Teaser Tuesday: Audrey, Wait! by Robin Benway

It’s been a while since I last did Teaser Tuesday, so let’s do it again. :)

TEASER TUESDAYS asks you to:

  • Grab your current read.
  • Let the book fall open to a random page.
  • Share with us two (2) “teaser” sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
  • You also need to share the title of the book that you’re getting your “teaser” from … that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you’ve given!

This week I’m taking a break from all fantasy/dystopia reads and settling for something in the ordinary, something that I can sort of relate to. I can’t relate to it 100%, but you get what I mean. This week’s read is Audrey, Wait! by Robin Benway.

Audrey, Wait! by Robin Benway

California high school student Audrey Cuttler dumps self-involved Evan, the lead singer of a little band called The Do-Gooders. Evan writes, “Audrey, Wait!,” a break-up song that’s so good it rockets up the billboard charts. And Audrey is suddenly famous!

Now rabid fans are invading her school. People is running articles about her arm-warmers. The lead singer of the Lolitas wants her as his muse. (And the Internet is documenting her every move!) Audrey can’t hang out with her best friend or get with her new crush without being mobbed by fans and paparazzi.

Take a wild ride with Audrey as she makes headlines, has outrageous amounts of fun, confronts her ex on MTV, and gets the chance to show the world who she really is.

It’s a hilarious read so far, and I love every character, especially crazy best friend Victoria! I’m only 1/3 done and I’m having so much fun, and I wonder what else can happen. :D

Here’s the teaser, one of the funniest parts I’ve read in the book so far. It’s kind of long, but I can’t not share it.

Victoria paused and I can tell she was trying not to smile. “Did you just say ‘frolic’?”

“Is it not a word?”

“Who the hell says ‘frolic’?”

I spun the lock on my locker and waited for it to stick like it always did on 33. “I say frolic,” I told her. “And more people should.”

“They should say frolic or actually frolic?”

“Both.” (p. 47-48)

Such an inane-sounding conversation, but it’s these parts that make this novel feel real. Don’t you think?

Share your teasers in the comments area — I wanna see what you’re reading. :)

Once Was Lost

Once Was Lost by Sara ZarrOnce Was Lostby Sara Zarr
Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, 224 pages

As a pastor’s kid, it’s hard not to buy into the idea of the perfect family, a loving God, and amazing grace. But lately, Sam has a lot of reasons to doubt. Her mother lands in rehab after a DUI, and her father seems more interested in his congregation than his family. When a young girl in her small town goes missing, the local tragedy overlaps with Sam’s personal one, and the already worn thread of faith holding her together begins to unravel.

In her third novel, acclaimed author Sara Zarr examines the coexistence of affliction and hope, and what happens when everything you thought you believed—about God, your family, and yourself—is transformed.

There are books that don’t seem much at first glance. They’re the ones that have only a few copies on the bookstore shelves, ones that rarely gets featured in its own section, ones that people (including me) would have ignored if it weren’t for some other thing. In my case, I have read the author’s other works.

I can’t say I’m a fan of Sara Zarr, but I have read her two other books, Sweethearts and Story of a Girl and liked them well enough for me to notice her new book, Once Was Lost. It took me a while to finally crack its covers though, and once I did, I couldn’t get out of the town of Pineview and from Sam’s life.

Once Was Lost starts out one hot summer day, when everything in Sam’s house seemed to be broken. Just like the book, the introduction was quiet and unassuming, but we know from the start that Sam is trying hard to deal with her situation without totally breaking down. Her mother has been in rehab for three weeks because of drinking, and instead of finding solace from her dad, she finds him more distant from her as he seemed to care more for his congregation than anything else, like compare annuity rates and the sad state of their family. The thing was, no one knew about Sam’s situation and she didn’t want to talk about it, not even to her youth group leader Erin or her best friend Vanessa. It would have just been a sad summer, but when thirteen-year-old Jody Shaw is abducted, Sam’s life is turned upside down. As she grapples with the tragedy that affected not only her but the entire town, Sam finds herself asking questions she had never thought of asking before, and wondering if she will ever find the answer to them.

