Reviewing - A Stolen Kiss by Kelsey Keating (and more recommendations)
- Shelby Vice
- Jul 25, 2016
- 6 min read
Hello again! I hope you found the review of A Stolen Kiss helpful. If you haven't seen it, the preview is HERE and the longer video HERE (where I ramble a bit about the BookBub service until about 6 minutes and 50 seconds into the video. I couldn't help it! I have found a lot of great books through them! But if you want to skip that part of the video, just jump to 6.50.)

Because this book is so new and isn't a book found in libraries yet, I don't have any discussion questions to pair with the book. However, I thought I would use this blog entry to introduce a few more books I have found through BookBub. All of these are YA books and I will give a little background and any potential red flags and where you can find them (whether through kindle or your also through your local library). Each title will be a link to the book on Amazon (where I get all my kindle books).

The Edgewood Series by Karen McQuestion: I have only read the first book in this series but I was intrigued enough that I want to eventually buy the others and read the whole series. The books are: Edgewood, Wanderlust, and Absolution. It is definitely science fiction and the premise is about a group of teenagers who come in contact with an alien meteor/power/falling star, and who are all given special powers. There's government people after them and a little hint of some teen romance in the first book. There might have been some cussing, but I read it a while ago and don't remember any off the top of my head. Nothing very romantic or overly violent happens in the first book but I think that changes in the next two, which is why I am being cautious and saying 16-18 for these books. The first one would be ok for a younger audience...like 13-15, but if they want to keep reading maybe wait till you can read them or till I can! The first book was well written, action packed and mysterious with lots of potential for surprises. Boys or girls would like this book (there are four main characters, two boys and two girls, with a boy being the main voice). I don't think this can be found in local libraries...at least it isn't in my local library. But it isn't expensive to buy the whole series on Amazon. I got the first one for free or maybe for .99 cents through BookBub.

Forgive My Fins series by Tera Lynn Childs: This is definitely a tween/teen girls romantic/fairytale series. There are three books in this series: Forgive My Fins, Fins are Forever, and Just for Fins. It's a cute story about a teen mermaid (living in the present time) who is kind of a foreign exchange student on land. No one but her aunt knows she's a mermaid and she has a huge crush on a boy...but there's a neighbor boy who throws a wrench in her romantic dreams. There's not really a love triangle, just some extenuating circumstances that make things more difficult (besides that she's a mermaid and he's not). This story has a little more depth (no pun intended) to it than I was expecting and is really about this mermaid princess finding her confidence and learning the difference between love and infatuation. Nothing more than some slightly steamy kisses happen throughout the series and any "cursing" is a cute mermaid version of it...like "Oh barnacles!" or something like that. If you have a daughter who liked The Little Mermaid (or any disney princess movie) then she'll like these. There's some undersea political drama as well so it's not all about the romance. The author created a memorable and original mermaid world that I enjoyed reading about. Because yes, I was the little girl who pretended she was a mermaid any time I got in the water. And who sang The Little Mermaid throughout her childhood. There are a lot of mermaid books out there now and I find a lot of them are more like dark fantasy, which I avoid. I loved that these were light and bubbly and fun, but still well written and original. I found the first one through BookBub but the whole series is at my library, so it may be at yours too! I think 13-18 would work for these books.

StarStruck Series by Brenda Hiatt: This is a YA sic-fi/romance series. I tend to gravitate towards sic-fi with a little romance (though that's not required). This is a story about a girl living in Indiana who turns out to be the crown princess of Mars. It is set in present day, so no one on Earth knows about Martians. She's a human but with some powers that start to show themselves when she's around a certain teenage boy who also turns out to be from Mars. I only read the first book. The other three books are: Starcrossed, Starbound, and Starfall. The first book was original, intriguing and well written (as in not like Twilight) and didn't have anything inappropriate in it (i.e. sex, cussing), though there was some violence/bullying. A lot of books these days seem to be about a teen with self-esteem issues discovering there's more to them than meets the eye, and this is definitely one of those, but the first book was good. There was some lying to her unloving adoptive Aunt (think wicked stepmom kind of person) and some sneaking around, but it wasn't so she could go party or get into typical teenage trouble. There's of course bad guys who are wanting to prevent her from returning to Mars or claiming the throne (and it's much more involved than I have talked about here). I have the rest of the series on my ever growing "To Read" list. I found this through BookBub and it doesn't appear to be in the library system where I am. I think 13-15 could read the first book, but I don't know about the rest. It's from a girl perspective so boys probably wouldn't like it. If I ever get around to reading the rest in this series I will update this post.

The Ripple Series by Cidney Swanson: So you may have noticed that all of the books I have mentioned are series. It is something I both love and hate. BookBub tends to highlight series, because authors will give a deal on the first, or in this case, first three books in the series, so the reader will get hooked and want to come back for more. It's happened to me SO MANY TIMES. It's kind of infuriating because I both long for a story to keep going but at the same time, there are only so many cliffhangers that I can take. *SIGH* Anyway, this series is seven books long and I have read the first four. Yes, it's on my list to read the others. It is about a teenage girl who discovers she can "ripple". She can turn invisible and walk through anything. This ability is genetic in the story and leads to all sorts of problems for the main character. There's some romance, some nazi-like bad guys (who are trying to create a super race of invisible people), lots of chases and thrilling moments. The story is fast paced and well written and there aren't any love triangles, which I really don't like. The romance is a bit teenage/gushy but it's cute and nothing inappropriate happens...at least in the first four books. There's some violence and some bad guys die and there might be some cussing, but it was so minor I don't remember. I would say 16-18, because of the violence and I don't know what will happen in the next three books, but if what I have mentioned doesn't bother you, then a 13-15 year old could like it too. I only found it online. Probably mostly for girls, since a girl is the main character.
Whew! I have more but I will leave you with these for now. I hope you find a new series for your child (or yourself)! Let me know what you think of these if you or your child read any!
Shelby - The Conservative Bookworm
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