Dune Road by Jane Green

Green does an excellent job of bringing her characters to life! This is among one of my favorite of Green's novels. A lot happens and each is more interesting than the next. Unexpected and expected events arise. It is entertaining and entertaining and filled with suspenseful twists and turns. Expect to set time aside to read this novel or you will be up late like me. This book is quite different from her other chick-lit writings, so don't expect the same work. An enjoyable read and an excellent study of characters. 

Grade: A

Synopsis (B&N) A sparkling new novel from the New York Times bestselling author of The Beach House Jane Green’s last novel, The Beach House, was an instant New York Times bestseller and captured her largest audience yet. From the sunny green lawns of Connecticut to the cafés of London to the sandy beaches of Nantucket, Green draws from her own life to craft each delicious story and the resulting tales resonate with women everywhere. Dune Road is another fun and fearless adventure that will take Green’s many fans from laughter to tears and back again. The novel is set in the beach community of a tony Connecticut town. Our heroine is a single mom who works for a famous—and famously reclusive—novelist. When she stumbles on a secret that the great man has kept hidden for years, she knows that there are plenty of women in town who would love to get their hands on it—including some who fancy the writer for themselves. Dune Road is the story of life in an exclusive beach town after the tourists have left for the summer and the eccentric (and moneyed) community sticks around. Dune Road will surely be the book to pack in beach bags next summer.

Dismantled: A Novel by Jennifer Mcmahon

Dismantled is a book you are going to want to purchase. It draws you in from page one until the very end. This novel is so full of twists and turns it will make you head spin and keep you up way past bedtime. It is riveting, captivating and nearly impossible to solve. It is a great psychological thriller. The characters are not very sympathetic yet Mcmahon's writing draws you into their lives with ease and interest. An mesmerising read. Her best novel yet! 

Grade: A+

Synopsis Dismantlement = Freedom Henry, Tess, Winnie, and Suz banded together in college to form a group they called the Compassionate Dismantlers. Following the first rule of their manifesto—"To understand the nature of a thing, it must be taken apart"—these daring misfits spend the summer after graduation in a remote cabin in the Vermont woods committing acts of meaningful vandalism and plotting elaborate, often dangerous, pranks. But everything changes when one particularly twisted experiment ends in Suz's death and the others decide to cover it up. Nearly a decade later, Henry and Tess are living just an hour's drive from the old cabin. Each is desperate to move on from the summer of the Dismantlers, but their guilt isn't ready to let them go. When a victim of their past pranks commits suicide—apparently triggered by a mysterious Dismantler-style postcard—it sets off a chain of eerie events that threatens to engulf Henry, Tess, and their inquisitive nine-year-old daughter, Emma. Is there someone who wants to reveal their secrets? Is it possible that Suz did not really die—or has she somehow found a way back to seek revenge? Full of white-knuckle tension with deeply human characters caught in circumstances beyond their control, Jennifer McMahon's gripping story and spine-tingling plot prove that she is a master at weaving the fear of the supernatural with the stark realities of life.

The Laughing Corpse(Anita Blake Vampire Hunter Series #2) by Laurell K. Hamilton

The Laughing Corpse is the second book in the Anita Blake series. It has a good mix of vampires, zombies and voodoo.

The story is semi-entertaining but lacks something, I can't quite put my finger on. I have heard so much hype about how wonderful this series is yet I'm struggling to really get into it.

This novel is much better than the first but the character needs more development and the writing can at times be a bit repetitive which drives me mad. When the story gets rolling, it gets entertaining and makes reading quite enjoyable and fast paced. If you can get through the not so great parts and get onto the really good ones the time you put into reading this novel is worth it.

The last 50 or so pages are exciting!

Grade: B-

Vampire Kisses 2: Kissing Coffins by Ellen Schreiber

Kissing Coffins is book 2 in the Vampire Kisses series. It continues right were the Vampire Kisses left off, so I strongly suggest you read that book first. It remains true to its characters, one might suggest it is better than the first. You need to keep an open mind while reading this because the writing is intended for young readers (ages 12 and up). Overall it is a good read but the goth characters are a bit too stereotypical, despite that I have to admit I enjoyed it quite a bit. You will be entertained and easily breeze thru this short novel.

Grade: B

Synopsis Not far from Dullsville, someone's lurking in the dark. . . . After meeting the handsome and shadowy Alexander Sterling, goth-girl Raven's dark world has a bright, new glow. But as in her favorite movie, Kissing Coffins, Raven knows that love always has its complications, especially when Alexander has a big secret to guard. When Alexander suddenly disappears, Raven leaves Dullsville to begin a dangerous search to find him. Can she stay safe, no matter who—or what—she encounters on the way?

The Devouring by Simon Holt

The Devouring is like watching a very, very spooky, Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode crossed with a cheesy, Nightmare on Elm street movie. Holt does a great job of catching your attention and at moments the writing sends chills up and down your spine( or course, I was reading this at night, during a thunderstorm). The characters are well developed. This book knows how and when to get creepy. The scare tactic is not tamed down for this YA novel. The Devouring has a strong and satisfying finish and is set up nicely for the sequel.

Grade: A

Synopsis When Reggie finds an old journal and reads about the Vours, supernatural creatures who feast on fear and attack on the eve of the winter solstice, she assumes they are just the musings of some lunatic author. But soon, they become a terrifying reality when she begins to suspect that her timid younger brother might be one of their victims.Risking her life and her sanity, Reggie enters a living nightmare to save the people she loves. Can she devour own her fears before they devour her?Bone-chilling, terrifying, thrilling...what are you waiting for?

