What do you get when you have a missing person, a romance about to ignite, a road trip away from home, and all of the signs of bad news all around? You have Lynn Weingarten’s Wherever Nina Lies.

Nina’s been gone for two years, but that doesn’t stop Ellie from thinking about her. One day she was there, and the next she was gone. Nina, a free-spirited artist, just up and left her home and was never heard from again.

Their mom said to let it be, that Nina was long gone. Amanda, Ellie’s best friend, told her to let it go, too. She couldn’t let her life stop because Nina was never coming back.

But when Ellie discovers a mysterious note in a box at Amanda’s work — one featuring one of Nina’s trademark drawings — she knows she needs to get to the root of what happened to her sister.

When her path leads her to Mothership, a local artist colony of sorts, Ellie meets Sean and tells him her story of loss. It took no time for Sean to propose a road trip to follow the clues and find Nina. You better believe there is some budding romance here, too.

Wherever Nina Lies was a book I found myself wanting to keep reading until it was finished. I thought the mystery was quite predictable, but I thought that Weingarten’s integration of the clues and development of subplots within the greater problem of the whodunit makes this title stand out. I really liked Ellie as a character, and I thought she was developed perfectly as a high school girl. She was no fancy sleuth and her reason for seeking her sister was compelling enough to drive the pace of the story forward. Though there are a lot of elements, they never bogged down the pace.

This is far from the perfect book, however. I found that the secondary characters — particularly the mother and Amanda — to be flat and empty. The believability of Ellie being able to take off for a few days on a road trip without her mother ever questioning was ludicrous, even if it was explained early on as normal that Ellie spent so much time away from home at Amanda’s. Given the disappearance of one daughter, it just didn’t work for me. Likewise, I felt that both characters were too easy to dismiss Ellie’s feelings about Nina’s disappearance; while we find that mom comes around in the end, it seems the relationship between Ellie and Amanda is never reconciled. For being described as inseparable for the bulk of the novel, this just didn’t jive.

As a non-mystery reader, I found Wherever Nina Lies to be a fun read. I enjoyed the mystery aspect of it and because there was enough else going on plot wise, I could dig into the romance (though I won’t blow it for those who haven’t read it, this ends up not being perfect either), the road trip, the quest for life and excitement, and the dropping of clues throughout in the form of drawings. This will be an appealing book to mystery and non-mystery readers alike, and it makes for a good readalike to Ally Carter’s “Gallagher Girls” series for an older audience. Because it’s a little more violent and includes harsh language as well as situations with drugs and alcohol, it’s not a clean read, so I’d hold this one off for older readers.

Quite honestly, what appealed to me about this book was that it felt like the sorts of books I read as a teen; it has “classic” teen read appeal to it. It doesn’t try to be an issue book nor does it try to impart a message or lesson. It’s a story for story’s sake. I could see this on the big screen, too, for that reason and because it incorporates so much into it plot-wise to keep it from being pigeonholed as one thing or another.

Intrigued yet? Keep your eyes here this week for your chance to win a copy.

Do you have a guilty reading pleasure? You know, you love reading a certain genre or author and probably for reasons that can induce a little blushing?

I certainly do. I LOVE Simone Elkeles’s romances for one big reason: they’re sexy.

Although I didn’t think that Perfect Chemistry was particularly well written nor had the most developed or dynamic characters, I loved the romance. I thought it was a nice one-off book, but when I heard there was going to be a sequel, I got a little overexcited about it.

I wasn’t disappointed.

Rules of Attraction tells a similar story to that of its predecessor, except instead of focusing on Alex and Brittany’s post-high school relationship in Colorado, it zooms in on the budding romance between Carols and Kiara. Carlos, you might remember, is Alex’s brother who has gotten himself into some trouble with gangs and drugs when living in Mexico with his mother. Kiara is the daughter of one of Alex’s mentors and favorite teachers. This mentor, who is referred to as The Professor throughout, actually ends up playing a huge role in Carlos’s life, as well, and Carlos adopts him as a personal mentor as well.

Elkeles writes a cross-cultural love story that is so reminiscent of West Side Story, with less singing and more sexual tension. It’s sexy; it’s compelling; and it’s entirely (older) teen appropriate. There’s just the right amount of trouble with Carlos — which explains why he’s even in Colorado with Alex — and just enough intrigue with Kiara to make her much more than his puppet. The idea of the good girl with the bad boy doesn’t feel stale in this one.

This is far from the perfect book, particularly when it came to the writing. I had a couple issues with improper Spanish, for one. It’s been a few years since I’ve taken it, but I know “usted es estupido” is improper when Carlos is speaking to his brother (page 246). There was another example of improper Spanish, too, when Carlos first meets Kiara at Flatiron High (the strange use of some Italian – il – in one of his sentences). Hopefully, these sorts of issues will be hammered out by the final printing.

