McPherson College's Miller Library - The Best Library Guide Ever

Click here to read the guide. (I mean now. It's AWESOME.)

Seriously this is the best thing I have ever seen!  I am in love with the guys who wrote this.

Amelia O'Donohue is So Not a Virgin by Helen Fitzgerald

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Rachel is the girl in town who everyone tells their secrets to, because it’s guaranteed that she will never tell the secret. After she gets in trouble at a town dance, her parents send her to the pricy private boarding school that she really wants to go to. It seems like all of her dreams will come true. She will graduate at the top of her class, get into medical school, and live happily ever after. Things are going well, until her friends start trash talking about her and she uncovers a secret that is too big to keep.


The book was not what I expected. The back cover and the title make it seem like the book is about Amelia, but it’s not. She is in the story, but the real story is Rachel. We see the world through Rachel’s eyes, so much so that we don’t see everything clearly. The story was a surprise and I’m glad that I read it. It’s told from a unique prospective. I would recommend this to older teen readers because of some sexual content (nothing explicit just a little more information than some tweens are ready for), and the maturity level of the characters and situations. (9th grade and up).

Virals by Kathy Reichs

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Tory moves to a remote island to live with her dad near the research facility where he works. There are other teens on the island and they become friends. After Tory saves a wild wolf dog from an experiment, she and her friends are infected with a virus that gives them heightened senses and reflexes. The virus turns them into Virals. Now they are similar to the wolf dogs that the infection came from; they are a pack. They use their new abilities to try and solve a murder.


This book never took off for me. I read it and kept waiting for the exciting part to happen, but it never did. The beginning was slow, and there was a lot of background and build up about the relationship of the group. Once they were infected and started to have the special abilities, it was still slow. On the front cover James Patterson gives the book an endorsement. I think the book is trying to appeal to fans of the Maximum Ride series, but the book lacks the fast action and believable friendship in the group of teens. It reads less like a teen book, and more like what an adult thinks being a teen is like. This was not the book for me, but it might be for you. Let me know what you thought.

Trapped by Michael Northrop

Scotty and 7 others are trapped in their high school when a record breaking blizzard strikes. Over ten feet of snow piles onto the roof of the school where the kids are trapped. The windows are obscured and the halls are pitch black. There is plenty of food in the cafeteria, but without electricity how can they cook or stay warm? They are buried in the school, and know on knows they are there. They are trapped.

I loved the book. Survival stories are my favorite, especially when the situation is realistic. These are regular students, no geniuses. They are trying to survive it what is a very realistic situation. The teens read true to their age, and the situation, and the description of the events and the weather was so spot on I felt cold while I was reading it. I would recommend this book to guys and girls who like survival stories and realistic fiction. There was no cursing or sex, but there was plenty of longing and death.

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If I Stay by Gayle Forman

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Mia is a beautiful and talented girl. She has a great family, wonderful friends, and a boyfriend who she loves. Everything is going great until an accident puts her somewhere between life and death. Now the only thing left for her to do is decide if she will stay or die.


I usually don't like sad stories, but I loved this. Even with all of the tragedy and drama the book is full of hope. The characters all read true, and the story is believable. There's no white light or flashes of what like might be after death. You get to see what Mia sees and hears while she’s in the hospital bed. You get to live her memories and you get to understand the decision she makes. It’s an amazing story I would recommend to readers 14 and up. Mia is a character who is almost eighteen and she is dealing with life decisions that I think might be hard for younger readers to understand. The romance is not explicit but is more mature than younger readers might be ready for. An excellent book!

The Scorch Trials by James Dashner

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This is the sequel to The Maze Runner.  I loved the book.  It has complex characters (including some new people), betrayal, danger, action, and a serious mystery.   This book is about as close to the Hunger Games as you’re going to get these days.  I’m hoping that this will just be a trilogy and that all of the answers will be revealed in the next book.  This book is a must read.  I recommend it for mature 12 year olds and older.  There is a little romance, and lots of violence.   It’s a great survival story and those are my favorite!   

XVI by Julia Karr

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In this distant future when you turn 16 (XVI) you get a tattoo that lets everyone know you are of age to become sexually active. You are safe until you hit the age of 16. Once you are sixteen you are now officially a “sexteen”. Health class is for girls too learn how to attract a guy, and all of the magazines are training you to look and act a certain way so that guys will want to have sex with you. Nina is fifteen and she is not looking forward to turning sixteen. She doesn’t want a boyfriend. She just wants to get good enough grades so that she can go to a good college and get out of being a low income and low class person. Only the upper class people in society get to choose what happens to them. When something tragic happens in her family she is trying to save her sister from a horrible fate and protect herself.

The idea for the book is interesting. It does a good job of illustrating that not all teen girls are boy crazy. That said I didn’t like the book. I usually love a dystopian future story, but this one did nothing for me. The book ended leaving lots of questions, the characters where kind of one dimensional (except for the grandmother) and overall it left me feeling flat. That’s just my opinion. There is a little romance, kissing, but the book is for 14 and up based on all of the talk about being a “sexteen” and the truth about what happens to some of the girls in the book.

Delirium by Lauren Oliver

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Lena is about to turn 18 and have the surgery that will cure her disease. Everyone gets the surgery so that they will never be afflicted with love. Love is the most insidious disease of them all, because once you have you it; you don’t want to be cured. Everything is going as planned until she falls victim to the disease. Now she will do anything to stay with the guy she loves.

Set in the distant future the government has decided that once cured of love people are more docile and productive. The surgery is compulsory and if you don’t do it you become an invalid. You are no longer part of society, and you are on the run from the law. The book had some interesting ideas, but it’s a romance from start to finish. I never felt much for any of the characters and I wouldn’t say this is a must read. I know a lot of other people who really like the book, but it just wasn’t for me. Maybe because the hype built it up so much, I was expecting more so I was disappointed with the book. I would have liked a little more about the supporting characters, and some background on the society. This is not a book for Hunger Games fans. The action is limited, and the romance is not exciting. I would say for ages 13 and up based on the romance towards the end of the book.

A Kiss In Time by Alex Flinn

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This is a retelling of the Sleeping Beauty fairy tale.  Sleeping Beauty is a brat because her parents keep her in the lap of luxury in the palace.  They are so afraid of the curse she can't leave the palace, and has no friends.  So it's no surprise that she ignores the rules, wanders where she is not supposed to be and pricks her finger on a spindle.  Fast forward 300 years and she is found not by a handsome prince, but by a regular guy doing a summer tour of Europe.  She goes to live in his house and the story unfolds.

I was expecting a lot more because I liked Beastly so much, so I was a little underwhelmed.  I didn't really like or feel a connection with any of the characters and the reaction of the parents in the story did not read true at all.  The book was not for me, but it is well written and if you like fairy tale retellings you might enjoy it.

The Agency: A Spy in the House by Y.S. Lee

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In 1853 London, Mary is an orphan who is sentenced to be hanged for stealing. She is soon rescued and offered a place in a home for girls. She attends school and becomes a young lady. When she turns seventeen she is no longer satisfied with the life of a school teacher. She wants something more, so she talks to the headmistress of the school and is let in on a secret. The school is a front for an all-female agency that investigates crimes. Mary is soon the newest agent and gets her first assignment. She must find out information about a merchant by posing as a ladies companion to his daughter.


This was not the book for me. I’m not much of a historical fiction reader, and I like books with stories that unfold a little faster than this. That said the book is well written, and historically accurate. The manners, actions, and crimes are realistic for the time period. Mary is a strong and intelligent female character with a quick wit and the ability to fight. I would recommend this book to girls who like historical fiction.