Author: Ellen Hopkins

Genre: Realistic Fiction, Drugs, Poetry

Summary: The story of Melinda who learns of crystal meth or "crank," that makes her discover her sexy confident alter-ego Bree.  Both sides of her take turn controlling her as she tries to escape the drugs that get her into a lot of trouble.

Characters: 8/10

Plot: 9/10

Originality: 7/10

Recommendation: 8/10

Age Rating: PG-13 to R

Review: This book was written in poetry, so the size of the book shouldn't intimidate you.  

I was worried that like most poems, this book would be hard to follow, but I turned out wrong.  It was actually pretty much sentences put in stance form.  Although the sentences weren't separated at clauses, so if you didn't read it carefully, sometimes you need to re-read it a couple times.

Even if the book was my first poetry and major drug story, I liked it a lot, even if as an introduction, it was pretty intense.

Author: James Patterson

Genre: Sci-Fi, Action

Summary: Max and her flock, who are 98% human and 2% bird, have been running from the deadly white coats and the school ever since they were born.  But when Angel gets kidnapped, they have no choice but to chase after them.  And also, if there's time, find out about their pasts.

Characters: 8/10

Plot: 6/10

Originality: 9/10

Age Rating: PG

Recommendation: 8/10

Review: Okay, this book was pretty good, but it's not really for the picky (not me) people because while the chapters are short, there's 100 chapters and quite a few of them are spent on things that could've been put into a sentence and the plot still would've not been ruined.

For example, there was a chapter dedicated to the whole flock ordering food from the fast food store.  Another time, Fang and Nudge were just watching hawks fly and learned 'tricks' from them.

So yeah, at least a 1/4 of the book could've been shaved off, but I liked the characters and chapters being short gave you illusions that you were reading a ton so it was okay.

Here's the list:

1. Rules

2. Uglies

3. Wednesday Wars

4. Fever 1793

5. Life As We Knew It

6. Stanford Wong flunks Big-time

7. Last Shot

8. Letters from Wolfie

9. Magyk

10. Maximum Ride: The Angel Experiment

I've got 7 down, the most out of all of them.  I'm so proud! 

Okay, my personal favorites are:

1. Jasper (Twilight)

2. Donia (Wicked Lovely)

3. Echo (Saving Zoe)

4. Eve (Morganville Vampires)

5. Jade (The Nature of Jade)

6. Spencer (Pretty Little Liars)

7. Edward (Twilight)

8. Adrian (Beastly)

I'm a big fan of classic names and not a big fan of all those new names (like Alexis) 

That's why I actually really like the names in Twilight. :)

Author: Tite Kubo

Genre: Fantasy, Action

Summary: Ichigo Kurosaki is an average teenager.  Well, as average as you can get with a six-sense that is.  One day, he meets Rukia, a shinigami (soul reaper) who fights hollows, or lost souls.  To save his family, Ichigo agrees to take half of Rukia's powers, but he ends up accidentally taking all of it.  Thus beginning his journey into the world of Soul Society.

Characters: 10/10

Plot: 8/10

Originality: 9/10

Art: 9/10

Age Group: PG-13

Recommendation: 10/10

Review: I liked this a lot more than let's say Naruto.  The characters were good, the art was good for shounen and I had a ton of fun reading.  Of course it doesn't really get interesting until they get to Soul Society. 

While there are some annoying things, like how no one dies and how as far as I'm concerned, Ichigo hasn't lost or died yet for that matter.  (What?  He can beat Kenpachi but not Nnoitra, but Kenpachi can beat Nnoitra?  How does that make sense!?)

but nothing's perfect so just shut up and read!

Watched it with my family and I laughed quite a few times.

But I will warn fans of the book, the plot is WAY different in the movie than in the book.  Although personally, sometimes it feels like the movie had more of a plot because the book was pretty much Nick and Norah walking around aimlessly through Manhattan.  In the movie they actually had something to do.

And Michael Cera was SO cute!

It's so funny though, while the kissing just really bothered me (I AM 13) at the end when they looked at each other and had a moment of understanding, that really stuck with me and it's still right here in my head.

It really made me think that I want to have a moment like that with a guy too.

Author: Scott Westerfeld

Genre: Sci-fi, Romance

Summary: A few years after Tally's rebellion, the world has gone into a time called the 'Mind-Rain' a time of creativity and art.  Aya, who lives in Japan at this time is doing all that she possibly can to get her face rank up, pretty much being popular.  She tries to kick a story on these girls who try to resist the face ranking, but ultimately, she ends up finding these strange 'creatures' carrying metal from a mountain and thinks something's up.  What are they doing?

