Read Between the Lines by Jo Knowles

Title: Read Between the Lines

Author: Jo Knowles

Publisher: Candlewick Press

Release Date: March 10, 2015

Source: ARC from Publisher

Buy the Book: Amazon / Book Depository / Indigo

Does anyone ever see us for who we really are? Jo Knowles’s revelatory novel of interlocking stories peers behind the scrim as it follows nine teens and one teacher through a seemingly ordinary day.

Thanks to a bully in gym class, unpopular Nate suffers a broke finger—the middle one, splinted to flip off the world. It won’t be the last time a middle finger is raised this day. Dreamer Claire envisions herself sitting in an artsy café, filling a journal, but fate has other plans. One cheerleader dates a closeted basketball star; another questions just how, as a “big girl,” she fits in. A group of boys scam drivers for beer money without remorse—or so it seems. Over the course of a single day, these voices and others speak loud and clear about the complex dance that is life in a small town. They resonate in a gritty and unflinching portrayal of a day like any other, with ordinary traumas, heartbreak, and revenge. But on any give day, the line where presentation and perception meet is a tenuous one, so hard to discern. Unless, of course, one looks a little closer—and reads between the lines.

Until now, I hadn’t read any of Jo Knowles’s previous books but they had always caught my eye. So when I was given the opportunity to read Read Between the Lines I decided to take the plunge. The premise sounded interesting and though it wasn’t what I thought it was going to be, I still really enjoyed reading this story.

Life in a small town is never easy. Who you are in kindergarten is who you will be for the rest of your life. Or so it seems when you’re in highs school. Breaking out of people’s perceptions of you is easier said than done, and sometimes might not even be worth it. It might just be easier to be who people want you to be until you can get out. If you can get out. The truth about small towns is that everyone has something they are trying to hide, a way they wish other people would see them. And on any given day, whether they want it or not, people’s lives intersect in ways that can’t be predicted to mixed results.

When I first read the premise for Read Between the Lines, I was definitely curious about the idea of a story that looks at ten different people and the way their lives intersect or are connected. I had some ideas about what that kind of story might look like but not real definite picture. However, I couldn’t have predicted the story that I ended up getting. And I don’t mean that in a bad way. At all. In a way, this story almost feels more like you’re reading ten short stories that are all connected to one another. That’s because each of the ten “sections” of the book is told from a different person’s perspective. I’m not going to lie, at first the format confused me a little. each of the section sort of felt like they ended abruptly and I wanted to know wha would happen next to that person, but I never really got to see that. Instead, the story moved on to the next person and what was happening in their lives. And that definitely took some getting used to. But after reading a couple sections, I realized that people who were mentioned in passing in one section were then the main focus of one of the following sections and they would continue popping up in the other parts the book. So when you look at them separately, the different sections of the book don’t really make much sense. But when looked at as a whole, Jo Knowles has painted a pretty accurate portrait of what life in a small town can be like. How nothing is never really as it seems, and everyone has misconceptions about everyone. It was just really interesting reading and seeing how it was all connected, how every seemed linked to each other through the smallest of things. It was definitely a different read for me, but it was still one that was interesting and that I really liked and enjoyed.

If you’re looking for something a little different, I would strongly recommend Jo Knowles’ Read Between the Lines. This story will definitely get you thinking about passing judgement and being judged. Though it wasn’t what I thought it was going to be, I still really enjoyed this story. 

The Chance You Won't Return by Annie Cardi

Title: The Chance You Won't Return

Author: Annie Cardi

Publisher: Candlewick Press

Release Date: April 22, 2014

Source: ARC from Publisher

Buy the Book: Amazon / Book Depository / Indigo

When your mom thinks she’s Amelia Earhart, navigating high school, first love, and family secrets is like flying solo without a map.

