Where I share my love of books with reviews, features, giveaways and memes. Family and needlepoint are thrown in from time to time.
Showing posts with label Shelley Adina. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Shelley Adina. Show all posts

Friday, November 27, 2009

Tidings of Great Boys by Shelley Adina (Book Review)


Title: Tidings of Great Boys (an all about us novel)
Author: Shelley Adina
Publisher: Faith Words (Hachette Books)

My synopsis: This was another fun installment in the lives of Carly, Lissa, Gillian, Shani and Mac - with the main story this time centering around Mac - or Lady Lindsay MacPhail.

Mac's parents have split up, so she is undecided on whether or not she wants to go home to Scotland for winter break from Spencer Academy. Her family home there is a castle, and it just isn't going to be the same with just her dad. So she comes up with a plan to invite the gang from Spencer to come for the holidays. With a little manipulation, the plan falls into place and as soon as finals are over, they all head for Scotland.

Things don't go so well in Scotland though. Mac has this grand plan to get her parents back together and she thinks if she throws a Hogmany dance on New Year's Eve that her mom will have to come back, as she will think that Mac won't be able to do it without her. Unfortunately the castle is not in good shape, and their finances are even worse. Add to that some drama concerning Shani and an innocent remark taken out of context which causes her ex, Prince Rashid's family to become incensed and who knows what will happen!

My thoughts: I have really enjoyed reading this series of books, even though I cannot imagine the life they lead at Spencer Academy. I like the way the author includes the girls' faith in Christ and shows how they are able to be regular, popular teens and still be Christians. I also like the way the girls are so unafraid of showing and sharing their beliefs. If you like to read YA books or have a daughter, niece, granddaughter, etc - introduce them to these books.


*This book was provided to me for my unbiased review by Hachette Books.*

It's All About Us
The Fruit of My Lipstick
Be Strong & Curvaceous
Who Made You a Princess?
Tidings of Great Boys
The Chic Shall Inherit the Earth (coming in January)

Tidings of Great Boys
Publisher/Publication Date: Faith Words, Sept 2009
ISBN: 978-0-446-17963-8
229 pages

Thursday, August 13, 2009

ARC Arrivals: Tidings of Great Boys AND The Chic Shall Inherit the Earth

















I was so excited when I opened this package! I only expected Book 5 - Tidings of Great Boys - and there was Book 6 also! - The Chic Shall Inherit the Earth! How cool is that!! These books are part of the All About Us series by Shelley Adina.

About Tidings of Great Boys: Finals week is approaching and Mac is still undecided on where to spend the holidays. Normally she'd go home to Scotland, but spending two weeks alone in the castle with her dad isn't as appealing as it used to be. So she invites Carly, Lissa, Gillian, and Shani to join her for the holidays!

Mac is determined to make this the best Christmas ever. She even decides to organize the traditional Hogmany dance for New Year's Eve. If she can get her mother involved in the dance, maybe her parents will finally get back together.

But when Mac and the girls arrive in Scotland, they are faced with bad news: the castle is falling apart and Mac's parents are struggling financially. Not only that, but Shani is in big trouble with Prince Rashid's royal family. Can the girls find a way to celebrate the holidays, get Mac's parents back together, save the castle, and rescue Shani from her relentless pursuers? There's only one way to find out. . . . (Amazon)

About The Chic Shall Inherit the Earth: Lissa Mansfield has come a long way since transferring to SpencerAcademy two years ago. She's made a great group of friends in Gillian, Carly, Mac, and Shani. She's strengthened and grown her relationship with God. She's even gotten over the Callum McCloud "incident" from her first semester. Now, she's ready to graduate and take on college life!

Or is she? With her parents' relationship still on the rocks and the girls about to separate as they head to different colleges, Lissa is faced with some of her biggest challenges yet in her last term at Spencer. Will Lissa put her faith in God to carry her through these difficult times? (Amazon)



Read my previous reviews: It's All About Us (Book 1), The Fruit of My Lipstick (Book 2),Be Strong and Curvaceous (Book 3), and Who Made You a Princess (Book 4).

