2 books this week with plaid skirts on the cover

I thought it was kind of funny that both books I read this week were books with covers that had girls wearing plaid skirts on them.  Seems like that's kind of a thing. And both main characters go to boarding schools! 

Maybe Tonight? by Bridie Clark

From the Publisher:

Maybe Tonight? by Bridie Clark opens as the reader is getting ready for the most exciting party of the year—Midwinter's Night Dream, set in the frosty woods just off campus—with her roommates and best friends Annabel Snow, Spider Harris, and Libby Monroe. Choices unfold quickly and the reader must decide which risks to take in pursuit of social status, adventure, success, and love.

Pros: The "Choose Your Own Adventure" format will appeal to those who have read books of this style in the past and enjoyed them. Those looking for romance have myriad opportunities to find it, as it's part of every decision. If readers don't like the ending they choose the first time, they can go back and re-write the story. Fans of short stories will appreciate that they don't have to read the entire book to get closure (their teachers may not share this sentiment).

Cons: I myself am not a fan of short stories, and this felt like a series of short stories (I did go back and try every permutations of the story, by making different choices every time).  There was not enough development for me.  Due to the nature of the story, many issues were skimmed over instead of being dealt with. I thought the many of the endings were too pat and they often felt abrupt.

Mature content makes this a better choice for a high school collection, but I'm not sure high school readers are still interested in choose your own adventure style books.

United We Spy by Ally Carter is the 6th and final book (sigh) in the Gallagher Girls series about Cammie Morgan an her spy school friends.  

From the Publisher: Cammie Morgan has lost her father and her memory, but in the heart-pounding conclusion to the best-selling Gallagher Girls series, she finds her greatest mission yet. Cammie and her friends finally know why the terrorist organization called the Circle of Cavan has been hunting her. Now the spy girls and Zach must track down the Circle's elite members to stop them before they implement a master plan that will change Cammie—and her country—forever.

Get ready for the Gallagher Girls' most astounding adventure yet as Ally Carter's New York Times best-selling series comes to breathtaking conclusion that will have readers racing to the last page.

Pros: All the characters we've come to love are part of the non-stop, heart pounding action. There are some unexpected plot twists that were nice to find. I am really happy that even though the characters in Carter's books are seniors, the material in the books is still appropriate for middle school readers. It's not necessarily an easy thing to do, but  Carter pulls it off seamlessly!

Cons: I'll be sorry to see this series end, but I don't think this was Carter's strongest writing. I felt like some of the action was forced and while this series has always required suspension of disbelief, and I don't have a problem with that, this time it felt like it required too much, even for me. There were a few too many neatly tied together ends, too, which are sort of required at the end of a series, but I still didn't love them.

If you've read the rest of the series, you'll enjoy this climactic finish and will likely spend a few days mourning Cammie and the gang as you search for your next great adventure series! Appropriate for middle school and up..

Out of Sight, Out of Time, Ally Carter

Just so, so love the Cammie Morgan series by Ally Carter.  This is book five in the series, and if you have't read any of them yet, I'd highly recommend them for a great summer read.  They're perfect for summer.  Boys AND girls will appreciate this series because although the main characters are girls, they go to girl SPY school!  How cool is that?  I actually almost wrote how killer is that?  But then I thought better of it.  Or not.  Plus there's a boy spy school, too.

This book, book 5, is much darker than the other books in the series.  Ms. Darby-Lanker thinks so, too.  Just ask her.  For most of this book Cammie is befuddled and depressed, and she's not physically well, either. There's other depressing stuff going on around her, too.  Her friends are confused and unsure how to handle it, how to handle her.  Consequently,  they don't do it very well.  No surprise.  I doubt I'd know quite what to do or say myself.

Cammie's had people after her in the past, but she's always gotten away.  This time, though, she wakes up in a convent in the Alps not having any idea how she got there, where she is, or how long she's been there (four months!).   She doesn't remember anything, and it's driving her crazy.  Literally, a little bit.  Of course Cammie and her friends try to figure everything out, and this isn't the wisest decision, as there are definitely still people who do not want this information to come out.  It's another exciting adventure, but I'm hoping that the next book will lighen up a little bit.  Reminds me a little of Harry Potter book 5.  Just brought you down really low, right?  But did JK Rowling (and Harry Potter) bounce back? YES!  And I think Ally Carter and Cammie Morgan will snap back out of the doldrums in book six as well.  I'd stake my Cammie's life on it!

Highly recommended.  Enjoy!

A favorite book you've read this year?

I read a LOT of books - in fact I finished three over the weekend, so it's hard for me to pick a favorite, but one of the favorites I've read this school year is Don't Judge a Girl by her Cover by Ally Carter. This is the third in the Gallagher Girls series which starts with I'd Tell You I Love You, but then I'd Have to Kill You. The second book is called Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy. These books are pure fun, and I really enjoy them. I've been waiting and waiting to get our copies of the newest one that I ordered, but they've been on backorder. Then, I went to he Scholastic warehouse last week and there it was on the shelf, just begging me to get it. Of course, I couldn't turn Cammie down! If I did, she might have to kill me! See, Cammie Morgan and her friends go to the Gallagher Academy, a SPY school. They get to do super cool sleuthy stuff, learn crazy techniques for surveillance, and use all kinds of super secret technology.

These girls are way cooler than I could have ever imagined being in high school. I mean, I went to a private high school, but we had no night vision goggles, no lipstick tubes that could shoot out a web and tie up a captor, no earrings that were also communication devices. OK, I might have made up the actual spy gadgets, but I couldn't reveal the real thing to you, could I? You need to read it for yourself!

These books will appeal to girls, of course, because they're about really smart, hip and highly trained girls. Oh, and there's a tiny bit of romance if you also like that. BUT, they'll also appeal to boys because they're about really smart, hip and highly trained girls (come on, just admit it), but ALSO because they've got all this "killer" technology to work with, and this will really appeal to boys.

Super fun stories that I highly recommend. I also recommend checking out the author's blog(the author is Ally Carter), because she's pretty amusing and she has a t-shirt design contest happening now!

What's a favorite book you've read or are reading this year? Tell me so you can get entered in the drawing for the scary books prize pack. I'm picking the winner from all the WOMS students who've made a comment on my blog by Friday! Join the fun for Teen Read Week!

Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy - Ally Carter

The good news is, this is an awesome series. The bad news is, I came to it a little too early. I'm the kind of person who reads a LOT of books (in case you hadn't noticed) and when I find a great series I like to zoom through the whole lot of them. But that's a little tricky to do when the author HASN'T ACTUALLY WRITTEN THEM YET....

Anyway, this is the sequel to I'd Tell You I Love You But Then I'd Have to Kill You, and both of these books are loads of fun. Cami, the main character, goes to spy school, which is pretty much like going to West Orient Middle School, minus all the top secret spy gadgets and wild situations, of course.

Cami and her friends have a lot of exciting adventures, particularly when the boys arrive this year...see it's an ALL GIRLS spy school Cami attends, and when the boys arrive, things change just a teensy bit.

Both stories in the series are hilarious and all around great reads for both boys and girls because while the main character is a girl, all the cool spy stuff will appeal to boys and girls. I highly recommend them and I can't wait for the third one to come out!