Campfire/Shawn Sarles/290 pages

     Campfire is a young adult thriller that is super good!  The basic story revolves around 16 year old Maddie who is on a camping trip with her best friend, Chelsea.  They are out in the woods with handsome guide Caleb, various family members and family friends who have been vacationing together since the kids were tiny.  This year is special.  Maddie's older brother and his girlfriend will be going off to college and everyone kind of feels like this might be the last time they are all together.
     Sitting around the campfire they start telling spooky stories that have everyone feeling uneasy.  Next morning, it looks like the stories are coming true!
     I couldn't decide if this was a supernatural story or thriller with a great twist--and I'm not going to spoil it for you by telling you here!  Campfire is a creepy read with a bit of violence but a really good story with great characters.  Debut novel for Shawn Sarles but I'll look forward to his next eagerly.

We Walked the Sky/Lisa Fiedler/290 pages

     We Walked the Sky is a new young adult novel that I picked up mainly because it has a circus setting.  Turns out the story is really one about a teen named Callie who is a tightrope walker until her mother forces her to leave the circus and everything that she believes to be important and worthwhile so that Mom can take a job with endangered animals.  Callie is bitter and is doing a good impression of an "angry young teen" but basically she is disoriented being taken from the only life she has known and is thrust into a high school setting that isn't easy.  New friend Jenna helps but what really gets her through is encouraging notes left behind from her deceased grandmother, Victoria, who ran away from an abusive home to join the circus and found not only a new life but love and family.
     The chapters alternate between Callie and Victoria and the author does a nice job of neatly tying everything together.  I was wishing for a fuller, richer storyline; the characters were not fully developed and the setting (even with a circus tidbit in there) was just too nothing.  I was disappointed but others may feel differently.

Two Can Keep A Secret/Karen McManus/327 pages

     Two Can Keep A Secret is a young adult suspense novel with a good mystery and great characters.

     Ellery and Ezra are twins spending their senior year with a grandmother they haven't had much contact with while mom is in rehab.  Part of the strange family dynamic started years ago when the twins' Aunt Sarah went missing.  Five years ago a local girl was murdered and now another girl is missing!  Ellery considers herself a junior detective and she and her new friends get in lots of trouble while trying to solve both the cold case and the current case.

     I thoroughly enjoyed this novel.  Its a quick read and while I did suspect the ending, there were several other possibilities.  My one "criticism" is that the teens in the book seemed younger to me that their seventeen years.  I would have pegged them for more like fourteen years old.

  

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland/ Lewis Carroll/ 96 pages

         In this classic novel, Alice finds herself to have fallen down a rabbit hole into a very interesting land. Here she meets many well know characters as well as stumbles into many unusual situations. This was a fun story that quickly moved from one adventure to the next.
         Glad I finally was able to get around to reading this story and I am eager to see how the series continues. I just adored the dialogue at times and had a good time just absorbing the story. It is one that you just have to go with the flow of things because it takes away from the enjoyment if you ponder and question "why?" too much.  Definitely would be a great read-aloud.

Asylum/Madeleine Roux/313 pages

                                                                 Asylum is the story of three young adults who have enrolled
                                                            in a 6 week summer school before college that takes place in an
                                                            institution with dormitories that are attached in what use to be
                                                            part of a sanitarium.  Daniel is the main character.  He is a
                                                            typical teen with worries about fitting in and having friends but
                                                            after arriving at the asylum also questions his sanity--so many
                                                            bad dreams, de ja vu, disappearing emails and sleepless nights.
                                                            Abby is the pretty, artistic one who pairs up with Dan but seems
                                                            to have past ties to the asylum--maybe an aunt was once
                                                            confined there?  Jordan is the tad rebellious one--just
                                                            announcing that he is gay and then not going to the summer
                                                            school his parents arranged for him!  Sometimes our trio are exploring off limit places and find things they shouldn't--other times they are trying to be good and doing exactly what is expected of them and weird things just happen.
     This is a very unnerving story.  There are mind games at play that make it hard to know what is real--and just when you think you have it all figured out, there is one more clue that shows you that you really have NOTHING figured out!
     Good story.

