Haven Woods is suburban heaven, a great place to raise a family. It’s close to the city, quiet, with great schools and its own hospital right up the road. Property values are climbing. The streets are clean, people keep their yards really nicely. It’s fairly pet friendly, though barking dogs are not welcomed. The crime rate is practically non-existent, unless you count the odd human sacrifice, dismemberment, animal attack, demon rape and blood atonement. When Paula Wittmore goes home to Haven Woods to care for a suddenly ailing mother, she brings her daughter and a pile of emotional baggage. She also brings the last chance for twelve of her mother’s closest frenemies, who like to keep their numbers at thirteen. And her daughter, young, innocent, is a worthy gift to the darkness.

A circle of friends will support you through bad times. A circle of witches can drag you through hell.

Ah, what a delish read!

The Thirteen is the perfect combination of mystery, horror, paranormal and chick-lit. I mean, this book was kinda like Desperate Housewives on some major  ’shrooms.  It was fast-paced and juicy and scary and full of Holy shit moments. And it wasn’t a deep book, which is a good thing as far as I’m concerned. This is the kind of book that you can get 100% wrapped up in, enjoying it simply for what it is: a Hell of a good read.

The whole time I was reading The Thirteen, I was picturing it as a movie. Moloney’s writing really made everything very vivid and the scenes just popped off the pages. The writing was witty and campy and there was just enough ew factor to make me happy. And I loved the whole everything is not what it seems angle. Kinda makes you look at your own neighbors a bit closer.

Thanks to the folks at Random House Canada for the review copy.

Before Stephanie can even step foot off Flight 127 Hawaii to Newark, she’s knee deep in trouble. Her dream vacation turned into a nightmare, and she’s flying back to New Jersey solo. Worse still, her seatmate never returned to the plane after the L.A. layover. Now he’s dead, in a garbage can, waiting for curbside pickup. His killer could be anyone. And a ragtag collection of thugs and psychos, not to mention the FBI, are all looking for a photograph the dead man was supposed to be carrying.

Morelli, Trenton’s hottest cop, isn’t talking about Hawaii. Ranger, the man of mystery, isn’t talking about Hawaii.  And all Stephanie is willing to say about her Hawaiian vacation is . . . It’s complicated.

So, I wasn’t really over the moon thrilled with the last Stephanie Plum book. But man, that was so not the case with Explosive Eighteen! Damn I LOVED this book.  I mean, I really loved it.

Ranger or Morelli. Will we EVER know?  I’m kinda hoping that Stephanie never chooses. Because it’s one of my favorite elements of the series. And with the trip to Hawaii and all that stuff, things really heated up.

Lula and Grandma were as hilarious as ever. Some people complain that there is no character growth in these books and to them I say a big “WHO THE F_ CARES?” These books are fun, cozy mysteries. I don’t mind one fig that we have no idea how old Stephanie is or how much time has passed from the first book. In fact, in Explosive Eighteen Evanovich mentions some things like Twitter and I found it a bit startling. She’s usually kinda careful about not dating the books.

This was a fun read and I had no idea what was going on with the mobster and the missing picture and I loved that. This is definitely a series that I will continue reading with much glee.

“Zach Carson is a loyal friend. But is loyalty enough to keep best friends together when one of them sets fire to the rural barn they use as the local hangout?

I don’t real a lot of what is considered “boy books”. But when I come across a book like Kevin Craig’s Summer on Fire, it makes me want to head to the bookstore and grab all the boy-centered YA books I can find.

I think what I loved most about this book was the tone. It was very reminiscent of Stand by Me. It had that coming-of-age-with-your-buds kinda feel to it. Throw in the whole trying to figure out what really happened with the fire angle and you have the perfect YA mystery read.

While I enjoyed the mystery of the fire and the murder angle, what really struck a cord with me was the relationship between Zach and his friends. The dynamic with Zach, Jeff and Arnie changes throughout the book and the boys each have some pretty tough decisions to make. It was a realistic portrayal of a friendship stressed by some pretty big events.

