The Long Night of Leo and Bree

It's the fourth anniversary of Leo's sister's murder. His father disappeared not long after the murder, and his mother has become a crazy drunk. For some reason, she has kept the grisly police photos of her dead daughter's naked, bloody body, and shows them to Leo. It's more than he can take, and after fighting with his mom, he goes for a drive. When he sees a scantily clad girl walking down the street alone, he decides that she's the one who should have died, not his smart, good, nice sister. Bree is trying to find a bar to play pool. She's rebelling against her rich, controlling mother and boyfriend by going to a rough part of town. Leo kidnaps Bree, blindfolds her, and takes her to the basement of his apartment building. Bree won't stop talking about herself because she heard that if you become real to your kidnapper, he won't kill you. Leo spends the night trying to figure out whether to kill Bree or not, and Bree tries to get through to Leo and save herself. They come to realize that they have more in common than they first thought. The Long Night of Leo and Bree by Ellen Wittlinger (who also wrote Hard Love) has some weird moments, and it's a little hard to believe at times, but you do end up caring about both Leo and Bree and hoping that things will work out in the end for both of them.

Blue Jasmine

Blue Jasmine by Kashmira Sheth is about a twelve-year-old girl who immigrates to the USA from India. Seema has always lived with her sister, mother, father, aunt, uncle, 2 cousins, grandmother, and grandfather. Seema is especially upset to be leaving her cousin Raju, who is the same age and has always been like a brother to her. One of Seema's schoolmates, Mukta, brings her a going-away present. Kids at school always make fun of Mukta because she smells, and when Seema visits Mukta, she realizes that Mukta is very poor. Seema's family moves to Iowa and starts to fit in there, but a year later they have to return to India to visit her sick grandmother. Seema worries about Mukta and misses Raju and the rest of her family while she is in Iowa, but when she returns to India, she finds that a part of her also misses her new home.