46:120 Secrets by Margaret McGaffey Fisk

Samantha (Sam) is a Natural, one who can read the hearts of mechanical devices and use the aether to change them to become closer to their ideal.  Unfortunately, most people look at Naturals with distaste even to the point of violence and Sam's sister, Lily, is too sick to be able to keep her hidden even with her husband's help.  They have heard of a settlement on the main continent of other Naturals where Sam would be safe and able to be true to herself but when the morning for her departure arrives, she ends up heading to the ship on her own and her nature takes over which causes her motorized carriage to careen out of control and her to crawl out of the wreckage scared and alone with no idea how to find the right ship or her brother-in-law's man for help.  Instead, she sneaks aboard a ship with no idea where it's going.

Meanwhile, Nathaniel is from a rich family but his interest in life outside has him serving aboard a ship as a cabin boy although he wants desperately to get into the engine room.  Unfortunately for him, the engineer is not disposed kindly to him and when Sam steals his food, Nat ends up taking the heat for it.  Now Nat is determined to clear his name while Sam must try to stay hidden from Nat and ignore the siren call of the ship's engine.

I understand that this was written for YA and I wanted to like it more than I did.  Unfortunately I found the writing to be repetitive (a huge peeve of mine) while the characters were basically one dimensional which left me not really caring much about their plights and the pacing was slow.  I thought the world had promise but ultimately there just wasn't enough to make me want to continue in the series.


Page count: 195p/12,640p ytd/262,717p lifetime

6:120 Aristotle & Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Saenz

It's summer between Aristotle's junior and senior year and he can't figure out what to do with himself.  He's bored so decides to head to the swimming pool even though he can't swim.  There he meets Dante who volunteers to teach him to swim. Dante who seems to be the complete opposite of himself. Dante who is self-assured, calm, has a great relationship with his parents, saves animals, hates shoes, thinks deep thoughts, draws, and reads poetry. Aristotle does none of these things being withdrawn, taciturn, and thinking mostly of his imprisoned brother whom nobody talks about except to tell him not to end up like that.

Then Dante happens and Aristotle finds himself with a best friend without ever really knowing how it happened.  When Dante leaves for the school year with his parents, Aristotle is left trying to figure out his life without Dante and realizing it doesn't really add up.  He finds his voice in some respects but it isn't until Dante comes back that he truly learns some of the secrets of the universe.

A lovely tale of growing up and discovery.  Simple written but more powerful for that as we are in the mind of an angry and disillusioned teenager struggling to know himself and his place in the universe.


Page count: 359p/2,267p ytd/252,562p lifetime

88:120 Beauty Queens by Libba Bray

The 50 Miss Dream Teen contestants think they are heading to a nice little beach trip but instead, their plane crashes into a deserted island.  All of their chaperons and other adults are killed as are more than half the girls upon impact. Now the remaining girls must figure out how to survive but if they are to be rescued, they also need to look their best and what about being ready to compete?  Well, turns out that isn't quite as important when you find the secret Corporation base on the island filled with people who knew you were there and were hoping you would die and are happy to take care of that little problem if the snakes don't do it for them.

I grabbed this book as a friend mentioned it as being on her to-read list and it sounded interesting.  I was looking for something a bit lighter so I picked it up and was not disappointed.  It was definitely more in the chic-lit section that I usually travel but at the same time, it was a book about friendship, finding themselves, learning to be honest about themselves.  I loved that they outlawed the word "sorry" on the island because they realized that girls and women tend to use that word all the time for things that they do not need to be apologizing for.  There were a lot of moments like that which were good positive feminist messages but there was plenty of WTH moments in it as well.  In all, I enjoyed it and it was perfect for my headspace this month.


Page count: 405p/23,321p ytd/238,253p lifetime