**Thanks for entering! Contest is now over!** Winner is LARISSA 🙂

I’m giving away three more YA ARCs from ALA Midwinter, all March/April 2013 pub dates!  Click here to enter Rafflecopter link

Sorry, you must live in the United States because I’m a poor teacher and I can’t afford international shipping!

My Goodreads reviews are below so don’t read if you’re worried about spoilers!

Fat Angie by e.E. Charlton-Trujillo

This was another terrific ARC I picked up at ALA Midwinter. Sorry, but I chose it purely because of the title and I didn’t even bother to read the back this time. (Um because me and my daughter were frantically trying to get through the exhibit before it closed down!)

I knew Angie (the MC) was obviously struggling with weight so absolutely I needed to read this, as someone who has stuggled with weight her whole life, and had huge body image issues as a teen. I’ve read other YA books where the MC struggled with weight issues, and I have always come away feeling like it was written by someone without firsthand knowledge of the subject. I usually came away feeling  disappointed. Maybe I haven’t read the right ones yet.

This book was less focused on the weight issue and mostly on the family dynamics that lead to ways people harm themselves, either with food or by other means. I’m so glad I read this book.

I’m not really saying anything else beyond this. It is a great read with amazingly enviable lines that I wish I wrote and some of the scenes between Angie and her brother Wang are so funny I could barely breathe. This is one of those wonderful stories you read and every emotion goes through you, and I LOVE that!

Dead River by Cyn Balog

This was a great ARC, I enjoyed reading it, and I give it 3.5 stars! I have to say I was confused a bit, half way through the story, in regards to why this is a paranormal, but intrigued enough to stick with it, and I’m glad I did!

You Know What You Have to Do by Bonnie Shimko

This was nother ARC I picked up at ALA. **Spoilers** Don’t read this if you don’t want to know.

I loved the promise of this book and I gave it 3 stars for the parts that I loved, but it was a tad disappointing, and I’ll list the reasons I felt this way before I tell about the parts I loved.

Mary-Magdelene has an evil voice in her head that tells her to kill people. This reminded my of that Kevin Costner movie ‘Mr. Brooks’ that came out a few years ago. I enjoyed that movie so of course I wanted to read this one.

Like I said, stuff that didn’t work so well for me first, and then the love.

The book took off with this dark creepy, fun tone and fast pace. I was hooked pretty quick, after I read through too many character names that left me confused keeping track of who was who. When I got to the last quarter of the book, when I thought things would really pick up, the pace stalled for me, to the point of boring in a few spots.

There was blackmail involved that never seemed to get explained or tied up and I kept waiting for it. I hoped for something bigger. So that felt like an unanswered question. Why Mary had voices in her head–I was hoping to learn more about the reasons/family history there. So really just a few elements for me that I wished had been taken further. That’s all.

Now for what I loved! This was a fast read for me, very hard to put down because of the awesome tone and pace of the story (until last 1/4 of book, sorry, that’s how I feel:( ) Mary-Magdelene’s voice–love love and authentic. Her mom Roxie, and her ‘dad’ Harry, and even her real dad Lonnie. All characters to root for, for sure. I even loved Jacob until he turned into a D bag. The family relationship between Mary and Harry and Roxie was warm and funny and real, despite the fact they lived in a funeral home!

So I liked the book, I started off loving it, but like I said… I would recommend it because a really fun read and you will love Mary Magdelene right away. I am eager to read