Kevin’s writing really drew me into the story, and his dialogue (from what I can remember being a teen and hanging with boys) was dead on.

*side note* Kevin and I “met” on Twitter. He was looking for reviewers and I asked to be included. This is one of the things I LOVE about Twitter. Getting introduced to new authors.

Thanks so much to Kevin for sending me a review copy.

This was a cool book. I mean, it’s basically a murder mystery, but as is the case with all good reads, there’s more to it than there seems. Something supernatural is involved. I won’t ruin it for you and tell you what, but it was pretty awesome.

The Shattering is told from three different view points, something that I’m seeing more and more in YA literature. When it’s done well, as it is in The Shattering, I find that it really adds to the story telling. Each character was different enough that it wasn’t confusing.

The story is set in New Zealand, something that threw me for a bit of a loop in the beginning. There were things that were mentioned and it was assumed that the reader would know what the characters were referring to. I felt a bit stupid at first, but as soon as I hit google and figured things out, it was smooth sailing. And, oddly enough, this need to look up some things didn’t bug me in the least. I kinda liked it.

While the ending wasn’t a complete surprise, there were elements that I didn’t see coming. And Healey didn’t wrap things up all nice and neat and happy. And that’s my favorite kind of ending. You know, where things may be resolved, but not everyone gets a perfectly happy ending.

The Shattering was an awesome read. I look forward to reading more from Healey.

This was such an honestly written book. The dialogue just blew me away. I mean, the characters didn’t always make sense, their speech wasn’t necessarily linear. You know, kinda like real people talk. It just made the story pop for me. Close Your Eyes is also an amazing example of show, don’t tell. I mean, as I read the book I was beyond impressed by her ability to make me realize something without spelling it out.

I also loved how the story had several parts and at first it seemed that there was no logical way that they would weave together. But when they did? I wasn’t shocked as much as I was like “Ah, why didn’t I see that?”. And there were serious heart string tugging moments. I usually don’t find that I get emotionally involved a lot with mysteries, but Close Your Eyes had me so drawn in emotionally that I felt like I was living the story along with the characters.

Publisher

Following a night at The Silver Dollar dance hall, a teenage girl turns up dead in a gravel pit. The last person reported to have seen her is Owen Williams, an introverted soldier stationed with the local garrison of “Zombies”-conscripted men unwilling to serve overseas. When Lieutenant Bernard Dorkin, a young lawyer from Saint John, volunteers to defend Williams, whom he believes is innocent, he finds himself up against a theatrical local favourite leading the prosecution and a public mostly hell-bent on a foregone conclusion. The Case Against Owen Williams explores the potential for wrongful conviction and the gaps in the justice system that allow it to flourish.

From Nimbus Press website.

There was a time when murder mysteries and courtroom dramas were all  I read. But over the past several years I’ve moved away from the genre. In fact, I can’t remember the last time I read a murder mystery. Well, The Case Against Owen Williams may just be the book that pulls be back into the genre.

This is a quiet book. It may be hard to explain, but let me try. While the court case itself may be sensational and emotional, the way Donaldson writes and describes it isn’t. His writing and pacing are quiet and slow, but in a very, very good way. I felt that it lent itself perfectly to the story and added to my enjoyment. If this was written as a face-paced, flashy story, I don’t think I would have liked it nearly as much as I did.

Even though Lt. Dorkin was always 100% convinced of Owen’s innocence, I never was, and I LOVED that. The mystery of the case remains until the end and when the truths eventually started to trickle out slowly they took me by surprise.

I really, really enjoyed The Case Against Owen Williams. The case, the characters, the writing and the pacing were perfect.

Publisher

When Rebecca goes to New Orleans to stay with her voodoo-obsessed aunt, she finds the beautiful old city haunted by the effects of Hurricane Katrina. Rebecca is also startled to discover a haunting of a different kind; near a graveyard one night, she meets a ghost girl by the name of Lisette, who has been dead 150 years. A former slave, Lisette helps Rebecca unearth an ancient mystery along with some troubling history truths. Meanwhile, Rebecca must deal with her snooty new prep school, a serious crush, and an elite group of popular girls who may be linked to the mystery themselves.

