hush, hush by becca fitzpatrick

Highly Recommended: Amazing! This book makes the top, favorites book list. Loved it! It is about a girl who is attracted to this mysterious guy who knows too much about her. At first, this sounds cliche, but the author is great at character writing. You quickly begin to love the main characters and are introduced to this mystery and suspenseful story. The story does not disappoint either. It involves Fallen Angels and everything that comes with that. This book was creative and fresh, definitely nothing like I had read before. I could not put it down! I read it in less than 24 hours. Great ending as well. I can't wait for the sequel in November!

sweethearts by sara zarr

Recommended: I recommend this book only for the beginning and middle of the book. It is worth reading because the author can write very realistic characters that you feel for. The story revolves around a girl named Jennifer (smile). She has a best friend named Cameron when she is younger. They spend all their time together. They are the outcasts because they are poor and not popular when they are younger. They confide and help each other. They also go through a tragic experience together as kids. Then, Cameron moves away, but Jennifer believes that he died. She changes her name after her mom remarries, and she starts attending a new school. Now, instead of Jennifer Harris, she is Jenna Vaughn, the popular and put-together part of herself. Throughout the book, she is struggling between the two parts of herself. When Cameron returns, she is suddenly thrown into her old self and this friendship/love that she thought she lost. The ending to this book was sooooo disappointing. It was like the author was rushed or something. Her relationship with Cameron is not resolved, and struggle between the two parts of herself are not resolved. The only way this author could redeem this ending is if she wrote a sequel, but I have checked, and it doesn't look like one is in the making.

ophelia by lisa klein

Not Recommended: This book took the story of Hamlet and told it from Ophelia's point of view. I had never read or heard the whole story of Hamlet, which I believe did not help me appreciate this book. I did not think it was very creative because it was still set in the same time as the original Hamlet. If you are going to write a book (especially for teenagers), it needs to be applicable to their lives. I think this book would have been amazing if she told this story using a modern-day setting with which teens could identify. The author also tried to add her own ending which also just didn't work. She brought in new characters who I didn't care about. Not worth reading.

north of beautiful by justina chen headley

Recommended: I thought this was a great book for teenagers. It was about a girl with a birthmark on her face, and it haunts her. I appreciate books that revolve around the family dynamics, which this book did. In this book, the father is verbal abuser, but he doesn't even know it. I think verbal abuse happens too often in families, but it is subtle, not like physical abuse. The second half of the book is the part where the girl and mother free themselves from the father for a while, and they do some soul searching when they take a trip to China without the father. There is even some symbolism in this book, which is usually not my favorite thing, but I didn't mind it. This book has solid characters, a holistic story line, and a good ending.

three books at once

At one point last week, I was reading three books at once. I read Twilight for the fourth time, and it just confirmed that it's definitely not my favorite out of the saga. The third one (Eclipse) is still the winner in my book (if I had a book). I have a feeling that I will need to re-read the books on my Favorite Books list and rearrange them accordingly.