Time for some mini-reviews! What are mini-reviews, you ask? As the title suggests, these are short reviews, consisting of one paragraph tops, about a book. It’s a way to catch up on the books I’ve read a while ago, but never got around to reviewing.
Haint Misbehavin’
Title: Haint Misbehavin’
Author: Maureen Hardegree
Genre: Middle Grade, Paranormal, Ghosts
Rating: 4 stars
Purchase: Amazon
The start of a fun middle-grade series, The Ghost Handlers, follows Heather Tildy, an Atlanta teen with a troublesome habit of attracting ghosts. Middle-child Heather has enough to worry about with sisters, boys and school. Now that a trouble-making girl from the 1800’s is poking her nose in Heather’s business, her life has taken a supernatural turn for the worse! Before her life can get better, she has to figure out how to help the ghost move on. Debut author Hardegree is a veteran short-story author for the well-known MOSSY CREEK HOMETOWN series. She plans multiple titles in this warm and funny YA series. “Ghostly fun!” ~Gillian Summers, The Faire Folk Series “A fun package of crushes, quests for popularity, and summertime antics, tied together with a paranormal bow. Fans of Meg Cabot’s Mediator novels will find much to like in Haint Misbehavin’, the first of Hardegree’s Ghost Handler series.” ~Trish Milburn HEARTBREAK RIVER (as Tricia Mills), Razorbill
Review: This was a fun, light ghost story for teens and middle graders. Heather is a great protagonist. She’s definitely not perfect – she has the habit of attracting ghosts, has multiple skin and respiratory allergies that make her stand out from the rest, and she’s geeky in a fun way. This book was light-hearted but kids will be able to relate to the characters and story just fine.
Striking Back
Title: Striking Back
Author: Mark Nykanen
Genre: Mystery, Suspense, Thrillers
Rating: 4 stars
Purchase: Amazon
Justice is coming.
These men like to hurt women. Now it’s payback time for an unknown murderer who’s slaughtering the abusers in ways that mirror the ugly violence they forced upon the women in their lives. As the death count grows-and media interest explodes-innocent people could get caught in the killer’s revenge.
Los Angeles therapist Gwyn Sanders keeps her ugly family history to herself. More than twenty years ago, when she was still a teen, her violent stepfather died a grisly, mysterious death. Gwyn knows all the secrets but she’s not talking about the past-she’s too busy trying to change the future by breaking the cycle of domestic violence. The men she counsels aren’t saints, but maybe she can change the mindset that makes their lives-and the lives of the people closest to them-so miserable.
But when someone starts killing her controversial clients, Gwyn becomes LAPD’s primary suspect. After all, there’s the unsolved mystery of her stepfather’s bizarre death. Maybe Gwyn has a hidden desire for justice that’s far from therapeutic.
Review: Gwyn Sanders is an intriguing as it gets. She can easily relate to her patients because she has an ugly family history herself. When her worst clients start getting killed, Gwyn becoems the primary suspect. Her stepfather’s bizarre death was never solved, and that’s not working in her advantage either. The book was twisted at times, and very intense. The characterization was spot on.
Slide
Title: Slide
Author: Jill Hathaway
Genre: Young Adult, Paranormal, Thriller
Rating: 4,5 stars
Purchase: Amazon
Vee Bell is certain of one irrefutable truth–her sister’s friend Sophie didn’t kill herself. She was murdered.
Vee knows this because she was there. Everyone believes Vee is narcoleptic, but she doesn’t actually fall asleep during these episodes: When she passes out, she slides into somebody else’s mind and experiences the world through that person’s eyes. She’s slid into her sister as she cheated on a math test, into a teacher sneaking a drink before class. She learned the worst about a supposed “friend” when she slid into her during a school dance. But nothing could have prepared Vee for what happens one October night when she slides into the mind of someone holding a bloody knife, standing over Sophie’s slashed body.
Vee desperately wishes she could share her secret, but who would believe her? It sounds so crazy that she can’t bring herself to tell her best friend, Rollins, let alone the police. Even if she could confide in Rollins, he has been acting distant lately, especially now that she’s been spending more time with Zane.
Enmeshed in a terrifying web of secrets, lies, and danger and with no one to turn to, Vee must find a way to unmask the killer before he or she strikes again.
Review: The moment I read the synopsis for Slide, I knew I had to read this book. Everyone belives Vee is narcoleptic, but she doesn’t actually fall asleep: when she passes out, she slides into someone else’s mind and experiences the world thorugh their eyes. That’s how she’s certain that her sister’s friend Sophie didn’t kill herself, but was murdered. Now it’s up to Vee to unmask the killer before he strikes again. There were quite a few twists and surprises, and the book definitely has a high creepy factor.
[…] Mini-Review: Haint Misbehavin’, Striking Back, Slide […]