Book Reviews: Y.A. books with a difference!

Since it's getting very close to when our first Y.A. SF book Olivia's Escape debuts, I thought I'd share some reviews of recent Y.A. books I've read. Enjoy! 

Highly Illogical Behavior by John Corey Whaley
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Solomon Reed is an agoraphobic with a panic disorder. In middle school while suffering a panic attack, he stripped and dived into the school’s fountain. Three years later, he’s being homeschooled and hasn’t stepped a foot out of his family’s home since that fateful day. His parents have tried therapy and drugs but nothing has worked. Sol has convinced them it’s better for him just to stay put. As long as he remains inside their home, the world outside can’t harm him.

Enter Lisa Praytor, an overachiever who has set her sights on attending a prestigious college on a full scholarship to study psychology so she can leave their small California town for good. Her plans include writing an essay about her “personal experience with mental illness.” Who better to write about than the kid who jumped into the fountain? Lisa decides to find him and “cure him” and write that winning essay. Of course, she won’t tell him what she’s really doing. She doesn’t want him to think she’s using him, right?

What Lisa doesn’t account for is becoming Sol’s best friend--and then introducing Sol to her boyfriend Clark, a super nice guy and water polo athlete who enjoys Star Trek: The Next Generation every bit as much as Sol. The three become a tight-knit group and genuinely enjoy each others’ company. Solomon comes to feel perhaps the world outside isn’t such a bad place after all. When he asks for a swimming pool, his parents are overjoyed that their son can at last step into the backyard, and they are grateful for Lisa and Clark’s help. But trouble arrives in paradise when Sol realizes he’s fallen in love with Clark and Lisa begins to doubt Clark’s sexual orientation.

Highly Illogical Behavior is a touching story of three teenagers who learn it’s who you’re with that’s more important than where you are.


The Hidden Oracle by Rick Riordan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

It’s not easy being a Greco-Roman god--particularly when you anger your father and he hurls you to earth into a garbage-filled dumpster. But that’s not Apollo’s worst problem at the moment. Great Olympus! He’s been transformed into a mere mortal and lost all his god-like powers and portions of his memory. To add insult to injury, he’s now a sixteen-year-old, acne-riddled kid named Lester. He must have really ticked off Zeus!

So begins The Trials of Apollo: Book One The Hidden Oracle. Apollo may be trapped in a mortal teenager’s flabby frame, but he’s still got most of his wits about him. He knows Zeus has sent him on a quest to do great deeds in order to redeem himself and save the world. The real trouble is he’s not got the powers to do it alone, so he has to swallow his over-sized ego and search for help. A street waif named Meg rescues him and reveals herself to be a demi-god like Apollo’s good friend, Percy Jackson.

With Meg and Percy’s help, he gets to Camp Half-Blood where he discovers not all the demi-gods and goddesses are happy campers. Some have disappeared into the woods where the trees seem to be talking, driving them insane. Visions of a malevolent force named the Beast and prophecies from the ancient earth goddess Rhea reveal what Apollo’s quest will be. But without his godly powers, and with his over-inflated sense of importance, can Apollo inspire others to join his fight and face certain death?

Fast-paced and loaded with action scenes and memorable characters, The Hidden Oracle is a strong start to yet another great Y.A. fantasy series by Rick Riordan. Can a movie treatment be far behind?

View all my reviews

Keep it tuned here for news of the release of Olivia's Escape -- from Desert Breeze Publishing.  http://blooddarkbooks.blogspot.com

Our Champion

I apologize for not keeping up with my personal blog postings lately, but I've been busy editing The Bernie Blog, canvassing for the campaign, working on our Y.A. sci-fi series (the  first book, BloodDark -- Olivia's Escape releases in August), and  writing for another web site, Political Storm. Here's a sample of my writing lately which appeared recently at that web site.

 Our Champion

It’s not the style--it’s the substance. It’s the sincerity of his message. It’s that warm, empowering feeling of hope you feel whenever you hear Bernie Sanders speak. You sense his compassion for others whenever you listen to him. It makes no difference if you hear him in person at a “yuge” rally or streaming online from an alternative media source (since mainstream media has ignored him). All that matters is the message is directed at you, an ordinary American voter, and not at some billionaire corporate lobbyist or super PAC contributor. 

Bernie Sanders doesn’t have a super PAC or even want a super PAC. He has been funded since day one of his run for office by us, ordinary Americans. His average campaign donation? Bernie brags at his rallies it’s “twenty-seven bucks!” We all laugh and applaud. The fact that he’s raised so much from so many through small donations demonstrates the affection millions of ordinary people have for Bernie. (We gave him $43 million in March alone.)We like him so much that we call him by his first name, and Bernie is cool with it. 

The Millennials definitely think he’s cool. They design t-shirts with his face and slogans and tattoo their bodies with his icon. This will never cease to amaze me since their generation has been put through the grinder by the Baby Boomers’ selfishness and carelessness. Our kids inherit a polluted, climate-changed planet, and they’re desperate for the hope Bernie’s “A Future to Believe In” platform provides. But it’s not just about the excitement of the rally and the thousands upon thousands cheering on Bernie in large university arenas that provides hope; it’s the man himself.  Young and old alike connect with Bernie because he gives us the truth, straight up and unvarnished, and then he tells us how together we’ll make changes for the better and revive democracy in our great nation. 

“Not Me Us” is one of Bernie’s trending hashtags online, and it sums up his philosophy well. Together we are strong and caring. Together we can save our world. Together we can work to build a brighter future for all Americans and not just the handful who’ve been dipping their hands in the cookie jar and hoarding all the cookies for too long. Together we have hope.

Our champion doesn’t come riding in on a white stallion--or even in a white luxury sedan--but he comes to talk to us in person and humbly asks for our support. We welcome him to our backyard barbecues with smiles and a cold beer. Folks who donate an average of $27 to a candidate can’t afford $353,400 tickets to fancy soirees with champagne and caviar and movie stars. We know we can’t afford to elect candidates who only want fame, power and more money for themselves, either. Fortunately, we have Bernie Sanders, a public servant who has served working Americans well through his long and distinguished career. 

Bernie Sanders: A champion to believe in and a future to believe in. Somewhere up there you know FDR would be proud.

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For more information about Bernie , please check out his campaign website at www.berniesanders.com or go to the all volunteer-created website bursting with useful information: www.feelthebern.org