Characters: 6/10

Plot: 7/10

Originality: 8/10

Age Rating: PG

Recommendation: 8/10

Review: Okay, this book was supposedly written because fans kept badgering Scott about how 'Trilogies' supposedly weren't always just books of 3 and how he could write another one! So, to make them shut up, he produced this book.

Long story short, this book is pretty much everyone thinking it's the end of the world, when really nothing's going on.

The only thing I really got a kick out of is the references to Japanese things since I'm half japanese, but that's pretty much it.

But the characters weren't that great.  Especially Frizz Mizuno and his Radical Honesty crap which while being a cool concept, made life harder for everyone.

Author: Scott Westerfeld

Genre: Sci-fi, Romance

Summary: Tally is now a special.  She tries to track down the Smoke but gets caught between her previous life and her present life, turning down Zane unintentionally and starting fights with Shay (again!).  But then they discover some surprising secrets about what the Smoke has been doing for a while now, and could possibly start the first war in centuries.

Characters: 6/10

Plot: 8/10

Originality: 9/10

Age Rating: PG

Recommendation: 8/10

Review: Not the best book out of the series.  It's kind of crazy because now Tally's cutting so she can be 'bubbly' or think clearly or something like that.  Zane tries to make her think clearly but her Special mind won't allow it.

The scene with Zane was terrible.  It made me mad how Tally not only turned down David, which was bad enough, but treated Zane like crap too.  And of course, she gets David back at the end too, which she does NOT deserve.  Plus, when Zane died I was like, "Zane?  Oh yeah..." apparently, so was Tally.  Forgetting the love of your life?  Sad...

But Shay was the most annoying.  Always thinking of her self and refusing to see things from other points of view.  She always had that 'Everyone's out to get me!' thing about her.

Author: Scott Westerfeld

Genre: Sci-fi, Romance

Summary: Tally has been turned into a Pretty and life is great!  Except for that nagging feeling in the back of her head that something's wrong.  She meets Zane who she falls in love with and they get together.  But Tally soon learns of the ugly truth, but when she's too scared to take the pills, she takes them with Zane, an action with disastrous consequences that might leave them in the control of Dr. Cable and the Specials.

Characters: 6/10 

Plot: 8/10

Originality: 9/10

Age Rating: PG

Recommendation: 9/10

Review: I was reluctant to read this because the first chapter sounded like Gossip Girl or something, but a friend eventually convinced me and it wasn't that bad.

Once you got past the whole 'Tally-wa' and 'Shay-la' thing.

Zane was okay, I honestly liked David a heck of a lot better and was mad at Tally for the way she treated him near the end.

But Scott Westerfeld still manages to have the non-stop action and cleverness on both the good and the bad guys.  And Tally still is in a trapped position where she will be hated in the end!

Author: Scott Westerfeld

Genre: Sci-Fi, Romance

Summary: Tally Youngblood is almost 16 and will finally get to join her former best friend Peris as a Pretty.  Tally is currently an ugly, but at 16 she will get a surgery that makes her beautiful so she can join other Pretties and party all day and all night.  But a few weeks before the surgery, Tally meets Shay, who makes Tally question the surgery and whether it really is as good as people say.  But when Tally is trapped with no choice but to go to a place called 'The Smokes' to find Shay and bring her back, she starts to learn the dangers of the surgery and tries to fight back people who always seem to be 2 or 3 steps ahead.

Characters: 7/10

Plot: 8/10

Originality: 9/10

Age Rating: PG

Recommendation: 9/10

Review: I read this because it was on the bookshelf in my core.  I wasn't all that eager to read it at first, but my opinions changed soon enough.

Tally was an ok main character, certainly more enjoyable than Bella.

I'd also like to praise Scott for being SO much better at action scenes and making up clever ways for characters to counter enemies which are obviously way stronger than them.

Shay annoyed the heck out of me, she was SUCH a drama queen.

David was ok, but he wasn't my favorite.

The ending was Pure cliff-hanger material and it annoyed ton but it didn't bother me that much, only made me want to read the next book more

Author: Stephenie Meyer

Genre: Romance, Fantasy, Paranormal

Summary: Bella and Edward are getting married!  When they do, they go to Isle Esme for a honeymoon, but everything goes wrong when Bella ends up pregnant.  Will Bella survive the pregnancy?  Will Jacob be able to attain enough anger management to not kill someone?  Will Edward survive his own mid-life crisis?

Characters: 6/10

Plot: 5/10

Originality: 8/10

Age Rating: PG-13 to R

Recommendation: 7/10 (only for the sake of finishing the series)

Review: The worst in the whole series.  Let's see, where do I even start?

I'll put it in a list so I don't get into a scary long paragraph:

1. Bella was literally complaining about marrying Edward.  (Seriously Bella?  There are about a million people who would gladly marry Edward and you're COMPLAINING about it?)