Anna Dressed In Blood/Kendare Blake/316 pages

                                                               Anna Dressed in Blood is a young adult horror story that deals
                                                          with Cas Lowood's quest to seek out the ghost Anna Dressed in
                                                          Blood and (using the anthem that was his father's before him)
                                                          dispatch her to the afterworld.  Anna has murdered many, many
                                                          people--any that wandered into her house--and needs to be
                                                          stopped.  Of course, she doesn't go willingly and during the
                                                          process Cas learns Anna's story and the mission changes to one
                                                          of "saving" Anna.  Then trouble shows up in the form of a flesh
                                                          eating ghost that killed Cas' father!
                                                               This is a great YA book.  I loved all of the characters and the
                                                          situations were scary but somehow believable!  There is love,
                                                          suspense, mystery and fun in this story and you can't wait to see
                                                          how it is going to end!

Sky Without Stars / Jessica Brody and Joanne Rendell / 592 pgs

I was so lucky to get to meet the authors of this wonderful new book at my library last week. They told great stories about how they came up with the idea of Les Miserables in space and reading this book was a little like a homecoming for me because I love the movie (though I must admit I haven't yet read the book by Victor Hugo).

The story is about how humanity left Earth and 505 years later live in a system with three stars and twelve inhabited planets. Laterre is ruled by the Paress family where there are three estates (royalty, administrative, and the workers), much like how there were three estates in pre-Revolutionary France. The book mainly focuses on Alouette, Chatine, and Marcellus, who are stand-ins for Cosette, Eponine, and Marius in the original Hugo novel. In this far off future, humanity has mostly lost its ability to read the written word save for a few folks who must stay hidden and protect the last library on Laterre. Meanwhile, the Third Estate starves in a rainy, marshy environment while the First and Second Estates live, eat, and play in a massive biodome under a virtual blue sky.

This is the first book in the System Divine series and there are plans for more two books at least. I can't wait for the next one as I really got invested in the characters, especially Chatine.

Also, I don't tend to judge a book by its cover, but the first time I saw this book cover, I knew I would love this book. Isn't it gorgeous? Best Book Cover Ever!

Blue Exorcist Vol. 1 / Kazue Kato (Japanese author) / 202 pages / Color in the title

Rin Okumura was always a rebellious orphan, but when he’s jumped by a gang, a blue flame he never knew he could use reveals that not only is he half-human-half-demon, but he is the illegitimate son of the Devil himself.  After his father kills someone close to him, Rin vows to get his revenge on him and joins the True Cross Academy to become an exorcist.  His teacher is his more intelligent, somehow-whole-human, younger twin brother Yukio; hilarity ensues (for the most part).  The first demon they had to exorcise was within a girl’s legs, making her immobile, because it had tricked her into thinking it was her grandmother’s spirit.  This girl, Shiemi, joins the True Cross Academy alongside Rin thanks to a kind conversation they had with each other.

Another recommendation I got, and my first impression was more towards Miss Kato’s illustrations and the careful detail she put into them, especially with the architecture—that alone is worth a peek into the book.

My Hero Academia Volume 16 - Red Riot / Kohei Horikoshi (Japanese author) / 192 pages / Color in the title

This volume was my personal favorite in the series so far, and not just because it had the most action either.

The professional heroes figure out the missing girl's location is at Shie Hassaikai Compound, so they, along with the four 1A students, go on a mission to rescue her.  The problem: Overhaul, his crew, and the League of Villains have been expecting them, and they've prepared to attack and use a Quirk-removing drug the moment they arrive.

The story at this point mainly focuses on Kirishima and Tamaki's battles, as well as their backstories.  The latter was always socially awkward around his peers since grade school, and with the help of Togata, he became more confident with himself; since he had been hit with the Quirk-removing drug before, he has to work to get it back but faints after defeating three henchmen.  As for the former, I could go on a whole discussion on his backstory.

