Week 3: Summer Book Club ~ Trapped

Reminders: Summer Book Club is rolling along! Be sure to take time to enter the giveaway for Week 2 - The Black Shard. 1 person from the US will win both Books 1 & 2 in this interesting series AND 3 people will win a copy of The Black Shard as an ebook. 

~ Review & Giveaway

Trapped
by Melody Carlson

ISBN: 978-1600069512

Purchase on Amazon:

$9.88 (paperback) $9.39 (Kindle)

About the book:

As straight-A student GraceAnn enters her senior year, the stakes feel higher, the stress is mounting, and after bad breakup with her boyfriend, her grades begin to slip. And grades that are less than perfect just aren’t acceptable. 


She knows that other kids cheat. After all, their cheating has made her life harder. But wasn’t it her turn to get a break? If she could get away with it—and no one got hurt—could she break the rules, just this one time?


As GraceAnn's world slips sideways, she finds herself caught in a twisted trap. Will her one bad choice cost her everything?

My Thoughts:
Parents ~ do you remember the distinct classes of "smart kids",    "jocks", "nerds", etc in high school? Do you remember the feeling and pressure in school to succeed and excel ~ or if you weren't in the AP classes the feeling of riding along with the flow and just trying to get through your days hoping nothing was going to happen?

Trapped is the story of a very smart teen girl who learns that other kids are cheating (which plants the seed) and who doesn't want to disappoint her parents who are expecting her to succeed in becoming a doctor. Every time her parents talk about her applying to schools like Harvard and Yale and about her being a better doctor than they are and getting to go to schools they only dreamed off tightens the pressure screw a little more. After catching another girl cheating and finding the "cheat sheet" this girl used she caves in and decides to give it a go just one time on a make up test. The problem is the guilt she feels and the feeling that she might be ruining her plans for medical school and her whole future too.

What follows is the story of a girl who gets caught in a web of her own making, blackmail from the guy who sells the cheat sheets, and her finally confessing what she did and telling her parents, the school and a great ending that really impressed me. 

I found the book kept getting better and better as I read and I really liked how she made the ending about GraceAnn learning a very valuable lesson about cheating and honesty. I also liked how Melody (the author) turned it from a negative consequence to a very positive one for the whole student body. She did a great job! Fantastic book for kids from 12+!

Melody Carlson has several new releases (and a bunch of old ones too) that I'm sure would be a great fit for your family and church/school library:

NEW RELEASES:
 - "Catwalk" and "Premiere"  On the Runway Books 1 and 2
- "Becoming Me Journal" 
- "Love Finds You in Pendleton Oregon" 
- 'As Young as We Feel" Book 1 in the Four Lindas series
- "Anything but Normal"

LATEST CONTEST INFORMATION:
- http://tinyurl.com/dkhejf

Buy It:
You can purchase a copy of Trapped on Amazon for $9.88 (paperback) $9.39 (Kindle). This would make a great book to put on the coffee table - your kids will definitely pick it up with a great title like "Trapped" and the front cover is intriguing enough to grab their attention. There are also questions at the end of the book for parent, youth group or book club discussion.



Melody Carlson and Glass Road Media have provided a copy of Trapped for one of our readers! Please be sure to share the giveaway & review by Tweeting and Sharing it on Facebook & Google+. Thanks!

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Much thanks to Melody Carlson and Leann from Glass Road Media for donating a book for review and also a wonderful BIG box of Melody Carlson books to the YES - Youth Emergency Services program in Cherokee Iowa. I was not paid for my review services and was not required to provide a positive review.