The Power of Powers:Volume One of the Huaxia Journals(eBook) by Lon Dee

A boy named Monkey and his sister Orchid come to Dunhuang, China. While Orchid is exploring she finds a tunnel .The siblings go into the tunnel and are transported back three thousand years to a place called Huanbei .They meet a little girl named Sparrow whose parents got killed by King Di Xin . Sparrow finds a shard that can make whoever is holding it obtain the five powers of wind,  rain, fire, mountain, and river. The powers can stop a war.

This book was a very slow read. It took me a long time to finish. The book picked up but the story didn’t seem to get any better. I didn’t like this book because it jumped around a lot and was hard to follow. I don’t recommend this book.

Rating: 5

Content Rating: 1

Reviewer Age:11

Reviewer City, State and Country: Glen Burnie, MD USA

Double or Nothing by Dennis Foon

In the book "Double or Nothing" by Dennis Foon, Kip is a clever seventeen year old in high school who enjoys casual gambling. He bets on small, everyday activities like whether or not his teacher, Mr. Cheeseman, will belch within 20 seconds after making the bet. He uses his talents in gambling to get money to save for college. One day, he meets the girl of his dreams whose father happens to be a famous magician. He and King, the magician, go to large venues such as casinos and horse races to bet large amounts of money. Though Kip gets caught up in the excitement and glamor of betting large amounts of money, he starts becoming addicted, later leading to dipping into his college fund for more money to gamble on. Will Kip learn his lesson or will he become absorbed by his addiction to gambling?
This book had a clear message, that dishonesty won't get anyone anywhere.
When we are first introduced to Kip, he appears as a clever young man who bet on things for fun with a small amount of money at stake. He was not addicted to gambling, nor had he ever planned on being addicted. What little money he did make from gambling, he put straight into his college fund. He had plans to go to college and be well off once he grew up. When Kip first begins to lose money on larger bets, he started lying to his girlfriend, friends, and mom about gambling. It soon became all he thought about and it got so bad that he nearly cleaned himself out, and has to work his way back up. His girlfriend broke up with him, he lost the majority of his friends, and his family was not happy with how his grade slipped from skipping school to go to casinos.
I found the writing style somewhat average, it was a simple, quick, and easy read.
I personally thought the book had a nice message, but I didn't connect with the story or the characters. This is a good book for anyone looking for a quick read.

Reviewer Age:16
Reviewer City, State and Country: Spring City, PA United States of America

The Seer and The Scribe by G.M. Dyrek

The book I read was The Seer and The Scribe by G.M. Dyrek.  This book was the tale of Volmar and Hildegard.  The book takes place in the Middle Ages in a monastery.  Volmar, a young monk, meets Hildegard there when he sees her dancing with someone who is not there.  Curious, Volmar approaches the girl to inquire what it is that she is doing.  We soon learn that Hildegard has the ability to see deceased people and communicate with them.  When a murder happens at the monastery, Volmar discovers a plan to steal the Spear of Destiny.  The spear is rumored to haunt anyone who takes its power for their own. 
I did not enjoy this book.  The main reason is just that I didn't understand a lot of what was going on.  It took me two months to read it and I went as fast as I could.  Because the book took place so long ago, I felt like I wasn't really understanding what was going on.  I probably should have become more familiar with the Middle Ages before reading this book.  I was highly disappointed with this book and would not recommend it.

Reviewer Age:14
Reviewer City, State and Country: Tipp City, Ohio United States

Delta Legend (eBook) by Kelan O'Connell

In Delta Legends by Kellan O 'Connell, Oakland teen Calvin gets into some trouble so his mom sends him to northern California to live with his great uncle.  When he gets there, his uncle puts him to work fixing up boats to keep him busy. The place he s at is a small riverside fishing town. Calvin 's experience gives him some better friends than he had previously; he also learns to make better life decisions.
As a  new reviewer, this was a great first read and I really enjoyed the process of reading and reviewing Delta Legends. It was an electrifying read and a struggle to put down. Calvin' s experience in the small town teaches him such a good lesson that I believe that many youth could use this lesson to better improve their behavior, and as a reader I enjoyed learning about the environmental problems such as the river systems in California. The book's themes are timeless; I would recommend this book to readers ten generations from now. Kellan O 'Connell did a fantastic job researching the background information as well reaching out to teens.

Reviewer Age:18
Reviewer City, State and Country: Columbus, Indiana USA

Tesania (eBook) by Grant E Brazell

   Tesania is just the teenage daughter of a blacksmith in her small village. All that changes when a troop of beasts massacre her village and kill her parents. Now she's a teen with a mission: to kill Tyrannth, the evil mage in charge of the beasts. Along the way Tesania meets Deavon, a ranger who is willing to help her get revenge. Together they assemble a band consisting of the ranger Aldan, The soldiers Giddy and Raim, The mages Nasha and Elddyn, Tean the monk, and Kailyn the maid. All of them make the hard journey through the mountains to Tyrannth's keep. But will it be worth the struggle? Or will it all end in the keep before they even have a chance?
    This book is among the best I have ever read. Tesania is so normal it's really easy to see yourself as her. She 's just like you and me (except for, you know, living in a medieval time period) only she's in extreme circumstances. Later in the book you find out she's not as normal as she seems, but it doesn't matter anymore because you're already seeing from her point of view, feeling her pain. As for Tyrannth and his keep, at first he seems so unreachable, completely invincible. But as the group gets closer they begin to see the cracks and the holes in Tyrannth's keep, his plan for taking over, and Tyrannth himself. It really shows how nothing is invincible and nothing lasts forever. My favorite thing about this book though, is that the good side is far from perfect as well. The people in the capital city are petty, the heads of the rangers, the soldiers, the mages, and the monks fight among themselves and the King lets over half the people in Rilmir City starve. It s not just the classic battle of good versus evil. I'd recommend this book to fantasy lovers of all ages.

