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| 125002434X
| 9781250024343
| 125002434X
| 2.82
| 2,456
| 2013
| Jul 02, 2013
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liked it
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I'm going to round this one up to three stars for GR. To call this a "reimagining" of William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream would be an under I'm going to round this one up to three stars for GR. To call this a "reimagining" of William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream would be an understatement. There are nods with a love potion and a man named Benny "Puck"erman as well as the main character having a "Sweet Seventeen" party with the theme of the play. A horror movie made in the 1960s is being remade or in this case...finished by actors instead of them putting on a play like Bottom and his crew. Mayhem Manor had three young actors die on screen for real life but now a studio on the verge of shutting down wants to remake it and finish the supposedly "cursed" film. Claire Woodlawn auditions for a role because her father owns said studio and she has always wanted to be an actress along with her best friend Delia. There is some teen drama craziness because Claire has lived next door to Jake Castellano for a long time and is crushing on him. Their parents are partners in the movie studio and Jake is going to be working on the crew despite the fact he believes it is a bad idea to go back to that cursed movie set, haunted by the ghosts of three dead teen actors. The police did a lot of investigating but they could never find any foul play...just a very tragic circumstance aof so many "accidents". That isn't why Claire's life is so dramatic...it's because Jake has a huge crush on Delia and treats Claire like his "sister" while Delia is hung up on a surfer guy named Shawn. The kicker is that Shawn really wants to get with Claire and both teenage boys are clueless to the girls throwing themselves at them. Another factor is a girl named Annalee, a girl with a killer body who is a sort of "frenemy" with Claire and Delia. She thinks the girls are besties but Annalee has a habit of going after every living, breathing teenage boy...including Jake. All because Claire just had to let it slip to Annalee that she has a crush on Jake and Jake is dumb enough to think that hooking up with Annalee will make Delia jealous. Instead all he is doing is breaking Claire's heart and driving her crazy... When Claire gets lost looking for the make-up trailer the first day of shooting, she stumbles on a different trailer instead. It is filled with tons of bottles and a short and hairy looking man who calls himself Benny Puckerman, saying he has been waiting for Claire. She laughs off the claim that his bottles contain potions until he sprinkles one on her which momentarily makes Claire madly want to kiss him. He takes the whammy off with another powder and tells Claire that the love potion is not what she needs...Benny is there to make Claire a star. Claire is sent out of the trailer while pretending that Benny's next potion made her forget everything but Claire knows she needs that love potion to use on Jake...so she'll be back to get it. What a time to think about boys when it is clear that finishing this remake of Mayhem Manor is not in the cards because things start going wrong and soon become fatal like they did sixty years ago... All of the teen characters in this book are supposed to be seventeen...nineteen at the most but they mostly act like twelve...thirteen year olds. All the girls are so catty to each other and the boys are just plain dumb but then again it is accurate to what I remember of being a teenager myself so... I have been told that Stine stopped writing his Fear Street books because it is easier to write for that younger audience of his Goosebumps books and I can see that here. I like a good black comedy but it just doesn't seem to fit with the making of the horror movie and the shenanigans with the love potion...it should have been one or the other. The horror part is excellent and could have worked more in favor alongside that these teens drink beer and live in California and are so acidicly wit and snarky. I was expecting at least a sort of PG-13 kind of book, an R would be pushing it, and instead it borders on PG...the kind that created the PG-13 rating in the first place. Also, the ending was totally more of a Goosebumps sort of ending that could have been better if the tone of A Midsummer Night's Scream wasn't such a Comedy of Errors. I said what I said... ...more |
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Aug 28, 2024
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Aug 31, 2024
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Aug 28, 2024
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Hardcover
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| 0593180054
| 9780593180051
| 0593180054
| 2.82
| 1,133
| May 04, 2021
| May 04, 2021
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liked it
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This one popped up in recommendations a few times but I didn't click on want to read just yet. Most of the books I see here on Goodreads that are new I This one popped up in recommendations a few times but I didn't click on want to read just yet. Most of the books I see here on Goodreads that are new I don't really see out in the wild at Books-A-Million or even B&N. Browsing the Teen Fiction shelf at Half Price Books, I found a copy of Prom House. I decided to buy it and add it to my very large TBR pile. So was it there because someone thought it was awful trash that to someone else could be a hidden gem...a true treasure? In answer, I liked it enough that I plan on keeping it for the time being. I usually try to find the YA/Teen Fiction of the past because most of today is hit and miss especially if you want your story to be good and campy fun with interesting characters, shocking twists, maybe a touch of comedy and snark with an ending that has at least some sort of impact. A bunch of soon to be graduating teens are going to Senior Prom and have rented a gorgeous beach house to have a big after-party blowout. The place is out on the Jersey Shore so I'm getting some late generation MTV vibes so all showy television and no music and for a person my age...I wasn't having a good start. Kylie is our main heroine told from her point of view and all i get from her at first is very overprotective mom and wanting make this a "special" weekend with her boyfriend Liam that she has not been dating that long but has known for years. Over the summer, he became a hottie so i guess it doesn't just happen to girls... There is also Kylie's BFF Aubrey and her boyfriend Cam, Liam's BFF Noah, the other friend in the standard friendship trios of middle school years Rory, her girlfriend Holli, lacrosse player Hudson and his girlfriend Dani and a junior named Vic who is friends with Noah but no one else really knows. Holli is also new to the Jersey Shore from the madness of Florida but no stranger to the weather which soon turns into the beginnings of hurricane weather...won't sugar-coat it. It threatens to knock out the power and kill the tunes but change the vibe to candles that could be romantic for the couples even as they rough it. That, however, is not the real disaster because before the storm rages on...one of the teens is found murdered. A call to 911 is met with believing it is a prank among others that night but when cops are sent to check out the scene...the body has gone missing. The police tell the kids to just stay inside and take shelter from the storm and stop wasting their time in case of a real emergency. It is here when the cracks start to appear in the relationships of our friend group and reveal some interesting insights to their characters. Some of them are shallow but that isn't really different or a game changer...until another body pops up. A crazy taking shelter in the house unknown to the teens or is it one of them turning the prom house...into a murder house? Anything else would give too much away but it gets a little insane in bits and the climax is pretty good. The ending is bittersweet in that some of the characters are dead by the end and there is some trauma from it to bring about some growth but... It just seems to end on too happy of a tone. Life goes on yet some characters didn't really seem to lose anything. Prom House gets a pass from me as it isn't too horrible but that's just my own opinion... ...more |
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Aug 21, 2024
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Aug 24, 2024
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Aug 21, 2024
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| 006059618X
| 9780060596187
| 006059618X
| 3.86
| 1,632
| Aug 01, 2004
| Jul 26, 2005
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really liked it
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I think that the only reason I couldn't give this one and the whole Dangerous Girls series five stars is because Stine does fall back on some of his p
I think that the only reason I couldn't give this one and the whole Dangerous Girls series five stars is because Stine does fall back on some of his previous vampire schtick in this book which I will explain but first... If you have not read Dangerous Girls, there will be some spoilers to talk about The Taste of Night so be warned before plunging ahead. Destiny Weller is not looking forward to her future but the past has left her no choice since her twin sister Livvy became a vampire. At camp she was changed into a full vampire by drinking blood from Renz while Destiny's feeding was interrupted. Being only a half-vampire, Destiny was able to find a cure through her dad. Dr. Weller's late nights at the vet clinic were spent trying to find a way to change half-vampires back in the process of finding a complete cure to vampirism. All of this done because his wife was turned by a vampire and instead of facing what she was to become...she killed herself. He also became a hunter with other townspeople of Dark Springs to kill the vampires that could not be saved in time. Not knowing that the same vampire who turned Livvy was also the one to turn their mother, Destiny was able to kill Renz. Not before Livvy's hunger got the better of her and she killed their friends Bree and Courtney and decided to turn Destiny's crush, Ross, into a vampire. The police have Livvy and Ross as "runaways" but the people of Dark Springs know the truth. Destiny's best friend Ana-Li and boyfriend Ari know what happened and even her eight- year old brother Mikey knows Livvy is a vampire. Another devastating loss that is now forcing Destiny's father to send his son to a shrink, tearing him between hunting and experimenting, and changing Destiny's plans to go away for college. She has to stay for Mikey...she has to stay in case her father can find the cure that will make Livvy human again. Too bad that Livvy...doesn't want to go back to being human. Finally out of Destiny's shadow, of being seen as the "bad" twin", Livvy has made friends with other vampires and enjoys feeding on human blood from all the cute boys that she can find. She and Ross are still together but Livvy notices that Ross isn't as gung-ho about living forever as much as she thought. He still misses his parents and his little sister so Livvy spends most of her hunting solo or with her new palss, Monica and Suzie. The night of Destiny's graduation, Livvy celebrates her own graduation to being a vampire and everyone ends up at the same dance club. Ari basically dumps Destiny because she can't let go of her trauma and he wants to spend his last weeks in town celebrating before he goes away to school. Destiny is ready to bail and find a ride home when she sees Livvy outside the club, waiting for the guy she has picked up to join her for a moonlight stroll. Livvy is hateful to Destiny and gets her sister to buzz off before her target, a guy named Patrick, arrives. Livvy's night doesn't go any better when she finds out that Patrick is a vampire too but he still shows interest in her. Livvy can't help but feel attracted too because here's a vampire less sappy than Ross who appreciates the taste of the night. Destiny starts her new job as a waitress to earn money to go to the community college the next morning. By the afternoon, Destiny learns that Ari is dead when she finds the cops at his house... Two weeks after the death, Destiny is all on her own with Ana-Li gone early to school to escape from Dark Springs and her childhood friend possibly murdered by her vampire sister. It appears that there might be a ray of sunshine in the darkness when the old fry cook at her job is fired and a college sophomore taking summer courses named Harrison starts working there. Soon, all of these characters are spun into a web of deceit and hunger and sadness yet all of the same trappings as Stine's Goodnight Kiss series from Fear Street. Vampires going after humans, vampires having tension between each other, vampires being snarky and wanting nectar...blah. blah blah. Stine does manage to bring back what made Dangerous Girls so appealing as it is still mostly about Destiny trying to mend the bond with her sister Livvy. The Weller family just can not catch any sort of break and it truly is sad because it has the most impact on an eight year old child. The ending can be either a glass half full or a glass half empty situation but is, thankfully, not a swerve mocking any of the pathos The Taste of Night has to offer. ...more |
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Aug 15, 2024
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Aug 17, 2024
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Aug 15, 2024
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| 3.49
| 2,076
| 1987
| Aug 1991
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it was amazing
