YABooksPodcast's podcast

Before I get to the story I want to update, "One of us is Lying". I'm almost done listening on Audible, I have 56 minutes to go out of about 11 hours total. It's well recorded switching the point of veiw between the four main characters, each one narrated by a different actor. We've figured out who the murderer is and were in kind of a bonus thriller type ending. I still give it five stars for the writing and characterization, even though I was able to guess who the murder was about half way through. Try it, though. I think you'll like it, even if you figure it out like me.
Today's episode...
17 Marigold Lane, Prudence Penderhaus
R.M. Gilmore
4.7 Stars 26 reviews
Published in September of 2015
Here is the blurb:
I was just an ordinary weirdo until the day one word changed the course of my life forever.

I’d given up on life as I knew it, and in the blink of an eye, made a decision that would turn my world, and the town of Flintlock, on its butt.

Uncovering a hidden boy and a town secret kept buried for decades, I maneuvered through my numbered days with one goal in mind, but the sheriff, life, and my body had other plans.

My name is Prudence Penderhaus. I've never done anything remarkable. Never even bothered to look up. Until the day I found out I was dying.

The Amazon preview has all of the first chapter and a bit of the second. I couldn't find a good place to cut off in the middle of the first chapter, so I'm going to read the whole thing.
Here goes me reading the part of a teenage girl again...

(Read story)

My review.
I like Prudence. I think she has a lot of characteristics that will appeal to a broad amount of readers. She's an underdog who is down on her luck having just received the bad news about cancer. When insult is added to injury and she gets bombed by the big gulp she decides to take destiny into her hands and investigates the spooky house.
If you've listened to a few of my author interviews, you probably know that I have a son with autism. Cassius sounds very much like my son, except Desmond is anything but organized. All of our dvd's end up in stacks around the living room. He does memorize and recite dialog from his favorite shows, though his favorite is knowing which studios and production companies make the movies. We were recently at Despicable Me 3 and as the theater went dark when the movie was about to start, Desmond exclaimed, "Here it comes, the Universal Logo". And he was right, the logo for Universal Studios spread across the screen.'
In this story, I'm interested to know how Prudence's desease progresses, how her friendship with Cassius progresses, and I'd like to know how they kept everyone in the house so well hidden.

Thanks for listening to the Young Adult Books podcast, this podcast is for you...

Brinwood
Small town cults linger around our communities. They’re hidden among us, picking up believers and working to grow strong, though most remain invisible to us. What would happen if a heavily religious cult took over one of our towns? How much damage would it cause us? Casper is an exile from his home, but when he finds out his brother has died, he returns to save his family from the ravenous followers who have taken over. Returning for his sister and mother, the young man must fight against the brainwashed folks he used to call neighbors. Can he save them? Or will his return cause the demise of the rest of his family? Welcome to the cold walls of Brinwood.
#1 in Kindle Store > Kindle Short Reads > Two hours or more (65-100 pages) > Teen & Young Adult

From the Author
When I first thought of Brinwood, I actually envisioned it as a graphic novel. I wanted to write a book someone could pick up, get hooked, and finish all in one day. My main focus was entertainment so I focused on creating engaging characters, limiting exposition, and increasing the tempo. It amazed me how quickly I finished the first draft. The characters came to life and started acting on their own. It felt like I was watching a movie and transcribing the action scenes. Of course the book would never have been completed without the help of my editor. I owe most of my success to their diligent work.
I hope you enjoy this tale.
Your support truly means the world to me.
About the Author
R.K. Gold is an internationally published poet and novelist from Buffalo, NY. He graduated from the University of Maryland with a Bachelor’s degree in English and Literature and has appeared in over a dozen publications since he began seriously pursuing writing in January 2014. His influences range from traditional American writers and poets like Ernest Hemingway, Langston Hughes, and Kurt Vonnegut, to pop icons like Alan Moore, Stan Lee, and Stephen King. A writer, an environmentalist, and a dog lover, R.K. Gold hopes to make novels and philanthropy his full time profession in the future.

