Whitewater by Meredith Shayne (review)

Title: Whitewater
Author: Meredith Shayne
Release date: March 12, 2013
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Genre: LGBT, Contemporary
Buy on: Amazon | Dreamspinner
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Baker Luke Henderson loves his job, and owning a bakery at Coogee Beach makes it even better. When he opens the shop before dawn, he hears the waves. When he walks along the beach after sunrise, he admires the surfers—one in particular: Cameron Brown. A chef and café owner, Cameron secretly watches Luke right back. When Luke proposes a business deal, Cameron seizes the chance to get close. But Cameron’s ideal man is physically perfect, and Luke’s awkward limp could be the flaw that fractures their romance.

The Maze Runner by James Dashner (review)

Title: The Maze Runner
Author: James Dashner
Release date: August 6, 2009
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Genre: YA, Dystopia, Mystery
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If you ain’t scared, you ain’t human.

When Thomas wakes up in the lift, the only thing he can remember is his name. He’s surrounded by strangers—boys whose memories are also gone.

Nice to meet ya, shank. Welcome to the Glade.

Outside the towering stone walls that surround the Glade is a limitless, ever-changing maze. It’s the only way out—and no one’s ever made it through alive.

Everything is going to change.

Then a girl arrives. The first girl ever. And the message she delivers is terrifying.

Remember. Survive. Run.

If I Told You So by Timothy Woodward (review)

Title: If I Told You So
Author: Timothy Woodward
Release date: August 28, 2012
Publisher: Kensington
Genre: YA, LGBT
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The summer you turn sixteen is supposed to be unforgettable. It's the stuff of John Hughes movies and classic songs, of heart-stopping kisses and sudden revelations. But life isn't always like the movies. . . For Sean Jackson, sixteen is off to an inauspicious start. His options: take a landscaping job in Georgia with his father, or stay in his small New Hampshire hometown, where the only place hiring is the local ice cream shop. Donning a pink t-shirt to scoop sundaes for tourists and seniors promises to be a colder, stickier version of hell. Still, he opts to stay home.

On his first day at work, Sean meets Becky, a wickedly funny New York transplant. The store manager, Jay, is eighteen, effortlessly cool, and according to Becky, "likes" Sean the way Sean's starting to like him. But before he can clear a path to the world that's waiting, Sean will have to deal with his overprotective mother, his sweet, popular girlfriend, Lisa, his absentee father, and all his own uncertainties and budding confusions.

Tender and achingly funny, this coming-of-age story will resonate with anyone who is--or has ever been--a teenager, when the only thing you can count on is how little you really know, and the next glance, or touch, or breathless night can be the one that changes everything...

Glitterland by Alexis Hall (review)

Title: Glitterland
Author: Alexis Hall
Release date: August 24, 2013
Publisher: Riptide Publishing
Genre: LGBT, Romance
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The universe is a glitterball I hold in the palm of my hand.

Once the golden boy of the English literary scene, now a clinically depressed writer of pulp crime fiction, Ash Winters has given up on love, hope, happiness, and—most of all—himself. He lives his life between the cycles of his illness, haunted by the ghosts of other people’s expectations.

Then a chance encounter at a stag party throws him into the arms of Essex boy Darian Taylor, an aspiring model who lives in a world of hair gel, fake tans, and fashion shows. By his own admission, Darian isn’t the crispest lettuce in the fridge, but he cooks a mean cottage pie and makes Ash laugh, reminding him of what it’s like to step beyond the boundaries of anxiety.

But Ash has been living in his own shadow for so long that he can’t see past the glitter to the light. Can a man who doesn’t trust himself ever trust in happiness? And how can a man who doesn’t believe in happiness ever fight for his own?

Fan Art by Sarah Tregay (review)

Title: Fan Art
Author: Sarah Tregay
Release date: June 17, 2014
Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books
Genre: YA, LGBT
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When the picture tells the story…

Senior year is almost over, and Jamie Peterson has a big problem. Not college—that’s all set. Not prom—he’ll find a date somehow. No, it’s the worst problem of all: he’s fallen for his best friend.

As much as Jamie tries to keep it under wraps, everyone seems to know where his affections lie, and the giggling girls in art class are determined to help Jamie get together with Mason. But Jamie isn’t sure if that’s what he wants—because as much as Jamie would like to come clean to Mason, what if the truth ruins everything? What if there are no more road trips, taco dinners, or movie nights? Does he dare risk a childhood friendship for romance?

This book is about what happens when a picture reveals what we can’t say, when art is truer than life, and how falling in love is easy, except when it’s not. Fan Art explores the joys and pains of friendship, of pressing boundaries, and how facing our worst fears can sometimes lead us to what we want most.

