Blog Tour Review with Giveaway: All Boy by Mia Kerick

Book info:
Title:  All Boy
Author:  Mia Kerick
Published by: Lakewater Press
Publication date: June 25th 2019
Genres: Contemporary, LGBTQ+, Romance, Young Adult
Source:  E-galley from Xpresso Book Tours which did not influence my opinion
My Rating:   5 stars

Synopsis:

Seventeen-year-old Callie Canter knows all about screwing up—and being screwed over. After her so-called boyfriend publicly humiliated her senior year, taking a fifth year of high school at Beaufort Hills Academy is her second chance to leave behind a painful past. But her need for social acceptance follows, and going along with the in-crowd is the difference between survival and becoming a target. Staying off the radar is top priority. So, falling for an outsider is the last thing on Callie’s “to-do” list. Too bad her heart didn’t get the memo.

With his strict, religious upbringing and former identity far away in Florida, Jayden Morrissey can finally be true to himself at Beaufort Hills Academy. But life as a trans man means keeping secrets, and keeping secrets means not getting too close to anyone. If he can just get through his fifth year unnoticed, maybe a future living as the person he was born to be is possible. Yet love is love, and when you fall hard enough, intentions crumble, plans detour, and secrets are revealed.

From multi-award-winning author Mia Kerick, comes a powerful, timely, and life-changing novel, which follows two teenagers nursing broken hearts and seeking acceptance, and who together realize running away isn’t always the answer.

Goodreads / Amazon

My Review:

This was a very interesting book.  It really made me think.   I honestly don't even know where to start with this review.  There was so much that went on in this book.  I feel like we got a good look at the things a transgender person might deal with.  That was the part that I really kept turning pages on, to try to learn, to understand.  It was easier for me to understand Callie's side.  A girl, overweight, worried about food, and people treating her differently, and maybe even seeing herself as overweight, when in reality she wasn't fat, just maybe not waif-like skinny.  That strikes a nerve with me, knowing that I felt that way for years.  But to see these two come together, even after the horrible things that they'd gone through in the past, and after they slowly got over the things that happened at their school was a wonderful thing to read.  I know that it's probably not realistic to have happy endings and things to go mostly smoothly as they end up, but I want it to be more like that for people in these types of situations.  Really a great story, and I love the message it contained.  I highly recommend this one.

Author Bio:

Mia Kerick is the mother of four exceptional children—one in law school, another a professional dancer, a third studying at Mia’s alma mater, Boston College, and her lone son, heading off to college. (Yes, the nest is finally empty.) She has published more than twenty books of LGBTQ romance when not editing National Honor Society essays, offering opinions on college and law school applications, helping to create dance bios, and reviewing scholarship essays. Her husband of twenty-five years has been told by many that he has the patience of Job, but don’t ask Mia about this, as it’s a sensitive subject.

Mia focuses her stories on the emotional growth of troubled people in complex relationships. She has a great affinity for the tortured hero in literature, and as a teen, Mia filled spiral-bound notebooks with tales of tortured heroes and stuffed them under her mattress for safekeeping. She is thankful to her wonderful publishers for providing her with an alternate place to stash her stories.

Her books have been featured in Kirkus Reviews magazine, and have won Rainbow Awards for Best Transgender Contemporary Romance and Best YA Lesbian Fiction, a Reader Views’ Book by Book Publicity Literary Award, the Jack Eadon Award for Best Book in Contemporary Drama, an Indie Fab Award, and a Royal Dragonfly Award for Cultural Diversity, a Story Monsters Purple Dragonfly Award for Young Adult e-book Fiction, among other awards.

Mia Kerick is a social liberal and cheers for each and every victory made in the name of human rights. Her only major regret: never having taken typing or computer class in school, destining her to a life consumed with two-fingered pecking and constant prayer to the Gods of Technology. Contact Mia at miakerick@gmail.com or visit at www.miakerickya.com to see what is going on in Mia’s world.

