"Runaway", Wendelin Van Draanen (YA-realistic fiction)

"Runaway" is written in journal style and is about a 12 year old girl who is an orphan after her mother over-doses.  She is sent into various foster homes.  Her current home is where this journal begins.  Her foster parents are horrible and lock her into her "room" which is a cold laundry room with nothing more than a thin blanket and a bucket to use if she need to use the bathroom.  Her only way to get water to drink is to turn on the washing machine and drink that water.  After being sani-flushed and starved for the day because she objected to her creepy step-father's overtures, she runs away and manages to successfully get to Los Angeles.  This journal details her adventures for almost a year of living on the streets, including the perils and dangers of being 12 and living on your own with no means of support other than what you can steal or manipulate from people.  All in all, this is an excellent portrayal (if a little sanitized) of the dangers homeless people face as well as the problems with the social services system.

"Lush", Natasha Friend (YA - Realistic Fiction)

Natasha Friend has a series for young adults that helps them deal with serious issues and concerns.  "Lush" is about a girl whose father is an alcoholic and whose mother keeps enabling his drinking.  She has no one to turn to and starts corresponding with an unknown person by exchanging notes placed in a book in the library.  Through these notes, the other person reveals that they are gay and their families issues with this as well.  Things come to a head when the girl's father bashes her baby brother's face with a whiskey bottle to the point of breaking his cheekbone and requiring stitches.  Can the father stop drinking?  Can their relationship be repaired?  In the back of the book are also resources for young adults dealing with these types of issues.

The other books in the series are "Bounce" (about adapting to life with step-parents and step-siblings) and "Perfect" (about eating disorders and the pressures to be perfect).

"Hunted", P.C. & Kristin Cast (YA-Fantasy)

"Hunted" is the latest in the "House of Night" series by P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast.  I found this latest installment to be mildly interesting.  While I enjoy the series, and think the plot lines and character development are interesting, this particular novel didn't add much to the story.  It was almost as though they were setting it up for future novels, but it didn't really go anywhere.  Honestly, I was a little disappointed with this one.

"City of Bones", Cassandra Clare (YA-Fantasy)

I thought "City of Bones" was pretty good.  Interesting storyline and characters, but a lot of serious foreshadowing going on.  I also found that I started skimming for dialog and skipping a lot of the descriptions as it was dragging the flow of the book under.  It is the first installment in the Mortal Instruments series, so maybe they were just setting up the other books.  It was good enough that I'll be reading the rest in the series when I get a chance.  I'd probably put it at 3.5/5 stars, if it was a rating system.  Young adults would probably love it, but I'm a little more finicky.

"Sizzle", Julie Garwood (Adult-Romance/Mystery)

I enjoyed "Sizzle".  It wasn't anything out of this world, but the story was interesting and had a nice twist in the end, and I liked the character development as well.  There were a few humorous lines and the sex scenes weren't over the top, but nicely done as well without all the graphic language that many authors are using these days.  Julie Garwood's books are light, entertaining and always a nice vacation for the mind.

"Elphame's Choice", P.C. Cast (Young Adult-Fantasy)

I've read all but the last book in P.C. and Kristin Cast's "House of Night" series and enjoyed them.  However, I'm finding it difficult to get through "Elphame's Choice".  The world seems interesting, but I'm simply not connecting with any of the characters and finding myself bored.  I'm not sure what the issue is really.  It may be too much description and not enough dialog, or just that I'm not seeing the point of the plot, but I put this one down after reading 1/3 of the book and I really don't care how it ends.

Zipper Ties?

In a non-book related vein...ever heard of "zipper ties"?  I encountered them while shopping with the family this weekend and bought two!  Great idea!  They look like traditional ties that have already been knotted/tied, but with a twist.  They are created with a zipper built into the tail end.  You flip the zipper lock on the tail, then you can make the noose bigger or smaller without fear of it coming untied.  Then flip the zipper lock back into "locked" position and you're good to go!  My hubby says the inventor deserves to be a millionaire. 

"Never After", anthology (Adult-Fantasy)

I'm enjoying many of the short stories in the "Never After" anthology by Laurell K Hamilton, Yasmine Galenorn, Marjorie M Liu and Sharon Shinn.  I love the fairy tales with a twist idea, where the heroine never ends up with the guy with whom she would have traditionally fallen head over heals in love.  In particular, I enjoyed Hamilton's fairytale as it reminded me of her earlier Anita Blake novels where the plot revolved around a murder mystery, as opposed to being all about relationships and sex.  Recommended for anyone looking to explore some new authors, although not an accurate telling of their current books.  Still, if you enjoy one of the authors, there's a chance you may find another to try out.  I highly recommend local libraries for forays into authors that you've never read before.  Might as well find out if you enjoy their longer works before you invest money into them!

"Magic to the Bone" by Devon Monk (Adult - Fantasy)

Pretty good read actually.  This is a new author to me and I found her writing to be quite engaging.  She created a new world with an interesting female protagonist.  Decent character development and plot lines as well as witty dialog.  To summarize, it's a world where everyone can access and use magic, however the magic comes with a personal price.  If you don't feel like paying the price and don't pay much attention to legality, you can offload it onto an innocent bystander.  Allie Beckstrom's job is to hunt down these heinous criminals and bring them to justice.  But what happens if the jerk is her own father?  Beware, not everything is as it seems when corporate spies get involved.