reviews

Cultural Examination Turns Harlequin Author: Karoline Barrett What happens when the culture in which you are raised is in many ways diametrically opposed to the greater culture in which you live?  Author Karoline Barrett takes on just such a dilemma in the novel The Art of Being Rebekkah.   Rebekkah is a young wife, one raised in a very conservative Jewish family.  When her first love is in a tragic car accident, she marries an older, stable and reliable man, one with whom she plans to have a family and run a proper Jewish home. The problem is that Rebekkah isn’t [...]

About a Bully Author: Amanda Maciel Bullies.  We hear a lot about them these days.  They are on your children’s computer, in their schools, on their cell phones and in their heads.  Their cruelty makes you cringe, their pranks fill you with outrage, and sometimes, they feel uncomfortably familiar.  For all our righteous anger, no one seems to have the answer to how to stop a bully – and no one seems to be willing to admit that adolescence is simply sheer hell, no matter who you are.  In Tease, author Amanda Maciel puts both the bully and the situation [...]

Dystopian Trilogy Fail Author: Veronica Roth Sigh.  When books come in threes, and you read the first two, do you not feel honor bound to read the last one?  I know I do – if I make it through two, I’m invested enough to want to see how things turn out.  Sometimes I curse my own curiosity, for Allegiant is a most unsatisfying end to the Divergent/Insurgent experience. As with any third book in a trilogy, do not read this review if you haven’t read the first two books.  It contains spoilers.  Go over to Amazon and buy Divergent and [...]