55. The Future of Us

55. The Future of Us. Jay Asher and Carolyn Mackler. 2011. 356 pages. [Source: Library] [4 stars, YA fiction, YA science fiction, coming of age]

First sentence: I can't break up with Graham today, even though I told my friends I'd do it the next time I saw him.

Premise/plot: Emma Nelson and Josh Templeton are about to step into the twilight zone. This YA coming of age novel (set in May 1996) is told with dual narrators--Emma and Josh. It starts with a disc--a cd rom to be more precise. Josh gives Emma the gift of AOL since his family doesn't believe in this newfangled internet. Emma downloads it, connects to it, and discovers Facebook, discovers HERSELF on Facebook, discovers her FRIENDS on Facebook. Suddenly, Emma and Josh have a way to glimpse their future selves through their future Facebook posts. Josh is content enough with what he sees. He doesn't seem to get invested in "fixing" the future. Whatever will be will be. Emma, on the other hand, becomes obsessed with micromanaging her future self. Even if her only glimpses of that future are through FB posts and what pictures she's uploaded and shared in the future. She is not once content with what she sees. The more she obsesses with the future, the more discontent she becomes in the now. Josh warns her NOT to play god, to not become so focused on the future, on fixing the future, on preventing "unhappy" outcomes, that she doesn't live now. She should be true to herself in the NOW. Not let her future or potential future self decide where she should go to college, which career she should choose, where she wants to live (or not live). Will Emma ever learn to let go and relax???? And will Josh learn how to navigate the complexities of friendship???

Josh's future self seems happy enough, content enough, settled down with kids with a woman, Sidney Mills, that is allegedly "out of his league." He is in one class with her now...and since finding out that allegedly they have a happily ever after he's been a little braver. He speaks up for her when her ex puts her down. He makes eye contact and smiles. She asks for his number. She seems to potentially be interested in him. Meanwhile, Josh knows KNOWS that he wants more than friendship with Emma. She is the one he wants to date. Maybe there's something there; maybe there is NOT. But he wants to see. But Emma is SO obsessed with her future husbands that she isn't really thinking of Josh like that. (And she doesn't ever have to think of Josh like that, for the record. Maybe she'll never ever ever return his feelings.)

My thoughts: I first read this one in December 2011. It is an interesting WHAT IF. I love, love, love the 1996 setting. I do. I love the social and technological references. Friends. Seinfeld. Macarena. Dave Matthews. Green Day. I could go on and on and on. I think the authors do a good job of the 90s setting. And since it's been a while since 2011--when the book released, when the future selves of Emma and Josh exist--it's a good reflection of that time as well.

I enjoyed the dual narration. Josh and Emma are SO different in many ways. Josh seems more mature and thoughtful perhaps. But Emma's home life hasn't been the most awesome. She is all the angst and all the drama. Josh is calmer, for the most part. He seems to stabilize the chaos that is Emma.

Josh does seem less self-centered and selfish. He notices in the future that his older brother, David, is gay and in a relationship--according to Facebook. He realizes just how much he doesn't know about his older brother and that makes him sad that his brother is hiding this--though perhaps David didn't realize it in 1996?

There were things I definitely liked about this one. There were definitely some things I didn't like as much. It was mature in some ways. It is not a clean read. It isn't graphic, mind you, but there's much discussion of sex.

I do think it would make a GREAT teen movie OR miniseries. 

Note: I've been reading reviews and I agree with most of what is written on the lower stars. EMMA IS SUPER SUPER SUPER SUPER annoying as a heroine. The 90s reference are surface-level for the most part. YET I think if the reader is engaged in the premise and loved 1996 and wants to feel nostalgic, I think that is certainly possible. I do think the dual narrators are a bit disjointed. Yet, that isn't a terribly bad thing in my opinion. TWO different writers. A male perspective. A female perspective. They are DIFFERENT people with different morals/values. They process the world completely differently. So it makes sense that flipping narration is a bit jumpy.


