Are Any of My Readers College Students?

I'll be starting college next month and the one thing I want to ask my parents for is a laptop for school, but knowing my parents I will have to have an amazing argument prepared. I've already started a small list of benefits of having a laptop for school but I know it won't be enough for them. So I'm asking my college student readers who have laptops to email me or leave a message in the comments letting me know how having a laptop for school has benefited you. I really appreciate this you guys, thanks!

A Great Problem To Have!

I have all these amazing books on my shelf and I'm having the hardest time trying to decide what I should read next. I'm finally out of my reading rut and now I'm having this problem (if you can even call it a problem) and I would so greatly appreciate y'all's help in deciding what I start next! My dog wasn't much help in that are but I'm hoping you will be!

I've created a poll with my top choices so it will be easier for you to pick what I'm going to read.

What Should I Read Next?!

• Nightshade by Andrea R. Cremer
  
• The Unwritten Rule by Elizabeth Scott
  
• The Deadly Sister by Eliot Schrefer
  
• Shade by Jeri Smith-Ready
  
• Side Effects by Amy Goldman Koss
  
• The Wizard Heir by Cinda Williams Chima
  
• The Iron Kind by Julie Kagawa
  
• Incarceron by Catherine Fisher
  
• The Maze Runner by James Dashner
  

View Results
Create a Blog Poll

Thanks in advance guys!

Review: Scars by Cheryl Rainfield

Title: Scars
Author: Cheryl Rainfield
Pub. Date: March 24th
Publisher: Westside Books
Pages: 233
Copy Received: Publisher (ARC)

Kendra, fifteen, hasn't felt safe since she began to recall devastating memories of childhood sexual abuse, especially because she still can't remember the most important detail-- her abuser's identity. Frightened, Kendra believes someone is always watching and following her, leaving menacing messages only she understands. If she lets her guard down even for a minute, it could cost Kendra her life. To relieve the pressure, Kendra cuts; aside from her brilliantly expressive artwork, it's her only way of coping. Since her own mother is too self-absorbed to hear her cries for help, Kendra finds support in others instead: from her therapist and her art teacher, from Sandy, the close family friend who encourages her artwork, and from Meghan, the classmate who's becoming a friend and maybe more. But the truth about Kendra's abuse is just waiting to explode, with startling unforeseen consequences. Scars is the unforgettable story of one girl's frightening path to the truth.

Kendra knows she was sexually abused in her childhood but she has just one problem—she can’t remember the identity of her abuser. She isn’t at a time in her life where she is strong enough to deal with memories of the abuse, so she cuts herself to forget; to make the memories go away when they threaten to overtake her.

Now, years after the abuse stopped, Kendra is getting the feeling that it isn’t over. She starts to feel like someone is following her, watching her every move. Then her abuser starts leaving her messages, threatening to kill her if she tells anyone about the abuse.

Kendra doesn’t think she can talk to anyone about her abuse or that she knows he is still after her. Her mother would just rather forget about the whole thing and her father has enough problems as it is to deal with at the moment. But then she meets Meghan, a girl who she connects with in almost every way possible, and she feels as if she can really open up to someone for the first time; she lets herself become vulnerable to Meghan, who does the same in return. Kendra finally lets herself feel loved by someone.

I think that even though this book mainly centers on the abuse that Kendra went through and trying to find out the identity of her abuser, I also think it’s about coming to terms with something we have no control over, and learning to accept and love yourself after going through something horrific.

Even weeks after finishing Scars I can’t stop thinking about Kendra and her story, which I’ve found out is common with sexual abuse victims. The climax of the book is something I never could’ve prepared myself for, it’s thrown in your face so quickly that it’s almost too hard to swallow. My breath caught in my throat, my jaw literally dropped, and I had to reread that one line to make sure that I’d read it correctly the first time…and I did.

I was very happy with the way Cheryl Rainfield ended the book, because I knew it couldn’t end too happy with everything that had been discovered. I think it has the perfect ending, with everyone trying to face and accept the past and look forward to the future ahead of them.

I also want to applaud Cheryl for having the courage writing something that was very closely related to the experience that she had as a child. I don’t think anyone could’ve written anything like Scars the way she had.