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Rounded up to 5 stars from 4.5 for GR. The subject matter wouldn't be called amazing and I do say this in the most positive way that I can but I'm not Rounded up to 5 stars from 4.5 for GR. The subject matter wouldn't be called amazing and I do say this in the most positive way that I can but I'm not even sure what word I want to use. This book...wrecked me? Broke me? Attached itself to my psyche and kept me from sleeping for hours. The Twisted Window was written in 1987, two years before the murder of Duncan's daughter Kaitlyn, so it should give you some clue as to why my reaction to the words in this story I read are the way they are. If I didn't know and had read it, I don't really think it would change anything except perhaps some heartbreaking hindsight. Seventeen year old Tracy Lloyd has been sent to a small Texas town to live with her Aunt Rene and her Uncle Cory, her aunt her mother's sister. This was done by her actor father Richard after his ex-wife Danielle was murdered back in New York. Her mother stabbed during a robbery, Tracy is closed off emotionally since her dad would rather be a movie star filming in Italy than have his daughter live with him in L.A. and her guardians still treat her like a child. Being here, Tracy hasn't made many friends but she at least has someone to eat lunch with and share a locker with in Gina. They are different just like the shades of their hair with blonde and bubbly Gina and quiet, brunette Tracy but something is about to happen that will change Tracy's whole life...as well as herself. It happens when a new boy shows up at school. Tracy sees him at the water fountain and finds that he is handsome with dark hair in the hallway that morning. At lunch, Tracy has a view of him and notices him walking over to her table where she is sitting with Gina. He introduces himself as Brad Johnson and he is charming with that smile and his eyes, saying all the right things to get Gina flirting with him. Yet Brad is more interested in Tracy. We get some insight into Brad's thoughts and realizes there is a certain reason he wants to talk to Tracy. She has the look and maturity he needs and not some giggly bubble-head blonde laughing at his every word despite her stacked figure. Brad seems to not get Tracy's interest but is surprised when she tells him he can find her under her aunt and uncle's name of Stevenson in the phone book. Later that evening, Brad goes to Tracy's house and convinces her to go with him to get a Coke at McDonald's. Tracy agrees to go but only because her aunt is telling her when to be home and not to stay out too late and she tells Brad she won't get in his car because she doesn't trust him. Tracy is a semi-smart girl and soon figures out that Brad isn't being honest with her because his lines today at lunch were lies. Also learning that Brad was following her in his car this afternoon almost has her heading back home until Brad...comes clean. He needs a girl like Tracy to help him find his baby sister Mindy...she has been kidnapped by his ex-stepdad a man named Gavin Brummer. His mother and his best friend Jamie think that Brad is crazy to leave Albuquerque and try and find the man...as well as the police. Brad was able to find the town where Gavin moved to but he can't risk Gavin seeing him if Brad snoops around the singles complex where he lives. It doesn't allow children so Brad believes Gavin is keeping his half-sister somewhere else and if no one he knows will help him...perhaps a stranger will. There is something about Tracy that Brad feels he can trust and Tracy has an understanding of how Brad can not like a man like his ex-stepfather or how it feels to be abandoned by everyone you thought loved you. Seeing a picture of a toddler with blonde curls in Brad's wallet and the pain in his eyes and his voice as he talks about Mindy, Tracy agrees to help Brad. Level-headed yet still apprehensive as she should be, Tracy is able to learn of an address on a street not to far away from where she lives with her aunt and uncle. Obtaining this information and helping Brad, however, causes Tracy to forget her curfew and come home late with no word or phone call to her uncle's ire. When the two of them find the house and Brad recognizes the familiar vehicle parked out front, he and Tracy look through the window where they can see but are not seen. Brad sees Mindy with Gavin and a couple that are Gavin's sister and her husband, Sally and Doug Carver. The next part of Brad's plan to get his half-sister back all depends on Tracy but she has no idea just how off the rails this whole plan is about to go... It doesn't take much to figure out the next event but the twists about to come are enough to blur what we see and what we want to see and believe. There is not a moment when you won't feel your mouth drop open or your heart sink or feel as if your stomach is going to come through your throat, tied up in knots by all the tension. Getting to the final act and the last few moments are powerful enough to punch you in the gut and bring about the urge to cry out loud while reading. It is not a happy ending but it is also not a downer ending but just the right balance of bitter and sweet with a glimmer of hope to keep your spirit from feeling crushed. The paranormal and stories of thrills and suspense were Lois Duncan's claim to fame but she also had an understanding of human beings and their emotions. Characters who we could relate to and were open and vulnerable to us through her descriptions and sometimes that is what makes us enjoy the other works besides the ones that scare us. Real-life is horrifying enough...you don't always need the supernatural to prove that point or gore to give you a thrill. Human pain is visceral as well as human grief... ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Jul 26, 2024
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Jul 29, 2024
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May 18, 2024
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Mass Market Paperback
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| 0816735174
| 9780816735174
| 0816735174
| 3.44
| 39
| Jul 1995
| Jan 01, 1995
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really liked it
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Sometimes it is refreshing to find something new to read after re-reading favorites. Just a nice little mystery among some teen drama is what you will Sometimes it is refreshing to find something new to read after re-reading favorites. Just a nice little mystery among some teen drama is what you will find in Stage Fright. If you check the copyright page, Erica Field is actually Robert Hirschfeld so a man writing as a woman from the third person is good. So glad it wasn't first person as I really hate those most of the time. Also let us get something straight with this plot. I would call it an Elizabethan Faire more than a Renaissance Faire and the book has it as the Merrie Olde England summer fair because the woman who plays "Queen Elizabeth" makes it all about her character. Did anyone ever see that episode of King Of The Hill? If so, like that and if not...you should to get an understanding. If you have been to one of these and found to be not that much fun, share in the comments... Sixteen year old Alison Crisp has moved with her mom, dad and twelve year old sister Dana from Connecticut to Southern California. Mr. Crisp has gotten a new job and is having to work many hours while Mrs. Crisp had to quit her job and is now in charge of having to get the new home unpacked. All of the female members of the family are not happy that they had to leave their friends behind but Mom can get by but it is harder for her daughters, especially the twelve year old who is extra sulky. Plus, the smog of 1995 California is not easy on the eyes at only ten in the morning. At first, Alison thinks it is playing tricks on her eyes because a girl her age makes a comment on the weather and she is dressed in a skirt with petticoats, an old fashioned bodice and Army boots. She introduces herself as Kayla Martinez, the next door neighbor, and tells Alison she is dressed this way to go to the Merrie Olde England festival. Her parents work a booth selling leather goods there and people who work at the M.O.E. have to dress in costume but some of the customers dress up as well. Kayla is hoping to get a job there for the summer and asks Alison if she would like to go and check it out. With nothing else to do, wanting to make new friends and ot spend the day with her mopey sister affecting her own mood...Alison asks her mother if it is okay. Mom says yes, preoccupied with decorating, but you know that she is glad her daughter, or at least one of them, is adjusting... Kayla's parents, Larry and Kaye, are very nice to Alison and they all tell her that most visitors and workers take the faire very seriously. They arrive to meet Derek Kimball, assistant to the fair boss, Elissa Yarborough, dressed in full on Elizabethan clothing. He looks like Shakespeare and talks as if he were in one of the plays. Derek is not a fan of Mr. Martinez's hat as it is not period accurate but the fair is not until tomorrow so it gets a pass. They tell Alison to enjoy herself as their guest instead of an extra helper so Alison goes for a walk and finds a grove of trees like the ones back home and not the horrendous palms. Her peaceful walks is interrupted by someone hanging upside down from a tree with their face covered in black and white paint. It is a boy, maybe around her age, but all Alison can see is green eyes, a tall and wiry frame and long, shaggy dark hair. He is a little cocky but somewhat charming with gentleman manners more graceful than Derek and Alison learns his name is Robin Goodfellow. If you know Shakespeare, that name is from a play but here it is actually his real name but he says he is a jester and juggler so just a fateful name...nice one, writer. Robin goes to show Alison around and they watch the musicians and performers practicing on stage, meeting one musician named Wolfgang...another real name, who is good friends with Robin. Alison also gets the displeasure of meeting head of security, Billy. He is the type who likes having authority over other people and he isn't happy about an "outsider" like Alison hanging around so he orders her to leave. Robin isn't happy about that and says she came as a guest with the Martinez family and is his guest as well. Alison feels uncomfortable as others begin to watch Robin and Billy, who have some bad history between each other, and she is silently angry more at Robin for getting her involved. Derek and a woman Alison has not met yet arrive to see what has caused the trouble and the woman is able to get Billy to leave but has words for Robin when the other guy leaves. Robin introduces her to Alison as Gwendolyn Bustard. Derek comments that Gwen has been the Queen Elizabeth here for the past fifteen years and Gwen notes that Alison has the complexion and beauty to be a part of her "court" as a lady in waiting since they need two more for this year. It would be small pay and Alison sees Robin behind Gwen shaking his head "no". Alison doesn't appreciate this guy telling her what to do and agrees just as Kayla finds her so the other girl is able to convince Gwen to give her the other spot since her parents come every day and Kayla has quite the perfect curtsy. Robin says the girls will be sorry when Gwen and Derek leave and then he huffs off to get rid of his face paint as everyone has been commenting that it doesn't work. Wolfgang arrives and Alison learns from both Kayla and Wolfgang that Billy is not a guy to mess with as he is even mean to his own friends and a guy like Robin has no chance if he ever faces Billy alone. Alison tries to put Robin and Billy out of her mind and asks her parents that evening if she can take the job and they agree she can. The next couple of days have Alison and Kayla training to curtsy in their dresses with four other girls but Alison is having more trouble with the balance. It doesn't help when Robin shows up with his face revealed to be very cute without the make-up and it makes Alison a little self-conscious. Alison learned from Kayla's parents that Robin is a good guy but he doesn't treat Gwen with the proper respect when she plays Queen Elizabeth that she wants him fired. Elissa keeps Robin around because the crowds like him and Alison begrudgingly begin to see why...all to the amusement of her fellow ladies in waiting. They all know that Robin has it bad for Alison already...Wolfgang too. Alison also gets to meet Elissa, sees first-hand how serious Gwen and Derek take the faire and meets Eric Sinclair, a developer wanting to get the land that Merrie Olde England is using to put up another mall. Elissa says the lease is for twelve years and she won't budge for even 600,000 in 1995 dollars to break it. On Opening Day, an hour before the doors open, the workers are greeted by a dummy hanging from the balcony of the main stage in a red wig, the Queen's crown and Alison's dress with a message written in red on a piece of cloth with skull and crossbones: WATCH OUT. Later in the day, a spooked horse almost tramples Alison and throws its rider before Robin is able to calm it down. He tells Alison that he saw blood on the horse's hindquarters and it wasn't a horsefly bite but a prick as if from a pin...done deliberately. Soon other "accidents" begin to happen and people begin to get hurt. Nothing fatal but enough to get news coverage and put the future fate of Merrie Olde England in jeopardy of closing. Alison and Robin begin to do their own investigating and then the warnings start coming for the both of them to stop... The backdrop of a budding romance in a fantasy setting soon turns into a real nightmare full of suspense but also some laughs with lots of red herrings besides the obvious bad guy Eric Sinclair and his henchman, Mr. Tresh. Stage Fright is anything but frightening yet it has enough excitement to keep you from being bored and it is a gem that needs some more attention. ...more |
Notes are private!
