Please enable JavaScript
All Books | Page 242 | LitPick Book Reviews
All Books
Clan Ground
Clare Bell
Synopsis: The stranger Orange-Eyes, recognizing that the one who controls fire can become absolute ruler, challenges Ratha's authority over the Named, a clan of intelligent wild cats living twenty-five million years ago. Reissue.
Publication Date: 07/19/07
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Financially Free By 30
A.R. Montalvo
Synopsis: Learn essential financial lessons that can help you better manage your money.
Publication Date: 07/17/07
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Educational
Not Like You
Deborah Davis
Synopsis: "Starting a new chapter" is how Kayla’s mother, Marilyn, has always referred to their abrupt moves—five in the past two years. But what 15-year-old Kayla hates even more than moving is Marilyn’s drinking. It once landed Kayla in foster care, and she’ll do anything to keep that from happening again, even if it means making sacrifices in her own life to keep her mother from falling apart.

Now Marilyn has moved them to New Mexico and promised, yet again, to quit booze for good. Kayla knows better than to believe her, but something about this move does feel different. Kayla is putting down roots, earning money as a dog walker, and spending time with Remy, a 24-year-old musician. And after years of taking care of her mother, Kayla is starting to think of herself and who she wants to be. She knows for sure who she doesn’t want to be. But is she willing to do whatever it takes to create a different life for herself—even if it means leaving her mother behind?

Sharply honest and beautifully written, this powerful novel is about loving someone else enough to stay with her through anything—and loving yourself enough to let her go.
Publication Date: 07/16/07
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Adventure
Someone Named Eva
Joan M. Wolf
Synopsis: On the night Nazi soldiers come to her home in Czechoslovakia, Milada’s grandmother says, “Remember, Milada. Remember who you are. Always.” Milada promises, but she doesn’t understand her grandmother’s words. After all, she is Milada, who lives with her mama and papa, her brother and sister, and her beloved Babichka. Milada, eleven years old, the fastest runner in school. How could she ever forget?

Then the Nazis take Milada away from her family and send her to a Lebensborn center in Poland. There, she is told she fits the Aryan ideal: her blond hair and blue eyes are the right color; her head and nose, the right size. She is given a new name, Eva, and trained to become the perfect German citizen, to be the hope of Germany’s future—and to forget she was ever a Czech girl named Milada.

Inspired by real events, this fascinating novel sheds light on a little-known aspect of the Nazi agenda and movingly portrays a young girl’s struggle to hold on to her identity and her hope in the face of a regime intent on destroying both.
Publication Date: 07/16/07
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Adventure
Home Is East
Many Ly
Synopsis: Ever since she was a tiny child, Amy’s father’s friends have told her that her young, pretty mother is going to leave her. Of course Amy knows that could never happen—her parents love each other and her, so how could her mother ever leave? Then, one chilly afternoon, Amy’s mother never shows up to pick her up from school. In that moment, Amy confronts a world that she never wanted to know existed.

Amy and her father are Khmer, or Cambodian. In Florida’s tight-knit Cambodian community, word travels fast—and pity soon becomes suffocating. When Amy and her father escape to California, Amy faces new challenges, including a father that she barely recognizes. But with strength and courage, Amy builds a new network of friends, and comes to understand her father’s deep sadness—and his fierce love for her. Home Is East is a moving and hopeful story of how a father and daughter came apart, and how they found their way back to each other.


From the Hardcover edition.
Publication Date: 07/10/07
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Blood Brothers
S. A. Harazin
Synopsis: Without his job at the hospital, Clay would be lost. The hard work, the struggles of the patients, the drama in the ERÑit makes his days worth something, and gives focus to his dream of someday becoming a doctor. Clay can't afford to go away to college like the rest of his graduating senior class, but what other 17-year-old has delivered a baby or helped save a life?

Still, Clay wishes his life could be more like his best friend Joey's. Joey has it all—a great family, a good college waiting for him at the end of the summer, money, a car. Clay has to bike everywhere, and the miles are starting to wear him down.

