"Boy 21" by Matthew Quick (Updated)

Boy 21 by Matthew Quick is a great fast teen read.  It's about a young boy and his girlfriend who are both very good at basketball.  It's their ticket out of their small town.  Another boy comes along and the two boys become unexpected friends.  When life throws these young people a curve ball, they have to come together or the dream dies.  I enjoyed this book a lot!  The writing is good and the ending is really, really good!  This is not just a basketball book and not just for teens.  Read and enjoy!
(Gerard's review)

Boy 21 by Matthew Quick is a teen romance involving friendship, basketball, poverty and the Irish mob.  It delves into deep issues like dealing with grief, love of family and love.  I was surprised at how good this story was, the ending brought tears to my eyes.  It’s a very moving story and shows how life can be so unpredictable.  It was heartbreaking when Finley turned his back on basketball to be with his girlfriend at the hospital who was in a hit-and–run accident only to be told she didn’t want to see him.  In an unexpected turn, the boy Finley was asked to help wound up being a good friend to Finley.  I enjoyed this quick, touching read about friendship and love. 
(Karen's review)

Have you read this one? What did you think of it? If you reviewed this too, feel free to share your link to your review in the comments. Happy Reading!

We are donating 50 cents for each legitimate comment we receive on all our blogs during June and July to The Wounded Warrior Project which helps wounded warriors and their families returning from current conflicts.

"Gone Missing" by Linda Castillo is an Amish Thriller

Gone Missing by Linda Castillo is about a police investigation involving several missing Amish teens.  The cops don’t know if they just left on their own or if foul play was involved.  Some disappearances are cold cases but some are recently and they wonder if they are all related.  Talking to the victims’ families is tough because of the Amish’s general reluctance to trust anyone outside their own community.  Kate Burkholder, having grown up Amish, the chief of police for a small Amish community is called in on the case as a consultant and is excited about working again with a State Agent, John Tomasetti, who she really hit it off with. 

This book focuses on parent-teen relationships and is an interesting read because it not only gives some insight into the Amish, but is told from Kate’s perspective and includes both her job as a cop and her personal life as a woman.  The last 67 pages are full of suspense and action that made me keep turning the pages.  The ending is very unsettling and quite shocking!  This book has some foul language but it is much less than some of her other books I’ve read and was easy to overlook.  This is a good mystery!
(Karen's review)

 

Other books I liked by Linda Castillo:  Sworn to Silence (gruesome), Pray for Silence (very good) and Breaking Silence (thrilling)

Have you read this one? What did you think of it? If you reviewed this too, feel free to share your link to your review in the comments. Happy Reading!

We are donating 50 cents for each legitimate comment we receive on all our blogs during June and July to The Wounded Warrior Project which helps wounded warriors and their families returning from current conflicts.

"The Chalk Girl" by Carol O'Connell is Very Good

The Chalk Girl by Carol O'Connell tells the story of a gang of bullies in grade school who go after other kids.  One day they go after an adult and kill him.  The person who did the killing is fingered by someone.  Flash forward years later and the killer seeks revenge against his fellow gang members.

This is a page turner that doesn't reveal the killer until the final few pages.  I give this book 4 1/2 stars just because I liked it a lot, but it was very slow in some places and left me wanting more action.  It is very good though and well worth your time to read it.
(Gerard's review)

Have you read this one? What did you think of it? If you reviewed this too, feel free to share your link to your review in the comments. Happy Reading!

We are donating 50 cents for each legitimate comment we receive on all our blogs during June and July to The Wounded Warrior Project which helps wounded warriors and their families returning from current conflicts.

"172 Hours on the Moon" by Johan Harstad (UPDATED)

Wow, oh wow! 172 Hours on the Moon by Johan Harstad is awesome! This novel is the story of three teens who are selected to travel to the moon by NASA to get people excited by the space mission again. The first 200 pages are good and the last pages from 201 to the end (351 pages total) are a page turners to the max! Once the teens got to the moon the action really picked up! I enjoyed this book very much!! Put this on your TBR for sure--it's worth it! (Gerard's review)

172 Hours on the Moon by Johan Harstad is a depressing science fiction read that is an ominous adventure.  This book takes place in 2019 when a crew of five astronauts and three teens blast off to spend a week on the moon.  Once there, some very strange things happen and they regret going.  If you think you’d like to go to the moon, you may have second thoughts after reading 172 Hours on the Moon.  I was enjoying this book until the end came which made no sense.  I really hated the ending!
(Karen's review)

Have you read this one? What did you think of it? If you reviewed this too, feel free to share your link to your review in the comments. Happy Reading!

We are donating 50 cents for each legitimate comment we receive on all our blogs during June and July to The Wounded Warrior Project which helps wounded warriors and their families returning from current conflicts.

Tuesday Teasers: Christian Fiction and Non-fiction

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should  Be Reading. Anyone can play along, so I thought  I  would play for fun! Just do the following

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on  that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away!   You don’t  want  to  ruin the  book for others!)
• Share the title and author, too, so that other TT participants can  add the book to their TBR  Lists  if they  like your teaser.   

Karen's:

Oh God, she prayed frantically.  If you're really there, don't let Alex do this to me.  Put stumbling blocks in his way.   

From pg. 35 of The Scarlet Thread by Francine Rivers


Gerard's:

"She's okay now," the brothelkeeper announced, rolling away some cooking pots he'd knocked on top of her in his haste to extinguish the fire." Alive, no problem!"

From page 95 of Behind the Beautiful Forevers-Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity by Katherine Boo

See Our Favorite Reads for June

Happy Reading! We are donating 50 cents for each legitimate comment we receive on all our blogs during June and July to The Wounded Warrior Project which helps wounded warriors and their families returning from current conflicts.