When Lightning Strikes

Rating:
Summary: Great start to a Great Series!
Review: Jess Mastriani is your average 16 year old girl except for the fact that her afternoons are spent in detention for getting into fist fights with the football team. Luckily she's sitting next to Rob Wilkens, the sexiest senior around. One day Jess and her friend are walking home when Jess gets struck by lightning. Pretty soon Jess is having dreams about missing kids. Jess decides to see if her dreams are real so she travels to Paoli to find one kid named Sean Patrick O'Shannahan. It turns out her dreams are true so she calls 1-800-Where-R-You to report the missing kids to a kind black lady named Rosemary. Thenn one day the FBI tracks Jess down. They want her to come to Crane Military Base, a research facility to test her gifts and find people. Jess really isn't all that crazy about going. While she's there though she gets word that Sean has once again escaped from his father who is rumored to be about as kind as Darth Vader. Jess decides to find him on her own and she goes searching. She escapes Crane and finds Sean, but hte FBI is hot on her trail and they want her back.

OMG!This is a great series. If you liked the Mediator series you'll love this!

Rating:
Summary: When Lightning Strikes
Review: Jess was a normal high schooler, but when she got hit by lightning in a huge thunderstorm her whole world turned up side down. When Jess wakes up each morning she somehow knows where the missing kids on the back the milk carton are. Only until she reports their whereabouts does she recieve new locations of missing children. Little does Jessica know, but she's gotten one missing child, Sean, in more trouble than before he was found. Suddenly the Feds are on her case, and reporters are stalking her on her own preoperty. Jess is begining to think this whole finding missing kids thing is a little overwhelming. Will Jess Mastriani be able to save Sean and herself from Crane Military base and her family from the constant stream of reporters? Find out in When Lightning Strikes.

Rating:
Summary: Jess's life changes all casue of one bolt of lightning
Review: Jessica isn't the most even tempered girl in the world. In fact she's conmstantly getting in trouble for beating up guys much bigger than she is. So one day when walkign home from detention with her friend Ruth she get's hit by lightning. But since she isn't affected by it right away she thinks little of it. But then she starts having dreams about the little kids on the back of the milk cartons. For some strange reason she knows where they are. So she calls the number and tells the person on the line, whose name happens to be Rosemary, where they are. And the dreams don't stop. Suddenly everyone wants to know about this strange girl named Jess who can find the children on the milk cartons. And a group of men from the military wants to put her in a special research facility. And Jess isn't too keen on that.

Just like Jenny Carroll's Mediator Series, her new series 1-800-WHERE-R-U is filled with strong charecters and suspenseful plot lines. IF your a fan of her past work you'll love this series.

Rating:
Summary: A tough series to beat
Review: Jessica Mastriani didn't want to walk home after yet another stint in detention, but her bestfriend Ruth talked her into it. Neither of them knew that Jessica would get hit by lightning. The next morning Jessica wakes up knowing the location of the missing kids on the back of the family milk carton. By ringing the phone number on the back of the milk carton and telling them where the kids are Jess changes her life forever. Now the media is camped out on her front lawn and the government is very interested in her new found talent.

This book is brilliant! I read it in one sitting because I couldn't stand to put it down for more than a few minutes. Jess is a character who sprang to life from the page and knocked you in the face with an independent attitude - which is a lot better than her punching you in the face ... The other people around her are like normal everyday people, even though the events are more than ordinary. Not only does this story rock in its own right, but it also has an element of the conspiracy theory with the government being very keen to get their hands on Jess.

If you haven't tried this series yet then what are you waiting for? This series is better than the Mediator series by the same author - it just seems to flow a lot better and there is not the jarring of explaination or examination that can occur in the Mediator novels. I can't wait to finish book two, and then I only have to wait for the rest of the series ....

Rating:
Summary: An extremely good book
Review: Jessica Mastriani had to go to detention one day for punching a jock in the face when he called her friend, Ruth, fat. She was assigned to sit in the back next to Rob Wilkins, a hot senior. Ruth came by after detention to walk home together since they are neighbors. On their way, Rob came by on his motercycle and asks Jess if she wants a ride home because it looks like it might rain. She says no thanks and Ruth tells her not to go out with him because he is a Grit (someone who lives out of town like on a farm or something) and since they are Townies, it wouldnt be right. The keep walking and it starts pouring down rain and they run for cover under the metal bleachers (I know, it's stupid of them but its a book so oh well). Anyways, it is hailing really hard too so they wait, and Jess leans over against the bleachers. Then lightning strikes and she doesn't really think it did hit her because she doesnt feel like she was. Ruth helps her up and they walk home. The next morning she looks at the milk carton and realizes that the two missing kids on it were in her dream. She knows exactly where they are. She decides to see if the kids really are where they were in her dream. That day after school she asks Rob to take her to a nearby town, where she saw Sean O'Hanahan in her dream, and Rob takes her. She finds Sean where she saw him in her dream but he begs her not to tell anyone where he is. Then she goes out to have a burger with Rob and she decides to use a payphone to call the number on the carton (1-800-Where-R-U?). Then he takes her home. Her powers have found some children and there are reporters surrounding her house soon. Later, the FBI takes her to an army base to get her to use her powers to find criminals. She is reluctant because Sean didn't want to be found and she doesn't want to jeopardize the lives of anyone else. Then Rob tells her he can't go out with her because she is only 16 and he is going to be out of highschool next year, and he is on probation too, but she really likes him. Will Jess get the press to forget her powers, the FBI to stop trying to get her to find criminals and Rob to go out with her? Read the book and the next three in this series to find out more!!!

