"Nyxia" by Scott Reintgen is First in this Sci-Fi Series

Nyxia by Scott Reintgen reminded me a lot of Ender's Game which I loved!  A group of teens are chosen by Babel Communications to train to travel to Eden, an inhabited planet, to mine an amazing new mineral called Nyxia.  If they are chosen, they will be paid lots more money in addition to what they got just for signing the contract.  Out of ten trying out from around the world, only the top eight will be able to actually go on the mission.  All have hard luck stories and are from poor families so the money is a great incentive.  Emmett, the narrator of the story and one of the recruits, is from Detroit and really wants to go bad to help his parents.  Can he make it without sacrificing his morals?

This book had my interest right from page one and kept it all the way through.  I loved the adventure, the competition, getting to know all the contestants and the drama of the dynamics among the characters.  Emmett is a good guy but wasn't the best at challenges.  I liked the twists throughout the book and the surprises Babel created.  The only thing I didn't care for was when the one character who I liked very much got killed.  I thought the challenges were fun and interesting!  If you like competition, lots of interaction among competitors and science fiction, I would highly recommend this book!  I can't wait to read book 2 in this series!
(Karen's review, 5 stars)


Teaser from page 51:  "I know you'd be a good person to team up with, Kaya, but why would you want to team up with me?  I'm in ninth place."
 
Gerard's review:
Nyxia by Scott Reintgen is told by Emmett.  He is one of ten young people picked for a very special assignment!  He has a chance to go on a hidden planet.  Besides that, a huge money payout will be rewarded also!  But only eight will get to go.  Let the games begin!

This book is sort of a mix of Hunger Games and Divergent minus all the killing.  I thought it was interesting how the ten players interacted with each other.  Emmett is a good guy and I was rooting for him.  Could have used more action in my opinion; however, it picked up in that at the end.  I enjoyed it enough to read book 2 in this series.
(4 stars)



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"Shoot Out" by Mike Lupica

Shoot Out by Mike Lupica is about Jake, a very good soccer player who was on the best team, but moved and now finds himself on the worst team without even a chance of making it to the playoffs. Once he gets done feeling sorry for himself, he discovers a new role—that of team leadership and helping his teammates get better. His biggest challenge is Kevin, who is a loner and seems not to care about soccer at all since his mom died. He wanted to quit, but his dad would not let him. Jake decides to try being his friend and in the process, sees how much talent Kevin really has.

I think this story is one that could help a good player who finds himself on a very bad team make the best of it. It is a very quick children’s read, but I enjoyed it.
(Karen’s review, 4 stars)

Teaser from pg. 11: No, it wasn’t Belmont that Jake disliked. It was their so-bad-it-actually-hurt twelve-year-old travel soccer team.


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"Undivided" by Neal Shusterman (4th Book of Unwind Series) - Fantastic! (UPDATED)

Undivided by Neal Shusterman is the 4th and last book in the Unwind series.  The author saved the best for last!  Conner, Lev and Risa all have action-packed chapters in this book.  The pacing is really good in that you were on the edge of your seat for sure.  The last part of this book is pretty much unputdownable!  Well done, Mr. Shusterman!
(Gerard's review, 5++ stars)

(Karen's review 12/18/17, 5 stars:)
UnDivided by Neal Shusterman did not disappoint at all!  I LOVED it and what a fantastic finish to a thrilling series with lots of ups and downs and twists and turns!  This story is about friendship, betrayal, teamwork, sacrifice and making a difference.  It has humor, a bit of romance, lots of adventure, some very creepy things, revenge, some fighting, justice, lots of escaping and just extremely interesting characters.  The teens in this series are very brave, smart and creative!  The ending is great!

WOW!  I loved this book.  After the last one, UnSouled, I didn't think this series could get any better, but it did!  This book had my emotions covering the spectrum, from humor, to sadness, to happiness, to relief, to shock to tears of joy!  I liked how I felt the characters were real and got drawn into their story lines.  This would be a great series for a book club because there is so much to discuss and so many characters to analyze.  It was a very thought-provoking series that I wanted to read straight through.

Teaser from page 14:  "There isn't one single thing that will end unwinding," she tells them.  "It will take a hodgpodge of random events that come together in just the right way and at just the right time to remind society it's got a conscience." 



SPOILER ALERT--skip this unless you have read this book:  In this book, Connor and Grace make it to Sonia's where he and Risa are reunited and discover an invention that Sonia's husband had been working on that can manufacture human parts!  It gives them all hope that an end to unwinding is possible!  Lev does what he can to get the Indian reservation to publicly announce that it is a sanctuary for AWOLS.  Hayden, Bam and Jeeves team up to overthrow Starkey and Hayden begins podcasting again against unwinding.  Argent is betrayed by Nelson and switches sides to help Connor and Risa.  Cam brings down Roberta and the Proactive Citizenry operation all by himself.  The ending was so touching when Conner was finally reunited with his family!


