The Long Game by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

June 8, 2016 |

I read the first book in Jennifer Lynn Barnes’ political thriller series for teens, The Fixer, when I picked it up at TLA last year (2015) and thought it was pretty great. The “Scandal for teens” tagline is very apt, though I would say it’s a bit less soapy (at least in comparison with the first season of Scandal, which is all I’ve watched). And then the sequel, The Long Game, was available at TLA this year and I dove in immediately.

Right away, I knew this one was even better than the last. But I had no idea how it would blow my mind about two-thirds of the way through. It’s a twisty, fast-paced read with revelations around every corner right from the beginning…and then in the last third, Barnes seriously steps up the ante even more and the book was impossible for me to put down until I finished. I’m not sure I even breathed for those last 150 pages or so.

The Fixer introduced us to teenage Tess, whom we discovered was the daughter (not the much younger sister) of Ivy Kendrick, a famous Washington, DC fixer. She goes to school at Hardwicke, where most of the children of Washington’s elite also attend. There, she helped unravel a conspiracy to murder a Supreme Court Justice while also helping her fellow students with their own fixes.

The Long Game starts off with Tess coming to terms with the realization that Ivy is her mother, and her parents (who have been dead for some time) are actually her grandparents. And of course, there’s another job for her: Emilia, the sister of Tess’ friend Asher, wants Tess to help her win the student council election. Tess doesn’t like Emilia that much, but she’s running against John Thomas Wilcox, who is kind of like a flying Texas cockroach, but worse. So she agrees to make it happen.

Like in the first book, Tess’ fixing “job” at school overlaps with Ivy’s own machinations. A bomb goes off at a local hospital and the terrorist they arrest has ties to the President’s eldest son. At the school, John Thomas steps up his game and starts threatening Emilia and Tess and their friends with whispers of blackmail. When researching how John Thomas might have come into possession of such information, the trail leads back to John Thomas’ father, a senator, who also may have some sort of connection to the arrested terrorist. Everything appears to be connected in some way, and Tess tries to figure out how and why as the stakes continue to rise. And Barnes pulls no punches in what she puts her characters through.

You know how in a lot of thrillers, the plotting is mostly good, but occasionally the only way to communicate necessary information to the reader is via infodump, or to have the main character do something stupid and out of character, or to have the villain monologue near the end? Barnes doesn’t need to do that. She is a master plotter and could school every other thriller writer whose work I’ve ever read. The details build on every single page, and they all cohere and make sense. Tess is smart and what she discovers fits with what she has learned before. There are multiple red herrings and possibilities, but then the puzzle pieces all come together at the end. Something you thought might be a throwaway line actually has meaning later on. A small, loose plot thread other authors might have left dangling turns out to be important. There are so many things going on, so much to figure out, that even if you guess some of it on your own, there’s still so much to be revealed. When I think of Barnes writing this novel, I envision her with a huge whiteboard and lots of lines connecting different ideas and characters and events together.

Not only is the book brilliantly plotted, it’s peopled with interesting, complex characters, Tess primary among them, but also Emilia and Henry, Tess’ potential love interest. The relationship between Tess and Ivy also deepens and possibly begins to heal, though it remains imperfect. There’s one big, unanswered question by the end, an opening for the third book, and I cannot wait to get my hands on it.

The Long Game hit shelves yesterday, and you should all do yourselves a favor and pick it up.

Bullet Journaling 101: My Process Revisited

June 6, 2016 |

Now that I’m well over a year deep into using a bullet journal for my everyday life management, and seeing that bullet journaling has become a hot and happening and trendy thing now (even BuzzFeed wrote an extensive image-driven post about how-to do it), I thought it would be worth revisiting what mine looks like for those who are curious about how it works, how you can modify it to make it your own, and why you absolutely do not need to buy a million fancy things to make this task system work for you.

