Love & Olives (book 3) by Jenna Evans Welch

 The third book in this series is really a stand alone.  Olive doesn't really know her dad because he left when she was 8.  She has moved around with her mom and now lives with her stepdad and younger step brother and her mom is pregnant.  Olive has re-imaged her self into Liv, but can't be honest with her friends and boyfriend about her past self.  As Liv has plans for the summer they are interrupted by a postcard and plane ticket to visit her father in Greece!  She does NOT want to go, but her mother insists.  As she travels to Greece and meets her dad, she can't help but feel anger, insecurity, and sad about missing out on the relationship with her dad all those years.  She meets Theo, whose mom owns a bookshop with her dad.  Theo tries to help Liv see that her dad never forgot her and throughout the book Liv learns/ remembers about her dad and why he left in the first place.  

Good book, but by this one for me was a little formulaic.  It would be fine for any middle school student to read.  

Love & Other Detours by Jenna Evans Welch

This book is a two in one.  Welch's first novel Love & Gelato focuses on Lina, whose  mother just died from cancer, traveling to Italy to spend the summer or longer with her dad, who she never even knew existed.  Lina is not thrilled to go to Italy, but she promised her mother she would.  She is leaving her best friend, Addie, and all their summer plans.  As she arrives in Italy, she discovers she will be living in a cemetery that is a memorial for WWII American soldiers killed there.  Ugh.  She also discovers one of her mother's journals and with the help of a neighbor, Ren, starts to research into how her mother lived in Italy and met her father and why she left.  

The second book Love & Luck features Addie and her travels to Ireland to celebrate her Aunt's wedding.  While there she is supposed to visit Lina in Italy for a few days, but her brother, Ian, makes a change in plans when he and Addie get into a fight at their aunt's wedding and their mother puts strict restrictions on them.  Addie has a secret that Ian knows and thinks she should tell their mother about, but Addie just can't!!  She hasn't even told Lina!  As Addie misses her flight to Italy because of Ian and his friend, Rowan, Lina makes a plan to come to Ireland with Ren to see Addie.  As Addie, Ian, and Rowan travel across Ireland together, she ends up learning about herself and that she is more than she thought she was.  

The first book is fine for middle school.  I would say the second is as well, but I would feel more comfortable with 7th or 8th and up because of the nature of sending some photos to boys.  

 

The Silver Arrow by Lev Grossman

 Kate writes to her Uncle Herbert, that she doesn't know at all, and asks for him to send her a birthday present.  He sends her one the next day.  A steam engine train called The Silver Arrow.  She and her younger brother Tom are exploring the engine, when it begins moving.  Their Uncle Herbert tries to catch up to them, but he can't.  Kate and Tom arrive at a station where a bunch of animals are waiting for the train with tickets in their mouths.  They said a train hasn't come by for 30 years and that the kids need to go to the yard to get other train cars.  Uncle Herbert meets them there and helps them "build" their train by choosing sleeper cars, dining cars, candy cars, swimming pool cars, etc.  As they embark on their journey Uncle Herbert tells them to keep a look out for the twilight star.  

Lots of adventure and lessons learned about taking care of our planet, BUT not overwhelming or put me off.  I really enjoyed it.  

Ali Cross by James Patterson

Ali Cross is the son of the famous Washington DC detective Alex Cross.  Ali's friend Gabe goes missing after school before Christmas Break.  That night Ali's house gets broken into and his laptop and also Alex and Bri's police weapons!  As he hunts for Gabe and enlists his friends to help, he begins to see that the robberies and Gabe being missing are somehow tied together. As Ali keeps digging he puts himself in danger and also has to deal with his dad being accused of hurting someone in the line of duty. 

I listened to the audiobook and really enjoyed the narrators.  Great book for diversity, mystery, and action.  

 

The Inheritance Games by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

 Avery Kylie Grambs goes from living in her car to her inheriting millions.  Tobias Hawthorne has pretty much disinherited his family and given all the money, house, cars, everything to Avery.  Her half-sister Libby is also moving in with her to Hawthorne House.  As Avery adjusts to this new life, she is also in danger.  Someone does not want her to have the inheritance and the options are endless with who it could be.  

