by Paola THOSE GIRLS by Lauren Saft Hardcover: 336 pages Publisher: Poppy (June 9, 2015) Language: English Goodreads | Amazon Junior year, the suburbs of Philadelphia. Alex, Mollie and Veronica arethose girls: They're the best of friends and the party girls of the school. But how well does everybody know them-and really, how well do they know one another? Alex is secretly in love with the boy next door and has joined a band-without telling anyone. Mollie suffers from a popular (and possibly sociopathic) boyfriend and a serious mean streak. And Veronica just wants to be loved-literally, figuratively, physically...she's not particular. Will this be the year that bonds them forever or tears them apart for good? In a debut novel that is raw, honest, hilarious, and thought-provoking, Lauren Saft masterfully conveys what goes on in the mind of a teenage girl and how often even the closest of friends walk the thin line between love and hate. This book has a gigantic ...

Review by Paola CHALLENGER DEEP by Neal Shusterman Hardcover: 320 pages Publisher: HarperTeen (April 21, 2015) Language: English Goodreads | Amazon A captivating novel about mental illness that lingers long beyond the last page, Challenger Deep is a heartfelt tour de force by New York Times bestselling author Neal Shusterman. Caden Bosch is on a ship that's headed for the deepest point on Earth: Challenger Deep, the southern part of the Marianas Trench. Caden Bosch is a brilliant high school student whose friends are starting to notice his odd behavior. Caden Bosch is designated the ship's artist in residence to document the journey with images. Caden Bosch pretends to join the school track team but spends his days walking for miles, absorbed by the thoughts in his head. Caden Bosch is split between his allegiance to the captain and the allure of mutiny. Caden Bosch is torn.   Challenger Deep is incredibly captivating. At first, you might be unsure as to what...