This book is poignant. That’s the term. There is something about Sara Zarr’s writing that immediately touches the heart and leaves a mark, urging the reader to not just read but think. Zarr wasn’t afraid of lay it down hard on the reader and the use of such a scary ordeal — abduction — was an effective device to make all her characters grow. In a way, I felt like I was one of the residents of Pineview when Jody disappeared — I wanted to join them in the search, I wanted to join them in the prayer vigil, I wanted to send some comfort to the family in a trying time. At some point, I felt like praying for Jody, too, even if she was just a fictional character.

Sam is a sad character, but sad for the right reasons. You’d expect that a pastor would know how to be a good father, too, and I was annoyed for Sam as I see how her dad treats her, or did not treat her. But in a way, I can also understand why her dad acted that way. If you’re a person of importance, particularly in a church community, everyone expects you to always be okay. People looked up to Sam’s dad for spiritual guidance, and the pressure of having to be the God’s representative to the people is hard, and sometimes it’s easier to just not acknowledge the situations or ask the question when you’re not sure of what the reactions or answers will be.

But still, we’re only human. I think that was one of the important lessons in the book: that we are all just human. And God understands if you can’t bear everything that is happening — in fact, I don’t think He expects us to bear it all, at least on our own. Sam tried to hide it all, and just go along with whatever’s happening, but in the end, she learned that she didn’t have to carry it all on her own, and her family doesn’t have to either.

This isn’t a Christian book, but it read like one because of the setting and the situations. I liked how it showed community, and how people cope in the face of such a scary tragedy. I liked how it showed how Christians aren’t always happy (because we aren’t), and I liked how it wasn’t afraid to ask difficult questions, questions that I am sure everyone of us asked at one point or another. Some examples:

I want to close my eyes and ask for what’s right, and open them and have everything fixed. As I try to form the words, I only get angry. Why should I even have to ask? You don’t have to be all-powerful and all-knowing to figure out that this is a tragedy in need of divine intervention. (p. 38)

Perfect love drives out fear, is what it says in the Bible. Perfect love. And who, my dad included, really knows anything about perfect love? Anyway, if God loves Jody so much, how could he let this — whatever it is — happen to her? And what else is he going to let happen to me? (p. 62)

In a way, I could relate my experience of the flood last year with this book. I don’t think I doubted God then, but I had a lot of big questions, and I had no answers. I often relied on my own strength during those times when the strength I needed was freely offered to me, I just didn’t know if I should take it. Sometimes I think we’d rather just keep asking questions and focus on our fears and problems rather than see that there’s Someone who’s willing to not only share the burden, but actually take it from us.

But I digress. Sara Zarr’s writing was spot on, just like in her previous novels. Lines like these just make me stare at the page and wonder how can such simple sentences have so much impact?

And love can’t be the answer to everything. If it was, us loving Mom should have kept her from falling apart. Her loving us should have made her want to change. (p. 61)

There’s a blue ribbon around the Hathaways’ mailbox. When we’re sitting out here two weeks from now, in a month, in a year, will the ribbons still be up? I wonder how you’re supposed to know the exact moment when there’s no more hope. (p. 101)

I think that’s enough to say that I thought this was a remarkable novel. This isn’t just your ordinary contemporary YA novel. Once Was Lost makes you think, makes you ask, and in the end, makes you believe that no matter what the tragedy is, no matter how hard things are, there will always, always be hope. :)

Rating: [rating=4]

2010 Challenge Status:
* Book # 64 out of 100 for 2010

Cover and Blurb: Goodreads

Ready, Jet Set, Go!