Driver’s ed and a first crush should be what Alex Winchester is stressed out about in high school—and she is. But what’s really on her mind is her mother. Why is she dressing in Dad’s baggy khaki pants with a silk scarf around her neck? What is she planning when she pores over maps in the middle of the night? When did she stop being Mom and start being Amelia Earhart? Alex tries to keep her budding love life apart from the growing disaster at home as her mother sinks further into her delusions. But there are those nights, when everyone else is asleep, when it’s easier to confide in Amelia than it ever was to Mom. Now, as Amelia’s flight plans become more intense, Alex is increasingly worried that Amelia is planning her final flight—the flight from which she never returns. What could possibly be driving Mom’s delusions, and how far will they take her?

When I first heard about Annie Cardi’s The Chance You Won’t Return, I knew it was a book I absolutely needed to read. It sounded so different from the other contemporary stories I had been reading lately. Having now read it, I can say that I was absolutely right: this was a story that was different, and it was one that I absolutely loved.

If the only thing Alex Winchester had to worry about was passing driver’s ed and figuring out what to do about Jim Wiley, the guy she likes, her life would be easy. But lately, something’s been different at home. The more she thinks about it, the more Alex starts to think that something could be seriously wrong with her mom. But Alex would rather not think about. At least not until her mom starts wearing her father’s pants and saying that she’s preparing for her next flight. Now, Alex’s mom is no longer her mom, she’s Amelia Earhart. Alex is scared about what this could mean, of what will happen when her mom leaves for Amelia Earhart’s final flight, the one she doesn’t return from. But at the same time, Alex finds herself being able to talk to Amelia the way she can’t talk to her mom. Late at night, they sit in the kitchen and Alex tells Amelia all about school, her friends, and her budding romance with Jim. In spite of it all, though, all Alex really wants is to get her mom back.

When I first read the synopsis for The Chance You Won’t Return all these months ago, I knew that I wanted to read this book. It just sounded different from what I had been reading at the time. Now all these months late, I was just as excited to have finally etched the point where it was time to read the book. And it was so good, possibly even better than I thought it was going to be. This story was deep and powerful in its own way. From the start, I was able to see that things weren’t perfect in Alex’s life, but at least she had what she needed and she was happy. But things quickly went downhill when her mom became Amelia Earhart. Through it all though there was this constant struggle between happiness and sadness: Alex was going through all these things that should have been making her happy, but because of what was happening with her mom, she couldn’t even enjoy things as simple as her first love. And that kind of resonated with me. I’m not saying I’ve ever been in Alex’s situation, but so often I’ve seen people who are supposed to be kids being forced to grow up and take care of things because one or both parents can’t do it. The Chance You Won’t Return portrays this really realistically, showing Alex struggling both internally and externally with this situation. And when it comes down to it, the reason this felt so realistic was because of the way Alex told this story.

I’ll admit that at first I didn’t really like Alex all that much. She seemed kind of obnoxious. But it didn’t take all that long for me to get over that. When things started going bad with her mom, I could tell that she struggled with it all. I mean, who wouldn’t? I can only begin to imagine what it would feel like to see my mom standing in front of me but have her acting like someone else entirely. And so there was this inner struggled with Alex throughout the book: she wanted her mom back, but at the same time she was able to talk to Amelia in a way she hadn’t been able to talk to her mom in a long time. Seeing Alex’s struggle over the course of the book really tore at the heartstrings. I wanted her to be able to enjoy what was happening to her with Jim, but at the same time she felt guilty being happy because of what was happening at home. Basically, there were a lot of contradictions in Alex, but it just worked and by the end of the book I just really loved her. The one thing I would have made me like The Chance You Won’t Return even more was if I had gotten to know some of the other characters better. I did get to find out a lot about Jim and he was really great for Alex, but beyond that, I can’t really say I knew any of the other characters all that well. 

In case it wasn’t obvious, I really loved Annie Cardi’s The Chance You Won’t Return. This was a deeper contemporary story that will really pull at your heartstrings. It’s a story that more than deserves to be read.

