Friday Night Alibi

Friday Night Alibi
by Cassie Mae
Flirt, 2013
Reviewed from NetGalley
Format:  eBook
Audience:  15 and Up
ISBN: 9780345548818
Publication Date:  July 29, 2013


Kelli Pinkins has a plan to leave her conservative Christian country club behind and travel, but in order to do that, she needs to make some money.  Enter her Friday Night Alibi business in which she acts as the alibi for other conservative teens that want to go out and get their freak on without their parents suspect a thing.  While Kelli is "out" with her clients, she's making pretty good money and playing a lot of online video games, but when her friend insists she actually leave her house, Kelli runs into Chase, a rather arrogant guy that just won't accept the fact that she doesn't like him-or does she?  Is Chase just the guy Kelli needs to stop pretending to have a social life and actually live a little?  

Yes, New Adult Week continues with another gem full of heavy sighs and dreamy endings!  

I would just like to say, why didn't I run a Friday Night Alibi business in high school?  The idea is actually pretty brilliant if you think about it.  But I didn't know any spoiled rich kids who would be willing to pay to keep their date a secret.  We just snuck around in my town.  Come to think of it, I could have used that alibi a time or two.  

(Mom, if by accident you are still reading this week, I was kidding!)

It was a little difficult for me to connect with Kelli.  She really is the spoiled little rich girl.  Her parents do honestly abandon her most weekends and it does not seem like they are all that attentive, but it really looks like she has everything else.  This is the type of book that randomly drops designer names to make the reader jealous.  

Chase was too good to be true.  I'm just going to toss out the spoilers right here.  Chase does know what it's like to lose this trust fund, because he cashed his in to travel the world with his terminally ill brother and now he is more focused for living for today than living for his family.  His whole character is meant to be charming, but arrogant, stable, but exciting, safe but new.  His relationship with Kelli is just a bit too safe and understanding.  But, it's the fantasy of finding the perfect guy that understands you completely even when you don't understand yourself.

I feel like 50% of the sentences I type in this post could easily be tag lines for Lifetime movies, but the book is that sappy.

Okay, Girls test and Readability Scale.  A fan of Girls is not going to like the innocence of this book.  It's just this side of a clean romance since there is no sex, just lots of making out.  They don't even make it to second base.  Plus, Kelli is entirely protected from any kind of true independence.  She lives in a gated, conservative community and she is entirely the kind of girl that thinks she wants a daring adventure when what she really wants is a movie night with her parents.  Girls fans-pass.

As for readability, this is a tough one.  Since there's only an overabundance of first base action, can it really be called smut?  Then again, take out all the making out and the story is pretty thin.  I don't mind a romance, but I would like it to come with a side of substance.

Remember how I said that NA is creating a whole subgenre of innocent little things wanting to unleash their inner sex kitten?  That's exactly what's going on here.  I would say that Friday Night Alibi has an audience with sweet high schoolers that want to have sex but aren't quite ready.  It's like Twilight's Edward.  Girls want a guy that wants to have sex with them, but respects them enough not to.  That's a tall order, but it is possible.  

Today's book represents the sappy romance side of NA.  I promise to show you something a little more mainstream soon!

Happy Reading!

Tough to Love

Tough to Love:  Saving Avery:  A Novella
by Ava Catori
Ava Catori Books, 2013
Reviewed from NetGalley
Format:  eBook
Audience:  College and Up
ISBN: 9781301230877
Publication Date:  May 28, 2013



Avery is tough because she has to be.  She was raped by her step-brother, but her family doesn't believe her and know she is the underage bartender at a seedy bar while she tries to finish community college.  Her life is terrible until Steel Brickman walks into her bar and sees a damaged soul just like him.  Can this newly minted professional quarterback save and protect a girl from herself?

It's all too much!

No really, it's too much.  This blessedly short novella brings all the drama and steam of approximately 18 Nora Roberts novels.  First, there's Avery who is practically a runaway and the first character that I encountered that needs therapy.  Yes, she's been raped and disowned, but now she's bartending and living in a trashy apartment.  It just seems like she could go somewhere else for help.

Next, Steel Brickman.  Let me say that again.  STEEL BRICKMAN!  Gosh, what could the author being trying to say about this character?  That's he's tough, reliable, steady, etc. etc.?  Please, beat me over the head some more about how rugged this man is.  Oh, that's right, his also a brand new professional football player.  That's even more rugged.  Does he happen to be a lumberjack in his spare time?  Also, he's been pulled up from playing college ball in the middle of the season-that does not happen-ever!  I know that's a small thing, but it's the little things that kill.

