Review: Nantucket Blue by Leila Howland

Pub. Date: May 7, 2013

Publisher: Hyperion / Disney Book Group

Format: Hardcover

294 pages

For Cricket Thompson, the summer before her senior year looks like it will be nearly perfect. Her school Lacrosse team has just won the championship game, and her best friend Jules Clayton’s family has invited her to spend the summer on Nantucket Island. A summer on Nantucket means not only a great time with the Claytons, but a summer without a crappy babysitting job, and without having to deal with her fathers new marriage, and her mothers withdrawal from normalcy.

When the Claytons are unexpectedly shattered by a death, everything changes. On Nantucket independently, working and living as a maid at the Cranberry Inn, Cricket does her best to stick to a motto of “lie low, look good, and learn”. From the beginning of the summer when all of Crickets plans fall apart along with her relationship with Jules, to the end of the summer, Cricket gains a lot more than an excellent vacation by falling in love with the one person she knew she should have stay away from.  

Review: Dragonfly (Dragonfly #1) by Leigh Talbert Moore

Pub. Date: June 6^th, 2013

Publisher: All Night Reads

Edition: eBook

198 pages

After her best friend moves away, Anna Sanders plans on a quiet and lonely senior year, with lots of college prep. Her plans quickly change when Lucy and Jack Kyser, the twins of wealthy land developer Bill Kyser, enter her life. Lucy becomes the friend Anna needs, and an encouraging force behind the sparking of more than friendship between Anna and Jack. Even though Anna feels a strong pull towards Jack, the very hot and cold nature of their relationship leaves her confused. Adding to her confusion is the reentry of Julian, an artistic prodigy that Anna tutored in math the previous year, to her life. Julian is equally as charming and attractive as Jack, but where Jack is secretive and standoffish, Julian is straightforward and honest about his feelings for Anna.

When Jack pushes away, just as their relationship is starting to progress, Anna begins to wonder how much his father is pulling the strings. Under the guise of her internship at a local newspaper, and driven by her own curiosity about Jack, Lucy and the Kyser family, Anna becomes entangled in the secrets the Kyser’s have worked very hard to keep hidden. Just as Anna uncovers one mystery, she discovers that the secrets she has learned, and what she thought she knew about the family, is really just the tip of the iceberg.  

Review: How Zoe Made Her Dreams (mostly) Come True by Sarah Strohmeyer

Pub. Date: April 23rd, 2013
Published by Balzer & Bray/ Harperteen
Edition: Paperback
320 pages

Imagine your most ideal summer job. For Zoe, ideal equals Fairyland Kingdom theme park (not to be confused with rival theme park 'the Mouse'), where she gets to live, work and breathe Fairytales. One big perk of the job is the annual competition for the $25,000 Dream & Do grant. Of course winning the money, which both her and her cousin are desperately in need of, will not come easy. The grant winners are usually those who play Prince's and Princess' - characters that neither Zoe nor Jess were picked to play.

The ideal job quickly turns sour when Zoe is cast as the assistant/slave to "The Queen"(aka the boss), and her small spoiled rotten Bishon Frise, Tinker Bell. Instead of dancing on floats, and having a fairytale wedding everyday like the Princess', Zoe is up before the sun, walking Tinker Bell, and doing her best not to break one of The Queen's hundred rules. When Tinker Bell escapes into the Forbidden Forest, and Zoe has to breaks all the rules to get her back, she finds not only the dog, but a Prince Charming who's identity is worth risking the grant money to uncover.