As Easy As Falling Off the Face of the Earth by Lynne Rae Perkins

Picture this. You decide to go to camp in Montana (you live in Wisconsin). On the train you open up a piece of mail from said camp to learn the camp is not going to be open when you get there. Your train breaks down. In an attempt to get a cell phone signal to call home, you get off the train, despite being told not to. While you are trying to call home, the train is fixed and starts to move. Without you.

Now what?

Well, if you're Ry, you walk to the nearest town (hours away). You meet a friendly man Del who offers to drive you back to Wisconsin. Meanwhile, your grandfather (who's staying at your house in Wisconsin) takes the dogs for a walk and falls into a pit in the woods. And your parents, on their first vacation in forever in the Caribbean, leave their cell phone on a volcano.

What other option does Ry have but to find his parents and his grandfather?

A good book, although some suspension of disbelief is necessary. Ry is a great character, flawed but not too much. He's the main story, although his grandfather, his parents, and even the dogs get a chapter or two here and there. A good road trip and adventure story.

Nightshade by Andrea Cremer

Calla Tor is the newest alpha in her family. As such, she's given her own pack--the other wolves her age--to rule over. She is promised to Ren Laroche--the alpha in another pack--also her age. Together they'll form a new pack to help protect the Keepers. On their eighteenth birthday they'll be mated and set up in their own territory as Guardians.

Before that can happen, Calla saves a young man attacked by a bear. Defying the rules she's followed her entire life, she saves him by sharing her blood. Now he's showing up everywhere--at school and with the Keepers. Somehow, Shay has an important role to play, and Calla is asked to keep him under her wing. Unfortunately, she also starts falling for him, placing herself and her pack in danger. Especially when she learns the real reason he's been honored by the Keepers.

Will saving him condemn her to death?

Not a lot happens in this book. There will be another one, so this one really sets the scene. Calla follows rules and orders without questioning why, while Shay questions everything. While some of the scenes could have been shorter or cut out completely, anyone who is a fan of books like Twilight, Shiver, or Vampire Academy will be interested in this new addition.

The Everafter by Amy Huntley

Madison is dead. That's the only thing she knows for sure. What she doesn't know is how she got that way. And she'd like to know.

In the near distance she sees a light. As she gets closer, she sees an image of a bracelet she lost when she was younger. When she touches the image, she gets taken back to the memory of what happened when she lost it. Even more strange, she can enter her body at that time and try to alter that specific event. Each time she does that, she can't remember the details of the original memory, just the altered one. Pretty soon, she's trying every object she can find to see moments from her life which all ultimately lead to the scene where she lost her life.

Some memories shouldn't be altered though. And others can't change.

I liked this book for the overall concept and story. Madison loses a lot of objects during her lifetime, even though she's only 17, so there are many memories for her to follow. The switching from the past to the present jars a little, but it gets better as the story goes on. While the ending was a little surprising, Madison's feelings are not.

The Mockingbirds by Daisy Whitney

Alex wakes up in a strange boy's bed, a bad taste in her mouth, and without any of her clothes. She can't remember how she got that way. She makes her way back to her room across Themis' campus, determined to forget everything.

But her roommate T.S. has a different idea. She believes Alex was raped and wants her to go to the Mockingbirds to turn Carter in. The Mockingbirds is a student-run justice force to police bad behavior.

While Alex decides to talk with the Mockingbirds, she has doubts about what really happened in Carter's bed. And when he tells all his friends about her and their "great" time together, she starts avoiding him at all costs. This event has completely changed her life, and thanks to the Mockingbirds, it's about to change Carter's as well.

Then Carter and his friends get pushy about her silence. And have no problem smearing her to anyone who will listen. Especially at the Mockingbirds' trial.

While I agree with the reviewers that it seems implausible the adults at Themis have absolutely no idea what's going on, I can fully believe they'd turn a blind eye to misbehavior and misconduct.

The real story here is Alex's coping with being date raped, her acceptance of what happened to her, and the beginning of the healing process. Alex spends much of the book in agony that she asked for what happened, she can only remember bits and pieces, and she worries about Carter not being found guilty. I found the character and story to ring true with what I know, and thought it was just amazing. Well worth reading.

The Face on the Milk Carton by Caroline B Cooney

I decided to re-read the Face on the Milk Carton because I couldn't remember everything that happened. I've read the other two sequels, so the story got a little mushed together in the mean time.

Janie has a pretty good life for being almost sixteen. She actually gets along with her parents, has great friends, and enjoys school (as much as one can). So when she's at lunch one day, she can't believe the picture she sees on the milk carton of a 3-year old kidnapped girl. It's her.

Janie becomes obsessed with learning about the family she may or may not have been taken from. She convinces the boy next door, Reeve, to drive her to their house in New Jersey so she can see it. She goes through old boxes and finds the dress from the picture. And her memories start coming back of another family and of the woman who bought her an ice cream sundae and convinced her to go for a drive.

Janie can't believe her parents would kidnap anyone, but it's obvious they must have, right? Things start colliding together until Janie is left with no other option but to tell them she knows.

I've always enjoyed this story, but re-reading it gave me a chance to step back and look at it again. Janie is a likable character and her fears and emotions come across well. Her friends don't play an important part of the story, so while there, they're more background noise, other than Reeve. Janie is a little more wrapped up in her own world than anyone in her life appreciates, but it's understandable.

And you can try to ignore the references to cassette tapes and pay phones as well as the lack of cell phones and other forms of technology. The story isn't any worse for missing those.

The Big Field by Mike Lupica

Hutch loves baseball. He lives for it. He breathes it. And in the summer, it's all he can think about. Even having to play second base instead of shortstop (his real position) doesn't dim his love for baseball. Not even the hotshot now playing shortstop.

When his team gets their chance to play in their version of the World Series, Hutch is ecstatic. Baseball season is never long enough. But the road there is paved with problems...Hutch zoned out and stole a play from Darryl (the hotshot), he catches Darryl and Hutch's dad practicing together (something Hutch's dad never does with Hutch), and Hutch gets suspended a game after starting a fight.

In the world of baseball, it's all about teamwork and balance. Hutch needs to find both to help the team make it to the championship.

Hutch is a great character, but he is only one of many. Most of the characters are fleshed out--at least the main players (his best friend, his parents, Darryl...). The action of the game is clear and the author clearly knows baseball lingo. A great book for any sports nut--especially baseball.

Grace by Elizabeth Scott

Grace is an Angel. To the People, Angels are used to bring justice to their world. By taking out government officials. By suicide bombs.

It's an honor to be chosen. Or so Grace and her fellow Angels have been taught to believe. Grace can't accept they were chosen for death. She doesn't want death. So when her chance arrives, she leaves the bomb and walks away before setting it off. She shames her father and the man she was promised to by this act alone.

Shunned from her people, Grace must escape before the government finds her. She is given a traveling companion--Kerr--and a story to get them across the border. What she doesn't realize or even suspect is Kerr is one of the men she's been taught to fear, hate, and kill her entire life.

Sometimes things aren't always what they seem.

Told from Grace's point of view, the story jumps from present day, to the past, and back again. You get the full story in bits and pieces. Grace is a likable character, even if she struggles to understand everything going on around her and where she fits. There are a few plot skips, but the perspective is interesting--what goes on in the mind of a suicide bomber (a young one) and are they ever given a choice.