"Curve Ball--The Year I Lost My Grip" by Jordan Sonnenblick

A good read for guys!

Curve Ball--The Year I Lost My Grip by Jordan Sonnenblick centers on Peter, a young teen who is just entering High School and has to deal with the following:  (1) he blows out his pitching arm just before school starts; (2) has girl problems; (3) his best friend thinks he will play because Peter has not told him how bad his injury really is; (4) he pursues photography that his grandpa taught him, then his grandpa takes a turn for the worse.  Interested yet?

I enjoyed this book a lot!  Peter's friends are as interesting as he is, especially his "girlfriend" who I think steals the show from Peter.  It's a quick read with no bad language with a really good ending! 
(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.

"Heartbroken" by Lisa Unger

Heartbroken by Lisa Unger is what I call a woman's book, but this 59-yr-old man enjoyed it very much!  There are lots of good plot lines that kept me interested to the max!  When all the characters are in one place, the action explodes!  This is a page turner for sure that I think would make a real good "Lifetime" movie.  Make time to read this one; you will be glad you did!
(Gerard's review) 

Karen's review:

Heartbroken by Lisa Unger was a disturbing read for me because Emily continues making bad decisions over and over to protect, Dean, the man she loves, who is an ex-con.  Things go very wrong when Brad, his “friend” from prison, shows up demanding money.  Her life completely falls apart when she realizes she has nothing and isn’t even who she thought she was.  Then there is another family with strained relationships and secrets from the past.  When Kate, a new author who wrote a fiction book based on family journals, takes her daughter and her girlfriend, Lulu to Heart Island to visit her 75-yr-old mother, Birdie, for their annual family vacation, it turns into a horror show and is the worst vacation they ever had!  Normally, Birdie and Joe are the only ones on the island and it is very peaceful and relaxing.  Joe, however, left because the silence got to him and he needed a break from his wife, Birdie.  When intruders arrive, the action really picks up and secrets are revealed. 

This was an interesting read because of the various colorful characters and the different story lines going on simultaneously.  As I read, I got an ominous feeling about Heart Island and its history.  My favorite part was the excitement when Kate, Birdie, Chelsea and LuLu were beating off the bad guys.

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: "Gone Missing" and "Starters" and "Boy 21"

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:

All children are innocent, but Amish children possess a particular kind of innocence. They believe the world is a good place, that their parents never make mistakes, that everyone they meet is their friend, and that if you pray hard enough, God will answer your prayers. It's particularly shattering for an Amish child when she realizes none of those things are true. 

From page 50 of Gone Missing by Linda Castillo. (an Amish thriller)  

Gerard's:

"It's even worse, didn't you hear her?" I said to Helena.  "The body bank's going to cherry-pick the prettiest kids and start using them.  We have to stop this."

From page 201 of Starters by Lissa Price.  (YA science fiction)

"My father was number twenty-one in high school, and he's monitoring me from outer space.  I promised I'd always wear number twenty-one for him, so long as I played ball."

From page 114 of Boy 21 by Matthew Quick.

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.

"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.