Want to Go Private? by Sarah Darer Littman

Abby has always been the smart, well-behaved girl. Very reliable & dependable for anything really. Moving up to high school is just another step towards accomplishing all that she has worked so hard for in school. But, it's different. The good things aren't the same & the bad things are just more prominent. With a best friend turning into a social butterfly, Abby turns to a teen website for chatting & socializing. That's where she meets Luke.

Luke is charismatic, cute, supportive & everything Abby wants; but he is far from what she needs. Despite dating Billy, her lab partner, Abby is drawn to Luke's presence & needs him in her life. She doesn't think anything of telling him very personal details & even accepts gifts from him. It's all fun & games until Abby starts spending so much time with him online that she begins to neglect her studies & her real life. After a particularly nasty fight with her parents Luke suggests a weekend getaway to "teach them a lesson." Abby falls for it & begins a nightmare that she will never live down.

Want to Go Private? was a haunting tale that mirrors real life so much it scares me. Abby is a brilliant young woman who is at one of the most vulnerable stages in life. Feeling isolated & lacking self-esteem, she turns to the one person who knows how to make her feel better. Luke is a prime example of the scariest type of urban predator. He preys on vulnerable girls & uses their own issues against them, to hurt them. The storyline between these two characters was so authentic, I felt like I myself at 14 could have been wooed by his abilities.

This book is a bit more graphic than I was expecting simply because I wasn't 100% sure how far the author would expose the characters. Sarah Littman goes all in, sparing no detail to get across just how awful things turned out for Abby. The author also shows how things can be turned around & start to look up. While this is a difficult subject matter, the book was filled with hope & the message that we need to be just as careful electronically as we are in person.

An amazing read that I couldn't put down, Want to Go Private? is as striking & authentic as Living Dead Girl by Elizabeth Scott. If the subject matter doesn't bother you & you want to read something gripping, then this is your book.

ARC graciously provided by Around the World Tours.

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Waiting on Wednesday: Grace

Waiting on Wednesday recognizes that we as bookies pine for books. This post is about what I am impatiently waiting for right now. It was started by Jill at Breaking the Spine.

While I have not been a fan of Elizabeth Scott's more "day to day" teen fiction, her darker novels (like Love You, Hate You, Miss You & Living Dead Girl ) have always appealed to me. Grace is set to be release September 16th and doesn't really fall into either of these categories, but I'm impatient to read it.

Grace was raised to be an Angel, a herald of death by suicide bomb. But she refuses to die for the cause, and now Grace is on the run, daring to dream of freedom. In search of a border she may never reach, she travels among malevolent soldiers on a decrepit train crawling through the desert. Accompanied by the mysterious Kerr, Grace struggles to be invisible, but the fear of discovery looms large as she recalls the history and events that delivered her uncertain fate.

From Goodreads

I mean, given my track record, of course I have to read this dystopian book! I'm intrigued to see how Elizabeth combines the elements I love of her darker fiction with the dystopian setting. I hope it's as good as some of the early reports proclaim! What are you waiting on this week?

Waiting on Wednesday: The Unwritten Rule

Waiting on Wednesday recognizes that we as bookies pine for books. This post is about what I am impatiently waiting for right now. It was started by Jill at Breaking the Spine.

The Unwritten Rule by Elizabeth Scott is set to be released on March 16, 2010.

Everyone knows the unwritten rule: You don't like your best friend's boyfriend.

Sarah has had a crush on Ryan for years. He's easy to talk to, supersmart, and totally gets her. Lately it even seems like he's paying extra attention to her. Everything would be perfect except for two things: Ryan is Brianna's boyfriend, and Brianna is Sarah's best friend.

Sarah forces herself to avoid Ryan and tries to convince herself not to like him. She feels so guilty for wanting him, and the last thing she wants is to hurt her best friend. But when she's thrown together with Ryan one night, something happens. It's wonderful...and awful.

Sarah is torn apart by guilt, but what she feels is nothing short of addiction, and she can't stop herself from wanting more...

