Mundie Moms

Wednesday, July 4, 2012

Happy Independence Day!

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"Those who won our independence believed liberty to be the secret of happiness and courage to be the secret of liberty."  ~Louis D. Brandeis

Thank you to all those who have served and continue to serve our country!
We wish you all a fabulous, happy & safe Independence Day! 

Book Review: Fireworks by Sarah Mlynowski, Lauren Myracle, Erin Haft and Niki Burnham

Published by: Scholastic
Release Date: April 2007
Source: Purchased
Rating: (see below for individual stories)

Synopsis: Four of today's bestselling, most beloved authors for teens come together to deliver a sassy, sexy collection of summertime love stories!

Hot sun. Soft white sand. Bejewled flip-flops. Crashing surf. That shirtless blond lifeguard...Summertime is the essence of sexiness, sass, and fun. In this juicy collection, four fabulous, bestselling teen authors each show us a different side of summer romance, from the first flush of a seaside crush to the sting of a breakup on a traveling teen tour. Get out your sunscreen, slip on your shades, and prepare to be dazzled by these sizzling stories.

Sometimes my brain melts from the summer heat and all the driving around I do to pools, beaches and playdates. When I saw this four story compilation, I thought it would be perfect for my ever decreasing attention span, especially when I noticed that Sarah Mlynowski and Lauren Myracle had written two of the stories. It couldn't be bad, could it? Nope. Not at all.

"Miss Independent" by Lauren Myracle
Rating: 3.5 stars - I liked it.
My 9.5 year old daughter adores Lauren's Love Ya Bunches series and I thought it was about time that I check out Lauren's writing. She wrote one adorable Cinderella-esque story about two cousins, Porter Ann and Megan. Porter Ann's just finished her freshman year in college and Megan, well, they're about to celebrate her eighteenth birthday not in the usual family, Fourth of July barbeque way, but by going to a new club. Porter Ann is a fun, party girl while Megan is shy and completely obsessed with a guy named Pete. In just these few pages, I loved these girls and wanted to see what would happen when their night ended.

"A Nice Fling is Hard to Find" by Sarah Mlynowski
Rating: 5-stars - I loved it.
I admit that I love Sarah Mlynowski and will now read anything she's written. Fortunately, I've purchased her Magic in Manhattan series and I'm really looking forward to reading it this summer. Here's why: Sarah put me smack in the middle of Lindsays's European tour and suddenly I, too, am on a trans-Atlantic flight sitting alongside her and her best friend Becca and Becca's twin brother Tommy. Lindsay uses her travel journal to relay all her deepest secrets and hopes (from page 55):

Dear TJ (aka Travel Journal),
I'm here! I'm on a plane! I did it!
I can't believe I'm actually going to FRANCE. I am so sophisticated.
Okay, fine, in my ratty sweatpants, t-shirt and ponytail, I am not looking so sophisticated, but that's hardly the point. I AM GOING TO FRANCE. As soon as the plane takes off. In eight--wait, make that seven!-- minutes.

I couldn't believe that Sarah managed to get such great characterizations and a romantic plot full of ohnoes and ummwhathappenedtherereallys in a short story. But, she did and yes, I loved every single word.

"Cabin Fever" by Erin Haft
Rating: 4.5 stars - I really, really liked it.
Don't you hate it when your younger, model-perfect, make-up and designer obsessed little sister tags along to your annual refuge away from her -- summer camp? It's exactly what happens to Molly. And oh what a burden little sister, Dakota, turns out to be. She buddies up with Molly's best-friend-at-camp and what?!? She even seems to be friendly with Molly's long time camp crush. Things couldn't be worse or could they? A sweet story about sisters, friendship and summer love.

"Night Swimming" by Niki Burnham
Rating" 4 stars - I really liked it.
It's time for Wynn to get away from summers in central Minnesota, her job at Dairy Darling and her boss Mean Raymond. She's going to go to take a creative writing class at Wriston College in Delaware. And while she trades her summer of mosquitos for one of warm, East Coast beaches, she feels unsure that she's made the right choice until she meets a few of the dorm's occupants. Maybe it wasn't such a bad decision at all.


As you can tell, these short stories surprised me and made for perfect reading in between the cries of "Mama, watch me!" at the pool. It made me think back to the potential heartbreak and complicated (or were they really?) relationships that only a teenage summer can hold.

Waiting on Wednesday: Such A Rush by Jennifer Echols


To Be Released on: July 10th, 2012
Pre-Order from: Simon & SchusterAmazon | Barnes & Noble | IndieBound

A sexy and poignant romantic tale of a young daredevil pilot caught between two brothers.

High school senior Leah Jones loves nothing more than flying. While she’s in the air, it’s easy to forget life with her absentee mother at the low-rent end of a South Carolina beach town. When her flight instructor, Mr. Hall, hires her to fly for his banner advertising business, she sees it as her ticket out of the trailer park. And when he dies suddenly, she’s afraid her flying career is gone forever.     

But Mr. Hall’s teenage sons, golden boy Alec and adrenaline junkie Grayson, are determined to keep the banner planes flying. Though Leah has crushed on Grayson for years, she’s leery of getting involved in what now seems like a doomed business — until Grayson betrays her by digging up her most damning secret. Holding it over her head, he forces her to fly for secret reasons of his own, reasons involving Alec. Now Leah finds herself drawn into a battle between brothers — and the consequences could be deadly. -quoted from Goodreads

Happy Independence Day!! Today's feature is for a book that I'm seriously totally impatient about getting my hands on, as I've heard nothing but fabulous things about this book. All my friends who have read it lately have raved about it and though it's being released next week, I'm wishing that it's release date would be bummed up to you know like today or possibly tomorrow. lol I'm looking forward to getting my hands on this new one from Jennifer Echols. 

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