Books That Hooked

There is nothing better than reading a good hook. It's what grabs you and holds you down and makes you finish reading this last page...this one last chapter...okay, wait. Just let me finish the whole thing...

Here are my TOP FIVE BOOKS THAT HOOKED!

TIGER LILY, Jodi Lynn Anderson

From GoodReads: Before Peter Pan belonged to Wendy, he belonged to the girl with the crow feather in her hair. . . .Fifteen-year-old Tiger Lily doesn't believe in love stories or happy endings. Then she meets the alluring teenage Peter Pan in the forbidden woods of Neverland and immediately falls under his spell. Peter is unlike anyone she's ever known. Impetuous and brave, he both scares and enthralls her. As the leader of the Lost Boys, the most fearsome of Neverland's inhabitants, Peter is an unthinkable match for Tiger Lily. Soon, she is risking everything—her family, her future—to be with him. When she is faced with marriage to a terrible man in her own tribe, she must choose between the life she's always known and running away to an uncertain future with Peter.

What Hooked Me: The prologue. Seriously. Specifically, the line "The rest is all stories, and stories have been put in their place." Tiger Lily is a Peter Pan retelling about Tiger Lily, the girl Peter dumped for Wendy Darling, as narrated by Tinker Bell. This is one of those books where if I say too much, it ruins the story. But the story is amazingly good. The kind where you finish it late at night and stare up at your ceiling clutching your pillow until you can breathe again and fall asleep. Pick this one up immediately.



WHERE THE STARS STILL SHINE, Trish Doller

From GoodReads: Stolen as a child from her large and loving family, and on the run with her mom for more than ten years, Callie has only the barest idea of what normal life might be like. She's never had a home, never gone to school, and has gotten most of her meals from laundromat vending machines. Her dreams are haunted by memories she’d like to forget completely. But when Callie’s mom is finally arrested for kidnapping her, and Callie’s real dad whisks her back to what would have been her life, in a small town in Florida, Callie must find a way to leave the past behind. She must learn to be part of a family. And she must believe that love--even with someone who seems an improbable choice--is more than just a possibility.

What Hooked Me: Yeah, you read that right. It's Trish Doller's NEW book. To be fair, I have not read the entire book--YET. I got to sneak a peek at the first chapter, and I'm not even kidding, I will throw down Hunger Games style for this book. I was hooked that quickly. I'm completely fascinated by the premise of this girl who was kidnapped and then returned to her family and must reacclimate everything in her life. This book feels like it's going to be a YA version of The Deep End Of The Ocean (also, Melanie Griffith is awesome in the movie version!). Trish writes amazing premises. Seriously, if you get an ARC, tell me so I can try to convince you to call me and read me the book over Skype.



NOT THAT KIND OF GIRL, Siobhan Vivian

From GoodReads: Natalie Sterling wants to be in control. She wants her friends to be loyal. She wants her classmates to elect her student council president. She wants to find the right guy, not the usual jerk her school has to offer. She wants a good reputation, because she believes that will lead to good things. But life is messy, and it's very hard to be in control of it. Not when there are freshman girls running around in a pack, trying to get senior guys to sleep with them. Not when your friends have secrets they're no longer comfortable sharing. Not when the boy you once dismissed ends up being the boy you want to sleep with yourself - but only in secret, with nobody ever finding out. Slut or saint? Winner or loser? Natalie is getting tired of these forced choices - and is now going to find a way to live life in the sometimes messy, sometimes wonderful in-between.

What Hooked Me: I am obsessed with Election. For all of us over-achieving, uptight, driven-to-succeed Tracey Flicks out there, this is the book where love smacks us in our face and throws our entire world off its axis. Especially if that love is from the hot high school quarterback. I loved this book. LOVED. Siobhan writes really great flirty and romantic scenes. I love how she balances the main character's secret romance around the opposing sides of new and old feminism. And Conner is dreamy.



WANDERLOVE, Kirsten Hubbard

From GoodReads: It all begins with a stupid question: Are you a Global Vagabond? No, but 18-year-old Bria Sandoval wants to be. In a quest for independence, her neglected art, and no-strings-attached hookups, she signs up for a guided tour of Central America—the wrong one. Middle-aged tourists with fanny packs are hardly the key to self-rediscovery. When Bria meets Rowan, devoted backpacker and dive instructor, and his outspokenly humanitarian sister Starling, she seizes the chance to ditch her group and join them off the beaten path. Bria's a good girl trying to go bad. Rowan's a bad boy trying to stay good. As they travel across a panorama of Mayan villages, remote Belizean islands, and hostels plagued with jungle beasties, they discover what they've got in common: both seek to leave behind the old versions of themselves. And the secret to escaping the past, Rowan’s found, is to keep moving forward. But Bria comes to realize she can't run forever, no matter what Rowan says. If she ever wants the courage to fall for someone worthwhile, she has to start looking back.

What Hooked Me: Okay, I admit it. Traveling anywhere scares me. I'm one of those people who like to see the world safely from behind a book. In WANDERLOVE, Kirsten Hubbard makes it easy for me to jump on a plane and experience the world with her characters. I was hooked by Kirsten's descriptions of all the cool places Bria traveled in Central America and the small travel tips thrown in about how to backpack it. It doesn't hurt that the main character is tagging along with a mysterious, cute guy either!



AMPLIFIED, Tara Kelly

From GoodReads: When privileged 17-year-old Jasmine gets kicked out of her house, she takes what is left of her savings and flees to Santa Cruz to pursue her dream of becoming a musician. Jasmine finds the ideal room in an oceanfront house, but she needs to convince the three guys living there that she's the perfect roommate and lead guitarist for their band, C-Side. Too bad she has major stage fright and the cute bassist doesn't think a spoiled girl from over the hill can hack it. . .

What Hooked Me: I love band books, and this one hit all the right notes for me. I loved how Tara opened this book with a girl whose car had just broken down moments after striking out to prove her father wrong. I loved how Jasmine was both determined and scared to go after her dreams. I loved how awesome the friends she found were. And I really loved Sean. Oh, Sean. What is it about bass players?

What about you? What books have hooked you lately?