A research project turns into a nightmare when Nora finds her best friend, Chris, dead and his girlfriend Adriane, alive and unresponsive. Her own boyfriend, Max, has disappeared and he is the prime suspect. Grief-stricken and suddenly alone, Nora follows the trail of blood and the old letters that started it all. Eventually, the clues lead her to Prague and into the midst of secret societies, danger, and the promise of solving a centuries-old puzzle that may be the key to getting out alive.

Nora, the first person narrator, along with Chris and Max, was helping on an independent study focused on the Voynich manuscript (which is an actual manuscript with an uncrackable code thus far). At first, Nora told their story in flashbacks, back and forth between the present and the past so it was hard to keep the characters and relationships straight. Luckily, it became much easier as I got into the book.

As for the manuscript, it seemed to take a backseat to the Elizabeth Weston letters from the sixteenth century. They contained codes all of their own. And they were fascinating, if fictional. The Elizabeth letters were Nora’s project within the project, but they turned out to be so much more important.

Nora was very mature and philosophical, no doubt a product of her brother’s death, her parents’ inability to cope, her knowledge of Latin, and the Elizabeth letters. All of these circumstances molded her, as did her own “after”.

There was so much going on in The Book of Blood and Shadow that I would not do it justice trying to explain it. Readers will be suspicious and hopeful throughout the entire book and there are twists that will strike at what you believe is going on as you read.

Murder, ciphers, Latin, old texts, secret groups, mystery, Prague: aptly described as The Da Vinci Code for young adult readers by Giselle of Xpresso Reads, The Book of Blood and Shadow is an amazing, emotional rollercoaster ride of a book.

Recommended for young adult readers sixteen-years-old and up who enjoy books with murder, mystery, and codes. Some violent situations.

An artistic and imaginative teenage girl is out of touch with reality and after an incident at school, she meets with a doctor who diagnoses her with schizophrenia. Sabrina’s parents check her into the Wellness Center, but just as she begins to get better, she meets Alec, who tells her the world is crazy, not them. On top of that, she worries her treatment will dry out all of her creativity.

Told in the first person from Sabrina’s point-of-view, Life is But a Dream provides an interesting and disturbing fictional account of life through the eyes of a schizophrenic. There were things I liked about the book, but the majority of it was just okay for me.

The formatting was unique. Instead of quotation marks for dialogue, there were dashes throughout the whole book to indicate speech. Quite honestly, the dashes bothered me. They made it seem like everything was happening in Sabrina’s head or everything was just thoughts instead of speech, which I assumed was the point until it turned out to be constant and consistent. Additionally, Brian James wrote all of the action in the present tense despite Sabrina’s present stay at the hospital and some of the parts being her memories, but that also seemed to add to her delusional state.

Alec, the boy who falls for Sabrina and vice versa, brought up very good points about conformity and how Sabrina saw the world. I did feel bad for her and how she thought she was losing part of herself. Alec had good intentions for her that turned out disastrous because he did not see the narrower picture in this case.

Life is But a Dream did disturb me a little as I got further into the book. Sabrina’s “dreams” sometimes distracted me and made me lose my place or forget where the train of thought started but without firsthand experience with schizophrenia, I can only guess I was meant to feel that way.

Life is But a Dream had a slow pace, but it really sped up at the end and I became more interested. I did like the ending, but I felt like the interaction between Alec and Sabrina’s parents was unrealistic, and the majority of the book was okay for me.

Recommended for young adult readers sixteen and older who are interested in reading about mental illness.

Emma Townsend has always immersed herself in books as an escape from the politics of her boarding school, her overbearing stepmother, her distant dad, and the void her mother’s death left in her. Besides, the romances in stories are easier to deal with than her crush on her English teacher or the confusing non-relationship - sometimes friendship - she has with Gray Newman, a boy she has known all her life.

When she receives a copy of Jane Eyre for her birthday, she reads the first one hundred pages before forcing herself to save the rest to get her through the beginning of the school year. But a lightning storm literally allows Emma to lose herself in the Brontë classic and gives her the chance to not only understand the story inside and out, but it also helps her find her voice and the person she has already been inside.

A Breath of Eyre is a mixture of contemporary fiction (Emma spends a lot of time in her own life), historical fiction because of the Jane Eyre setting, and the classic. As a result, it has the ability to appeal to many readers. This is not one of those books that spends two chapters (one at the beginning and one at the end) in the present and the rest somewhere else. The reader firmly has the opportunity to know Emma in her own life pre-Eyre, during, in-between, and post-Eyre.