Take A Bow by Elizabeth Eulberg (review)

Title: Take A Bow
Author: Elizabeth Eulberg
Release date: April 1, 2012
Publisher: Scholastic Paperbacks
Genre: YA, Music
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Chasing fame. Chasing love. Chasing a future.

Emme has long lived in her best friend Sophie's shadow. She writes songs, and Sophie sings them. It's always been like this, and feels like it always will be.

Sophie will stop at nothing to be a star. Even if it means using her best friend and picking up a trophy boyfriend, Carter.

Carter is a victim of a particular Hollywood curse: He's a former child star. Now all he wants is a normal life. But being normal is about as hard for him as being famous.

Ethan has his own issues -- a darkness in his head that he just can't shake. He's managed to sabotage every relationship he's ever been in. Emme's the only girl he's ever really respected . . . but he's not sure what to do about that.

When We Wake by Karen Healey (review)

Title: When We Wake
Author: Karen Healey
Release date: January 1, 2013
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Genre: YA, Science Fiction, Mystery
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Sixteen-year-old Tegan is just like every other girl living in 2027—she's happiest when playing the guitar, she's falling in love for the first time, and she's joining her friends to protest the wrongs of the world: environmental collapse, social discrimination, and political injustice.

But on what should have been the best day of Tegan's life, she dies—and wakes up a hundred years later, locked in a government facility with no idea what happened.

The future isn't all she had hoped it would be, and when appalling secrets come to light, Tegan must make a choice: Does she keep her head down and survive, or fight for a better world?

Get Well Soon by Julie Halpern (review)

Title: Get Well Soon (Anna Bloom #1)
Author: Rachel Eliason
Release date: October 2, 2007
Publisher: Square Fish
Genre: YA, Mental Illness, Humor
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I got a better look at some of my fellow patients in this freak hole, and they all look pretty close to my age. They come up to the check-in desk to get pills. After they take them, the desk people look in their mouths to make sure they’ve swallowed. It’s like something out of The Twilight Zone. Are they going to do that to me?

Anna Bloom is depressed—so depressed that her parents have committed her to a mental hospital with a bunch of other messed-up teens. Here, she meets a roommate with a secret (and a plastic baby), a doctor who focuses way too much on her weight, and a cute, shy boy who just might like her. But wait! Being trapped in a loony bin isn’t supposed to be about making friends, losing weight, and having a crush, is it?

The End of You and Me by Wendi M. Lee (review)

Title: The End of You and Me
Author: Wendi M. Lee
Release date: April 17, 2014
Publisher: Self-published
Genre: YA, Contemporary
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Sixteen-year old Kate can't live without London. Their friendship is intense to the point of obsession. Nothing else matters: not dating, college applications, or her military father’s disapproval. When beautiful red-haired Anastasia sweeps into town and becomes fast friends with the pair, life changes forever. Suddenly Kate's quiet world is threatened.

What makes an honor-student like Kate snap? Is it a redhead armed with seduction and lies? And how far will either of them go to get what they want?

The Best Boy Ever Made by Rachel Eliason (review)

Title: The Best Boy Ever Made
Author: Rachel Eliason
Release date: February 14, 2014
Publisher: Self-published
Genre: LGBT, YA, Romance
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Alecia Mueller, a conservative country girl, knows how her life is going to turn out. She is going to grow up, meet “the one,” get married and live in the country. When her best friends Sam comes out as a Female to Male Transgender, she chooses personal loyalty and friendship over politics. But what if the boy that Sam is becoming is “the one?”

The Hollywood Version by Harry K. Malone (review)

Title: The Hollywood Version
Author: Harry K. Malone
Release date: May 9, 2013
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Genre: LGBT, Romance, Contemporary
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Mark Lawler has always imagined the world as a movie. With his overactive imagination, he can’t help equating life and art. Currently, he’s living the dream: successful actor, beautiful wife, and he works with his best friend, television heartthrob Zach Pericles. The problem is a certain contingent of fans are convinced Mark and Zach are really in love.

When a compromising photo of them leaks to the press, Mark’s life spins out of control. The show’s executive producer plans to kill off Mark’s character, and Mark faces unemployment and life as a single man. He turns to Ross Lockhart, an old acquaintance, to help him pick up the pieces.

Ross has to be the most frustrating man Mark’s ever known, but he’s levelheaded and wise for his years, and Mark envies the honest life he leads. Maybe Ross can teach Mark a thing or two about finding his own happily ever after.

The Reflections of Queen Snow White by David Meredith (review)

WARNING: EXPLICIT SCENES, NOT FOR CHILDREN
I received a copy from the author in exchange of an honest review 

Title: The Reflections of Queen Snow White
Author: David Meredith
Release date: October 2, 2013
Publisher: self-published
Genre: Fantasy, Fairy Tales
Buy on: Amazon
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What happens when "happily ever after" has come and gone?