Website / Goodreads / Facebook / Twitter

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Blog Tour Review with Giveaway: If It Makes You Happy by Claire Kann

Book info:
Title:  If It Makes You Happy
Author:  Claire Kann
Published by: Swoon Reads
Publication date: June 4th, 2019
Genres: Contemporary, LGBTQ+, Romance, Young Adult
Source:  E-galley received from Xpresso Tours which did not influence my opinion
My rating:  4 stars

Synopsis:

High school finally behind her, Winnie is all set to attend college in the fall. But first she’s spending her summer days working at her granny’s diner and begins spending her midnights with Dallas—the boy she loves to hate and hates that she likes. Winnie lives in Misty Haven, a small town where secrets are impossible to keep—like when Winnie allegedly snaps on Dr. Skinner, which results in everyone feeling compelled to give her weight loss advice for her own good. Because they care that’s she’s “too fat.”

Winnie dreams of someday inheriting the diner—but it’ll go away if they can’t make money, and fast. Winnie has a solution—win a televised cooking competition and make bank. But Granny doesn’t want her to enter—so Winnie has to find a way around her formidable grandmother. Can she come out on top?

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My Review:
This was really a good book.  It had so much to it, depth, characters, back stories, side stories, emotion, drama, and a lot of really good takes on issues that you may not think about normally, or don't realize because they were from the side of an issue you may not identify with.  Even some of them that I do feel like I connect with, the whole overweight thing especially, I even learned a few things or began to think of them from a slightly different angle.  I loved Winnie's relationship with Kara, but I also liked that she wasn't sure if it was going to just be Kara for the rest of her life. Well, she knew Kara would always be in her life, but the fact that she knew she might want to see who or what was still out there was definitely a great look at how a young person might really feel.  I like that she wasn't just your standard LGBTQ character, that she was also truly interested in Dallas, but that it didn't change her feelings for Kara, even if it did make her wonder and think about them more.

I really thought there was a lot of great details about how being overweight doesn't always mean someone isn't healthy.  I had a doctor recently who actually gave me similar facts, about how some people are more genetically likely to get diabetes, but could be skinny, it just has to do with how the body deals with certain substances.  I also didn't realize you could refuse to have your weight taken at the doctor's office!  And then I liked Kara's one line about how she was fiscally conservative without the Republican agenda.  While I don't completely agree with the "agenda" part, I know that really describes me, or is how I describe myself a lot of times with my own personal political leanings.

Her family was just really real too.  I like how things ended with her grandma.  Well, like might not be the right word, but I felt it was so realistic, and a perfect way to show that sometimes it is okay for that to be what happens, that you have to stand up for yourself.  Winnie's self-confidence was great, something we see with a lot of characters these days, but I like that she knew how much it actually covered and how it actually worked for herself.  A lot of her self reflection really caught me as exact thoughts and feelings I've had myself. 

A great book, I can't wait to put it in my library, as well as recommend it to my students to read.

Author Bio:

Claire Kann is the author of LET’S TALK ABOUT LOVE and an award-winning online storyteller. In her other life, she works for a nonprofit that you may have heard of where she daydreams like she’s paid to do it. Find out more by visiting her website: www.clairekann.com (and while you’re there, tell her about your cats. She loves cats. A lot.)

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Blog Tour Author Interview with Giveaway: Hold My Hand by Michael Barakiva

Book info:
Title:  Hold My Hand
Author:  Michael Barakiva
Published by: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)
Publication date: May 21st, 2019
Genres: Romance, Young Adult

Synopsis:

Alek Khederian thinks about his life B.E. and A.E.: Before Ethan and After Ethan. Before Ethan, Alek was just an average Armenian-American kid with a mess of curly dark hair, grades not nearly good enough for his parents, and no idea of who he was or what he wanted. After he got together with Ethan, Alek was a new man. Stylish. Confident. (And even if he wasn’t quite marching in LGBTQ parades), Gay and Out and Proud.

With their six-month anniversary coming up, Alek and Ethan want to do something special to celebrate. Like, really special. Like, the most special thing two people in love can do with one another. But Alek’s not sure he’s ready for that. And then he learns something about Ethan that may not just change their relationship, but end it.

