Ash Reads Stuff

Click'd by Tamara Ireland Stone Publication Date: September 7th, 2017 Pages: 208 (Hardcover) Genre: Middle Grade My Goodreads Rating: 3.5 Stars Goodreads Synopsis: Allie Navarro can't wait to show her best friends the app she built at CodeGirls summer camp. CLICK'D pairs users based on common interests and sends them on a fun (and occasionally rule-breaking) scavenger hunt to find each other. And it's a hit. By the second day of school, everyone is talking about CLICK'D. Watching her app go viral is amazing. Leaderboards are filling up! Everyone's making new friends. And with all the data Allie is collecting, she has an even better shot at beating her archenemy, Nathan, at the upcoming youth coding competition. But when Allie discovers a glitch that threatens to expose everyone's secrets, she has to figure out how to make things right, even if that means sharing the computer lab with Nathan. Can Allie fix her app, stop it from doing any mo...

When Dimple Met Rishi  by Sandhya Menon Publication Date: May 30, 2017 Pages:  380 (hardcover) Genre: Young Adult My Goodreads Rating: 3 Stars Goodreads Synopsis: The rom-com that everyone’s talking about! Eleanor & Park meets Bollywood in this hilarious and heartfelt novel about two Indian-American teens whose parents conspire to arrange their marriage. Dimple Shah has it all figured out. With graduation behind her, she’s more than ready for a break from her family, from Mamma’s inexplicable obsession with her finding the “Ideal Indian Husband.” Ugh. Dimple knows they must respect her principles on some level, though. If they truly believed she needed a husband right now, they wouldn’t have paid for her to attend a summer program for aspiring web developers…right? Rishi Patel is a hopeless romantic. So when his parents tell him that his future wife will be attending the same summer program as him—wherein he’ll have to woo her—he’s totally on boa...

The Sun is Also a Star  by Nicole Yoon Publication Date: Novembe 1, 2016 Pages: 384 (kindle) Genre: Young Adult My Goodreads Rating:  3 stars Goodreads Synopsis: Natasha: I’m a girl who believes in science and facts. Not fate. Not destiny. Or dreams that will never come true. I’m definitely not the kind of girl who meets a cute boy on a crowded New York City street and falls in love with him. Not when my family is twelve hours away from being deported to Jamaica. Falling in love with him won’t be my story. Daniel: I’ve always been the good son, the good student, living up to my parents’ high expectations. Never the poet. Or the dreamer. But when I see her, I forget about all that. Something about Natasha makes me think that fate has something much more extraordinary in store—for both of us. The Universe: Every moment in our lives has brought us to this single moment. A million futures lie before us. Which one will come true? My Review:  This...

Replica  by Lauren Oliver Publication Date: October 4th 2016 Pages: 544 (kindle) Genre: Young Adult/Science Ficion My Goodreads Rating: 3.5 stars Goodreads Synopsis:  Lyra From a distance, the Haven Institute, tucked away on a private island off the coast of Florida, looks serene and even beautiful. But up close the locked doors, military guards, and biohazard suits tell a different story. In truth, it is a clandestine research facility where thousands of replicas, or human models, are born, raised, and observed. But when a surprise attack is launched on Haven, two of its young experimental subjects—Lyra, or 24, and the boy known only as 72—manage to escape. As they make their way through a new and menacing environment, they meet a stranger named Gemma, who has embarked on a perilous quest of her own. And as Lyra tries to understand Haven’s purpose, she uncovers earth-shattering secrets that will change the lives of both girls. Gemma Gemma has been...

Wild Swans by Jessica Spotswood Publication Date: May 6th, 2016 Pages: 304 (kindle) Genre: Young Adult My Goodreads Rating: 4 stars Goodreads Synopsis: The summer before Ivy’s senior year is going to be golden; all bonfires, barbeques, and spending time with her best friends. For once, she will just get to be. No summer classes, none of Granddad’s intense expectations to live up to the family name. For generations, the Milbourn women have lead extraordinary lives—and died young and tragically. Granddad calls it a legacy, but Ivy considers it a curse. Why else would her mother have run off and abandoned her as a child? But when her mother unexpectedly returns home with two young daughters in tow, all of the stories Ivy wove to protect her heart start to unravel. The very people she once trusted now speak in lies. And all of Ivy’s ambition and determination cannot defend her against the secrets of the Milbourn past… My Review:  I picked this up for my kindle on sale...