Breakfast Served Anytime by Sarah Combs

Title: Breakfast Served Anytime

Author: Sarah Combs

Publisher: Candlewick Press

Release Date: April 8, 2014

Source: ARC from Publisher

Buy the Book: Amazon / Book Depository / Indigo

A coming-of-age debut evokes the bittersweet joys and pangs of finding independence in one unforgettable summer away at "geek camp."

When Gloria sets out to spend the summer before her senior year at a camp for gifted and talented students, she doesn't know quite what to expect. Fresh from the heartache of losing her grandmother and missing her best friend, Gloria resolves to make the best of her new circumstances. But some things are loving to be more challenging than she expected. Like the series of mysterious clues left by a certain Professor X before he even shows up to teach his class, Secrets of the Written Word. Or the very sweet, but very conservative, roommate whose coal-industry family champions mountaintop removal. Not to mention the obnoxious Mason, who dresses like the Mad Hatter and immediately gets on Gloria's nerves--but somehow won't escape her thoughts. Beautifully told by debut author Sarah Combs, this honest and touching story of growing up is imbued with the serene atmosphere of Kentucky's natural landscape. 

Books like Sarah Combs' Breakfast Served Anytime are the reason I love contemporary stories as much as I do. This was a quiet story that completely drew me in and held me captive the whole way through. And after having read this story, I am ready to read just about anything Sarah Combs writes.

Gloria Bishop thought she knew what she would be doing after her high school graduation. For as long as she can remember, she and Carol, her best friend, having been planning their great escape to New York City where Gloria will act and Carol will dance. But since her grandmother's death, Gloria isn't so sure that's what she wants anymore. To help her decide, Gloria decides to go to "Geek Camp" for four weeks, but the experience is not what Gloria thought it was. Her professor sends mysterious letters to her class, her roommate, though sweet, doesn't share many of Gloria's opinions, and then there's Mason. Mason, the boy who always gets on Gloria's last nerve, but who she can't seem to stop thinking about. But over the course of those four weeks, Gloria will discover just who she is, and more importantly, who she wants to be.

It's no secret that I love contemporary stories, and if I listened to myself, I wouldn't read much else. Every once in a while though, I'll pick up a book and as I'm reading, I'm reminded of just why contemporary is my favourite genre. This was the case with Sarah Combs' debut, Breakfast Served Anytime. The best way I can think of to describe this story is quiet. This wasn't a story with a big and crazy concept, it wasn't a story that was wild. Instead it was a story that was more subdued, but that was still powerful. Because this story isn't really about the plot. Sure there are events and those events lead to some of the character development, but if you ask me, Breakfast Served Anytime is about the characters. Well, character. Because this is Gloria's story in all senses of the word. These four weeks spent at Geek Camp are about Gloria understanding who she is and who she wants to be, away from her regular life. And I loved that about Breakfast Served Anytime--how almost introspective it was. It was the textbook definition of a coming-of-age story. And to make things even better, it was set in summer AND at camp. So this story? I loved it.

In many ways, this story is very introspective. Sure Gloria comments on what goes on in the world around her, and on her relationships with the other people at Geek Camp, but it's very much about her and how she'd slowly discovering exactly who she is. It's very often about how what other people say or do make Gloria think about her own opinions on certain subjects or how her actions compare to the actions of others. So I really loved seeing her thoughts and her reactions to the other members of her class. I loved how protective she could become of Calvin, how quickly she became friends with Chloe despite her reservations, and the way she just let Mason get under her skin. I just enjoyed seeing Gloria's growth over the course of the story, coming to realize just who she is, and what she wants her future to look like, including the people she wants in that future. But what struck me the most, was just how real Gloria felt, and in turn how real her growth felt. And that's what made the story resonate with me.

Sarah Combs' Breakfast Served Anytime was a whole lot more than I thought it was going to be. I didn't expect to read a quiet story that would resonate with me, but I loved every page of it. I can't wait to read more from Sarah Combs.