Filled with puzzles, clues, and lots of action it gives lots of mystery and solving.  I loved it!  There will be a sequel and I can't wait. 

Whispering Pines by Heidi Lang & Kati Bartkowski

In the vein of Stranger Things type story with other dimensions...

Rae's dad went missing and her mom has moved them to Whispering Pines.  But there are weird goings-on there.  The summer before four kids were playing hide and seek and three of them ended up with their eyes missing... the fourth was left behind.  Caden is Rae's neighbor and kind of a loner who is considered weird because he has psychic abilities, his mother talks to ghosts, and he sprinkles salt to ward off evil.  But Caden also has a deep secret that he will need to share with Rae and his mother before they will be able to solve what is happening in the town.  

Great supernatural story, some gory parts (eyes missing), lots of action and mystery to solve.  Looking forward to the sequel.  

 

Scritch Scratch by Lindsay Currie

 

Scriiiiiitch Scraaaaatch...... 

Claire is a scientist, but her dad is a paranormal expert.  He has started his own ghost tour in Chicago and Claire has to end up helping him when the normal person can't.  She is mortified.  Claire is also dealing with her best friend, who seems to be making a new best friend.  As Claire finishes helping her dad with the tour she sees a little boy on the bus, but there were no kids on the tour.... The next thing you know weird things are happening:  marker writing on the wall, bathrooms flooding, broken picture frames.  Claire with the help of her brother Sam will have to find out what the ghost wants and Claire will have to learn to not judge people based on their first impression.  

Loved this for middle school.  Spooky factor, friendship struggles, has a crush on a boy, and just general middle school growing up struggles.  I also really loved learning about some Chicago history and things I didn't know.  

Shadow School: Dehaunting by J. A White

 Cordelia, Benji and Agnes are back. They discover the school has a dehaunter, which will send ghosts to their Brights and the kids won’t have to do that anymore, but as they try to finish building it based on Elijah’s plans things start to go wrong. They don’t know who they can trust or what exactly is going on. On top of all that Benji has a new friend, Viviana, and could it be that Cordelia is a little jealous?

Not as good as the first one, but I still enjoyed it and flew right through it.

Now That I've Found You by Kristina Forest

What a great little book! Evie realizes her best friend has stabbed her in the back and as she tries to rebuild her life discovers herself on the journey with the help of her Gigi, Milo, and learning to trust again.

The Collector by K. R.. Alexander

 Josie feels alone.  She feels like her sister doesn't like her, her mother is busy, and her grandmother lives too far away, but she feels closest to her.  When her grandmother dies the family has to go get the house in order for selling.  Josie's sister, Annie, seems to be keeping things from her and reminds Josie of their grandmother's rules:  don't go into the woods, don't bring dolls into the house and don't leave the windows open.  Of course Josie ends up breaking all the rules and stirs up something evil and she and her sister have to try to put things back to right before they disappear!

The Puppet's Payback and other Chilling Tales by Mary Downing Hahn

Well, I love me some scary stories.  This was a great compilation of lots of weird, scary tales.  I was drawn in right away and couldn't put it down. Not all the stories are scary, but all of them have the woo woo factor.  The author also gives a Q & A at the end of how she comes up with her stories.  

Story titles in the book are: The Number Seven Bus; 213 Poplar Street; The Grounding of Theresa; Trouble Afoot; The Puppet's Payback; The Little Blue Jacket; The Last House on Cresent Road; The Thirteenth Pigeon

 

The Sisters of Straygarden Place by Hayley Chewins

 Mayhap is the middle sister.  Her older sister is Winnow and younger sister is Pavonine.  Their parents left a while ago and never came back, but told them to never leave the house or go into the tall grass. The house has taken care of their every need since.  Mayhap sees Winnow go into the grass and decides she will go out and look for her, but doesn't make it very far before the grass attacks her.  As Winnow returns that evening things turn for the worse.  Winnow becomes sick and starts to turn silver.  Mayhap starts to investigate things within the house and finds out how her parents came to be there, what happened to other occupants of the house and who she truly is.  

I really was intrigued by the summary of the book, but I just didn't love it.  It had good character development, a twisty middle/ end and lots of mystery/ clues, but it just didn't do it for me.