Alek can’t bear the thought of finding out who he’d be P.E.: Post-Ethan. But he also can’t forgive or forget what Ethan did. Luckily, his best friend Becky and madcap Armenain family are there to help him figure out whether it’s time to just let Ethan go, or reach out and hold his hand.

Hold My Hand is a funny, smart, relatable take on the joy and challenges of teenage love, the boundaries of forgiveness, and what it really means to be honest.

Goodreads / Amazon / Barnes and Noble / iBooks / Kobo / Google Play

Author Interview:

1.  What does your writing process look like? Do you know the whole story when you start?  Or do you just start writing and go with it (seat of the pants writing)?  If you plan it out, how do you do that?  Outline, notecards, post-it-notes, etc.?  

There is a process of for writing musicals that I have hijacked for novel-writing purposes.  It starts with the writing of many many index cards – just a few words on each.  They can each stand for a character, theme, line of dialogue, plot moment, whatever.  All ideas are good ideas in this part.  This will also lead me to some research, and I’ll fall through a few of those wormholes.

After some time doing this, I can usually figure out if the story has stuff.  If it doesn’t, I bind all the cards up and put them in a drawer, to revisit at a later time, if/when I’ve had an epiphany about how to make it work.  If the story is making sense, I can usually tell at this point: If the cards are coming out aplenty, if they’re making sense, if they’re interesting and exciting, if they communicate with each other.  Then I start sifting through them – removing the ones that don’t fit in anymore, rewriting some, consolidating others.  Once I have a stack (let’s say, 100 at this point) I’ll put them up on my wall, using scotch tape (really, I should be using painter’s tape, but do I? no I do not, because adulting is hard). 

Here is a picture of what  an early non-color coordinated attempt might look like.  Please note the adorability of the index cards I have cut into triangles, which indicate time stamps.

At this point, the cards resemble something of an outline, and I’ll usually start writing there.  Because I rarely have the luxury of putting full days aside for writing in this moment of my life (my day job is running the Hangar Theatre in Ithaca, NY), when I do write, I look at the outline for the chapter I want to write the night before I go to sleep, and then wake up early and write write write.  First drafts must be written in the morning, early, when I’m barely awake, so that I don’t have the ability to filter myself.  On days that I can devote entirely to writing, I’ll then go to the gym or make some breakfast, do some other stuff, take a nap, and then read the morning pages.  Often, I have no memory of having written them and that allows me to look at them somewhat objectively, ruthlessly, the way a writer must. 

2. Do you edit as you go, or wait till you're finished before you edit?  How many times would you say you go over it yourself before having another set of eyes look it over? 

I’ll probably try to get 50 good pages before I send them to my editor (Joy Peskin, amazing, goddess, amazing).  This will take three or four or five drafts.  With One Man Guy, they were the first fifty pages.  With Hold My Hand, I tried something different based on this article by Joss Whedon – he said something about not bothering to write in chronological order – that instead, you should write the scenes you see most vividly first.  So I did that, writing what we determined was “the heart” of the book.  I didn’t even know where it would end up, but now it’s the end of Act I and I’m not going to say anything but I think it’s my favorite scene I’ve ever written.

I probably work in 50 page chunks – writing, re-writing, re-re-writing, re-re-re-writing, before sending them to my editor for feedback, direction and spiritual sustenance.

After every 50 pages or so, I’ll also re-index card – take all the old ones down, see what I’m actually writing and how the pages have taken shape, and write the index cards in dialogue with the pages themselves.  At this point, I usually start color coding the cards, which also helps because if I’m like “Why does this section suck” or “I don’t know what should happen next,” seeing visually that the B plot has been ignored for three chapters or something helps.

3.  Are you part of a writers group that gets together and helps each other with their writing?

I only recently learned that this is a thing, and it sounds great.  But having never taken a class in writing, never thinking I’d be a writer, and not knowing how things were done, I hadn’t ever really thought about joining one.  But it sounds awesome. 

4.  What tips do you have for aspiring writers?

Look at the world, look at what is happening in the world, look at what is happening in the world that no one is writing about, and write about that. 