Emma as Jane certainly brought up interesting points about Mr. Rochester and Bertha Mason that I, caught up in the romance between Jane and Rochester in the original, had overlooked. That is why I enjoy retellings like this because Eve Marie Mont offered up a view I had unintentionally ignored before.

A Breath of Eyre was full of very powerful imagery and passages. I loved how the accidents and something greater wove a clever mystery for Emma to solve. Chapter 23 was particularly riveting and stood out to me and I admired Mont for not only retelling and taking liberties with Jane’s story but I also admired her for telling Emma’s story.

Recommended for fans of Jane Eyre as well as fans of contemporary and historical fiction.

Samantha Kingston is a good girl who has made some poor choices in her life that stem from her lack of popularity in elementary and early middle school and her now popular state. She has a popular, sought-after boyfriend, three popular best friends (Lindsay, Ally, and Elody), and anything else she could want as a senior in high school. Friday, February 12 is just another awesome day in her awesome life until it turns out to be her last.

But then, miraculously, she gets a second chance. Then a third, a fourth…reliving the last day of her life seven times gives her the chance to figure out the circumstances of her death and what she could lose.

In February, I downloaded the free Story Teen Crush sampler for Kindle and in between books, I decided to, well, sample. Lauren Oliver’s Before I Fall was first on the sampler and the only sample I have gotten through so far. I kept thinking the sample would be short but it kept going for like five chapters and I.could.not.stop.reading. Samantha and her friends, Lindsay, Ally, and Elody, get into a terrible and likely fatal car accident, yet everything suddenly stopped and Sam woke up in her own bed…on the tragic day she just lived through.

And it kept happening. The first time the accident happened, I was reading quickly like I was tumbling down a hill - like a snowball rolling down a hill and it gets bigger and rolls faster. That was how I was reading each time I got closer to the time when everything stopped for Sam over and over again.. It was crazy and I knew I had to keep reading the book even though I had planned on reading something else.

Also, as I read, certain things about the story and the characters kept reminding me of the movie Mean Girls, but way harsher and less comedic. Sam and her friends were the mean girls although there was more going on there than that. There were also cliques and horrible pranks and readers would think that these kids would not do this stupid crap since their school’s nickname used to be Suicide High. But they did. And they partied hard because there was nothing else to do.

Real time thought from when I was reading:

It was really interesting to see the same day over and over again from different angles and to piece things together. Seven is a very significant number in religion and in more classical literature. There is a reason Lauren Oliver had seven chapters with Sam experiencing the same day seven times. Reliving the same day seven times with Sam was a new experience for me. I loved seeing the various sides of each character and the many way things could play out just by changing a few details. It was hard to hate the main characters, especially Lindsay, after learning more about them in that one day than I would have if each day was a new one. I actually pitied a lot of the characters, liked Sam, and wished and hoped really hard that everything would work out.

At 97% through Before I Fall, I started to realize what Sam might do and I felt my eyes go as big as saucers. Wow. I just - I finished Before I Fall late at night and I could not stop wondering about the aftermath. How would everyone else feel? I found myself studying each character in my mind and imagining what they went through after. I could not stop thinking about Sam’s bravery and I ached for everything that happened. Everything worked out - just not the way I thought it would.

Recommended for everyone - especially teens - but I really do not care how old you are. The story is exceptional, the characters are well-developed, and Before I Fall will keep you glued to its pages.

Seventeen-year-old Greg Gaines has perfected a way to fit into every clique at his Pittsburgh high school while not actually getting close to any particular person. Well, except for Earl, who could be considered his best friend, but they do not have much in common and they only converse in school at lunch time in a favorite teacher’s office. His life changes when his mother tells him a girl from Hebrew school, Rachel, has leukemia. When she guilt-trips Greg into befriending Rachel, his life changes and hilarity ensues.

From the very beginning, Jesse Andrews indicates through his main character, Greg Gaines, that if the reader thinks Me and Earl and the Dying Girl will be a coming-of-age story, the reader has another thing coming. This is a theme throughout the novel and it makes for some very funny moments.