Jet Set by Carrie Karasyov and Jill KargmanJet Set by Carrie Karasyov and Jill Kargman
HarperCollins, 256 pages

I’m Lucy Peterson, and let me tell you—I don’t fit in at my new boarding school in Switzerland at all. Caviar at every meal, white-tie affairs (because black-tie is so last season), trips to Geneva to pick up the latest couture, and real live royals lurking around every corner? None of that is really my speed. I’m just your average American teen, here on scholarship, ready to kick some academic and tennis butt so I can have my pick of Ivy League colleges. Only now I’m falling all over myself to impress my crush, who just happens to be a prince, I’ve gotten myself tangled up in a tabloid disaster—literally—and the “It” clique on campus has decided that I am worthy of their evil scorn. What have I gotten myself into?

Whenever I read more than one book at a time, I always make sure that one of the books is fluffier than the other one. I tried reading two fantasy novels at the same time and my brain almost felt like it wanted to explode from all the information that got muddled in my mind as I switch between two books. I seem to be reading a lot of dystopian novels nowadays, so something light and fluffy to read in between and cleanse the palate is always appreciated.

Such is Jet Set by Carrie Karasyov and Jill Kargman. My friend Grace told me about this book and I thought it was just the right thing I needed to read while I go through The Hunger Games and Catching Fire to review for Pinoy Pop. Jet Set is the story of Lucy Peterson, who gets a scholarship to Van Pelt in Switzerland, the most exclusive and posh boarding school in Europe. Lucy’s dad is in the US Army, which means they get transferred a lot, so Lucy has never gained roots or made friends anywhere else. After scoring a tennis scholarship to the school, Lucy is ready to settle into her new life in one place for the rest of high school. However, being a scholar girl in a posh school is not easy, especially when Lucy is classmates with people who are royalty, and when the it crowd has it in for her, and her crush only thinks of her as a friend and the only person Lucy thinks she can trust has an even bigger secret than she does.

It’s a fluffy book alright, and it almost reminds me a bit of the Sweet Valley Twins books that I used to love, only with more Lila Fowlers. Van Pelt reminds me of Spencer Academy from Shelley Adina‘s It’s All About Us series, but with less of the academic rigor that the latter had. Strangely, even if there were a ton of name-dropping, and I can hardly believe that a school like that exists, Van Pelt didn’t feel fake or forced. The authors wrote it in such a way that I didn’t have a hard time accepting that there is a school like Van Pelt. I don’t think I’d survive in that setting, but I wanted Lucy to fit in and have a good time in that school, even if I thought the concerns of the other students were kind of ludicrous.

I liked the secondary cast in the story, though. It’s easy to fall into the trap of popular people being just mean and have no other depth in their characters, but the authors managed to veer away from those stereotypes nicely. It seemed a bit mature for all of them to act that way (come on, they were in high school), but it’s nice to read rich, “mean girl” characters who end up having a heart.

This isn’t a particularly deep read. In fact, the overall story is kind of shallow and typical, and you won’t learn any life lessons here that I don’t think people of my age already know. However, Jet Set is still a fun read, and it entertained me enough that it kept me grounded to the real world even while the other half of me is buried in all the dystopia. :)

Rating: [rating=3]

2010 Challenge Status:
* Book # 63 out of 100 for 2010

Cover and Blurb: Goodreads

More than just a pretty face

Pretty Face by Mary HoganPretty Face by Mary Hogan
Publisher: HarperTeen
Number of pages: 213
My copy: borrowed

That’s what I am. A funny girl. A friend. Nobody’s girlfriend. The girl with the pretty face.

Hayley wishes she could love living in Santa Monica, blocks from the beach, where every day—and everybody—is beautiful and sunny. But she just doesn’t fit in with all the blond, superskinny Southern California girls who have their plastic surgeons on speed dial. Hayley is smart and witty and has such a pretty . . . face. Translation: Don’t even think about putting on a bikini, much less dating superhot Drew Wyler. A bikini will never be flattering, and Drew will never think of her as more than a friend.

Just when Hayley feels doomed to live her life in the fat lane, her parents decide to send her to Italy for the summer—not for school, not for fat camp, just for fun. It’s there, under the Italian sun, that Hayley’s vision of herself starts to change. She’s curvy, not fat. Pizza isn’t evil. And life is so much more than one-size-fits-all. Who knows? Once Hayley sees herself in a new light, maybe the girl with the pretty face will finally find true amore.