Lost in the Clouds
Neville Canton was about as average as any man can be. He had a mediocre job, a pleasant wife, an on-going feud with his sister, and an average case of cancer that took his life.

But death wasn’t the end of his problems and even average people have to learn to overcome.

Now trapped in a cloud between the living and the dead, he must find his way to the afterlife.

With the help of a spiritual guide he navigates through seven challenges; seven tasks to sever his final connections to the mortal world.

If he fails, he forfeits his eternity and the consequences may be worse than death.

One of us is Lying by Karen M. McManus
It has 4.4 stars on 141 reviews.
It was published on May 30th of this year, 2017 by Random House.
Here is the blurb:

Pay close attention and you might solve this.
On Monday afternoon, five students at Bayview High walk into detention.
Bronwyn, the brain, is Yale-bound and never breaks a rule.
Addy, the beauty, is the picture-perfect homecoming princess.
Nate, the criminal, is already on probation for dealing.
Cooper, the athlete, is the all-star baseball pitcher.
And Simon, the outcast, is the creator of Bayview High’s notorious gossip app.

Only, Simon never makes it out of that classroom. Before the end of detention Simon's dead. And according to investigators, his death wasn’t an accident. On Monday, he died. But on Tuesday, he’d planned to post juicy reveals about all four of his high-profile classmates, which makes all four of them suspects in his murder. Or are they the perfect patsies for a killer who’s still on the loose?

Everyone has secrets, right? What really matters is how far you would go to protect them.

The Book is broken into three parts, Simon Says, Hide and Seek, and Truth or Dare.
Each part is divided into chapters and it looks as if they are named after the point of veiw character narrating that chapter.
The preview has the first one and a half chapters, for 5% of the total book. I'm going to read you all the preview. You will understand why, after I read it...
So, here it goes....
(Read)

What do you think? Pretty intense, right?
This is set up like a classic mystery with a dead body right off the bat, and a number of solidly potential murders. I'm going to read on to find out, "who dunnit".
Honestly, I bought this ebook for $10.99 and I'm probably going to get this on audio for Lisa to listen to. I think she would love it, too.

Thanks for listening. I hope you've found a new book to read or listen to, and I'f you'd like to help me buy some more books.....

One of us is Lying by Karen M. McManus
It has 4.4 stars on 141 reviews.
It was published on May 30th of this year, 2017 by Random House.
Here is the blurb:

Pay close attention and you might solve this.
On Monday afternoon, five students at Bayview High walk into detention.
Bronwyn, the brain, is Yale-bound and never breaks a rule.
Addy, the beauty, is the picture-perfect homecoming princess.
Nate, the criminal, is already on probation for dealing.
Cooper, the athlete, is the all-star baseball pitcher.
And Simon, the outcast, is the creator of Bayview High’s notorious gossip app.

Only, Simon never makes it out of that classroom. Before the end of detention Simon's dead. And according to investigators, his death wasn’t an accident. On Monday, he died. But on Tuesday, he’d planned to post juicy reveals about all four of his high-profile classmates, which makes all four of them suspects in his murder. Or are they the perfect patsies for a killer who’s still on the loose?

Everyone has secrets, right? What really matters is how far you would go to protect them.

The Book is broken into three parts, Simon Says, Hide and Seek, and Truth or Dare.
Each part is divided into chapters and it looks as if they are named after the point of veiw character narrating that chapter.
The preview has the first one and a half chapters, for 5% of the total book. I'm going to read you all the preview. You will understand why, after I read it...
So, here it goes....
(Read)

What do you think? Pretty intense, right?
This is set up like a classic mystery with a dead body right off the bat, and a number of solidly potential murders. I'm going to read on to find out, "who dunnit".
Honestly, I bought this ebook for $10.99 and I'm probably going to get this on audio for Lisa to listen to. I think she would love it, too.

Thanks for listening. I hope you've found a new book to read or listen to, and I'f you'd like to help me buy some more books.....