Reviewer Age:12
Reviewer City, State and Country: Rockwell City, IA USA

Storm by Brigid Kemmerer

After Becca Chandler saves Chris Merrick from getting beat up, she is thrown into a world that she would have never expected. Becca soon finds out that Chris and his three brothers can control each of the elements(fire, earth, water, and air). But the horrible part is that Chris and his brothers are targeted to be killed by a special group called Guides. When Hunter shows up in school everything starts to feel normal again until Hunter starts to show his own dangerous side. Now Becca does not know who to trust in this crazy world she has been thrust into.
I did not enjoy this book. The beginning felt very repetitive and boring. Also, at some parts I could not tell whose feelings were being shown because it was written in third person. I thought this book would be like Carrier of the Mark but I was wrong. This book also felt very jumpy. One minute it would be action and the next it felt like fake romance.
There are lots of cuss words and an almost sex scene
Reviewer Age:15
Reviewer City, State and Country: Denver, Colorado United States

The Cage (eBook) by Jacci Turner

Summer school collects a diverse set of teenagers, some getting a head and others trying to pass. Grouped together for the entire class, four students of different backgrounds Tyrell, Tiffany, Orlando, and Samantha learn more than English from their assignments. The Blue Group quickly discovers they have more in common than appearances suggest. Tyrell 's dreams and Sam 's drawings are more than coincidence. But who is the girl that appears in both? And what does she want from them?
At first I was not impressed with where the story was going and how it was written. But after the third or fourth (short) chapters, I started to feel a part of the Blue Group as if I was a character myself. I could predict some of the outcomes; I was pleasantly surprised by some of the twists. Jacci Turner did such a great job with this book that I' m excited to see what comes in the rest of the series. A fairly light read and not too complex, The Cage makes a great pick for reluctant readers.

Reviewer Age:23
Reviewer City, State and Country: Bay City, Texas US

The Mirror of Yu-Huang by Christine Norris

Megan Montgomery has a secret -- she is the Librarian of the Library of Athena, a place with magical powers. It is her duty to protect the library, and to make sure that it is kept safe. But when a suspicious Chinese family enters her home, she has to wonder, will the Library be safe?
I absolutely loved this book! It was exciting, fun, and the characters seemed real. I did find a few spelling and capitalization errors (as well as some confusing parts), but other than that it was a good book. I felt like I was there with the characters the whole time, and I loved the ending of the book. Although there are other books in the series before this one, this was the first one I had read and it didn't give away much of the other books, but explained everything that had happened at the same time! All in all, this book was amazing and I recommend it for anyone who loves mystery and adventure.

Reviewer Age:12
Reviewer City, State and Country: Yucaipa, CA USA

Perfected By Girls (eBook) by Alfred C. Martino

      Perfected By Girls is about a sophomore named Melinda who is on the wrestling team. Some people judge her for being the only girl on the team, but she doesn' t care, she just wants to wrestle. Soon the papers, starting with the school paper all the way up to the local paper, have articles that piss Melinda off by misquoting her. Melinda has ups and downs with her brother, boyfriend, and best friend, put pulls through. Her grandmother wants her to work in her office for the summer, but Melinda and her best friend want differently. Melinda has a lot of obstacles throughout the story but learns to cope with the help of love, support, and the passion to wrestle.
When I read Perfected By Girls, I felt like I was a person in the corner of the room, just watching the story play out. I could picture all the locations of the story in my mind fairly easily, but the characters were a little harder, the author didn' t give much detail on the character s features, but their outfits were very well described. The voice in which the story is told has a good sense off humor, and can make you smile if not laugh. There is some bad language and sexual content, nothing for kids under 13 or 14.  I liked Perfected By Girls a lot, I would recommend it to people I thought it is age appropriate for.
I rated Perfected By Girls 3 because there is a fair amount of strong language and sexual content.
Reviewer Age:12
Reviewer City, State and Country: Ukiah, CA United States

Small Town Sinners by Melissa Walker

Small Town Sinners is a very faith-based book. The main character is Lacey, who's dream has always been to be the  Abortion Girl for her church's Hell House. Then she meets Ty Davis who used to live in Stile Water with Lacey but, he moved away. Now he is back and Lacey is falling for him. Ty starts asking Lacey questions that make Lacey think about her own faith. And Lacey's father, one of the church's Pastors, is not okay with Lacey hanging out with Ty anymore. Lacey has always listened to her father but now she feels he is making the wrong choice by not letting Lacey be with any of her friends. She thinks she is no longer in the line with God and needs her friends (Starla Joy - Lacey's best friend, Dean - Lacey's best friend who she thinks might be gay, and Ty - Lacey's new boyfriend) help finding her path again.
Small Town Sinners should only be read if you don't mind very strong Christian morals and beliefs. It quotes the Bible a lot. I liked the book because it had a strong lesson that if you have your friends and an open mind you can go through anything together. This book over all was very moving and I have recommend it to all of my Christian friends, and they love it! My only suggestion would be to make the boy characters more manly. I did fall in love with all of the people in the book. Some of the questions that Lacey and her friends are put up against are the very same questions I ask myself. I have found this book very well written and would recommend it to any Christian.

Reviewer Age:14
Reviewer City, State and Country: Sandy, Oregon U.S.A