From Goodreads: Sixteen-year-old Rinn Jacobs has secrets: One, she’s bipolar. Two, she killed her grandmother.

After a suicide attempt, and now her parents’ separation, Rinn and her mom move from California to the rural Ohio town where her mother grew up. Back on her medications and hoping to stay well, Rinn settles into her new home, undaunted by the fact that the previous owner hanged herself in Rinn’s bedroom. At school, her classmates believe the school pool is haunted by Annaliese, a girl who drowned there. But when a reckless séance goes awry, and terrible things start happening to her new friends—yet not to her—Rinn is determined to find out why she can’t be “touched” by Annaliese…or if Annaliese even exists.

With the help of Nate Brenner, the hunky “farmer boy” she’s rapidly falling for, Rinn devises a dangerous plan to uncover the truth. Soon reality and fantasy meld into one, till Rinn finds it nearly impossible to tell the difference. When a malevolent force threatens the lives of everyone she cares about–not to mention her own–she can’t help wondering: who should she really be afraid of?

Annaliese? Or herself?

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The premise of this ghost story was very interesting, revolving around a young bipolar teenager. Rinn has had a difficult life, struggling to take her medicine everyday when she truly feels like nothing is wrong with her.  But after events unfold that leave her grandmother dead, Rinn’s mother separated from her step-father, and a whirlwind trip across country to live in a rural community, Rinn has a change of heart.  Resolved to take her medicine and keep to herself, Rinn slowly begins to warm up to her new community, making friends, and learning about the towns “haunting.”

I was very interested in the “haunting” and the tunnel at school when the novel initially started.  I tend to highly enjoy paranormal novels, and Garsee does a great job stringing the reader along as the mystery grows deeper.  Annaliese died many years ago, but her spirit is still said to haunt the school, and when people begin to show up dead, things begin to spiral out of control.  But, I have to admit, I really didn’t care for the explanation given as to why Rinn wasn’t affected by the spirit of Annaliese.  While completely original, in my opinion, I found it kind of odd and a bit anticlimactic.  I liked all the changes that Rinn went through, and it was very interesting to see her reactions to things both on and off her meds—making me wonder if the spirit of Annaliese was real—but overall, I wasn’t too impressed with the paranormal aspects of the story. Three stars.

Bloomsbury Children’s Books has been extremly gracious in allowing me to read an ARC of this novel, via Netgalley, prior to its release on July 17, 2012

From Goodreads: California. A widower’s twelve-year-old son is rather young to bring home a woman, especially a collapsed green beauty too frightened to open her eyes.

This reluctant leader has no doubt—living light does not belong on Earth.

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I’m sorry to say that this novel just wasn’t for me.  There was so much going on within the story, and so many characters, that I was unable to follow the plotline enough to fully understand what was happening.  There were some great descriptions, and the characters were very interesting, but I personally felt like there were a bit too many to keep track of, and as I read I became overwhelmed.  Now, I’m the type of reader that likes two or maybe even three narrators/main characters, but I generally don’t do well with more than that, so I think this is more of a personal preference/inability to follow along than any fault of the author.  Likewise, most reviewers of this novel really enjoyed it, and so I think it’s worth checking out, even though it personally wasn’t for me.  One star.

I received a copy of this novel from the author in exchange for an honest review.

From Goodreads: Seventeen-year-old Aaron stumbles into the aftermath of a five million dollar bank heist gone wrong. Hiding under a canoe, Aaron partially catches the murder of one of the robbers. In the chaos he sneaks away with the money and heads straight for the closest place of safety, his high school. Terrified, Aaron tells his shocking tale to Amanda Becker, his drama teacher, but it doesn’t take long for one of the psychotic robbers to show up. In the locked down school the pair are relentlessly pursued in a quest to get the money back and wipe out the evidence.

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Rumor has it that this novel is going to be turned into a movie, and that Booboo Stewart (Seth Clearwater from the Twilight Saga) is going to play Aaron.  Now, nothing is set in stone, but filming is supposed to start soon, fall of this year, and the movie should release in late 2013.  Will I see it?  Probably.  In theaters?  Probably not.  Why?  I just wasn’t that enamored with the plotline.