From Goodreads

Okay, I am not really one for outright romance novels, but this one seems to be different. I have read two other books by Elizabeth Scott, but I highly doubt this one will be like either of those. This one will certainly have some bite to it and I am looking forward to that. Elizabeth doesn't seem to write catty girls and when I first read the description of this book, I feared that it could go in that direction. I no longer have that fear and am now anxiously awaiting the chance to jump right in and see what sort of choices these teens make. Whatever they will be, I know that they will be quite true to life because that's the kind of writing Elizabeth does. Can't wait! What are you impatiently waiting on this week?

Interview with Elizabeth Scott

Elizabeth Scott may have been raised in a small town, but she thinks big city. Her books are real and accessible to the many teens that read them. With a background in European Studies, this author has run the gamut of jobs from an editor to a pantyhose salesperson and while the idea of "creative writing" frightened her at first, she eventually came to a realization that has allowed her to write such popular titles as Something, Maybe, Love You, Hate You, Miss You and Living Dead Girl. Without further ado, here is an interview with Elizabeth Scott.

What made you want to write books on such difficult subject matter?

I like to write books about people falling in love, but I'm also drawn to writing about darker things, and I quite like doing both.

Would you say you have an interesting writing quirk?

I like to write in bed!

Do you hear from your readers much? What kinds of things do they say?

I have amazing readers, and they have sent me some truly wonderful notes! I get asked about movies a lot, but I'm sad to say none of my books have been optioned.

Are there any particular authors or writing styles that influence your work?

No, although I do always think about Elmore Leonard famous quote about how he tries to “leave out the parts people skip" when I'm revising. My drafts tend to shrink a lot--the average is 40% between the first and final versions.

Any hints about your next novel?

The Unwritten Rule comes out on April 6th, and it's about a girl who falls for her best friend's boyfriend. You can probably guess where the title came from just from that!

Any advice you'd give to young readers or anything else you'd like them to know?

Read. I can't say it enough--you've all got the writing thing down and you have the drive, but don't forget to read. Read in the genre you want to write in, and read outside it as well. The more you read, the more you'll start to see what grabs you when you read a book and what doesn't. And besides, books offer you a way to escape into another world or into someone else's life or to learn things you didn't know. Who'd want to miss out on that?

Living Dead Girl by Elizabeth Scott

Alice wants to be released. Alice wants to eat a real meal. Alice’s name is not really Alice.
In this all too real and vivid story, we find that Alice is a 15 year old, half-starved girl who was abducted from a school field trip at the tender age of 10. Having been held hostage and repeatedly abused by a man named Ray for the last 5 years, Alice is always looking for a way out, but she still believes that Ray will kill her family if she runs.

Now that she is getting too big for Ray’s tastes he has charged her with the obtainment and training of a new girl. In her search for the new girl, Alice meets some people who know that something is off and they try to help her. Fortunately for Alice, they do.
A disturbing read, this book is not for the faint of heart. Alice is often sexually abused by Ray and while the author utilizes a lot of allusion and suggestive details, it is very easy to imagine. In a way, the book is along the same lines of a car crash. You want to stop and look away, but you can’t seem to do so. Absolutely captivating, this book is on par, if not better, than Love You, Hate You, Miss You. Check out my review of that here.

Love You, Hate You, Miss You by Elizabeth Scott

How would you feel if you killed your best friend? This is the question that plagues Amy, the survivor of a horrible car crash. Freshly released from rehab after a 75 day stint, Amy struggles to redefine her life now that she has to fit in without the one person who understood her and the "crutches" they shared.

Amy's parents' infatuation with one another drives her need for affection and attention. Her drinking, drug-using, and casual sex lifestyle are her coping mechanisms. Her deceased best friend Julia shared these things with her. Amy is now confronted with the loss of her best friend, the overwhelming guilt she feels for causing that loss, and the difficult adjustment of sobriety.

Her shrink asks her to keep a diary of her experience as a way to help examine what she is going through. Her journal becomes letters to Julia where she finally explores and discovers her true "friendship." While following this path Amy will gain an understanding of her parents, confront her long ignored and suppressed demons, and find a new friend in all this turmoil.

While at times this can be a difficult and emotional read, I strongly recommend it. Also, although I don't believe in a rating system for books, this one does have some slightly more mature content that might not be okay for younger, less-advanced teens.