Girl to the Core
Stacey Goldblatt
Stacey Goldblatt
What kind of person is at your core?
Molly O'Keefe's boyfriend, Trevor, is moving too fast, but when she catches him kissing his ex, Molly thinks it might be her own fault. After all, it was her idea to take things slow. In fact, her best friend, Vanessa, recently talked her into buying a neon spandex Halloween costume, and her nine-year-old neighbor, Claire, somehow got her to participate in a sixteen-mile walkathon. Despite Trevor’s apologies and Vanessa’s attempts to hook her up with rebound guys, Molly is utterly heartbroken. Then she finds comfort in a most unusual place: Girl Corps, a club Claire belongs to. As a fifteen-yearold, Molly hardly fits the Girl Corps profile. Still, she can’t deny that being with the little girls in the group gives her a sense of confidence and identity.
But now Molly’s newly enlightened self is at odds with almost everyone in her life. As for Trevor, he won’t leave Molly alone, and that means trouble, because whether she likes it or not, Molly still has feelings for him. Will Molly turn her back on what she has learned, or will she stand her ground and embrace the strong girl at her core?
Sacred Hearts
Sarah Dunant
Sarah Dunant
The year is 1570, and in the convent of Santa Caterina, in the Italian city of Ferrara, noblewomen find space to pursue their lives under God’s protection. But any community, however smoothly run, suffers tremors when it takes in someone by force. And the arrival of Santa Caterina’s new novice sets in motion a chain of events that will shake the convent to its core.
Ripped by her family from an illicit love affair, sixteen-year-old Serafina is willful, emotional, sharp, and defiant–young enough to have a life to look forward to and old enough to know when that life is being cut short. Her first night inside the walls is spent in an incandescent rage so violent that the dispensary mistress, Suora Zuana, is dispatched to the girl’s cell to sedate her. Thus begins a complex relationship of trust and betrayal between the young rebel and the clever, scholarly nun, for whom the girl becomes the daughter she will never have.
As Serafina rails against her incarceration, others are drawn into the drama: the ancient, mysterious Suora Magdalena–with her history of visions and ecstasies–locked in her cell; the ferociously devout novice mistress Suora Umiliana, who comes to see in the postulant a way to extend her influence; and, watching it all, the abbess, Madonna Chiara, a woman as fluent in politics as she is in prayer. As disorder and rebellion mount, it is the abbess’s job to keep the convent stable while, outside its walls, the dictates of the Counter-Reformation begin to purge the Catholic Church and impose on the nunneries a regime of terrible oppression.
Sarah Dunant, the bestselling author of The Birth of Venus and In the Company of the Courtesan, brings this intricate Renaissance world compellingly to life. Amid Sacred Hearts is a rich, engrossing, multifaceted love story, encompassing the passions of the flesh, the exultation of the spirit, and the deep, enduring power of friendship.
The Lost Summer
Kathryn Williams
Kathryn Williams
For the past nine years, seventeen year-old Helena Waite has come to summer camp at Southpoint. Each July, the camp and its familiar routines, landmarks, and people have welcomed her back as a Southpoint sister. This year, however, she is returning not as a camper, but as a counselor. The only downside? Her best friend, Katie Bell, is still a camper.
All too quickly, Helena discovers that the innocent world of campfires, sing-alongs, and field days have been pushed aside for late night pranks on the boys' camp and stolen kisses in the hay loft. As she struggles to define herself, Helena begins to lose sight of what made camp special and the friendships that have sustained her for so many years. When Ransome, her longtime crush, becomes a romantic reality, things get even more confusing. It will take a life-threatening accident to show her what she's lost... and found.
Told with honesty and heart, Kathryn Williams' second novel tackles the timeless theme of growing up against the backdrop of summer camp--a place where innocence is safely guarded and sometimes lost .
Which title are you looking forward to reading?
2 comments:
Thanks for the review. I'm going to add that book to my to-read list.
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