First of all, I've heard about how, out of all the 1A students, manga readers loved Kirishima's backstory the most, which says a lot since there are loads of backstories for loads of characters, major and minor.  Although it wasn't what I expected, I wasn't disappointed either; in fact, it's pretty relatable.  Kirishima got underestimated by "friends" and enemies alike in middle school due to having a "lame" Quirk, yet he was still determined to get in the top school, U.A..  It’s when there was a life-or-death situation that made him doubt himself.  When he watched an interview with a role model hero, the role model talks about how even he has been afraid and wasn’t able to save people he could’ve, but it was remembering those people and moving forward that made him become a better hero.  And Kirishima took inspiration from that.
His actions during a fight with a duo of villains were so admirable, they were willing to let him heal, so they could fight again.

My Hero Academia Volume 15 - Fighting Fate / Kohei Horikoshi (Japanese author) / 192 pages / Color in the title

Besides Midoriya getting third-year student Togata as his new mentor, three other 1A students are chosen by the other two third-years: Uraraka and Tsuyu Asui by Nejire Hado, and Eijiro Kirishima by Tamaki Amajiki.  Both groups experience fighting villains or dangerous criminals.  In the latter group, Kirishima, who was treated as useless since Vol. 5, proves himself to be extremely powerful even for a hero, let alone a new sidekick.

When Midoriya and Togata go out in the city on patrol, on the other hand, they run into a child sprinting out of an alley; Overhaul appears out of the alley behind her and claims that he is her father.  Seeing the terror in her face and the bandages covering her arms, Midoriya refuses to give the girl to him, and Togata insists Midoriya not to act so suspicious around Overhaul.  In the end, Overhaul persuades the frightened girl to come with him.

And in case that wasn't bad enough, Midoriya gets news that All Might will die between now and a year due to a mix of severe injuries and using up all his power.

Later on, the professional heroes and seven teens meet together to discuss the girl Midoriya and Togata failed to save earlier, telling them about the evidence they found that could lead to her location and thus save her.

Super Awesome, as always.

My Hero Academia Volume 14 - Overhaul / Kohei Horikoshi (Japanese author) / 205 pages / Color in the title

So much has gone on between Volumes 3 and 13 (sorry), So I'm just going to cut to the chase:

Midoriya and Bakugo fight and reveal their thoughts of each other as they do-- the former looks up to the latter for his determination, and the latter is insecure of the former for being approved by All Might more.  They're soon caught, and they both get punished and must miss class time to do "odd jobs" around the school dorms; Midoriya for three days, and Bakugo for four days (since he started the fight).  Each boy gives the other some advice on his Quirk during their punishment.

After Midoriya's punishment ends, not only does he need to catch up in school, but the class also has special guests-- three third-year students who've had personal experience in the professional hero world.  At least one of them, Mirio Togata, proves it in their first drill fight, where none of the first-years, not even Midoriya, were able to beat him-- at least, not without feeling like he or she got pummeled in the gut.  Nevertheless, Togata, originally All Might's to-be successor, becomes curious of Midoriya due to his quick analyzing of opponents as well as why he was chosen as the successor instead.     

                                                         

Meanwhile, the League of Villains invite a criminal who goes by "Overhaul" (the plague doctor guy on the cover) to join them; however, Overhaul declines, pointing out that their never having a structured plan before sending any hit man out on a mission is a major flaw in their system.  He leaves, but he also keeps an opportunity in coming back open while he goes at his own pace on wreaking havoc.

First off, I haven't been able to watch Season 3 the anime adaptation, and I hear this book was the equivalent to the season finale, so now I feel a little more ahead in the story.

Second off, YAY!  MIRIO TOGATA!  I hear so much about this guy from memes-- anyone who has a kid that plays a lot of Fallout would be reminded of its mascot when one sees him-- and he was as plucky and memorable as I thought he would be, but also a lot scarier than I expected.

Someday/David Levitahn/394 pages

     Someday is the 3rd in a series of young adult books about "A," Nathan
and Rhiannon.  Having not read the first two, I was floundering a bit at the

beginning but my interest was grabbed immediately and you just have to know more.

