Border Crossing by Jessica Lee Anderson

Here's a bit about Border Crossing from Ms. Anderson's website:  Manz is sure of one thing—he lives on the wrong side of the tracks in dusty Rockhill, Texas. Life is tough for everyone—his hard-drinking mother, her truck-driving boyfriend, even his privileged friend Jed—but especially for Manz, the mixed-race son of migrant apple pickers. If he could only get out of town, his life would be better.


When the summer heat sets in, Manz and Jed take a job rebuilding fence for a cattle ranch outside town. There he meets Vanessa, who works in the ranch's kitchen. The two hit it off, but Manz isn't sure he can trust her. As the dog days drag on, Manz must negotiate an unwieldy terrain involving an unpredictable, alcoholic mother, a best friend whose father uses him as a punching bag, and a simmering, creeping delusion that "Operation Wetback"—which brutally relocated illegal aliens deep in Mexican territory following World War II—has been put back into effect. Manz's bright and questioning mind begins to give in to its own claustrophobic temptations as he finds guidance in the voices that have been growing louder and more insistent each day.
*Note: I won this book from Nerds Heart YA.  I want to thank them.  Stop by their site sometime.

My Take

To represent a young adult with mental illness in a book can be challenging.  To depict them beautifully and with any kind of honesty is even more difficult.  However, that is exactly what Ms. Anderson winds up doing.  She masterfully writes about the frightening descent into schizophrenia.  Soon enough we feel Manz's terrifying paranoia that everyone is out to get him.  His fear of being deported, despite his being a legal citizen is crippling him.  Manz's family does not discuss their problems.  His mother drowns the grief of the loss of Gabriel (Manz's half brother) in the whiskey bottles she hides.  Tom, Manz's stepfather covers his grief in constant jokes. 

Manz wants to help Jed, his best friend and Jed's sister Sally.  Their father is physically abusive to the entire family.  Sadly, he can't seem to ignore the voices long enough to see any avenues of assistance for them. 

This book was lovely, in a heartbreaking sort of way.  It was sad to see Manz deteriorate and fall under the spells his own mind was casting on him.  As a parent, you long to be the balm that soothes, to have the hand that heals.  Mental illness is a cruel monster indeed.  You loved one often looks whole and healthy, while inside the confines of their mind, they're waging a war for their very life.  Ms. Anderson depicts that desperation, the spiral that pulls you in deeper so well.  I appreciated this book for exactly what it was, an honest story, beautifully told.  Four big kisses for the honesty and integrity of this one!

Dusk til Dawn *yawn* & Contemps Challenge Info

Okay, so I'm trying to keep the caffeine flowing to keep my eyes open.  No seriously, it's not that bad.  I was only up until midnight last night.  Not too shabby.

I received both Crescendo (Traveling ARC Tours) and Mockingjay in my mailbox yesterday.  I had to cast aside Extraordinary for the time being.  I managed to get almost halfway through Crescendo last night.  I went straight to Back to School night and I do believe the Lang Arts teacher was coveting my copy of Mockingjay. 

I passed the flyers for The Contemps Challenge to both him and the library.  Oh and he seemed genuinely excited to enter the challenge.  They're also talking about reading Hunger Games for one of their books this year.  I'm hoping so, as I've been unable to get my son to read it. 

Tonight and the rest of the weekend is devoted to finishing Crescendo, and Mockingjay.  I don't know that I'll make it beyond those two.  Wish me luck! :)

Oh, and this Dusk 'Til Dawn Challenge comes with maid service right?  Right?

Hmmm, I'm guessing not.  Darn it all. :o)  Here's to turning as many pages as possible.

Beautiful Darkness

Beautiful Darkness by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl is book #2 in the Caster Chronicles. Here’s a blurb from the website:  Ethan Wate used to think of Gatlin, the small Southern town he had always called home, as a place where nothing ever changed. Then he met mysterious newcomer Lena Duchannes, who revealed a secret world that had been hidden in plain sight all along. A Gatlin that harbored ancient secrets beneath its moss-covered oaks and cracked sidewalks. A Gatlin where a curse has marked Lena’s family of powerful supernaturals for generations. A Gatlin where impossible, magical, life-altering events happen.


Sometimes life-ending.

Together they can face anything Gatlin throws at them, but after suffering a tragic loss, Lena starts to pull away, keeping secrets that test their relationship. And now that Ethan’s eyes have been opened to the darker side of Gatlin, there’s no going back. Haunted by strange visions only he can see, Ethan is pulled deeper into his town’s tangled history and finds himself caught up in the dangerous network of underground passageways endlessly crisscrossing the South, where nothing is as it seems.

My Take

Let me start by saying, I did not read BEAUTIFUL CREATURES. However, I really enjoyed this book! It was easy to fall into Ethan’s love for Lena. You could feel his desperation at reaching her in time. I loved the fact that his mother was looking out for him, despite her passing. Amma was a terrific, feisty character. I even liked Lucille Ball.

I appreciated the detail and the weaving of the storyline. There was a lot of detail included in this book. My family is all from the south and I can appreciate much of the little nuances of the book. Little southern things referred to here and there, and certainly the art of being a gentleman. ;)

I liked the ending and was surprised by the one little twist that I didn’t see coming. No spoilers here. I don’t know that I appreciated the flat out set up for the next book though. It’s probably just the slight headache I have coming on right now. No worries. In the end, the main characters were dealt with fairly well, but some others were left unexplained to a certain degree. I know this too is probably set up for the next book, but it leaves me feeling a little ambivalent.

