Never Been Kissed, Melody Carlson

Publishers Copy:
All Elise wants is to have her first kiss before she turns sixteen. Is that so bad? But when a friend's poor advice and the powers of electronic technology combine, Elise heads down a dangerous road. She is accused of "sexting" and gets kicked out of school. But is she really the one to blame?


This powerful and realistic story from beloved author Melody Carlson shows teen girls the impact of their choices when it comes to respecting themselves and their integrity. Honest and relevant, Never Been Kissed will make girls laugh, cry . . . and think.

My Review:
This great book was a slight departure from most Christian Young Adult books.  Covering issue like "sexting" it pushes the envelope in a way that is both relevant and spot on for today's youth.

You can see where Elise is making wrong turns & want to stop her, but like the youth of today, it's often too much, too soon.

Melody Carlson stands out in a field of YA authors, nailing the language of today's youth and the struggles they face in this book.  As a reader, she always leaves you wanting more.

Pick this one up for your teen or yourself today!

Chunneling Through Forty, Anne McAneny

Welcome back to the few of you who might be reading Read, Review, Repeat!

I wrote a couple of months ago about how reading had become something that I couldn't do anymore, but I have crossed that hurdle, and am back to my reading self.  Hooray!

Santa brought me a Kindle for Christmas and Chunneling Through Forty is the first book I downloaded.  The Kindle takes some getting used to & it won't ever replace real books for me totally, but I love it.
Publisher's Copy:

A woman’s 40th birthday comes on like a tsunami, especially when life's biggest excitement means finding a wad of fudge in a half gallon of ice cream. For Susanna O’Leary, the day prompts her to set five goals. They don’t include the invention of personal jet packs or finding the cure for cancer, but for a bored mother, they might as well. As she takes a stab at each goal, she encounters hilarious and heartening complications that reap unexpected results, including an attraction to her daughter’s history teacher. An unpredictable cast of characters buoys her along the way, and in the end, her goal list remains incomplete but at least attempted. She has faced the tsunami head-on and emerged on the other side ready to chunnel through the next forty years with gusto.

My opinion:

I was sick when I read this book & honestly enjoyed it except for the infidelity storyline that was just thrown in from left field to try and make the stakes feel higher, perhaps?  It was like a really good song that an orchestra is playing where someone keeps hitting the wrong note, just as you start to enjoy the music again.

I'd still read it, but this one could have been so much better.