"Carnival of Souls" by Melissa Marr

Carnival of Souls by Melissa Marr is a better than average story about three teens who have secrets:  two girls and one boy.  When the secrets are finally revealed, they don’t like each other.  I don’t think this book is for everyone since it’s about witches and daimons, but I enjoyed it and will be watching for the next book in the series to read.
(Gerard's review)

Have you read this one? What did you think of it? If you reviewed this too, feel free to share your link to your review in the comments. Happy Reading!

"Surrender" by Lee NIchols

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Surrender by Lee Nichols is the last book in the Haunting Emma series that I enjoyed.  This series is part fantasy with ghosts, wraiths, ghasts and also about friendship, loyalty, forbidden love and adventure.   I liked the humor throughout this series and recommend it if you want a light, entertaining read.  The first two books in this series are:  Deception and Betrayal which you should definitely read first.  Surrender is mostly about romance with lots of action near the end.  The ending was good, but not the ending I was hoping for.  I would have had Emma give all her powers to Bennett and then go with Harry and live a normal life.  My favorite character was Coby, the popular high school football player who dated Emma and died but continued in the story to the end as a ghost.
(Karen's review)

Have you read this one? What did you think of it? If you reviewed this too, feel free to share your link to your review in the comments. Happy Reading!

We are donating 50 cents for each legitimate comment we receive on all our blogs during May to Joni and Friends for Camp Scholarships for families with special needs children.

"The Vanishing Game" by Kate Kae Myers

The Vanishing Game by Kate Kae Myers is her first book telling the story of twins, Jocelyn and Jack who were both bullied in a foster home.  When Jack dies, Jocelyn is distraught until she starts to receive messages from Jack in code.  But how can this be; Jack is dead, or is he?  She turns to the one friend they had, Noah, to find the answer.

For a first book, this is really good!  There is lots of action and I never knew what was going to happen.  I loved the surprise ending too--GREAT!  I’ll be looking for more books by this author.

(Gerard's Review)

Have you read this one? What did you think of it? If you reviewed this too, feel free to share your link to your review in the comments. Happy Reading!

We are donating 50 cents for each legitimate comment we receive on all our blogs during May to Joni and Friends for Camp Scholarships for families with special needs children.

"Betrayal-Haunting Emma Book 2" by Lee Nichols

image source:  Amazon--read on Kindle

Betrayal by Lee Nichols continues from where Deception left off and is just as good, if not even better!  There is a lot of action fighting ghosts in this book and also her love life with Bennett heats up.  Her friendships at school fall apart but then when she finally tells the truth about Coby, they are restored.  There is a lot of ghost fighting action in this book and Simon and Lukas are assigned by the Knell to help Emma.  The fun and humor continue with Coby in ghost form continuing to hang out with his old friends and Emma.  When Emma takes on Neoss at the Knell, she is shocked to find out who it is that betrayed her. 

Betrayal is a quick read because it keeps building suspense and was hard to put down.  It’s part contemporary fiction and part fantasy.  I think Bennett should stop taking the drug and just let Emma take all his power which would make her dispelling power stronger and allow them to be together.  I love the dialog and look forward to reading the third book in this Haunting Emma series, “Surrender.”  I recommend this series if you like humorous fantasy—it’s not really spooky even though there are a lot of ghosts and some time travel.

(Karen's review)

Have you read this one? What did you think of it? If you reviewed this too, feel free to share your link to your review in the comments. Happy Reading!

We are donating 50 cents for each legitimate comment we receive on all our blogs during May to Joni and Friends for Camp Scholarships for families with special needs children.

"Deception" by Lee Nichols

Deception by Lee Nichols is about Emma,a 17-yr.-old, girl who finds herself mixed up in a world of ghosts when her brother and parents disappear and Bennett, her brother’s friend takes her to live with him in Boston as her guardian!  He presented papers that were notarized that he was her guardian to get her away from social services.  Emma thinks she is going crazy when she sees dead people but soon discovers she is a “ghostkeeper” who not only sees ghosts but can control them!  Both Emma and I were surprised at how many people in Emma’s life also were ghostkeepers, but she had more power than they did. 

I liked the sarcasm and humor that was included in this book and also the main character, Emma, is very likable. This book has romance, mystery, suspense and a lot of paranormal things going on.  I normally do not read paranormal books so can’t really compare this with others in that category.  It certainly was a fun, quick read with lots of humor and an interesting story line which is continued in the sequel—Betrayal (reading on Kindle).

(Karen's review)

Have you read this one? What did you think of it? If you reviewed this too, feel free to share your link to your review in the comments. Happy Reading!

