Review: More Than Good Enough by Crissa-Jean Chappell

First, thanks to Flux Books and Netgalley for allowing me to read an e-galley of this title.  I have been a fan of this author since I got to read a copy of her first YA book, Total Constant Order.  I think I got an ARC of that too, can't remember for sure, because it was before I was blogging here.  The second book, Narc, was one that I got at BEA 2012, when I got to meet the author.  Which was really cool.  Now this one, while I think the storyline was pretty good, I had some issues.  One, I kind of wanted a bit more at the beginning.  I felt like I walked into a movie 20 minutes late, and while there were recaps, I felt like there was more that I missed.  And then the other issue has to do with the formatting I had with this Kindle e-galley, and nothing to do with the actual story, so I'll stop with that.

The main character is Trenton, and he is half Native American, Miccosukee to be exact.  His mother is actually from England.  His parents have been divorced for a long time, his father has just been released from prison, and starts out moving back in with his mother.  This doesn't work really well.  You see Trent had been attending a special school for music, but lately he's been slacking, and is now failing.  So he gets kicked out, and has to attend the public school.  Not only that, but his mom sends him to live with his father, who is now living on the reservation.  Life isn't great for Trent there.  He feels left out, as he doesn't understand their language.  And now, his father who has been absent for most of his life is really seeming to be on his case all the time.  And not just that, his dad is a drunk.  And is really getting to be hard to take.  So Trent has found that at his new school, the girl he grew up with as a best friend is there.  And she has grown up nicely.  Trent immediately seeks Pippa out, and tries to get her back as a friend, and maybe more.  But there are all kinds of things in the way.  Pippa's past experiences with boys, as well as the other people in her school.  Trent is dealing with his father, and then he is drinking, and doing drugs.  Plus his mother has a boyfriend that he doesn't like, and he feels abandoned by her.

I think the story is really the way a teen would think and act.  I just don't know if it is the way the e-galley was formatted that made it hard for me in some parts to not feel like I was missing something, but I just wanted a bit more at the beginning I think.  The end was great, I love how that went, good, but really a learning experience, and of course, always things to work on.  A great realistic fiction, and I am still a big Crissa-Jean Chappell fan, as you can tell from this picture with her back at BEA 2012.

The Wake Trilogy by Lisa McMann

I've walked past these books in the teen section at the bookstore I work at for years. The covers always drew me in, and I did pick them up, and thought they sounded interesting, but just never got around to reading them. I once again have the Nook checked out from work, and so, decided to read them all in a row.

The first in the series is called Wake. Our main character is Janie. She lives in the poor part of town with her alcoholic mother. Next door is her best friend Carrie. Carrie is also friends with one of the snobs in town, Melinda, and often will have all her friends together. The funny thing about Janie is that she gets sucked into people's dreams. It's not a choice, if someone near her is asleep and dreaming, she can't do anything as she gets sucked in. She passes out and is stuck until they wake up. There is, of course, a cute boy named Cabel. Cabel has kind of a bad boy rep, drugs, kind of poor looking, until this year. He's got a new haircut, and all the girls are taking notice, although Cabel really only has eyes for Janie. At the retirement home where Janie works, she gets sucked into one of the women's dreams one night, and finds out that woman also goes into people's dreams. And Janie learns something about how to help herself get out of dreams, and how to try to help people in their dreams. It turns out this woman, Mrs. Stubin, helped the police with her talent in the past, and soon Janie will get the chance as well.

The second in the series is called Fade. In this book, Janie and Cabel are an item, but are unable to show this in public. Cabel is still working as a "narc" trying to solve a drug ring. And Janie and Cabel are called in on another case, supposedly there is a teacher at the high school that is slipping date rape drugs into girls' drinks and raping them. Janie thinks she's figured out who the teacher is, and the Captain, their police boss, asks Janie to be bait. Cabel isn't happy with this, he wants Janie to be his safe, he wants her safe. Cabel's had a rough life just like Janie. His father set him on fire when he was younger. Janie also soon learns that going into dreams saps her of her strength and really makes her lose weight. So Cabel tries to help her by always being there with a protein bar or food, and keeping an eye on her during study hall when students tend to sleep and suck Janie into their dreams.

The third and final book in the series is where Janie learns what will happen to her as time goes on and she continues going into people's dreams. She learns from notes that Mrs. Stubin left behind that she will go blind. Something Cabel has figured out and gets her glasses. She also always goes numb for awhile after a dream. Mrs. Stubin says that eventually she'll also lose her hands, they'll become all curled and shriveled up and and useless. In this book Janie also meets her dad, well, not exactly meets, he's in a coma. It turns out he suffered from the same issue, and he chose to solve it by living isolated, even though it meant he disappeared from Janie and her mother's life. So this book is about Janie trying to determine which future she wants. To stay and continue the work she's doing, but eventually end up blind and crippled. And each night she's living Cabel's dreams, where she can tell he's not sure about if he can handle this. The other future is to go isolate herself and maybe live longer without the crippling effects. However at the end, Janie learns the choice may not be quite so simple.

This was a great series. Each book was about 118 pages or so, so quick reads. But it wasn't just quick because it was short, it was quick because it pulled me in and I just didn't want to put the books down. I am so glad to have a new series to recommend at the bookstore and at school to my students!