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"Scar Island" by Dan Gemeinhart

Scar Island by Dan Gemeinhart, my favorite children’s author, is about boys at Slabhenge Reformatory School for troubled boys located on an island and run with torture techniques. Jonathan is the new boy sentenced to 10 weeks which is longer than usual because of the bad thing he did. Jonathan is overwhelmed with feelings of guilt and believes he deserves to be there, unlike the others. A couple boys befriend him and eventually he even wins over the bully who bosses everyone around when all the grownups running the place meet an unfortunate death.

This book is dark but not as dark as Lord of the Flies although there are some similarities. I liked this book because of the exploration of group dynamics, the interaction and growth among the boys, and also because of the suspense. I even got to like that huge rat that Jonathan mistook for a cat. Jonathan is a great character who I admired because he was so kind and compassionate throughout the book. I would recommend this book to boys, but don’t think too many girls would enjoy it since there are no girls in it. I liked both this author’s other books better: The Honest Truth and Some Kind of Courage, because they seemed more believable and not as dark as this one.

SPOILER ALERT – STOP NOW IF YOU INTEND TO READ THIS BOOK. I really liked the librarian and his pet rat. I thought that was a cool surprise and liked how the librarian encouraged Jonathan to take a book every time he came. I was surprised Colin didn’t stay with him when he left the others. There were a few things I felt were farfetched: (1) How all the grownups got electrocuted and died at once; (2) that the boys would put the dead bodies in the freezer where the food would be, yuck!; (3) that the first thing they did wasn’t to all join in to destroy the sinner’s sorrow torture device that they all hated; (4) I didn’t understand why Sebastian got so mad at Colin when he left since at the beginning he announce the boys to go wherever they wanted and do whatever they wanted. When Colin took some chocolates saying they were just Sebastian’s, I was surprised the other boys didn’t back him up and (5) how the majority just followed whatever Sebastian said, letting him take the lead instead of following Colin or Jonathan, who were smarter and nicer, especially at the end.
(Karen’s review, 4 stars)


Gerard read this first 1-9-17, here's his review, 4.5 stars:
In Scar Island by Dan Gemeinhart, Jonathan is the new boy at Slabhenge.  It is a reform school for boys who are troubled to say the least.  Now Jonathan is there and he is happy to be there.  But soon he will have to make decisions that will affect him and his fellow boys.

I really enjoyed the characters in this book.  It has good action and the end has a good twist.  I liked this author's first two books better, The Honest Truth and Some Kind of Courage, but this one is not bad at all!

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"The Queen of Blood" is Really Good

Wow!  After coming off A Court of Mist and Fury, I was doubtful if anything would come close to keeping my interest as much, but The Queen of Blood by Sarah Beth Durst did!

In this fantasy novel, humans are attacked by six different spirits:  air, water, earth, ice, fire and wood who feel the land belongs to them.  These spirits have two instincts:  destroy and create.  Certain humans have an affinity to control them in different degrees and The Queen is the most powerful and keeps everything in balance and protects the people.  Over time though, the Queen can lose some of her power and so they have heirs trained and prepared to become Queen if the Queen dies.  The kicker here is that the spirits are the ones to choose the next Queen and they give her more power.  The main character is Daleina who as a child demonstrates she has the affinity to control spirits when her home is attacked.  She is smart, nice, and determined to learn more so that she can become Queen and protect people from these spirits but do no harm.  The Queen must be able to control the spirits, not just wipe them all out because that would wipe out their land as well.

I loved this book so much, I even read it at night to finish it!  (I hardly ever read at night.)  I got so engrossed in it that was almost late getting back from lunch and had to stop earlier than usual on the bus so I wouldn't miss my stop.  It is a fun and interesting read that shows how important good leadership and teamwork are.  There is a lot of killing in this book and I felt so bad for Daleina when her friends died.  There is lots of action and humor which kept this from being depressing because of the killing.  Daleina is such a great character who truly wanted to protect others.  She befriends a wolf who proves to be a loyal asset to her and also is chosen to be trained by Ven who brings along a healer, Haman.  The three of them work together to do what is best for the land.  I really look forward to the next book in this series, Queens of Renthia.
(Karen's review, 5 stars)

In The Queen of Blood by Sarah Beth Durst, Daleina is a young girl whose community is torn apart and its people are killed by the spirits.  This is not supposed to happen!  The Queen is supposed  to protect the people.  Daleina decides to try out to be a champion.  A champion is a person who protects the people and is an heir to be a queen.  But the odds are long that she can become one.  Is the queen losing her power?

