Split by Swati Avashi

I loved this book. I was looking for something to read and typed in "please Ignore vera dietz" in Amazon for similar books. Split came up and I had a copy in the Library. I read the book in a few days and truly enjoyed it. I am thinking about nomindating it for one an Abe Lincoln award I liked it so much.

Amazon Review
Sixteen-Year-Old Jace Witherspoon arrives at the doorstep of his estranged brother Christian with a re-landscaped face (courtesy of his father’s fist), $3.84, and a secret.

He tries to move on, going for new friends, a new school, and a new job, but all his changes can’t make him forget what he left behind—his mother, who is still trapped with his dad, and his ex-girlfriend, who is keeping his secret.

At least so far.

Worst of all, Jace realizes that if he really wants to move forward, he may first have to do what scares him most: He may have to go back. Award-winning novelist Swati Avasthi has created a riveting and remarkably nuanced portrait of what happens after. After you’ve said enough, after you’ve run, after you’ve made the split—how do you begin to live again? Readers won’t be able to put this intense page-turner down.

Me Before You by Jojo Meyes

I loved this book! I had heard that this book was a tearjerker so I was prepared to cry. I enjoyed the whole story from start to finish. I found it very engaging.

Amazon Summary
They had nothing in common until love gave them everything to lose . . .

Louisa Clark is an ordinary girl living an exceedingly ordinary life—steady boyfriend, close family—who has barely been farther afield than their tiny village. She takes a badly needed job working for ex–Master of the Universe Will Traynor, who is wheelchair bound after an accident. Will has always lived a huge life—big deals, extreme sports, worldwide travel—and now he’s pretty sure he cannot live the way he is.

Will is acerbic, moody, bossy—but Lou refuses to treat him with kid gloves, and soon his happiness means more to her than she expected. When she learns that Will has shocking plans of his own, she sets out to show him that life is still worth living.

A Love Story for this generation, Me Before You brings to life two people who couldn’t have less in common—a heartbreakingly romantic novel that asks, What do you do when making the person you love happy also means breaking your own heart?

Graduation day by Joelle Charbonneau ( Book 3 of The Testing Series)

This is the 3rd book in The Testing series. I thought this would be the end of the series but it appears to keep going.

Amazon Summary

She wants to put an end to the Testing
In a scarred and brutal future, The United Commonwealth teeters on the brink of all-out civil war. The rebel resistance plots against a government that rules with cruelty and cunning. Gifted student and Testing survivor, Cia Vale, vows to fight.
But she can't do it alone.
This is the chance to lead that Cia has trained for – but who will follow? Plunging through layers of danger and deception, Cia must risk the lives of those she loves--and gamble on the loyalty of her lethal classmates.
Who can Cia trust?
The stakes are higher than ever—lives of promise cut short or fulfilled; a future ruled by fear or hope--in the electrifying conclusion to Joelle Charbonneau's epic Testing trilogy. Ready or not…it’s Graduation Day. The Final Test is the Deadliest!

Independent Study by Joelle Charbonneau (sequel to the Testing)

This was the sequel to The Testing. The Testing has finished and Cia will start her studies at the University. Cia assumes all is well now that the Testing is over but the next level of testing have just begun.

Amazon Summary

In the series debut The Testing, sixteen-year-old Cia Vale was chosen by the United Commonwealth government as one of the best and brightest graduates of all the colonies . . . a promising leader in the effort to revitalize postwar civilization. In Independent Study, Cia is a freshman at the University in Tosu City with her hometown sweetheart, Tomas—and though the government has tried to erase her memory of the brutal horrors of The Testing, Cia remembers. Her attempts to expose the ugly truth behind the government’s murderous programs put her—and her loved ones—in a world of danger. But the future of the Commonwealth depends on her.

Missing You by Harlam Coben

Another Harlan Coben success. I always enjoy a good Harlan Coben twist and thriller.

Amazon Review
Coben never met a technological device he couldn’t turn into a riveting plot element. His latest thriller is no exception. The story examines what can happen to people who use online dating sites, and his hypothesis builds to a truly frightening conclusion. Coben’s meticulous plotting and his incorporation of the technology are first-rate. His characterization and dialogue? Not so much. All of Coben’s characters, regardless of age, sound like entrants in a Damon Runyon dialogue contest. (The reader keeps waiting for some guy to pull a gat on some doll.) The relentless onslaught of one-liners doesn’t help, and the characters themselves, while caught up in the beautifully crafted plot, tend toward cardboard. What sets the plot in motion is when a friend of NYPD detective Kat Donovan enters Kat on an online dating site. She discovers her old boyfriend, now a widower, and tries to contact him; the complications multiply from there.

We Were Liars by E. Lockhart

My Aunt recommended this book to me over the summer so I brought it home to read. This was an interesting tale with a twist at the end. Readers will not be disappointed.

Amazon Review
Each summer the wealthy, seemingly perfect Sinclair family meets on their private island and We Were Liars is the story of what happened there; particularly one year the protagonist, Cadence, can’t seem to remember through her migraine haze. Prejudice, greed, and shifting patriarchal favoritism amongst the three adult sisters chafes against the camaraderie and worldview of the teenage cousins and their friend Gat, who also spends summers on the island with them. Sticky lemonades on the roof and marathon Scrabble games to twisty suspense, true love, and good intentions gone horribly wrong--We Were Liars begs to be read in one sitting.

