Book Review | Every Breath | Ellie Marney

Dec 15

I received this book for free from in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Book Review | Every Breath | Ellie MarneyEvery Breath by Ellie Marney
Series: Every #1
Published by Tundra on October 14, 2014
Genres: Aussie YA, Contemporary YA, Mysteries & Detective Stories, Romance
Pages: 352
Format: eARC
Goodreads
five-stars

When James Mycroft drags Rachel Watts off on a night mission to the Melbourne Zoo, the last thing she expects to find is the mutilated body of Homeless Dave, one of Mycroft’s numerous eccentric friends. But Mycroft’s passion for forensics leads him to realize that something about the scene isn’t right–and he wants Watts to help him investigate the murder.

While Watts battles her attraction to bad-boy Mycroft, he’s busy getting himself expelled and clashing with the police, becoming murder suspect number one. When Watts and Mycroft unknowingly reveal too much to the cold-blooded killer, they find themselves in the lion’s den–literally. A trip to the zoo will never have quite the same meaning to Rachel Watts again…

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Filed Under: Reviews, Young Adult

Book Review | The Humming Room | Ellen Potter

Mar 16

I received this book for free from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Book Review | The Humming Room | Ellen PotterThe Humming Room by Ellen Potter
Published by Feiwel & Friends on February 28, 2012
Genres: Middle Grade, Mysteries & Detective Stories
Pages: 192
Format: eARC
Source: the publisher via NetGalley
Amazon • Barnes & Noble • Goodreads
four-stars

Hiding is Roo Fanshaw’s special skill. Living in a frighteningly unstable family, she often needs to disappear at a moment’s notice. When her parents are murdered, it’s her special hiding place under the trailer that saves her life.

As it turns out, Roo, much to her surprise, has a wealthy if eccentric uncle, who has agreed to take her into his home on Cough Rock Island. Once a tuberculosis sanitarium for children of the rich, the strange house is teeming with ghost stories and secrets. Roo doesn’t believe in ghosts or fairy stories, but what are those eerie noises she keeps hearing? And who is that strange wild boy who lives on the river? People are lying to her, and Roo becomes determined to find the truth.

Despite the best efforts of her uncle’s assistants, Roo discovers the house’s hidden room–a garden with a tragic secret.

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Filed Under: Children's/Middle Grade, Reviews Tagged With: , , , , ,

Book Review | The Butterfly Clues | Kate Ellison

Mar 14

I received this book for free from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Book Review | The Butterfly Clues | Kate EllisonThe Butterfly Clues by Kate Ellison
Series: Lost Girl #1
Published by Egmont USA on February 14, 2012
Genres: Contemporary YA, Mental Illness, Mysteries & Detective Stories
Pages: 325
Format: eARC
Source: the publisher via NetGalley
Amazon • Barnes & Noble • Goodreads
four-stars

Penelope (Lo) Marin has always loved to collect beautiful things. Her dad’s consulting job means she’s grown up moving from one rundown city to the next, and she’s learned to cope by collecting (sometimes even stealing) quirky trinkets and souvenirs in each new place—possessions that allow her to feel at least some semblance of home.

But in the year since her brother Oren’s death, Lo’s hoarding has blossomed into a full-blown, potentially dangerous obsession. She discovers a beautiful, antique butterfly pendant during a routine scour at a weekend flea market, and recognizes it as having been stolen from the home of a recently murdered girl known only as “Sapphire”—a girl just a few years older than Lo. As usual when Lo begins to obsess over something, she can’t get the murder out of her mind.

As she attempts to piece together the mysterious “butterfly clues,” with the unlikely help of a street artist named Flynt, Lo quickly finds herself caught up in a seedy, violent underworld much closer to home than she ever imagined—a world, she’ll ultimately discover, that could hold the key to her brother’s tragic death.

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Filed Under: 2012 Reading Challenge, Reviews, Young Adult Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Book Review | The Name of the Star | Maureen Johnson

Nov 3
Book Review | The Name of the Star | Maureen JohnsonThe Name of the Star by Maureen Johnson
Series: Shades of London #1
Published by Penguin on September 29, 2011
Genres: Contemporary YA, Europe, Horror & Ghost Stories, Mysteries & Detective Stories, Paranormal YA, People & Places, Young Adult
Pages: 400
Format: Hardcover
Source: Bought it
Amazon • Barnes & Noble • Goodreads
four-stars

The day Louisiana teenager Rory Deveaux arrives in London marks a memorable occasion. For Rory, it’s the start of a new life at a London boarding school. But for many, this will be remembered as the day a series of brutal murders broke out across the city, gruesome crimes mimicking the horrific Jack the Ripper events of more than a century ago.

Soon “Rippermania” takes hold of modern-day London, and the police are left with few leads and no witnesses. Except one. Rory spotted the man police believe to be the prime suspect. But she is the only one who saw him. Even her roommate, who was walking with her at the time, didn’t notice the mysterious man. So why can only Rory see him? And more urgently, why has Rory become his next target? In this edge-of-your-seat thriller, full of suspense, humor, and romance, Rory will learn the truth about the secret ghost police of London and discover her own shocking abilities.

 

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Filed Under: Reviews, Young Adult