Posts Tagged 'scholarship'

Nearly Gone by Elle Cosimano

Published April 15, 2015 Mystery , RAC Leave a Comment
Tags: , , ,

nearly gone

Genre:  Mystery/Suspense

# of Pages:  386

RAC:  Yes

Nearly lives in a crappy trailer with her mother who works as an exotic dancer.  She is trying desperately to keep her head down, work hard, and hopefully earn a special science scholarship.  She reads the missed connections ads every Friday in the hopes of finding a message from her father who abandoned her years ago.  Nearly has an unusual talent where she can feel what people are feeling simply by touching them, so she tries not to touch anyone ever.  One day she sees a mysterious ad in the missed connections section and doesn’t think much of it until a cheerleader, whom Nearly tutored,  from her school is taken and attacked at an away basketball game.  After the attack, the clues in the ad suddenly make sense.  She goes to the police, but they do not believe her story and instead decide to follow her and see if she had anything to do with the attack.  Each week a new ad with clues come out and each week there is a new attack of someone that Nearly tutors.  Can she find who is doing this before it is too late?  Who could be capable of such crimes and what do the numbers written on the bodies mean?

This mystery combines several elements to make a fairly complicated story.  There are many characters and sometimes they can be a bit confusing, but in the end they are all fairly memorable.  Nearly has many things going on besides the attacks in her life which makes it unclear which part of her life is actually behind trying to frame her for these terrible crimes.  Most readers will not put together the final resolution, but the pieces do indeed fit together.   Mystery fans will be satisfied.

Golden by Jessi Kirby

Published February 28, 2014 Mystery , RAC , Realistic Fiction , Romance Leave a Comment
Tags: , , , , , , ,

golden

Genre:  Realistic Fiction

# of Pages:  277

RAC:  Yes

Parker is a high school senior who has always followed the rules and done what she was supposed to, which is why she is currently a finalist for a prestigious scholarship that would give her a full ride scholarship to her dream school.  Her best friend, however, feels she needs to break a few rules before graduation.  The opportunity surprisingly arises when she is asked by a teacher to mail out notebooks full of wishes and goals written by a group of high school seniors ten years prior.  As she gathers the notebooks to send out to these graduated seniors from ten years ago she comes across one for a Julianna.  This is a big deal because Julianna died in a car accident with her high school sweetheart shortly after graduation.  They have since been immortalized in the town as the “golden couple” who were meant to be together forever.  Parker decides to open the notebook and read what Julianna’s last thoughts were in those weeks leading up to her death.  What were her aspirations?  Her dreams?  When Parker starts reading the notebook, however, she is very surprised by Julianna’s words and it makes her question everything the town promotes about this girl.  Was there more to that fateful night that led to the horrific car accident?  Parker decides to investigate.

Fans of Sarah Dessen and Nicholas Sparks will devour this title.  It is full of colorful characters, including Parker who is always pushed for greatness by her mother but deep down she doesn’t really know what she wants for her future.  Meanwhile, Julianna’s notebook opens a flood of feelings and fears leading up to graduation that anyone could identify with.  Plus, there is the added intrigue of finding out what exactly happened to Julianna and her boyfriend.  It’s a fun romance story that will be popular with many young adult teens.

Archives