I love looking at the bullet journals people post on Pinterest or on Instagram or on Tumblr or on Twitter. But something about seeing them over and over has bothered me a little bit — there’s been a weird need to make them super fancy, to create what amounts to an entire industry, over a task management system. No shame on those who love doing it, since I am a person who keeps numerous notebooks and art journals for various things, but I want to emphasize to anyone intimidated by the idea of bullet journaling to realize that the goal isn’t to make it fancy. It’s to make it functional for you. I am bare bones with my journal, and that works for me. I use only supplies around my house, and I don’t make anything fancy. I don’t even use a lot of the suggested setups that the original bullet journal video suggests. I tried some of these things out when I first began but soon realized that they do no work for me, my life, or how I think. So I ditched ’em.

There is no index at the beginning of my bullet journal. Instead, I just hop right into the monthly calendar.

I like a quick overview of some of the big events happening in the month ahead. I don’t feel the need to fill everything out. I included one note about a private yoga session I have, but otherwise, I don’t mark down on the overview when I’m going to work out or anything. That’s easier to implement in the day-by-day pages.

Immediately after the calendar for the month, I like to keep a running “read” and “to read” list. The read is straightforward, and the “to read” isn’t necessarily my agenda of reading, but books I’ve heard about or have nearing their expiration date on my Nook. As you can see in April, I read a lot, but I don’t have anything noted on the “to read.” I don’t use it as much as I want to, but I keep it there because there are times I think of something or need to make a note and want it where I know I’ll find it.

Following the books lists, I keep two or three pages with the super helpful and descriptive title “Notes.” This is where I keep notes to myself so I don’t have a million pieces of paper floating around. Above, you can see my flight and travel information for going to Providence in March. I marked it with a little washi tape so that when I was sitting in a cab, I could flip to that ASAP without juggling a lot of paper or searching. As you can see, too, I mark so little with tape or coloring that it stands out immediately.

I also like to keep a list of blog ideas in this section every month. This is so much easier than random bits of post-its, which was my prior method. Efficient, but not necessarily organized or useful when you have 50 of them floating around. Capturing all those ideas in a single space each month is actually useful.

And then here’s how I lay out my day-to-day pages. Every day gets a half of page on the journal, and I usually combine Saturdays and Sundays into one half-page, since those tend to require less “to do” space. Starred items are things that I have to do/are appointments, so I know those are priorities around which the other things will fit or fall. I cross off tasks as I complete them, and then I spend each evening or early morning choosing which tasks will get carried over and completed and which will be thrown away completely. I don’t have time to do everything I want, and it’s through bullet journaling I’ve learned how to pick and choose what gets done and what gets left behind.

Sometimes I keep additional notes to myself in the journal. On the top right is a card with some of the assignments for my photography class, and I keep it in the journal for quick access. I don’t want to lose it, but I haven’t gone out to tackle the assignments yet. I did the same thing with edits for Here We Are, in that I kept track of who sent back revisions or who I was waiting for stuff from on notes like that. Keeping everything in this journal saved me from never finding exactly what I needed when I needed it.

I keep my journal written out a month in advance, so the pages for June and July are done now, and next month, I’ll create August and September pages. I know a lot of people need more planning time than that for their lives, but I rely on reminders or my own brain for things (I can recall appointments and plans for months in advance in my head, and some places, like my dentist’s office, send me text reminders a week in advance). When there is something well in advance I need to keep in mind or fear I’ll forget, I’ll pull out a post-it or notecard and stick it in the journal like the photo assignment card above. Easy!

The very last page of each month, I create a “month in review” space. This is where I write about triumphs and things I accomplished that I want to remember come the end of 2016. I just spend a few minutes at the end of the month writing them down in a list and keeping it simple. It’s a really nice way to reflect on the achievements, rather than on the things that didn’t go so hot, during the month. One of those is more useful to remember and reflect upon than the other.