On the eve of her only daughter, Princess Raven's wedding, an aging Snow White finds it impossible to share in the joyous spirit of the occasion. The ceremony itself promises to be the most glamorous social event of the decade. Snow White’s castle has been meticulously scrubbed, polished and opulently decorated for the celebration. It is already nearly bursting with jubilant guests and merry well-wishers. Prince Edel, Raven's fiancé, is a fine man from a neighboring kingdom and Snow White's own domain is prosperous and at peace. Things could not be better, in fact, except for one thing:

The king is dead.

The queen has been in a moribund state of hopeless depression for over a year with no end in sight. It is only when, in a fit of bitter despair, she seeks solitude in the vastness of her own sprawling castle and climbs a long disused and forgotten tower stair that she comes face to face with herself in the very same magic mirror used by her stepmother of old.

It promises her respite in its shimmering depths, but can Snow White trust a device that was so precious to a woman who sought to cause her such irreparable harm? Can she confront the demons of her own difficult past to discover a better future for herself and her family? And finally, can she release her soul-crushing grief and suffocating loneliness to once again discover what "happily ever after" really means?

Only time will tell as she wrestles with her past and is forced to confront The Reflections of Queen Snow White.

Just One Year by Gayle Forman (review)

Title: Just OneYear
Author: Gayle Forman
Release date: October 10, 2013
Publisher: Dutton Juvenile
Genre: YA, Romance
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When he opens his eyes, Willem doesn’t know where in the world he is—Prague or Dubrovnik or back in Amsterdam. All he knows is that he is once again alone, and that he needs to find a girl named Lulu. They shared one magical day in Paris, and something about that day—that girl—makes Willem wonder if they aren’t fated to be together. He travels all over the world, from Mexico to India, hoping to reconnect with her. But as months go by and Lulu remains elusive, Willem starts to question if the hand of fate is as strong as he’d thought...

Just One Day by Gayle Forman (review)

Title: Just One Day
Author: Gayle Forman
Release date: January 8, 2013
Publisher: Dutton Juvenile
Genre: YA, Romance, Coming of Age
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When sheltered American good girl Allyson "LuLu" Healey first meets laid-back Dutch actor Willem De Ruiter at an underground performance of Twelfth Night in England, there’s an undeniable spark. After just one day together, that spark bursts into a flame, or so it seems to Allyson, until the following morning, when she wakes up after a whirlwind day in Paris to discover that Willem has left. Over the next year, Allyson embarks on a journey to come to terms with the narrow confines of her life, and through Shakespeare, travel, and a quest for her almost-true-love, to break free of those confines.

LGBT Month: Letting Go by Jeanette Grey (review)

WARNING: EXPLICIT SEX SCENES BETWEEN TWO MALES
Title: Letting Go
Author: Jeanette Grey
Release date: June 1, 2011
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press LLC
Genre: LGBT / M/M romance, Short stories (68 pages)
Buy On: Amazon | Dreamspinner Press
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Between taking care of his dying father and putting himself through college, David Mackenzie is approaching his breaking point. A twenty-year-old virgin, he doesn’t have the time or energy to date or socialize. When his father agrees to try medicinal marijuana as a treatment option, David meets an attractive, outgoing young man named Zev, who becomes the friend David never realized he needed. David’s father is nearing the end of his life, and Zev is becoming far more than a shoulder to lean on — he might be David’s first opportunity to embrace life and let go.

LGBT Month: The Next Competitor by K.P. Kincaid (review)

Title: The Next Competitor
Author: K.P. Kincaid
Release date: January 13, 2010
Publisher: Prizm
Genre: YA romance, LGBT, Sports
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It's the all-important Olympic season and eighteen-year-old American figure skater Alex Grady is discovering that there are many obstacles along the way on his quest to win a gold medal. For starters, he has to get through endless hours of practice under the watchful eye of his stern and slightly terrifying Russian coach. Then he has to contend with his all-American rival, Tanner Nielsen. Tanner has the talent, looks, poise and picture-perfect girlfriend that make him the ideal poster boy for United States figure skating.

Alex has the talent and his looks aren't bad, but the filter between his brain and his mouth is missing, and he definitely doesn't have a girlfriend. He doesn't have a boyfriend either, although he finds himself thinking far too much about pairs skater Matt Savelli, which is ridiculous, since goody two-shoes Matt is totally not his type. Besides, Alex doesn't have time to worry about dating, not with the Olympics looming, right? Can he find a way to go for the gold and still remain true to himself?