Likewise, I don’t think the character development is particularly memorable, and I actually was sad we didn’t get more of Alex and Brittany. There are attempts at creating some threads throughout, including the “Rules of Attraction” and Kiara’s car skills, but they never become fully fleshed and thus, they almost seem silly to include at all. It felt like they were there to do something, but they never came to be more than extra furniture in the story.

What Rules of Attraction has going for it is pulse. It is a quick moving read with everything you want in a good love story: questioning, following the heart, denying oneself, then ultimately having a satisfactory conclusion. Oh, and the gorgeous cover is entirely fitting to the story, too. There is indeed some kissing in the rain.

Reading and loving books like this sometimes embarrasses me, if for no reason other than knowing the characters are quite a bit younger than me. I think Elkeles would have a fantastic market in the older young adult sector (your 20-somethings) if she were to expand outside teen books. Where many adult romances fall into carrying too much baggage, these books manage to avoid the baggage issue and maintain a real sense of innocence, exploration, and trepidation to them. Sure, it’s a standard story trope, but she has a real pulse to her writing that has enough grittiness and enough innocence that just works for me.

Rules of Attraction will be available April 13 from Bloomsbury Teens. I sincerely hope this isn’t the last book in this series, as there is still another Fuentes brother who can find his true love, too.

But back to my original question — are there any books you find are your dirty reading secrets? Share them in the comments.
Of course, I’d also love to know if you’re as much a secret fan of Simone Elkeles’s romances as I am.

Yesterday was the big announcement of the CYBILS winners, including the winner of this year’s best in YA fiction. If you missed that announcement, head over and check out the winners in each of the categories.

It was exciting to be a part of the judging panel this year, and I took away a new sense of appreciation for books and reviewing books. Likewise, I found myself fired up to get my hands on Courtney Summers’s 2010 release, Some Girls Are. As much as I really liked Cracked Up to Be, I think that her sophomore release may be even stronger, darker, intenser, and really highlights the writing and story telling skills that Summers has. I suspect she’s going to be soon joining the ranks of writers like Ellen Hopkins in capturing a wide audience of devoted readers.

Some Girls Are is what you expect of Mean Girls if mean girls were really, really mean. Regina Afton used to be one of those girls — the upper echelon of high school girls who stomp all over everyone. That is, until she was used herself in an utterly disgusting manner. When she tells one of her friends about this, the friend’s feigned sympathy turns into revenge. This is no mild revenge, mind you. This is all-out brawl-out. There is a lot of blood and a lot of gore.

Why would Regina’s friend turn on her? Simple: so she could become that girl and kick Regina out of her spotlight in the school.

As a not-it girl, Regina finds herself turning to people she once tread upon, only to find herself questioning her motives and her actions left and right, as she learns that people aren’t willing to just let go of things she’s done to them in the past. And they’re right for acting that way; Regina is not a nice girl, and though she’s being treated awfully, she shouldn’t be so easily forgiven.

Although this book certainly draws comparisons to Clique, Gossip Girls, and the film Mean Girls, I felt like Summers does something none of these titles quite does: she gives the grit. Where others might offer the mean in subdued tones and off-screen, there is no hiding in this book. While reading, there were a number of times I had to put the book down because I felt like I had been punched myself. It’s raw and it’s painful, but it’s the ultimate goal to read it all the way through because, even though Regina isn’t the most sympathetic character, it’s not possible to not know what is going to happen.

It’s a game in the school of who can one-up the other. But these one-ups are utterly disgusting and painful to read. Perhaps sadder is these are realities for so many teens today. I sincerely think that Summers not only captures contemporary high school life for many teen girls, but I think this is the sort of title that people will identify with. It will cause them to think, reflect, and in a dream world, adjust their attitudes.

This is current, filled with social networking and references to today’s culture. Some Girls Are gives us exactly what it says — it is the way some girls are. Today. It’s scary and it’s eye opening, and it is exceptionally well written.

My one gripe of the book comes from my perspective as an emerging adult. I found it tough to believe no adults had any idea what was going on. Regina’s parents are entirely clueless about what’s going on in their daughter’s life, and they never seem to notice her bruises or scars. Likewise, incidents such as rotting meat in a locker or excessive absenteeism (abetted once with a meeting between Regina’s mother and the principal) would raise flags. I think adults are a little wiser onto some of this stuff in today’s world. But, again, I speak from an adult’s perspective. Maybe it’s the end scene that sort of sums it up.

If you can handle gritty, raw writing and are in for a book that will cause physical discomfort, this is a sure bet. I think that Courtney Summers would be a great readalike to those who liked Speak or Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson, any of Ellen Hopkins’s titles, or books that deal with girls and high school social hierarchy. This is a character and plot driven book that does not sway from being well-written and consciously constructed.

I’d bet dollars to donuts that this book will be in consideration for some sort of recognition in 2010. It sure deserves it, and you can bet I am anxious to get my hands on Summers’s future works, too.