5.   What are your favorite:

Books/authors/genres

The Inheritance Trilogy by N. K. Jemisin is just about as good as writing can get.  It is my everything. 

The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal – OMG these two books were amazing

On a trip to Ecaudor I got A Little Life on my Kindle because it sounded like a fun little book and although it was a book, it was certainly not fun or little – totally, truly devastating. 

And I just finished the Earthsea Cycle by Ursula Le Guin.  The writing is so good, so clear, so simple, so moving.  What a master.

Movies/TV Shows

Last night, Avengers: Endgame P2 premiered and now that I’ve seen it I feel like a major chapter of my life is over.

I’ve been junking out on Netflix like it’s going out of fashion.  Which, apparently, it’s not.  Favorites there are:

The Magicians (thinking about getting some hedge witch tattoos on my forearm),

The OA (WTF with Season 2 finale!)

Crazy Ex-Girlfriend

all the cooking shows (especially Salt Acid Fat Heat, or whatever the correct order is)

The Good Place (Will Jackson Harper forever)

Agents of SHIELD

Dear White People (Justin Simien, will you be my friend)

Sex Education

Stranger Things (natch)

Russian Doll

The 3%

Cable Girls

And Dead To Me, which is BRILLIANT and weird and whacky and dark and funny and wonderful.

Music

Kyle Callicott and Andrew Goldberg are my music gurus – I direct all music questions to them

Food/Writing snack

Sliced apple with sunflower seed butter.  It’s healthy AND caloric!

Author Bio:

Michael Barakiva, author of One Man Guy, is a theater director and writer of Armenian/Israeli descent who lives in Manhattan with his husband, Rafael. He is a graduate of Vassar College and the Juilliard School, an avid cook and board-game player, and a soccer player with the New York Ramblers.

Website / Goodreads / Facebook / Twitter

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Blog Tour with Giveaway: The Time Traveler's Guide to Modern Romance by Madeline J. Reynolds

Book info:

Title:  The Time Traveler's Guide to Modern Romance
Author:  Madeline J. Reynolds
Genre: YA LGBTQ Fantasy
Release Date:  March 4th, 2019
Publisher:  Entangled Teen

Synopsis:

Elias Caldwell needs more than his life in nineteenth-century England has to offer. He’d rather go on an adventure than spend one more minute at some stuffy party. When his grandfather gives him a pocket watch he claims can transport him to any place and time, Elias doesn’t believe it…until he’s whisked away to twenty-first-century America.

Tyler Forrester just wants to fall hopelessly in love. But making that kind of connection with someone has been more of a dream than reality. Then a boy appears out of thin air, a boy from the past. As he helps Elias navigate a strange new world for him, introducing him to the wonders of espresso, binge-watching, and rock and roll, Tyler discovers Elias is exactly who he was missing.

But their love has time limit. Elias’s disappearance from the past has had devastating side effects, and now he must choose where he truly belongs—in the Victorian era, or with the boy who took him on an adventure he never dreamed possible?

Link to Goodreads:

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35500906-the-time-traveler-s-guide-to-modern-romance  

Purchase Links:

Amazon | Amazon Australia | Amazon UK | Amazon Canada | Barnes and Noble | iBooks | Kobo

 

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About the Author:

Madeline J. Reynolds is a YA fantasy author living in Chicago. Originally from Minneapolis, she has a background in journalism and has always loved storytelling in its various forms. When not writing, she can be found exploring the city, eating Thai food, or lost in an epic Lord of the Rings marathon.

Website • Twitter • Instagram • Goodreads

Giveaway:

-        One winner will receive a $15 Amazon Gift Card (INT)

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Link to Tour Schedule:

http://www.chapter-by-chapter.com/tour-schedule-the-time-travelers-guide-to-modern-romance-by-madeline-j-reynolds/

 

Blog Tour Review with Giveaway: The Princess of Baker Street by Mia Kerick

Book info:
Title:  The Princess of Baker Street
Author:  Mia Kerick
Published by: Harmony Ink Press
Publication date: January 22nd, 2019
Genres: Contemporary, LGBTQ+, Young Adult
Source:  Egalley from Xpresso Book Tours which did not influence my opinion.
My rating:  4 stars

Synopsis:

“Always wear your imaginary crown” is Joey Kinkaid’s motto. For years, Joey, assigned male at birth, led the Baker Street kids in daring and imaginative fantasy adventures, but now that they’re teenagers, being a princess is no longer quite so cool. Especially for a child who is seen by the world as a boy.