We are donating 50 cents for each legitimate comment we receive on all our blogs during May to Joni and Friends for Camp Scholarships for families with special needs children.

"Grave Mercy" by Robin Lafevers

Wow, oh wow!!!  Grave Mercy by Robin Lafevers is just awesome!  I loved it and had a hard time putting it down; finished it in two days.  There are lots of plots and Ismae is a great character.  This is just the first book of three so can't wait for the next one. 

Ismae is able to escape from a planned marriage.  Her next stop is the sanctuary at the convent of St. Mortain, the saint of death.  She learns well and then is given a big assignment!

I think this will be my favorite read of this month--it does not get much better than this.
(Gerard's review)

Have you read this one? What did you think of it? If you reviewed this too, feel free to share your link to your review in the comments. Happy Reading!

We are donating 50 cents for each legitimate comment we receive on all our blogs during May to Joni and Friends for Camp Scholarships for families with special needs children.

"The Best of Me" by Nicholas Sparks

The Best of Me by Nicholas Sparks is the sad love story of Dawson and Amanda, two high school sweethearts who went separate ways.  Dawson was from an abusive family and had bullies for brothers but was not like them.  Amanda was from a well-to-do family who did not want her seeing Dawson.  They had a common friend, Tuck who was an old widower but who could see their love for each other so made arrangements for them to cross paths years later through his will,  Over the years, they still thought about each other and wondered what would have happened if they stayed together.  Dawson never married, but Amanda did, although she never had the passion with her husband that she had experienced with Dawson. 

The mixture of some fighting, a couple of ghosts and Tuck’s sweet memories all work to make this an interesting read.  I liked this one because it didn’t drag along.  I think it would have been better though if the author let the reader know Amanda’s family better.  It seemed he just threw them in at the end to wrap up the book with a neat little ending. 

 (Karen's review)

Have you read this one? What did you think of it? If you reviewed this too, feel free to share your link to your review in the comments. Happy Reading!

Hope you will visit our other blog, "Right Where We Belong" to see our Happy Easter Everyone post!

 We are donating 50 cents for each legitimate comment we receive on all our blogs during April to Paralyzed Veterans of America.

"Gone" by Michael Grant

Gone by Michael Grant has lots of conflict and mystery in it which made for an interesting read; however, the ending was a huge let down.  I felt like I lots of questions were left unanswered and nothing was really resolved in the end.  Just to give you a taste of how far out this book is, some normal kids had super powers but not all, two brothers (one evil and one good) were against each other throughout the book, coyotes talked, there was a hot wall all around a 10-mile radius of a power plant, and nothing made any sense.  One day out of the blue all 15-yr.-olds and older just went poof and disappeared.  I liked Albert, the kid who took over McDonalds and cooked.  It certainly had some funny parts and lots of action, it just didn’t make any sense.  It even had a cat that could teleport itself!  I must say though, that it kept my interest and found it hard to put down. 
(Karen's review)

Have you read this one? What did you think of it? If you reviewed this too, feel free to share your link to your review in the comments. Happy Reading!

We are donating 50 cents for each legitimate comment we receive on all our blogs during March to the American Cancer Society.

"Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children" by Ransom Riggs

Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs begins pretty normal but then spirals into an adventure involving time travel, monsters, children with unusual "talents" and a woman who can change into a bird!  I liked it because it was different but not so far out that I couldn't follow it.  It's definitely an interesting and fun read. 

Jacob has a special connection with his grandfather who seems to be suffering from Dementia.  His grandfather tells him stories about kids he once knew who had unusual talents and as Jake gets older, he begins to wonder if the stories were just made up.  The grandfather is killed by a monster in the woods one day and Jacob is the only one who saw the monster, but everyone thinks he's crazy.  His psychiatrist convinces his parents to let Jacob go visit the island his grandfather told the stories about so he can see for himself that there is nothing magical about it.  Jacob finds himself with a huge decision to make.

This is a book I won't soon forget and highly recommend!

Have you read this one? What did you think of it? If you reviewed this too, feel free to share your link to your review in the comments. Happy Reading!

Check out another review of someone who loved this book: Freda's Voice

We are donating 50 cents for each legitimate comment we receive on all our blogs to Caroline's Kids Pet Rescue to help homeless cats this month.

"The Night Strangers" by Chris Bohjalian

The Night Strangers by Chris Bohjalian is about Chip, an airline pilot. One day, through no fault of his, he has to make an emergency landing on water. Unlike the “miracle on the Hudson” landing, lots of people die. Chip and his family decide to move to a new town and buy a new house. As you would expect, this does not go well at all! Talk about a page turner, I had trouble putting this down. It's a perfect spooky read for Halloween season!
(Gerard's review)

Have you read this one? What did you think of it?  