The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender by Leslye Walton

Title: The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender

Author: Leslye Walton

Publisher: Candlewick Press

Release Date: March 25, 2014

Source: ARC from Publisher

Buy the Book: Amazon / Book Depository / Indigo

Magical realism, lyrical prose, and the pain and passion of human love haunt this hypnotic generational saga.

Foolish love appears to be the Roux family birthright, an ominous forecast for its most recent progeny, Ava Lavender. Ava--in all other ways a normal girl--is born with the wings of a bird. In a quest to understand her peculiar disposition and a growing desire to fit in with her peers, sixteen-year old Ava ventures into the wider world, ill-prepared for what she might discover and naïve to the twisted motives of others. Others like the pious Nathaniel Sorrows, who mistakes Ava for an angel and whose obsession with her grows until the night of the Summer Solstice celebration. That night, the skies open up, rain and feathers fill the air, and Ava's quest and her family's saga build to a devastating crescendo. First-time author Leslye Walton has constructed a layered and unforgettable mythology of what it means to be born with hearts that are tragically, exquisitely human.

I really knew nothing about Leslye Walton's debut, The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender, when I started reading it. I mean, I had read the synopsis and I expected it to be different but I honestly didn't know what I should have been expecting. This book was different from anything else I've ever read in YA, but it was a beautiful story all the same. 

If you're familiar at all with my reviews, you'll know that I usually try to summarize the story in my own words before getting to talking about the story and characters. But I just don't know how to even begin doing that with The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender. This book was just so different from everything I've read in recent years, especially as far as YA fiction goes. I'll be the first to admit that this book confused me a little at first. I mean, I started reading and for the first 100 or so pages the main character isn't even born, yet she's the one narrating this story. So I was scratching my head a little, but Leslye Walton's writing was just beautiful so I didn't want to stop reading. And the more I read, the more I got drawn into this story. It was so interesting to get to read not just the main protagonist's story, but to also get to read her family's story and see how it was all connected and something that started so long ago impacted Ava's present. Because this was basically a generational story. It started with Ava's grandmother, Emilienne, and moved on to her mother, Viviane, until the story was about Ava. And even at that point the story wasn't all about Ava. It was just all weaved together perfectly.

This might be stating the obvious, but the plot is very much intricately linked to the character's lives. This is the kind of story that's all about the characters, there lives make up the plot in a way that's different than what I've read before. This is especially true when I think back on the story. As I was reading, it was pretty clear that this story was about the Roux/Lavender family and all their quirks and oddities. But looking back on it, this story couldn't really have been told any other way or it wouldn't have had the same impact. The way Leslye Walton chose to tell this story makes it so you're told everything you need to know in order to figure out what's going to happen, but at the same time you won't necessarily piece it all together until it's all laid out for you to see. At least, that's how it was for me. And that's, in my opinion, what made this story so powerful. All those little details that were spread out through the story came together in a way that brought on all these emotions, until the climax of the story where I was just reading with this feeling of dread I couldn't get rid of. It was just all weaved together perfectly. 

I'm hoping this (hopefully) somewhat coherent rambling will have made you want to pick up Leslye Walton's The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender. This is a story that's so different (apparently that's the only way I can think of to describe this story) from what's currently available in the world of YA fiction and it will make you wish for more like it. If for nothing else, at least read it for Leslye Walton's beautiful prose, you won't regret it. 

Candlewick 2014 Debut Giveaway!

Thanks to the lovely people at Candlewick Press, I have the chance to offer you a chance to win a prize pack including 5 YA & MG debuts coming out early next year! Keep reading to find out more about the books and to enter the giveaway.

The Books:

- Breakfast Served Anytime by Sarah Combs

- Caminar by Skila Brown

- There Will be Bears by Ryan Gebhart

- The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender by Leslye Walton

- The Chance You Won't Return by Annie Cardi

These all sound pretty great if you ask me. I know I'm really excited to read Breakfast Served Anytime and The Chance You Won't Return as they are both contemporary YA, but the others have certainly piqued my interest as well!