I have in the past also kept pages for logging workouts, but since working out is now a daily event in my life, I no longer feel the need to see my progress like that. I have a yoga routine and a cardio routine and they work for me without the log. But it’s never out of the question I might choose to implement it again. Same with a word count tracker for writing — keeping a running list of how many words I wrote per day was nice to see and motivating when I needed it.

And that’s the beauty of a bullet journal: there aren’t rules. You can do what you want and make it work for your life.

If you’re curious about what tools I use, it’s a grid-style large Moleskin, along with black Pilot V5 pens (my go-to for every kind of writing). Each month’s dates and titles I put in color from the Staedtler colored pen collection I have, and the washi tape I got at Target (the masking sticker set I got in a subscription box, but it’s $4 at Amazon). The little library checkout cards I got from Knot & Bow.

There is literally nothing else to my bullet journal. I do nothing fancy, I draw nothing wild, and I don’t feel compelled to do more than list stuff I need or want to get done. I am not a digital planner at all, despite being online all the time, and the bullet journal lets me manage my time and my life in really satisfying ways. I see stuff getting done, and I make conscious choices about time and energy use. I don’t separate work tasks from life tasks, since my time with work is fluid and working on all of those things within my day is my reality. Keeping separate logs would confuse me.

I don’t have any symbols or keys or page numbers or indexes. Minimalism is what works beautifully for me. Others find fancy and pretty works for them, and heck yes, I love looking at those works of art. But they just aren’t realistic for me and my life.

Do you bullet journal? What sorts of things do you track or keep notes about? If you use another method of managing your life, I’d love to hear about that, too.

This Week at Book Riot

June 3, 2016 |

Here’s what’s been happening over at Book Riot this last week . . .

I revisited the topic of abortion in YA fiction with three recent titles that tackle the heavy, hard, and realistic issue.

A look at literary Google Doodles from around the world. Seriously, these are so cool.

This week in reading:

I finished up Olivia Levez’s The Island which I am going to write more about soon. This is a female-centered adventure story from a small press and it’s OUTSTANDING.

I began reading Maggie Nelson’s The Argonauts, with the help of the furry beast above.

She decided on a nap, though, rather than story time.

Sherlock Holmes Retold

June 1, 2016 |

I don’t think there will ever be a time when we are not fascinated as a culture by Sherlock Holmes. There’s something about him that grabs onto our imaginations and won’t let go. Today’s writers are endlessly reimagining him and his associates in myriad ways – as a child, set in modern times, as a girl or woman, with children or descendants who solve their own mysteries, with paranormal powers, and on and on. After reading Brittany Cavallaro’s excellent A Study in Charlotte, I thought it would be useful to do a round-up of the more recent retellings and reimaginings of Sherlock for tweens and teens. With the BBC’s Sherlock still hugely popular (new season in 2017) and several new books out within the past two years, this is a good time to highlight these titles. These books would make a great display and are natural readalikes for each other.

Young Adult

A Study in Charlotte by Brittany Cavallaro

The last thing Jamie Watson wants is a rugby scholarship to Sherringford, a Connecticut prep school just an hour away from his estranged father. But that’s not the only complication: Sherringford is also home to Charlotte Holmes, the famous detective’s great-great-great-granddaughter, who has inherited not only Sherlock’s genius but also his volatile temperament. From everything Jamie has heard about Charlotte, it seems safer to admire her from afar. From the moment they meet, there’s a tense energy between them, and they seem more destined to be rivals than anything else. But when a Sherringford student dies under suspicious circumstances, ripped straight from the most terrifying of the Sherlock Holmes stories, Jamie can no longer afford to keep his distance. Jamie and Charlotte are being framed for murder, and only Charlotte can clear their names. But danger is mounting and nowhere is safe — and the only people they can trust are each other.