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Jul 21, 2024
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Jul 25, 2024
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May 01, 2024
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Paperback
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| 0689852592
| 9780689852596
| 0689852592
| 4.10
| 1,045
| Feb 18, 2003
| Mar 01, 2003
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really liked it
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The Deep End of Fear is probably my least favorite of the four books I have read in this series but it is by no means awful. The story is a very grippi The Deep End of Fear is probably my least favorite of the four books I have read in this series but it is by no means awful. The story is a very gripping one with a Modern Gothic tone to it but there are just a few elements of the plot that unnerve me. Not that the other books didn't have some parts that were a little serious but as I explain as much plot as I can without spoilers...you will see why this one disturbs me. We get a flashback to twelve years ago. A little girl named Katie is crouched down on the floor of the backseat of a car with her parents in the front. It is a mess of icy sleet coming down as they are driving the road late at night, her father not switching on the headlights until they reach the main roads of Wisteria, Maryland. They are leaving a place called Mason's Choice and Katie is sad she didn't get to say good-bye to a girl named Ashley. Her mother reminds her that Ashley is dead before she points out to her husband that there is a car behind them. They try to lose the car and then Katie feels the car spinning as her mother screams and it stops with a loud, reverberating crash. Only her parents see what is behind them and it is bad enough for Katie's mother to pout her head in her hands as they drive on. Katie asks if anyone got hurt and her mother replies that there were deer in the road while her father says he will find a phone to call someone... Now seventeen years old, Katie is grown up and is Kate Venerelli. They left America for England and soon after they landed her mother, Victoria, abandoned her husband and child one night while they were asleep. Three months ago, Kate's father, Luciano passed away from cancer and left her a note with a few last wishes. One was to reconcile with her mother as he was the reason she left and not Kate. In the letter was the phone number and place to where she was now living but Kate lost interest in her mother a long time ago. The second was to find a ring stashed inside a chimney and return it to a man named Adrian Westbrook in Wisteria, Maryland. It was taken by Kate's father the night that they left a place which Kate does not wish to go back...the house called Mason's Choice. The fact that Kate's father took the ring from the place where he was employed to paint portraits isn't what bothers her but the fact that her mother use to work as a nanny there. Kate calls and the phone is answered by an older woman that Kate remembers as Mrs. Hopewell, the housekeeper. When she asks to speak with Adrian Westbrook and gives her name, the woman hangs up on Kate. Kate calls again to ask for a Mrs. Westbrook, hears a younger woman ask Mrs. Hopewell who it is and gets to hear that it is a marketing call before being hung up on again. Kate finds the woman who owns the B&B where she is staying and knows that she can get any information just by starting a conversation with a woman like Amelia Sutter. Adrian remarried a younger woman named Emily and they have son who is now seven years old while both of his older children have been both married and divorced from their spouses. Kate remembers the son, Trent, and the woman, Robyn Caulfield, very well. While looking at the newspaper, Kate finds an ad looking for a tutor for a seven year old child where there will be room and board in the house...that she has been calling. After finding a payphone, putting on a French accent and asking to speak to Mrs. Emily Westbrook it gets Katie past Mrs. Hopewell and given an interview for later that afternoon. Kate isn't interested in the job but it will be the only way she can get the ring back to Mr. Westbrook and then she can go sightseeing across the U.S.A. so she can then fly back to England to attend one of their many universities. Kate has Amelia take her to the house and they pass the family cemetery on the way in and this is where Ashley is buried. Ashley Westbrook, who was two years older than Kate, her only friend on the grounds before the other girl fell through the ice of the pond...and drowned. A different servant opens the door to let Kate in and she is glad because Mrs. Hopewell would have thought Kate was her mother, Victoria. Kate cut her blonde hair very short when her father got sick and his hair started to fall out but it was an excuse not to have the same very long hair her mother always use to have. Amelia waits in the library as Kate is taken to Emily's office and she finds a strawberry blonde behind the desk. Kate notices pictures of every member of the family through the years but none of Ashley so she wonders if Emily has any idea of who she is... Only Kate's last name rings a bell to Emily as she says they have many paintings in the house done by a Luciano Venerelli. Kate answers truthfully that it is her father but she only knows the basics of painting and that she can play a little piano when Emily asks her about playing a musical instrument. Along with the educational information Kate has provided, Emily wants to bring in her son. She calls for the boy named Patrick and Kate is realizing that she may be caught with this job and tries to stall but Emily continues without notice of Kate's nervousness. When the boy enters, Kate notices that Patrick looks like a younger version of Robyn's son, Brook. Kate is told that she has the job by Emily but is curious about whether Mr. Westbrook would need to interview her as well. Kate is told that Patrick's father has been ill and will be back home after receiving treatments at John Hopkins for cancer. Thinking that if they get to know each other better, Emily has Patrick take Kate to his room and she is shocked to find that Patrick's room...was once Ashley's. The color scheme is different but all of the furniture is still the same and Patrick has even been given some plastic horses that were once Robyn's but had been Ashley's when Kate was last here. So eerie... Patrick shows Kate up to the third floor and she recognizes the room when it belonged to Ashley's tutor, a young man they called mr. Joseph. Patrick shows Kate his pet hamster named Patricia even though he is allergic to animal fur as well as his ice hockey posters with his favorite being a player on the high school team named Sam Koscinski. Patrick tells Kate that he had a friend named Tim who moved away when she asks if he ever invites any friends over to play but that he also plays with a girl named Ashley. It sends a shiver up Kate's spine when Patrick says that Ashley likes Kate and that the girl has been watching them... As they come downstairs, Kate and Patrick hear three female voices arguing. It is Mrs. Hopewell and Robyn, Adrian's daughter, arguing with Emily and telling her not to hire Kate but it is clear that Emily is not use to having to fight with them. Hearing them say some choice things about her family, Kate decides then and there that she is going to take the job as Patrick's tutor to find out the truth about why her parents left that night. Kate realizes Patrick is lonely and needs friends but she is afraid that once his father gets home, he may just dismiss her and override his wife's decision once he realizes just who Kate is... Hoping to get air from the frosty reception, Kate goes for a walk through town and finds one of her father's paintings in the window of an antique shop. The owner tells her the shop is closed for inventory but is surprised when Kate tells him that she is interested in looking at the Venerelli in the window because of her age. When Kate tells him that the man was her father, the shop owner introduces himself as Joseph Oakley. The now middle-aged and plump man was once the college student who lived at Mason's choice and tutored both Kate and Ashley. Joseph is here in town to take care of shop business as it use to be his mother's place but that she recently died and before Kate can answer his question about her mother, the store bell rings again. A young man around Kate's age has come in to buy a birthday present and even though the shop really is closed, Joseph is helpless and agrees to help. He can't decide between anything in the jewelry case and asks for Kate's opinion in a very guy way by saying she is a girl yet shoots down Kate's choice when she answers him. Once he leaves, Kate informs Joseph that she is now Patrick's tutor at Mason's Choice and he tells her that none of the Westbrooks can be trusted. Kate always knew that none of them, even Ashley, were very nice but it is one more reason to stay for Patrick... When Patrick gets home from school with Kate as the groundskeeper Roger has picked them up to show Kate the route, Emily informs them that Trent and Brook are to be here on this the day before Adrian comes home. As Joseph told Kate, the vultures are circling. No one has told Trent that Kate is Patrick's new tutor and he looks at her as if he has seen a ghost when Robyn clarifies her last name. Kate knows she looks like her mother and remembers that Ashley looked like her mother, Corrine, when they were little girls. Trent ignores Patrick and when Brook arrives, he has no fondness in his greeting for Patrick and looks Kate up and down like a piece of meat when he learns who she is. Kate remembers a young boy who was awful to his cousin's pets and that should be a red flag right there that no one has any redeeming qualities in this family except for Patrick and Emily. The others bicker about who gets what in not so subtle ways and show very little respect to one another so Kate takes Patrick outside to play and he wants to go ice-skating on the pond. Kate tells him that the ice is too thin but Patrick tells her that Ashley said it was okay and it is unnerving enough that Kate has to ask Patrick what Ashley looks like... Patrick describes Ashley in correct detail about the outfit kate remembers her wearing that was her favorite and is wondering if someone in the family has been showing him a picture of Ashley but a part of her...can't even fathom asking the question. While Patrick is at school the next day, Kate is informed by Mrs. Hopewell that Adrian will see her now that he is home. He greets Kate warmly and friendly and doesn't seem angered when she gives him back the ring to fulfill the promise to her father. Kate asks why her family was sent away and Adrian tells her that they were not sent packing as Mrs. Hopewell commented to Emily the day of her interview. It was her father who left with the family of his own decision but why take a ring that he never pawned for money and wanted returned? Kate picks up patrick from school and has to remember that she is not driving in England anymore so he finds it funny that she keeps repeating about staying on the right. The news that his dad is back also makes him happy but when he makes a comment about one of Ashley's plastic horses with a name only the two girls knew...it spooks her. Kate's concentration has her turn the corner to the wrong side of the road and she almost hits another car but they stop in enough time to only be nose to nose. Kate makes sure Patrick is okay and the boy seems unfazed as he points out that the other driver is mad. As Kate gets closer, she recognizes the young man from the antique shop as the irate driver but he has yet to recognize Kate until she starts using British terms for the parts of the car...then he stares at her as if she were from another planet and not another continent. That jogs his memory and he tries to instruct her on the correct terms with a smug smile on his lips and in his eyes and Kate can't help but remember how handsome he was. Realizing Patrick is behind her, Kate tries to tell him to go back to the car so they can leave and receives some news. This is Sam Koscinski, Patrick's favorite hockey player on the Wisteria High School team. Sam is pleased at having a fan but it all but fades once he learns that Patrick is Adrian Westbrook's son. Kate has to remind him that the little boy is a fan while Patrick is finding some paper for Sam to sign some autographs but he leaves soon after. That night at dinner, the conversation is not very pleasant amongst the wolves. All of the conversation comes to a stop when there is a big gust of wind against the window panes and the orange tabby cat appears outside wanting to be let in... Kate recognizes the coloring but also the bitten off tail and the half of its left ear missing as the same feral cat that use to belong to Ashley Westbrook. To everyone but Patrick and Emily, this animal is like another ghost of the past appearing on the doorstep...just like Kate. Kate goes with Patrick to the last hockey game before the playoffs to watch Sam's team after getting his mother's permission. Patrick holds up a sign for Sam that Kate helped him to make and he is so excited as he watches the game, cheering him on. Kate notices how manic Sam is playing the sport but can't help but still be attracted to his energy. When the team wins and the game is over, Patrick wants Sam to autograph his sign so Kate hangs back with the crowd. Despite his good looks, Kate isn't happy with how Sam acted the other day. An older woman asks Kate if she is a fan of Sam's and she tries to hide her rude reply with the fact that the little boy she is with is the real fan. Sam yells to the crowd with words to his mother that they won and Kate is shocked to find that...it is the lady beside her when she answers back. Mrs. Koscinski points out Patrick to Sam in the crowd and Kate can't help but get a tear in her eye to see the smile on Patrick's face when Sam makes his way toward him, a hand on the older boy's shoulder. When Sam meets his mom as Patrick gets ready to leave with Kate, he tells her that the sign they made was great and he could see it from the ice during the game. Kate denies helping but Sam smiles and looks down at her hands before leaving with his mother. There is poster paint underneath her fingernails... Things that happen after such a warm moment are in stark contrast as they are very horrible things that I don't even really want to discuss because they involve cruelly hurting the feelings and psyche of a seven year old child... It also doesn't get any better for Kate because just when it seems that she and Sam are finally connecting...details she shares in trying to open up put a wedge between them. Not only that but Patrick isn't keeping Ashley a secret and the rest of the Westbrook family believe it is Kate's fault that after so long her name is being brought up again like a curse from Hell or the depths...of the family pond. Everything revealed and all of the twists make the mystery aspect intriguing but I was left holding my breath at all of the terrible things that kept happening. The story kept getting so much darker than I thought it would and if there wasn't the side plot of Kate and Sam and even how Sam started to care for Patrick along with Kate...I would have made myself depressed and sick reading further. Don't let my feelings influence you because despite all of the drama, The Deep End of Fear is worth reading. ...more |
Notes are private!
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Mar 29, 2024
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Dec 30, 2023
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| 0606298193
| 9780606298193
| 0606298193
| 4.11
| 1,249
| Oct 30, 2001
| Jan 01, 2004
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it was amazing
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The Dark Secrets series of books keep getting better with each new entry as I read them. Our main character of this book is Jenny Montgomery. Jenny is t The Dark Secrets series of books keep getting better with each new entry as I read them. Our main character of this book is Jenny Montgomery. Jenny is the daughter of an English stage actor and a former child-teen star and until recently she had an older sister named Liza. They were not the same age or looked anything alike but the two of them had a bond since Jenny was little as if they had their own secret language. Liza loved acting and Jenny has stage fright so bad she channels it into gymnastics. Liza went away to a summer theater camp at Chase College in Wisteria, Maryland instead of a more prestigious New York one to have a little independence from her parents. Since it was the first time they had ever been separated in not sharing a room, Liza would constantly write e-mails home to Jenny or text her sister to come and visit. Jenny put it off for too long and that has left her with regret because her sister...was murdered. It was said to be the work of a serial killer going up the Eastern coast, killing women under bridges and smashing their watches to mark the time of death. To add to such tragedy is that Liza called Jenny's phone and left a voicemail right before she was killed. If Jenny had answered it earlier, she feels she could have saved her sister's life. Being the daughter of famous actors, Jenny can't just go and get answers about some of the strange things and people Liza would write to her about. So in order to gain some closure and do what she couldn't do before...Jenny is now going to the summer theater program eleven months later. Except...under a fake name. With the help of family friends, Jenny has been able to be enrolled at the program as Jenny Baird and is even staying in the same house where Liza was assigned. Jenny arrives at the theater where the drama students would perform to look around and she can't help but feel as if Liza's spirit were all around her. She says a few lines out loud from Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare unaware to calm her nerves for they were the lines of the lead female character of Viola that Liza was playing last summer before her death. Jenny has an audience when a young man named Brian Jones appears with a huge carton. He is sandy-haired and handsome and he tells Jenny he is the stage manager for the summer camp this year and that last year they did the play she was just quoting. Jenny tries to keep in mind that she is here under a different name but Liza is constantly on her mind and she couldn't help saying the play since she always use to help her sister run her lines. Jenny finds out that they are doing A Midsummer Night's Dream this year by the copies of the book in the carton Brian opens but informs him that she has no intention of trying out but working on the crew because of her stage fright. Brain says that the camp director, Walker, expects all of his crew to be able to act. They turn away from that to more casual conversation and jenny learns that Brian's mother is to be the R.A. of the place where she will be staying, aptly called Drama House. Leaving the theater, Jenny notices that someone was up in the high balcony watching her and Brian but doesn't know if the person was there before. Once she is outside to collect her luggage and find her housing, Jenny bumps into another young man. His hair and clothes are all black like a typical drama student but he has the most startling blue eyes and a brusque voice as he apologizes