Milestones by Samira Armin Hodges

Milestones by Samira Armin Hodges

Series: Milestones

Publisher: Hungry Goat Press

Category: Young Adult

251 Pages

One day. Just one day. That's how long it took for fourteen year-old Faye Martin's ordinary life to take a dramatic and completely unexpected turn. First, she gets struck by lightning a strange and awful experience in itself, but then made worse because Benjamin Parker, the object of her obsession, witnessed her near-death experience. Then she comes home to find her parents are forcing her to leave her friends and hometown of Seattle to attend a summer camp, aptly named Camp Milestone. After several failed attempts to change her parents mind Faye finds herself on a plane headed across the country to a camp she has never heard of.

Only, Camp Milestone is no ordinary camp. There are no phones allowed, shabby cabins and only a handful of campers. The only good turn of events is Benji her longtime crush is among the sparsely populated camp. This highlight of her summer is overshadowed by the camps strange and harsh rules given out by the head of the camp Galiana Moore, who seems crazy most of the time, and who unfortunately has taken a liking to Faye. As if things were not bad enough she notices an odd rash that has consumed most of her back from the lighting strike that seems to not only be growing larger but glowing slightly. Before she knows it, Faye finds herself caught in a whirlwind of uncertainty, torture, calamine lotion and romance....All in the name of summer camp. But as the summer unfolds, she realizes there is much more to Camp Milestone than meets the eye. Will she be able to unravel the mystery that surrounds this unusual camp? And more importantly, will she be able to survive the madness long enough to put the pieces together?





Milestones took me a while to get into. For the first few pages I just wasn’t really drawn in. Then suddenly –BAM- I couldn’t get out of Camp Milestone. It was insanely catchy to the point where I couldn’t concentrate in school.

The plot was amazing. I definitely never could have guessed the plot twist. Ever. Most books you can guess at l least kind of what’s going on. Not this book. Once it hit me it slapped me in the face just like it did for Faye. I did however, catch onto Faye's "secret" before it was announced.

Speaking of Faye, I loved her character. Heck, I loved ALL the characters. I loved how Faye grew subtly over the course of the book. Benji seemed so dreamy. All the characters were intriguing honestly.

Go pick up this book as soon as you can. It's written amazingly and I can not wait for the sequel!


A

Author Interview: Samira Armin Hodges

I was supposed to interview this very talented debut author on the 20th, but I missed the date. >.> Anywho, I think that might have worked out for the better since I'm reading Milestones now and I think it's an excellent book thus far. Samira Armin Hodges debut novel Milestones was released on August 1st.




First, tell us a little bit about yourself.

My name is Samira and I’m a 29 year old Pediatrician by day and Young Adult author by night. I was raised in Canada but I met and married a Texan in the Caribbean, so I recently moved to Texas and will likely stay here for the long haul. I have two crazy rescue dogs named Carrie Bean (guess where we found her) and Cocoa Bean. Milestones is my debut novel and it is book one of a trilogy.

What makes Milestones different from other books at the bookstore?

What a wonderful question and one that I don’t think I’ve ever been asked before. The reason I wanted to even write Milestones is because I felt that it was a story unlike ANY that’s been told before. Not a single person who has read it has predicted the outcome or the ending yet. Milestones take common themes of regular every-day life and turns it into something unrecognizable by the reader. All I can say is: give it a chance. You may be very pleasantly surprised. It is NOT your average camp story. That is a promise.

When you write, do you plan or just let the ideas come to you?

A little bit of both, I think. Normally, I plan out the whole story in advance. For instance, I always knew what would happen with the Milestones story. I came up with the entire tale at one time. But when I write, I just let the ideas come to me. Does that make sense?

Since you’re both a Pediatrician and an author now, is managing your time harder now?

*sigh* You. Have. No. Idea. That is the theme of my life right now and you’re very perceptive for picking up on that. I don’t want to bore you with the details of my job but right now, I work 80 hours a week. It’s very tiring especially considering that many of those hours are piled up consecutively (like 30 at a time, without sleep!). If you factor in sleep and well, regular every day tasks like showering, grocery shopping and paying bills, that doesn’t leave me time for much else. But this is where multi-tasking comes into play….as well as having a wonderful support system that helps take some of the load off.

Now for a completely irrelevant question. Swine flu is sweeping the nation and driving medical personnel (like my mom) insane. Is swine flu making your work harder?

Absolutely. I feel like everyone has the swine flu these days. Even people who don’t have any of the symptoms! The hospital ward and clinics are much busier than usual and well, people are very worried about the possibility of getting the swine flu so they are seeking medical attention a lot quicker than they normally would. We medical personnel have to be very careful when treating patients, otherwise, we could get very sick....over and over again. I’m waiting for it to blow over or for people to become a little more comfortable with the concept of the swine flu and realize that it is no more dangerous than the regular flu.

What are you reading now?

Another fantastic question. I’ve heard so many wonderful things about Hunger Games that I decided to give it a read. I just started but so far, it’s very intriguing!

When can we expect the next book of the Milestones Trilogy?

At this time, it is expected to be released in the Fall of 2010.

Thank you for having me on your blog Megan and for your very unique questions!

Thank you, Samira, for having the patience to wait on me! I like how we're on the same train of thought over Swine Flu. Thanks for the wonderful review. You guys can check out her personal website and make sure to pick up a copy of Milestones as soon as possible!