Review Songs for a Teenage Nomad by Kim Culbertson

 After living in twelve places in eight years, Calle Smith finds herself in Andreas Bay, California, at the start of ninth grade. Another new home, another new school...Calle knows better than to put down roots. Her song journal keeps her moving to her own soundtrack, bouncing through a world best kept at a distance.

Yet before she knows it, friends creep in-as does an unlikely boy with a secret. Calle is torn over what may be her first chance at love. With all that she's hiding and all that she wants, can she find something lasting beyond music? And will she ever discover why she and her mother have been running in the first place?

Music is a fluid and changing part of everyone’s life. Songs, are a time machine whisking you away to a memory long gone allowing you to relive the beauty or the pain, laughter or tears. In Songs for a Teenage Nomad, Calle knows the power of songs; she keeps the memories of them in her song journal the only constant in her life besides her mother. It is through this journal that we get a glimpse of the difficult life Calle has had with her mother. Their constant moves from place to place and guy to guy. Being the new kid all the time, Calle has learned not to put down roots or expect to be anything other than a loner.  

Kim Culbertson has a way with words and we see this through Calle’s voice, which despite the life she has lived is strong and sure. This is a girl who has learned to never totally unpack her belongings or get too attached to the men in her mother’s lives because the places they move to and the guys never last too long. But when they move to Andreas Bay, and Calle suddenly finds herself making friends, she allows herself to hope that maybe things will change.

There is no doubt that anyone reading this book will have a hard time understanding Calle’s mother. I felt horrified at what she has put her daughter through. I was also very upset when Calle begins to question her mother about her father and her mother refused to answer her questions. Calle was old enough to learn the truth especially when it comes to light that the moves had more to do with Calle than her mother.

One thing I did had a problem with in this book was Calle’s relationship with Sam and Eli. While Sam is the boy Calle is truly interested in, I felt that her desperate need was not in keeping with Calle’s strong personality. Sam’s on again off again attention made me what to shake Calle and tell her to get over him, especially when Eli, who was a sweetheart, was right there and wanted to hook up. But the heart wants what it wants, and Calle’s heart wanted Sam. Culbertson does eventually show us the reason behind Sam’s behavior, which helped me to accept Sam’s treatment of Calle, but by that time (judgmental gal that I am) I had already dismissed Sam as the right guy for Calle.

The story’s wrap up was a bit too pat for me, but I was still satisfied that Calle, her mother, and Sam all grew in a substantial way. The book left on a note of hope that Calle’s life would change for the better and that the songs that so often brought memories of sadness and change would begin to sing of new and better possibilities.

ReviewCate of the Lost Colony by Lisa Klein

Lady Catherine is one of Queen Elizabeth's favorite court maidens—until her forbidden romance with Sir Walter Ralegh is discovered. In a bitter twist of irony, the jealous queen banishes Cate to Ralegh's colony of Roanoke, in the New World. Ralegh pledges to come for Cate, but as the months stretch out, Cate begins to doubt his promise and his love. Instead, it is Manteo, a Croatoan Indian, whom the colonists—and Cate—increasingly turn to. Yet just as Cate's longings for England and Ralegh fade and she discovers a new love in Manteo, Ralegh will finally set sail for the New World.

Seamlessly weaving together fact with fiction, Lisa Klein's newest historical drama is an engrossing tale of adventure and forbidden love—kindled by one of the most famous mysteries in American history: the fate of the settlers at Roanoke, who disappeared without a trace forty years before the Pilgrims would set foot in Plymouth. (Publisher's summary from Goodreads)

Over the course of several years in my teaching career, I taught a couple of sections of eighth grade social studies, which consists of early American history. The mystery behind the complete disappearance of the settlers at Roanoke has always intrigued me. Lisa Klein’s Cate of the Lost Colony provides not only an interesting and even probable explanation to the settlers’ fate, but also a keen look into Queen Elizabeth’s court and politics.