Tidings of Great Boys
Publisher/Publication Date: Faithwords, Sept 8, 2009
ISBN: 978-0-446-17963-8
256 pages

The Chic Shall Inherit the Earth
Publisher/Publication Date: Faithwords, Jan 7, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-446-17964-5
256 pages




Friday, May 29, 2009

First Wild Card Tour: Who Made You a Princess?

It is time for a FIRST Wild Card Tour book review! If you wish to join the FIRST blog alliance, just click the button. We are a group of reviewers who tour Christian books. A Wild Card post includes a brief bio of the author and a full chapter from each book toured. The reason it is called a FIRST Wild Card Tour is that you never know if the book will be fiction, non~fiction, for young, or for old...or for somewhere in between! Enjoy your free peek into the book!



You never know when I might play a wild card on you!


I enjoyed this one as much as I did the three previous books in this series! Highly recommend all of them for teen girls!





Today's Wild Card author is:





and the book:



Who Made You A Princess? (All About Us Series, Book 4)

FaithWords (May 13, 2009)





Plus a Tiffany's Bracelet Giveaway! Go to Camy Tang's Blog and leave a comment on her FIRST Wild Card Tour for Be Strong and Curvaceous, and you will be placed into a drawing for a bracelet that looks similar to the picture below.









ABOUT THE AUTHOR:




Award-winning author Shelley Adina wrote her first teen novel when she was 13. It was rejected by the literary publisher to whom she sent it, but he did say she knew how to tell a story. That was enough to keep her going through the rest of her adolescence, a career, a move to another country, a B.A. in Literature, an M.A. in Writing Popular Fiction, and countless manuscript pages. Shelley is a world traveler and pop culture junkie with an incurable addiction to designer handbags. She writes books about fun and faith—with a side of glamour. Between books, Shelley loves traveling, playing the piano and Celtic harp, watching movies, and making period costumes.



Visit her book site and her website.





It's All About Us is Book One in the All About Us Series. Book Two, The Fruit of my Lipstick came out in August 2008. Book Three, Be Strong & Curvaceous, came out January 2, 2009. And Book Four, Who Made You a Princess?, came out May 13, 2009.





Product Details:



List Price: $9.99

Reading level: Young Adult

Paperback: 240 pages

Publisher: FaithWords (May 13, 2009)

Language: English

ISBN-10: 0446179620

ISBN-13: 978-0446179621



AND NOW...THE FIRST CHAPTER:





NOTHING SAYS “ALONE” like a wide, sandy beach on the western edge of the continent, with the sun going down in a smear of red and orange. Girlfriends, I am the go-to girl for alone. Or at least, that’s what I used to think. Not anymore, though, because nothing says “alive” like a fire snapping and hissing at your feet, and half a dozen of your BFFs laughing and talking around you.



Like the T-shirt says, life is good.



My name’s Shani Amira Marjorie Hanna, and up until I started going to Spencer Academy in my freshman year, all I wanted to do was get in, scoop as many A’s as I could, and get out. College, yeah. Adulthood. Being the boss of me. Social life? Who cared? I’d treat it the way I’d done in middle school, making my own way and watching people brush by me, all disappearing into good-bye like they were flowing down a river.



Then when I was a junior, I met the girls, and things started to change whether I wanted them to or not. Or maybe it was just me. Doing the changing, I mean.



Now we were all seniors and I was beginning to see that all this “I am an island” stuff was just a bunch of smoke. ’Cuz I was not like the Channel Islands, sitting out there on the hazy horizon. I was so done with all that.



Lissa Mansfield sat on the other side of the fire from me while this adorable Jared Padalecki look-alike named Kaz Griffin sat next to her trying to act like the best friend she thought he was. Lissa needs a smack upside the head, you want my opinion. Either that or someone needs to make a serious play for Kaz to wake her up. But it’s not going to be me. I’ve got cuter fish to fry. Heh. More about that later.



“I can’t believe this is the last weekend of summer vacation,” Carly Aragon moaned for about the fifth time since Kaz lit the fire and we all got comfortable in the sand around it. “It’s gone so fast.”