I thought this book was very good.  I was into it from page 1 because Daleina is a great character.  This has plenty of action and a few twists that I did not see at all.  I am looking forward to reading the next two books in this series.
(Gerard's review 12/23/16, 5++ stars)


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"A Torch Against the Night" by Sabaa Tahir is as Good as the First in This Series!

After reading An Ember in the Ashes, I went right into the next book--A Torch Against the Night by Sabaa Tahir and loved it too.  In this one, Helene's point of view is added in the telling of the story and it is exciting right from the start.  Much of the book is Elias and Laia on the run with Helene and her three black guards chasing after them but the author has a way of having things happening in different places at the same time and making great use of cliff hangers at the end of the chapters to keep your interest.  There are some sad parts and the characters did some things I didn't like or understand; however, it did make for a good story.  I really like Helene who is put through the ringer in this book. 

This book has some surprises and again, some tight situations where. I felt I was on a roller coaster with all the ups and downs in this book.  It moved a bit slow at the beginning, but the last third of the book made up for it!  I had to take a break after several of the chapters to let things sink in and then go right back to it to see what would happen next. I look forward to reading the rest of this series!   
(Karen's review, 5 stars)

A Torch Against the Night by Sabaa Tahir is the follow-up to Ember in the Ashes.  Usually I have trouble getting into book Twos because it was so long since I read book 1, but not so with this one.  I was into it from page 1!  It was so good to re-connect with Laia and Elias!  Both are wonderful characters.  This book flows very well and I was surprised more than once.  A lot happens in this which made it just as good as book 1, if not better.  I LOVED it!
(Gerard's review 10/5/16, 5++ stars)

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"Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" by J. K. Rowling is a Great Ending to a Fantastic Series!

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J, K. Rowling is the last book of the series and is phenomenal! It is very exciting, suspenseful, emotional, touching and is full of unexpected twists and turns. It’s hard to review it without giving away major things, so I’m just going to say that if you started this series, you really need to finish it! In this book, Harry and his friends, Ron and Hermione are out of Hogwarts and on the mission that Dumbledore gave to Harry. The plot is complex and full of adventure. Loved the Epilogue! Great ending to a fantastic series!  WOW!

This series is a must read with lots of twists and turns! I thoroughly enjoyed it and was sorry to see it end, even though there were seven books in the series! I fell in love with the main characters and the action scenes were so well written that I felt I was right there.  This one even made me cry, parts were so sad. J.K. Rowling is the best story teller I ever read and certainly entertained me with this amusing and interesting series.   Harry is such a cool character who shows that love is the strongest power and that we can learn much about leadership from Harry Potter.  This series is amazing! 

No wonder these books were such a hit and well-loved worldwide. I had to give every book in this series 5 stars but here is the way I would rank them:

Harry Potter and the Prisoner from Azkaban
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

(Karen's review, 5 stars)

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"Leadership Lessons from West Point" Can Apply to Leadership in General

Leadership Lessons from West Point is written by different Army officers who have had actual battle experience in leading men. It is actually a textbook that is well organized and addresses many different aspects of effective leadership. I must admit I did not read the entire book word for word because it nicely set off main points of each topic. I read those main points and if it was related to something that I felt would be helpful to me as a Sunday School teacher or volunteer coach, I read those entire passages. After reading Hope Unseen about an army officer who became blind due to a war bomb in Iraq and eventually got a teaching position at West Point, I wanted to read this book to see more of what West Point cadets were taught about leadership.
(Karen's review, 3 stars)

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"Independent Study" by Joelle Charbonneau (Updated)

Independent Study by Joelle Charbonneau is the second book in this Dystopian series about revitalizing the United States after it became devastated by wars.  It is now called the Commonwealth and a University is set up for training leaders.  Cia, at 17, is very smart and is eager to continue on with her studies after passing the initial testing because she wants to make a difference.  She has a good heart and helps others even though it puts herself in greater danger.

I really liked this book a lot because it's about leadership and what qualities make good leaders.  It was a page turner for me and I like that Cia, the main character, has so much integrity.  I'm hoping she can keep it intact throughout the next book titled Graduation Day.  I highly recommend this but only after you read The Testing.
(Karen's review, 5 stars)

Independent Study by Joelle Charbonneau picks up where The Testing left off.  We continue to follow Cia who has moved on to the University.  The first part of this book sets the stage for the second half which I found much more interesting.  I'll have to read the third book (Graduation Day) to see how this all plays out. 
(Gerard's review, 4 stars)

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