Boneseeker by Brynn Chapman

Arabella Holmes is different than other girls her age: She doesn’t fit the role of a 1900’s lady. So her father, Sherlock, called in some lingering favors, and landed her a position at the Mutter Museum. The museum was Arabella’s dream; she was to become a purveyor of abnormal science, or what her uncle called a Boneseeker. Henry Watson arrives at the Mutter Museum with a double assignment–to become a finder of abnormal antiquities and to watch over and keep Arabella Holmes. The two teens are assigned to a most secret exploration, when the hand of a Nephilim is unearthed in upstate New York. Soon, Arabella and Henry are caught in a fight for their lives as scientific debate swirls around them. Are the bones from a Neanderthal … or are they living proof of fallen angels, who supposedly mated with humans according to ancient scrolls? Sent to recover the skeleton, they discover they are the second team to have been deployed and the entire first team is dead. And now they must trust their instincts and rely on one another in order to survive and uncover the truth.

The Lazarus Machine by Paul Crilley

In an alternate 1899 London, seventeen-year-old Sebastian Tweed searches for his kidnapped father, uncovering both a horrific technological secret and a political conspiracy that could destroy the British Empire. | Sequel: The Osiris Curse

The Clockwork Scarab by Colleen Gleason

In 1889 London young women are turning up dead, and Evaline Stoker, relative of Bram, and Mina Holmes, niece of Sherlock, are summoned to investigate the clue of the not-so-ancient Egyptian scarabs–but where does a time traveler fit in? | Sequels: The Spiritglass Charade, The Chess Queen Enigma

Death Cloud by Andy Lane

In 1868, with his army officer father suddenly posted to India, and his mother mysteriously “unwell,” fourteen-year-old Sherlock Holmes is sent to stay with his eccentric uncle and aunt in their vast house in Farnham, where he uncovers his first murder and a diabolical villain. | Sequels: Seven of them!

Every Breath by Ellie Marney

Rachel Watts is an unwilling new arrival to Melbourne from the country. James Mycroft is her neighbour, an intriguingly troubled seventeen-year-old genius with a passion for forensics. Despite her misgivings, Rachel finds herself unable to resist Mycroft when he wants her help investigating a murder. And when Watts and Mycroft follow a trail to the cold-blooded killer, they find themselves in the lion’s den – literally. A night at the zoo will never have quite the same meaning again. | Sequels: Every Word, Every Move

Lock and Mori by Heather W. Petty

In modern-day London, sixteen-year-old Miss James “Mori” Moriarty is looking for an escape from her recent past and spiraling home life when she takes classmate Sherlock Holmes up on his challenge to solve a murder mystery. | Sequel: Mind Games, out September 13

Jackaby by William Ritter

Newly arrived in 1892 New England, Abigail Rook becomes assistant to R.F. Jackaby, an investigator of the unexplained with the ability to see supernatural beings, and she helps him delve into a case of serial murder which, Jackaby is convinced, is due to a nonhuman creature. | Sequels: Beastly Bones, Ghostly Echoes, out August 23

Secret Letters by Leah Scheier

Sixteen-year-old Dora travels to London to meet Sherlock Holmes, who might be her biological father, and ask his help for her cousin who is being blackmailed over some stolen letters, but although Holmes dies before she arrives, a handsome young detective comes to Dora’s aid.

Middle Grade

The Dark Lady by Irene Adler

While on summer vacation at the seaside, twelve-year-old Irene Adler meets the young Sherlock Holmes, and his friend Arsène Lupin–and when a dead body floats ashore the three young friends set out to solve the mystery.

The 100-Year-Old Secret by Tracy Barrett

Xena and Xander Holmes, an American brother and sister living in London for a year, discover that Sherlock Holmes was their great-great-great grandfather when they are inducted into the Society for the Preservation of Famous Detectives and given his unsolved casebook, from which they attempt to solve the case of a famous missing painting. | Sequels: The Beast of Backslope, The Case That Time Forgot, The Missing Heir

Eye of the Crow by Shane Peacock

Sherlock Holmes, just 13, is a misfit. His highborn mother is the daughter of an aristocratic family, his father a poor Jew. Their marriage flouts tradition, makes them social pariahs in the London of the 1860s; and son Sherlock bears the burden of their rebellion. Friendless, bullied at school, he belongs nowhere and has only his wits to help him make his way. But what wits he has! His keen powers of observation are already apparent, though he is still a boy. He loves to amuse himself by constructing histories from the smallest detail for everyone he meets. Partly for fun, he focuses his attention on a sensational murder to see if he can solve it. But his game turns deadly serious when he finds himself the accused, and in London, they hang boys of thirteen. | Sequels: Five of them!