before giving Jenny a wide berth as he walks away. There is a look of guilt on his face...could he have been the one watching her? On her way to her housing, Jenny hears another male voice make a comment and turns to find him admitting he was talking about the house where she will be staying. It is a beautiful Queen Anne design and the young man, a rather portly fellow, seems to be really into architecture and nervous around girls. Jenny gives him a warm smile and jokes that the frat he is heading toward could use some work and he awkwardly smiles back. Once on the porch, Jenny girls a group of three girls who are quiet while the other four seem to know each other and talk loudly with one another in earshot of the obvious newbies. One is Shawna, a girl with her hair in elegant African braids and very high cheekbones. Another girl is named Keri and she has hair that is a contrast job of black and white hair dye in her short hair with black eyeliner around her eyes. Out of the two, Shawna sounds much nicer but Jenny doesn't learn too much else as Keri makes a comment that a person named Boots is coming. From her conversation with Brian, Jenny knows this is Brian's mother who is the house R.A. - her most common nickname "Army Boots". She introduces herself as Dr. Margaret Rynne and she is a combination of a theater patron in her clothes, a Physical Education teacher in her stance but with a warm voice as she instructs the girls to call her Maggie. Maggie gives the girls a floor plan of the house and starts to tell them the rules of curfew but Shawna interrupts asking to switch rooms. Maggie says there is to be no switching but Shawna insists that she can not sleep in the room she has been given because it is haunted. The girl that lived there for camp last summer was murdered and even though Jenny already knows...her sister's name is given as the poor, unfortunate victim. Jenny silently listens to the grisly details she already knows gossiped among the girls and then tells Maggie she will switch rooms with Shawna. They all turn to look at her and Maggie simply agrees but it seems that they all thinks she is either crazy or brave to do so. It is actually comforting to Jenny as Liza wrote that she loved the room and it makes her feel closer to her sister. When all of them are heading to a cookout to meet with the other teens in the summer camp and converge amongst each other, Jenny listens to the talk of all the returning students. She recognizes the name of Mike spoken as Liza wrote about him constantly...her sister clearly in love with the boy she had to call Michael instead. Jenny also recognizes the name Paul when some of the guys say that he was obsessed with Liza but also had a reputation of possibly starting a fire on the campus to impress her. Jenny isn't fond of that information but also notices that Keri has the hots for Paul by the way she bites her lips at the mere mention of his name though acting cool about it. The director arrives and Jenny knows a little bit about Walter Burke because her parents knew him many years back in New York but at an age where Jenny was so young she can't remember. He is middle-aged, balding with his red hair in a comb over and his choice of transportation to arrive is a motorcycle. He also seems to have his own hypocritical ego telling them that he will not stroke their egos or handle them with kid gloves. Jenny sees a little of what Brian told her about Walker once everyone is introduced and she learns the heavyset boy she met earlier is named Tomas Alvarez. Tomas is set to be the set designer and like Jenny, has no intention of trying out for a part in the play. Walker asks Tomas if he can't hear or if he has any problems with attention. When Tomas says no, Walker asks if he is fat and others laugh as Tomas says yes. "Obviously but that is no excuse not to audition." What an ass. Once the food is getting prepared, Jeny makes her way to the bridge that is close to the pavillion in the park. The bridge where her sister was found bludgeoned to death already has someone there...the young man in black from the theater. When he sees Jenny, he doesn't answer any of her questions but asks for her name instead. Giving her fake name, he stands up from sitting on the bank and his height makes Jenny back away nervously. He stops and finally gives Jenny an answer to one question she didn't ask...his own name. Mike Wilcox...Liza's Michael. Knowing what she does, Jenny finds it odd that Mike talks about Liza as if they were only friends and not madly in love in the few words they share. That night, Jenny starts having the first nightmare she has had in years and the only person who ever knew about them were Liza. At auditions, Jenny is called by Walker to audition with Mike as Lysander and Helena respectfully. Brian said he would tell Walker about Jenny's stage fright but the director is such a pompous jerk he doesn't let it slide. It is the part in the play were Lysander falls in love with Helena instead of Hermia thanks to the work of the fairies so hearing Mike saying the lines...Jenny has no problem being confused and angry. She has heard actors say romantic lines like this all her life but with Mike's blue eyes and the fact that Liza was crazy for him...Jenny is distracted enough not to appear that frightened on stage. Walker notices along with everyone else that Jenny does have talent. They make it through the first half of auditions but after lunch, Walker now goes after Tomas. He ask him to play Oberon, the king of the fairies, while Paul does Puck and Mike does Demetrius and a girl named Kimberley plays Hermia. Jenny watches Tomas fumble through the lines nervously to the point where Walker has embarassed to the brink of tears and a few snickers from the others. Mike, however, is kinder to Tomas at the start of the scene so Jenny can see he isn't a total jerk like Paul with his short temper and ego. It stirs something inside Jenny and she shouts out to Walker that she would like to play Puck with all eyes on her in shock except for those of the director who dismisses Paul. Paul is not happy that Jenny took the part even though it is only the audition stage. Jenny decides to use her gymnastic skills and says Puck's line performing to the iambic pentameter of the words and the focus takes away the stage fright. It is obviously done to make Tomas more at ease and it helps him get through the rest of the scene which is met with some applause. Afterwards, Paul makes it clear to Jenny that he didn't like having a role pulled out from under him like that. He also states that a talented actress from last year tried to play up to Walker and she ended up dead. Jenny knows he is talking about Liza and she reminds him that the girl was murdered by a serial killer. Even though Jenny knows that Paul was obsessed with her sister, it gives him a very twisted way to act if he is implying that the killer had nothing to do with what happened to Liza... The next day, Jenny learns that she is playing Puck in the play from Tomas as the two have become close thanks to her save move yesterday. It has also gotten Tomas closer to some of the other girls who aren't completely stuck-up like Keri as Shawna is still a very nice girl. She affectionately calls Jenny "Reds" thanks to her curly hair and seems happy not being any of the female leads in the play, taking on the role of Peter Quince. If you know Shakespeare then you know what the heck I'm talking about... Jenny is stuck in her part and the rehearsals afterward start experiencing the lights flickering out on occasion with the heavy smell of jasmine perfume in the air and Jenny recognizes it as the kind that Liza use to wear...as do a few of the ones who knew her last summer. ction Is this Liza reaching out from beyond for Jenny to find her killer...the real one? Or could it be that someone knows who Jenny really is and is just playing a game until it is her time to die? The reveals and the twists in this are so good and the atmosphere is just so creepy! It also helps that I was a theater kid in high school and find appreciation in every detail put toward the production of the play. Most of the characters are also easy to like and it does make it shocking to find out just which ones really are putting on an act...get it? No Time To Die is so far the best one out of the bunch but I have two more books to tackle and more dark secrets to discover... ...more |
Notes are private!
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Mar 27, 2024
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Mar 30, 2024
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Dec 30, 2023
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Paperback
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| 0743400291
| 9780743400299
| 0743400291
| 4.08
| 1,857
| 2001
| Mar 01, 2001
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it was amazing
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Legacy of Lies was a good way to start this Dark Secrets series but this second entry goes way beyond just being a paranormal romance. Knowing me I hav Legacy of Lies was a good way to start this Dark Secrets series but this second entry goes way beyond just being a paranormal romance. Knowing me I have no problem with that and even though there is some romance in Don't Tell, the story is far more intriguing in well...dealing with trauma and family dynamics. Again it is set in the town of Wisteria, Maryland so the series must get its Dark Secrets name from all of the mysteries in the town. The lead character in this book is Lauren Brandt. Seven years ago, when she was ten years old, everything changed in Lauren's life. Before then, she was use to coming to Wisteria to visit with her godmother, a woman she called Aunt Jules, but she was her mother's best friend. Aunt Jules had two kids, twelve year old Nora and eleven year old Holly, so Lauren was use to playing with them and their friend Nick who lived next door with his uncle. This particular year, Lauren's mother Sondra decided she was going to come with her daughter. Being the wife and daughter of an important senator, they were use to the press following the around to get pictures at the drop of any sort of scandal...personal or political. Yet Lauren watched her mother becoming paranoid and it seemed to only get worse when they left Washington D.C. to come to Wisteria. Her mother would claim that things in her room were moving by themselves and knots would be tied in all of her scarves and jewelry. Lauren could hear her mother and Aunt Jules arguing at night sometimes and it would be louder if her mother decided to calm her nerves with a glass of wine. It was also tense around the Ingram home because Nora was deathly afraid of the water. Twelve years old living in a town near the Chesapeake Bay and afraid to go anywhere near the water...poor thing scared enough to sleep with a stuffed bunny. That night, Lauren didn't hear arguing but the clanging of a bell. The bell at the end of the dock that was only to be rung if there was trouble in the water... Lauren hurried thinking that Nora may have slipped while going to look for her lost bunny but she was fine. The bell was sounded because the body of Lauren's mother had been floating in the water at the end of the dock. She was dead. The investigation wasn't long as it was determined that Sondra drowned by accident, slipping and hitting her head on the dock. Any other reasoning wasn't considered as Jules wanted them to keep in mind that a ten year old child was traumatized in losing her mother...watching her lifeless body being pulled from the water. The memory of that night has haunted Lauren but after seven years away, Aunt Jules wants Lauren to come and visit her in Wisteria. Lauren comes back during the last part of the spring before the summer when seniors will be graduating from the local high school. She arrives in town as Wisteria is celebrating its Colonial Days festival and a boy about her age finds her looking around like she is lost. He flirts with Lauren and having been at an all girls school for most of her education, Lauren seems to make him laugh at her inexperience. She comes across him again at a dunking booth and proceeds to dunk him not once but twice for a dollar, the crowd cheering her on until Lauren sees someone with a press badge. He catches up with her and flirts even though he is dripping wet and wearing one of those Colonial tri-corner hats but clearly impressed by her arm. Lauren can't help but ask him if he knows Holly and Nora Ingram as he replies by taking off the hat and turning around. When he turns back to Lauren, his eyes are crossed and his fingers pulling back the sides of his mouth. It is Nick Hurley from next door and no longer a round faced little boy with his feet caked in mud from the creek. Making it to Aunt Jules' home, Lauren is happy to be back...for the moment. Holly is about ready to graduate from high school and she is a tall and beautiful young woman but it is Nora who is the biggest shock to Lauren. It is not in a good way. Even though she is older than Holly, Nora wear her long black hair pulled back by a plastic headband. It is oily and looks as if it is days in between washings and her face seems to be in a permanent frown. She ignores Lauren's greetings and fiddles with the flowers in a vase, roses where she continually pricks her fingers on the thorns. "I wish you hadn't come...don't go near the water." Those are the words out of Nora's mouth to Lauren before she turns away and the three of them hear the sound of a lamp falling and breaking. They find it in pieces with Nora claiming she didn't do it but Jules acts like everything is fine and Holly acts more like the mother, chastising her sister. Lauren notices that the lamp's cord was ripped out of the wall...and tied in a knot. Things moving by themselves and objects twisted up in similar knots happened days before...Lauren's mother drowned. When Lauren is alone with Holly unpacking, she learns that Holly is mostly in charge of the household in paying all of the bills but her mother has so much debt. Nick's Uncle Frank keeps trying to but the property from Jules but she refuses his every offer for money. Lauren knows she can help out with the money her father gives her and pretty soon, she'll be eighteen. Her mother's will states she will get every bit of money from her mother's wealthy background on that day so Lauren tells Holly. At first she seems hesitant but then Holly gives in and Lauren can't help but turn to the bigger question...what is wrong with Nora? Nora is now completely afraid of the water and lives like a recluse in this house. She dropped out of high school around the time she was sixteen...paranoid and almost suicidal. Holly keeps saying her sister needs psychiatric help but her mother wouldn't hear of it and now they can't afford to get her any kind of help. Nora only trusts Holly, her mother and Nick Hurley. Holly mentions that she and Nick are now dating, almost gloating about it, but her smile fades when Lauren mentions she saw Nick at the dunking booth. It returns when she says he will be over later that night and Lauren feels the way it use to between her and Holly as kids. Jules would make such a fuss over Lauren and her own mother was a little snobby to both Nora and Holly that she would claim Lauren was spoiled and refuse to talk to her as if Lauren were invading her life...her territory. That seems to apply to Nick these days. Aunt Jules is also not very happy that Lauren stayed away for so long and thinks that she should move on from Sondra's death with a dig that she wasn't exactly Mother of The Year. All of this tension makes Lauren go for a walk to finally see the dock where her mother drowned but she doesn't stay long...still not ready because Lauren can't forget seeing the blood on the planks. Lauren ends up finding Nora tending the flowers and plants in the greenhouse. She tries to be friendly and have conversation with Nora but the other girl is clearly terrified and withdrawn as she avoids most of Lauren's friendliness. Nora talks about how she cares for the plants and just casually states that the ghost of Lauren's mother haunts the boathouse... It sends chills down Lauren's spine but she tries to ignore Nora's crazy statements and offers to get some wire from the boathouse. Since Nora is afraid of water, she only goes a short distance to follow Lauren but then ends up locking her in the boathouse and running off! Lauren screams for help and almost uses an ax to chop down the door but she is freed by Nick and his uncle. Frank Hurley goes when his phone rings, he is a lawyer and a realtor who is always busy, and gives Nick a chance to flirt with Lauren some more. Thinking of Holly, Lauren soon turns her attention to focusing on Nick's dog. His name is Rocky and he is a water retriever with a curly, dark brown coat and big amber eyes so who could blame her. Nick is jealous of Lauren giving his dog so much attention but he does it in such a joking way it is hard to tell if he is serious or not...that's actually kind of cute in a way. Since the dog is not allowed in the house because Holly thinks he stinks (which he does...all dogs do but especially water dogs!) Nick reluctantly lets Lauren take Rocky on another walk with her while he goes in to do some yearbook stuff with Holly. Lauren soon finds that being back in Wisteria is a little bittersweet as it holds not only happy memories but very horrifying and painful ones as well. There is also the fact that Nora clearly needs help and she is finding herself falling for an old childhood friend even though Holly clearly wants Nick. Soon that bitterness...overtakes the sweetness as Lauren starts having nightmares about her mother calling out her name. The objects that can be knotted up in Lauren's room are twisted at every turn no matter how long she sits to undo them and things both appear and then go missing... Then there are notes and a broken windshield...being locked in the greenhouse with deadly carbon monoxide...someone is trying to make sure that Lauren never leaves Wisteria...alive. There are natural and unnatural reasons for the things that are happening and plenty of people who could be responsible in making Lauren go crazy just the same way as her mother or even Nora. There are many reveals and twists to provide a good mystery once we get toward the climax but the ending afterward just kind of goes back around to closing out the romantic subplot of Lauren and Nick. In that part of story, it is nothing really different from any other teen romance but since Lauren and Nick have a history...it does make it interesting instead of just instant attraction. Lauren is also a capable young woman who can take care of herself without needing to rely on a guy as some scenes in the book will show but still vulnerable enough to be hurt by one. Still at times...the only characters I end up liking are Lauren, Nora and Rocky. Two traumatized teenagers and a dog! I do however appreciate the lighter ending after such a suspenseful story so if you get a chance to find Don't Tell...it will be worth reading. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Mar 25, 2024
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Mar 28, 2024
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Dec 30, 2023
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Paperback
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| 9780061067198
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| 3.96
| 10,574
| 1992
| Nov 01, 1992
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Notes are private!