Yes, the story is interesting, and I liked the premise, but had this title not been free at the time I came across it, and had I not noticed it was going to be made into a movie, in all honesty, I probably wouldn’t have picked it up.  Why?  I found this novel to be very predictable, and while that’s okay, the fact that Aaron behaves badly throughout the story was not.  I really didn’t care for him; while his relationship with his father is in fact very strained, the way Aaron talks to him, as well as his friends, really rubbed me the wrong way.  He is a very arrogant young man, and his friends were actually really kind of annoying.  Likewise, I didn’t make any connections with them, or any of the characters, and so when some bad things happened (no spoilers), I found that I didn’t care one way or another.  Harsh, I know, but it’s the honest truth.  Do I think it’s worth checking out?  If the plotline interests you, then yes.  The writing is decent and the story moves quickly.  But if you’re on the fence, this might be one to skip.  Two and a half stars.

I picked up this title when it was free on Amazon.

From Goodreads: Fleeing Hallowed Manor and being hunted by the Skinwalkers, Kiera and her friends take shelter from a storm in a deserted railway station set in a remote valley. As they spend the night hiding from those who are hunting them, Isidor tells his friends a story about how he had come across the word PUSH some years before on his first journeys above ground.

But unknowingly, Isidor’s story will have devastating consequences for one of them.

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Love, love, love this book!  Love this series!  Love Tim O’Rourke!  Love it all!  Seriously, if you haven’t jumped on the bandwagon and begun reading books by O’Rourke, then you’re really missing out!

Book two in the amazing Kiera Hudson Series Two is another impeccable read, full of mystery and intrigue, love and passion, and this time we are given an intricate glimpse into the heart of Isidor, our brooding hero who has had enough of Potter’s taunts and believes he knows something about this new, Pushed world.  And he does… but what he knows will cost him dearly.

I adored Isidor’s point of view.  It’s the first time we’ve really been given the back-story of his life, and at this point, I feel like I know him personally.  While some will argue that this novel is very sad, and it does have its moments, in the end I know that O’Rourke is going to set everything straight and make it work, just like he has in the last few books, and I love it.  I was blown away by this novel, and I know I say that every time I read one of O’Rourke’s books, but it’s the honest truth.  O’Rourke amazes me; his work is spectacular, and his ability to crank out these fabulous books so quickly (eight in a year—AMAZING) floors me.  And so I sit, on pins and needles, for the next novel in this series, Dead Statues.  Five stars.

I purchased my copy of this novel from Amazon.

From Goodreads: When plain and unpopular Annie Nutter gets zapped by one of her dad’s whacked-out inventions, she lands in a parallel universe where her life becomes picture-perfect. Now she’s Ayla Monroe, daughter of the same mother but a different father—and she’s the gorgeous, rich queen bee of her high school.

In this universe, Ayla lives in glitzy Miami instead of dreary Pittsburgh and has beaucoup bucks, courtesy of her billionaire—if usually absent—father. Her friends hit the clubs, party backstage at concerts, and take risks that are exhilarating . . . and illegal. Here she’s got a date to lose her V-card with the hottest guy she’s ever seen.

But on the inside, Ayla is still Annie.

So when she’s offered the chance to leave the dream life and head home to Pittsburgh, will she take it?

The choice isn’t as simple as you think.

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This was an interesting story with a great concept.  What if we could be someone else?  What if we lived like movie stars, had plenty of money, and didn’t want for any material thing?  Would that be enough?  Annie Nutter has always wanted to be in with the popular group, to have plenty of money, friends, gorgeous clothes, but it’s just not her reality.  Not until her inventor father creates a mirror that zaps her into an alternate reality.  But as time goes on, Annie begins to realize that looks, money, and popularity aren’t all one needs to be happy.

This is a great coming of age story with some awesome themes for young adults, though at times I found it to be a bit slow.  When Annie becomes Ayla, she is tempted by all the material things she’s never had, but as she witnesses her “friends” doing things she’s never contemplated before, she must ask herself if this new life is what she really wants.  The beginning of the story was okay, but I felt like there was a little too much time spent on Annie getting the hang of being Ayla, and not enough time spent on more interesting things, like… Charlie.  Charlie’s a real great guy, and one that makes Annie question whether she wants to remain Ayla or go home to her real family in her own universe.  Once Charlie entered, I was torn too.  I really liked him, and watching Annie/Ayla change and fall for him was wonderful.  I fell for him alongside her, and as I learned more about his home life, the mirror invention, and universe travel, I found that I began to enjoy the story that much more.  Of course, it ends well, which made me very happy, because for a while I wasn’t sure what was going to happen, especially if Annie went back to her own universe… what about Charlie?  Well, you’ll have to read it to find out.  Three stars.