From Scholastic Canada website.

I don’t read enough ghost stories. Plain and simple. Which is weird, because I loves me a good ghost story. And Ruined? Yeah, it was a good ghost story.

It was a quick read. A quick, juicy, mysterious read filled with characters you aren’t sure about, an unsolved murder, deceit, lies and a cute boy. Really, what else could you ask for?  I found the writing to be engaging, and the voodoo angle had me hooked from the beginning.

I’m not really sure what else I can say. The book had a very Gothic feel, without being to heavy and dreary and despite the fact that it’s a ghost story, I’d almost describe Ruined as a light read.

Publisher

Four gorgeous girls are telling very ugly stories.

First Emily, Aria, Hanna, and Spencer claimed they found a dead body in the woods behind Spencer’s house, only to have it vanish without a trace. Then, when the same woods went up in flames, they swore they saw someone who’s supposed to be dead rise from the ashes. And even after all that, the pretty little liars are still playing with fire. Call me heartless, but it’s about time someone shut these liars up for good. After all, nobody likes a girl who cries wolf—least of all me. . . .

From HarperCollins Canada website.

I have a soft spot for the Pretty Little Liars series. It was one of the first book series that I read when I started reading YA and blogging. I loved the snarkiness, the mystery and the relationships in the books.  But, I have to admit, I didn’t enjoy Heartless, the seventh book in the series, as much as the other books. At all.

While the story was okay, I had some MAJOR issues with the writing. I found that there was a lot of repetition of phrases and over explanation of something. I mean, on page 271 of a 275 page book, I don’t need to be told that Andrew is Spencer’s boyfriend. That’s been well, well established through-out the book. For me, little blunders like this add up and take away from my overall enjoyment of the book. And by the time I was finished Heartless? Yeah, I was glad there was only one more book left in the series so I can just find out who A is and who really killed Allison. ( I know, because of the popularity of the TV show, Shepard is writing four more books after the eighth. But I probably won’t be reading them.)

I’m happy to once again be a part of Eco-Libris’ Green Books Campaign. Today at 1 pm Est over 200 book bloggers around the world simultaneously posted reviews of books printed on eco-friendly paper. Pretty cool, eh? The books are as diverse as the bloggers, so make sure to take a peek at them. And to make it easy-peasy for you, here’s the link.

Okay, now on to my review!

Publisher: ECW Press
Released: April, 2009
Genre: adult fiction, medical mystery
Review copy from publisher for Eco-Libris Green Books Campaign

In an affluent city perched on Ontario’s Niagara Escarpment, residents begin turning up on the pathologist’s autopsy table with what looks like epidemic mad cow disease. Zol Szabo, a public-health doctor and former chef, and Hamish Wakefield, a young infectious-diseases specialist, must trace the epidemic to its source while dodging the deadly prions that appear to have contaminated almost everything in the supermarket. Things spin out of control and more lives are threatened when a government-appointed investigator pulls rank, hijacks the investigation, and allows his inflated ego to supersede common sense.

Incidents of contamination of the food supply are featured almost weekly in the news. In Tainted, the clock is ticking to discover the source of the disease before it can spread, while navigating the political minefield of the hospital and the media.

A suspenseful and vexing medical thriller, Tainted comments on the vagaries of modern medicine, and explores the complexities of relationships between men: fathers and sons, colleagues and subordinates, gay men and their lovers.

Tainted is a medical thriller that illustrates the potential disastrous consequences of misplacing our trust in those who manufacture our food and our pharmaceuticals.

From ECW Press website.

Once upon a time, all I read were medical thrillers and books about outbreaks. I would devour them, sometimes as many as four in a week. Then I kinda ODed on them and stopped reading them all together. In fact, it’s been a good three or four years since I read a real medical thriller.