Steel also has a little sister that he has grown up protecting.  She was in an abusive relationship and he nearly killed the man that did it to her.  So Steel has some anger issues.  Are you sure he shouldn't have been an O-linemen?  Those guys are terrifying, although not usually hunky, so quarterback it is.  

Steel does try to protect Avery by controlling her, which is abuse in and of itself, and yes Avery does tell him to cut it and be a man, but she just goes back to him!  Totally dysfunctional!  Not okay!  Red flags everywhere.

But let's talk about some of the finer points of the novella.  If the tone of this book were a color, it would be the deep dark black that you get when you darkened your TV almost all the way, but can barely make out moving images.  The tone is so dark you can barely make out the action.  Well unless it is sexual action, which is everywhere.  Page one and Avery is already commenting that Steel makes her wet.  You didn't even buy me dinner first, Ava, I'm not that easy.  

Let's put this book that I obviously have disdain for to the Girls and Readability Test.  

On the Girls scale, not really.  Avery is on her own, but with no coping skills she is just surviving.  Part of being on your own is navigating the greater world and she cannot do that.  Fans of Girls, pass on this one.

As for readability, there's barely a plot.  Take out all the sex and you have two paper-thin characters that don't like each other or themselves much that are in some type of messed up codependent relationship.  No one wants to read that story, so the only reason why anyone would want to read this is for the sex.

Thank goodness I didn't pay for this book, and the fact that it was so short.  Since New Adult is such a new category so many of the books being marketed like this are poorly written, self-published, fan-fiction-esque dribble.  And this novella exemplifies that perfectly!

My NA Round-Up is not off to a great start, but I will be back with more tomorrow.  And isn't kinda fun to read reviews of really bad books?  I always think so!

Happy Reading!

New Adult Week

This week I will be taking a look at the latest trend in books and publishing-New Adult Fiction.  This category has sparked quite a bit of debate.  What exactly is New Adult?  Is there really a need for New Adult?  Where the heck do you put these books?  All of these were questions that were examined at ALA this summer when I went to a session entitled "New Adult Fiction:  What Is It and Is It Really Happening?"  Oh, it's happening alright and I have reason to believe that we should be afraid!

Okay, maybe not afraid, but I'm not stoked about these books either.

New Adult as a category seems to be marketed to newly independent adults, mostly of the female persuasion as the vast majority of New Adult (NA for short because I am going to be typing this a lot) are steamy romances involving overly flawed characters or precious good girls that want to unleash their inner sex kitten but they just need the right guy to show them how.  As I typed that last sentence I wondered how long it will take until there is a whole sub-genre of innocent librarian school virgins falling for hunky high school drop-outs.  That's another post for another day (or blog all together).

Why shouldn't there be a category for these newly independent adult readers?  The twenties are a difficult time, I know having survived them.  You're broke, you're naive, you're desperate for affection, and you're trying to finally be an adult without any real training as to how.  But are the books out there really serving this audience with their overly sexed plots and tragic characters?

At the ALA session, these feelings were all lamented.  That NA is just YA with 10,000 extra words of sexy times.  I really feel like I should ask Elizabeth Burns of A Chair, a Fireplace, and a Tea Cozy for permission to use that term.  As one of the moderators, she must have said "sexy times" at least twenty times, followed by giggles from the crowd.  Apparently a room full of librarians are just not as worldly as the characters in these books.  Also, it was mentioned that they characters in these books really just need therapy and a warm cup of tea.

The success of Young Adult fiction over the years has lead to an army of readers that are ready for books that are more mature and grown-up, but not dry, like so many book club selections that I have run into.  So, the creation of this category makes sense.  Burns said at the ALA session that many readers are coming in asking for books like the HBO series, Girls.  In the interest of science (or reading, or entertainment), I watched a couple episodes of Girls yesterday.  I won't be doing that again any time soon, but I see the value in the show for young 20-somethings.  It is a show about being on your own, having sex, getting a job, being broke-all the things that make your 20's hard to navigate.

Now, before I go any further into discussing what the next week will be like, let me first give a warning.  If you are my mother, mother-in-law, sister, or any person related to me under the age of 18 or over the age of 40, please take a week off from my blog.  Just stop right here, right now, and go look at adorable pics of my nephew on Facebook.  I'll be back next week with wholesome reviews of middle grade fiction and Bluestem nominees, but this week will be pretty spicy, and I would rather not discuss that with you over dinner.  So, just go, that's fine.  I understand.

If you're still with me and not my mother, great!  I would like to present the patented (not really) Miss Tiff's NA Readability Scale!