Ready Player One has 4.6 Stars on 12,589
Published by Broadway books in August of 2011
#55 in the paid Kindle store
1, 1, and 2 in three science fiction indices.
It's Coming out as a movie in March of 2018 directed by Steven Spielburg
Blurb
At once wildly original and stuffed with irresistible nostalgia, READY PLAYER ONE is a spectacularly genre-busting, ambitious, and charming debut—part quest novel, part love story, and part virtual space opera set in a universe where spell-slinging mages battle giant Japanese robots, entire planets are inspired by Blade Runner, and flying DeLoreans achieve light speed.

It’s the year 2044, and the real world is an ugly place.

Like most of humanity, Wade Watts escapes his grim surroundings by spending his waking hours jacked into the OASIS, a sprawling virtual utopia that lets you be anything you want to be, a place where you can live and play and fall in love on any of ten thousand planets.

And like most of humanity, Wade dreams of being the one to discover the ultimate lottery ticket that lies concealed within this virtual world. For somewhere inside this giant networked playground, OASIS creator James Halliday has hidden a series of fiendish puzzles that will yield massive fortune—and remarkable power—to whoever can unlock them.

For years, millions have struggled fruitlessly to attain this prize, knowing only that Halliday’s riddles are based in the pop culture he loved—that of the late twentieth century. And for years, millions have found in this quest another means of escape, retreating into happy, obsessive study of Halliday’s icons. Like many of his contemporaries, Wade is as comfortable debating the finer points of John Hughes’s oeuvre, playing Pac-Man, or reciting Devo lyrics as he is scrounging power to run his OASIS rig.

And then Wade stumbles upon the first puzzle.

Suddenly the whole world is watching, and thousands of competitors join the hunt—among them certain powerful players who are willing to commit very real murder to beat Wade to this prize. Now the only way for Wade to survive and preserve everything he knows is to win. But to do so, he may have to leave behind his oh-so-perfect virtual existence and face up to life—and love—in the real world he’s always been so desperate to escape.

A world at stake.
A quest for the ultimate prize.
Are you ready?

Am I going to read further?
Of course I am. As a science fiction nerd, an online RPG player, and a YA fan, this one is right up my alley. This sounds like an exciting story with a lot of potential, and enough people, including my daughter, reccomending it that it should be a pretty safe bet I will like it.

Hannah has a pretty amazing story -- she started writing her book when she was just 12 years-old. Fast forward, 8 years later (today), Hannah not only had her book published, but it recently won a gold award in the prestigious 2017 Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA) Franklin Awards™. She is still pinching herself! The first-time author won in the Children’s/YA-New Voices category.

Kirkus Reviews called Ascension: “an exciting and fast-paced YA paranormal romance with an intriguing plot, well-drawn settings, and solid character development.” Ascension also won first place in 2016 for Young Adult Fiction in the Royal Dragonfly Book Awards.

Now a 20 year-old college student in Tennessee, Hannah is already in the editing stages of the next book in the trilogy (Due out Jan 18).

When she’s not thinking about hybrid human-vampires and the witches they love, or writing a "Geisha-inspired" Bardugo cocktail list, Hannah leads a creative writing group at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, volunteers for various nonprofits, and transcribes “snake handler sermons” for the college’s special collections department.

Here is a recent interview with Hannah from BEA:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYHjWpAdPrQ&app=desktop

Life is supposed to be perfect after Cheyenne Lane's Ascension ceremony, but it turns out awakening her vampire half only complicates things more. Burdened with a patronizing family and constant surveillance by the Vampire Council, Cheyenne welcomes a summer vacation to the magical city of New Orleans. But Cheyenne quickly realizes that she can't escape her problems, no matter where she goes. After seventeen years of fearing exposing her secret to humans, Cheyenne's world is rocked when she starts to fall for a witch named Eli. When he shows Cheyenne how complex the world really is, she must accept that everything she thought she knew about being a Deuxsang is a lie. As if all this isn't problem enough, Cheyenne finds herself the pawn of a conspiracy hatched by those who should be protecting her. Her whole life Cheyenne is told what to believe and who to trust. Now, she's forced to choose for herself who and what is right. No matter which choice she makes, it will cost her everything.