“That’s because you’ve only been here a week.” I handed her the bag of tortilla chips. “What about me? I’ve been here for a month and I still can’t believe we have to go up to San Francisco on Tuesday.”



“I’m so jealous.” Carly bumped me with her shoulder. “A whole month at Casa Mansfield with your own private beach and everything.” She dipped a handful of chips in a big plastic container of salsa she’d made that morning with fresh tomatoes and cilantro and little bits of—get this—cantaloupe. She made one the other day with carrots in it. I don't know how she comes up with this stuff, but it’s all good. We had a cooler full of food to munch on. No burnt weenies for this crowd. Uh-uh. What we can’t order delivered, Carly can make.



“And to think I could have gone back to Chicago and spent the whole summer throwing parties and trashing the McMansion.” I sighed with regret. “Instead, I had to put up with a month in the Hamptons with the Changs, and then a month out here fighting Lissa for her bathroom.”



“Hey, you could have used one of the other ones,” Lissa protested, trying to keep Kaz from snagging the rest of her turkey-avocado-and-alfalfa-sprouts sandwich.



I grinned at her. Who wanted to walk down the hot sandstone patio to one of the other bathrooms when she, Carly, and I had this beautiful Spanish terrazzo-looking wing of the house to ourselves? Carly and I were in Lissa’s sister’s old room, which looked out on this garden with a fountain and big ferns and grasses and flowering trees. And beyond that was the ocean. It was the kind of place you didn’t want to leave, even to go to the bathroom.



I contrasted it with the freezing wind off Lake Michigan in the winter and the long empty hallways of the seven-million-dollar McMansion on Lake Road, where I always felt like a guest. You know—like you’re welcome but the hosts don’t really know what to do with you. I mean, my mom has told me point-blank, with a kind of embarrassed little laugh, that she can’t imagine what happened. The Pill and her careful preventive measures couldn’t all have failed on the same night.



Organic waste happens. Whatever. The point is, I arrived seventeen years ago and they had to adjust.



I think they love me. My dad always reads my report cards, and he used to take me to blues clubs to listen to the musicians doing sound checks before the doors opened. That was before my mom found out. Then I had to wait until I was twelve, and we went to the early shows, which were never as good as the late ones I snuck into whenever my parents went on one of their trips.



They travel a lot. Dad owns this massive petroleum exploration company, and when she’s not chairing charity boards and organizing fund-raisers, Mom goes with him everywhere, from Alaska to New Zealand. I saw a lot of great shows with whichever member of the staff I could bribe to take me and swear I was sixteen. Keb’ Mo, B.B. King, Buddy Guy, Roomful of Blues—I saw them all.



A G-minor chord rippled out over the crackle of the fire, and I smiled a slow smile. My second favorite sound in the world (right after the sound of M&Ms pouring into a dish). On my left, Danyel had pulled out his guitar and tuned it while I was lost in la-la land, listening to the waves come in.



Lissa says there are some things you just know. And somehow, I just knew that I was going to be more to Danyel Johnstone than merely a friend of his friend Kaz’s friend Lissa, if you hear what I’m saying. I was done with being alone, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t stand out from the crowd.



Don’t get me wrong, I really like this crowd. Carly especially—she’s like the sister I would have designed my own self. And Lissa, too, though sometimes I wonder if she can be real. I mean, how can you be blond and tall and rich and wear clothes the way she does, and still be so nice? There has to be a flaw in there somewhere, but if she’s got any, she keeps them under wraps.



Gillian, who we’d see in a couple of days, has really grown on me. I couldn’t stand her at first—she’s one of those people you can’t help but notice. I only hung around her because Carly liked her. But somewhere between her going out with this loser brain trust and then her hooking up with Jeremy Clay, who’s a friend of mine, I got to know her. And staying with her family last Christmas, which could have been massively awkward, was actually fun. The last month in the Hamptons with them was a total blast. The only good thing about leaving was knowing I was going to see the rest of the crew here in Santa Barbara.