While the story primarily centers around Cate, a fictional character whose father’s service to Queen Elizabeth lands her a position as the Queen’s lady-in-waiting, Klein skillfully weaves both Sir Walter Ralegh’s and Manteo’s, a Native American Croatan, into the fiction, providing the reader with a fascinating account of the events that lead up to the colony’s extinction.  Although, the story’s pace is slow, I appreciated how Klein alternated between Cate’s point of view and both Ralegh’s, and Manteo’s thoughts. I felt this provided a more in depth view of the events without bogging down the story and gave it a more personal feel. 

But what worked best for me was Cate’s characterization.  Cate is a strong and a very courageous young lady. She is honest to a fault and does not fit well into the intrigue of Queen Elizabeth’s court. There were however, times when I thought Cate’s optimistic views were unrealistic. Still, I felt that Cate’s yearn for adventure more than made up for her ability to overlook the treatment dealt out by both Queen Elizabeth and Sir Walter Ralegh. 

In the end, I felt that Klein’s hypothesis of what occurred during the three years the ill-fated colonists struggled to survive was well thought out and as accurate, a fictional account could be. It is clear that Klein’s novel was extensively researched, and she is adept at bringing together fact and fiction in an entertaining and enjoyable way. For those who like a little romance with their historical fiction Klein provides that too.

ReviewWishful Thinking by Alezandra Bullen

If you could wish for a different life, would you? What if that life changed everything you thought was real?

Adopted as a baby, Hazel Snow has always been alone. She's never belonged anywhere--and has always yearned to know the truth about where she comes from. So when she receives three stunning, enchanted dresses--each with the power to grant one wish--Hazel wishes to k...moreIf you could wish for a different life, would you? What if that life changed everything you thought was real? 

Adopted as a baby, Hazel Snow has always been alone. She's never belonged anywhere--and has always yearned to know the truth about where she comes from. So when she receives three stunning, enchanted dresses--each with the power to grant one wish--Hazel wishes to know her mother. Transported to a time and place she couldn't have imagined, Hazel finds herself living an alternate life--a life with the mother she never knew. 

Over the course of one amazing, miraculous summer, Hazel finds her home, falls in love, and forms an unexpected friendship. But will her search to uncover her past forever alter her future?(Publisher's summary from Goodreads)

I doubt that any one of us hasn’t made a wish about changing something in our lives ... a do over of sorts. I know I have, but in making that wish, rarely do we stop and think about how it would impact other life events, people or even the very essences of who we are. In Alexandra Bullen’s Wishful Thinking, a sequel to her first book Wish, Bullen explores the question, “If you could change your life would you?” The results of this exploration is a heart wrenching story with a main character who grows quite a lot from her experience and an ending that left me feeling that gaining a new perspective can truly make a difference.

Although I did not read Wish, this did not hindered my enjoyment of her sequel. One of the things that I really liked about Wishful Thinking is it’s very much a character driven story. I had a great deal of empathy for Hazel, whose life has always been difficult. From the beginning Bullen carefully develops how lonely Hazel’s life has been. Shuffled around between her step-father, a struggling alcoholic and several foster homes after her adopted mother dies when she is two, Hazel knows better than to get her hopes up because life always has a way of letting her down. But the biggest let down comes when Hazel goes looking for her birth mother only to find out that she has just died. Shattered, Hazel once again sees life as unfair and wishes she had gotten to the chance to know her mother first, and thanks to a magical dress Hazel finds herself transported to Martha’s Vineyard before her birth and takes up residence with the woman she thinks is her mother. 

While Wishful Thinking requires a suspension of disbelief, the elements in the plot such as the magical dresses, and Hazel’s ability to make three wishes was a small hiccup and easily overlooked if you are like me and love a good fairy tale.  The real story is how Hazel learns to let go of her past, allow people to into her life and to care about those around her without fear of disappointment. Wishful Thinking also has a few little plot twists. One was pretty obvious, but did not in any way distract from my enjoyment, and in some ways even heightened it. Others twists were important to Hazel’s discovery of herself and the vehicle that gives her and the reader hope that Hazel’s future will be better. 

Wishful Thinking is a charming and magical tale of self discovery with likable characters, a great setting, and it leaves the reader hopeful and satisfied.

 Source: Received ARC copy from publisher