It's Monday - With Books!

Mood: Happy - the circus is rolling into town (and no, I don't mean family - I mean the honest to goodness circus with tents and everything!)


Possess by Gretchen McNeil

Fifteen-year-old Bridget Liu just wants to be left alone: by her mom, but the cute son of a local police sergeant, and by the eerie voices she can suddenly and inexplicably hear.  Unfortunately for Bridget, it turns out the voices are demons – and Bridget has the rare ability to banish them back to whatever hell they came from. Terrified to tell people about her new power, Bridget confides in a local priest who enlists her help in increasingly dangerous cases of demonic possession.  But just as she is starting to come to terms with her new power, Bridget receives a startling message from one of the demons.  Now Bridget must unlock the secret to the demons' plan before someone close to her winds up dead – or worse, the human vessel of a demon king.

 My Take:

Gretchen McNeil has delivered a truly spine chilling story with her debut novel, Possess.  Bridget Liu has a lot on her plate. At 15 years old she has the typical teenage baggage in the form of friends, boys and family drama but she also has darker, heavier burdens that she carries. Her father, to whom she was incredibly close, was brutally murdered by a patient, her mother seems to be moving on with one of two suitors who tend to hang around the house a little too often and as if that weren’t enough, Bridget discovers she’s a Watcher.

As a Watcher, Bridget has the power to banish demons back to the hell from which they came – and suddenly demons are cropping up everywhere – even in creepy dolls who insist that she listen to the message they’ve been sent to deliver to her.  It’s up to Bridget to decide who she believes and solve the mysteries surrounding her father’s murder, her own family history and get to the bottom of the demonic activity before it’s too late.

At a Glance

1.)    This book is genuinely creepy without ever going over the top – it will definitely make you think twice about the things that go bump in the night. Although the story is definitely creepy and there is some violence – none of it is gratuitous – it’s all organic, flowing from the story and serves to make the story stronger and more real.  LOVE

2.)    Bridget – she’s is an amazing heroine – sarcastic, smart and full of snappy one liners. At the same time, she realistically struggles with the reality of her situation and what her abilities really mean. 

3.)    The mystery – there is one and it’s well woven throughout the story. I admit I pretty much figured it out about ¾ of the way through but that did not diminish the enjoyment for me at all because there were still so many unanswered questions that I could not stop reading!

4.)    I LOVE that McNeil has explored the divide between good and evil – and found that line to be quite blurred and the divide not that wide.

5.)    As usual, there are boys and Gretchen McNeil definitely delivers a totally swoon worthy crush in the form of Matt Quinn. The handsome son of the local police chief is always there for Bridget – whether she needs him to go with her to see her dad’s psychotic killer, search for secret files, do a little breaking and entering or take her to the winter formal.

Bottom line - I loved this book and can't wait to see what the author brings next! 

Monday in Books - Demonglass by Rachel Hawkins

Mood: Tired (curse you DST!)

Demonglass by Rachel Hawkins

Sophie Mercer thought she was a witch.

That was the whole reason she was sent to Hex Hall, a reform school for delinquent Prodigium (aka witches, shapeshifters, and fairies). But that was before she discovered the family secret, and that her hot crush, Archer Cross, is an agent for The Eye, a group bent on wiping Prodigium off the face of the earth.

Turns out, Sophie’s a demon, one of only two in the world—the other being her father. What’s worse, she has powers that threaten the lives of everyone she loves. Which is precisely why Sophie decides she must go to London for the Removal, a dangerous procedure that will destroy her powers.

But once Sophie arrives she makes a shocking discovery. Her new friends? They’re demons too. Meaning someone is raising them in secret with creepy plans to use their powers, and probably not for good. Meanwhile, The Eye is set on hunting Sophie down, and they’re using Acher to do it. But it’s not like she has feelings for him anymore. Does she?


My Take

Rachel Hawkins delivers another amazing entry in the Hex Hall series.  This time Sophie and her bff Jenna  (with super handsome healer Cal) are off on an adventure to England to spend the summer with Sophie's dad. Frightened of her own power to potentially harm the people she loves most, Sophie is at first determined to undergo 'the removal' - a dangerous ceremony that will strip her of her powers. However, she quickly realizes that all is not as it seems in the world of the Prodigium and having her powers stripped is perhaps the last thing she should be doing.

The Eye is actively hunting Sophie in an attempt to destroy her. Someone is raising demons and no one seems to know who or why. The Prodigium council, the staff at Hex Hall - suddenly no one is who or what they seem and Sophie is determined to get to the bottom of the mystery. To get the answers she seeks she's going to have to rely on her old frenemy, Archer Cross - but as a warlock working for The Eye can he be trusted?

At A Glance

1.) Demonglass is that rare perfect combination of pacing, humor, suspense and action making it a read that I just couldn't put down.

2.) I LOVE that Sophie has evolved and grown as a character. Sophie is not a one dimensional, stagnate character - she's learning, changing and adapting.