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Oct 05, 2024
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not set
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Dec 30, 2023
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| 0061067156
| 9780061067150
| 0061067156
| 3.87
| 11,256
| 1992
| Oct 15, 1992
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really liked it
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The second entry into The Secret Circle series amps up the more terrifying aspects than the teen drama of the first one. Not that there isn't any dram
The second entry into The Secret Circle series amps up the more terrifying aspects than the teen drama of the first one. Not that there isn't any drama in The Captive still going on but the stakes are higher. Slight spoilers for The Initiation if you haven't read it yet but not as if you didn't notice them anyway... Diana's boyfriend Adam is the young man Cassie met in Cape Cod and fell for hard. Adam reciprocates Cassie's feelings but both of them do not want to be disloyal to Diana since she and Cassie are like sisters and Adam and Diana have grown up together. Faye and Diana are cousins with the same birth date and Faye is like her evil counterpart. Faye wants to be leader of the Coven and she decides to use Cassie's feelings toward Adam as the perfect tool for blackmail. Adam was in Cape Cod for a reason this summer and it was to find the Master Tools used by the first coven of witches in New Salem back in 1693. Adam found one: a crystal skull that belonged to a man named Black John who as the name indicates was more for the darker side of magic. It is filled to the brim with dark power and a ritual has allowed it to escape into the town. Outsiders, which are most of the other people in town, soon befall fatal circumstances each time the crystal skull is used. The first time was an accident but the second time, Cassie knows it is because Faye tried to use the skull. Cassie blames herself because she found where Diana buried it and if she didn't give the skull to Faye...the other girl will expose Cassie's feelings for Adam. Not only that, Cassie knows that Diana would also be devastated to find out Adam betrayed her. There is also the fact that it would be seen as a betrayal by the other members of The Secret Circle and Cassie may be banished back to being a social outcast like before. The other members that are not Melanie and Laurel are beginning to warm up to Cassie too and well...nobody wants to have to go through high school completely alone. When it comes time to vote for who will be the coven leader on the night both Faye and Diana turn seventeen, it will be the ultimate test for Cassie. Vote for Diana and Faye will expose the truth she has kept hidden but if Cassie should pick Faye as her choice...the first thing she will do is use the skull again. Either decision could be devastating not just to Cassie or The Secret Circle but the whole town of New Salem... Anything else would be spoiling and there are certainly a lot of reveals in this one!! It also ends on such a cliffhanger that must be read to believe... Those points aside, we get to learn a little bit more about the other members of The Secret Circle and find that most of them are just insecure, rebellious and easily swayed like most teenagers. The only one we haven't seen a good side of is Faye and it is really hard to feel any sympathy for her which is actually a real shame... The Captive is far more intriguing than The Initiation and lives up to its title...it is captivating. Yet will The Power end this series on a high note of praise from me...or will it fail to be powerful enough to get more than two stars? ...more |
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Oct 02, 2024
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Oct 07, 2024
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Dec 30, 2023
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| 0061067121
| 9780061067129
| 0061067121
| 3.79
| 17,551
| 1992
| 1992
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liked it
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For October, I decided to tackle books about witches. I found The Secret Circle series at HPB and decided to snatch it up. I knew that it had a TV adap For October, I decided to tackle books about witches. I found The Secret Circle series at HPB and decided to snatch it up. I knew that it had a TV adaptation on the CW at the beginning of the 2010s but never got around to watching it and of course, didn't blow up as big as TVD. The Secret Circle is basically The Craft and The Covenant's grandmother when it comes to books on witches in a teenage setting and boy witches too! I admit that it started out very slow but soon, the action picked up. Cassie Blake is on vacation with her mother during the summer before her junior year. One day on the beach, she sees a young man who seems to be shunned by all the other girls but he is very handsome. Cassie can't help but be friendly since he has a dog with him but she also isn't a snob yet she can't understand why the girl she is with, Portia, is acting so weird to him... Later, Cassie helps the young man hide from Portia's brothers who apparently want to beat him up and one of them has a gun! She lies to lead them away and one of the boys grabs Cassie's wrist a little too hard, bruising it, but they leave. The young man is grateful to Cassie and you can tell that there is a connection between them. He gives her a small stone that he says is for protection, kisses her wrist and then goes off into the dunes with his dog. The only thing Cassie learns is the dog's name is Raj from the young man himself but she can not get answers from Portia. That shock out of the way leads to another shock when Cassie gets home: she and her mother are not going back to California. They are moving up the shore to a small town in Massachusetts called New Salem where Cassie's maternal grandmother lives even though mother and daughter have been estranged for some time. Cassie isn't too thrilled to move into the old house and her grandmother is exactly like an old crone...the ugly witch in children's books. Despite that, Cassie soon finds that her grandmother is kind yet stern but that she has a love for growing herbs out in her garden that smell nice throughout her home. The biggest hurdle is the first day of school since Cassie doesn't know anyone but she has seen glimpses of a blonde girl who lives next door to her grandmother. In Cassie's first class, a young man talks to her nicely at first until another girl arrives to class. Her name is Faye and she flirts with the boy Jeffrey Lovejoy and he is clearly uncomfortable with her. When Faye is done, she notices Cassie and tells Jeffrey that Cassie lives on Crowhaven Road just like her. Jeffrey wants nothing to do with Cassie after that to her hurt and confusion. At lunch, Cassie can't face the crowd in the lunchroom so she goes to eat outside and finds herself trapped when Faye and two other girls eat nearby. Cassie learns their names are Deborah and Suzan at that all of them are seniors who have a lot of enemies like Jeffrey's girlfriend Sally. Sally has words with Faye and almost falls down...not as if she tripped but as if she were pushed but no one lays a hand on her. Cassie keeps the accident from being fatal by throwing herself at Sally but receives no gratitude in return and then finds herself on the bad side of Faye and her friends. Cassie finds a doll hung with a noose in her locker and telling the principal gets no results. No one sits next to Cassie at lunch the next day and soon other things pop up in Cassie's locker like a dead fish and a rubber snake in her backpack that Cassie swears was moving in class and hissing as if it were real... The next day, it is rotten meat and Cassie is then tricked into meeting up with Faye and her friends where they almost get ready to set her on fire...WTF!? Cassie is saved when the blonde girl from next door arrives and is upset at Faye and the two other girls...especially when she learns that Cassie is living with Mrs. Howard, her grandmother, on the same road. The girl is named Diana and she and Cassie form a bond of friendship and since they are only children, decide to be like sisters from now on. Being around Diana, people are nicer to Cassie and she meets Laurel and Melanie who are Diana's friends that stick to her like Deborah and Suzan do to Faye. Cassie learns that all six of the girls along with two boys named Sean and Nick, a set of twin brothers named Chris and Doug and Diana's currently away boyfriend Adam are all part of a special club. Cassie feels disappointed that she can't join but Diana tells her it doesn't mean they can't still be friends even though Chris and Doug's younger sister Kori seems to be the next member to join. Until Kori is found dead on the day of her sixteenth birthday party with a broken neck... Cassie soon learns that the teens she has gotten herself entangled with are witches and they needed one more to complete their coven, their secret circle, to increase their powers. Cassie is chosen and initiated since she is a descendant of witches like the others but it is clear that not all of the magic she has learned with crystals and herbs can compare with real power... There are things you pick up on right away in the story and as the first book in The Secret Circle series, it is a good starting point but can The Captive trump The Initiation? That's for next time... ...more |
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Sep 28, 2024
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Oct 05, 2024
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Dec 30, 2023
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| 133828195X
| 9781338281958
| 133828195X
| 3.86
| 1,374
| Sep 12, 2017
| Aug 28, 2018
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it was amazing
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Short and sweet that I am giving this five stars because Mean Girls is one of my favorite movies and probably in my Top 5 of all-time due to catchphra
Short and sweet that I am giving this five stars because Mean Girls is one of my favorite movies and probably in my Top 5 of all-time due to catchphrases and memes. The book version gives a little bit more inner thoughts of all the characters and it is good to see the story told from different sides other than that of Cady. Being told a story in first person makes the main character seem very judgmental but if you focus on a whole bunch of other teens, that actually works because... Teenagers are always judging you even if you happen to be an adult and vice versa actually. No one is innocent of a good burn now and then... If you are a fan of the movie, I recommend it and if you are not a fan of the film then Mean Girls as a book may be better suited to your taste. ...more |
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1
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Aug 19, 2024
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Aug 23, 2024
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Dec 17, 2023
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| 0606020764
| 9780606020763
| 0606020764
| 3.26
| 35
| 1992
| Jan 01, 1992
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it was amazing
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4.5 stars rounded up to 5 As of now, this is the only other Phantom Valley book I have. I have to say that I enjoyed The Spell slightly more than I did 4.5 stars rounded up to 5 As of now, this is the only other Phantom Valley book I have. I have to say that I enjoyed The Spell slightly more than I did Stranger In The Mirror. Again it isn't really stated how old the main characters are in these books but if I had to speculate based on cover art and details provided, I would say they were slightly older in this book. That helps with the bad things going on because it is far more terrifying when things happen to younger kids. Mikki Merrill is fourteen going on fifteen maybe and she is back for another year at Chilleen Academy which is a co-ed boarding school. She was hoping to room with her best friend Jenny Hollis but Mikki learned that Jenny and her family were moving all the way to Florida for her father's job. Mikki thinks she might be rooming alone but finds that she has a roommate who has taken the side of the room where Mikki usually has her things. She doesn't mind and takes Jenny's old side but it does become a big deal when Mikki finds out who her new roommate is...Diane Mason. Last year it was fine because Mikki and Jenny and Diane were The Three Musketeers and got along yet both Mikki and Jenny had a little more in common since they both took ballet. When it came time to choose roommates for the next year, Jenny told Mikki that Diane wanted to have a single room to herself instead of having a roommate. That was fine but then Diane started treating both of them nastily and they stopped talking to Diane. It seems headmistress Mrs. Danita doesn't want anyone to have a single room if they can have people double up and isn't big on switching rooms so here is Mikki with the last person she thought would be sharing a room with her. They seem to be complete opposites as Mikki dresses casually, has mousy and frizzy hair and is very much into ballet and reading. Diane is a blonde, popular, social butterfly who prides herself on being fashionable. When it seems Diane just might actually be nice to Mikki or be open to Mikki sort of offering an olive branch, her comments are snide and backhanded insults. They avoid each other as much as possible with Mikki's ballet class and dance rehearsal taking up most of her time. When it comes time for work study jobs to be handed out, Mikki learns she has been assigned to read to an old woman in the nearby trailer park by request because the woman, Hazel Wembley, is so nearsighted she is almost blind. Mikki finds Mrs. Wembley to be quite the character but in a good way. She listens to music like R.E.M. and Guns n Roses and dresses in bright colors, enjoys books about vampires in rock bands, can speak more than a few different languages and has tons of pictures to have lived such a fascinating life. Then of course there are the vials of powders in the cupboard and the big old pot filled with unusual liquid she boils on the stove and the strange cat... Mikki is a little slow to realize that this woman is a witch but the clues are all there for us readers and the back of the book a little too. Despite being a strange place, Phantom Valley, did you really think that Chilleen Academy would just have spellbooks in the library on their shelves for students to check out? The day that Mikki enters her room to find Diane reading her personal diary aloud to all of her friends is the last she can take of the girl and her mean-spirited ways. She unloads her tears to Mrs. Wembley and the older woman says that she has the perfect spell to knock Diane down a few pegs. Mikki doesn't want to hurt Diane...she only wants to get back at her humiliating Mikki in front of her friends who happen to be some of the most popular girls in school. Mrs. Wembley promises that it won't be anything permanent but just enough to wound a girl who is so vain about her appearance and judge the way others look. Mikki agrees and is given instructions that she must perform to the letter in order for the spell to work. Once the spell is cast, it will last for 24 hours and be enough to finally get back at Diane for the way she has treated Mikki. The next day, Mikki finds that nothing has happened to Diane the way Mrs. Wembley said it would and she is a little disappointed. The old woman waves it off, saying that magic can be unpredictable, and they can try again after some time has passed. Mikki is sure she did everything right because why would she have felt her body tingling and having the spell wear her out to sleep so late if it didn't work right? Poor naive and trusting Mikki, you can't help but feel sorry for her despite the realization that the spell she cast will bring her more harm than good... Even as a much older woman and not a teenage girl, I can still relate to Mikki's motivations and her personality of just being a nice person. There are a few subtle hints that Mrs. Wembley is not a very nice witch but you really are shocked when the truth is revealed because she just seems like a cool old lady. The tone of this story is so much darker than the previous book and there is more at stake. It has nothing glossed over with some silly little B plot and leads to some actual character growth. The climax is insanely intense and nerve-racking that you have to breathe an actual sigh of relief when it is over. The ending has a little bit of humor but just enough to balance out all of the terrifying suspense and provide an uplifting resolution. The Spell is just the right tone to grab the attention of a Fear Street reader if you want them to pay a visit to Phantom Valley and I hope I can travel back again to this series in 2024. ...more |