Swim the Fly by Don Calame ( Abe Book)

This was a cute, fast read. I had heard this book was humorous and it did not disappoint. I think everyone will like this one if you are looking for a light hearted realistic fiction title.

Amazon Review
Fifteen-year-old Matt Gratton and his two best friends always set themselves a summertime goal. This year's? To see a real-live naked girl for the first time—quite a challenge, given that none of the guys has the nerve to even ask a girl on a date. But that goal starts to look easy compared to Matt's other aspiration: swimming the 100-yard butterfly (the hardest stroke known to God or man) to impress the sizzling new star of the swim team. In the spirit of Hollywood’s blockbuster comedies, screenwriter Don Calame unleashes a true ode to the adolescent male: side-splittingly funny, sometimes crude, yet always full of heart.

A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness ( Abe Book)

My Review
I LOVED this book. I was not excited about this book based on the cover, size and the drawings I thought the book would be weird. Boy was I wrong. This is a beautiful story of a boy who is dealing with his mother's terminal cancer. I can't recommend this book enough. Simply lovely.

Amazon Review
At seven minutes past midnight, thirteen-year-old Conor wakes to find a monster outside his bedroom window. But it isn't the monster Conor's been expecting-- he's been expecting the one from his nightmare, the nightmare he's had nearly every night since his mother started her treatments. The monster in his backyard is different. It's ancient. And wild. And it wants something from Conor. Something terrible and dangerous. It wants the truth. From the final idea of award-winning author Siobhan Dowd-- whose premature death from cancer prevented her from writing it herself-- Patrick Ness has spun a haunting and darkly funny novel of mischief, loss, and monsters both real and imagined.

The Madman's Daughter by Megan Shepard (Abe Book)

My Review
I was hesitant to read this one based on the cover and the premise. I throughly enjoed this book and am hoping to read the sequel. I was visualizing all of the characters as I was reading wondering what everyone looked like and what the island was really like.

Amazon Review

For fans of Libba Bray, this first book in a gothic suspense trilogy is inspired by H. G. Wells's The Island of Dr. Moreau and has been hailed by New York Times bestseller Carrie Ryan as having "beautiful writing, breakneck pacing, a pulse-pounding mystery, and an irresistible romance."
Following accusations that her scientist father gruesomely experimented on animals, sixteen-year-old Juliet watched as her family and her genteel life in London crumbled around her—and only recently has she managed to piece her world back together. But when Juliet learns her father is still alive and working on a remote tropical island, she is determined to find out if the old accusations are true. Accompanied by her father's handsome young assistant, Montgomery, and an enigmatic castaway, Edward, Juliet travels to the island, only to discover the depths of her father's insanity. Torn between horror and scientific curiosity, Juliet knows she must end her father's dangerous experiments and escape her jungle prison before it's too late. Yet as the island falls into chaos, she discovers the extent of her father's genius—and madness—in her own blood.

This is where I leave you by Jonathan Tropper

My review
A friend recommended this book and I could not put it down. I finished the book in about 2 days. The movie is coming out in September and I can't wait. The author did a great job portaing a family dealing with death as well as their own personal issues taking place.

Amazon Review
The death of Judd Foxman's father marks the first time that the entire Foxman clan has congregated in years. There is, however, one conspicuous absence: Judd's wife, Jen, whose affair with his radio- shock-jock boss has recently become painfully public. Simultaneously mourning the demise of his father and his marriage, Judd joins his dysfunctional family as they reluctantly sit shiva-and spend seven days and nights under the same roof. The week quickly spins out of control as longstanding grudges resurface, secrets are revealed and old passions are reawakened. Then Jen delivers the clincher: she's pregnant.

This Is Where I Leave You is Jonathan Tropper's (One Last Thing Before I Go) most accomplished work to date, and a riotously funny, emotionally raw novel about love, marriage, divorce, family, and the ties that bind-whether we like it or not.

Where'd You Go Bernadette by Maria Semple

My Review
I loved this book. I had heard great reviews about this book and it did not disappoint. It was told from an interesting perspective and I was very intrigued to get to the end and solve the mystery.

Amazon Review

Bernadette Fox is notorious. To her Microsoft-guru husband, she's a fearlessly opinionated partner; to fellow private-school mothers in Seattle, she's a disgrace; to design mavens, she's a revolutionary architect, and to 15-year-old Bee, she is a best friend and, simply, Mom.

Then Bernadette disappears. It began when Bee aced her report card and claimed her promised reward: a family trip to Antarctica. But Bernadette's intensifying allergy to Seattle--and people in general--has made her so agoraphobic that a virtual assistant in India now runs her most basic errands. A trip to the end of the earth is problematic.

To find her mother, Bee compiles email messages, official documents, secret correspondence--creating a compulsively readable and touching novel about misplaced genius and a mother and daughter's role in an absurd world.