Seventeen-year-old Lauren is having visions of girls who have gone missing. And all these girls have just one thing in common—they are 17 and gone without a trace. As Lauren struggles to shake these waking nightmares, impossible questions demand urgent answers: Why are the girls speaking to Lauren? How can she help them? And… is she next? As Lauren searches for clues, everything begins to unravel, and when a brush with death lands her in the hospital, a shocking truth emerges, changing everything.

With complexity and richness, Nova Ren Suma serves up a beautiful, visual, fresh interpretation of what it means to be lost

Hardcover, 354 pages  Published March 21st 2013 by Dutton Juvenile  ISBN  0525423400 (ISBN13: 9780525423409)

Our main character Lauren is becoming obsessed with local girls who have all gone missing. They have one thing in common, all disappeared at the age of 17. 

Lauren begins to collect the flyers that are posted around town with the details of the missing girls. But one girl in particular has become a fixation. When Lauren begins to have dreams, as well as visions of Abby, she begins to look into her disappearance, going to places she was last seen, talking to her family and friends. But what really gets to her is when she begins hearing and feeling Abby’s emotions. Is this all in her head? Or is Abby somehow guiding her?

There are several missing girls mentioned and the story is also filled with research on missing girls in general. Although Lauren shows an interest in a variety of girls, the main focus of this story lies with Abby and Fiona. Her detective work is so focused that it puts stress on her relationship with her mother, her boyfriend and school. But the deeper that Lauren looks into the disappearances, the more danger she finds herself in. And to top it all off the visions are getting scarier and affecting her physically.

Nova Ren Suma takes on this topic in an interesting way. I would have liked to see how some of the other missing girls stories had played out, but we only get answers to a few. I would recommend this book for fans of the The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer books, as well as those that enjoy a good psychological mystery. 

It is August… therefore it must be Austen.

I’ve been watching the videos of Misty the Book Rat for what must be almost a year… because I began hearing about an event on her blog called Austen in August, (Which would be Jane in June but yeah life etc) after giving myself the gift of faster Internet. Misty is a darling, and she goes all out for her events. She is a huge Jane Austen fan, and who can blame her?

They’re not classed as classics because they’re rubbish.

BTW Here is your official invitation…

Anyway, as a non-connected post but wanting to promote her event, I wanted to share with you two ways you can enjoy Austen in August if you’re like me, and find the thought of reading a classic novel cover to cover a little daunting (imagine a future where Twilight is considered a classic novel ~shiver~).

I can consume a ridiculous number of hours on YouTube… I’ll bet you can too. Search for the Lizzie Bennet Diaries on youtube… Or better yet click on the link here…

Lizzie Bennet

(Please remember to set the videos to oldest to newest so you can go riiiiiight back to the beginning)

This is a modernisation of Pride and Prejudice in vlog format. I kid you not. It runs for 100 episodes (not including the Q&A videos) and you can get the gist of P&P from these bite sized, easy to digest, completely consumable clips. I wanna know where they got the hotties from… Meow!

If being glued to the computer doesn’t grab you then how about DVD’s?

Lost in Austen is another warped spin on P&P in TV Mini Series format from 2008.

 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1117666/

Modern day Amanda Price swaps places with Elizabeth Bennet through her bathroom wall. Amanda, who happens to be obsessed with P&P, is a breath of fresh air for the Bennet family, and a kick to the crotch for Mr Darcy… which was quite fun I must say.

If you were lucky like I was to find the special edition packaging of this DVD set, you get your discs in the back of a completely charming teal diary.

Let me know in the comments if there are any other ways you like to consume your Austen in August, or any other month for that matter.

 *Marianne says: you  might want to watch out for this upcoming movie too, produced by none other than Stephenie Myer: 

August 30 is Wear it Purple day.

This is the 4^th annual day for raising awareness for the safety and self-worth of the LGBT (or Rainbow) members of our school communities.

 As quoted on their FB Page:

Wear it Purple is a student run, not-for-profit organisation that exists to support young people who identify as sexuality and/or gender diverse (i.e. rainbow).

Wear it Purple seeks to raise awareness about the issues faced by these young people and the need to eradicate bullying based on sexuality and gender diversity. We aim to help create a world that is safe for all young people, within which they are free to learn, grow and belong. Wear it Purple believes that everyone has the right to be proud of who they are, and we aim to empower these young people to be able to.