The Giveaway:

If these books sound like something you might be interested in then this is your chance to win a prize pack that includes ALL 5 BOOKS! All you have to do to enter is fill out the Rafflecopter form below.

Giveaway is open to US & Canada ONLY (Sorry international folks!).

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Juvie by Steve Watkins

Title: Juvie

Author: Steve Watkins

Publisher: Candlewick Press

Release Date: October 8, 2013

Source: ARC from publisher

Buy the Book: Amazon / Book Depository

Heart-wrenching and real, Juvie tells the story of two sisters grappling with accountability, sacrifice--and who will be there to help you after you take the fall.

Sade Windas has always been the responsible one--she's the start player on her AAU basketball team, she gets good grades, she dates a cute soccer player, and she tries to help out at home. Not like her older sister, Carla, who leaves her three-year-old daughter, Lulu, with Aunt Sadie while she parties and gets high. But when both sisters are caught up in a drug deal--wrong place, wrong time--it falls to Sadie to confess to a crime she didn't commit to keep Carla out of jail and Lulu out of foster care. Sadie is supposed to get off with a slap on the wrist, but somehow, impossibly, gets sentenced to six months in juvie. As life as Sadie knew it disappears beyond the stark bars of her cell, her anger--at her ex-boyfriend, at Carla, at herself--fills the empty space left behind. Can Sadie forgive Carla for getting her mixed up in this mess? Can Carla straighten herself out to make a better life for Lulu, and for all of them? Can Sadie survive her time in juvie with her spirit intact?

When I first heard about Juvie by Steve Watkins it just sounded like an intriguing story that was grittier than what I would normally choose to read. As much as I love my broken characters, there's usually romance and a happy ending involved. With Juvie, it was different but the good kind of different. 

Sadie has always been the good sister. Unlike her older sister Carla, Sadie didn't start using drugs and get pregnant at seventeen. Instead, Sadie tries to hold her family together, spending as much time as she can with her niece Lulu and helping out wherever possible. But when babysitting Carla at a party gets the two sisters caught up in a drug deal, Sadie isn't sure how she can fix this problem. Taking the fall for Carla lands Sadie in juvie for six months. Will Sadie survive juvie? And more importantly will this scare Carla into getting her act together, if only for Lulu's sake?

Typically, I love my contemporary stories filled with romance, something there was pretty much none of in Steve Watkins' Juvie. But that's okay. I knew going in that Juvie would be different from what I normally read but I wanted it to be different. This story was a little darker and grittier--as you would expect from a story that takes place in juvie. What I liked about the story is that there were sort of two timelines. Every other chapter was about Sadie's first few months in juvie, while the rest of the chapters showed Sadie's life from starting from the party where everything went wrong until the day before she goes to juvie. Having the story told that way allowed me to get a better sense of why Sadie made the decision she did when she chose to take the fall for her sister. Because, ultimately, that's what the story was about: the bond between two sisters. 

The story was very much about the bond between Sadie and Carla. Though that bond appeared to be very strained, it's still there. Sadie is the kind of person who would do whatever she can to help her family, and I respected her for that. Granted the person she was doing this for didn't really seem to appreciate it at first. If I'm being completely honest, Carla didn't really have many redeeming qualities when I first met her. But I was happy to see her pick up the pieces of her life, even if it took one major kick in the butt to do so. More than that though, it was nice to see Sadie accept who her sister was as the story went on. Sure, she was giving her grief and pushing her to get her act together, but she eventually accepted her. Though, really, Lulu is the one who totally stole the show. 

Juvie by Steve Watkins was different. The kind of different I really enjoy and makes me want to recommend a book to others. If you are looking for a book that deals with a grittier subject matter and shows how strong family bonds can be, then Juvie is the book for you.