Book Review: Every Last Word by Tamara Ireland Stone

Image (c) Disney-Hyperion

Every Last Word by Tamara Ireland Stone

Publication Date: June 16th, 2015

Format: eARC from Netgalley

If you could read my mind, you wouldn't be smiling.

Samantha McAllister looks just like the rest of the popular girls in her junior class. But hidden beneath the straightened hair and expertly applied makeup is a secret that her friends would never understand: Sam has Purely-Obsessional OCD and is consumed by a stream of dark thoughts and worries that she can't turn off.

Second-guessing every move, thought, and word makes daily life a struggle, and it doesn't help that her lifelong friends will turn toxic at the first sign of a wrong outfit, wrong lunch, or wrong crush. Yet Sam knows she'd be truly crazy to leave the protection of the most popular girls in school. So when Sam meets Caroline, she has to keep her new friend with a refreshing sense of humor and no style a secret, right up there with Sam's weekly visits to her psychiatrist.

Caroline introduces Sam to Poet's Corner, a hidden room and a tight-knit group of misfits who have been ignored by the school at large. Sam is drawn to them immediately, especially a guitar-playing guy with a talent for verse, and starts to discover a whole new side of herself. Slowly, she begins to feel more "normal" than she ever has as part of the popular crowd . . . until she finds a new reason to question her sanity and all she holds dear.

Book Review: Illuminae by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff

Image (c) Knopf Books for Young Readers

Illuminae (The Illuminae Files #1) by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff
Format: Physical ARC
Release Date: October 20th, 2015

This morning, Kady thought breaking up with Ezra was the hardest thing she’d have to do.

This afternoon, her planet was invaded.

The year is 2575, and two rival megacorporations are at war over a planet that’s little more than an ice-covered speck at the edge of the universe. Too bad nobody thought to warn the people living on it. With enemy fire raining down on them, Kady and Ezra—who are barely even talking to each other—are forced to fight their way onto an evacuating fleet, with an enemy warship in hot pursuit.

But their problems are just getting started. A deadly plague has broken out and is mutating, with terrifying results; the fleet's AI, which should be protecting them, may actually be their enemy; and nobody in charge will say what’s really going on. As Kady hacks into a tangled web of data to find the truth, it's clear only one person can help her bring it all to light: the ex-boyfriend she swore she'd never speak to again.

Told through a fascinating dossier of hacked documents—including emails, schematics, military files, IMs, medical reports, interviews, and more—Illuminae is the first book in a heart-stopping, high-octane trilogy about lives interrupted, the price of truth, and the courage of everyday heroes.

Book Review: Acorna's Quest by Anne McCaffrey and Margaret Ball

Image (c) HarperCollins Publishers

Acorna's Quest (Acorna #2) by Anne McCaffrey and Margaret Ball
Publication Date: December 2001
Format: Library Book - Hardback

"I must find my own kind!"

In all the universe of literature, there is surely no creature more wondrous, no being more beautiful, and no youth more adventurous than Acorna, the Unicorn Girl.

Found as an infant drifting alone in an escape pod in deep space, she was raised by three grizzled asteroid prospectors who hid her from the authorities, who wanted to cut off her "deformity" and make her "normal." Seeking refuge on the grim planet Kezdet, Acorna freed the enslaved children from the mines, winning their eternal gratitude.

Now Acorna has become a young woman, with all the youth's dreams and sorrows. She still has the tiny, translucent horn in the center of her forehead. She still has her "funny" feet and hands, her beautiful silver hair, as well as her miraculous ability to purify air and water, make plants grow, and heal human sickness. But Acorna has troubling dreams of a shining world with blue grass and green skies, and of a gentle folk who mind-speak by touching their horns together. She yearns for answers to questions about her past: Who taught her the alien language she has all but forgotten? Who gave her life and then abandoned her? Why was she left alone in a tiny escape pod?

With one of her "uncles," the gruff miner Calum, Acorna sets off on a quest to find her own kind. But even as the spaceship Acadecki sets off for unknown worlds, new developments back home are shaping Acorna's destiny. For a mysterious craft has appeared, piloted by the Linyaari, a gentle race with telepathic powers. These telepaths are roaming the galaxy spreading the alarm about the Khleev, terrible invaders devoted to torture and death. The Linyaari are also searching for a beloved infant they had given up for lost, long ago...

Anne McCaffrey's bestselling dragon stories are among the favorite fantasies of all time. In Acorna and Acorna's Quest, McCaffrey has been joined by fellow author Margaret Ball to create a continuing saga that will thrill readers f all ages. Here is a story for all those who feel, remember, or look forward to the magical dreams that live in the hearts of the young.