In the end, I enjoyed the story and the characters quite well. The setting was wonderful and made the reader feel absorbed into it. So to use a southern term, I am going to give this book 3 big sugars!

Note: This book is one I reviewed as part of the Traveling ARC tours.

Lovely Blog Award

I want to thank Lisa Potts (great name btw), for giving me this award.  She has to be awesome since her name is Lisa, AND she uses her middle initial like me too.  However, beyond that she has a lovely blog that is chock full of awesomeness.  It has great writing advice, etc.  If you click on Lisa M. Potts, you'll be whisked away to her brilliant blog. 

I'm still trying to recover from back to school, which I can promise you has taken more of a toll on me than my teenager.  I've listed the rules for this fabulous award below and the names I've chosen to pass it on to.

Here's how it works:


1.Accept the award, post it on your blog together with the name of the person who has granted the award and his or her blog link.

2.Pay it forward to fifteen other blogs you have newly discovered.

3.Contact those blog owners and let them know they've been chosen.
 
Got YA
WORD for Teens
Oasis for YA
The Daily Harrell
YA Addict
Cry Havoc! Reviews
The Bibliophiles Journal
Adventures in Children's Publishing
Page Turner's Blog
Voracious YA Appetite
YA Books Reviewed
Wicked Awesome Books
YA Edge
/-La-Femme Readers-/
YA Urban

So go check out some of these fabulous blogs and spread the love.  :o)

Dusk Til Dawn Read-A-Thon

I decided that I would join the Dusk Til Dawn Read-A-Thon.  I spend alot of time reading anyway, and this sounded like fun.  You can find out more about it and signing up by clicking on the banner to the right.

I'm planning on trying to get through:

Crescendo by Becca Fitzpatrick
Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins
Dreamland by Sarah Dessen
April & Oliver by Tess Callahan

Like that will even be possible, considering I have to work too.  Sheesh, why couldn't I have been born independently wealthy.  I could spend my days reading and writing, and working if I choose to. ;o)  C'est la vie!  Check out the Read-A-Thon and join us.  It'll be a blast!

Rise of the Fire Tamer by Kailin Gow

Here’s a brief summary from the Amazon page:  After winning a contest for a popular game called Wordwick Games, five teens Gemma, Sparks, Rio, Kat, and Jack, are invited to stay at Wordwick Games inventor Henry Word's mysterious castle and play the newest level of Workwick Games. Little do they know, the castle is the doorway to a wondrous world call Anachronia where words can be used as weapons, power, and commodity. There is unrest in Anachronia, and if the five teens can follow the rules of Wordwick Games and prove to be the best player, one of them will be crowned Ruler of Anachronia.

My Take

I love the premise of this book; the thought that words have power was very enthralling to me. The world building was wonderful and it was very easy to follow along through the story. I appreciated the fact that while the characters appeared to be stereotypical, they were in actuality far from it. No one wants to read about the jock or cheerleader in their same old roles.

I will say there were a few issues that bothered me. Number one, if a book is placing so much importance on words, it should be thoroughly edited. I did not see this book labeled as an ARC and was unsure if these errors have already gone through in print.

Number two, in the storyline these teens were supposedly chosen because they play an online version of the game quite well. However, we reach a point and one of the characters does not know any of the magic words on an extensive list. It’s never really addressed any further in the book. It’s a minor point, but had me wondering if he suffered from some learning disability to not know any of the words.

Lastly, (and this is a totally minor issue) when they reach a point to have the list of magic words available to them, why don’t they take it and have a couple soldiers carry it, if it’s large and heavy. It might have been of great assistance. Just a thought on my part.

Overall, I liked this story. I appreciated the fact that there were definitions for many of the words in back. I think that’s a wonderful asset. I thought the twist at the end was amazing, I did not see it coming. The editing issue drove me a little buggy, but all in all it was a decent read. I’m giving this one 2 ½ swaks!

Accept the Challenge

I love YA literature.  I mean, obviously, the name of my blog is YA Literature Lover, but I really do mean it.  Young Adult literature really moves me.  I think it's because I remember struggling to figure out who I was back then, to really be me, and trying hard to be the best version of myself that I could be.  Don't go thinking I actually got it right all the time either.  Not by a long shot!  But it's those failed attempts that teach us a lot about ourselves as well.

Needless to say, I love young adult books.  I'm sure you do too or you wouldn't be trolling my blog. :o)  For which I truly thank you too.  Go have a look at this website: The Contemps  They're a group of YA authors who are keeping it real.  They write contemporary YA literature.  Everyone likes a little fantasy now and then, but I find I'm drawn to contemporary literature too (and no, it has nothing to do with the fact that I'm writing a YA contemporary novel).  There is something about sitting down and reading a book about a character going through something you've been through, or maybe it's something similar.  At any rate, they are all something relatable.  I love that.  Through these books, we come together.

So cruise on over there and become a part of this challenge.  It will be fun and you'll get a chance to read some great books.  Heck, you might even win something.