Let me just tell you, Sam McKenna is someone you don’t want to mess with. Sure, stick a bunch of teenagers in close quarters and tell them to stay away from each other. I was having a hard time writing a coherent review so I thought I would give you three reasons why you should check this book out.Īs the first batch of female recruits begin their year at the Denmark Military Academy, a rule is put in place that not only can they not date anyone higher up than them, they are not allowed to date fellow recruits either. Sam must decide who she can trust…and choosing the wrong person could have deadly consequences.Įven with all the hype, Rites of Passage more than lived up to my expectations. A decades-old secret society is alive and active… and determined to force her out.

When their petty threats turn to brutal hazing, bleeding into every corner of her life, she realizes they are not acting alone. But dating is strictly forbidden and Sam won’t risk her future, or the dare, on something so petty…no matter how much she wants him.Īs Sam struggles to prove herself, she discovers that some of the boys don’t just want her gone-they will stop at nothing to drive her out.

What she’s not expecting is her fiery attraction to her drill sergeant. She’s even expecting the hostility she gets from some of the cadets who don’t think girls belong there. As a military brat, she can handle an obstacle course just as well as the boys. She’s expecting push-ups and long runs, rope climbing and mud-crawling. So Sam joins the first-ever class of girls at the prestigious Denmark Military Academy. And she’s not going to start with the last one her brother gave her before he died. Simon vs.Sam McKenna’s never turned down a dare. Little and Lionand Finding Yvonneby Brandy Colbert I Believe in a Thing Called Loveand The Way You Make Me Feelby Maurene Goo The Reece Malcolm Listand Ink Is Thicker Than Waterby Amy Spalding “Awesome Older Adults in YA Literature” piece from 2017

The Impossible Knife of Memory by Laurie Halse Anderson Sunrise Over Fallujahby Walter Dean Myers Habibi by Hadeel al-Massari and Nyala Aliīoston Globe-Horn Book Award Winners for 2018 Hey YA is available on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Google Play, and right here on Book Riot. Sponsored by Little Do We Know by Tamara Ireland Stone and Mariam Sharma Hits The Road by Sheba Karim, sponsored by Epic Reads. Subscribe Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Spotify Stitcher RSSĮric and Kelly highlight some of the latest news in the world of YA, talk about where the books about teens in the military are (and are not), and wrap up the show talking about great adult characters they love in YA fiction.

Rites of passage by joy n hensley