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Dec 15, 2023
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Dec 18, 2023
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Dec 15, 2023
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| 059020372X
| 9780590203722
| 059020372X
| 3.19
| 95
| Jan 01, 1994
| Feb 1995
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liked it
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Rounded up to 3 stars from 2.5 for GR. I am trying to find the distinction as to what makes this a Point Crime instead of a Point Horror/Thriller becau Rounded up to 3 stars from 2.5 for GR. I am trying to find the distinction as to what makes this a Point Crime instead of a Point Horror/Thriller because it reads like a Point Horror. Most of these authors for the "Crime" brand are UK authors but I am assuming that since there are little paranormal elements that is why it is in a different "series" but most Point Horror books didn't have any either so I am confused. The back of this book is giving off a whole different vibe too. Main character Sadie Ross is not as completely alone as you would think. Yes, her mother is dead and her boyfriend David went off to college but she lives with her dad, stepmother and stepsister. Stepmom Melanie is trying to be kind to Sadie but she is seventeen and not having it. Melanie's daughter Eleanor is in contrast because she is a full-on wicked stepsister towards Sadie with borrowing her clothes, putting her down with both mental and physical taunting as well as reading her diary. Eleanor also tries to give Sadie a dead blackbird because the day Sadie's mom had a heart attack, there were birds around. Birds make appearances in Sadie's nightmares due to her guilt over a silly fight they had that day. Things don't get much better when school starts back up because Eleanor is now going to Sadie's school after the summer wedding. Sadie already has an awful classmate named Tracey to deal with as she picks on all the uncool kids...her other newest target is Martin Kemp. Martin shot and killed a bunch of cats and kittens with an air rifle so he had to be sent to therapy...and his doctor just happens to be Tracey's dad. She sneaks into her father's office and looks through his CONFIDENTIAL files on his patients even if it is common knowledge to everyone that Martin is not exactly a popular person. The company he keeps doesn't help because the Cope brothers, Maurice and Stephen, are known town punks but a quiet and longing for acceptance type like Martin has little options. Martin gets some help from Sadie and kind words against Tracey's bullying so he helps out when Eleanor has decided to make copies of Sadie's diary and plaster them all over school by tearing as many down as possible. The only thing that has Sadie from being completely miserable is just going to the cemetery to visit her mother to get out of the house. One day while bring flowers, Sadie meets a young man who is visiting his own mother's grave right next to that of her own mom. He introduces himself as Tony Stern and Sadie can't help but notice how good looking he is and that they share a common thread. Soon, Sadie is sent to see a psychiatrist because Melanie and her father think she is depressed too long after her mother's death but it doesn't help that Eleanor is making Sadie's life worse. Eleanor has told Maurice Cope that Sadie is hot for him so he is harassing her and sweet Martin Kemp can't help but be in love with a girl finally showing him kindness. One day looking at the paper, Sadie sees an ad near the personal column that asks if Sadie Ross would want to meet Tony Stern, the boy from the cemetery. Shocked at first, Sadie writes him a reply but comes across him in person once again at their mothers' graves to tell Tony she was accepting. Mostly there is all of this normal teen drama going on before people around Sadie start dying and creepy messages appear in the paper. There are plenty of red herrings when David comes back to town after quitting college and we learn that Tony's great-grandfather was a madman named Daniel Cross that killed everyone in his family except for Tony's grandmother as a baby hidden by the maid before getting axed to death. Everyone in this book is some degree of unhinged and once we get to the final act of the story, the pool of culprits get smaller and do lead to one banger of an ending I will admit. The only thing that could have made it better is if some loose plot threads had been tied up but they just...end. Kiss of Death didn't live up to its name as being completely awful but it didn't get really good until we got to the last 60 pages. More like a Kiss of Disappointment... ...more |
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Jun 12, 2024
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Jun 15, 2024
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Dec 09, 2023
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Paperback
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| 0440207290
| 9780440207290
| 0440207290
| 3.70
| 5,436
| 1989
| 2010
|
liked it
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I am not one of those readers who like having my books updated. My edition is a 2010 reprint and even though Duncan did the changes herself, it was at I am not one of those readers who like having my books updated. My edition is a 2010 reprint and even though Duncan did the changes herself, it was at the publisher's idea. I want the 1989 version and if I ever come across it, I will get it. With that out of the way, I do find the Q&A with Duncan about this book enjoyable yet slightly eerie since this was the book she wrote before her daughter was murdered... Besides the aforementioned points, Don't Look Behind You is actually just...okay. April Corrigan's life is turned upside down because her father is testifying against his boss who was dealing drugs, specifically cocaine, using his airline. The drug dealers send a hitman to kill anyone who could ruin their lucrative business. April is a junior going with popular senior Steve and it is about to be his prom and graduation so that is what any seventeen year old cares about more than anything. Must be nice to have those things, be beautiful with long, Rapunzel blonde hair and being able to play tennis like a pro... I say all that with bitter sarcasm because I understand her little brother Bram being more upset about not being able to take the family dog with them when they have to leave right after bullets fly in the courtroom. April's mother is a children's book author and isn't too happy to not being able to send anything off to her publisher. The reason they are in this mess to begin with is that April's dad's best bud Max works for the CIA and got her father wanting to be James Bond. It also doesn't help that April's maternal grandmother Lorelai is a social butterfly even at her age though she is a natural blonde and younger than her appearance. Coming from a well to do family and then you end up marrying the guy who sells you skis at the mall isn't exactly the life envisioned for their daughter... They can not tell anyone where they are going and Max assigns them a bodyguard named Jim to stay with April, her mom and little brother until they can get details setup with April's dad and the Witness Protection Program for a more permanent situation. Guess who puts all of that in jeopardy after being cooped up in a nice hotel with room service? It is a mistake that is fatal to one of the characters in this book I actually like... Relocated to a small town in Florida, the Corrigan family become the Weber family and April is now Valerie, a name she hates because it is the name of the girl Steve was dating the night they met. It also goes without saying that they had to hack all of her recognizable hair off and give her a pixie cut so April is not pleased. In such a mood, she tells her real name to the gabby teenager named Abby sitting by her on the plane but says her last name is "Gross"...get it. Again I feel bad more for her little brother because he has to wear contact lenses just because he has the genetic luck to have each eye a different color. I have worn costume ones before...they hurt so glasses for my actual bad eyesight. The only time I do feel bad for April is when the teens she meets aren't exactly the nicest. A girl named Kim seems cool but her cousin Larry is an egotistical jerk and some girls who join them for a movie night do some gossiping in the bathroom at the theater. April hears the girls knock down her hair and address and her father's new "job" working at a photo-mat having them be dirty poor...in a tiny town in Florida. Just because it is clear Larry wants the new girl...and she has to start going to high school with these kids in the fall? The only nice thing is that the family can go to Disney World which April's dad suggests as a way to make their situation somewhat better. April's parents have been fighting lately and her mother is drinking screwdrivers with the good old Florida orange juice and a lot of vodka. That fun day doesn't last long when someone from April's old school back in Virginia just happens to be vacationing there and delivers news that it devastating to any teenage girl. Yet not as important as a hitman for a drug cartel going after your family and killing people but it leads April to another bad decision which surprisingly amps up some of the suspense to an otherwise boring story. At least, the family do eventually get their dog back. A golden Cocker Spaniel so fat his name is Porky...chonky fur baby! My interest in the story soon drags so much I'm just trying to keep an eye out to make sure that the DOG doesn't become collateral damage. The one spoiler I will give...PORKY LIVES!! Yay for good boys!! Also, the ending is pretty okay as well just for the fact that April has gone through some character development finally and her family gets some much needed healing. Don't Look Behind You isn't exactly my favorite Lois Duncan book but in hindsight perhaps...there is a reason. If you haven't read this one, I'd check it out for curiosity but a first edition paperback if you can get your hands on it or at least any printing before 2010... ...more |
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Aug 23, 2024
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Aug 27, 2024
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Nov 03, 2023
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Paperback
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| 0425139700
| 0425139700
| 3.59
| 34
| Oct 1993
| Oct 1993
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really liked it
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Rounded up to 4 stars from 3.5 for GR. It is pretty easy to tell what some of the plot elements are going to be as the story continues but I still thin Rounded up to 4 stars from 3.5 for GR. It is pretty easy to tell what some of the plot elements are going to be as the story continues but I still think that The New Kid was an interesting book to read. Starts off innocuous enough with Nan Easterly being the new kid in school, starting at Central Academy sophomore year. She has only made one friend, a girl named Debbie Stark, who lives on the nicer side of town while Nan's family lives in Pitney Docks and is looking for that morning of the first day at school. Before Debbie shows up before assembly, Nan is being checked out by a cute boy her age and he seems very eager to get to know Nan. He introduces himself as Jimmy Chambers but Nan is either too distracted looking for Debbie or just not interested until another girl glomps on to Jimmy. The girl is named Ginger and she pulls Jimmy away just before Debbie shows up. Nan finds Jimmy staring at her all during the assembly with Ginger none too pleased and Debbie gives Nan her thumbs up at attracting such a hunky boy's attention. We go from Nan's first day to following a young man who has amnesia of some sort. He can't remember anything but he has a look in his brown eyes that is troubled, a painful bruise on his forehead, grubby clothes but nice boots on his feet and a wad of cash in his pockets. Two highway patrol officers find him sleeping by the side of the road and take him in. The run prints on him but find nothing and send him on his way but tell him not to hang around here. The boy uses his money to buy a bus ticket to Port City. When we go back to Nan, we find her day going from OK to good to awful by lunch time. Debbie tells Nan she has History with Jimmy and all he did was ask about Nan, bringing a smile to her face. It fades into nervousness when Jimmy sits down with both girls to have lunch but it turns quick to unease when Ginger arrives, not happy. Despite both Jimmy and Debbie telling Ginger to get lost, Nan tries to be nice about it and gets a tray of hot food dumped on her by Ginger. Debbie sticks up for her friend and goes to jumping on Ginger and getting into a cat fight. This leads all four of them to wait outside the assistant principal's office and be seen in order to find out the story. All of them get off with a warning but Ginger is clearly still out to get Nan as she heads to her next class...one that she and Nan both share in Gym. Luckily, the day is over and Nan decides that she needs to go for a walk to the bridge. Nan was supposed to meet Debbie out front but decides not to and then Jimmy meets her instead, obviously waiting for her. Nan soon comes to realize that Jimmy has a motorcycle and can drive her down to the bridge and he more than happily agrees. As they get closer, Nan starts to feel sick but she knows she has to go down to the bridge... It so happens that the boy with no memory has arrived in Port City and is underneath that same bridge because he knows that the girl will be there. The one with the hazel eyes and the pretty face...the girl he doesn't know but yet she can save him. The moment Nan takes the boy's hand she feels a connection to Sam, finally revealing his name, but does not know it could be a dangerous one... The back of the book spoils some of the plot but the reveal and twist are not exactly subtle either but it doesn't make The New Kid a snooze to read. The climax is fraught with emotion and leads to an ending that is well deserved and not just a tacked on schmaltzy one. ...more |
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Jun 14, 2024
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Jun 16, 2024
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Oct 13, 2023
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Mass Market Paperback
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| 0743400283
| 9780743400282
| 0743400283
| 3.96
| 3,628
| Oct 01, 2000
| Oct 01, 2000
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it was amazing
