Michelle and Leslie's Book Picks

WoW is weekly meme created by Jill at Breaking The Spine in which bloggers can share books they're excited to get soon :) Rites of Passage by Joy Hensley Sam McKenna’s never turned down a dare. And she's not going to start with the last one her brother gave her before he died. So Sam joins the first-ever class of girls at the prestigious Denmark Military Academy. She’s expecting push-ups and long runs, rope climbing and mud-crawling. As a military brat, she can handle an obstacle course just as well as the boys. She's even expecting the hostility she gets from some of the cadets who don’t think girls belong there. What’s she’s not expecting is her fiery attraction to her drill sergeant. But dating is strictly forbidden and Sam won't risk her future, or the dare, on something so petty...no matter how much she wants him. As Sam struggles to prove herself, she discovers that some of the boys don’t just want her gone—they will stop at nothing to drive her out. When thei...

Title: Split Second  Author: Kasie West Published February 11th 2014 by HarperTeen Genre: Young Adult Paranormal Goodreads | Amazon | The Book Depo _________________________________   An explosive, action packed sequel, designed to please fans of the first installment. Split Second has it all, fast-moving plot, non stop action, dangerous situations, undiscovered abilities and of course lots of romance and relationship drama. I have to admit that I was a little apprehensive at first because Split Second has an split point of view, from both Addie (who I loved in Pivot Point) and Laila (who was not on my good graces), and I didn't know if the story would pull me as much as before. But it did, I should have trusted Kasie West because if there is someone who can change my opinion it's her. I rooted for Laila right away and even though she can be a little too hard headed at times, I really liked her as a character and as the perfect match for Addie's control...

WoW is weekly meme created by Jill at Breaking The Spine in which bloggers can share books they're excited to get soon :) No Place to Fall by Jaye Robin Brown Amber Vaughn is a good girl. She sings solos at church, babysits her nephew after school, and spends every Friday night hanging out at her best friend Devon’s house. It’s only when Amber goes exploring in the woods near her home, singing camp songs with the hikers she meets on the Appalachian Trail, that she feels free—and when the bigger world feels just a little bit more in reach. When Amber learns about an audition at the North Carolina School of the Arts, she decides that her dream—to sing on bigger stages—could also be her ticket to a new life. Devon’s older (and unavailable) brother, Will, helps Amber prepare for her one chance to try out for the hypercompetitive arts school. But the more time Will and Amber spend together, the more complicated their relationship becomes . . . and Amber starts to wonder if she’s suc...

Title: Bright Before Sunrise  Author: Tiffany Schmidt Published February 18th 2014 by Walker Childrens Genre: Young Adult Contemporary Goodreads | Amazon | The Book Depo ________________________________________   Bright Before Sunrise was an amazing surprise. Even though I knew I would like it just by reading the synopsis I wasn’t prepared to this amount of awesomeness. If you don’t know yet, this book is set around a course of events that happened one night, yes, just one night. And if you are unsure about how someone can build up realistic, swoony romance; let me tell you that you have nothing to worry about. Schmidt did a marvelous job at making you root for each of her characters from the start and make you slowly fall for them. And believe me, I don’t fall for anything, but this book is so well-done and the story is so wonderfully splendid that it will convince you and transport you to this magic night in the life of Jonah and Brighton. And speaki...

Title: Rose Under Fire  Author: Elizabeth Wein Published September 10th 2013 by Disney Hyperion Genre: Young Adult Historical Fiction, WWII Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depo ____________________________________ I am seriously ashamed of myself right now, because I am realizing that, six months after I read this beautiful, amazing book, I am just about to publish the review I wrote so long ago. And I seriously hope someone else did her job and made you all grab this book before today because books with this amount of heart-breaking, earth-shaking power don’t come often. Elizabeth Wein wrote a powerful story. Even if it’s fiction, the characters come across as such incredibly three-dimensional people that is hard to think there weren’t more women like them inside and out of every concentration camp in Europe during World War II. I know that there are a lot of unknown Rose’s somewhere in this world and this book makes me want to toast to all of them. We have to...

Happy Valentine's Day!   And if you're like me and are currently:   then you'll want to stay and enjoy our fictional boyfriends! This year I am participating on the   Which is an awesome fight between Kelly Oram's boy characters from all the books she's written . If you've read her books before, or even if you haven't, you are invited to take a look at the blogger's choices of most swoon worthy book boyfriend of them all OVER HERE .   (Oh and by the way, ALL HER BOOKS ARE ON SALE RIGHT NOW FOR ONLY $.99 ) So let's get going, because my choice (clearly the best) awaits. ID FORM: Name: Grayson Kennedy Swoonworth level: 10/10 Physical apperance:  blue-eyed devil, sexy hair and even sexier body. Personality: funny, outgoing, life of the party, the handsome older brother. Reputation: Womanizer, Casanova, Bad-boy, Actually super sweet and caring, Gentleman. What? You need further proof of Grayson's awesomeness?! Well, you're lucky I can provi...

WoW is weekly meme created by Jill at Breaking The Spine in which bloggers can share books they're excited to get soon :)     Of Scars and Stardust by Andrea Hannah   After her little sister mysteriously vanishes, seventeen-year-old Claire Graham has a choice to make: stay snug in her little corner of Manhattan with her dropout boyfriend, or go back to Ohio to face the hometown tragedy she's been dying to leave behind.  But the memories of that night still haunt her in the city, and as hard as she tries to forget what her psychiatrist calls her "delusions," Claire can't seem to escape the wolf's eyes or the blood-speckled snow. Delusion or reality, Claire knows she has to hold true to the most important promise she's ever made: to keep Ella safe. She must return to her sleepy hometown in order to find Ella and keep her hallucinations at bay before they strike again. But time is quickly running out, and as Ella's trail grows fainter, the wolves are ...

Title: Alienated  Author: Melissa Landers Expected publication: February 4th 2014 by Disney Hyperion Goodreads | Amazon Young Adult Fiction / Sci-fi / Dystopian _____________________________________ Alienated is a book from Disney Hyperion and as a result, I expected tons of fun times and an easy breezy story. And I did got it. With a concept like an intergalactic high school exchange program one is bound to have a good time. Cara is our human and Aelyx is our alien. Their personalities, cultures and races couldn't be more different, but somehow they found a way to coexist in the same house. But not without a few amusing clashes though. While I liked the whole concept of this book, I just had a 'meh' time reading it. I don't know why but it never fully grabbed me. From all the explaining of the differences between the races and, especially, all the explaining of L'eihrs, I just couldn't make myself care. And there were many points where it jus...