© 2026 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

54. The Good Fortune of Miss Robbins

54. The Good Fortune of Miss Robbins. Melanie Dickerson. 320 pages. [Source: Library] [3 stars, clean romance, historical romance, Jane Eyre wannabe]

First sentence: "Charlotte! A letter came for you!" Hattie Jacobs emerged from the back entrance of Mrs. Southey's School for Young Ladies, waving something over her head.

Premise/plot: Charlotte Robbins, our protagonist, is incredibly excited to start a new chapter of her life as a governess to an earl's niece and nephew. Lord Brookhaven is extremely friendly and sociable from their first meeting. Charlotte was hoping to find love in this new chapter as well though she knows that it couldn't possibly be with the earl himself. But surely there's someone about with whom she could find a happily ever after. BUT when Charlotte is included in Lord Brookhaven's social calendar--a house party--she begins to realize she is in fact falling for the earl. AT the same time, he begins to realize he is falling in love with her. But, dear readers, we are barely a fifth of the way through the novel. Readers still have a couple hundred pages to go before the incredibly obvious and tedious misunderstandings can be cleared up in three or four minutes of conversation.

My thoughts: The book wants to be Jane Eyre without being Jane Eyre. They've upgraded Mr. Rochester to an EARL. They've removed the hidden wife in the attic. Simply not acceptable to have a MARRIED MAN falling in love with another woman, proposing, or trying to marry again unlawfully. They have tried to make the story a little more Charles Dickens...introducing TWO ORPHAN CHILDREN that must be saved and rescued. Charlotte does "inherit" but not from an uncle she's never met--but from an imaginary uncle created by the earl as a guise. This money from an "uncle" (wink, wink) sets her up in London, brings two street orphans into her life, and makes her the catch of the season. As marriage proposals abound, Charlotte is unhappy because Lord Brookhaven is keeping his distance. The truth comes out...and she's livid. And then the nonsense continues because of course it does. Eventually these two have an honest conversation and when he proposes she accepts.

It is published by a CHRISTIAN publisher. There is little to no Christian content. There is 800% more Christian content in the original novel Jane Eyre than in this book. The "improvements" to the story are not really improvements in my opinion.



© 2026 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

53. The Best Bear in All the World

53. The Best Bear in All the World. Paul Bright, Brian Sibley, Jeanne Willis, Kate Saunders. 2016. 115 pages. [Source: Library] [3 stars, audio book, Winnie the Pooh sequel]

First sentence: "Ninety?" said Winnie the Pooh. "Is that more than seven?" "Yes, Pooh," said Kanga patiently. "You're ninety years old, which calls for a celebration."

Premise/plot: Four new stories starring Winnie the Pooh and all his friends from the Hundred Acre Woods. There is a story set in Autumn (in which Pooh and Piglet prepare to meet a Dragon). There is a story set in Winter (in which Penguin arrives in the forest). There is a story set in spring (in which Eeyore suspects another donkey is after his thistles). There is a story set in summer (in which Pooh dreams of the Sauce of the Nile).

My thoughts: I have wanted to READ this one for years. But the library didn't have it in print. I saw it on audio book and thought I'd give it a try. I didn't like it much on audio. BUT I realize that could be the narrator being a disappointment in doing ALL the characters in unique voices. I realize that no one can DO the character voices like Disney does. I wasn't expecting it to be amazing. But I wanted it to be better than it was. I also think that the book would have been more enjoyable, perhaps, if it had had ONE author instead of four. The stories are just decent. These aren't "new" stories or "original" stories so much as slightly changing and adapting a few stories and having them happen again slightly differently.

Perhaps audio wasn't the best way to experience this book since I missed out on the illustrations. AND it's certainly possible that reading the book in print with the more proper voices in my head narrating might have led me to like it better.


© 2026 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

52. Prey

52. Prey. Michael Crichton. 2002. 507 pages. [Source: Library] [audio book, 5 stars, adult science fiction, adult thriller]

First sentence: Things never turn out the way you think they will.