* * *

I used to be fat. I won’t sugarcoat it: I was fat. I wasn’t obese, but I was about 40 lbs overweight. See for yourself:

I tried not to mind my being overweight, and try to follow those “love yourself” mantras to make me feel good about myself. No one exactly called me fat to my face, but people joked about it at times, and I often laughed it off. But I knew for myself that I wasn’t thin, and I hated shopping for clothes because I knew I would always have to ask for Large or Extra Large and not all the clothes I want look good on me. I didn’t hate myself for it, but I hated that I wasn’t doing anything about it, at least up until July 2009. That was when I joined the gym, paid a lot for my training fees, and finally started to lose weight properly, through diet, exercise and reading about health stuff (including how to reduce belly fat, which I am still struggling with).

The weight and self-esteem angle was one reason why I picked up Pretty Face. I always liked books that helped protagonists discover their true beauty, just like North of Beautiful. I thought Pretty Face would be like this, but I was kind of disappointed.

People always say Hayley had a pretty face, but it was all they tell her. Hayley knew she was fat, and it didn’t help that her mother kept on giving her grief about her weight after losing much of her own. It also didn’t help that she found out who her crush Drew Wyler really liked and it wasn’t her. After one bad day joining her mother at a weight-loss specialist (?) office, her parents told her that they’d be sending her to Italy for the summer to have some time off. In Italy, Hayley finds an entirely different lifestyle that she gets used to, and she finds herself loving food, herself and even finding a guy who loves her for who she is.

I really wanted to like this novel, but I ended up having too many issues with the story, and how Hayley’s insecurities were dealt with. Spoiler warning starts here.

Continue Reading →

Cresties vs. Norms

She's So Dead to UsShe’s So Dead to Us by Kieran Scott
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Number of pages: 278
My copy: ebook, from Amazon Kindle Store

When having money is all that matters, what happens when you lose it all?

Perfect, picturesque Orchard Hill. It was the last thing Ally Ryan saw in the rear-view mirror as her mother drove them out of town and away from the shame of the scandal her father caused when his hedge fund went south and practically bankrupted all their friends — friends that liked having trust funds and new cars, and that didn’t like constant reminders that they had been swindled. So it was adios, Orchard Hill. Thanks for nothing.

Now, two years later, Ally’s mother has landed a job back at the site of their downfall. So instead of Ally’s new low-key, happy life, it’ll be back into the snake pit with the likes of Shannen Moore and Hammond Ross.

But then there’s Jake Graydon. Handsome, wealthy, bored Jake Graydon. He moved to town after Ally left and knows nothing of her scandal, but does know that he likes her. And she likes him. So off into the sunset they can go, right? Too bad Jake’s friends have a problem with his new crush since it would make Ally happy. And if anyone deserves to be unhappy, it’s Ally Ryan.

Ally was hoping to have left all the drama in the past, but some things just can’t be forgotten. Isn’t there more to life than money?

* * *

I’ve been reading so much fantasy lately that I remembered just recently why I avoided them before: information overload. Okay, it’s not information per se, but all these different worlds and creatures and everything out of the ordinary took its toll on my fluffy-loving brain that it declared a break. When I tried to pick up another novel that had to deal with supernatural creatures, my brain crossed her arms and shook her head. Loud and clear: Not now.

I had to fold. After all, this is my brain. So last Sunday, I realized something: I don’t have anything fluffy to read.

Okay, that is an exaggeration. I do have some non-fantasy books on my ever-growing TBR list, but somehow, I just didn’t feel like reading them. This always happens, and I know from experience that this is where the urge to get a new book always, always comes in…and by the end of the day, I have a new ebook loaded in my iPod Macy — Kieran Scott’s newest novel, She’s So Dead to Us.