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4.5 rounded up to 5 You can always find some good deals in the clearance section of a Half Price Books. Now they aren't originals but the omnibus collec 4.5 rounded up to 5 You can always find some good deals in the clearance section of a Half Price Books. Now they aren't originals but the omnibus collections of all the books in Elizabeth Chandler's Dark Secrets series. Having enjoyed the Kissed By An Angel trilogy when I saw but honestly can't remember if it was the first or second volume on the shelf at HPB...I had to have it. I soon ordered the other one off of Amazon because I just can't have a series incomplete unless it just isn't meant to be. These books were originally written and published in the early 2000s from 2000 to 2003 but again...I seem to have missed a lot of good books back in the day when I was still in school. The stories all seem to be connected to a small town in Maryland called Wisteria on the shore of the Chesapeake Bay but since I have only read this first one I do not know if there will be any recurring characters or even references to each book. This one focuses on Megan Tilby. Both of her parents are from Maryland but her mother Carolyn was sort of disowned by Megan's grandmother when she decided to marry an African American man that she met at college. They moved to the other side of the country to reside in Tucson, Arizona and had to adopt children which is how Megan and her two little brothers Dave and Pete became part of the family. For sixteen years, Megan didn't know anything about her maternal family until a letter arrived from her grandmother Helen asking Megan to come to the family home in Maryland. Despite being ignored, Megan's dad convinced her to go. Megan arrives at the airport and is picked up by a woman named Ginny who was her mother's best friend instead of her grandmother. Ginny is a very nice lady who runs a thrift store in Wisteria and from what Megan gathers, her grandmother is not one of the most loved citizens. Once in the town limits, a red Jeep almost runs into the car with Ginny and Megan. It is full of teenagers and Megan is shocked to learn from Ginny that the boy driving...is her cousin. It is going to be brought up a lot so I guess I should say adopted cousin. Matt's father Paul is the brother of Megan's mother Carolyn and he is staying with his grandmother after a messy divorce between his parents. Ginny drops Megan off at Scarborough House where Matt and her grandmother live and it looks like pictures that Megan has seen but also just like the house...in her dreams. It belonged to Helen's family and was passed on to her and her husband Thomas Barnes as an inheritance. Megan first meets Nancy, the woman who comes to cook and clean three days a week for her grandmother, and she is not the nicest of people. This is going to be quite a trend for awhile as Ginny is the only person who has made a good impression on Megan so far. It's sad but true that sometimes strangers are easier to get along with than family... Helen Barnes is a strict woman and very old-fashioned in hers ways. No pictures on the walls of family and the Ten Commandments hanging by the mirror in Megan's room...charming woman. When Megan can hear Matt's Jeep pulling in, she heads downstairs and hears a conversation between her grandmother and cousin. Helen is quiet but Matt is clearly not happy that Megan is here and she finds his back to her when she enters the library, pretending not to notice Megan. Megan plays the game too and pretends that she didn't see Matt and asks Helen about her cousin. When it is clear that her grandmother is amused by their acrimony towards each other, Megan stops and crosses over to Matt and out right asks him if he is a snob. I love Megan and wish I could have had that much spunk to talk to someone and speak exactly what was on my mind at sixteen... When Matt turns around, however, Megan can't help but notice that he isn't just cute but handsome with deep eyes like a river. I mean Megan is adopted so they aren't blood relations...so it isn't as if we have a Flowers In The Attic thing going on despite a grim grandmother. Megan goes for a walk along the property and finds herself at the family cemetery where she finds the grave of her grandfather, Thomas Barnes. Beside it is a beautiful grave marker showing the name of Avril Scarborough and the dates indicate she died when she was only sixteen years old. It gives Megan eerie chills and she leaves to back to the house for dinner at six sharp. Matt continues to ignore Megan and she finds that the food prepared for dinner is just as dismal as the prayer before hand. Very salty ham, biscuits hard as rocks and cream of oyster soup that sounds as if they were served raw even though Matt assures her they aren't. Megan only finds the green beans acceptable to eat and it has Helen presuming that her parents have raised her as a vegetarian in comments to Matt as if Megan were not there. Dinner is awkward and Matt leaves to go to a movie with some friends and doesn't bother to invite Megan though she tries her best to get him to be a little bit nicer. After cleaning the dishes up, Megan goes to read in her room because joining her grandmother in the library would yield no conversation. Not to mention that Megan brought a Gothic romance book with her that her grandmother might assume it is a smutty bodice ripper with the heroine on the cover... Around midnight, Megan wakes up from a dream about the house and playing with a look-alike miniature dollhouse in every detail of Scarborough House and decides to explore just as Matt returns home. They avoid each other but Megan finds Matt in her grandmother's library going through drawers of her personal things. Grandmother told her to respect her privacy so why is Matt breaking one of the rules Megan has to follow? That next morning, Matt goes for a Saturday morning run and blows off Megan joining him. She also strikes out on going shopping in town with her grandmother as Helen states she only deals with the "riffraff" there if necessary. Megan stops at Ginny's store and finds her short-handed so she offers to help out since she knows how to run a register and Ginny is grateful. One of the ladies in the store doesn't know Megan is related to Helen Barnes and thinking she is a newcomer mentions that Scarborough House is haunted by a ghost...the ghost of Avril Scarborough. Murdered but the family claims it was an accident. While working, Megan notices the three girls that were with Matt and another boy in his Jeep yesterday afternoon and learns that they were also the girls he went to the movie with last night. Matt is flirty and charming with the girls and it is the first time that Megan has seen Matt smile or be charming to anyone. Matt does all of this with the guy from yesterday and two other boys and not noticing that Megan is working at the shop where the girls are shopping. It clearly annoys Megan but must also hurt like pouring salt on an open wound since she can't help but be attracted to him yet Megan has also tried her hardest to be as nice to Matt as possible. So can't blame her...when Matt does notice Megan and they trade acidic barbs back and forth at each other in front of the group. One of the boys, Matt's friend named Alex Rodowsky, is clearly infatuated with Megan giving lip to Matt while he is clearly not amused at all. Once they all leave, Megan makes friends with a girl that was looking at a necklace in the shop and tried it on at Megan's urging but can't afford it. Her name is Sophie Quinn and she seems to have a crush on Matt but is more amazed that Matt is Megan's cousin. Not in a get close to the cute boy let's be friends kind of way either so I like Sophie too... The man who runs the bakery next door where Megan grabs some lunch, a man named Jamie Riley, is also amazed that Megan is Carolyn's daughter as he grew up with her and Megan's father, Kent Tilby. His mother use to work for the Scarborough family and live in their house and wants to introduce her to Megan. Mrs. Riley also happens to be a fortune teller but the minute she comes downstairs and sets eyes on Megan...she refuses to read her to both Megan and Jamie's confusion. The next morning, Helen's antagonistic comments about the difference between Megan's grades in school being superior to Matt's are interrupted when her Bible in the kitchen goes missing. She goes into serious anger mode and accuses Megan of taking it while only subtly thinking Matt may have taken it as well. Megan quips that it might have been the ghost of Avril Scarborough she has heard about in town and Helen goes even farther up the scale of anger at the name before heading to her bedroom and locking the door. Matt doesn't appreciate Megan upsetting his grandmother because Avril was her sister and Megan can't help but be confused as to why Matt would defend her after all of her negative comments about him. As if she were trying to form a wedge between them but why would Helen be trying so hard when it is clear that Matt absolutely loathes her...wishing she never came to Wisteria? What follows is an amazing tale and to tell anymore would rob you of the privilege of finding out the truth in a Legacy of Lies for yourself... ...more |
Notes are private!
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Mar 22, 2024
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Mar 25, 2024
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Oct 01, 2023
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| B0CJ5WN1XX
| 4.39
| 298
| unknown
| Sep 14, 2023
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it was amazing
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I've been subscribed and following Cameron Chaney on many platforms for awhile because he is a booktuber who specializes in horror literature. All typ
I've been subscribed and following Cameron Chaney on many platforms for awhile because he is a booktuber who specializes in horror literature. All types for readers just starting out to those who have a love for the teen and YA horror that boomed in the 1990s and end up reading the books that are twisted and gory. Waiting patiently until my funds would allow, I was finally able to get a hold of Fresh Hell, the first book in what is to be a continuing series Autumncrow High. A small, fictional town that first appeared in his short story collection of Autumncrow (which I will be reading soon...) where it is a town that has Halloween and horror going hand in hand like chocolate and peanut butter. We are all familiar with towns with dark secrets: King's Derry and Stine's Shadyside. Autumncrow is no different and Cameron provides vivid details of every shop you can recognize if you come from small towns but also very less idyllic descriptions of the blood and gore and all of the creatures and things from our worst nightmares. Bailey Hagen is having those nightmares of being accosted by a dark presence where her body becomes bloody and battered and broken as she falls from the skies to the ground of her hometown. It soon takes form of a handsome boy with dark hair and icy eyes dressed in the letterman jacket of Autumncrow High School in its burnt orange and black colors. He controls Bailey like a puppet and menaces her with words of doom as she can hear cries of help from disembodied voices wanting to pull her down into the depths of Hell. She has had them all summer before her final year in high school and it weaves in with the disappearance of her father. Felix Hagen's van was abandoned with a bloody windshield and enough damage that the police don't believe anyone could have survived...including her own brother who is the town deputy. Bailey and her mother both work to support their family because Bailey has a younger sister, Rae, to support. Working long hours and having no time to rest with these awful dreams, Bailey starts looking like a zombie but she can always count on her best friend, Melody Krieger. Melody helps Bailey with her hair and make-up as well as brilliant teen snarkiness that can at least put a smile on Bailey's face. Best friends since they were little, the two girls are always there for each other even in the face of boyfriends and third wheels. Melody is still wearing the letterman jacket of her ex-boyfriend Tommy Burke after their break-up where he dumped her and Bailey knows that she wants to get back together with Tommy because Melody was so in love that she and Bailey kind of drifted a bit. Tommy has moved on...so can Melody even if she is more concerned with finding Bailey a boyfriend instead. That morning at the local coffee shop where Bailey works and the girls stop there for a caffeine pick me up for the first day back, a young man politely holds the door open as they leave. It is the boy from Bailey's nightmares! Struck into shock most of the day, Bailey and Melody head to lunch only to find the same boy joining them at their lunch table! He has the same handsome looks and dark hair but his eyes are a much more neutral brown and he is humble and not so threatening. He introduces himself as Dennis with no last name at first. It is very clear that Melody is smitten by his good looks and charm but Bailey can't help but be creeped out by his looks to the human monster in her dreams. Dennis then explains that he and his mother came to town to take care of matters after the death of his estranged father, the recently deceased janitor Mr. Greendale. By all accounts, not a nice guy but Melody and Bailey give Dennis the benefit of the doubt as Bailey has the disappearance of her dad and Melody lost her beloved grandmother so they understand. Despite being a little aloof but completely normal, Bailey is wary of Dennis despite Melody falling head over heels to show him about town. It also appears that Tommy, who has been watching them, isn't thrilled to have the new boy flirting with his ex even while another girl is nibbling on his ear in public. Bailey skips out on going with Melody and Dennis for sight-seeing with an excuse and the next morning, finds her best friend and the new boy kissing at Melody's locker. It isn't the first shock of the day when Bailey's brother Dalton shows up to arrest Tommy Burke for apparently breaking into the school last night. Tommy and Dennis get into a fight where Dennis runs off and Bailey watches her brother drag Tommy off school property, a look in Tommy's eyes silently begging her for help. This is different from the Tommy that decided to man-handle Melody yesterday on her way home from school with Bailey before her later night date with Dennis. Yesterday it was a big dumb jock jumping off his motorcycle like a neanderthal fueled by jealousy but today...scared out of his wits. Later that night, Bailey leaves work early at a kind co-worker's behest to witness Melody and Dennis driving toward the high school. Following them, Bailey soon learns from Melody that Dennis has been acting strange all day after his fight with Tommy and now has dragged her back to the school. He soon comes back with a strange smile on his face and an old Autumncrow High letterman jacket wrapped about him...and stained on the sleeves is dried blood. Dropping Bailey off at her house, the teens see Mrs. Hagen rush out of the house. She isn't happy that her oldest daughter was supposed to be picking her younger daughter up at her friend's house if she said she was coming home from work. That comes to a halt when Bailey's mom notices Dennis and then looks as if someone has just walked over her grave... What follows next are pages filled with ghastly images and back story of what seems a normal town yet is in the grips of terror that is bubbling up from the roots of the past to threaten its future. It soon becomes a sort of coming of age tale that focuses on the love between friends and family in the face of an ancient terror...showing the things we must sacrifice. Fresh Hell leaves us in an ending that is clearly gearing up for something more than just the normal teen fare of crazy psychopaths hacking up teenagers even if that is present...and appreciated. You wouldn't expect anything less from someone as well spoken as Cameron Chaney or as well read in horror if you have seen his videos of all the books in his personal library macabre!! ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Mar 13, 2024
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Mar 15, 2024
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Sep 16, 2023
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Kindle Edition
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| 038072703X
| 9780380727032
| 038072703X
| 3.77
| 3,910
| Apr 24, 1995
| Mar 01, 1997
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it was amazing
