The Mediator 1: Shadowland, Meg Cabot

I used to wish that I was Danielle Steele, especially after driving past her crazy mansion in San Francisco and realizing that those hundreds of books put her in that house. Well I think I'll change that to wishing I was Meg Cabot with her multitude of YA books. How does she possibly write so many books all seemingly at the same time? (Maybe I should save my wishes until I see Meg Cabot's mansion)

This is actually my first Meg Cabot title (but I have, of course, seen The Princess Diaries movies) and it was very cute. It was clever, quick paced, suspenseful.... and I liked how the narrator Suze tells us she isn't going to give us the details of her spells & procedures for getting rid of the crazy ghost haunting her school seeing as we aren't ghost busting professionals like herself. I appreciate that because I don't like when supernatural stories get so dark/evil and I really don't like the idea of young & impressionable tween girls reading all about the occult (that was part of my problem with the Vampire Diaries-a little too much witchiness for my comfort level)

So, I am glad to have found a new relaxing & fun series to read & to recommend. Perfect bathtub reading.

Moonlight, Rachel Hawthorne

After liking Rachel Hawthorne's The Boyfriend League so much I investigated her other books. This one just came out and there are two more in the series coming out this summer. I think it is weird how some YA series books make you wait a year for the next volume and some are staggered over a few months. Being pretty impatient, I loved seeing that I don't have to wait very long for the next books.

This was really good. It really is weird to me that somehow the stars aligned for Stephenie Meyer's books to become so big when there are lots of supernatural, romantic, suspenseful YA series that don't seem to go very far. And I say that as someone who loves Twilight. I just could totally see this book being fawned over, made into a movie, getting its own dolls, etc and Twilight being a book I just picked up at Barnes & Noble that not very many people have read. I don't get what makes one book go so far, especially considering that Rachel Hawthorne is a better writer.

I really enjoyed Moonlight and am excited for the next 2 books!

Lovesick, Jake Coburn

This was really suspenseful and slightly creepy. It had a very interesting premise and thankfully gave me what I always demand: a happy the couple gets together ending. Which is really all I ever demand.

The Boyfriend League, Rachel Hawthorne

This was such a rewarding impulse buy. I didn't know anything about this book or what to expect and I was so pleasantly surprised. It's a very cute yet realistic summer story with no skankiness. It is really light but not idiotic and it was just what I needed after this week of getting ready for Open House and surviving Open House. I think that I slept for almost 15 hours last night (I can't be sure since I fell asleep on the couch) in recovery from being at school until 9pm and then staying up till 2am to get everything ready and stressing out the entire time. This book was perfect bathtime reading material & helped me destress.

A Walk to Remember, Nicholas Sparks

I hate movie tie in editions of books but the classier book cover version of this book was 13.99 compared to the Mandy Moore & Dr Ray edition for 7.99. Surprisingly, sometimes even I can be frugal.

I LOVE this movie and have seen it millions and millions of times. I also LOVE the soundtrack and have listened to it also a couple million times. And I am not exaggerating. I realized recently that I had never read the book. And I now love the book more than the movie.

The story takes place in 1958 and is just much more wholesome than the story in the movie. Which is saying something because the movie is pretty wholesome. And of course I cried several times while reading it. It really is one of those stories that makes you wonder why being a teenager makes people turn into such cowards about doing the right thing. Jamie's character is much more believable in the book because you know so much more of her history. And Landon and his friends aren't as rough as they were in the movie.

Flat Belly Diet!, Liz Vaccariello

I bought this in a fitness feeding frenzy last Saturday. I've been eating healthy again and started exercising last week for the first time in eons. So I read this for further inspiration. It's an interesting idea and sounds pretty doable. I need to learn to like some foods I don't like though to be really healthy I guess. We'll see.

Swoon, Nina Malkin

This was well written and had a very clever idea at the center of its plot that I really wanted to figure out. I stayed in bathtub turning into a prune for a good 2 1/2 hours because I didn't want to put it down. In the end I was satisfied with the ending but not so much with the execution. The writing had a lot of watered down smut in it for a book marketed to teens. So if you could delete the skankiness I would like this one a whole lot more.