Wow, I really liked the beginning of this book. I thought I was actually in the van for a while and then at times, I thought I personally knew one of the kids in the story for when I was growing up, I was church rat. While many of my friends were out in the street playing, or doing sports after school, or having sleepovers on Saturday night or sleeping in on Sunday mornings, I was at church. I spent a lot of time at church and at church functions. I didn’t realize what “things” I was missing out on until I was in my teens and then I started to whine, so when I started to read this novel, I thought for sure this book was written for me. Abigail and her brother Aaron are headed to California with their parents for the world was coming to an end, according to Brother John. All their worldly possessions were in the van and their parents are committed to God’s plan and Brother John’s ways. Abigail knows her family is not normal and that is what she likes about them. Immediately, I love the tension between this family. The parents are committed to the church, their love of God and they have their path set on what Brother John says. Aaron is Abigail’s older brother and he is not buying any of it, he is secretly committed to getting back home and hopefully taking his little sister Abigail with him. Abigail is torn between her love of her parents, her brother and God. Abigail feels that perhaps God is watching and testing them, these fears are plaguing her and tearing her up inside. The author’s writing style is smooth and lucid and the words flow right off the page. There are times when I am transported back to the church pews of my childhood and I am listening to Brother John talk of salvation and as the words scroll in black across the white pages, I can feel the energy of the congregation and the anticipation as they await he words he feels in his heart.  As the story progressed, I felt that the story lost its momentum, the energy died and with me, I was left disappointed as I loved the beginning so much.  

You choose if you are happy. Only you can let somebody take it away from you Abigail.”

Guess what?

I've been blogging for about four years now.

WHAAAAAAAT.

Okay, so I don't know the exact date because I remember deleting some of my very first posts (I mean, c'mon, who doesn't get embarrassed by their earlier work?)... buuuut I know that I started blogging in March and we're here to celebrate!

First I'd like to thank all of you for being so wonderful <3. Readers, friends. There's no doubt that I would not have continued all these years were it not for the community and you wonderful, wonderful people. Thanks!

Second let's hope it's "four years and counting." I have no plans to quit any time soon, but I do wonder whether I'll be able to keep up with blogging if I get accepted into graduate school.

Third let's not dwell on those sad things. Let's celebrate!

I posted about the February YA Buzz Books from HarperCollins in my February Recap.

Abigail’s parents have made mistake after mistake, and now they've lost everything. She’s left to decide: Does she still believe in them? Or is it time to believe in herself? Fans of Sara Zarr, David Levithan, and Rainbow Rowell will connect with this moving debut.

Abigail doesn't know how her dad found Brother John. Maybe it was the billboards. Or the radio. What she does know is that he never should have made that first donation. Or the next, or the next. Her parents shouldn't have sold their house. Or packed Abigail and her twin brother, Aaron, into their old van to drive across the country to San Francisco, to be there with Brother John for the "end of the world." Because of course the end didn't come. And now they're living in their van. And Aaron’s disappearing to who-knows-where every night. Their family is falling apart. All Abigail wants is to hold them together, to get them back to the place where things were right. But maybe it’s too big a task for one teenage girl. Bryan Bliss’s thoughtful, literary debut novel is about losing everything—and about what you will do for the people you love. 

The girl known as Gretchen Whitestone has a secret: She used to be part of Adolf Hitler’s inner circle. More than a year after she made an enemy of her old family friend and fled Munich, she lives with a kindly English family, posing as an ordinary German immigrant, and is preparing to graduate from high school. Her love, Daniel Cohen, is a reporter in town. For the first time in her life, Gretchen is content.

But then, Daniel gets a telegram that sends him back to Germany, and Gretchen’s world turns upside-down. And when she receives word that Daniel is wanted for murder, she has to face the danger she thought she’d escaped-and return to her homeland.

Gretchen must do everything she can to avoid capture and recognition, even though saving Daniel will mean consorting with her former friends, the Nazi elite. And as they work to clear Daniel’s name, Gretchen and Daniel discover a deadly conspiracy stretching from the slums of Berlin to the Reichstag itself. Can they dig up the explosive truth and get out in time-or will Hitler discover them first?

What if, after spending a lifetime deceiving everyone around you, you discovered the biggest lies were the ones you've told yourself?

Grace Fontaine has everything: beauty, money, confidence, and the perfect family.

But it’s all a lie.

Grace has been adopted into a family of thieves who con affluent people out of money, jewelry, art, and anything else of value. Grace has never had any difficulty pulling off a job, but when things start to go wrong on the Fontaines' biggest heist yet, Grace finds herself breaking more and more of the rules designed to keep her from getting caught...including the most important one of all: never fall for your mark.

Perfect for fans of Ally Carter, Cecily von Ziegesar, and Gail Carriger, this thrilling, high-stakes novel deftly explores the roles of identity and loyalty while offering a window into the world of the rich and fabulous.

A lot here to think about when it comes to parents, privilege & religion.

Yes, I don't like it, but I'm doing it: reading 3 books at once.

Here's how it works:

- the nonfiction to go to sleep

- because Outlander and No Parking At The End Times kept me up LATE

- Outlander, though, I can only read when the mister isn't using his Nook, because though I own a copy, it's in storage while we remodel and I couldn't RESIST buying the e-version so I could read along while watching the television series

- the nonfiction is due in like two minutes

- that is why I'm juggling all three

- this is like some kind of logic problem on the GRE