Delightful Discoveries are books that I have discovered during the week... old, new, just released... from blogs, goodreads, friends, or bookstores.
So this week I found these goodies...
A Really Awesome Mess by Trish Cook and Brendan Halpin
A hint of Recovery Road, a sample of Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist, and a cut of Juno. A Really Awesome Mess is a laugh-out-loud, gut-wrenching/heart-warming story of two teenagers struggling to find love and themselves.
Two teenagers. Two very bumpy roads taken that lead to Heartland Academy.
Justin was just having fun, but when his dad walked in on him with a girl in a very compromising position, Justin's summer took a quick turn for the worse. His parents' divorce put Justin on rocky mental ground, and after a handful of Tylenol lands him in the hospital, he has really hit rock bottom.
Emmy never felt like part of her family. She was adopted from China. Her parents and sister tower over her and look like they came out of a Ralph Lauren catalog-- and Emmy definitely doesn't. After a scandalous photo of Emmy leads to vicious rumors around school, she threatens the boy who started it all on Facebook.
Justin and Emmy arrive at Heartland Academy, a reform school that will force them to deal with their issues, damaged souls with little patience for authority. But along the way they will find a ragtag group of teens who are just as broken, stubborn, and full of sarcasm as themselves. In the end, they might even call each other friends.
A funny, sad, and remarkable story, A Really Awesome Mess is a journey of friendship and self-discovery that teen readers will surely sign up for.
Paper Hearts by S.R. Savell
A pushy counselor, school bullies, a neglectful mother, and a dead father have tainted 17-year-old high school senior Michelle Pearce’s perspective on life. She’s become a social reject with a bad attitude. Her faith in the goodness of humanity is restored when she gets to know her newest coworker, Nathaniel Slater, a high school dropout who works three jobs to care for his dying grandmother. But their budding romance has little time to blossom before tragedy strikes, destroying Michelle’s hope in the world she lives in and threatening to tear her and Nathaniel apart.
Knotted Roots by Ruthi Kight
Partying with friends and scoring a flawless tan is about all Roxie has on her list of things to make her Hampton's summer perfect.
Her parents, however, have other plans and Grandma Betty's farm is just one of them.
Just as her life is in shambles and the quaint town is suffocating her, she meets Chase.
Somewhere in the mix of bummer summer and small town doldrums, he becomes the boy she can't seem to avoid falling for. Just adding him to the picture, her stay starts to get better, even if she knows it has to end with the summer holidays.
That is until Betty drops a life-shattering bomb.
Roxie must make a choice that will change her life forever. What happens when a spoiled brat from New York learns the true meaning of love, loss, and forgiveness?
Can Chase and Roxie find a way to be together or is this just another summer romance?
Confessions of a Hater by Caprice Crane
Mean girls are always the haters - Right?
Hailey Harper has always felt invisible. Now her dad has a new job and the family is moving to Hollywood. Just what Hailey needs: starting a new high school.
As she's packing, Hailey finds a journal that belonged to her older sister, Noel, who is away at college. Called "How to Be a Hater," it's full of info Hailey can really use. Has Hailey found the Bible of Coolness? Will it help her reinvent herself at her new school? Will her crush notice her? Will she and the other Invisibles dethrone the popular mean girls? After all, they deserve it. Don't they?
Caprice Crane's funny--and deeply felt--observations about high school, bullies, popularity, friendship, and romance will leave teens thinking...and talking.
Zebra Forest by Adina Rishe Gewirtz
In an extraordinary debut novel, an escaped fugitive upends everything two siblings think they know about their family, their past, and themselves.
When eleven-year-old Annie first started lying to her social worker, she had been taught by an expert: Gran. "If you’re going to do something, make sure you do it with excellence," Gran would say. That was when Gran was feeling talkative, and not brooding for days in her room — like she did after telling Annie and her little brother, Rew, the one thing they know about their father: that he was killed in a fight with an angry man who was sent away. Annie tells stories, too, as she and Rew laze under the birches and oaks of Zebra Forest — stories about their father the pirate, or pilot, or secret agent. But then something shocking happens to unravel all their stories: a rattling at the back door, an escapee from the prison holding them hostage in their own home, four lives that will never be the same. Driven by suspense and psychological intrigue, Zebra Forest deftly portrays an unfolding standoff of truth against family secrets — and offers an affecting look at two resourceful, imaginative kids as they react and adapt to the hand they’ve been dealt.
