Invisible I

 People will do anything to get visitors to websites. Like, write books. Huh? Apparently there's this whole site thing you're supposed to join after you read the book. But all that aside, cliché level = high, cliffhanger level = high, and general enjoyability = high. There's a bit of a mystery element involved, with new clues and plot twists leading the characters around while you alternate from almost bored to SAY WHAT? and still avidly reading. Many of the characters I could relate to (sometimes I actually saw myself in them), though what will happen to them in the next few books is pretty obvious sometimes. Still, it makes a nice and happier contrast to watching dramas and such like Avatar...

Amanda moves a lot. She always picks one special person to help her get started in her new school, and the two become the best of friends. So why do Callie, Hal, and Nia all find themselves as Amanda's chosen guides? And when the three girls and boys are thrown together in detention (for something Amanda herself did, no less) and compare stories, why did Amanda lie about her life to all of them? As Callie's family (consisting of her and Dad and nobody else) and social life unravel, she and her new friends have got one more problem to solve while they follow Amanda's tracks through a path via secretive notes and hints.
Why, and how, has Amanda Valentino vanished into thin air?

Blue Plate Special

If there's one thing that Madeline, Desiree, and Ariel are going to have to learn, it's that you can never take family for granted. Though the three girls are from three completely different decades of America, their stories and dysfunctional families are pretty much the same. Madeline is overweight and bordering on depression...until she meets someone who she really believes is the love of her life. Life gives Desiree a sound smack in the head when a regular car ride with her stepfather turns into the last thing anyone needs. And after a shocking and secret-spilling visit to the hospital, poor Ariel is sure she'll never see her mom (or her green mountain of a grandma) the same way again. In an absorbing tale of complicated and fateful relationships, the lives of three somewhat atypical girls are twisted and joined by decisions, fate, and a good dose of misfortune.

Spoilers, yay! So as soon as I saw that their lives are going to be intertwined, I was like, well thanks for spoiling the end of the book. Um, different decades, teenage pregnancy, three girls? They're related. Duh. Yeah.
Anyways, scorn aside, Blue Plate Special really came out as a great (if slightly depressing) read. Though prose in books usually makes me bored and biased, I was actually a bit sad that Desiree's narration was the only one in that format. Every single character, main or supporting, had personal mini-conflicts, and the storyline was quick to pick up on and quite surprising apart from the mother-daughter thing. But plot twists seem to be something Michelle Kwasney loves using...

Shiver

Grace and Sam have known each other since Grace was in elementary school. But the first time they ever spoke was in Grace's senior year, when Sam was mortally wounded by a hunter. For six years, Sam and his group have been werewolves, constantly shifting between dog and man with the changing of the seasons. But this year, Sam's instincts tell him that after this summer, there'll be no more exciting peeks into the human world. He'll just be a plain wolf. And to make things even more heartbreaking, he's just met Grace, the love of his life. Now Grace must think up a way to dodge her abandoned friends and cheat fate with science while Sam fights to stay where he is.

So I bet you all have gone into Barnes & Noble and noticed the WHOLE DANG SHELF of Twilight ripoffs vampire novels, right? Well, I always ask myself, what happened to the werewolves? Now, we finally have a very well-written book exclusively about the canines! Although a melancholy air of losing precious time hangs about until the end of the book, there are many laugh-out-loud, absurd, and just cute moments aplenty. In my opinion, every single character is really mixed in well with their social group but still has obvious problems and conflicts. The plot alternates between laid-back narratives and nerve-racking action, so right when you're beginning to get bored of Sam and Grace complimenting/snuggling/kissing glomping each other, there'll be a total turnaround and you're drawn right back into the pages again.