Deadly Little Secrets by Laurie Faria Stolarz

Summary

Until three months ago, sixteen-year-old Camelia’s life had been fairly ordinary. Then a mysterious boy names Ben started junior year at her school and changed everything.

Rumored to be somehow responsible for his ex-girlfriend’s accidental death, Ben is immediately ostracized by everyone on campus. Except for Camelia. Despite the rumors, she’s inexplicably drawn to him . . . and to his touch. But soon, Camelia is receiving eerie phone calls and strange packages with threatening notes, Ben insists she’s in danger, and that he wants to help—but can he be trusted? She knows he’s hiding something . . . but he’s not the only one with a secret.

• Number of pages: 252

Review

Deadly Little Secret was such a hauntingly good novel. I was surprised by the intensity of the mystery, and it was such an entertaining book aside from the mystery as well. One of my best friends, Amanda, gave me her copy to read and see if it was good. She’s not much of a reader, but I am determined to convert her! Okay, back to the book. Camelia and her two best friends go to this school where a new, secretive guy comes and stirs up their little town with drama. Camelia knows he is the one who saved her from being run over by a car, and is determined to get to know him a little more. What she doesn’t know is that she is the one who is going to need saving again. There is someone following her. She starts getting these phone calls and pictures in the mail. Pretty creepy stuff, for sure. I think the creepiest part had to be the small chapters where the stalker would write about his feelings on Camelia. They were so realistic it was mind-blowing. There were quite a lot of parts that gave me goose bumps. As you can imagine, I read this book mostly at night before bed, and it was the perfect time to read a book like this. Unless of course stuff like this really does scare you, then I recommend reading it during the daytime. Just saying. But aside from the mystery of the stalker and the mystery behind the new guy, Ben, this book had a slight comical aspect to it. The best friends had to be the funniest people in the book. They were with Camelia most of the time and lightened up the mood immensely. They were sarcastic and humorous that left me cracking up. From 1-10? I give it a 6.5

Cate of the Lost Colony by Lisa Klein

Summary

An orphan, young Lady Catherine rises to become one of Queen Elizabeth’s favorite maids of honor—until her romance with the dashing adventurer Walter Ralegh is discovered. In a fit of jealousy, the queen banishes Cate to the fledgling colony on Roanoke Island.

Sustained by the hope that Sir Walter will soon join her, Cate learns to face the unexpected hardships and dangers of the New World. Torn by conflict and mistrust, and with their numbers dwindling, the colonists are forced to rely on Manteo, a mysterious Croatoan Indian, for their survival. Manteo, who calls Cate his Moon Maiden . . .

But is Manteo truly a friend, or will he betray the English to their enemies? And Sir Walter in England—has he forgotten his beloved, or will he come to claim her? As the months pass without rescue, Cate turns her gaze from the past and considers the possibility of a new love. Then one day a ship arrives—and Cate must make an agonizing choice . . .

• Number of pages: 321

Review

Lisa Klein weaved an absolutely sensational historical fiction out of an event that I didn’t even know about until I read this book! Cate of the Lost Colony was adventurous, mysterious, and the history part of this story was completely amazing.

Cate is in the beginning “Lady Catherine” which is in turn changed to “Lady Cat” or “Cat” as is referred to by the Queen herself. That is when in the beginning Lady Cat is one of the many maids to Queen Elizabeth. It’s her duty to help the Queen dress (a difficult task, no less) and help her with anything that may need helping. To her this is a great honor to serve her queen. Here in America with no kings or queens to look to in that way I can’t imagine why she would have such devotion and such love to a woman who at times treated her a little bad. It’s evident in the beginning part of the book how much devotion she puts into her work for the queen only being rewarded with a nickname that would soon get her into jealous trouble with the other lady maids. I guess that is just how it was. I remember thinking through those pages that I guess our heroine was just going to be a meek girl with not much will to call her own. But wow was I wrong. She turns a complete 180 after her romance with Sir Walter is discovered and is forced to travel to the New World, a place where savages rule and the conditions are harsh. Thus becoming the Cate that I know everyone loves her to be. She relishes the opportunity to travel to the new world, but after a while of seeing the type of condition she is to live in you see a spark in her ignite to take some charge and speak out, even as a woman in a time where men rule, to help her fellow colonist survive while deciding whether to keep hope in the thought of rescue from Sir Walter, or accepting the future and the possible love that comes with it.