Random House Children’s Publishers has been extremely gracious in allowing me to read an ARC of this novel, via Netgalley, prior to its release on July 10, 2012.

From Goodreads: It was just another ordinary day at McKinley High—until a massive explosion devastated the school. When loner David Thorpe tried to help his English teacher to safety, the teacher convulsed and died right in front of him. And that was just the beginning.

A year later, McKinley has descended into chaos. All the students are infected with a virus that makes them deadly to adults. The school is under military quarantine. The teachers are gone. Violent gangs have formed based on high school social cliques. Without a gang, you’re as good as dead. And David has no gang. It’s just him and his little brother, Will, against the whole school.

In this frighteningly dark and captivating novel, Lex Thomas locks readers inside a school where kids don’t fight to be popular, they fight to stay alive.

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This was a great story, but reader beware, you might hate most of the characters… it’s hard not to, when they’re all out for blood, turning on each other in the blink of an eye for a morsel of food.  But, it’s easy to judge them from the comfort of your own home, where you can put down the book to take a break, make yourself a huge sandwich, and then come back to it.  David doesn’t have that luxury.  Neither does Will, or Lucy, or any of the other kids quarantined in the school—except the Varsity.  The most athletic group in the school has become a violent gang, and they horde all the food.  While the other kids starve to death and attempt to trade just to survive, Varsity hunts down David and anyone who attempts to stand in their way.  And a lot of what Varsity does, led by Sam, is downright despicable (and bloody).

I spent a lot of this book in anxiety.  Worried for David, for Will, for Lucy, especially as the story goes deeper and deeper, exposing the fears and atrocities that are taking place within the school—something I truly believe would happen if an entire school of teenagers were locked together without supervision for years.  This story of survival is truly amazing, and though some of it seems far-fetched, it still drew me in and I found myself enthralled with the story.

Now, let’s talk characters.  I think Thomas did a great job vilifying a lot of the characters. I truly hate Sam for the reasons stated above, but Will is a close second.  Yes, Will is David’s brother, and David is the “hero” of the story, but Will is such a drastic opposite.  He is extremely immature (9^th grader) and nearly everything he does throughout the story grated on my nerves.  In fact, he’s the reason a lot of bad things happen in the book, and I couldn’t help but shake my head at his reactions and impulsive decisions.  On the surface, when we first meet him, he seems like a genuine good guy, but by the end of the novel, I really couldn’t stand him anymore—and if this is what Thomas wanted his readers to feel, then he was dead on!  And Will and Sam aren’t the only villains.  There are many, many more, too numerous to count, actually, but there are also truly good characters, like David and Lucy, and many of The Loners as well, that help offset the evil characters and make it an enjoyable read.

Thomas’ book is not short by any means, though with all the action within the novel, it doesn’t seem long at all.  The story shifts somewhat quickly, from the explosion, to some fights, and then it advances a full year in a blink of an eye, but I honestly think the author needed to do that in order to keep the novel at a relatively normal length (I’m scared off by books that are much more than 400 pages).  And, with an ending like that of Quarantine: The Loners, I am very excited for the next book in the installment, Quarantine: The Saints.  I can’t wait, actually. Four stars.

Egmont USA has been extremely gracious in allowing me to read an ARC of this novel, via Netgalley, prior to its release on July 10, 2012.

From Goodreads: Ati is a soldier with a distaste for authority. But she’s willing to follow orders if it means she can spend a few days back on Earth. As each mission ends, the search for her lost husband begins. But her search reveals more about her past than she ever anticipated. Cast into exile, she finds herself stranded on a strange and savage planet.

But the war against Humanity reaches far beyond Earth. As Ati struggles to survive in the strange, celestial wilderness, she discovers even the Guardians of our universe are in danger. The process of living and dying has been interrupted, as a monstrous weapon threatens to devour all existence. Ati learns she must return from exile with a warning for every sentient creature: Be mindful of extinction.
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This is a very interesting story that I think science fiction and fantasy fans will really like, especially as the beginning instantly sucks the reader in.  I thoroughly enjoyed the beginning of the story, meeting the characters and finding out what Ati does as a soldier living in space.  I do have to admit, however, that I personally found some of the story hard to follow—a bit disconnected—as it unfolded, but I’m also not a strong science fiction buff, and am easily confused, so I don’t think it is the fault of the author. 