In my opinion, books in this category can be divided into three categories:  Delightful, Smut, and Porn. I'm being a little snarky here, so imagine that Porn designation comes with a Sarcasm Sign (also patent pending-also not really!).

Here's how I came about these three designations:

Delightful:  A book with a solid plot, likable or relatable characters either in college or just out of college, sexual content not necessarily required but not unwelcome, and overall good reading experience.

Smut:  Stock or underdeveloped characters in college or just out of college, predictable plot that mostly revolves around sex, and overall sense of having read this book before-most likely a Harlequin hidden in your mother's sock drawer.

Porn:  No to little plot, just sex.  Example, if you remove all of the sexy times, how many pages are you left with?  20, 15, just the title page?  Yeah, it can be that bad.

Each book I review over the next week will be treated to two tests:  The Girls test and the Readability Scale.  Should be a great time!

So, grab a cool glass of water because it's about to get steamy up in here!

Happy Reading!

Edgar Allan's Official Crime Investigation Notebook

Edgar Allan's Official Crime Investigation Notebook
by Mary Amato
Holiday House, 2010
2014 Bluestem Nominee
Format:  Chapter Book
Audience:  Grades 3 to 5
ISBN: 9780823422715
Publication Date:  September 1, 2010

Early one morning, a thief sneaks into Ms. Hershel's classroom, takes a goldfish and leaves a note.  Now it is up to Edgar and his classmates to solve this mystery wrapped up in a poem.  Edgar wants to be the one to find the thief, but perfect Patrick with his CSI-like father seems to be one step ahead of him.  Meanwhile, the students are learning all about poetry, and dissecting the poetic clues left by the thief in Mr. Crews classroom where they learn that poetry is a gift, or maybe a mystery.  The stolen items all add up to new friends for Edgar and a new appreciation for poetry in all its forms.

So far, I feel I have been very positive and enthusiastic about the Bluestem List.  That is about to change.  I found this book to be a little message heavy.  What could have been a fun school story about missing items turned into a thesis on the merits of poetry.  The plot was overburdened, in my opinion, with lost friendships, dying pets, overachieving siblings, and even teacher romance.  

Edgar was not my favorite character.  I get the feeling that he was an outsider of sorts in his classroom, but that was never fully developed.  He read rather immature and whiny as well.  The surrounding characters were a little better, with class clowns and know-it-alls, but the teachers were ridiculously drawn.  Mr. Crews enthusiasm for poetry was obviously written by an adult with a message to push, and the others were flat.  

I felt like this is a fine example of bait and switch.  The cover would lead you to believe that you are getting a children's mystery, the first chapter would lead you to believe that you are getting school mystery, but what you are really getting is a love letter to poets everywhere.  And that's fine, but that's not the book I signed up to read.

You can see that I'm feeling very judgy about this book.  I didn't like it, but it was short, for me at least, and quick, again for me.  I'm not sure how I would sell it to a students, except to say that "here, this is the only Bluestem in stock-take it or leave it".  

I find myself loving the first half of award lists and dreading the back half.  I think I will be back next week to work out why.

My feelings about Edgar Allan's Official Crime Investigation Notebook (and unnecessarily long title) are not great, but I'm also not a young reader.  Still, I think that this book is too much for most readers and will finish near the back of the pack.  For a better school story that targets the same readers, see The World According to Humphrey.  It's everything this book isn't, plus it has a hamster.  I'm sold!

Happy Reading

Sign Me Up!

September is Library Card Sign-Up Month!  Better yet, this year's ambassador is Luol Deng of the Chicago Bulls.  If you're not a Bulls fan that might not be exciting for you, but it's pretty cool to me.  I love the idea of showing readers that a successful and generous athlete is also a library user.  I have to think that Chicago kids are pretty impressed by this.

Personally, I've had a library card as long as I can remember.  It all started with a kid's card at my local library that allowed me to check out just a few books at a time, but I loved it!  I always completed summer reading and I checked out books from my school library too.

Then, I grew up and worked at that library, and again, I loved it!  I maybe didn't love the Saturday mornings, but it lead me to my career.  Even as a single girl, living in my first apartment, I always had a stack of library books going.  And even working as a librarian, that library card was pretty important so I could check out from not only my library, but surrounding libraries as well.

Now that we live in a tiny, small town, I still have my library card.  Lucky for me they are very good at inter-library loan because I do have some strange requests.  I just picked up four ILL books yesterday in fact, two Bluestems and a couple Wendy Mass books, all courtesy of my library card.

But libraries are more than books!  It's music and movies and programming and computer access and a public space that makes learning possible for the whole community!  Love your library, love your library card.