     A is an entity that starts every day in the body of someone new.  He has access to most of their memories and he goes through the day trying not to get his person in trouble--for the most part.  When A leaves the person's body, they experience a loss of memory and have no idea why they acted the way they did or said the things they did.  A has been doing this for a very long time and he cannot stop--he cannot halt in the body he is in--he has no say in where he goes next.  Oh, and A is not the only entity out there that does this!

     A, Nathan and Rhiannon have a history,  Rhiannon has feelings for A but they are hard to define.  Another entity ("X") shows up but he is not like A and both Nathan and Rhiannon fear him but A needs to meet with him just to talk since he has never met anyone who does what he does and is what he is.

     This story is somethings sad and some times confusing but always fascinating.  You want to believe and you want to help and you want answers.

     Very unusual story but a great read.

                                                                                                                        

My Hero Academia Volume 2 - Rage, You D**n Nerd / Kohei Horikoshi / 208 pages

After Midoriya's class, Class 1-A, goes through one or two lessons, they begin an activity not unlike "Capture the Flag", where they are split into ten teams of two at random, and two of each team has to play as "heroes" and "villains" (like, Team A-- Midoriya and his new friend Ochaco Uraraka-- is the "Hero" team, while Team D-- Midoriya's other friend Tenya Iida and rival/childhood "friend" Katsuki Bakugo—is the "Villain" team).  This is to exercise each student's ability to face off villains using their Quirks, or even stepping in the shoes of a villain to know them better for future reference.  Most of the students cooperate with each other as team members and team rivals... except for Bakugo, who only uses this activity as an opportunity to take his anger out on Midoriya by attacking him head-on (but with Midoriya’s new Quirk, that doesn’t go well for him!).

Later on, the class goes on a field trip only to be ambushed by a  gang of villains calling themselves "The League of Villains."  The kids and two teachers get separated all over the place and have to fight whichever villains are closest to them.  Only Iida escapes, and he reports to All Might (who is teaching at U.A.) and the other U.A. teachers what's happening with the class.

Sorry, I forgot to do a review on the last volume, so I'll tie it in with this one too:

Both books were really refreshing considering I have yet to re-watch the anime episodes.  I notice that they, unlike the anime, were a lot faster paced than I had remembered, but that was okay (for me, at least).  They were also both humorous and optimistic while still having plenty of action and even suspense.  The short bios and trivia Horikoshi gives of a character at the end of each chapter are interesting to read-- one would get to hear of his insights and development of them.

I'm aware that this series is not for everyone, but if I could recommend it to anyone anyway, I would.

My Hero Academia Volume 1 - Izuku Midoriya: Origin / Kohei Horikoshi / 192 pages

In this world, 80% of the population has superpowers known as "Quirks", so heroes and villains are battling everywhere!  Izuku Midoriya wants to get into the honorable U.A. High School for young heroes to become just like his role model, All Might-- the greatest superhero of all time.  The only problem with that is that Midoriya is one of the 20% born ordinary, or "Quirkless".  This, along with his determination to reach his dream, leads to a lot of doubt from authority figures and a lot of bullying from his peers.  However, when Midoriya finds himself coming in face-to-face contact with All Might, and then attempts to save a hostage from a public villain when no one else would, All Might is inspired by Midoriya's act and asks him if he would like to have his Quirk, "One for All", passed down to him.  Midoriya accepts but is given the Quirk after 10 months of muscle training with All Might first.  When he is ready for the new year, he and thousands of other kids must first take a test that determines who can be official students at U.A.: fight a giant robot and/or help your peers-- only 1 in 300 would be able to pass.  Saving another peer trapped under a broken piece of robot gives Midoriya enough points to pass; therefore, he gets to be a first-year student at U.A.

City of Glass/Cassandra Clare/541 pgs

The third book in The Mortal Instruments series, The City of Glass is where the final big battle between Valentine and Clary, Jace, and the gang. Clary travels to Alicante, the home of the Shadowhunters, to find an angry Jace and the one person who can save her mother dead. This book is filled with HUGE twists and turns; secrets that hurt and heal; and choices that end in life or death. Each book of this series continues to gain in adventures and shocks. Every time i had to put the book down it was nonstop imagining what was going to happen next and being left in awe of not being right. I personally love books that I am not able to guess what happens next or how something is going to end. Cassandra Clare is truly an amazing author and has me already salivating for more.