The Impossible Fortress  by Jason Rekulak Publication Date: February 7, 2017 Pages:  304 (kindle) Genre:  Young Adult  My Goodreads Rating:  3 stars Goodreads Synopsis: Billy Marvin’s first love was a computer. Then he met Mary Zelinsky. Do you remember your first love? The Impossible Fortress begins with a magazine…The year is 1987 and Playboy has just published scandalous photographs of Vanna White, from the popular TV game show Wheel of Fortune. For three teenage boys—Billy, Alf, and Clark—who are desperately uneducated in the ways of women, the magazine is somewhat of a Holy Grail: priceless beyond measure and impossible to attain. So, they hatch a plan to steal it. The heist will be fraught with peril: a locked building, intrepid police officers, rusty fire escapes, leaps across rooftops, electronic alarm systems, and a hyperactive Shih Tzu named Arnold Schwarzenegger. Failed attempt after failed attempt leads them to a genius master plan—the...

Beneath Wandering Stars  by Ashlee Cowles Publication Date:  August 1, 2016 Pages:  272 (hardcover)  Genre: Young Adult My Goodreads Rating:  4.5 Stars  Goodreads Synopsis: After her soldier brother is horribly wounded in Afghanistan, Gabriela must honor the vow she made: If anything ever happened to him, she would walk the Camino de Santiago through Spain, making a pilgrimage in his name. The worst part is that the promise stipulates that she must travel with her brother's best friend--a boy she has despised all her life. Her brother is in a coma, and Gabi feels that she has no time to waste, but she is unsure. Will she hesitate too long, or risk her own happiness to keep a promise? An up-close look at the lives of the children of military families, "Beneath Wandering Stars" takes readers on a journey of love, danger, laughter, and friendship, against all odds. My Review:  This is, in my opinion, what a YA book should be like. Sure, i...

Morning Star   by Pierce Brown Publication Date: February 9, 2016 Pages: 518 (hardcover) Genre: Young Adult/Science Fiction My Goodreads Rating:  5 Stars Red Rising Recap: Darrow, a lowly Red, is Carved by the Sons of Ares to become a Gold. He is sent to train at the Institute and take down Society from the inside. Golden Son Recap: Darrow begins a civil war, Gold against Gold. But in the end, it's him who suffers. Morning Star Synopsis:  Darrow would have lived in peace, but his enemies brought him war. The Gold overlords demanded his obedience, hanged his wife, and enslaved his people. But Darrow is determined to fight back. Risking everything to transform himself and breach Gold society, Darrow has battled to survive the cutthroat rivalries that breed Society's mightiest warriors, climbed the ranks, and waited patiently to unleash the revolution that will tear the hierarchy apart from within. Finally, the time has come. But devotion to honor and hun...

This Book Will Change Your Life  by Amanda Weaver Publication Date : September 27, 2015 Pages: 193 (kindle) Genre:  New Adult/Contemporary My Goodreads Rating: 3 Stars Goodreads Synopsis: Take a chance and change your life… College was supposed to be where Hannah’s hard work paid off, but the major in honors chemistry she’s been working towards since childhood is slipping away. Worse, she’s not sure she wants it anymore. Salvation comes from an unlikely place—a used bookstore and Ben, the passionate college senior who works there. Ben’s trapped in a life mapped out for him. Trapped in a future career as a lawyer to make his father happy. Trapped pursuing a girl he doesn't even like because she fits into a world he doesn’t want, but can’t escape. But then he meets Hannah. And for the first time, he knows what it means to truly want something. So he gives in to being her friend. Then to wanting her. Then to kissing her. And within the freedom of his impulsivity, ...