Touching Snow by M. Sindy Felin

Karina has a huge problem. Her stepfather is abusive to her and her sisters. Karina knows something should be done about him, but fears what her mother will do. Then, one day "The Daddy" goes too far and almost kills her sister Enid. However, the drama truely begins there when every adult in Karina's life gives her their opinion about what she should do. Several want her to tell the truth, while others, including her mother, beg her to lie and protect "The Daddy".

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This book is very dramatic and touching. It also gives insight into how some abusive families function-- instead of protecting the victim, protect the abuser. Karina's tale is heartbreaking, but M. Sindy Felin did a wonderful job.

Awesome Contest at Reviewer X

Hey guys!
While it is getting closer to tomorrow, I wanted to let you know about something I stumbled across today while I was visiting one of my favorite blogs. . .
Reviewer X has an awesome contest this week to give away Laurie Halse Anderson's newest book Wintergirls! check it out: http://reviewerx.blogspot.com/. Enter to win the book, and then check out her blog. It's pretty cool. :O)

Living Dead Girl by Elizabeth Scott

"I am the living dead girl because I am to weak to die." Alice, who really isn't named Alice, lives those words. Abducted by a sociopath when she was 10, Alice is a survivor in every sense of the word. Her sadistic keeper Ray likes his girls young and once they get "old" (around 15) they have to leave and he finds a new Alice.

Our Alice is 15 now, and she awaits the day of her death with eager anticipation. She longs for Ray's knife to rip through her body, but Ray has other ideas. Before he will let Alice go, she has to find her replacement. Alice has to find the next girl, the one Ray will name Annabel, and train her for Ray's twisted needs. The question is, when Annabel gets there, will Alice finally be released to her family or will her death come as she hopes. . .

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This book is AMAZING! Elizabeth Scott has done a masterful job keeping the suspence growing with this novel. As I read each page, I found myself hoping that she could get away. The book jacket says it all Living Dead Girl really is unlike any I have read before and I doubt I will ever read one like it again. Living Dead Girl made me think. At times Alice seemed really cold and vicious, but then I stopped to think, if I was in her place, would I react the same way? Would I be so desperate to be safe again that I would willingly find a replacement? Would I be different from Alice?

This book will make you think and it will take you out of your comfort zone, but that is what any great work of fiction will do.

Audio Book Awesomeness : The Rules of Survival by Nancy Werlin

The first audio books for this blog has to be The Rules of Survival by Nancy Werlin, read by Daniel Passer. I am not one who really enjoys listening to audio books because in my mind the reader can never match what I've imagined. HOWEVER, I must say in the case of The Rules of Survival was a very pleasant surprise. Daniel Passer was almost exactly how I imagined Matthew's voice. I could hear and feel the anxiety and the resolution in his voice and felt as if I was there with him the entire time.

I love the paper copy of this book and I enjoyed the audio version as well. Both versions of the novel are amazing and show how damaging psychological abuse is and how it can progress into something more physical. The mother in the novel is a psychopath, but there are people who truly care about the children and try to help even though everyone fears the mother.

Planet Pregnancy by Linda Oatman High

In this new novel by Linda Oatman High, we find a teenage girl waiting for a simple test result. As she sit there begging for the test to turn blue and not pink she begins to moan and groan about her predicament. When that little test betrays her and turns pink, Sahara feels her world drop away from her. Sahara refuses to acknowledge the baby as a baby and gives it random nicknames. She goes to a psycic to find out the baby's gender and when the psycic lysps that she's having a boy, Sahara declares that penises should be illegal. Months pass and she refuses to tell anyone she's pregnant until Christmas when she tells her friend. Sahara goes to great lengths to not tell her mom she was pregnant by making up a story of date rape and declaring that she was NOT pregnant when her mother asked if she had any tests after the supposed rape. Eventually, Sahara admits the pregnancy and that she wasn't raped and begins to take care of herself and the baby.
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While I am not usually a fan of Novels in Verse, this was a good one. I like that this book doesn't glorify teen pregnancy like movies such as Juno. Planet Pregancy take the view of a young woman who is really just a kid herself and the typical fear of disappointing her parent and her priest. Underneath it all, she's just a kid who isn't ready for the responsibility. In this book, you hear about the morning sickness, the getting bigger, the fear of hurting the baby, nothing is glorified.

Safe by Susan Shaw

When thirteen-year-old Tracy, whose mother died when she was three years old, is raped and beaten on the last day of school, all her feelings of security disappear and she does not know how to cope with the fear and dread that engulf her.
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I absolutely loved this book. The attack on Tracy is not graphically detailed, but the emotions and trauma she feels after are very vivid. You can feel the anxiety she has when left alone, the desire to cling to her father and the despair she lives in now that she can no longer feel her mother's presence. Tracy has a long road ahead of her, one that she will not have to walk alone. Her father refuses to allow her to wallow in fear and pity. Tracy also finds comfort in her weekly piano lessons, lessons she used to dread and attempt to get out of, now bring her peace and help her find a new life. Tracy's expreience in the orange car causes her to try to pull away from her friends and it almost succeeds. A frightening event will bring her back to her friends, her father and even back to the mother she lost so many years before.

My Favorite Teen Reads of 2008

This list is not only books that were published in 2008, but Teen books that I read for the first time in 2008. Therefore, I must begin my list with Twilight , New Moon, Eclipse and Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer.

Followed closely by Safe by Susan Shaw, Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson and Twisted by Laurie Halse Anderson.



Next, we have Boy Toy by Barry Lyga and Prey by Lurlene McDaniels

Finally we have Nancy Werlin's Rules of Survival and Sara Zarr's Story of a Girl.

My Favorite book of 2008 does not deal with vampires of werewolves, but with weight and the human condition.

The winner of my first annual best Teen book award for 2008 is Big Fat Manifesto

by Susan Vaught.

And the final book in my Favorite Teen Reads of 2008 is on the list because as a Floridian, I like the idea of my governor becoming president especially if it's a woman. And it was a great book all together, fellow Floridian, Donna Gephart's As if Being 12 3/4 isn't bad enough, My Mother is Running for President!