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl is unique in that it is like a conversation with the reader. Greg told stories about his life and funnily enough, the most poignant part of the book may have been when he told the story of himself and Earl at ten-years-old watching a meaningless movie that none of the other kids their age understood. At that point, Greg’s dad called them the young nihilists. The whole book seemed nihilistic, but it was hilarious despite its mostly awkward moments. I also enjoyed how Greg often asked his audience why they were still reading his book because it was so stupid.

Along with throwing the coming-of-age moment of truth out of the window, Jesse Andrews, through Greg, switched writing styles often from prose to bullet points to script to headlines. I loved the diversity and it added extra charm.

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl is not meant to be meaningful, but at the very end, it felt meaningful to me as well as hopeful.

Recommended for young adult readers sixteen and older who want a meaningful contemporary story disguised as a hilarious mish-mash silly book. It does contain strong language, talk of drugs, and accidental drug use.

A crack in the ice. Fractures rippling outward. Eleven minutes is all it takes to change a life.

Delaney Maxwell spent eleven minutes trapped beneath the ice of a frozen Maine lake. When her best friend, Decker Phillips, finally pulled her out, she was dead. Pale skin, blue lips, no heartbeat. Yet the paramedics got her to the hospital and hooked up to machines. Not only did she live, but she was anything but a vegetable.

Delaney is just as alive as anyone else - maybe more so. Delaney finds herself drawn to the dying. Then she meets Troy Varga who came out of a coma with the same abilities she is experiencing. At first, she feels like he is the only one who can understand her, but she soon learns his motives differ greatly from hers.

Written in the first person from Delaney’s point-of-view, Fracture is intense right from the start. And Janna’s (a secondary character) retelling of what happened to Delaney while she was in the hospital was intense and scary. Decker’s reactions and actions, as Janna explained them, were frantic but also showed the depth of his feelings for Delaney.

I loved Decker and I understood the skirting around he and Delaney did because they were young and this one traumatic thing happened, but turned out okay, so things between them kind of continued on as normal. But then Troy came into the picture and of course, I thought he was creepy and dangerous at first, but once Delaney (and thus, the reader) got to know him a bit better, I felt more comfortable with him. Chapter 10, particularly pages 138-139, completely sold me on him. He went through something traumatic too. It has stuck with him and it affects him every moment, so I felt for him.

But Megan Miranda was really clever (and why would she not be - as I prepared this post, I learned that she is a former scientist). After that, I saw a different, scarier Troy and was wondering how in the hell I fell for it. Boys. It must be boys. And Delaney’s confusion. I did have to rely on her observation, after all.

As Fracture progressed, Delaney continued to spiral downward and I was really worried about her. She was broken inside and she was right on the edge of not caring anymore. That is a horrible feeling, but sometimes the only feeling one can cling to.

After another traumatic event involving Delaney, but one where she was not in danger, all of her friends abandon her. It disgusted me. She deserved better. By this point in the story, I did not care for Decker or for Troy. As I kept reading the aftermath of this latest traumatic event, I was appalled! How dare these kids, these people who were supposed to be friends, treat Delaney in this way? It really affected me and angered me.

Fracture is definitely an emotional book as you all can probably tell from my rambling, and not only because of the previous paragraph. Most of the time when I read about death or see it on television, I am moved but ultimately fine. However, at points, Fracture had me really thinking about death and that is a scary place to go. But the premise of Fracture, the story, and its execution were all amazing. Any books that makes you feel like this and really think is a worthwhile read.

Recommended for young adult readers sixteen and older who enjoy contemporary fiction with a twist of the paranormal. If you liked Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver, you will like Fracture.

Penelope “Lo” Marin and her parents have moved from city to city because of her dad’s work but seem to be in for the long haul in Ohio since her brother, Oren, died there the year before and her mother became listless and disconnected. Before her brother’s death and all throughout her childhood, Lo has collected, and at times stolen, quirky objects that appeal to her, but the urge to take objects has increased. When she sees a butterfly pendant at the local flea market, she must have it, especially after she realizes it was one of the things stolen from the the home of a murdered girl known as Sapphire. She becomes obsessed with Sapphire and begins to uncover clues in the murder while collecting anything of Sapphire’s she can get her hands on. She gets some grudging help from a guy named Flynt and her discoveries also bring her closer to understanding her brother’s death.

So, there is a lot going on here, but it is all amazing. Lo herself has a lot going on. It is never really clear what is happening in her mind, but she seemed to have a hoarding addiction (lots of clocks, figurines, et cetera) and obsessive compulsive disorder (she had to arrange all of these objects multiple times a day until they were just right and then start all over the next day). It is clear she has a problem, one that she had help with briefly before rejecting it, and although it is serious, it also made her unique.

