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Brief synopsis (no spoilers) A ruthless King keeps his subjects in line by fear- fear of his magical ability and fear of being thrown into the river, over a waterfall. A Duke in his kingdom has committed treason, so the King holds his youngest son, Owen, as a hostage. Owen must learn to navigate the treacherous waters of court by himself, because his parents are in danger of being executed for their crimes. He quickly meets allies, but can they be trusted? Category YA fiction, Fantasy Why I chose this book Kindle First My personal opinion (the review) This book is excellent! I am really looking forward to more of the series being released, later this year. The plot is interesting, the details of the fantasy world are clear and believable, and Owen is a marvelous character. The content is completely clean, but it's not so sanitized as to become boring. There's intrigue and a love story and spies and plots within plots. Well done! I plan to purchase subsequent books ...

Brief synopsis (no spoilers): Post-apocalyptic world where everyone has a surgery that makes them perfectly pretty when they turn 16. Tally is one of the last of her year in school to turn pretty. When she makes friends with Shay she learns about a group of people who have refuse to have the surgery and run away to live in a place called the Smoke. This knowledge turns Tally's whole world upside down and Tally must make some hard decisions about moving forward.  Category: YA Why I chose this book: Had started the series before and wanted to give it another try.  My personal opinion (the review): In our modern world where sometimes it seems that beauty is everything, who wouldn't want a surgery that would make everyone beautiful, slender, and muscular for the rest of their lives. However, it's so scary to think what we might be willing to give up for the price of beauty. And the lengths that some might go for control. Overall not a top favorite, but an interesting read....

Summary: Short biographies on the path that 15 orchestra members took to get to the New York Philharmonic  Attention Span/reading level: 8+ - very short,around 5 pages, per section. Easy to understand language and explanation of musical terms.  Good uses for book in teaching: Practice strategies, persistence/not giving up, working hard to achieve something, giving up one favorite activity to focus on another.  Favorite part: Seeing that not all of these musicians started playing their chosen instrument very early in life and through hard work they were still able to achieve something great.  Least favorite part?  W arnings/negative feedback?: None.  Review: I really enjoyed this short insight into these 15 musicians. The chapters were short enough that you didn't get bogged down in them, but long enough to get a feel for their story and their view on things. As noted above it was really nice to see that it didn't come easy to all of t...

Brief synopsis (no spoilers) Zoey and a handful of young women are the only recent females to be born within the last number of years. Something happened to the human race that caused a dearth of female babies. The world roped into chaos. This small group is the last hope of humanity to rebuild. They're kept in a facility called the ARC by an organization named the NOA. They're protected, but they are not free. Category Fiction, Dystopian, Post Apocalyptic Why I chose this book Kindle First My personal opinion (the review) As the story progresses, the language and adult situations taper off. The last half of the book was quite good, aside from the violence and death. But I cannot recommend the book, due to the first half. The intimate scene was not essential to the story line, or could have been referenced in less detail. The foul language could have been left out entirely, with no negative impact. The violence and death typically come with the dystopian, post apoc...