At first I thought the story of Cate was hard to follow because at what seemed at random times the voice of Cate would be replaced by what I would call Sir William’s “diary” or “journal” to the point of view of Manteo in some instances, but (and I’m still not sure how Klein did it) it all seemed to make sense after a little bit of concentration. You would think that a book in the time of Queen Elizabeth would be a hard read, what with all the old time slang that must be in this book, but it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. In fact, I actually liked the challenge of it! Especially when poetry by Sir Walter would be mixed in, it gave it an old time feel to it that made it special. I was in fact quite charmed by this book as my review probably already told you. So from 1-10? I am happy to give Cate of the Lost Colony an 8!!!

I Am Number Four by Pittacus Lore

Summary

WE

May be walking past you right now.

WE

Are watching as you read this.

WE

May be in your city, your town.

WE

Are living anonymously.

WE

Are waiting for the day when

WE

Will find each other.

WE

Will make our last stand together—if

WE

Win,

WE

Are saved, and

YOU

Are saved as well.

IF WE LOSE, ALL IS LOST.

• Number of pages:440

Review

I broke a big cardinal rule of reading . . . never watch the movie before you read the book. And that’s exactly what I did. I can’t believe it either! I didn’t even think the movie was going to be so good, I was mostly just going to watch it because of Alex Pettyfer (<3). The movie was soooo incredible! So I went into the book with high hopes and a little bit prejudiced, I’m not gonna lie.

There were a lot of aspects to this book that made it so life-like that I found so amazing of the author to even think about. The planet Lorien seems like such a possibility when I was reading the book. It’s actually kind of funny how Pittacus Lore basically created a whole new civilization on this completely new planet based around him. Lore made Lorien as a planet with him as the ruler, and although I was kind of confused when he put himself in the actual story I thought it was quite genius. I mean, why shouldn’t he be ruler? He created the whole thing anyway so why not, right?

I actually really enjoyed this book, mostly in the beginning and middle. I blame myself for watching the movie first and maybe diminishing the experience a little bit. Since I kind of knew what was going to happen it didn’t actually have all my attention. (It took me about 2 weeks to finish this one! Not good.) This is a kind of sci-fi novel but for me I categorized it more on the romance side. It was a sweet kind of romance with the fun of having the ex-boyfriend to deal with. It was funny seeing the ex trying to bully John (Number Four) when you obviously knew that he could totally kick his… butt.

The only down side in this book that I actually found was that it was a bit flowery for me. Like in the big epic battle near the end, it was way over done. I mean it took up at least 5 chapters. It was very interesting with the fighting scenes at times, but then it just got a bit tedious, I wanted to see how they would end up! But maybe that was just my impatience at fault. Whatever it was that was how I felt near the end.

It did all tie up at the end setting it up perfectly for the next book. I do want to read the next and any after . . . I just got to make sure not to watch the next movie before I do.

From 1-10? I give I Am Number Four a 6.5

Oh for the book cover I decided to post up a picture of the original cover even though I own the movie version . . . mine has Alex Pettyfer on it!! <3 <3 <3

The Agency: A Spy in the House by Y.S. Lee

Summary

Orphan Mary Quinn lives on the edge. Sentenced as a thief at the age of twelve, she’s rescued from the gallows by a woman posing as a prison warden. In her new home, Miss Scrimshaw’s Academy for Girls, Mary acquires a singular education, fine manners, and a surprising opportunity. The school is a cover for the Agency—an elite, top secret corps of female investigators with a reputation for results—and at seventeen, Mary’s about to join their ranks.

With London all but paralyzed by a noxious heat wave, Mary must work fast in the guise of lady’s companion to infiltrate a rich merchant’s home with hopes of tracing his missing cargo ships. But the Thorold household is full of dangerous secrets, and people are not what they seem—least of all Mary.

• Number of pages: 335

Review

This was the perfect way to start off my summer reading! It’s not one of those summer love/sunshine books, but this is such a good book. I don’t even know why I put it off until now.

The whole story was quite unique. I’m not sure if girl spies are popular or not, but a girl spy in the Victorian Era? It all came out so cool.

This is the first book in a series and it starts off with how Mary was recruited. Turns out this little girl was so naughty she was going to be hanged! After a couple of years after being rescued by Miss Anne and studying at the school, Mary is recruited into this very top secret kind of agency that uses the intelligence of women to skillfully accomplish the results that their clients want. (Don’t worry they only do this for good.) Their way of thinking is this: since women in that time were never noticed let alone listened to, they should use that to their advantage. Mary is just the kind of girl that the Agency is interested in, and so she is sent to her first easy assignment.