Caravel by Stephanie Garber
This book was chosen by the Goodreads "YA Book Club" Book of the Month for July.
I thought it might be nice to try a book recommended by such an auspicious group.
4.3 on 461 reviews
Flatiron Books (January 31, 2017)
#6,586 Paid in Kindle Store
3,3,8 in three Teen indices.

https://www.amazon.com/Caraval-Stephanie-Garber-ebook/dp/B01EROYPQE/ref=pd_rhf_gw_p_img_4?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=S1GC6N12TQ66WTSMD8J3

Instant New York Times bestseller!
#1 IndieNext Pick!
Entertainment Weekly Must List (Grade: A-)!

Whatever you've heard about Caraval, it doesn't compare to the reality. It's more than just a game or a performance. It's the closest you'll ever find to magic in this world . . .

Scarlett has never left the tiny island where she and her beloved sister, Tella, live with their powerful, and cruel, father. Now Scarlett’s father has arranged a marriage for her, and Scarlett thinks her dreams of seeing Caraval, the far-away, once-a-year performance where the audience participates in the show, are over.

But this year, Scarlett’s long-dreamt of invitation finally arrives. With the help of a mysterious sailor, Tella whisks Scarlett away to the show. Only, as soon as they arrive, Tella is kidnapped by Caraval’s mastermind organizer, Legend. It turns out that this season’s Caraval revolves around Tella, and whoever finds her first is the winner.

Scarlett has been told that everything that happens during Caraval is only an elaborate performance. But she nevertheless becomes enmeshed in a game of love, heartbreak, and magic with the other players in the game. And whether Caraval is real or not, she must find Tella before the five nights of the game are over, a dangerous domino effect of consequences is set off, and her sister disappears forever.

Welcome, welcome to Caraval . . . beware of getting swept too far away.

“The Hunger Games meets The Night Circus. Grade: A-.” —Entertainment Weekly
“Impressive, original, wondrous.” —USA Today
“Spellbinding.” —US Weekly
“Magnificent.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review
“I lost myself in this world.” —Sabaa Tahir, author of An Ember in the Ashes
“Beautifully written.” —Renée Ahdieh, author of The Wrath and the Dawn
“Shimmers with magic.” —Marie Rutkoski, author of The Winner’s Curse
“Darkly enchanting.” —Kiersten White, author of And I Darken
“Decadent.” —Roshani Chokshi, author of The Star-Touched Queen
“Like stepping into a living dream.” —Stacey Lee, author of Outrun the Moon
“Destined to capture imaginations.” —Kirkus Reviews
“Ideal for fans of The Night Circus, Stardust, and The Hunger Games.” —School Library Journal

The first 2 chapters and a pinch of the third are in the Amazon preview and I'm going to read you chapters one and two.

What I liked about these two chapters.
I thought the first chapter was unique and gave us a lot of background and character development without burdening us with a preview. The story obviously begins at the second chapter, but we understand so much from reading Scarlett's letters from the Conquered Isle or Trisde to to Master Legend.

Hidden Wings by Cameo Renae appears to be the first in a series of five books. The author has a number of other books as well.
4.3 650 review
7842 in the kindle store
2,5, and 5 in three teen fantasy/religeon/spirituality
Published in Dec 2013 (Staying power)

https://www.amazon.com/Hidden-Wings-Book-One-ebook/dp/B00B27GAC2/ref=pd_rhf_gw_p_img_1?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=XFCS1J74QK5W0S7ZH86X

Blurb

****Descent, a Hidden Wings Novella, is included in this version of Hidden Wings****

What happens when Darkness and Light collide?

Seventeen is a life changing age for Emma Wise.
As her family's sole survivor in a car crash, she is left with a broken arm, and a few scrapes and bruises. But these are only outward marks; inside, her heart is broken and the pieces scattered.