Eric Sinclair has always been Joey’s best friend and admirer—Prince Eric to Joey’s Princess Ariel—but middle school puts major distance between them. As Eric’s own life takes a dangerous turn for the worse, he stands by and watches as Joey—who persists in dressing and acting too much like a Disney princess for anybody’s comfort—gets bullied. Eric doesn’t like turning his back on Joey, but he’s learned that the secret to teenage survival, especially with and absent mother, is to fly under the radar.

But when Joey finally accepts who she is and comes to school wearing lip gloss, leggings, and a silky pink scarf, the bullies make her life such a misery that she decides to end it all. Eric, in turn, must decide who he really is and what side he wants to stand on… though no matter what he chooses, the consequences with be profound for both teens, and they’ll face them for years to come.

Is there a chance the two teens can be friends again, and maybe even more?

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My Review:

 It's been a while since I've read a middle school book, and there were things about this that reminded me of why I don't read them that often.  I know that it is written as if it is from a middle school boy's point of view, and Eric, our main character, is not a overly smart or well-spoken boy.  But sometimes that is hard to read.  But towards the end, when we get high school years, then it is a little easier to read.

Despite that I really liked this book.  It was a great story.  A lot of realistic behavior by the characters.  However, one thing I really liked is how Eric felt about his friend Joey.  The way he behaved was realistic, it is so hard for middle-schoolers to stand up to bullies, to put themselves in the way of being picked on. And Eric's home situation was one that he didn't  need the extra problems.  As much as it hurt reading about how he let those things happen, the realness of it really got me.  But the way he felt about Joey, and how he ended up in the end dealing with that whole situation was very heartening.  The friends that he made in high school are the types of kids that I know are out there.  The type of people that I hope we see more and more of every day.  

I guess my overall take from this is that even with all the horrible things out there, that may not ever go away, due to human behavior being the way it seems to be, there is hope, and I think there are more of these kind of people out there than we think, but it is becoming easier for them to step forward and be the kind of people that can help the world become a better place. 

Author Bio:

Mia Kerick is the mother of four exceptional children—one in law school, another a professional dancer, a third studying at Mia’s alma mater, Boston College, and her lone son, heading off to college. (Yes, the nest is finally empty.) She has published more than twenty books of LGBTQ romance when not editing National Honor Society essays, offering opinions on college and law school applications, helping to create dance bios, and reviewing scholarship essays. Her husband of twenty-five years has been told by many that he has the patience of Job, but don’t ask Mia about this, as it’s a sensitive subject.

Mia focuses her stories on the emotional growth of troubled people in complex relationships. She has a great affinity for the tortured hero in literature, and as a teen, Mia filled spiral-bound notebooks with tales of tortured heroes and stuffed them under her mattress for safekeeping. She is thankful to her wonderful publishers for providing her with an alternate place to stash her stories.

Her books have been featured in Kirkus Reviews magazine, and have won Rainbow Awards for Best Transgender Contemporary Romance and Best YA Lesbian Fiction, a Reader Views’ Book by Book Publicity Literary Award, the Jack Eadon Award for Best Book in Contemporary Drama, an Indie Fab Award, and a Royal Dragonfly Award for Cultural Diversity, a Story Monsters Purple Dragonfly Award for Young Adult e-book Fiction, among other awards.

Mia Kerick is a social liberal and cheers for each and every victory made in the name of human rights. Her only major regret: never having taken typing or computer class in school, destining her to a life consumed with two-fingered pecking and constant prayer to the Gods of Technology. Contact Mia at miakerick@gmail.com or visit at www.miakerickya.com to see what is going on in Mia’s world.