I can't exactly review this by telling you the assignment or how it goes about in the end, mysteries are always so hard to explain without giving anything away! The only things I can say is that I was thoroughly entertained trying to decipher the who, what, when, where, and whys of this book. The ending is completely unexpected, let me tell you!

Now I really want to read the next book! From 1-10 A Spy in the House gets a 7!

P.S. i just realized that you might get the idea that this is an action packed kind of book. It wasn't really like that, more mystery less violence/action, but good either way.

Across the Universe by Beth Revis

Summary

A love out of time. A spaceship built of secrets and murder.

Seventeen-year-old Amy joins her parents as frozen cargo aboard the vast spaceship Godspeed and expects to awake on a new planet, three hundred years in the future. Never could she have known that her frozen slumber would come to an end fifty years too soon and that she would be thrust into a brave new world of a spaceship that lives by its own rules.

Amy quickly realizes that her awakening was no mere computer malfunction. Someone—one of the few thousand inhabitants of the spaceship—tried to kill her. And if Amy doesn’t do something soon, her parents will be next.

Now, Amy must race to unlock Godspeed’s hidden secrets. But out of her list of murder suspects, there’s only one who matters: Elder, the future leader of the ship and the love she could never have seen coming.

Number of pages: 398

Review

**WARNING REVIEW MAY CONTAIN A SPOILER OR TWO** (sorry I usually try to leave out any spoilers but this time I cant help it, no worries though I don’t give out anything major)

Wow.

This book was... incredible. So intense. This was just the kind of book I have been craving for lately. The whole book was so powerful; I had no control to put it down. I heard a lot about Across the Universe and the great reviews it got and I completely understand why.

The entire story is divided between Elder’s point of view and Amy’s point of view. I love when books are like that. I don’t know why, I guess it’s because it feels more personal when you get both sides of the story. Anyway, Amy is frozen and put as cargo in the super spaceship, Godspeed. They hope that 300 years into the future Godspeed will reach this new habitable planet. Well would that be perfect except for the fact that she is woken up waaaaaay to early in the most horrific of ways. Elder is there to help her along the way as they try to discover who is waking up the frozens and stopping the spaceship leader from stealing free will from the people aboard. If this alone doesn’t show you how intense this book is then I seriously think you should find this book somewhere and read for yourself how strong this book is. From the first page to the last page I was kept in full suspense. Some points in the mystery seemed obvious but not in an obvious way… did that make sense? It was like you knew the puzzle pieces, and you had no way of know how those pieces fit together. It drove me crazy at night trying to see how this piece and that piece had anything to do with this one. I loved it.

I do have to warn all of you out there who are suckers for happy endings and don’t like anything less than a happily ever after, this book will not satisfy your thirst for a happy ending. It’s not going to happen. Personally, to me, the ending was the most logical one to end this story, but I can’t help wishing that after everything those two went through they had to end like that. It was sad. But all around I enjoyed racing through the ship with Amy and Elder so from 1-10? It has to be an 8.

On cover news I have to say that it looks amazing! The picture on the cover came out so incredible, but what put it over the top was the blueprint of the spaceship on the inside part of the hard cover’s slap. It made everything seem more realistic. I loved it! I’m kind of upset right now because I took off the cover so I wouldn’t damage it at the beach a couple of days ago, and now I can’t find it!!! Grrrrreat -.- . . . oh! never mind I found it! :D

I went on the author's website and read that Across the Universe is part of a trilogy! Looks like this is far from the end . . .

Dark Visions by L.J. Smith

Summary

Kaitlyn Fairchild has always felt like an outsider in her small hometown. Her haunting eyes and prophetic drawings have earned her a reputation as a witch. But Kait’s not a witch: She’s a psychic. Tired of being shunned, Kait accepts an initiation to attend the Zetes Institute, where she can have a fresh start and study with other psychic teens. Learning to hone her abilities with four other gifted students, Kait discovers the intensity of her power—and the joy of having true friends. But those friendships quickly become complicated when Kait finds herself torn between two irresistible guys. Rob is kind and athletic, and heals people with his good energy. Gabriel is aggressive and mysterious, a telepath concealing his true nature as a psychic vampire, feeding off of other’s life energy. Together, Rob and Gabriel’s opposing forces threaten the group’s stability. Then one of the experiments traps the five teens in a psychic link. A link that threatens their sanity and their lives. And Kaitlyn must decide whom to trust . . . and whom to love.