This story is told from multiple perspectives, which is one of my favorite styles for storytelling as it allows the reader to obtain different perspectives.  But, while the story is there, and it’s a fairly fast paced, science fantasy piece, I found that I didn’t connect with the characters as much as I would have liked to, and I think, again, it has to do with me not fully following the story one hundred percent.  I was a little confused between Eva and Ati and the other worlds within the novel, as well as with the military lingo, but even so, I still found this an enjoyable novel.  Three stars. 

I received this novel from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

From Goodreads: Question: What do you get the man with everything?

In Shades of Murder, Mac Faraday is once again the heir to an unbelievable fortune.  This time the benefactor is a stolen art collector. But this isn’t just any stolen work-of-art—it’s a masterpiece with a murder attached to it. Ilysa Ramsay was in the midst of taking the art world by storm with her artistic genius. Hours after unveiling her latest masterpiece—she is found dead in her Deep Creek Lake studio—and her painting is nowhere to be found. Almost a decade later, the long lost Ilysa Ramsay masterpiece has found its way into Mac Faraday’s hands and he can’t resist the urge to delve into the case. A world away, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; former JAG lawyer Joshua Thornton agrees to do a favor for the last person he would ever expect to do a favor—a convicted serial killer.

The Favor: Solve the one murder wrongly attributed to him. Joshua finds an unexpected ally in Cameron Gates, a spunky detective who has reason to believe the young woman known to the media only as Jane Doe, Victim Number Four, was the victim of a copycat. Together, Joshua and Cameron set out to light a flame under the cold case only to find that someone behind the scenes wants the case to remain cold, and is willing to kill to keep it that way. Little do these detectives know that the paths of their respective cases are on a collision course when they follow the clues to bring them together in a showdown with a killer who’s got a talent for murder!

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This was a rollercoaster of a ride!  I’ve read the other two Mac Faraday murder mysteries, and I’ve got to say, Carr does a phenomenal job writing enticing murder mysteries that keep the reader guessing throughout.  Like her other novels, I wasn’t able to come close to guessing the culprit until it was spelled out for me by Faraday himself.  And what an awesome mystery!  There were so many twists and turns, I had a great time trying to figure it all out. 

Gnarly, Faraday’s cleptomatic German shepherd, and Archie Monday, Faraday’s sarcastic and witty lover, make for great comedy while the mystery surrounding a murdered artist, a lost painting, the body of a Jane Doe, and an eccentric family begins to unfold.  Of course, as you can already tell, I really enjoyed this novel.  Carr has such a way with words, and her ability to spin a story is amazing.  If you’re looking for a great murder mystery, then look no further—Carr’s novels are the way to go.  Four stars.

Acorn Book Services has been extremely gracious in allowing me to read a copy of this novel, via Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

From Goodreads: Rain. Is. Bored.

With Coal at university and Domrey away on a constant string of assignments from the Royal City, she and her sister Snow are stuck at Seranfyll Manor with their tutor Professor Digory, who has to be the dullest teacher on the face of the earth. She craves a break from the monotony or, even better, an adventure like the ones she only gets to read about in books.

A voyage to the jungles of Amyrania should do the trick. When Domrey agrees to do a favor for the king, Rain and the others get to set sail with him on what sounds like an exciting but relatively simple assignment. However, despite its tourist-friendly facade, Amyrania is called the “Untamed Isle” for good reason, and this adventure will prove to be more than any of them had bargained for.

Join Rain, Coal, Domrey, and a host of old and new friends (and enemies) in this exciting sequel to Seranfyll.

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This was a phenomenal read.  Daley takes a very in-depth look at the atrocities of slavery in her novels, and I just love how well written and interesting her books really are.   Rain and Snow are my favorite.  They’re the epitome of teenagers everywhere.  They’re looking for adventures, bored by mundane schoolwork, and intent on having as much fun as possible.  But they’ve also got strong heads on their shoulders.  Having been slaves at one point in their lives, they are all too aware of the evils that penetrate the world and want to work to fix it as much as possible. And so they do as they embark on some amazing adventures, full of joy and perils, and I was captivated from the very start.

This is a great sequel to Seranfyll,and I just loved it!  The story is very fast paced and I highly enjoyed the voyage to the Amyrania jungles.  Although full of fantasy and epic world building, the story is extremely real, and I love how Daley is able to make the story stand out so much from other novels out there.  Full of poignant themes regarding self worth, the atrocities of slavery, coming of age, and having hope/faith in oneself, this is a must read for all ages.

I received a copy of this novel from the author in exchange for an honest review.