And enough of the introduction. Or maybe not. I’ve read only one Kieran Scott book, under her pseudonym Kate Brian, the first book in the Private series. I didn’t like it. I think Gossip Girl wasn’t on TV yet when I read that book, and I didn’t read the series, so I wasn’t really much into scandalous rich people boarding school stories. I didn’t bother picking up the next books in the series, and consequently, I didn’t pick up Kieran’s other books.

I’m glad I picked up She’s So Dead to Us, though. The title piqued my interested because of the “dead”, and I thought it had zombies in it, but it didn’t. Instead, She’s So Dead to Us tells the story of Ally Ryan when she comes back to Orchard Hill after abruptly leaving when her dad lost their money and her friends’ parents’ money on a deal gone wrong. Ally is no longer rich, but still she hopes that the years of friendship would be a stronger than the amount of money she has in her account and somehow slip back into her old life.

At first glance, this seems like one of your high-society rich-girl scandalous stories with spoiled rich guys who can get anything they want and girls who buy everything they want with their credit cards and down slimming pills so they’d always be a size 1, just like Kieran’s other series. At first I thought it would just be the story of Ally’s rise back to popularity, so I was ready for pretty much a lot of fluff. However, I was surprised to find out that this novel isn’t all just fluff — it’s actually quite deep. It was more than just a story of a formerly popular girl trying to regain her popularity. In fact, Ally didn’t really try to gain it back. We see how much Ally has grown up and keeps on growing up as the book goes by, and it’s good to see that in a character. What used to be all about money for her is different now that she’s on the other side of the fence. She saw and felt how it was to be a regular student in Orchard Hill, and she saw how she could be so mean when she was a part of the rich clique. I’m glad that Ally wasn’t written to pine after her old status, because I feel that’s too used already. It’s nice to read about a formerly popular character who wasn’t just all about popularity back then — in fact, I don’t think Ally ever complained about being unpopular. What she really wanted then was to have her friends back. Never mind the money or the popularity; she just wanted to be with the people she grew up with.

Of course, it wouldn’t be that easy. I think Kieran really knows about the various social standings inside an American high school because even I was intimidated and pissed off at the popular clique. I’ve read and watched these popular cliques on TV, but Kieran’s portrayal felt the most real I’ve read so far. What I really liked about the antagonists in the story is they’re not just against Ally because she left them. There were deeper issues under Ally’s abandonment, dealing with the repercussions of Ally’s dad’s actions and their effects to the other families. I was particularly intrigued with Chloe and Shannen. Chloe, Ally’s best friend, is equivalent to the good side of Blair Waldorf in Gossip Girl: she’s the princess everyone wants to protect, the one who ended up being almost like Ally’s friend. Then there’s Shannen, Ally’s partner-in-crime, who is the evil side of Blair: her issues with Ally run deeper than the others, and she was a hateful character, really…yet I wanted to get to know more about her. That’s the good part of the “villains” in this novel; they’re not just villains to go against Ally. They were there because they felt that Ally hurt them, and they are having a problem seeing through all the mess to remember their friendship with her. It’s also easy to just focus on one major antagonist for Ally, but all of them had personalities of their own, even the ones they call the Idiot Twins. Not only that, but they also had a personality as a group, which may or may not be the same as their own personalities. This is peer pressure in a clique demonstrated at its finest: when one moves, the other follows, and it takes someone really strong to break the pattern.

As for Jake Graydon…I liked him, but I felt there was something lacking in his narration that I can’t quite figure out. Jake is someone who seemed to be always caught in the middle, one who everyone wishes who would make the right choice and yet not make the right one. In a way, Jake is a typical male, and I hardly got to see what’s inside his head. Not that I mind that much, because Ally’s parts are always better. I hope I see more to his character in the sequel, though.

A sequel — yes. Apparently, this is going to be a trilogy. This better be, because it can’t just end where it ended — total cliffhanger! A word of warning to those who hate to be left hanging…you may want to stay away from this for now, but don’t. If you like YA/chick lit, you shouldn’t miss this one. It’s too good of a read not to recommend. :)

Rating: [rating=4]