2. The honeymoon was, to put it nicely, disturbing.  Maybe it's because I'm too young, but as soon as Bella was crying to Edward because he refused to do 'it' with her again, I just lost it.

3. Renesme was completely unnecessary.  She was only there to let Bella and Jacob have the easy way out, instead of actually learning to deal with their problems.

4. Bella kept asking to see Jacob.  (The whole point of Eclipse was so that she DIDN'T do that anymore!)

5. The 'battle' was an EPIC disappointment.  I shouldn't even be calling it a 'battle'.  A debate, that's more like it.  All they did was talk and talk about how great of a vampire Bella was.

6. Bella being a 'in-control' vampire pretty much proved that Bella is a total Mary-Sue and ripped of my whole 2,000 pages of worrying for her.

7. Rosalie being ok with Bella dying if the baby lived.  (I think that can NOT be true.  Who cares what Stephenie says?  At this point, she obviously doesn't know what the heck she's talking about.)

8. The Ending.  I have just stripped Twilight of it's label as a 'Modern Romeo and Juliet.'  R & J is sad!  The ending was not only 'not sad' but it was cheesy!  It was basically, everything's perfect! no one i care about's dead and being a vampire's so awesome!  I guess the theme of this book is: Once you're a vampire, life instantly becomes better.

The one good thing? Leah.  Her yelling at Bella was the only part I actually enjoyed.

Oh and the cutest part in the whole book was when Kate and Garrett got together.

Author: Stephenie Meyer

Genre: Romance, Fantasy, Paranormal

Summary: Bella is torn between whether she should choose Edward or Jacob.  And if that wasn't bad enough, Victoria is finally on the run to kill her, to avenge James's death.  Werewolves and Vampires must join forces to defeat her, and even better, we get to learn about the history of Jasper and Rosalie. 

Characters: 7/10

Plot: 8/10

Originality: 8/10

Age Rating: PG-13

Recommendation: 10/10

Review: The second best in the series, even if we are deprived of a fighting scene yet again.  

This time, Bella is stalling her choice for the whole book, thinking she can get away with clinging to two men who hate each other. (Sure Bella!)

In Eclipse, I learned that Stephenie can't write fight scenes.  The 'EPIC' fight with Victoria was pretty much this:

Victoria lunges at Edward from multiple angles and Edward dodges all of them with a single step.  Now this goes on for another 500 times (5 minutes) and finally Edward gets bored, tears her to pieces and burns her.

The only different thing is that Stephenie adds in a ton of adjectives and unnecessary suspense and foreshadowing.

Although I will admit I did enjoy the little 'talk' between Edward and Jacob.  I thought they'd finally get over their differences, but I guess not since Jacob seems like he still hates Edward.

Oh, and another thing that pissed me off.  The kiss scene with Jacob.  This is a very biased opinion, but I hated it.  As soon as she started enjoying it, I skimmed through until it was over.  And to make matters worse, Stephenie obviously can't bear to have anyone mad at Bella so she makes Edward perfectly okay with it.  Jealousy would've been cute for Edward you know!

And just as a warning, this is when Edward and Bella start to discuss taking their relationship a step further.  (If you know what I mean.)

Title: New Moon

Author: Stephenie Meyer

Genre: Romance, Fantasy, Paranormal

Summary: Bella goes to the Cullen's house to celebrate her birthday, but it doesn't go so well.  She gets a paper cut, making Jasper freak and Edward get defensive (again).  Edward decides to leave (supposedly) to keep Bella safe.  Bella gets depressed and just sits around doing nothing for at least 4 months, before she starts talking to Jacob again.  When she starts to open up, she starts to hear Edward's voice in her head when she does dangerous things, compelling her to do dangerous things more often.  But one of those 'dangerous things' go wrong and leads to Edward thinking Bella's dead.  Will Bella save Edward before it's too late?  And what about the relationship blooming between Bella and Jacob?

Characters:  7/10

Plot: 7/10

Originality: 9/10

Age Rating: PG-13

Recommendation: 9/10

Review: I didn't read this book until at least half a year after Twilight so my memory was kind of dim when I started this.

Now, on the first review I said I was an Edward junkie when I read Twilight.  Well, I still was in New Moon so I didn't enjoy this book that much.

First, I could never understand why Edward left Bella.  Edward always seemed kinda smart, I mean he had a century worth of time, surely he didn't waste it, so I never figured out why he thought it would help to LEAVE.

Also, from the very beginning, I could see the threat Jacob posed to Edward and Bella, making me hate him.

The werewolf sub-plot was kind of annoying too at first.  All I could think was, "Oh great, more names to memorize." but it ended up being ok.

Also, to warn you all, the Volturi scene is super confusing and (at least for me) you probably won't be able to identify who's who even at the end of the book.

Title: Twilight