Also Known as Harper by Ann Haywood Leal

Title: Also Known as Harper
Author: Ann Haywood Leal
Series: N/A
Source: Bought
Publisher: Henry Holt
Publication Date: May 26, 2009
Goodreads||The Book Depository

Harper Lee Morgan is an aspiring poet, which isn’t surprising, seeing as how she’s named after her mama’s favorite writer, Harper Lee. And life is giving her a lot to write about just now. Daddy up and walked out, leaving them broke. Then Harper’s family gets evicted.

With Mama scrambling to find work, Harper has to skip school to care for her little brother, Hemingway. Their lives have been turned upside down, which Harper could just about handle—if it wasn’t for the writing contest at school. If only she could get up on that stage and read her poems out loud . . .

Also Known as Harper was another one of those "cute, but not memorable" kind of books that seem to be making their way on to my bookshelf lately. It's just one of those things-- I've been in the mood for light and fluffy books, and I just can't help but pick ones that sound cute. But for some reason, I just haven't found a book that's fluff and substance lately, meaning that I have to write reviews like this.

I liked it. I truly did, but there are only so many ways that I can express that, because nothing really jumps out at me as a reader. Harper was an okay kind of character, but we didn't really click, because Harper was really young, and only concerned with poetry and her family. As a YA reader, I click better with older characters, and I really can't help that. But for what it's worth, Harper was a good MG character.

I did like the drama in the story, but in the long run it really wasn't all that terrific, because it doesn't show the actual problems-- they've lost their house, and they're living in a motel, but none of that was really capitalized on. The plot was mostly about Harper's poetry reading, which didn't honestly set well with me. They're in such a dire need of a house and such, but all Harper can focus on is her POETRY.

I think that my main issue was that. That's all that I can say. Because all in all, I liked it, and I don't want to just tear it apart.

Waiting on Wednesday #6

Title: Thousand Words
Author: Jennifer Brown
Series: N/A
Publisher: Little, Brown
Publication Date: May 21, 2013
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Ashleigh's boyfriend, Kaleb, is about to leave for college, and Ashleigh is worried that he'll forget about her while he's away. So at a legendary end-of-summer pool party, Ashleigh's friends suggest she text him a picture of herself -- sans swimsuit -- to take with him. Before she can talk herself out of it, Ashleigh strides off to the bathroom, snaps a photo in the full-length mirror, and hits "send."

But when Kaleb and Ashleigh go through a bad breakup, Kaleb takes revenge by forwarding the text to his baseball team. Soon the photo has gone viral, attracting the attention of the school board, the local police, and the media. As her friends and family try to distance themselves from the scandal, Ashleigh feels completely alone -- until she meets Mack while serving her court-ordered community service. Not only does Mack offer a fresh chance at friendship, but he's the one person in town who received the text of Ashleigh's photo -- and didn't look.

Acclaimed author Jennifer Brown brings readers a gripping novel about honesty and betrayal, redemption and friendship, attraction and integrity, as Ashleigh finds that while a picture may be worth a thousand words . . . it doesn't always tell the whole story.

Oooh. I very much like the sound of this one! And Jennifer Brown is a really good author, so I'm sure that she can pull it off to my satisfaction. Plus it kind of seems like there might be romance involved-- so I'll be one happy girl! Mack sounds like a boy that I'd like to read about. (;

Music from Beyond the Moon by Augusta Trobaugh

Title: Music from Beyond the Moon
Author: Augusta Trobaugh
Series: N/A
Source: Publisher for Review
Publisher: Bell Bridge Books
Publication Date: April 30, 2012
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She became his soul mate and first love, but can they escape a destiny that was decided before they were born?

In 1920's Florida, an abandoned baby boy grows up under a cloud of mystery, adopted by two strong southern women, who try to protect him from his family's secrets and heartaches. But even their best intentions and deepest devotion can't hide the truth forever. Or soften the fate he must face with the girl he loves.

Augusta Trobaugh's unforgettable novel speaks of loyalty, loss, the difficult choices we make in the name of family, and of courageous hope, each inspired by the fragile and painfully longing music of life, a song that seems to come from beyond the moon.

Music from Beyond the Moon was a book that left me with very complicated and conflicting feelings. For the most part, I really liked it, and I feel that it'll make a mark on the people that read it-- but I can't say that it'll be a good mark. Or a bad mark. One way or the other, they'll remember it. I sure will, because it deals with some tough and taboo subjects. Some that had my gag reflex working overtime-- but we do NOT need to talk about the face I made at one point in this book. (But seriously, if I had a picture it would probably be hilarious.) We need to talk about why  I made that face. But it includes spoilers, so you'll need to highlight in between the brackets if you wanna see it.

{The reason for the face and the gag reflex was Starry and Victor kissing. She was one of the women that raised him, and she's like forty, and she's kissing a 17 year old boy? I was disgusted with her. She was one of my favorite characters before then, but after that I was kind of horrified. Then we have the incest. Which for some weird  reason, doesn't really bother me. They didn't know that they were related, and when Victor found out he left Rebecca. I've gotta give him points for that. Plus it's not like they did the nasty. o_O}

Now that I've told you guys what created "the face", I think that it's time to move on to greener pastures. Like the writing-- it was so vivid, and I really liked the author's voice. She managed to write a book about a boy that isn't told by him. Which I honestly wasn't sure about in the beginning, but I think it added to the depth of our story, because Victor himself never really talked. Fiona, Starry, Glory and Old Man were our main narrators, but we occasionally got a peek into some other characters' minds. Thankfully, the author has a talent for writing multiple points of view, and I never confused myself.

And honestly, I just really adored that the story was told by the people around Victor. Kind of like an old legend, you know? I have so much love for that viewpoint, and for the slow southern honey pacing. But because the pacing was so slow, it brought up another issue. I felt like I had it all figured out by the time the story actually started...and I kind of wish that the story could have started sooner.

All in all, Music from Beyond the Moon was well written and interesting, but the taboo-ness and the slow bits brought my overall rating down.

Love isn't any music from beyond the moon. It isn't mysterious at all. In fact, it's really perfectly simple-- love is an old Victrola with cracked and fuzzy sounding records to play on it, but the songs are familiar.
The songs are the ones we all know. ~ Pg. 154