Reviews of young adult (YA) and middle grade (MG) books.
Ninth grader Philip Malloy wants to join the Harrison High School track team. His middle school gym teacher told Coach Jamison he was really good. With Philip on the team, Harrison High has a real shot at becoming county champs. Philip’s grades in school are pretty good, except for English, where Philip tries to impress…
Portia Maddox has just discovered she has a sister. Her dad had a previous brief marriage that led to the birth of a child he didn’t know about. Now, to the surprise of Portia’s parents, they had a 16-year-old daughter, Jasmine. Jasmine’s mother, Vivian, is involved in a new relationship. She could use some alone…
In the world of Col Sec, the security arm of the Confederation, there is discord within their rival camp, the Elysium Alliance. The military, led by General Solon has plans that could throw the two galactic adversaries into another war, a war the Alliance is unprepared for. Senator Mikal Tovaric is well aware of this…
Emily Sanders, age 14, spends her summer vacation working at a bed and breakfast along the Appalachian Trail in Winton, North Carolina. Gigi Baird, an elderly woman dependent on her guests for sustenance, runs Baird’s Den. Emily was referred to the job by her best friend, Mary Carnell, Ms. Gigi’s granddaughter. From day one, Emily…
Bet you don’t know the meaning of fastard. In Darcy-speak it’s a boy that moves fast, tells a girl he loves her, takes her out on a date, and then, through the high school grapevine, she uncovers the boy has a steady on the sly. That’s a fastard. Darcy Walker, a fifteen-year old Cincinnati sophomore…
John Galloway is a middle-aged cop still walking his beat in a small Northeastern town. He is a beaten cop carrying emotional luggage of a failed marriage and a daughter lost to violence. Now it’s Halloween, the WORST day of the year to walk his beat, especially at night. Killing time before reporting for duty,…
Theresa Bordils, a teen orphaned at 12, lives within the safety of the Convent in Palma, Majorca. When the Office of the Inquisitor uncovers her activities in Magick, she is sentenced to burn at the stake, just like all the other witches. However, Theresa is not a normal human. She has been trained by Melchior,…
In 2014 tensions on the Korean Peninsula got out of hand resulting into World War III. Thirty years later, Global Government has evolved putting in place strategies to prevent another nuclear conflagration. Every two years, the government’s control reverts to the nation who wins the Tournament—a series of soccer games set up similar to the…
Quentin Jacobsen, his friends call him “Q”, is a senior at an Orlando, Florida high school. Since he can remember, he’s been in love with Margo Roth Spiegelman, his next-door neighbor. At a young age, while biking near a neighborhood park the children found the dead body of an apparent suicide—an event that created an…
Kyle Thorning is a brilliant young physicist working as a researcher at CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research where scientists probe the fundamental structure of the universe. Kyle’s secret project is to create a time travel machine. Why the interest? Kyle’s dad, Max Thorning discovered a book, Account of Time Travel on Earth Using…