Andi Under Pressure (Andi Boggs #2) by Amanda Flower

This is another fun mystery as 12 year old Andi and her best friend Colin go to a science summer camp at the local university. When supplies go missing and the kindly, but mysterious janitor is blamed, Andi and Colin decide to investigate what is going on. When their teacher is injured in a lab accident, things get really serious. In the meantime, Andi's aunt is trying her best to be a parent to Andi and her older sister, Bethany. I received this book free to review from Netgalley. I think that middle school kids will enjoy it very much.

The Olive Tree by Elsa Marston, Claire Ewart

Set in Lebanon, this story has lovely illustrations and teaches a lesson about being friendly and helpful. When Sameer's neighbors return to their home after being gone for many years due to "troubles" in the country, he hopes that they will have a son who he can be friends with. Instead, they have an unfriendly daughter who tells him that the wonderful olives that fall off of the tree that grows in her yard, but overhangs into his yard belong to her family only. Then, lightening strikes the tree and though the adults walk away sadly, the children finally find a way to share and become friends. I received this book free to review from Netgalley and I highly recommend it.

Thoughtful Gardening: Practical Gardening in Harmony with Nature by Ed Ikin

This book contains very good gardening advice with thoughtful explanations on a variety of gardening topics from soil and water to compost, planting systems, gentle insecticides and more. I have found a lot of the advice in this book very useful to me in caring for my own backyard vegetable garden. I received this book free to review from Netgalley.

Imitation by Heather Hildenbrand

This is a young adult paranormal romance. Ven is an Imitation, a clone, who has been raised in a laboratory building along with other clones of rich, important people. The clones are taught that they are products, inferior to humans, whose only purpose is to serve. When Ven is taken away and assigned to pretend to be Raven, the authentic who she was cloned from, she learns that she is meant to be a decoy, a target. She meets Linc, a cute and caring bodyguard who of course, falls in love with her. Together, along with others, they learn about the real purpose for the Imitations and it is sinister. The story ends with a huge cliffhanger. The world building seemed rather incomplete as the cloning process was not described well, and the character development was also lacking. The book was well written and well edited. I received this book free to review from Netgalley.

Every Ugly Word by Aimee L. Salter

This is a very raw and emotional look at the effect of bullying on a teenage girl put into an interesting paranormalish type of perspective. The story is told by Ashley, who is in a mental institution, hoping to be released if she cooperates with her psychologist and tells him what happened to her. She tells about being bullied in high school, and how she expressed herself through her artwork. She tells about Matt, another art student, her best friend who she has a secret crush on, and about how she speaks with her "older self" in the mirror. Her older self gives her advice, but she does not always follow it and she does not trust her older self because she knows that she is not telling her everything. The book is captivating and the story is compelling. I read it all in one day. I received this book free to review from Netgalley and I highly recommend it.

Once Upon a Time: New Fairy Tales Paula Guran (editor)

This is a collection of short stories that are fairy tales, mostly based upon older stories. While I did like some of the stories - very much - there were more that I did not enjoy than there were that I enjoyed. My favorites were the stories "Castle of Masks", "The Giant in Repose", and Blanchefleur". They are original and unique and interesting fairy tale like stories. I received this book free to review from Netgalley.

Blue Lily, Lily Blue (The Raven Cycle #3) by Maggie Stiefvater

Such a fabulous book! I totally love the author's writing style in this series - it is just beautifully descriptive. The story has mystery, romance, magic and lots of humor. Now that Blue's mother, Maura, has disappeared, Lily and her Raven boys, Gansey, Adam, Ronan and Noah, along with Mr. Gray, the hit man who is her mother's boyfriend, are searching caves for her and for the three sleepers, one of whom, should not be woken and one of whom is Glendower, the king. They find a cave on a farm in an old tower that the farmer says is cursed and within it they find a grave containing Gwelliian, one of Glendower's daughters who was buried there 600 years ago but did not sleep. She is a witch and is rather insane from lack of sleep among other things. The friendship among Lily and the boys is a big part of the story as is the forbidden love between Blue and Gansey. Many of the adult characters are also fleshed out more in this book and I enjoyed that the author managed to make the hit man a likeable person. This book is just so fantastic and wonderful! I am looking forward to the next book. I received this book free to review from Netgalley.