Being Hartley by Allison Rushby (ARC review)

Title: Being Hartley
Author: Allison Rushby
Release date: November 1, 2013
Publisher: Patchwork Press
Genre: YA contemporary, Romance
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Fifteen-year-old Thea Wallis was born to entertain. Her mother, Oscar winning actress Cassie Hartley, thinks differently and has kept her daughter out of the spotlight since day one. Coming from showbiz royalty, it hasn't been easy to go unnoticed, but mismatched surnames, a family home in Tasmania and a low-key scriptwriter father has made this possible.

Just like her cousin Rory on the hugely popular TV show Saturday Morning Dance, Thea loves to dance. She learns the show's routines off by heart each week, despite her mother's attempts to convince her that dentistry would be a far more fulfilling career choice.

However, when Rory goes off the rails in LA, Thea's mother is suddenly left with no choice at all – Rory needs them and to LA they must go. Within forty-eight hours, Thea finds herself a long way from Tasmania and living her dream – on the road to Las Vegas with the Saturday Morning Dance team.

It doesn't take long before Thea's talents are discovered and she's offered everything she's ever wanted on a plate, including the dance partner she's had a crush on forever. But, as her mother has always told her, Hollywood dreams come at a price. Thea soon realizes she will have to work out just how much she's willing to pay. And, ultimately, discover her own way to be Hartley.

Alice in Tumblr-Land by Tim Manley (review)

16+ DUE TO LANGUAGE
Title: Alice in Tumblr-Land
Author: Tim Manley
Release date: November 5, 2013
Publisher: Penguin Books
Genre: Humor, Fairy Tales, Graphic Novel
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Disney meets Lena Dunham in this illustrated humor book featuring your favorite fairy-tale characters dating and finding their way in 21st-century America.

The Ugly Duckling still feels gross compared to everyone else, but now she’s got Instagram, and there’s this one filter that makes her look awesome. Cinderella swaps her glass slippers for Crocs. The Tortoise and the Hare Facebook stalk each other. Goldilocks goes gluten free. And Peter Pan finally has to grow up and get a job, or at least start paying rent.

Here are more than one hundred fairy tales, illustrated and re-imagined for today. Instead of fairy godmothers, there’s Siri. And rather than big bad wolves, there are creepy dudes on OkCupid. In our brave new world of social networking, YouTube, and texting, fairy tales can once again lead us to “happily ever after”—and have us laughing all the way.

LGBT Month: Marionette by T.B. Markinson (ARC review)

WARNING: DUE TO SUBJECT MATTER SUCH AS SUICIDE IT CAN BE A HEAVY READ
Title: Marionette
Author: T.B. Markinson
Release date: November 7, 2013
Publisher: Self-published
Genre: YA contemporary, LGBT
Buy on: Amazon
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Paige Alexander is seventeen and has her whole life in front of her. One day her girlfriend comes home to discover that Paige has slit her wrists. Paige isn't insane, but she acts like she is. Why?

After the incident, Paige agrees to go to therapy to appease her girlfriend, Jess. However, Paige doesn't believe that therapy will help her. She believes she’s beyond help. Paige doesn't want to find herself and she doesn't want to relive her painful past in order to come to terms with it. What Paige wants is control over her life, which she hasn't had since her birth.

During her childhood, Paige is blamed for a family tragedy, when in fact, her twin sister, Abbie was responsible. Abbie doesn't come forward and Paige becomes the pariah of the family.

To add to Paige’s woes, while attending a college in a small town in Colorado, the residents are in the midst of debating whether or not gays and lesbians should have equal rights. Tension is high and there’s a threat of violence. She isn't out of the closet and pretends to be straight at school since she fears what will happen if her parents find out she’s a lesbian. Will she end up dead like her best friend, Alex?

When You Were Here by Daisy Whitney (review)

Title: When You Were Here
Author: Daisy Whitney
Release date: June 4, 2013
Publisher: Little, Brown
Genre: YA contemporary, Romance, Realistic Fiction
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Filled with humor, raw emotion, a strong voice, and a brilliant dog named Sandy Koufax, When You Were Here explores the two most powerful forces known to man-death and love. Daisy Whitney brings her characters to life with a deft touch and resonating authenticity.

Danny's mother lost her five-year battle with cancer three weeks before his graduation-the one day that she was hanging on to see.

Now Danny is left alone, with only his memories, his dog, and his heart-breaking ex-girlfriend for company. He doesn't know how to figure out what to do with her estate, what to say for his Valedictorian speech, let alone how to live or be happy anymore.

When he gets a letter from his mom's property manager in Tokyo, where she had been going for treatment, it shows a side of his mother he never knew. So, with no other sense of direction, Danny travels to Tokyo to connect with his mother's memory and make sense of her final months, which seemed filled with more joy than Danny ever knew. There, among the cherry blossoms, temples, and crowds, and with the help of an almost-but-definitely-not Harajuku girl, he begins to see how it may not have been ancient magic or mystical treatment that kept his mother going. Perhaps, the secret of how to live lies in how she died.