The one person I still wasn’t sure about was Mac, aka Lady Lindsay MacPhail, who did an exchange term at school in the spring. Getting to know her is like besieging a castle—which is totally appropriate considering she lives in one. She and Carly are tight, and we all e-mailed and IM-ed like fiends all summer, but I’m still not sure. I mean, she has a lot to deal with right now, with her family and everything. And the likelihood of us seeing each other again is kind of low, so maybe I don’t have to make up my mind about her. Maybe I’ll just let her go the way I let the kids in middle school go.



Danyel began to get serious about bending his notes instead of fingerpicking, and I knew he was about to sing. Oh, man, could the night get any more perfect? Even though we’d probably burn the handmade marshmallows from Williams-Sonoma, tonight capped a summer that had been the best time I’d ever had.



The only thing that would make it perfect would be finding some way to be alone with that man. I hadn’t been here more than a day when Danyel and Kaz had come loping down the beach. I’d taken one look at those eyes and those cheekbones and, okay, a very cut set of abs, and decided here was someone I wanted to know a whole lot better. And I did, now, after a couple of weeks. But soon we’d go off to S. F., and he and Kaz would go back to Pacific High. When we pulled out in Gabe Mansfield’s SUV, I wanted there to be something more between us than an air kiss and a handshake, you know what I mean?



I wanted something to be settled. Neither of us had talked about it, but both of us knew it was there. Unspoken longing is all very well in poetry, but I’m the outspoken type. I like things out there where I can touch them.



In a manner of speaking.



Danyel sat between Kaz and me, cross-legged and bare-chested, looking as comfortable in his surf jams as if he lived in them. Come to think of it, he did live in them. His, Kaz’s, and Lissa’s boards were stuck in the sand behind us. They’d spent most of the afternoon out there on the waves. I tried to keep my eyes on the fire. Not that I didn’t appreciate the view next to me, because trust me, it was fine, but I know a man wants to be appreciated for his talents and his mind.



Danyel’s melody sounded familiar—something Gillian played while we waited for our prayer circles at school to start. Which reminded me . . . I nudged Carly. “You guys going to church tomorrow?”



She nodded and lifted her chin at Lissa to get her attention. “Girl wants to know if we’re going to church.”



“Wouldn’t miss it,” Lissa said. “Kaz and his family, too. Last chance of the summer to all go together.”



And where Kaz went, Danyel went. Happy thought.



“You’re not going to bail, are you?” Carly’s brows rose a little.



It’s not like I’m anti-religion or anything. I’m just in the beginning stages of learning about it. Without my friends to tell me stuff, I’d be bumbling around on my own, trying to figure it out. My parents don’t go to church, so I didn’t catch the habit from them. But when she was alive and I was a little girl, my grandma used to take me to the one in her neighborhood across town. I thought it was an adventure, riding the bus instead of being driven in the BMW. And the gospel choir was like nothing I’d ever seen, all waving their arms in the air and singing to raise the roof. I always thought they were trying to deafen God, if they could just get up enough volume.



So I like the music part. Always have. And I’m beginning to see the light on the God part, after what happened last spring. But seeing a glimmer and knowing what to do about it are two different things.



“Of course not.” I gave Carly a look. “We all go together. And we walk, in case no one told you, so plan your shoes carefully.”



“Oh, I will.” She sat back on her hands, an “I so see right through you” smile turning up the corners of her mouth. “And it’s all about the worship, I know.” That smile told me she knew exactly what my motivation was. Part of it, at least. Hey, can you blame me?



The music changed and Danyel’s voice lifted into a lonely blues melody, pouring over Carly’s words like cream. I just melted right there on the spot. Man, could that boy sing.





Blue water, blue sky



Blue day, girl, do you think that I



Don’t see you, yeah I do.



Long sunset, long road,



Long life, girl, but I think you know



What I need, yeah, you do.





I do a little singing my own self, so I know talent when I hear it. And I’d have bet you that month’s allowance that Danyel had composed that one. He segued into the chorus and then the bridge, its rhythms straight out of Mississippi but the tune something new, something that fit the sadness and the hope of the words.



Wait a minute.



Blue day? Long sunset? Long road? As in, a long road to San Francisco?