3.) As much as she might be evolving, Sophie never loses her sense of humor or her sarcastic responses - this makes her the most awesome demon I've never met! Demonglass will keep you smiling as much as it keeps you on the edge of your seat.

4.) Almost nothing is black and white in this book - but there are TONS of shades of gray. Bad guys aren't always all bad - good guys aren't always what they seem to be and the decisions between the two aren't always easy. For me this a great addition to a story - I like feeling the conflict of two 'almost right' decisions.

5.) The guys - sigh. Archer and Cal - which one will Sophie choose? Which one should she choose? Personally, I'm glad I'm not Sophie because the decision would be WAY too hard to make. *

6.) The ending - another sigh. I didn't hate the ending but it definitely left us hanging and I do mean HANGING!!!! Not that this is necessarily a bad thing but it did make me want to station myself in front of Rachel Hawkins and poke her constantly with incessent questions like "is the new Hex Hall out yet?" "What about now?" "now?" "is it out yet?" until she is forced to give in and hand over the book so I can find out what happens. **

*I'm leaning ever so slightly towards team Cal.

** Not that I would actually do that? Or....would I? *insert evil laugh here*

Monday in Books - The Liar Society by Lisa and Laura Roecker

Mood: Monday (it's a mood)
On the interwebz radio: Just the Way You Are by Bruno Mars (*sigh*)

It's Monday and I'm trying something new - you know, actually blogging and stuff. Yay blogger me! Okay, well I'm trying the whole "blog in advance and let it post on Monday" thing but whatever - it's almost the same thing, right? Right!

So onto the next new for me thing - book reviews. I don't usually (read: never) do them. Now don't get me wrong, I'll chat books all day in person. I'll tell you the good, the bad, the ugly and twist your arm to the point of snapping to either get you to buy a good book or stop you from wasting your money on what I considered a monumental waste of perfectly good trees and ink. However, putting those thoughts into actual written words? Not so much.

Until now. As I started thinking about what would make a good book for my very first blogging book review, I didn't have to look much further than my pink haired avi on Twitter for the answer.


THE LIAR SOCIETY by LISA and LAURA ROECKER

Since when do the dead send emails?

Kate Lowry's best friend Grace died a year ago. So when she gets an email from her, Kate's more than a little confused.

To: KateLowry@pemberlybrown.edu

From: GraceLee@pemberlybrown.edu

Subject: (no subject)

Kate,
I'm here... sort of.
Find Cameron. He knows.
I shouldn't be writing.
Don't tell. They'll hurt you.

Now Kate has no choice but to prove once and for all that Grace's death was more than just a tragic accident. She teams up with a couple of knights-in-(not-so)-shining armor-the dangerously hot bad boy, Liam, and her lovestruck neighbor, Seth. But at their elite private school, there are secrets so big people will do anything to protect them-even if it means getting rid of anyone trying to solve a murder...
Sourcebooks Fire (March 1, 2011)

My Take

Lisa and Laura Roecker have hit an absolute YA home run with their debut novel The Liar Society.

Sporting pink hair and her best friend's pearls and prompted by e-mails from her dead best friend, Kate Lowry is on a mission to solve the mysteries that haunt the hallowed halls of her prestigious private school, Pemberly Brown, and in the process get to the bottom of what really happened the night her best friend died in a tragic fire.

First, let me say that Kate Lowry has taken up residence right next to Nancy Drew and Veronica Mars in the YA mystery niche of my heart but she has a very special space all her own. In Kate, the Roecker sisters have created a main character that is so real, and perfect in her imperfection that she really is the girl next door - if the girl next door got e-mails from her dead best friend, had a dorky side kick with an undying crush on her and a super smexy love interest who may or may not be involved in the deadly secrets that are buried at Pemberly Brown.

Told seamlessly in a mixture of flashbacks and present day, the story carries the reader along through an adventure that will keep you guessing from one minute to the next.

At a Glance

1. No one dimensional "mean girl" or "rich spoiled kids" stereotypes for the Roecker sisters which I LOVE! The characters are real, flawed, and three dimensional - even the more minor characters - did I mention that I LOVE this?

2. Kate is not only sassy and sarcastic, which = awesome but she's SMART. Like 'knows Latin' smart. Also, she knows enough to know that when she's heading into a potentially dangerous situation she should probably at least leave a text message for her knights in shiny tin foil (okay, maybe the tin foil thing only applies to Seth and the tin foil was probably in the form of a hat, but still)

3. The "love story". All good books have one and this book is no exception - except that it is. Seth has a major thing for Kate. Kate may or may not have a thing for Liam. It's a nice side story that unfolds in a very real awkward teenage way but it doesn't take over the main story. Which is all kinds of awesome! No pining away for some guy for our Kate! She's got mysteries to solve and butts to kick. She might have time to steal a kiss or two in between but really? That's not her focus.

4. The ending - I'll admit that some might find the ending somewhat unsatisfying but I was not one of those people. I'm okay with endings that are a bit open ended because life is often that way. Not everything gets pulled together in a neat little package and that's okay because, like Kate, we always have the option to keep pressing forward. And she will and I will be there to read it when she does! :)