City of Ashes/Cassandra Clare/453pgs

Second book of The Immortal Instruments series. In this book Clary Fray must deal with the fact that the boy she loves is actually her brother and that her best friend Simon has gained some confidence out of nowhere to claim his spot as her boyfriend. Meanwhile in the Shadowhunter world her father is going around and killing Downworlders to unlock the Angels sword for some mysterious reason. The amount of negativity continuously thrust in Clarys way at every turn; honestly has me in awe of her. If you enjoyed the first first book you are sure to love the second even more. Throughout the book it makes you hope and pray for different outcomes for Clary and Jace. Can't wait to begin reading the third book to see what more comes to light for Clary and all of her friends.

The Key of Erebus/Emma Leech/618pgs

Jehenne Corbeaux is a young girl who has grown up thinking that monsters and the supernatural were nothing more than a fairy-tale. Out of nowhere she is put into a world full of magical creatures but also one filled with more danger than she could ever imagine. Through out the first book she is consistently uncertain of who to trust; her grandmother that has been lying to her, the sexy shifter, or a vampire that seems to want to kill her first ad protect second. This book is the first of The French Vampire Legend series. I couldn't put the book down honestly and it had me hoping for the vampire Corvus to be the guy she ends up with.

City of Bones/Cassandra Clare/485pgs

The City of Bones is the beginning of a captivating series full of magic, supernatural creatures, and the fight against those that would abuse their power. The story follows Clary, a young teen who emerges into a world she never knew even existed. All her life she thought she was a normal teen but when fate intervenes she learns the truth. She is part of a secret world of downworlders and shadowhunters. Hunters that kill and fight demons and keep supernatural creatures in check to protect unknowing humans. Through out the book, Clary is continuously faced with truths, each one greater than the other. You almost wonder how she handles them all and still stays focused on her main goal; to save her mother from an evil man named Valentine. A shadowhunter to kill all downworlders no matter good or evil. This series is definitely for those that enjoy storys with a good amount of twists and turns. Recommended highly to young adults/teens.

Part of Your World: A Twisted Tale/ Liz Braswell/ 475pgs

This particular book is definitely for those that have a love for Disney princesses. Liz Braswell was able to take the happily ever after that we all know and dream of and change it into a what if we all probably wondered about at one point in time. What would happen if Ariel never defeated the evil sea witch Ursula, and she was able to take over the kingdom by fogging everyone's mind to forget all about the little mermaid. In the book Ariel has been made Queen of the sea by her sisters due to her being the cause of why they lost their father in the first place. She has learned to use sign language, since Ursula kept her voice due to her failing in winning the princes heart, but she luckily still has Sebastian and Flounder to help her in speaking and taking care of all she is in charge of. She soon learns that her father is still alive and being held prisoner by Ursula, also known as Princess Vanessa. When Ariel finds this out she is determined to do everything she possibly can to save her father, the prince, and the princes people from the clutches of Ursula's tentacles. The book is worthy of a glance and I am anxious to begin reading another one of Liz Braswells twisted tales.

Summer of Us/Vinesse, Cecilia/314pages/Set in Europe

      Summer of Us is a young adult novel that takes 5 recent high school graduates on a two week trip across Europe.  Aubrey is the planner, best friends with Rae and they have been planning this trip since middle school.  Aubrey's current boyfriend, Jonah, is tagging along planning to see Europe before he heads to New York for College.    Gabe and Clara round out our travel party--Clara with a secret crush on Rae and Gabe pining for Aubrey--just hoping to make some memories before college in Oregon.  Our troop travel to Amsterdam, Rome, Paris and more and by the end of the two weeks they have strengthen some relationships, forged new ones and everyone has a slightly different view of their future.  This was really an excellent read.  The characters act their age but have an admirable maturity when it comes to their plans after high school.  Their personalities mesh and clash in a totally believable and entertaining story