Whoa. Could Danyel be trying to tell someone something? “You think that I don’t see you”? Well, if that didn’t describe me, I didn’t know what would. Ohmigosh.



Could he be trying to tell me his feelings with a song? Musicians were like that. They couldn’t tell a person something to her face, or they were too shy, or it was just too hard to get out, so they poured it into their music. For them, maybe it was easier to perform something than to get personal with it.



Be cool, girl. Let him finish. Then find a way to tell him you understand—and you want it, too.



The last of the notes blew away on the breeze, and a big comber smashed itself on the sand, making a sound like a kettledrum to finish off the song. I clapped, and the others joined in.



“Did you write that yourself?” Lissa removed a marshmallow from her stick and passed it to him. “It was great.”



Danyel shrugged one shoulder. “Tune’s been bugging me for a while and the words just came to me. You know, like an IM or something.”



Carly laughed, and Kaz’s forehead wrinkled for a second in a frown before he did, too.



I love modesty in a man. With that kind of talent, you couldn’t blame Danyel for thinking he was all that.



Should I say something? The breath backed up in my chest. Say it. You’ll lose the moment. “So who’s it about?” I blurted, then felt myself blush.



“Can’t tell.” His head was bent as he picked a handful of notes and turned them into a little melody. “Some girl, probably.”



“Some girl who’s leaving?” I said, trying for a teasing tone. “Is that a good-bye?”



“Could be.”



I wished I had the guts to come out and ask if he’d written the song for me—for us—but I just couldn’t. Not with everyone sitting there. With one look at Carly, whose eyes held a distinct “What’s up with you?” expression, I lost my nerve and shut up. Which, as any of the girls could tell you, doesn’t happen very often.



Danyel launched into another song—some praise thing that everyone knew but me. And then another, and then a cheesy old John Denver number that at least I knew the words to, and then a bunch of goofy songs half of us had learned at camp when we were kids. And then it was nearly midnight, and Kaz got up and stretched.



He’s a tall guy. He stretches a long way. “I’m running the mixer for the early service tomorrow, so I’ve got to go.”



Danyel got up, and I just stopped my silly self from saying, “No, not yet.” Instead, I watched him sling the guitar over one shoulder and yank his board out of the sand. “Are you going to early service, too?” I asked him.



“Yeah,” he said, sounding a little surprised. “I’m in the band, remember?”



Argh! As if I didn’t know. As if I hadn’t sat there three Sundays in a row, watching his hands move on the frets and the light make shadows under his cheekbones.



“I just meant—I see you at the late one when we go. I didn’t know you went to both.” Stutter, bumble. Oh, just stop talking, girl. You’ve been perfectly comfortable talking to him so far. What’s the matter?



“I don’t, usually. But tomorrow they’re doing full band at early service, too. Last one before all the turistas go home. Next week we’ll be back to normal.” He smiled at me. “See you then.”



Was he looking forward to seeing me, or was he just being nice? “I hope so,” I managed.



“Kaz, you coming?”



Kaz bent to the fire and ran a stick through the coals, separating them. “Just let me put this out. Lissa, where’s the bucket?”



“Here.” While I’d been obsessing over Danyel, Lissa had run down to the waterline and filled a gallon pail. You could tell they’d done this about a million times. She poured the water on the fire and it blew a cloud of steam into the air. The orange coals gave it up with a hiss.



I looked up to say something to Danyel about it and saw that he was already fifty feet away, board under his arm like it weighed nothing, heading down the beach to the public lot where he usually parked his Jeep.



I stared down into the coals, wet and dying.



I couldn’t let the night go out like this.



“Danyel, wait!” The sand polished the soles of my bare feet better than the pumice bar at the salon as I ran to catch up with him. A fast glance behind me told me Lissa had stepped up and begun talking to Kaz, giving me a few seconds alone.



I owed her, big time.



“What’s up, ma?” He planted the board and set the guitar case down. “Forget something?”



“Yes,” I blurted. “I forgot to tell you that I think you’re amazing.”



He blinked. “Whoa.” The barest hint of a smile tickled the corners of his lips.