The Case of the Missing Marquess by Nancy Springer

Enola Holmes, much younger sister of detective Sherlock Holmes, must travel to London in disguise to unravel the disappearance of her mother. | Sequels: Five of them!

May 2016 Debut YA Novels

May 30, 2016 |

It’s time for another round-up of debut YA novels of the month. Like always, this round-up includes debut novels, where “debut” is in its purest definition. These are first-time books by first-time authors. I’m not including books by authors who are using or have used a pseudonym in the past or those who have written in other categories (adult, middle grade, etc.) in the past. Authors who have self-published are not included here either.

All descriptions are from WorldCat or Goodreads, unless otherwise noted. If I’m missing any debuts out in May from traditional publishers — and I should clarify that indie presses are okay — let me know in the comments.

As always, not all noted titles included here are necessarily endorsements for those titles. Get ready to get reading. It’s a busy month (and June will be, too)!

26 Kisses by Anna Michels

When Veda’s boyfriend unceremoniously dumps her right after graduation, she embarks on a summer love quest to move on and move up: kiss 26 boys, one for each letter of the alphabet

The Crown’s Game by Evelyn Skye

Vika Andreyeva can summon the snow and turn ash into gold. Nikolai Karimov can see through walls and conjure bridges out of thin air. They are the only enchanters in Russia, and when the Ottoman Empire and the Kazakhs threaten to attack, the tsar wants a powerful enchanter by his side, and as an advisor for the prince, Pasha. He initiates the Crown’s Game, a duel of magical skill, and the winner will become his Imperial Enchanter; the loser will die. For Vika and Nikolai, the game is a chance of a lifetime, but they come to realize that their growing regard for each other makes the game impossible to win. And as long-buried secrets emerge, threatening the future of the empire, it becomes increasingly clear to them that the Crown’s Game is not one to lose.

Devil and the Bluebird by Jennifer Mason-Black

Blue Riley has wrestled with demons ever since the loss of her mother to cancer. But when she encounters a beautiful devil at her town crossroads, it’s her runaway sister’s soul she fights to save. The devil steals Blue’s voice—inherited from her musically gifted mother—in exchange for a single shot at finding Cass

Draw the Line by Laurent Linn (technically, this might not be a debut novel, depending upon how a licensed board book credit in 2000 might be attributed, but I’m including it)

A teen boy survives a hate crime against another gay student through his art.

Even if the Sky Falls by Mia Garcia

When Julie takes a break from helping her youth group rebuild houses in New Orleans, she meets and falls in love with Miles and together they must survive a hurricane.

Everland by Wendy Spinale

London is a ruin, destroyed by German bombs, ravaged by the Horologia virus, and ruled by the ruthless Captain Hanz Otto Oswald Kretschmer, whose Marauders search for and seize the children who are immune to the virus in the hope that their blood will produce a cure–their latest victim is sixteen-year-old Gwen Darling’s younger sister and Gwen will do anything to get her back, even join up with Pete and his gang of Lost Boys living in a city hidden underground.

Frannie and Tru by Karen Hattrup

When Frannie Little eavesdrops on her parents fighting she discovers that her cousin Truman is gay, and his parents are so upset they are sending him to live with her family for the summer. At least, that’s what she thinks the story is. . . When he arrives, shy Frannie befriends this older boy, who is everything that she’s not–rich, confident, cynical, sophisticated. Together, they embark on a magical summer marked by slowly unraveling secrets.

