full-ride (343 Pages)

I think I've read just about every book Margaret Haddix has written, starting with her Shadow Children series. This book follows Becca, a young girl  who is just finishing 8th grade. Her father has been arrested for bilking millions of dollars out of people and after a grueling trial, has been found guilty. His sentence is for ten years in jail. Becca and her mother are put into a witness protection program. Meanwhile, Becca is in her final year of high school and goes for a scholarship. In doing so, however, she must reveal some information from her past. Obviously this is a major block in her path. The book is a mystery and has an interesting outcome.

Fangirl (433 Pages)

Who wouldn't want to read a book authored by someone with the name Rainbow?  I hesitated with her first book, but it became my favorite book of the year for me!In this book, Rainbow addresses a number of conflicts: twins growing up (and apart), a mother's rejection and disappearance for ten years,  a father with manic depression, self perception,  and the first year of college. Interspersed are some romances that are just adorable. The twins names are cute Cather and Wren. Get it? when you put them together, it sounds like Catherine! As both girls adjust to their freshman year of college where they are not rooming together for the first time in eighteen years, the reader sees Wren fall into the problem area faced by so many students as she falls into the dangerous point of alchahol poisoning. Throughout the book Cath is writing an eline column taking the characters developed by an author in a series sounding a little like Harry Potter.... One thing I didn't like was seeing Cath's writing put into the pages. Not only was the print of her writing too little for this old lady to disentangle, I wasn't interested in reading about her characters. However, the romance that developed between Cath and Levi was absolutely wonderful. Lots of kissing but no real sex. The kissing was so romantic- it was perfect! I was really pulling for Levi and Cath to last....Ah ever the romantic! You girls will LOVE this book.