DROWNING INSTINCT by Ilsa J. Bick-REVIEW

If you are looking for a light read, this isn’t it. We meet Jenna after a terrible accident when she is being questioned by the police. She is sixteen-years-old and this isn’t even the first time she has been involved with the police. Years ago she almost died in a fire. The same policeman is with her in the hospital now, but can’t get her to talk. Instead of pushing, he gives her a tape recorder and tells her to explain everything at her own pace.

Jenna begins to tell her story. The story of her alcoholic mother and her psycho father. She used to be able to depend on her older brother, but he was shipped to Iraq. Now she only has his emails to keep her company.

Moving to a new school was supposed to be good for her. This school knows how to deal with troubled kids. She tries her best to keep things under control. She knows she shouldn’t cut, but sometimes that is the only thing that makes it better.

At school she meets Mitch Anderson. He is super nice and totally hot, but he is also a teacher at school. Mr. Anderson takes an interest in Jenna – seeing she needs some TLC. Soon they find they have a common interest in running and begin training together. She even agrees to join the Track team at school. Jenna’s feelings for Mitch intensify as they spend more time together and the fact that he’s a teacher isn’t the only thing causing problems. He’s also married, but it doesn’t stop their attraction from building.

Ilsa Bick weaves together a complex story of love and loss. There are many threads that all come together at the end. Bick gives the reader plenty of room to piece together what is going to happen. She makes you work for it and the reveal at the end is amazing and totally worth it. The only reason this book didn’t get 5 Glasses is because I thought the ending was a little abrupt.

I loved ASHES and as soon as I saw that Ilsa Bick wrote this one I immediately requested it from Netgalley. If you are a fan of edgy young adult literature then this is one you will definitely enjoy. If a story about a student-teacher relationship offends you – skip it!

BLOOD WOUNDS by Susan Beth Pfeffer-REVIEW

     

       Julie's Review:   

 Willa lives with her mom, step-father and 2 step-sisters. They are an unusual blended family in the fact that they all get along, they love each other and they are one big happy family.

There are secrets being kept in Willa's family though. Willa's mom will never talk about Willa's real father. In fact she will not talk about her life before Jack, Willa's step-father. Willa has a few secrets of her own. She can never share how resentful she is of Jack's 2 daughters. But there is another darker secret that Willa knows she can never share with any of them. It is a secret that keeps her in control of her own life. Something she turns to for comfort when she really wants to scream.

When Willa's real father murders his present family and seems to be heading for Willa and her mother, Willa's life seems to spiral out of control. Bent on learning about her father's family Willa returns to the small town that her mother and her escaped from when Willa was only 4 years old.  Learning about her father, step-brother and step-sisters helps Willa discover who she is as a person.

At first I thought that this book was going to be more of a suspense/mystery. But that is only part of the story. The majority is Willa discovering who she is and where her place in her family is. I really enjoyed the story.

Karin's Review:

 
            Willa lives in a "happy family." Everyone gets along. Everyone loves each other. Everyone works together to keep their super busy lives in order. Willa does her part to keep everyone happy. She doesn't say anything about how she can't take private voice lessons or go on trips to other countries because her mother can't afford it. She sits quietly as her two stepsisters travel to Europe, take dressage lessons, play competitive tennis, the list goes on and on. Their mother pays for everything - leaving Willa to stay home and wait.

Willa isn't overly popular at school. She is known mostly because of her popular stepsister, but when Willa's biological father kills his current family (wife and three daughters) and is possibly on his way to kill her too, everyone finds out who she is. Willa, against her mother's wishes, starts to dig into the life she and her mother left behind when they ran away from her father years ago. It is a journey that will change her and her "happy family" forever.

BLOOD WOUNDS is a great book about family dynamics - especially for blended families. I was expecting there to be a little more suspense, but even without it I enjoyed the story. I wanted to keep reading to see what happened next and, in my opinion, that is a good indicator of the quality of a story. Definitely a book for those who like to read about family drama.

What amazed me is that I really liked Willa's stepsisters - even though they were portrayed as very privileged girls. I'm so glad the author didn't paint them as the stereotypical wicked stepsisters.

               

BAIT by Alex Sanchez-REVIEW

Diego is in trouble with the law. After hitting a boy at school he has to stand in front of a judge and hope he doesn't end up in juvie. Diego has problems and he knows it. He has trouble handling his anger and keeping the nightmares from waking him up at night. With no one to talk to, Diego relieves his anxiety by cutting himself. He has done it so much that he is forced to wear long-sleeved shirts all the time. His scars criss-cross all over his arms and chest.

Diego understands he needs help and the only way he thinks he'll get it is if he goes on probation. Against the advice of his mother and lawyer, he requests probation from the judge and gets it.

Diego is assigned Mr. videos as a probation officer. The talks during their weekly meetings help Diego feel better and start the process of healing. He is able to come to terms with the causes of his anger.

BAIT is a story about a young man determined to heal. While the story is sad, it ends on a hopeful note.

It could have been so much better. The characters lacked emotion and seemed flat. It was like the entire book was written in monotone instead of stereo. Diego has a love interest that was entirely too accepting of him even though they'd never really talked. The romance should have been a bigger part of the story. We could have seen an entirely different part of his problem through his interaction with her. All in all, this was an okay read. What makes this book different is the fact it has a boy main character.
 

Here are other books with a similar subject (even though the main characters are girls):
IDENTICAL by Ellen Hopkins, CHINESE HANDCUFFS by Chris Crutcher, and ABBY, MY LOVE by Hadley Irwin.