Saturday, September 29, 2012

The Thirteenth Sacrifice Review

The Thirteenth Sacrifice by






Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Level 26: Dark Origins Review

Level 26: Dark Origins by Anthony E. Zuiker and Duane Swierczynski

It is well known among law enforcement personnel that murderers can be categorized on a scale of twenty-five levels of evil, from the naive opportunists starting out at Level 1 to the organized, premeditated torture-murderers who inhabit Level 25.

What almost no one knows, except for the elite unnamed investigations group assigned to hunt down the world's most dangerous killers, a group of men and women accounted for in no official ledger, headed by the brilliant but reluctant operative Steve Dark, is that a new category of killer is in the process of being defined.

Only one man belongs to this group.

His targets:
Anyone.

His methods:
Unlimited.

His alias:
Sqweegel.

His classification:
Level 26.


3.5 out of 5 stars

Dark Origins is the first book in the Level 26 trilogy. It is a Digi-novel with corresponding videos on the website level26.com.

Tuesday, September 25, 2012

A Hard Day's Fright Review

A Hard Day's Fright by Casey Daniels

What happened to a teenager named Lucy one night in 1966 after a Beatles concert? She rushed the stage, kissed Paul, started home with her friends, and was never seen again-until cemetery guide and unintentional PI to the dead Pepper Martin sees her as a ghost. Lucy's spirit can't rest in peace until her body is found and buried. But how will Pepper track down a missing corpse after forty-five years?

3.5 out of 5 stars

A Hard Day's Fright is book 7 in the Pepper Martin series

Friday, September 21, 2012

Private Review

Private by Kate Brian

Fifteen-year-old Reed Brennan wins a scholarship to Easton Academy—the golden ticket away from her pill-popping mother and run-of-the-mill suburban life. But when she arrives on the beautiful, tradition-steeped campus of Easton, everyone is just a bit more sophisticated, a bit more gorgeous, and a lot wealthier than she ever thought possible. Reed realizes that even though she has been accepted to Easton, Easton has not accepted her. She feels like she’s on the outside, looking in.

Until she meets the Billings Girls.

They are the most beautiful, intelligent, and intensely confident girls on campus. And they know it. They hold all the power in a world where power is fleeting but means everything. Reed vows to do whatever it takes to be accepted into their inner circle.

Reed uses every part of herself—the good, the bad, the beautiful—to get closer to the Billings Girls. She quickly discovers that inside their secret parties and mountains of attitude, hanging in their designer clothing-packed closets the Billings Girls have skeletons. And they’ll do anything to keep their secrets private.


3 out of 5 stars

Private is the first book in the Private series.

Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Undead and Undermined Review

Undead and Undermined by MaryJanice Davidson

So this is what being dead feels like. Vampire queen Betsy Taylor has awoken in a Chicago morgue, naked as a corpse. Her last memory is reconciling with her husband, Eric Sinclair, after a time-traveling field trip, including an indirect route to hell (literally), with her sister, Laura. Now she’s Jane Doe #291, wrapped in plastic with a toe tag. Betsy can’t help but wonder, what in hell happened?

Grabbing clean scrubs, Betsy hits the pavement and heads back to her St. Paul mansion to find that her family and friends have been frantically searching for her. And not one of them can explain how she ended up dead and naked - not to mention, in Chicago - until Betsy realizes that she and Laura didn't time-travel alone. What followed them had a wicked agenda: to kill Betsy in a time when she was still young and vulnerable and end her future reign as queen.

But it's not just Betsy's future that's taken an unexpected detour. Everyone in her circle, alive or undead, is feeling the chill. Betsy can't let the unthinkable happen. It would be a day in hell if she did.


3 out of 5 stars

Undead and Undermined is book 10 in the Undead series.

Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Beautiful Creatures Review

Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl

Lena Duchannes is unlike anyone the small Southern town of Gatlin has ever seen, and she's struggling to conceal her power and a curse that has haunted her family for generations. But even within the overgrown gardens, murky swamps and crumbling graveyards of the forgotten South, a secret cannot stay hidden forever.

Ethan Wate, who has been counting the months until he can escape from Gatlin, is haunted by dreams of a beautiful girl he has never met. When Lena moves into the town's oldest and most infamous plantation, Ethan is inexplicably drawn to her and determined to uncover the connection between them.

In a town with no surprises, one secret could change everything.


4 out of 5 stars

Beautiful Creatures is the first book in the Caster Chronicles series.

Saturday, September 15, 2012

Crazy Beautiful Review

Crazy Beautiful by Lauren Baratz-Logsted

In an explosion of his own making, Lucius blew his arms off. Now he has hooks. He chose hooks because they were cheaper. He chose hooks because he wouldn’t outgrow them so quickly. He chose hooks so that everyone would know he was different, so he would scare even himself.

Then he meets Aurora. The hooks don’t scare her. They don’t keep her away. In fact, they don’t make any difference at all to her.

But to Lucius, they mean everything. They remind him of the beast he is inside. Perhaps Aurora is his Beauty, destined to set his soul free from its suffering.

Or maybe she’s just a girl who needs love just like he does.


3 out of 5 stars

Friday, September 14, 2012

Shiver Review

Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater

Grace and Sam share a kinship so close they could be lovers or siblings. But they also share a problem. When the temperature slips towards freezing, Sam reverts to his wolf identity and must retreat into the woods to protect his pack. He worries that eventually his human side will fade away and he will be left howling alone at the lonely moon. A stirring supernatural teen romance.

4 out of 5 stars



Shiver is the first book in the Wolves of Mercy Falls series.

