Thursday Teen book review: Pretty Crooked by Elisa Ludwig

From the publisher:

Willa’s secret plan seems all too simple: take from the rich kids at Valley Prep and give to the poor ones.

Yet Willa’s turn as Robin Hood at her ultra-exclusive high school is anything but. Bilking her “friends”-known to everyone as the Glitterati-without them suspecting a thing, is far from easy. Learning how to pick pockets and break into lockers is as difficult as she’d thought it’d be. Delivering care packages to the scholarship girls, who are ostracized just for being from the “wrong” side of town, is way more fun than she’d expected.

The complication Willa didn’t expect, though, is Aidan Murphy, Valley Prep’s most notorious (and gorgeous) ace-degenerate. His mere existence is distracting Willa from what matters most to her-evening the social playing field between the have and have-nots. There’s no time for crushes and flirting with boys, especially conceited and obnoxious trust-funders like Aidan.

But when the cops start investigating the string of burglaries at Valley Prep and the Glitterati begin to seek revenge, could he wind up being the person that Willa trusts most?

My thoughts:

This was very much a girl teen book, something I don't normally go for, but it had me hooked. The girl character Willa is quirky and fun, and deals with your typical teen peer pressure stuff to do with status/money--and I could imagine myself making some of the same mistakes at that age. Great voice, strong setting, fast-paced narrative... I read this book in just two sittings, I was so into it.

The second in the series comes out early 2014, looking forward.

Extra points: 

My teen girl loved it, and she's a critical reader.

How I found out about this book:

The author, Elisa Ludwig, is a blog mate of mine over at Sleuths, Spies and Alibis. Shame on me for taking this long to discover this series.

Do you ever miss the characters of your favorite TV show or book?

My love has been off putting miles on his combat boots at the other side of the world. Me, I take that as an opportunity to get caught up on my British crime shows. They're my favorite, and he doesn't like them so much...

And with the joys of streaming, I can catch whole seasons at a time (well, at least over the course of a few weeks). I watched Wallander, Inpector Lewis, Sherlock (it's a long deployment, don't judge me).

I got into this crime show called Vera, too. The downside to this binge-watching of TV? Sometimes, you get tired of a show, but other times, it becomes a tad addictive. I was all into Vera, but then there were only two seasons. And I missed her, even though she's the most unlikable of characters. Weird, huh?

I have the same problem with some book characters, like Michael Connelly's Harry Bosch. I just don't want these people (who totally aren't real, I do know this) to disappear. But it wasn't until I missed my Vera that I understood why my kid readers get so frustrated when they hear they have to wait for the next book. I get it now. You miss this imaginary person, and the imaginary world they live in.

How about you? Do you have TV show or book characters you're that invested in?

It's a Mississippi Monday, so let's listen to some BB King

It's hotter than a Thanksgiving oven here in Mississippi right now, so hot that I don't cook much, and say 'Have mercy' every time I go outside. Watching the floods in Colorado, I know I shouldn't complain, but...

Have mercy.

This kind of weather makes me hum BB King tunes, so here he is. Be cool, all. And keep your socks dry, Colorado...

It's Roald Dahl Day! This calls for a party...

I've been so busy with final edits on Linc's third adventure that I was only half paying attention to the news this week... Apologies.

But I did catch that it's Roald Dahl Day today! How cool is that... I'm such a fan of his books. I found out that there's even a Roald Dahl museum. Alas, it's in the U.K., so we'll keep that visit on the ol' bucket list.

Happy weekend, y'all.

Marvelous Middle Grade Monday review: The Code Busters Club #1 by Penny Warner

From the Publisher:

Cody, Quinn, Luke, and M.E. may be really different, but they all share one thing in common: they love playing around with codes. In fact, they love codes so much, they have their own private club, with a super-secret hideout and passwords that change every single day.

When Cody and Quinn notice what could be a code on the window of a nearby house, the one owned by their strange neighbor, the guy they call Skeleton Man, the club gets to work. And it is a cry for help!

Now the Code Busters are on the case—and nothing will stop them from solving the mystery and finding the secret treasure that seems to be the cause of it all!

My thoughts:

Oh, this book was such fun! Perfect for your younger middle-grade reader, ages 7-11, I would say, and equally appealing for boys and girls. The writing is tight, the characters fun, the mystery solid. I'll be checking out the rest of the series. I saw that the second book won the Agatha this year--no surprise there.

Where I found out about this book:

One of my favorite blogs, YA Book Nerd, reviewed it not too long ago. Since there are codes in the book, I thought I should check it out. Glad I did.

For more MMGM reviews, go to Shannon Messenger's blog....

Friday around the web: Crime and Science radio, how to start a book club for kids, and kitten food crisis

It's September! I thought this month would never get here... Here in southern Mississippi, each fall month gets us closer to humanly tolerable temps. Currently we're battling the nineties with umptienthousand percent humidity, but we're getting closer to November, when we can go outside and breathe again... :-)

But enough about the weather already. This week on the Twitterz, it was a short week with a hodge-podge of news, like that there will be a new Agatha Christie novel (not sure I'm cool with that, but I'll keep an open mind). For my fellow crime writers: Crime and Science Radio will be hosting webcasts on various crimey topics, starting Saturday with Hollywood Storytelling: Science Fact or Make Believe? This looks like a promising resource...

If you're interested in starting a book club for kids, read my author pal Caroline Starr Rose's blog for a step-by-step guide. Great advice there.

And for some Friday fun, here's a picture of kitten ChuChu, trying to get my attention when I'm editing, but the food bowl is also empty:

Happy weekend, all. Stay frosty...

Goodreads giveaway of Code Name 711 ARCs!

It's just six weeks until Linc's second adventure, Double Vision: Code Name 711, comes out! Which is why I've been a bit quiet here on the blog for the past week: I've been planning launch events and other promotional stuff.

Stay tuned for more cool news on that over the next few weeks...

But for those of you who like to read a book before it hits the shelves: the awesome people at Harper Children's are running a Goodreads giveaway of advanced copies of Double Vision: Code Name 711. So enter if you feel lucky...

Thanks for the support, as always, YA Sleutheri. It's nice to have good friends in my corner.