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This book is a complete 180 from Wait Till Helen Comes in the direction of audience. The earlier book is more of a gateway to horror in that Gothic gho This book is a complete 180 from Wait Till Helen Comes in the direction of audience. The earlier book is more of a gateway to horror in that Gothic ghost story for younger readers but this one is more on the border of jumping into Stephen King and Anne Rice with the creepy factor. It starts off the way you might expect a paranormal romance for older teenage girls to go but this was written in 1995...it is nothing like Twilight so don't expect that. For awhile it is a slow burn of teenage drama. Cynda's dad ran off with one of his literature class students when she was six. I assume the girl Susan was at least eighteen as a senior in high school or college hopefully because they end up getting married and moving to Maine. Of course they do... Cynda is living with her mother in Maryland and not long after her dad gets remarried, her mother meets and marries Steve, a Navy man. They move all over the place and when Cynda is sixteen, the new plan is Italy for three years. Cynda refuses to go and throws a tantrum enough to have her divorced parents talk for the first time in years about Cynda staying with her father. I have never lived in a military family or any family where we had to pack up and leave so I assume it might be hard to adjust in making friends. Personally, a part of me would have loved to live in different places. I had a hard time making friends anyway so getting to meet new people and live in beautiful places like anywhere in Italy would have been fine with me. Cynda is now set to live with her dad for six months as a trial of sorts. Her father is a mystery writer and he and Susan have recently bought an inn that is popular with tourists in the summer months but right now, it is Blizzard Weather. The other thing is that Cynda has a five year old half-brother named Todd that she has never met. Delays on flights and then Cynda's dad Jeff shows up at the airport to pick her up and they head back to the seaside little town of Ferrington. Before heading home, they stop for food and coffee to warm up a bit and talk for the first time in years. It is an understatement to say it is awkward but the waitress at the diner named Gina adds a little bit of fuel to the fire but not really in a bad way. The Underhill Inn that Jeff Bennett and his wife run is very old and said to be haunted according to a mutual acquaintance, an older woman named Martha Bigelow who helps Susan out with the cleaning. Cynda's dad doesn't believe in the supernatural but she grows curious about the story once she sees the old house. Susan and Todd are happy to meet Cynda and Todd takes an instant liking to her but Cynda is a little aloof but not unkind noticing the attention her dad and Susan give to him. Also the fact that Susan is clearly pregnant with another child...just another person to fight with in getting attention. This book is told from Cynda's point of view and it makes her seem a tad more immature than sixteen but in a way, I both understand Cynda and find her whiny at the same time. Due to the weather, Cynda will be getting home tutoring since it is an hour drive to the nearest high school. As someone who lives in a small town where you have to drive forty-five minutes for movies, it sounds fine with me and Cynda will finish her junior year without any problems. Cynda meets Martha Bigelow when she comes over to clean the house and after letting her get most of her cleaning done, she goes to ask the old woman about the inn being haunted. Martha says that sixty years ago, a young woman who lived at the inn disappeared after being seen walking with a man along the cliffs of the nearby beach. Her body was found three days later in the sea, white and empty of blood, and Martha says they never found the man who had to have been her killer. Her ghost is said to haunt the inn and the grounds because her murderer was never brought to justice and it is her unfinished business. Despite learning such awful history of where she is staying, Cynda gets one bright spot when Martha's grandson arrives to pick her up. His name is Will and even though he isn't movie star handsome, Cynda notices he is nice-looking and that Todd absolutely adores him. Will is also a little bit shy around Cynda but very polite and that he humors Todd the way her father and Susan do. The next day, Will comes over to shovel the three feet of snow dumped around the hotel so that humans can make it out if they have to. After he is finished, Todd and Cynda spend the day making snow angels and a snowman with Will outside to give their father a break from the two bickering like well...brother and sister. It is a nice scene to show that Cynda doesn't completely dislike her half-brother. All of this changes that night... The roads now clear to the inn, a stranger arrives requesting a room. Cynda is immediately charmed by the handsome stranger with his devastating good looks and distinguished voice but it is clear that he is at least ten to fifteen years older than sixteen year old Cynda. Again, can relate with liking older men but yeah...this can't be a good sign of things to come. He introduces himself as Vincent Morthanos and he makes a good impression on everyone in the house all except for Todd and the family's black cat, Ebony. Vincent tells Cynda's dad that he plans to stay for at least a month to get his own poetry writing done and that night, Cynda dreams about the two of them kissing. Soon those dreams become a reality as Vincent soon has Cynda meeting him at night with sweet words and powerful kisses, swearing her to secrecy so that her father doesn't find out. The following weekend, Will comes back to the inn and he ends up meeting Vincent to Cynda's chagrin. It is clear that Will is jealous of Vincent but also very wary of him just as much as Todd and the cat even though Vincent praises the pictures he has seen that Will has drawn for Todd. Will has a real talent for art but apparently a poet like Vincent trumps an artist like Will because of his dark looks but really? Comparing a thirty year old man to a sixteen year old boy is comparing apples to oranges yet this is also the way stories like these go...who is the naive girl going to choose? The man who clearly isn't good for her or the boy that could be perfect if not eclipsed by a tall, dark and handsome stranger? A man of the world compared to a boy who lives in a small New England town? The late night clandestine meetings are exciting at first but then there is tension between the family within the house as Todd is afraid of Vincent and his behavior becomes even more whiny and bratty that Cynda begins to despise her entire family. When it seems Vincent is the only one to care for her, Cynda realizes too late that all of this has been a deadly game... It gets more suspenseful and creepy and disturbing with everything that happens next. I am a big fan of swoony, romantic vampires but it is refreshing to find a book where the vampire is actually a real threat and menace too. Look For Me By Moonlight is in the, pun intended, vein of the way vampires were written by Bram Stoker so if romance is what you want in your vampires...this won't suit your tastes. Yet if you want a book that will leave you with chills and thrills every minute up until the final page, this choice is more than perfect. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Mar 06, 2024
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Mar 08, 2024
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Aug 25, 2023
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Paperback
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| 0671891472
| 9780671891473
| 0671891472
| 3.83
| 2,691
| Sep 01, 1995
| Sep 01, 1995
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it was amazing
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Spoilers for the second book for sure in this final book of the trilogy. It is now senior year for Ivy Lyons after the tragic summer of losing her boyf Spoilers for the second book for sure in this final book of the trilogy. It is now senior year for Ivy Lyons after the tragic summer of losing her boyfriend and love of her life, Tristan Carruthers. Ivy doesn't know that the car accident wasn't deliberate or that Tristan has been her guardian angel, keeping watch over her. The only thing that Ivy knows is that she was almost killed by a train but she doesn't remember how she got out to the tracks. Everyone around Ivy says that she tried to kill herself to be with Tristan and the doctors even found drugs in her system that prove she wasn't in her right mind. Her brother Philip says that Ivy was saved in time by Tristan being there with him and that he saved her because he has been her guardian angel. Ivy use to believe in angels after believing one saved her from drowning as a child but lost faith when Tristan died, giving all of her angel statues to her little brother. Ivy and her stepbrother Gregory Baines have been telling Philip not to talk about angels but Ivy knows that her nine year old brother couldn't have saved her all by himself yet that night is as much a blur as the one with the car and the deer but pieces have been falling into place in disturbing nightmares. Tristan and his angel guide, Lacey Lovitt, do know that Gregory was the one to slip the unknown pill in Ivy's tea but for a reason why, they are stumped. Along with Philip, they do know that someone dressed up as Tristan in a similar baseball hat and jacket was on the other side of the train tracks, taunting Ivy to jump in front of the train. When Ivy has another nightmare and wakes up to Gregory offering her another cup of hot tea like that night, it finally pushes Ivy to remember that she did indeed see a glowing light surrounding her and Philip as if catching them. Ivy reaches out and Tristan is finally able to speak with Ivy once again. Suzanne, Ivy's best friend and Gregory's on and off again girlfriend, and Gregory catch Ivy on the high dive at the pool and believe it is another suicide attempt when she says she can see Tristan. The two of them have Gregory's friend, Will, take Ivy home to have him watch her until her mother gets home. On the drive, Ivy learns that Will and her other best friend Beth have been hearing Tristan for some time with Beth writing out Tristan's thoughts and Will being pretty much a host to Tristan's spirit with his own body. Once home, and alone, Ivy and Tristan connect once more and he must give Ivy the terrible information he has uncovered about the accident and how he believes Gregory is responsible. Ivy knows that she can't act any different around her stepbrother after Gregory has been playing his cat and mouse seduction game with her all summer and not just for her own sake but because Suzanne is so over the moon about Gregory. Suzanne is jealous of the attention Gregory has been showing Ivy all summer and Ivy can't stand the thought of losing her best friend since childhood...not after losing Tristan. What follows in the conclusion to this saga is a terrifyingly dark turn even from the second book's events with more tragedy and revelations as we make our way into the final act. You'll find yourself second guessing about some characters and in the end, it really is bittersweet because you know that well...Tristan is dead and he isn't coming back to life. The motivation for what set everything into motion is a normal one out of the sin factor as a contrast to the angelic elements of belief and faith and love. Greed, envy, wrath and lust all in one person and there is no denying who the true evil is once you read the ending to the previous book. At its conclusion, Soulmates does indeed have a happy ending and one that is well deserved. I know that there is indeed another trilogy that continues where this one left off but until my curiosity gets the best of me or I happen to find these other books out in the wild, the original Kissed By An Angel trilogy is a truly beautiful and at times, frightening, read worthy of any bookshelf IMHO. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Feb 06, 2024
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Feb 09, 2024
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Aug 06, 2023
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| 2.82
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liked it
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Aug 31, 2024
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Aug 28, 2024
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| 2.82
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liked it
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Aug 24, 2024
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Aug 21, 2024
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| 3.86
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really liked it
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Aug 17, 2024
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Aug 15, 2024
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| 3.49
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it was amazing
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Jul 29, 2024
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May 18, 2024
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| 3.44
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really liked it
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Jul 25, 2024
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May 01, 2024
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| 4.10
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really liked it
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Apr 2024
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Dec 30, 2023
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| 4.11
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it was amazing
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Mar 30, 2024
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Dec 30, 2023
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| 4.08
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it was amazing
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Mar 28, 2024
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Dec 30, 2023
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| 3.96
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not set
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Dec 30, 2023
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| 3.87
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really liked it
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Oct 07, 2024
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Dec 30, 2023
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| 3.79
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liked it
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Oct 05, 2024
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Dec 30, 2023
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| 3.86
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it was amazing
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Aug 23, 2024
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Dec 17, 2023
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| 3.26
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it was amazing
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Dec 18, 2023
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Dec 15, 2023
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| 3.19
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liked it
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Jun 15, 2024
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Dec 09, 2023
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| 3.70
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liked it
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Aug 27, 2024
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Nov 03, 2023
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| 3.59
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really liked it
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Jun 16, 2024
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Oct 13, 2023
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| 3.96
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it was amazing
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Mar 25, 2024
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Oct 01, 2023
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| 4.39
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it was amazing
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Mar 15, 2024
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Sep 16, 2023
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| 3.77
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it was amazing
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Mar 08, 2024
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Aug 25, 2023
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| 3.83
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it was amazing
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Feb 09, 2024
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Aug 06, 2023
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