So I was all kinds of excited to read Ross Pennie’s Tainted, a medical mystery outbreak novel that takes place right here in Canada. And while I enjoyed it and I think it was a solid book, I wasn’t wowed by it.

I really enjoyed the medical mystery aspect of Tainted. The science wasn’t too over my head, but it also wasn’t too dumb down.  At first I thought the reason behind the outbreak was going to be pretty straight-forward, but man, was I wrong. While I didn’t see the ending coming, it wasn’t far-fetched and was totally plausible, which I really liked. Sometimes in medical mysteries the author pulls something out of left field that makes no sense at all. Thankfully that wasn’t the case here, at all.

So, why was I so meh about Tainted? The characters. I just didn’t get a sense of who they were and quite honestly I didn’t care a fig about any of them. For me they weren’t written in a way that I could really feel a connection to them. I was often confused about their motivations and reasonings, even when it was being spelled out for me. I know that medical mysteries aren’t generally character driven books, but if I don’t care at all about ANY of the characters, then I’m not going to be a big fan of the novel.

I also found the writing at times clunky with awkward descriptions. There was also a subplot that I thought was a bit out of place and poorly executed.

I think if I had felt more of a connection to the characters I would have enjoyed Tainted a lot more. As it stands it was a decent medical mystery, but not one I was wild about.

Publisher:

Tory Brennan, niece of acclaimed forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan (of the Bones novels and hit TV show), is the leader of a ragtag band of teenage “sci-philes” who live on a secluded island off the coast of South Carolina. When the group rescues a dog caged for medical testing on a nearby island, they are exposed to an experimental strain of canine parvovirus that changes their lives forever.

As the friends discover their heightened senses and animal-quick reflexes, they must combine their scientific curiosity with their newfound physical gifts to solve a cold-case murder that has suddenly become very hot—if they can stay alive long enough to catch the killer’s scent.

Fortunately, they are now more than friends—they’re a pack. They are Virals.

From Penguin Canada website.

I’m a HUGE fan of Kathy Reichs’. I’ve read all of her Tempe Brennan books and I am slightly addicted to Bones. So when I heard that she was writing a new series for teens, I was stoked. And the fact that there was a bit of supernatural to the story? Even better.

So you can imagine my excitement when a review copy came. I was so excited, in fact, that I held off reading it for awhile. Weird, I know, but what can I say? I figured it was going to be so amazing, so awesome that I’d be upset once I finished it.

When I finally decided to pick it up and read it, I wasn’t quite as taken with the story as I had been hoping. While I did enjoy it, I wasn’t in love with it. There was one thing that seemed a bit off to me, and that kinda stopped me from totally loving Virals.

Okay, Tori is 14 and her friends are 15 and 16. But some of the things they say and do struck me as things younger kids would say and do. It’s not that they were poorly written characters, it’s just that I had a bit of a hard time believing some of the dialogue.

*SPOILER*

Okay, towards the end of the book, once they all realize they’re “virals”, Tori gets the ability to talk to the others telepathically. Which is cool. But at one point she says “Virals, flash!”. Now I don’t know if teens their age would actually refer to themselves as Virals. It rang a bit false to me. I think I know what Reichs was trying to do, but for me it just didn’t work.

*END OF SPOILER*

Don’t get me wrong: there were things that I loved about Virals. I loved the fact that younger kids will get a chance to learn about forensics and science in general. I loved that this was a mystery that was pretty smart and not at all easy to figure out. I also loved that while there were elements of the supernatural, it was all based in hardcore science.

I think this is a book that younger kids, say 12-14 are really going to like. As for older teens, I’m not so sure. Once I decided that this would be better suited for the younger crowd, some of the issues of what Tori and her friends say and do disappeared and I enjoyed the book a lot more.

As a middle grade, young teen book this is a top notch read and I highly recommend it. I actually can’t wait to see what happens in the next book in the series.