Everything Everything

Everything Everything

By Nicola Yoon

Madeleine (Maddy) Wittier has spent all eighteen years of her life in a bubble. She suffers from a rare immune deficiency called Severe Combined Immunodeficiency (SCID) which prevents her from leaving her house and limits her mother, Pauline, and her nurse, Carla, for company. Madeleine has no complaints about her life, not having known any other form of existence. She attends school online and has Skype classes and tutors, and has read just about every book ever written. 

Her life as she knows changes when a moving truck arrives at the house next door. Madeleine is captivated by Olly, the teen age boy of the family and wants to know all about him. As she watches the family from her bedroom window, she and Olly strike up a friendship over IM and support each other in many ways.When Carla allows Olly to visit Maddy, without her mother's knowledge, things become more intense and Maddy begins to yearn for more than her life in the bubble. 

So, you can guess what happens next, the development of a more intense relationship, the running away, the discovery. But I can't tell you any more about that....*spoilers, but I can tell you it is not what you expect and both Olly and Maddy learn some things about themselves that will change them both. Whether this change is for the best or not, you will have to decide for yourself, once you've read, Everything, Everything there is to read in between these covers.

Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe

by Benjamin Alire Saenz

Amazing amazing book.  Aristotle and Dante are initially drawn to each other because of their names, however, they are the opposite of each other. Aristotle (Ari) is quiet, reserved, keeps everything inside himself- but he has come by that honestly as his parents do the same. They don’t talk about Ari’s older brother who is in prison, and they don’t talk about his father’s experiences in Viet Nam, despite the fact that both of these events have had an impact on their lives. 

Dante on the other hand is an only child whose parents are quite demonstrative and talk about everything. Each time they greet each other it is with a kiss on the cheek, a touch, some physical connection. Because of this openness, Dante of course has no filter most of the time and shares what he is feeling when he feels it.

Despite these differences, their friendship blossoms and they definitely balance each other out. Each respects the other’s ways. Each of the boys is in their final years of high school and are really living typical teen age lives, attending the occasional party, experimenting with alcohol and an occasional joint, but they are both ‘good boys’ not getting into trouble and are genuinely loved and supported by their parents.

Dante is generally happy and open, Aristotle is generally angry and quiet, causing some interesting discussions between the boys, particularly slightly complicated by the fact that Dante is in love with Ari, yet Ari denies having the same feelings for Dante. 

There are a few pivotal incidents that bring some of these feelings to the forefront, a car accident, a beating, a cross country move and a family death all work as catalysts to aid Ari, in particular, to acknowledge his buried feelings and to root out the source of his anger, and the beginning of family ghosts being put to rest.

Royal Bastards

Royal Bastards

by Andrew Shvarts

Tilla is a Royal Bastard. Her father is Lord Kent of the Western Province, who doted upon Tilla until his trueborn children came along. In this world, the bastard children of nobles can be legitimized if their noble parent wishes. This is something Tilla secretly longs for - to sit by her father’s side, dressed in fancy gowns, enjoying feasts with the rest of the family.

Until that day, Tilla and her half-brother Jax, a stablehand, spend their time exploring hidden tunnels beneath the castle and feast at the bastard table with the other bastards. One such bastard is Miles of House Hampstedt, an awkward scholar who’s been in love with Tilla since they were children.
At a feast that honours the kingdom's Princess Lyriana, Tilla meets the princess when, going against protocol, the princess chooses to sit at the bastards’ table. Lyriana explains that she wants more adventure and she talks Tilla, Jax, Miles and Zell, a Zitochi warrior from the north to take her on a late-night escapade outside the castle. While beyond the castle walls, they stumble upon a crime they were never meant to witness.
The group flees for their lives, relentlessly pursued by murderous mercenaries; their own parents have put a price on their heads to prevent the king and his powerful Royal Mages from discovering their treachery.

The bastards have no choice but to stick together and forge unlikely friendships as they try to thwart a war they know is coming.

A fast paced action magic filled story, that begins the Royal Bastards series.

Not If I Save You First

by Ally Carter

Maddie and Logan are best friends who both live at the White House. Logan’s dad is the president and Maddie’s is the head of the Secret Service charged with protecting the president.

At a party one night, trouble erupts and suddenly Maddie is torn away from everything she knows when her dad takes her to Alaska where there is no phone, no internet and no Logan. She writes weekly to Logan, but never gets a reply.

Fast forward 6 years and Logan’s parents are tired of his rebellious behaviour so they send him to Alaska for a taste of reality. Maddie can’t believe it, he just shows up, unannounced. She wants to kill him for abandoning her, for never writing back to her.

Maddie has plans to simply ignore Logan and get on with her chores, but a kidnapper interrupts them, injures Maddie and runs off with Logan. With the weather turning to icy winter conditions and little options for getting help, Maddie sees no choice but to track Logan and the kidnapper.  This begins an adventure in the Alaskan wilderness requiring Maddie to use all of the survival skills she has honed in the 6 years of living in the back country. 

Will it be enough to save Logan? 

It is a good adventure story with surprises and turns that are somewhat unexpected. All around a good read, typical spy, action chase kind of tale – wilderness style!.

This is a standalone novel from the author of Gallagher Girls and the Heist Society series for young adults. 

Mortal Engines

By Philip Reeve

This is a steam punk industrial revolution sci-fi fantasy story set in a time when the major cities of the world are individual self-contained entities that travel across the barren earth. This is a world eat world time and bigger, stronger cities chase after smaller, weaker cities and towns and devour them, keeping scrap that might be useful and discarding the rest. 

There is your usual scavenger crew, those out to make a quick buck off the misfortune of others who scavenge the discards of cities devoured. 

There is also the typical class systems of upper and lower with the power hungry upper class leaders readily betraying each other to further their own interests – who can really be trusted in this world? 

Tom is a 3^rd class apprentice historian living in the traction city of London in this world. He has been sent to work in the gut of London, which is the bottom station that is currently dealing with the recent acquisition of a small town and needs to filter the material to decide what to keep and what to get rid of. While there, Tom saves his mentor from a seemingly deranged assassin, but then suddenly finds himself outside of London in the mud pit with Hester, the would be killer. 

Weighing his options, Tom decides to follow Hester and their adventures begin as they both try to get back to London, which by now has moved away from them at a rapid pace. Hester and Tom join forces to uncover the truth about what is really happening on London and meet a wide array of friends and foe along the way to the final battle.        

For sci-fi fans who love a detailed story with mini battles, setbacks and triumphs, this is a must read. this is the first in the four book Mortal Engines series.