Be sure to check out our audio book giveaway for "The Leftovers" by Tom Perrotta.

You can help our charity of the month just by leaving a comment on any of our blogs! We will donate 50 cents per comment at the end of the month. The charity for this month is at the top of our blog.

"Live to Tell" by Lisa Gardner (Updated)

Live To Tell certainly kept my interest.  It focused on Danielle who was the lone survivor when the rest of her family was murdered.  She went to work as a nurse in a Children's Psych ward to help kids who had mental illnesses.  That gave me insight into something I knew absolutely nothing about so found very interesting.  On the other hand, the "spiritual healer" that was into New Age thinking was too goofy for me.  That part of the book made no sense to me but was a core part of the book.  I liked it because it was interesting, but also found it very sad and depressing.  I did liked the ending though but wow, what a journey!  
(Karen's review 5/6/11)

Gerard's review:
Live To Tell by Lisa Gardner is one of her best books yet!  Two families are brutally murdered, one girl hangs herself, a boy has a fixation to kill his mother, and another girl thinks she's a cat!  Is that enough action for you?  I loved that this book was action-packed and moved along quickly.  It had me turning page after page!  I highly recommend you read this one!

Have your read this?  For the month of May, we will donate 50 cents for each legitimate comment to The Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.

"Dogs Don't Lie" by Clea Simon (UPDATED 4/23/11)

Visit the author's cat's blog at www.conscious.cat.net

Dogs Don’t Lie by Clea Simon is a good, quick mystery in a small town. A man is found dead at his home and all signs point to his dog, a pit bull named Lilly.  But did the dog really do it? The best parts of the book for me are that Pru Marlow could understand what her cat, Wallis, was saying and the Dog, Lilly, becomes a hero at the end! The plot was a bit confusing, but it’s still a good read!
(Gerard's Review)

Karen's review posted 4/23/11:
Dogs Don't Lie by Clea Simon is a cozy mystery with a cute, entertaining twist--Pru Marlowe is an animal behaviorist and also discovers she has a gift of being able to hear what animals think and feel.  With the help of three cats, two dogs, and a ferret, Pru solves the murder of one of her clients whose pit bull she trained.  She questioned some humans too though.  At first the dog was blamed for it's owner's death but then Pru set out to save the dog and eventually figured out who the real killer was. 

If you like animals and a cozy mystery, this one is for you!  It starts off a bit slow but stick with it!  I was surprised to find out who the real murderer was.  Well done, Clea!

Stop by and visit the author's Conscious Cat blog and find out Challenges Of Living With Mystery Writer Clea Simon.

Have you read this one? What did you think of it? You can help our charity of the month just by leaving a comment on any of our blogs! We will donate 50 cents per comment at the end of the month. The charity for this month is at the top of our blog.

"Duma Key" by Stephen King

Duma Key takes awhile to really get going, but once it does, watch out!!  It is about Edgar who gets in a terrible accident which causes him lose his right arm and scrambles his mind.  He is filled with rage and begins rehab and resumes painting, something that once have him pleasure.  It's about loyalty and compassion  Very interesting characters and a good story with paranormal activity.  I've read better by him, but well worth your time.

Have you read this one? What did you think of it?

"Just After Sunset" by Stephen King

Just After Sunset by Stephen King is a collection of short stories by the "Master of Short Stories."  Most of these are very good and I wished they were longer.  I found only a couple that I didn't get into; hence 4 instead of 5 stars.  Must read for all King fans!
(Gerard's review 2009)

Have you read this one? What did you think of it?

"House of Reckoning" by John Saul

I liked House of Reckoning by John Saul because it was so strange and gripping. It made me want to keep reading to see what would happen and drew me in right from the start.  I immediately liked the main character, Sarah, a 14-yr. old who was plowed into by her drunk father on her way to the bar to bring him home and was put into foster care when her father was taken to prison for killing the man he fought with at the bar.  She was befriended by a boy at school who was an outcast because he hallucinated so was viewed as a nut case.  

That’s when spooky things began happening.  The ending was just so far out that I felt it pushed the book into the fantasy or science fiction category.  When the house actually became alive, it was even beyond creepy and eerie.  This isn’t the type of book I normally read but it made for a great change of pace.

(Karen's review 1/15/10)

 
Please tell us: What categories of literature do you like? What are you reading now? Who are your top five favorite authors? Have you read this one? What did you think of it?