Columbine by Dave Cullen

Synopsis
On April 20, 1999, two boys left an indelible stamp on the American psyche. Their goal was simple: to blow up their school, Oklahoma City-style, and to leave "a lasting impression on the world." Their bombs failed, but the ensuing shooting defined a new era of school violence, irrevocable branding every subsequent shooting "another columbine."
When we think of Columbine, we think of the Trench Coat Mafia; we think of Cassie Bernall, the girl we thought professed her faith before she was shot; and we think of the boy pulling himself out of a school window, the whole world was watching him. Now, in a riveting piece of journalism nearly ten years in the making, comes the story none of us knew. In this revelatory book, Dave Cullen has delivered a profile of teenage killers that goes to the heart of psychopathology. He lays bare the callous brutality of mastermind Eric Harris and the quavering, suicidal Dylan Klebold, who went to the prom three days earlier and obsessed about love in his journal.
The result is an astonishing account of two good students with lots of friends, who were secretly stockpiling a basement cache of weapons, recording their raging hatred, and manipulating every adult who got in their way. They left signs everywhere, described by Cullen with a keen investigative eye and psychological acumen. Drawing on hundreds of interviews, thousands of pages of police files, FBI psychologists, and the boys' tapes and diaries, he gives the first complete account of the Columbine tragedy.

Review:

A brilliantly written, authoritative book. Cullen researched for 10 years and his work shows passion, insight and diligence.

You will be chilled to the bone as this haunting tale resurfaces on the pages of Cullen's book. It is compelling and disturbing.

You get a look into the minds of two murderer's and an idea of how our minds and the media obscures facts, images and how easily we can be swayed into believing what our eyes show us rather than the facts the lay behind the surface.

Grisly details that easily evoke images in your mind.

There is information on the families and the survivors. Expect to be enthralled.


Grade: A

Seventeen Real Girls, Real-Life Stories: True Crime by Seventeen Magazine

This teeny tiny book has brief stories of true crimes either done to or committed by teens.

I can easily be read in less than an hour. It is like simple cliff-notes.

I was left wanting more, a lot more. I would have preferred a much longer detailed book than this brief synopsis of mayhem.


Grade: C

The Otherworldlies by Jennifer Anne Kogler

Synopsis
Fern communicates with her dog, blisters from just moments in the sun, and has correctly predicted the daily weather for more than two years. Even so, she's always seemed to be a normal twelve-year-old girl . . . until one day when Fern closes her eyes in class and opens them seconds later on a sandy beach miles away from school. When Fern disappears again, this time to a place far more dangerous, she begins to realize exactly how different she is.
With the help of her twin brother, Sam, Fern struggles to gain control of her supernatural powers. The arrival of a sinister vampire in town—who seems to have an alarming interest in Fern's powers—causes Fern to question her true identity. Who is she? More importantly, who can she count on? Soon Fern finds herself in the middle of a centuries-old battle—one that could destroy Fern and endanger everyone she loves.

Review:

The Otherworldlies is a fairly unique story, mixed with several mythologies, adding a twist to vampire novels.

While it is a good read, I must admit dear readers that I did check out for moments during the story. It got to be a bit tedious and on occasion boring.

The characters are grounded but don't necessarily draw you in to make that "special" connection.

An overall fair read.


Grade: B-

Vamps by Nancy A. Collins

Synopsis
When the sun goes down, New York's true elite all head to one place: Bathory Academy, where the young ladies of the finest vampire families are trained in shapeshifting and luring their prey.
Bathory's reigning queen, Lilith Todd, is the daughter of a powerful vampire businessman, and she knows exactly what she wants from life. She wants to look beautiful for eternity and party till the sun comes up with her gorgeous boyfriend, Jules. And she doesn't want any New Blood upstarts standing in her way.
Enter Cally Monture, an unexpected threat from a trash zip code. When their first meeting leads to tragic results, Lilith is hungry for revenge.

Review

Vamps is a bad take off, of Blood Bloods and Vampire Academy. The characters are shallow and one-dimensional.

The writing style is slow and while the storyline has the potential to make for a great read the flat characters make reading this one novel less than pleasurable.

I won't be reading the sequel and I recommend taking a pass on this series.

Grade: D

Before I Die by Jenny Downham

Before I Die is Downham's first novel. Unfortunately there is nothing out of the ordinary or striking about this particular book. It did not evoke emotion from me, which is surprising since the subject matter deals with death. It is predictable and a bit on the boring side. Don't expect a "wow" factor.

Grade: D+

Synopsis This intensely moving story is now available in paperback.Tessa has just months to live. Fighting back against hospital visits, endless tests, and drugs with excruciating side effects, Tessa compiles a list. It’s her To Do Before I Die list. And number one is Sex. Released from the constraintsof “normal” life, Tessa tastes new experiences to make her feel alive while her failing body struggles to keep up. Tessa’s feelings, her relationships with her father and brother, her estranged mother, her best friend, and her new boyfriend, are all painfully crystallized in the precious weeks before Tessa’s time finally runs out.

Lust (Seven Deadly Sins) by Robin Wasserman

Synopsis (From the publisher)

Alpha girl Harper is used to getting what she wants,
and that means Adam,
Beth's all-American boytoy.
Blond, boring Beth, who Kane,
the charming playah, secretly wants too.
Miranda thinks Kane is out of her league,
but she wants him all the same.
And then there's the new girl.
Kaia. Who only wants trouble —
and he's definitely on his way.
Want to know more?
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REVIEW

Lust is the first book in the Seven Deadly Sins Series and you will be entertained.

It is about heartache, love, seduction, and betrayal, making this one hot series. You will be easily sucked in.

This summers guilty pleasure!

Grade: A