Trekking Through South East Asia

Carpe Diem
By Autumn Cornwell


16-year-old Vassar Spore, who has never done anything unplanned in her life, is forced to trek across South East Asia with her hippie Grandma Gerd and a sideburn-porting, Chinese cowboy, called Hanks for her summer vacation - and that's just the beginning!

Faced with extreme circumstances, (including venomous creepy crawlies and the 70-year-old ear-nibbler) Vassar has to soldier on and finish the novel she's writing, and discover the "BIG SECRET".

Carpe Diem is a very funny book and the story kept me hooked until the very last page.

That said, I found that Grandma Gerd was overly hippie-almost a caricature, so I found her hard to believe. Vassar was too prim and stuck up and she changed at the very end - not the middle, but by then, she had already gotten the guy.

Carpe Diem is available for purchase at amazon.com

Feisty chick-o-meter: 6/10

Age rating: 5/10

Rating: 6/10

Stand alone or series: Stand alone

What Would You Do To Get Into Heaven?

The Wish List By Eoin Colfer

Meg is 14, Irish, kicked out of her own home, and at a dead end. Literally.

After a messed up robbery, during which she dies, Meg finds herself stranded between Heaven and Hell being “Too good for Hell and too bad for Heaven”.

Her partner in crime (also dead), Belch Brennan, is zipped straight to hell while Meg is teetering between good and bad. When Meg is sent back to help the old man she tried to rob fulfil his last wishes, Belch is dispatched by the devil to foil her mission.

If Meg succeeds in the given amount of time she will be welcomed into Heaven with open arms, and if she fails she’s on a one-way ride to Hell. Simple, right?

Sure, except that not all of the old guy’s last wishes will win her brownie points into Heaven.

I really enjoyed The Wish List. I found it funny, sad and sweet, and I will continue to read it over and over. The ending is slightly predictable, but hey, Eoin Colfer wrote it.

If this book sounds interesting, you can buy it here

Feisty chick-o-meter: 7/10

Age rating: 12+

Rating: 8/10

Stand alone or series: Stand alone

What Would You Do If You Were Accused of Being A Witch?

Witch Child
By Celia Rees

When 14-year-old Mary’s grandmother is accused of being a witch, tried, and hanged, Mary is forced to flee to Salem, Massachusetts with the puritans to escape being called a witch herself.

Mary, possessing only a knowledge of healing, herbs and-maybe-a few glimpses of the future, has never cursed anyone in her life, and is the opposite of the profile of witches back then, but that doesn’t stop the puritans acting a little strange around her.

Salem in the 1600s was not a good place for witches to be - real or not.

So, desperate to fit in and be normal, Mary keeps her head down and tries not to attract the attention of the pastor. She makes long-lasting friendships including a widow, a girl about her age, a Native American boy and even a woman who was once accused of being a witch herself.

Until *Dramatic Pause* the inevitable day when she is accused of being a witch...

I loved every single page in Witch Child. The diary style is very easy to read and also very personal; it puts you inside Mary's head.

The language is beautiful, you get a sense of the time, with it still being easy to understand. The imagery is so detailed and vivid that I could picture every scene without having to try hard.

If you would like to know what happens to Mary, then, I guess, you'll just have to read the book!

Feisty chick-o-meter: 8/10

Age rating: 12 or 13 +

Rating: 8/10

Stand alone or series: Series