Perfect by Sara Shepard

Perfect (Book three of the Pretty Little Liars Series)

Oh, there are plenty of secrets to go around Rosewood, and they keep destroying our four protagonist's lives. Spencer gets nominated to a prestigious award thanks to an essay she ripped off her perfect older sister Melissa. Emily keeps struggling with her sexuality. Aria has a new boyfriend but keeps thinking on the old one. And Hanna becoming a dork, all thanks to her best friend Mona.

There are more questions than answers in this book, though I found it highly satisfactory, it's fast paced, enthralling and fun. A's tricks keep getting more and more wicked as some people come closer to finding out her identity. Of course A isn't going to make it easy.

Again, these aren't books you can read out of order, but if you stick to them, you're in for great fun.

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Saving Francesca by Melina Marchetta

One day Francesca wakes up to find her Mom didn't get out of bed, and she goes off to school feeling a little bit off, but then lots of things are 'off' in Francesca's life, for one her mother refused to let her go to the same school as her other friends from St. Stella's and she ended up going to St. Sebastian's, a school that used to bee all-boys and just opened it's doors to girls.

So, in this year, Francesca finds her self hanging out with the Psycho Girls: Justine, Tara and Siobhan; and battling the St. Sebastian boys - and finding she can even like some of them, some as friends and some as more. And all the while, at home, she's struggling with her family falling apart, with her little bother Luca now depending on her and her frequents fights with their dad as her mother sinks deeper and deeper into depression.

Yet, it's not a sad book, far from it, it's actually very hopeful and I loved being next to Francesca as she learned to appreciate her friends and her family and found her way into saving herself.

Highly recommend this book

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Looking for Alibrandi by Melina Marchetta

It's a year of change in the life of Josie Alibrandi, on the outside she could be any girl: she's reasonably popular at her private catholic school - even if she is on an scholarship - and she has good friends; but if you look closer she's being pulled in all directions, caught between her Italian family - mostly her single mother Christina and her grandmother Katia - and the everyday Australian culture.

She wants to belong yet she doesn't know where she belongs to. And then the father she has never know - and who doesn't really know about her - shows up; and she finds herself between two boys, one who wants to be friends and one who may want to be more than that.

And then her Grandmother Katia, whom she loves but sort of dislikes at times, begins to tell her a story, one that could explain more than Josie could imagine at first.

What can I say, I love this book. It doesn't matter that I've never been to Australia or that I don't have even an ounce of Italian heritage, I still could find my way to relate to Josie and feel for her and what she was going through, good things and bad.

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Princess Mia by Meg Cabot

Mia's long time boyfriend Michael just dumped her, well, they sort of mutually dumped each other, and her best friend Lily isn't talking to her anymore and suddenly she finds herself in therapy because she doesn't care about anything anymore and doesn't want to leave her bed.

Things certainly don't seem to be going well for Mia.

However, slowly and surely, with the help of a nutty doctor (Dr. Knutz) and her friends - old, like Tina, and new like Lana Weinberg - Mia is begins to dig her way out of the hole where she had fallen in the aftermath of Michael's leaving and Lily's total bitchy behavior.

And when she discovers that a long ago Princess of Genovia made a decision about the future of the country that could potentially change Genovia as we know it, she takes a stand and sticks to it valiantly.

I loved this book, and okay, I sort of cheated alittle because it was actually an audio book, but no matter. It's funny but a different funny than previous books, it still made me laugh but different, I think Mia is finally growing up and becoming 'unstuck' from her former, more childish self.

After reading as Mia grew up for so many years it was a delight to see her finally come into her own and start to become the awesome young woman she could be.

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1/2

13 Little Blue Envelopes by Maureen Johnson

At First Sight: Ginny's favorite aunt, Peg, is dead and has left Ginny with a strange task: To follow the clues contained in 13 Little Blue Envelopes in a trip of a lifetime. 

These clues require her to travel first to New York City and then to England, where she meets Richard - her Aunt Peg's friend - and then Keith, a playwright  and actor and all around starving artist (another instruction from the envelopes). 

And then she's off, running all over Europe, following the clues and trying to figure out what happened during the last few months of her Aunt's life.

It's not easy, sometimes it's maddening, but it also turns out to be great.

Second Glance: I enjoyed this book a lot, it's funny and has a lot of heart. Ginny is very believable as a narrator and I liked her adventures, they were completely 'doable' in a way, I suppose, like entirely within the realm of possibility that it could happen.

There were some truly funny moments and other crazy, and times when she made mistakes. 

I did have a small problem with the book: Aunt Peg. She's a catalyst, the reason why the whole story happens, but once you start to think about it, you do realize that she put Ginny in many semi-dangerous situations and that it was rather irresponsible of her.

Bottom Line: An enjoyable story, with it's ups and downs but over all a very nice read.

2/3