Rating:
Summary: When lightning strikes...you become psychic??
Review: Jessica Mastriani is just an average teenage girl...well, she is if you think that an average girl knocks football players unconscious and gets into fights with boys twice her size. Along with these little anger management problems, she didn't need the added stress of being hit by lightning. At first she isn't worried about being hit by lightning. If anything, she thinks it's cool. But when they find a entry scar where the lightning entered her body, but no scar where it would've come out, she starts to wonder what's happening. Is the lightning just hovering around inside of her? Can she shoot it out at people? The next morning things start to come clear to her when she wakes up knowing the exact locations of two children--two missing children who she had seen on the milk carton the night before. Things become apparent to her when every morning after she sees pictures of missing children she knows where they are. She calls in all of the addresses each day to 1-800-Where-R-You, an association which finds missing children. She becomes friends with a lady employee at 1-800-Where-R-You, Rosemary. But then, Rosemary was forced to tell her boss the location of a child which was not reported missing but they are trying to find: Jessica Mastriani. She is extremely surprised when she is confronted by two special agents in black suits and is so freaked out by it all that she punches one of them in the nose. She ends up being swarmed by reporters when the press discovers her psychic powers. Her mentally ill brother thinks that all the satellites are reading his thoughts, has a breakdown, and is sent to a hospital to recover. It is then that Jessica knows that she must leave her family and go witht he special agents to Crane--a military base nearby which will conduct tests on her. She knows that it is for the good of her brother. However, when she discovers that one of missing children she reported was better off before she "helped" him, she end up escaping from Crane, taking risks in a dangerous mission which she will never forget. This book was very comical, yet also extremely exciting. It was a great page-turning saga.END

Rating:
Summary: Just an Ordinary Girl...
Review: Jessica Mastriani is just your ordinary girl. Well, as ordinary as anybody can be when their house has been named a historical landmark, their family owns three restaurants, they beat up football linemen regularly...and knows where missing children are when she sleeps.

When Jess's friend Ruth decides to take a "short" jog home after school, instead of driving, they run straight into a storm. Taking refuge under a metal bleacher, Jess gets hit with lightning, but thinks that she is fine...until the next morning, when she wakes up and discovers that she knows the exact location of two missing children. From that day on, Jess can find missing children in her sleep. Unfortunately, when she "saves" a missing child, Sean, she puts Sean in serious trouble. Trying to save him, she goes on a huge adventure, while dodging FBI agents who are getting very annoyed and impatient. It's up to Jess to try to fix everything... all while trying to catch the attention of Rob Wilkins, a motor- cycle riding senior.

I give this book, When Lightning Strikes by Meg Cabot, four stars, because I thought that the book was very good. It has strong, well- rounded characters that seem to jump off of the page, and a well thought- out plot. The descriptions are clear, and the main character's views and opinions make you laugh, while her actions make you gasp. I loved reading the book, and couldn't put it down until the very last word.

Jess Mastriani is one of kind. She's as strong- minded and brave, as she is short and petite. Though the football players are usually three times as big as her, Jess doesn't hesitate in punching their lights out when they insult her brother or her friends. This is usually the cause of her never- ending detention sentences. Jess is a person that you just want to know. When you're friends with her, you know she'll look out for you.

The strongest scene in the book is the scene when Jess and Sean are trying to avoid the FBI, who is looking for them both, though for different reasons. In order to give Sean a chance to get out, she sacrifices her own temporary freedom and jumps into a plastic volcano to distract the FBI. I like this scene because it shows Jess's boldness and the way that she always puts other people's needs before her own.

I would recommend this book to anybody who's looking for a fun book to read. People who enjoy reading about strong, funny characters would definitely like this book, and are really missing out if they don't read it. Any girl who's ever felt like punching anybody would like reading about this funny, bold girl, like I did.

Rating:
Summary: When Lighting Strikes
Review: Jessica wasn't your average teenage girl. Instead of doing girlie stuff, like cheerleading, she perfers fighting with the football team, and getting detention. Not that Jess minds detention, though, because then she is near Rob, the hottest guy at her school, even if he is a grit, and she is a townie.

But after someone tells Ruth, her best friend, that she needs to loose weight, Jess agrees to walk home one day after detention. They are caught in a hail storm, and desperate for shelter, hide under the bleachers, which is a big no-no when it happens to be lightning out (c'mon lightning & metal, tell me that you heard that isnt exactly the best combination). Jess is struck by lightning. But since nothing seems to be wrong with her, she doesnt tell her parents. Jess then wakes up one morning, and knows where two missing are. She then realizes that she saw them on a milk carton. She calls the missing child hotline (1-800-where-r-you...hmm sounds familiar). She calls it a couple times, and then the government tries to get her to work for her, something she doesnt want to do.

Run, Jessica. Run.

Rating:
Summary: it was awesome!!!!
Review: man! this book was awweeeeesome!! i loved it. i especially loved rob wilkins. his character was soooo sexaaay!!! thats what i love about books. they always the hottest guys but it sucks because they're never real. anyways, this book was great. i loved the main charater. she was soo realistic to me. i totally recommend this book to you. it was awesome!

Rating:
Summary: excellent
Review: one of my friends was reading this, and when I read the blurb I was skeptical. At the time I was reading Haunted (also by Meg Cabot) and didn't think that the story about Jess could be nearly as good. I was WAY wrong. I ended up stealing it from my friend - I know, I know. I gave it back. *sigh*- it was so good.

OK, so I happen to think that Rob, the hot senior with a motorcycle, is the best character in the book/series... but I'm a teen girl. What do you expect?

The plot is great. I love the parts involving the FBI (I won't go into detail so I don't ruin it for those people who haven't read this, which they so should) and Jess's in your face attitude. Frankly, any girl who will kick a football player's ass to defend her best friend is someone I like.

The rest of the series is great, but I still love this one the best.