But Joey's golden future shatters one day when he overdoses at a party. Now he's clinging to life at the hospital where Clay works, and Clay may even be implicated in Joey's injuries. Tension and emotion rise as those who love Joey gather and wait. Clay will do whatever he can to find out what happened at the party, and to help Joey recover. But to survive this ordeal Clay must draw on a strength he never knew he had.
Publication Date: 07/10/07
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
The Confessional
J.L. Powers
Synopsis: Mexican guy. White guy. Classmates and enemies from across the border and on each other's turf. Big fight. White guy wins. Next day, he's dead. Everyone's a suspect. Everyone's guilty of something.

Does what you look like or where you come from finally determine where your loyalties lie? Who's Us? Who's Them? Which side is your side? Is it Truth?

Contemporary politics, the consequences of guys-being-guys, and questions about faith and personal responsibility pulse throughout the pages of this provocative, eloquent debut.
Publication Date: 07/10/07
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
Fendi, Ferragamo, and Fangs
Serena Robar, Johanna Edwards, Julie Kenner
Synopsis: Meet the vamps of the Vamps, Inc. modeling agency:

Olivia, straight-A nerd turned overnight star model--unfortunately, her boyfriend doesn't know exactly how much she's changed...Big and beautiful Veronika, the new plus-size model for Vamps, Inc. on an all-blood diet...and Sydney, misunderstood bad girl and whispered-about tabloid sensation.

It's about time that the undead live it up...
Publication Date: 07/03/07
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Time of the Eagle
Sherryl Jordan
Synopsis:

I was the first child born to a hunted people, in the first winter of their flight. My earliest memory is of being carried on my mother's hip across barren plains, with wild mountains all around, and of rough tents made of skins stretched across sticks planted in the dust, of hunger and thirst and a feeling I did not like or understand, but which I know now was the fear that shadowed my people, as a wolf shadows a wounded deer.

Avala dreams of becoming a healer, but her dreams are not the same as her destiny. Hers is a mighty but lonely fate, for she is the chosen one—the one who will bring the Time of the Eagle, when the hunted will become the hunters and win back their freedom. It is a destiny that requires the spirit of a warrior and the heart of a healer. But does Avala have the courage to set the Eagle on its flight?

In this epic story about a girl born to greatness, Sherryl Jordan tells an unforgettable tale of destiny, betrayal, and the power of love and faith.

Publication Date: 07/03/07
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Adventure
Web of Deceit
Anthony Toro
Synopsis: Web of Deceit is predicated upon the notion that no matter how safe, close-knit a family may be, anyone is a potential target for cyber-stalking. The story focuses on a loving, supportive, middleclass family that have recently moved to a new city for the father's professional opportunities as a computer consultant. The story centers on the fifteen year-old daughter Annette, who, struggling to adjust to a new city, unknowingly invites an on-line predator into her family's life. The stalking intensifies quickly from Internet communication to psychological and physical warfare. As the threats escalate, Annette struggles with the dilemma of confiding in her parents and friends, all of who have previously warned her of the potential harm that may arise from surfing the Internet. The stalker's intentions grow more threatening, and clues of his life unfold forcing Annette to face her worst fears and ultimately decide her own fate.
Publication Date: 07/03/07
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Return to Zandria
Christine Norris
Synopsis: Ivy Peterson was not ordinary. Ivy was More-Than-Ordinary because once she found herself in a very special place and had a very special adventure. But Ivy was far too old for fairy tales... wasn't she? It has been three years since Ivy recovered the Talisman of Zandria, and her life is very different. She is no longer the shy young girl who chased a fairy through a magic gate, but a teenager, concerned with clothes, friends, and school. She has nearly forgotten about the special world that exists on the other side of a thin, magical veil. But they have not forgotten her. Now a crisis is brewing in Zandria, and only Ivy can help. They implore her to come to their aid, and Ivy's memories of adventure pull her once again into the enchanted world of mermaids, dragons and wizards. Reunited with old friends, and bringing a new one along for the ride, Ivy must now lead them into the wilds of her own world, and not only keep them safe, but stop an empire from falling into the clutches of evil.
Publication Date: 07/02/07
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fantasy
This is What I Did
Ann Dee Ellis
Synopsis: Imagine if you had witnessed something horrific. Imagine if it had happened to your friend. And imagine if you hadn't done anything to help. That's what it's like to be Logan, an utterly frank, slightly awkward, and extremely loveable outcast enmeshed in a mysterious psychological drama. This story allows readers to piece together the sequence of events that has changed his life and changed his perspective on what it means to be a good friend and what it means to be a good person.

