Seventeenth Summer by Maureen Daly

Seventeenth Summer by Marureen Daly, was not what I expected.  I thought it would be a story about modern era love, but to my surprise this book was actually taken place in the past. Girls where dresses, all men (young and old) smoke, everyone drinks beer, helping the family take care of the house is the main priority and no internet. (What would we do today if there was no internet!) Angie and Jacks relationship continues throughout the entire book. They met at the end of school and stayed together throughout the entire summer. It was a summer to remember.

Here is a quick summary of this book: Angie was never the popular girl but when she met Jack everything changed. He was the high school basketball star and she was a nobody.  It was a summer love to remember. Parents are unsure about their relationship and her older sister has some major boy problems. Angie waits for Jacks call sso they can hang out and Jack shares his feelings about her while she also wants to but never really does. The summer is coming to an end and neither of them know what to do. Angie is going away to college while Jack has no real plans. Will their love last forever or will it just be another summer fling they will never forget?

This book is definitely a summer read, hence the name... It was different from other books I've read and surprisingly I really liked it. I would certainly recommend it to grades 9th and up.

The Taker by J.M. Steele

The Taker by J.M. Steele not only has an ending you wouldn't expect it also has helpful tips about school and test taking. When I first started this book I thought it wouldn't be that great (boring). But the unexpected twists kept me reading! This book kept me on my toes. What is Carly Biels going to do? Will she use The Taker? Will she focus on her studies? Will she stay with her (not so great) boyfriend.

Each chapter starts with an SAT question about Carly, and instead of just plain, "chapter 1," "chapter 2" they
used fill in bubbles (like on the actual SAT's).

Here is a quick summary of this book: Carly Biels finds out she will NEVER get into Princeton with the SAT scores she got. Carly suddenly gets a text from The Taker. Carly starts to study with Ronald Gross her nerdy next door neighbor. She and her boyfriend start to have some relationship issues. Carly takes the makeup SAT's and gets an amazing score. She finds out The Taker didn't actually take the test for her and realizes her real feelings for her study partner.

This book is worth reading and I would recommend this book to 8th graders and above.

Kissing Annabel by Steven Herrick

Kissing Annabel by Steven Herrick was... how should I put this... different. First, every page looks like a poem, I think Steven Herrick wanted it to be like that because Jack (the main character) loves poetry. But from my point of view it's a HUGE waste of paper. Second, there were many missed spelled words and punctuation errors. Don't they proof read books before they're published?

This quick read is a story of Jacks life which includes: Annabel, love, nose hairs and apples.

Here is a quick summary of this book: Jacks in school, he starts seeing Annabel, they grow up, they graduate and decide to not go to college, he leaves with Annabel, they start working at an apple orchard, they become very close with the apple orchard family, they leave the apple orchard to live on the beach with the little money they earned.

Overall I would not recommend this book... to anyone.