Website / Goodreads / Facebook / Twitter

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Nerd Blast: Ruin of Stars (Mask of Shadows #2) by Linsey Miller

SYNOPSIS:

As Opal, Sal finally has the power, prestige, and most importantly the ability to hunt the lords who killed their family. But Sal has to figure out who the culprits are before putting them down. Which means trying to ignore the fact that Elise is being kept a virtual prisoner, and that the queen may have ulterior motives.

And the tales coming out of north are baffling. Talk of dark spirits, missing children, and magic abound. As Sal heads north toward their ruined homeland and the lords who destroyed everything, they learn secrets and truths that can't be ignored.

AMAZON | BARNES & NOBLE | BOOK DEPOSITORY

Praise for MASK OF SHADOWS

"An intriguing world and a fantastically compelling main character make for a can't-miss debut. Miller's Mask of Shadows will make you glad you're not an assassin―and even gladder Sal is." ―Kiersten White, New York Times bestelling author of And I Darken and Now I Rise

"Compelling and relatable characters, a fascinating world with dangerous magic, and a dash of political intrigue: Mask of Shadows completely delivered. Fantasy fans will love this book." ―Jodi Meadows, New York Times bestselling coauthor of My Lady Jane

Praise for Mask of Shadows: "Miller's gritty, lightning-paced debut features a rough-and-tumble yet movingly vulnerable protagonist: Sal is uncompromising in their convictions, and doesn't hesitate to kill when necessary but wishes to be more than just a weapon of vengeance. A complex but intriguing start to this planned duology." ―Publishers Weekly
Praise for Mask of Shadows: "This is a memorable, sharply written character. While readers who identify on the GLBTQ spectrum may be easy fans as Miller handles Sal's identity with aplomb, that's certainly not the only point of note here; the impressive, intricate world building, tense action, and fierce competitors are equally strong." ―The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

Praise for Mask of Shadows: "Gory, well-plotted, suspenseful on every page, and poised for the sequel." ―Kirkus

Praise for Mask of Shadows: "This fantasy's gender-fluid protagonist, Sal Leon, makes Miller's book worth picking up for diversity's sake alone. Her treatment of the gender issue is most notable in that it isn't really an issue... Violent and action-packed, this offering by first-time novelist Miller will circulate." ―School Library Journal

"Sal's strong-willed personality and rich emotions create a protagonist who continues to shine" ―Booklist

"Sal is intriguing and their genderfluidity adds depth to their personality. The narrative deals with issues of mystery, self-identity, and revenge. The ending provides a sense of closure, while leaving the door ajar for further adventures." ―VOYA Magazine

About the Author:

Originally from Arkansas, Linsey Miller has previously worked as a crime lab intern, neuroscience lab assistant, and pharmacy technician. She is currently an MFA candidate represented by Rachel Brooks of Bookends Literary. Her debut novel MASK OF SHADOWS is the first in a fantasy duology out now (8/29/17) from Sourcebooks Fire. The sequel RUIN OF STARS is coming out August of 2018. She can be found writing about science and magic anywhere there is coffee.

PHOTO CONTENT FROM LINSEY MILLER

WEBSITE: http://www.linseymiller.com/
TWITTER:  @LinseyMiller
GOODREADS: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/15194090.Linsey_Miller
FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/LinseyMillerAuthor/
INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/linsey.miller/ 

Giveaway:

--Giveaway is open to International. | Must be 13+ to Enter

- 1 Winner will receive a signed pre-order of RUIN OF STARS by Linsey Miller

- 1 Winner will receive a $25.00 Amazon/PayPal Gift Card.

ENDS: SEPTEMBER 11, 2018

 

  

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Check out the rest of the tour HERE.  

You can check out my review of book one here:  Mask of Shadows. 