• Number of pages: book one: 1-252

: book two: 253-488

: book three: 489-732

My name is Camila, and I freely admit to being a huge L.J. Smith fan. This woman is an incredible writer! I’ve been reading her series for quite some time now and each one is completely unique and amazing. This is actually the second time I’ve read Dark Visions.

Lately I’ve realized how all paranormal books have been getting very clichéd and similar to one another. Boy meets girl. Girl falls in love. Boy turns out to be something freaky. That’s the usual quota for these books, but L.J. Smith always seems to bring out something unique in her books. I don’t know how she does it, but she does! And its not just in Dark Visions, her Night World Series was one of my favorite series.

So Kait is a psychic who can see into the future whenever she starts drawing something. She is sent to the Institute to meet with other psychics and test her abilities to learn how to control them. There she meets her new friends. I am in love with the entire cast of characters. They were all so different from one another and each one was special to me. Anna is the calm, quiet girl that doesn’t miss a thing. Oh, yeah, she can also communicate with animals. Lewis is the quirky guy with telekinesis power. Then comes Rob and Gabriel. More polar opposites they can’t be. Rob is golden boy from the south with the power to heal. Gabriel is all dark shadows and he is a dangerous telepathic. These two guys hate each other with their entire being. And they are both in love with Kait. Typical, right? Well it’s not. This love triangle was very interesting from the beginning. (I was secretly rooting for Gabriel from the beginning.) All the characters in their own right were witty. Their adventure was exciting but there was a sort of lagging on their trip that kind of slowed down the story. The love stories were cute too. Really there isn’t much else to say because it was so good that there’s nothing that I would really change.

One thing that did really bother me was the cover. I HATED the cover because it has nothing at ALL to do with the book. The girl on the cover is the farthest thing that Kait looks like and the only other girl in the book was Anna and she has black hair and dark skin, and isn’t the main character. The cover is blonde and Kait is red headed. It always bothers me when the cover on the book has a person because it leaves little for the imagination to do. So when they put a person that doesn’t look or have anything to do with the characters or the story, it bothers me a lot. But don’t worry, the cover doesn’t affect the book in any way. So from 1-10? I give Dark Visions a 9.

Wild Child by Mike Wells

Summary

Briana Fox is the wildest girl in school. She and Kyle have been friends for a long time...almost lovers. When Briana challenges Kyle to a swim across the lake, she's injured in a horrific accident, but also discovers a mysterious substance in an underwater cave. What seems to be a magical yet harmless "power drug" turns out to have unexpected properties. Briana soon becomes dependent on it for her very survival. When two government agents get wind of their discovery, they will stop at nothing to force Kyle and Briana to reveal its source.

Number of pages: 51

Review

Do not let the number of pages stop you from reading Wild Child. When I first got the book sent to me from the author I thought that I hadn't been sent the entire story. Turns out it was sent completely, it's just a very quick read.

This is Brie and Kyle's story, and it was so intriguing and capturing that I really do wish the story had been extended a little bit. It started off with a bang and ended with one. Everything was in perfect detail, it was as if I was there with Kyle when he witnessed the speed boat run right over Brie, and his pain and his confusion when she at last appeared back on the boat as if nothing. Or when they’re in the cave and you can see the green glow from this “magical” water. It was all very vivid. Personally I didn’t really like Brie very much, not how she was created, just as a person. If she were someone I knew then she would really be a pain. Maybe I am just saying that because she’s very out there, and I’m more conservative. Whatever the reason I think Kyle was a much better character. He seemed like a total goody-goody at first, but he sure knew how to get things done in the end.

What I did find really interesting is the part where the water is described like a drug. When you read it you can tell that its not the wisest of ideas to be drinking it. This book just showed me even more why drugs are bad, and to never, ever take them. I don’t know if it was the authors intention to have a message like that in the story, but that’s the message that I got. That sounds a little cheesy, but it's true. Now the ending was . . . wow. It was so unexpected and so unbelievable that I’m not even sure if I mean that in a good or bad way. It was so shocking that I really I had no idea it was coming which is good, but I like endings where I know how everything ended off with the characters.This was the type of book that leaves you wondering how things turned out for the characters. I’m still reeling from the surprise ending.

This is the first ebook story I’ve read, and I was thoroughly impressed. I don’t think there was one part in this story that really had me bored. Not one dry moment. I guess that’s why the book was left short, because it really didn't need anything more. I think it takes great skill to make a very big book that keeps a reader captivated throughout the entire book, but now I feel it must also be just as hard to write a short story that doesn’t give a reader a chance to be bored. So from 1-10? I give Mike Wells’ Wild Child an 8.5!