I might not get another chance as good as this one. I rushed on, the words crowding my mouth in their hurry to get out. “I know there’s something going on here and we’re all leaving on Tuesday and I need to know if you—if you feel the same way.”



“About . . . ?”



“About me. As I feel about you.”



He put both hands on his hips and gazed down at the sand. “Oh.”



Cold engulfed me, as if I’d just plunged face-first into the dark waves twenty feet away. “Oh,” I echoed. “Never mind. I guess I got it wrong.” I stepped back. “Forget about it. No harm done.”



“No, Shani, wait—”



But I didn’t want to hear the “we can still be friends” speech. I didn’t want to hear anything except the wind in my ears as I ran back to the safety of my friends.

Thursday, February 26, 2009

The Fruit of My Lipstick by Shelley Adina (Book Review)



Title: The Fruit of My Lipstick (Book 2 in the All About Us Series)
Author: Shelley Adina
Publisher: Faith Words/Hachette Books
Genre: YA/Christian fiction


First sentence: The New Year. . . when a young girl's heart turns to new beginnings, weight loss, and a new term of chemistry!

Christmas break is over and we are back at Spencer Academy with Lissa, Gillian, Carly, and Shani. Since Lissa was able to tell her story about Callum in It's All About Us (and Carly will share her story in book 3 - Be Strong and Curvaceous) it is Gillian's turn to come clean about her infatuation with Lucas Hayes - the smartest guy at Spencer Academy.

Lucas is working towards the Physics Olympiad when he and Gillian hook up. Gillian has never had a boyfriend before and is pretty quick to get swept up in the moment. While she likes Lucas, and always looks forward to seeing him, she doesn't always feel quite happy after her time spent with him - but it is nothing that she can put her finger on, so she just chalks it up to not having anything to compare it to. At the same time, though, she needs to concentrate on her own grads or her Type A dad will be coming down on her pretty hard!

Most of the other juniors are studying hard also, except for those that have been buying exam sheets from Source10. Nobody knows who this person is - but the whole junior class is going to be punished with F's if they are not caught!

First, one of Gillian's friends is suspended for the deed - then Gillian herself is put on house arrest as a suspect! They give their problems to God and pray that the truth will come out - but will it happen in time to save the semester? And where will this leave Gillian in her relationship with Carly, Lissa and Shani - not to mention Lucas!

I enjoyed this book as much as I did the 1st and 3rd books in the series. I like the way they gradually lead you into Christianity without being preachy. I think this series would definitely be good for those teens/young adults struggling with their faith.

The fourth book in the series - Who Made You a Princess? is due out in May 2009!

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

It's All About Us by Shelley Adina - Book Review



Title: It's All About Us - (Book 1 in the All About Us series)
Author: Shelley Adina
Publisher: Faith Words
Genre: YA fiction

First sentence: Some things you just know without being told.
Lissa Mansfield is having a tough time adjusting to her junior year at Spencer Academy. She had agreed to attend boarding school as her parents were going to be doing a lot of traveling for business. Her dad is a famous movie director and her mom is currently working on a charity campaign with Angelina Jolie. So she left behind her best friend Kaz, her ex-boyfriend, and the popular crowd that knew she was a Christian and accepted it.
She gets paired with Gillian Chang for a roommate and it doesn't take long for them to clash. Before long though, they discover that they are each Christians. Gillian wants to organize a weekly prayer circle. Lissa reluctantly goes along, hoping that Vanessa (most popular girl in school) or Callum (the hottest guy she has ever seen) won't see her there.
Without trying too much she wins the attention of Callum -but will she submit to his pressure and compromise her beliefs? Vanessa soon targets her to bring in a big celebrity for the Benefactor's Day Dance. Does that mean they are finally accepting her? And will her and Gillian ever become the friends that roommates should be?
Trying hard to find where she belongs and wanting to be accepted, Lissa and her faith hit some stumbling blocks. With the help of Gillian and bestfriend from back home, Kaz, they get her back on track. Great read for teen girls!
Side note: I read the 3rd book (Be Strong and Curvaceous) as part of a First Wild Card Tour. You can go here to read my review and here to read the first chapter of Be Strong and Curvaceous.

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