Review: Neanderthal Opens the Door to the Universe by Preston Norton

Book info:

Title:  Neanderthal Opens the Door to the Universe
Author:  Preston Norton
Genre:  YA Contemporary
Release Date:  June 5th, 2018
Publisher:  Disney-Hyperion
Source:  Physical ARC received from publisher which affected my opinion in no way
My rating:  5 stars

Synopsis:
Cliff Hubbard is a huge loser. Literally. His nickname at Happy Valley High School is Neanderthal because he's so enormous-6'6" and 250 pounds to be exact. He has no one at school and life in his trailer park home has gone from bad to worse ever since his older brother's suicide.

There's no one Cliff hates more than the nauseatingly cool quarterback, Aaron Zimmerman. Then Aaron returns to school after a near-death experience with a bizarre claim: while he was unconscious he saw God, who gave him a list of things to do to make Happy Valley High suck less. And God said there's only one person who can help: Neanderthal.

To his own surprise, Cliff says he's in. As he and Aaron make their way through the List, which involves a vindictive English teacher, a mysterious computer hacker, a decidedly unchristian cult of Jesus Teens, the local drug dealers, and the meanest bully at HVHS--Cliff feels like he's part of something for the first time since losing his brother. But fixing a broken school isn't as simple as it seems, and just when Cliff thinks they've completed the List, he realizes their mission hits closer to home than he ever imagined.

My Review:
Wow, this book totally blew me away!  I picked it up while on vacation, and read straight through the first 92 pages in no time!  I was laughing out loud and just enjoying it so much!  Having a six year old niece on vacation meant that Auntie had to spend lots of time with her.  But whenever I got the chance to pick this up, I was lost and couldn't put it down.  The characters were so great.  When it was pitched to me as a post-millenial Breakfast Club, I was a bit skeptical, but in the end, it really kind of worked out that way!  Cliff was really a bit oblivious, but partly because his brother had recently killed himself.  And then there was the popular boy, Aaron, the one who got "the list" from God that had to be completed, and that he needed Cliff to help with.  Which really, the two of them just gotten in a big fist-fight right before this all happened.  Then you had the local drug dealers that hung out in front of the school, the girl who seemed to do nothing but proposition Cliff all the time.  She gets into the whole mix-up with the list, and you fall in love with her.  The bully, gets what he probably deserves, but also falls in at one point. Then there is the brother of the leader of the Jesus Teens.  He is gay, and keeps trying to start a Gay-Straight Alliance group at the school, but his sister has gotten the school to ban all after school groups that are not "class-related".  And that is something that becomes a big focus point for Aaron and Cliff with the list.  Then the meanest teacher, think of the one in the movie Fast Times at Ridgemont High, and that's who you've got here.  

All of the characters were just perfect.  There were some points that had me crying, but then those tears were often replace with huge laughs from the banter between the characters.  When Aaron and Cliff try to help out with the teacher problem, they end up going to mow his lawn.  I was just about rolling on the floor with that bit!  The teacher threatened to call the cops on them for mowing his lawn, something his home owner's association had actually been posting letters on his door about.  I'm not explaining it that great, you've got to pick this book up and read it.

Now, I know there will probably be changes to the book before the finished product hits the shelves. But there was one page that I was reading while I was sitting at Wendy's eating on my travels back home from vacation, and I had to take a picture of it because I couldn't believe all the hilariousness in this one page!   So I'm sharing that page below.  But just know that it could change before the finished copy, since this was an advanced reader's copy.  

I don't know, maybe you have to read it and be in the whole scene to get it.  But the "brown" belt comment.  And then the part about the iPhone, which I'm an iPhone user, but it still cracked me up!  

I cannot WAIT to put this book in my school library next year.  I can't wait to share it with a teacher I work with.  It has all different kinds of people.  Rich, poor, Christian, nerdy, techy, popular, gay, depressed, socially awkward, popular, you name it, that character is in here, and they are portrayed in such a great way.  

There's a twist with the brother that I had a bit of an idea of what it might be, but liked the direction the author took it in.  Also, it's not just the main characters, but there are so many quirky side characters you have to just laugh at.  Like Cliff's mother's boss at the video store.  And the principal is great, and just so many great characters in this story.  

If you don't pick this one up, you'll regret it, hope you get a chance to do that soon!