This is What I Did: is a powerful read with clever touches, such as palindrome notes, strewn throughout the story and incorporated into the unique design of the book.
Publication Date: 07/01/07
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
When The Cat's Away
Gilbert Morris
Synopsis:

Readers of mysteries and cat lovers alike will devour this third whodunit in the Jacques & Cleo, Cat Detectives series by bestselling author, Gilbert Morris.

When White Sands, Alabama, is chosen as the location for an international cat show, cat lovers from all over the world flock to the beach. Jake Novak is disgusted at the idea of people fawning over cats, but his downstairs housemate, Mary Katherine Forrest, is delighted. And when the favorite pedigreed cat is kidnapped, however, the cat–loving world is shocked. Then other favored contestants disappear and Jake is hired to solve the catnapping.

As the plot thickens, the friends of Jake and Mary Katherine are drawn into the chase—Beverly Devon–Hunt, Enola Stern, and Oceola Plank join forces to run the catnapper to a blazing finish—aided of course, by Jacques the Ripper...

Publication Date: 07/01/07
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Mystery
The Hand That Bears the Sword
George Bryan Polivka
Synopsis:

Christian fantasy at its best has finally arrived in The Hand that Bears the Sword, book two in Emmy award-winning author George Bryan Polivka's The Trophy Chase Trilogy.

Readers will thrill as newlyweds Packer and Panna Throme are once again thrust into high adventure. Pirate Scat Wilkins returns with evil intentions for Packer as the Trophy Chase sets sail for the deep waters once again. A new and surprising Hezzan in the Kingdom of Drammun has diabolical designs on not just Packer but on the entire Kingdom of Nearing Vast. And, at home, Panna must await Packer's hopeful return while imprisoned by the lecherous Prince Mather.

Will Packer and Panna escape their separate dangers and find happiness in the Kingdom of Nearing Vast....or will the invading Drammune army steal away their future and that of all the people of Packer and Panna's homeland?

Book 2 in the Trophy Chase Trilogy

Publication Date: 07/01/07
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fantasy
The Bone Race
Steve Butz
Synopsis: Taking place in 1871 against a backdrop of the golden age of paleontology and the beginnings of human fascination with dinosaurs, this story begins with the violent destruction of a Paleozoic museum in New York City and the unique competition that results. In response to an eccentric millionaire’s contest to assemble the world's greatest collection of dinosaur bones, fascinating characters take off on individual quests, full of action and intrigue, in search of fossils. Loosely based on real historical events, the epilogue offers a true account of the real-life people and events that inspired the story and their important contributions to the science of paleontology.
Publication Date: 07/01/07
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Against The Tide
Hope Irvin Marston
Synopsis: Seventeenth-century Scotland is a place of cruel intolerance for the Covenanters, a people bound together by their loyal faith. A young, earnest Covenanter, Margaret Wilson finds her pledged loyalty to Christ and his covenant in opposition to King Charles II’s demand for her absolute obedience. Will Margaret choose to defy the authorities? Or will devotion to her family, love for her sweetheart, and hopes for future happiness rule her heart?
Publication Date: 07/01/07
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction

Pages



RECENT BOOK REVIEWS