Whisked away to Alaska, to an aunt she’s never met, Emma starts over. Secrets unveil themselves and now…she doesn't even know who or what she is.

A centuries old prophecy places Emma in the heart of danger. Creatures of horrifying and evil proportions are after her, and it will take Emma, her aunt, and six, gorgeously, captivating Guardians to keep her safe. But, if she can survive until her eighteenth birthday... things will change.

Bonus Material: Hidden Wings Inspired Poem by Amber McCallister.

Amazon Preview has the first three chapters. I am going to read you the first two.
(Read)

My questions from the first two chapters:
Why is she healing so fast?
Will her two good friends play a continueing role in the rest of the novel? I like that she has two nerdy friends who have a lot of personality on their own. Emma is moving far away, from Southern California all the way to Alaska. Though, from the cover blurb, I don't have a lot of hope for that.
I also wonder about the aunt. Having absolutely no knowledge about the aunt, and then having her contact the state so quickly after the accident stretches my suspension of disbelief to an uncomfortable length. I'll read on, but I'll be looking for some explanation about their relationship.

https://www.amazon.com/Adam-Dreece/e/B00JHI2SL0/ref=sr_tc_2_0?qid=1498711096&sr=8-2-ent

In 2014, Adam Dreece stopped hoping to be an author one day. He wrote and indie published the first two installments in his young adult, steampunk meets fairy tale, series The Yellow Hoods. In 2015, when the first two books became IAN Book of the Year finalists in YA and Fantasy, he released two more in the series, as well as a novelette.

Along the way, Adam has become a fixture on Twitter and Facebook for his blog articles and willingness to help other authors. He's a frequent speaker on cons, festivals and events. He's currently working on his first science fiction novel called The Man of Cloud 9, and has a weekly serial called The Wizard Killer. In 2016 he plans to also bring out the 5th book in The Yellow Hoods series.

He currently resides in Calgary, Alberta, Canada with his wife and children. He is an active online mentor at adamdreece.com, and is a busy public speaker, panelist, and author in Canada and the Pacific Northwest.

WISHBONES
a novel
VIRGINIA MACGREGOR

14-year-old Feather Tucker has the best mom in the world—funny, clever, loving, movie-star beautiful…and the fact that she weighs 500 pounds and never leaves the house? Feather can’t imagine life any other way.

But when she comes home on New Year’s Eve to find her mother in a life-threatening diabetic coma, she’s determined to nurse her mother back to health—and fast. Yet, as she desperately attempts to get through to her mother and enabling father, Feather realizes there might be more to her mother’s overeating than meets the eye.

Meanwhile, Feather’s crushing hard on the new boy in town, training for the swimming championships, and navigating her life-long friendship with lovable Jake…all while attempting to keep her pet goat Houdini from running away—again.

As friends old and new join Feather’s journey to save her mother, Feather begins to learn that we all bear the weight of our pasts in different ways.

https://www.amazon.com/Wishbones-Virginia-Macgregor-ebook/dp/B01LWTSXVN/ref=pd_rhf_gw_p_img_3?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=0SKVJ1WB7YQZEQ7ZWHAN

VIRGINIA MACGREGOR is currently Head of Creative Writing at Wellington College. She is the author of What Milo Saw and The Return of Norah Wells. She has taught at boarding schools in the UK and the US and currently lives in Concord, NH.

Virginia Macgregor was brought up in Germany, France and England by a mother who never stopped telling stories. From the moment she was old enough to hold a pen, Virginia set about writing her own, often late into the night - or behind her Maths textbook at school. Virginia was named after two great women, Virginia Wade and Virginia Woolf, in the hope she would be a writer and a tennis star. Her early years were those of a scribbling, rain-loving child who prayed for lightning to strike her tennis coach. After studying at Oxford, Virginia started writing regularly while working as an English Teacher and Housemistress. Virginia lives in Berkshire with her husband, Hugh.