Show off your card!  And if you don't have one, go get one!  It's FREE!  No kidding.  Where else can you get a free card that will allow you to be entertained and educated to your heart's content?

Happy Reading!

Scribbles and Ink: The Contest

Scribbles and Ink:  The Contest
by Ethan Long
Blue Apple Books, 2013
Format:  Early Reader
Audience:  Elementary School
ISBN: 9781609053512
Publication Date:  September 10, 2013

When Ink finds a contest looking for the best dinosaur drawing, there's only one thing to do-draw a dinosaur!  But with limited artistic ability and drawings that take on a life of their own, Scribbles and Ink might have to come up with their own prize.  Add this series to the growing list of excellent early readers.

I received Scribbles and Ink:  The Contest for early review from Edelweiss, but all opinions are my own.  This is an early reader book with chapters that is fun for readers and their parents.  There is quite the growing cannon of these types of books:  Elephant and Piggie, Bink and Gollie, Dog and Bear, Mercy Watson.  I love this type of book!  Readers might have a difficult time the first read through, but they will quickly get the hang of the words and the content and enjoy reading this independently.  Plus there are chapters!  Imagine a 6 year old bragging about reading a chapter book!  What a great confidence builder.

And Scribbles and Ink are funny in just the right way.  Readers will enjoy their exchanges and will be inspired to take up their own pencil and draw something too.  After reading this book, a class could have their own draw a dinosaur contest, or draw Scribbles and Ink.

These types of buddy books are great too because there is the solid lesson that friends are always better together.

Welcome to the club Scribbles and Ink!  I do hope you're here to stay!

Happy Reading!

The Dream Thieves

The Dream Thieves
by Maggies Stiefvater
Schlastic Press, 2013
Ages:  Young Adult
ISBN:  9780545424943
September 17, 2013



Gansey and his gang of misfits are still trying to find Glendower among the newly awoken ley lines, but Ronan is trying to solve the mystery of his increasing frantic dreams.  Ronan is now able to take more and more items from his dreams, some that help in the search for Glendower and some that don't. Aside from lost kings and dream treasure, a hit man is now in Henrietta and he has been tasked with finding and retrieving the Greywarren, a mythical item that can pull treasures from dreams, and he engages the help of the women at 300 Fox Way, most specifically, Maura, Blue's mother.  Also, it seems that there is more than one person stealing from dreams, and this is causing the ley line to lose energy and is causing the search for Glendower to slow.  Blue is still struggling between Adam and Gansey, Noah is still smudgy, the ladies of 300 Fox Way are still eccentric and Henrietta is still not giving up its secrets.  And that gripping last line is still there.  The Dream Thieves is everything that The Raven Boys was and more.

In this installment, the reader gets a much closer look at Ronan whereas before Gansey and Blue were the stars.  Ronan's childhood and family play a bigger role because, as he discovers, he gets his abilities from his father.  Why there is a Greywarren is not explained in this book, but that will likely be addressed in the next volume.

The Gray Man, or Mr. Gray, becomes quite an intriguing character, especially toward the end.  The reader will be kept guessing about his motives and his next moves.  He was a counterpoint to Ronan in a way, because he was also a dark, brooding ball of violent energy, but he was quite civilized and even likable, where Ronan is all violence, all danger, and all snake.

I wonder about Kavinsky.  I wonder how he came to be a dream thief, how he truly came to reside in Henrietta, and how he learned to control and manipulate his abilities.  Although he is a terribly annoying and disgusting character, I wanted to know a little more.

Now for the two big questions:  Sequel Slump and Expiration Date.  Personally, this sequel stands quite well on its own.  True, you knew that most of the characters were going to get out of this alive, but with Mr. Gray running around, you really couldn't be too sure.  It has the same fast-paced ending and cliff-hanging final sentence that will leave readers scratching their heads until the final book.

Like many young adult books, there is an expiration date.  Personally I would say college age.  If you are over 25, read with caution.  The whole scene of Blue getting her first kiss with Noah, (because you can't kill a dead guy) was sweet and awkward like a first kiss should be.  Also, despite his worldliness, Gansey is quite naive and sheltered.  Not understanding that poor people can love?  That's pretty sad, and most readers will not be able to forgive his small field of vision.  These are teens trying to save themselves with a mythical king.  If the ladies of 300 Fox Way were more involved, it would skew more adult, but this is firmly a young adult book, and personally, it's better that way.

I stood in line at ALA for an hour to get this book, and I am happy to say that it was worth it.  Now I have a year to puzzle out that last line.  I should have it all figured out by next August.

Happy Reading!