So I wanted to look at a few ways we can go completely purple, inside and out, in honour of purple day, while making it a bit of fun.

Purple Sushi! Why the heck not. (You can get purple sticky rice from Oxfam or ask your local asian grocery store) Thanks to chinesesouthernbelle for this simple yet effective idea.

Purple Nail Art thanks to SimpleLittlePleasures

Depending what your school’s stance is on make up, here’s a purple smoky eye shadow look by Lana from VivaGlamLana

 Keep the motto for Wear it Purple Day in mind… “You have the right to be proud of who you are.”

For more information on Wear it Purple Day and how to get your school involved go to

http://wearitpurple.org/wear-it-purple-day/

And if you, or someone you know, need to speak to someone here are some phone numbers that may help

Kids Helpline 1800 55 (under 18)

Lifeline 131 114 (over18)

Oh, and we want pictures of how you went Purple on August 30.

Purple Power!!!!!!

There are four Wild Things living at my house. And that’s not counting my dogs. My Wild Things are all two-legged males, and all have bottomless pits for stomachs. They each eat around five meals a day and that’s not including snacks. Or dessert. Yes, they could easily be mistaken for Hobbits, except they’re bigger and their feet aren’t quite as hairy. So what keeps my Wild Things happy and satisfied? Hedgehog. It’s cheap, quick, chocolatey (and therefore yummy) and very, very easy.

What You Need:

125 grams of butter

½ cup caster sugar

1 packet of Marie biscuits

100 grams of walnuts, chopped

½ cup cocoa

1 egg, beaten with a fork.

How It’s Done:

Crush biscuits in a blender, leaving some chunky bits. Transfer to a large mixing bowl. Combine butter and sugar in a microwave-safe bowl. Heat in microwave until butter is melted and sugar is dissolved. You might need to pause the microwave and stir the mix a couple of times. Pour butter mixture over biscuits, cocoa and about half the walnut pieces. Mix, cool for five minutes and then add the beaten egg and mix.

Press into a greased slice tin and refrigerate for an hour.

For the icing, add 2 tablespoons of butter and 200 grams of dark chocolate to a heavy-based saucepan. Melt over low heat, and then add 2 cups of sifted icing sugar. If the icing gets too thick, add a dash of hot water. Smooth over hedgehog and sprinkle with remaining walnuts. Refrigerate and then slice into pieces. Store in the fridge.

 **Note: the hedgehog slice in this photo was made with double the recipe amounts shown here, as well as two different brands of cocoa, which is what gives it the striped appearance. 

So what’s the game now? This, or the life I used to know?

When Miki Jones is pulled from her life, pulled through time and space into some kind of game—her carefully controlled life spirals into chaos. In the game, she and a team of other teens are sent on missions to eliminate the Drau, terrifying and beautiful alien creatures. There are no practice runs, no training, and no way out. Miki has only the guidance of secretive but maddeningly attractive team leader Jackson Tate, who says the game isn’t really a game, that what Miki and her new teammates do now determines their survival, and the survival of every other person on this planet. She laughs. He doesn’t. And then the game takes a deadly and terrifying turn.

Hardcover, 361 pages  Published June 11th 2013 by Katherine Tegen Books  ISBN  0062192132 (ISBN13: 9780062192134)

This was a book that left me with more questions than answers, which is not necessarily a bad thing, especially when it comes to a series. It is also a story that will one moment be in a normal high school setting connecting with friends, and the next in a high-paced fast action fight scene. .

Gamers will appreciate the way this world is put together. There are points that can be gained and lost; energy or power gauges that maintain whether you stay in the game or die. There’s also the fact that in the end it’s always your life that is at risk and not all team members are team players.

The chapters vary between Miki’s life at school and knowing that any moment she can be pulled from it. The real world pauses while the game is played, to return exactly to the moment she left, having to resume as if all is normal again. There is little to no contact with the other team members while in the real world, and if you die in the game, you die in real life. The jumping back and forth between each world was a little off-putting to me, because personally, I couldn’t understand how anything besides fighting the Drau was important any more once you learn of their existence. But it’s all part of the game, you don’t get to choose when or where. It just is.

It is a plot driven story with a focus on the Game. Characters and world building come next, right in time to get you pumped up for the continuation for what will happen next. With very little downtime to develop any more than basic friendships and least of all a romance, Rush is a science fiction adventure story of survival.