When she learns about Sapphire and then acquires some of her things, her compulsions begin to get worse, but it also leads her down a path to solving Sapphire’s murder and making her matter. Along the way, she learns the ins and outs of the bad part of town, Neverland, from artist Flynt. Their time together creates a mutual attraction that mostly takes the backseat to solving Sapphire’s murder. That really worked for me.

The fantastic part about The Butterfly Clues is that absolutely everything is connected, even when it seems unlikely. It is part thriller, part murder mystery, and an enthralling debut.

Recommended for young adult fans of mysteries and thrillers, as well as contemporary fiction. It does contain some violence and language.

The new girl at Manderly Academy is unknown but everyone takes special notice of her because the empty spot she claims at the boarding school once belonged to Becca Normandy - a girl who went missing at the end of the previous school year. It is almost as if Becca never left. Her name is on everyone’s lips. Most believe she is pulling a stunt and will show up at any minute. Others think she was murdered. The rumors are rife and make the new girl’s life at the academy suffocating. Everything she does is compared to what Becca would have done.

To make matters worse, she is falling for Max Holloway. Becca’s old boyfriend. Actually, current boyfriend, if she is to believe her new schoolmates. Overshadowed by Becca’s constant invisible presence, will the others ever see the new girl as her own person? Or will Becca return and force her to fade further away?

I found New Girl to be very interesting, especially with the story-telling devices Paige Harbison used. The story alternates between the new girl who tells her story in the first person and Becca Normandy, the girl she took the place of, whose story is told in the third person.

Interestingly, Becca only attended Manderly for one year, the year before New Girl takes place. She was new to the school but she was completely confident. The new girl is only attending Manderly for her senior year and she is completely intimidated just by being new, and then even more so because Becca overshadows her without even being present.

Are you wondering why I have not told you the new girl’s name? That is because for the majority of New Girl, it is not revealed to the reader.

I cannot tell you how unsettling it was each time I finished a chapter and realized I still did not know the main character’s name. I knew a lot about her thoughts and feelings, but a big part of her was still missing. There were names everywhere: students, teachers, family, friends…the dog even had a name. I felt like a lot of her power was taken from her by never being named, by not having a place. Like she did not exist.

Yet everyone talked about Becca all the time like she was very much still present and had not disappeared. She had a name and a very real presence while the new girl had no known name and borrowed - and in some eyes had “stolen” - the presence from a girl she never knew.

New Girl is extremely clever. It has a wonderful writing style. I felt like I was a part of the story and I could see every place clearly. Wow. Paige Harbison’s writing style really pulled me in and engaged me for the entire book. The device of Having a nameless girl until the very end and the significance of who finally revealed her name was clever and poignant. Powerful. New Girl is a must read contemporary novel (with mystery and a hint of thriller) with incredible depth. It is brilliant.

Quotes that resonated with me (two of many) and were very poignant and fit the story exactly:

Recommended for everyone! Yes, there is some underage drinking, some language (especially the “f” and “b” bombs) and sex is alluded to many times (the deed is done but not described in detail), but New Girl is so incredible and deep and about so much more than that I would love everyone to give it a go.

Hosted by Katie at Katie’s Book Blog and Angela at Reading Angel, the YA Contemporary Challenge of 2012 promises to be exciting and I look forward to opening my eyes to more new books in this genre. I read few contemporary books, but I have noticed the number has grown since I started blogging almost two years ago, and there are quite a few that I have read in 2011 that I really enjoyed and some that even made my personal favorite list of 2011. I thank these lovely ladies for hosting this challenge and broadening my reading comfort zone!

For my own purposes and for any of you who might be interested in signing up, here are the rules from Katie and Angela:

For further information click on the challenge badge above!

I am going for Level 3: 15+ books! I will keep track of my progress here and I will list the books as I read them.

January

01. New Girl by Paige Harbison *§

February

02. The Butterfly Clues by Kate Ellison *§

03. Fracture by Megan Miranda

04. Me and Earl and the Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews *§ (review posted in March)

March

05. A Breath of Eyre by Eve Marie Mont **

06. Life is But a Dream by Brian James *§ (review posted in April)

07. The Book of Blood and Shadow by Robin Wasserman *§

April

May

* ARC

** Review Copy

§ E-Book

~ Audiobook