Premise/plot: Jack Forman, our protagonist, is a stay at home dad. (Three kids, if my memory is correct). After losing his job because he was a whistleblower--or trying to be--he's been unable to get another job in his field. (He reported something unethical and dangerous not knowing the person he was reporting to was IN on the shady shady side of things). His wife, Julia, well she's SOMETHING. Perhaps she wasn't always so something. Maybe there was a time when she was loving, supportive, and a great mother. But we never see that side of her--not really.

Jack Forman finds himself at the center of a GREAT mystery. And it starts soon after a terribly horrible health scare with his youngest. Soon he's being asked by the people who fired him to "help out" and trouble shoot with code that he developed. BUT he soon finds that what they are NOT telling him could feel all the libraries in the world. And his creepy wife is at the center of it--for better or worse.

A science experiment has gone terribly, terribly, terribly wrong! And Jack Forman finds himself almost completely alone in trying to save the world.

My thoughts: Prey is my fourth Michael Crichton novel that I've read. I LOVED, LOVED, LOVED, LOVED IT. I listened to the audio narrated by Robert Sean Leonard. It was FABULOUS. I have a feeling I would have loved the story either way--in print or on audio. I COULD not stop reading this one.



© 2026 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

51. Rash

51. Rash. Pete Hautman. 2006. 256 pages. [Source: Bought] [5 stars, YA dystopia, YA fiction, YA futuristic; YA Sports]

First sentence: Gramps, who was born in 1990, once told me that when he was my age the only way to wind up in prison in the USSA (back when it had only one S) was to steal something, kill somebody, or use illegal drugs.

Premise/plot: Rash by Pete Hautman is set roughly in the 2070s. Bo Marsten, our protagonist, is having a hard time of it. His father and brother are incarcerated. (Then again, almost a third of the population is. The work force of the USSA is almost primarily prison labor. Would anyone work if not forced???) He's young; he's rash even. He is madly in love lust with Maddy. But Maddy, well, she doesn't exactly feel exclusive with Bo. In fact, she's often with his "enemy" Karlohs Mink. (Even confiding his secrets to Karlohs! The audacity!) In a time when even insults are illegal and could land you with big legal trouble--especially if it's your third "mistake," Bo's fate seems inevitable. To add insult to injury, Karlohs fakes the whole school into believing that Bo has given him a literal rash. No one believes Bo is innocent--except perhaps his family and his school assignment, Bork; It is an A.I. assignment--to create one that will pass as sentient.

When Bo is sentenced to prison--a McDonald's making pizzas--he finds himself struggling to survive in a world that is unfair.

My thoughts: I read Rash TWICE in 2006. I absolutely loved, loved, loved it. I listened to it on audio in 2010, I believe, according to my blog. I wanted to reread it now that my blog is about to turn TWENTY YEARS OLD at the end of the month (August).

Rash is dark and complex. Though the complexity isn't perhaps super super obvious. On one hand, it can read as a dark comedy. Look what society will come to if safety and niceness are the only priority. When personal freedom is almost nonexistent, especially freedom of expression. When almost every natural human emotion or feeling is discouraged, how can one live...and stay out of trouble. Self is smothered. Common sense is nonexistent. And there are some over-the-top moments--like when BO is being chased by literal polar bears. GRAMPS is the voice of reason AND yet comedic relief too.

On the other hand, it examines the justice or injustice system. If almost everything is illegal and it's almost impossible to avoid prison time in the first place, HOW does one rejoin society afterwards. Is one doomed to keep getting locked back up? Will families be forever broken? Will healing and reconciliation ever happen? Most of the crimes in the book are over-the-top ridiculous.

I will say that it ALSO showcases belief systems. GRAMPS world view was shaped by his upbringing, his experiences. He's witnessed GREAT, great change--none of it for the better. Bo loves his Gramps, but, he's been raised in a completely, totally different society with different values, morals, and laws. Bo has a hard time grasping how life could be any different. HE doesn't see what is glaringly wrong with society like readers can. It was definitely not an accident that the original audience for this YA novel would have been born in the 1990s just like Gramps.

This novel definitely has layers. One could almost pick ANY aspect of it and deep dive.


© 2026 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews