Invisible Ghosts by: Robyn Schneider

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Siblings, Rose and Logan who are best of friends who share a connection to each other that is usually only shared between twins, are told by their parents to watch out for each other.

Rose and her friends were doing junior rep at the Harbor Playhouse. She had tried out for a lead role but did not get cast, instead getting her name on the backstage helpers list. When she got home, Logan was watching tv and asked her if she wanted him to start it over. When he looked at her he knew something was wrong. When he asked, Rose told him that all her friends were cast and not her. Leaving out the part where the teacher told Rose that she didn’t see any potential in her. He tried to tell her it was okay that they could just hang and watch Doctor Who. Being a stubborn teen she didn’t listen.

After getting into a fight with him, she runs out the door heading to a tree fort that Sam’s dad had built for the neighborhood kids. Thinking Logan would come after her, she sat there reading, waiting for him to show up. After awhile she realizes that Logan would have shown up already if he was going to, so she decides to head home. On the trail back home by the honeysuckle bush, she finds Logan on the ground. Thinking he is playing a trick on her, she yells at him until she gets close enough to discover that he has been stung in the arm and leg and has died from his bee allergy.

After his death, Rose distanced herself from her theater friends. Rose has been seeing Logan’s ghost for 4 years and when Jamie, an old friend, moves back to school they rekindle their friendship. Rose and Logan go to Blitz after school one day and she spots her theater friends sitting in a corner booth. Jamie goes up to talk to her and sees Logan, going pale. Later, he goes over to her house and confirms that he too can see Logan along with other ghosts. He asks if Rose has seen any other ghost besides Logan and she figures out that she has seen one before. At first, Logan is excited to have someone else to talk to.

As Rose grows up and starts to fall in love with Jamie, Logan starts acting out. Jamie wants to exorcise him and it causes problems between him and Rose. Logan is happy to hear that cause it means Rose is all his again. When Logan realizes that Rose is planning on leaving for college in two years he gets upset and causes her alarm clock to fly and hit her in the cheek. Feeling bad for hurting his sister, Logan stays away for a couple of days and in that time Rose realizes that the reason Logan is acting out is because she is growing up and not needing him to look out for her. After talking with Logan, and then with Jamie, they decide it would be best for Logan to cross over.

Having a close relationship with a sibling then losing them would be hard for anyone, but when your brother comes back as a ghost you never really get say goodbye and have the closure that is needed. When the time comes for them to say goodbye, Rose knows it’s the right thing to do for Logan and herself.

13+ Publication Date: June 5, 2018 Pages 308 YA Fiction-Romance, Family, Death

Not If I Save You First by: Ally Carter

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I was a little leary going into this after reading her Embassy Row Series, which left me feeling like there should be another book. I still can’t even sum up those books without feeling lost.

This, however, was a short and sweet read. This story is about survival, adventure, friendship and a budding romance.

Find the boy.

Save the boy.

~~Kiss Kill~~ Make the boy pay

For what he did to you.

Being the daughter of a secret service agent attached to the President has some perks. Especially when the President has a son your age and you become best friends, and you go running around the White House together. Suddenly, tragedy strikes at the White House, causing Maddie and her father take off to Alaska to live in the middle of nowhere with no internet, phones, tv or other people. Maddie writes daily letters to Logan and has her dad send them when he goes to town for supplies. After two years of Logan not responding she stops writing him letters.

Logan, after getting into trouble along with slipping away from his secret service agents numerous times, is sent to join Maddie and her dad. With a fierce storm on the way, Maddie’s father is sent out to give supplies to some people who will be in need. Her dad tells her to make Logan chop wood and help with her chores. While they are out looking for wood they are attacked and Maddie is pushed off a cliff, presumed dead by both the Russian kidnapper and Logan, while Logan is kidnapped.

When Maddie finally comes to she realizes it’s up to her to save Logan. Having lived in these woods for the past six years, Maddie has an advantage over the kidnapper. She catches up to them and allows herself to get “captured”. Trying to survive the Alaskan wilderness and a Russian kidnapper proves to almost be too much for the pair. Using the survival instincts her father has taught her, after escaping from the kidnapper she is able to get herself and Logan to safety for the night . After some rest and food, they head out to try to retrieve the sat phone their Russian capturer had. And that’s where things get interesting, when a simple rescue mission turns into a much larger problem.

Publication March 27, 2018 Pages 293 YA-chosen for the 2019 Lonestar List so it is good for middle grade

Lighthouse Beach by: Shelley Noble

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Who else would borrow a van and a dress from her local consignment shop to attend a friend’s wedding, whom she meet at fat camp and hasn’t seen in 15 years, but Lillo? When a wedding invitation shows up in the mail, Lillo feels pressured to attend. She hasn’t seen Jess in such a long time that when she shows up she does not know anyone there. She soon makes friends with Diana and Allie, who are Jess’s college friends. Jess does not know if she really wants to go through with the wedding, which is why she invited Lillo in the first place. Jess is a weak-minded person when it comes to her father and sticking up for herself and Lillo is the strength she never had. After finding her fiance with another woman, Lillo and the gang kidnaps the bride to be. With nowhere to go and Lillo having the only car between them, they load up in her borrowed van and head to Lighthouse Beach. On the way there they end up with a flat tire, stuck on the side of the road. A biker gang eventually happens by and stops to help. Not realizing that she and Lillo know them, Jess jumps out of the van to attack the bikers before they get Lillo. Lillo clears the misunderstanding and gets everyone calmed down, then they get the tire changed. They end up going to Lillo’s cottage to rest and recoup before heading on a girls road trip. As the day goes they end up deciding to just stay at Lillo’s for the week. Lillo has had something traumatic happen to her in the past and since then has shoved that past in boxes into a spare room and prefers to be alone than in the company of anyone.

Diana is CEO of her own app company. Needing to call her assistant, she has to go walk along the beach for reception and while out there spots a “prince on a white horse, well maybe gray horse,” to quote her. When she gets back to the cottage and tells Lillo about him, she confirms it is Ian a vet who lives down the road. Ian has some past issues of his own that cause him to be more of an animal person than a human person. Diana loves horses and actually has some of her own she has to have in boarding but never has the time to ride them. Willing to do anything to ride the horses, she convinces Ian to let her muck the stalls and even pays him to let her ride with him.

The biker gang that came to the tire rescue is made up of Doctor Ned Hartley and a group of doctors, mechanics, CPA’s, etc. They travel around to towns that are in need of help. They stay a week at each place before moving on to the next town. Lillo had went to college to become a doctor and after her traumatic experience, she quit and became a landscaper. Doc is short-handed at the clinic and ask Lillo to come in and assist him. She turns him down at first but slowly gives in and goes to help stock shelves and rooms in between patients.

Jess’s dad and goons arrive and try to take Jess back and things end up going astray and Mac gets shot and with Lillo being the only “doctor” around she springs into action to save her. Their week together is coming to an end and now Lillo is feeling lost all over again, knowing the girls are leaving and the bikers are about to head to the next town. Finding out what happened in Lillo’s past I can say I never seen coming. I was starting to feel a little lost like I missed something but then bam everything is revealed and it all gets explained.

I have to say that, yes, this was a good book but the ending left me thinking “Wait, that’s it?” as it is a little cliffhangy with no other books to follow. This story is told from three POV’s Lillo, Mac and Diana.

Publication May 29, 2018, 398 pages, Contemporary Romance

Next in Line by: Amy Daws

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Get ready for fun and laughs. Next in Line had me laughing from the beginning to the end. It brought back a lot of fond memories from when I was little and would go fishing with my dad and we would go to the bait store for minnows. Never been ice fishing but fishing is fishing, right?

Maggie, having been dumped by her college boyfriend, Sterling, on Christmas morning decides to road trip it to Boulder to see her brother. Sterling called her basic and said he needed someone more adventurous. Along the way she spots a sign for a BnB and stops. While there she hears about Marv and his history of ice fishing. While at Marv’s Bait and Tackle, she runs into some trouble and Sam comes to her rescue. Finding out that this is her first time and the fact she is not prepared for the cold, he offers to take her. After taking her shopping for the correct supplies and clothing for ice fishing, cause let’s face it leggings are a no go. They ride out to the lake and get all set up. In their little fishing hut sparks fly-with or without their heater.

On her last morning at the BnB, she meets a group of guys from a magazine who are there to do a story on climbing an ice silo. Ezekiel tells her anyone can do it and that she should go with them. Feeling like a pro after only ice fishing one time, she attempts to go by herself and luckily for her, Sam shows up and takes her. While fishing Maggie tells Sam of her plans to climb the ice silo and he blackmailed her into letting him go with her. When they show up Ezekiel’s ego is hurt that she came with someone and challenges Sam to a climb, that the first one to the top gets to belay Maggie. Come to find out, there is a tradition that if they let them film it live on their social media page, the winner gets a free weekend stay at their ski chalet.

During their weekend getaway, they discover that Maggie is a horrible skier but she never gives up. While there, Sam and Maggie have ice ball fights, naked hot tub time and glorious time in the hot springs.

All during her adventures, she is taking pictures to send to Sterling to prove she is not basic in hopes to win him back. Her pictures end up doing the job she set out for, but somewhere along the way she discovered she didn’t want them to work. Sterling shows up ready to take her back, but Sam gets him to confess he’s not adventurous and was wrong in telling Maggie she was not.

I had so many laugh out loud moments reading this and I forgot how much I like Miles and Kate from Wait with Me. Adding Kate, a romance writer to the mix and well what can I say but you must read.

18+ Romantic Comedy, Publication: November 27, 2018, 246 pages