Thursday, September 13, 2012

The Show #1: Pilot Episode Review

The Show #1: Pilot Episode by Jordan Cooke

Corliss Myers is the kind of girl who watches TV. (Alone. On prom night.) Not the kid who works in TV. So imagine her excitement when her uncle gets her an internship on The 'Bu, the hottest teen beach drama coming soon to television. Not only does the internship get her out of Indianano- place, it also allows her the privilege of observing the making of a sure-to-be hit TV show. Little does Corliss know that her job description is not unlike that of floor nurse on the psych ward. Soon Corliss is administering to the producer's mammoth ego, keeping bed watch on the boozy starlet, and intercepting a burgeoning romance between two of the mega-hot, hormonally compromised leads. Can Corliss hold herself together, or will she, for sanity's sake, say buh-bye to The 'Bu?

Did Not Finish

Pilot Episode is the first book in the The Show series

Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Jekel Loves Hyde Review

Jekel Loves Hyde by Beth Fantaskey

Jill Jekel has always obeyed her parents rules; especially the one about never opening the mysterious, old box in her father's office. But when her dad is murdered, and her college savings disappear, she's tempted to peek inside, as the contents might be the key to a lucrative chemistry scholarship.

To improve her odds, Jill enlists the help of gorgeous, brooding Tristen Hyde, who has his own dark secrets locked away. As the team of Jekel and Hyde, they recreate experiments based on the classic novel, hoping not only to win a prize, but to save Tristen's sanity. Maybe his life. But Jill's accidental taste of a formula unleashes her darkest nature and compels her to risk everything, even Tristen's love just for the thrill of being . . . bad.


2 out of 5 stars

Monday, September 10, 2012

Bitten Review

Bitten by R. L. Stine

You'll love them—to death.

Twin sisters Destiny and Livvy Weller return home from summer vacation with a dark secret . . . and an inhuman desire to drink blood. What have they become? Can they ever turn back? As their deadly secret becomes harder to keep, more questions arise and loyalties are tested. And as one sister descends into darkness, the other must find a way to save her—and herself. Who will live to see the glow of the next full moon? Which sister will survive?

In Dangerous Girls and Dangerous Girls #2: The Taste of Night, published together in Bitten, bestselling author R.L. Stine explores the dark creatures of the night.


3 out of 5 stars 

Bitten is a bind up of Dangerous Girls and Dangerous Girls 2: The Taste of Night, originally published in 2003 and 2004 (according to Wikipedia.)

Sunday, September 9, 2012

Prism Review

Prism by Faye Kellerman and Aliza Kellerman

Prism takes us to a slightly alternate universe in which medicine and health care do not exist, and in which sick people are allowed to die without any care. Set in New Mexico and California, the novel features three teens who fall through a cave at Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico while on a field trip. They are plunged into a frightening parallel universe--seven weeks in the past, in which their "normal" worlds of family and high school remain the same...except for the fact that no medicine exists and when people die in the street they are picked up and disposed of.

2.5 out of 5 stars

Saturday, September 8, 2012

Beneath the Glitter Review

Beneath the Glitter by Elle Fowler and Blair Fowler
 
After their make-up and fashion videos went viral on YouTube, sisters Sophia and Ava London are thrust into the exclusive life of the Los Angeles elite.  Here fabulous parties, air kisses, paparazzi and hot guys all come with the scene. Sophia finds herself torn between a gorgeous bartender and a millionaire playboy, and Ava starts dating an A-list actor.  But as they’re about to discover, the life they’ve always dreamed of comes with a cost.

Beneath the glitter of the Hollywood social scene lies a world of ruthless ambition, vicious gossip…and betrayal.  Someone close to them, someone they trust, is working in the shadows to bring the London sisters falling down. And once the betrayal is complete, Sophia and Ava find themselves knee-deep in a scandal that could take away everything they care about, including the one thing that matters most—each other.


3 out of 5 stars

Tuesday, September 4, 2012

The Sweet Life #1 Review

The Sweet Life #1 by Francine Pascal
 
The first novella-length episode - The Sweet Life - begins three years after the events of Sweet Valley Confidential; Elizabeth and Jessica Wakefield are back in Sweet Valley and inseparable once more. Things are looking up for both twins: Elizabeth is a star reporter at the LA Tribune with a popular blog, and Jessica’s PR career is on the fast-track. But while the professional lives of the Wakefield sisters are secure, their personal lives may be in jeopardy. Jessica, now a mother, finds that managing parenthood, marriage, and a job is harder than she expected, while Elizabeth and Bruce must face a scandal that could strengthen their bond…or tear them apart for ever.

Meanwhile, life goes on in Sweet Valley. Families are made, hearts are broken, and…Lila Fowler is a reality TV star? Some things never change.


3 out of 5 stars

The Sweet Life #1 is the first novella in the 6 volume E-serial. It looks like all 6 will be published in October in hardcover, but it is still cheaper to buy them as separate e-books for $2 each.

Monday, September 3, 2012

Paranormalcy Review

Paranormalcy by Kiersten White

Weird as it is working for the International Paranormal Containment Agency, Evie’s always thought of herself as normal. Sure, her best friend is a mermaid, her ex-boyfriend is a faerie, she's falling for a shape-shifter, and she's the only person who can see through paranormals' glamours, but still. Normal.

Only now paranormals are dying, and Evie's dreams are filled with haunting voices and mysterious prophecies. She soon realizes that there may be a link between her abilities and the sudden rash of deaths. Not only that, but she may very well be at the center of a dark faerie prophecy promising destruction to all paranormal creatures.


So much for normal.


4.5 out of 5 stars
  
Paranormalcy is the first book in the Paranormalcy series

Sunday, September 2, 2012

Lust Review

Lust by Robin Wasserman

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?
Commit

3 out of 5 stars

Lust is the first book in the Seven Deadly Sins series.