If I Was Your Girl by Meredith Russo

Amanda Hardy only wants to fit in at her new school, but she is keeping a big secret, so when she falls for Grant, guarded Amanda finds herself yearning to share with him everything about herself, including her previous life as Andrew.

Jerkbait by Mia Siegert

Even though they’re identical, Tristan isn’t close to his twin Robbie at all—until Robbie tries to kill himself.

Forced to share a room to prevent Robbie from hurting himself, the brothers begin to feel the weight of each other’s lives on the ice, and off. Tristan starts seeing his twin not as a hockey star whose shadow Tristan can’t escape, but a struggling gay teen terrified about coming out in the professional sports world. Robbie’s future in the NHL is plagued by anxiety and the mounting pressure from their dad, coach, and scouts, while Tristan desperately fights to create his own future, not as a hockey player but a musical theatre performer.

As their season progresses and friends turn out to be enemies, Robbie finds solace in an online stranger known only as “Jimmy2416.” Between keeping Robbie’s secret and saving him from taking his life, Tristan is given the final call: sacrifice his dream for a brother he barely knows, or pursue his own path. How far is Robbie willing to go—and more importantly, how far is Tristan willing to go to help him?

Love & Gelato by Jenna Evans Welch

After her mother dies, Lina travels to Italy where she discovers her mother’s journal and sets off on an adventure to unearth her mother’s secrets.

The May Queen Murders by Sarah Jude

When her beloved cousin goes missing after a May Day celebration, sixteen-year-old Ivy discovers that both her cousin and her hometown in the Missouri Ozarks are as full of secrets as the woods that surround them.

The Only Thing Worse Than Me Is You by Lily Anderson

After years of competing against each other, Trixie and Ben form a fandom-based tentative friendship when their best friends start dating each other, but after Trixie’s friend gets expelled for cheating they have to choose which side they are on.

Please Don’t Tell by Laura Tims

Joy must deal with a blackmailer after the harm inflicted on her sister at a party by a perpetrator who ends up dead.

The Star Touched Queen by Roshani Chokshi

Sixteen-year-old Maya’s arranged marriage turns out much better than she expected, but her husband’s magic–and her curiosity–may threaten more than her life.

The Square Root of Summer by Harriet Reuter Hapgood

Gottie Oppenheimer, a seventeen-year-old physics prodigy, navigates grief, love, and disruptions in the space-time continuum in one very eventful summer.

Suffer Love by Ashley Herring Blake

Hadley St. Clair’s life changed the day she came home to a front door covered in slips of paper, each of them revealing the ugly truth about her father. Now as her family falls apart in the wake of his year-long affair, Hadley wants everyone–her dad most of all–to leave her alone. Then she meets Sam Bennett, a cute new boy who inexplicably “feels like home” to Hadley. Hadley and Sam’s connection is undeniable, but Sam has a secret about his family that could ruin everything.

Summer of Sloane by Erin L. Schneider

Seventeen-year-old Sloane McIntyre spends a summer in Hawaii as she deals with being betrayed by both her boyfriend and her best friend, and she and her twin brother, Penn, begin new, complicated, romances.

Summer of Supernovas by Darcy Woods

As the daughter of an astrologer, Wilamena Carlisle knows the truth lies within the stars, so when she discovers a rare planetary alignment she is forced to tackle her worst astrological fear– The Fifth House of Relationships and Love– but Wil must decide whether a cosmically doomed love is worth rejecting her mother’s legacy when she falls for a sensitive guitar player.

This Is the Part Where You Laugh by Peter Brown Hoffmeister

Rising sophomore Travis and his best friend, Creature, spend a summer in a Eugene, Oregon, trailer park dealing with cancer, basketball, first love, addiction, gang violence, and a reptilian infestation.

Wandering Wild by Jessica Taylor

A teenage girl from a family of Wanderers must choose between the hustling, rambling way of life she has always known and the townie boy for whom she falls.