One Hundred Candles, by Mara Purnhagen (Book 2 in the After Midnight Series)

I’ve opened a door that cannot be closed.

It’s taken a long time for me to feel like a normal teenager. But now that I’m settled in a new school, where people know me as more than Charlotte Silver of the infamous Silver family paranormal investigators, it feels like everything is falling into place. And what better way to be normal than to go on a date with a popular football star like Harris Abbott? After all, it’s not as if Noah is anything more than a friend...

But my new life takes a disturbing turn when Harris brings me to a party and we play a game called One Hundred Candles. It seems like harmless, ghostly fun. Until spirits unleashed by the game start showing up at school. Now my friends and family are in very real danger, and the door that I’ve opened into another realm may yield deadly consequences.

As if being a high school student is hard enough...

Charlotte has lived with the paranormal all her life. Her parents are famous (infamous) for being paranormal researchers, but in the "Ghost Hunters" tradition of debunking the events rather than blind acceptance. Charlotte has almost always been involved in the family business, though only recently has she experienced some things for herself.

It seems that something has sought her out. Strange things are happening at school that seem to be recreating the stories told at the party that. Charlotte can explain away many of them, but there's just some things that no one has an answer for. To top it off, someone else has heard the same ghostly voice talking about pushing back a curtain.

Things are heating up. People are getting physically hurt, and what happens in a few months time really will change Charlotte's life, forever.

I'm a sucker for a good paranormal story that doesn't include glittery vampires or hunky werewolves. And the whole "debunking" aspect of this family appeals to me. Purnhagen's story is just good. She doesn't go for the unbelievable, and the fact that Charlotte is a bit skeptical about everything just makes everything that much more realistic.

With the growing interest in all things supernatural, this second book in the After Midnight series continues the story that's just fun..and captivating...and scarily believable. ;)

Purnhage, Mara. One Hundred Candles. Harlequin (Harlequin TEEN). February, 2011.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this ebook galley from Harlequin TEEN through the netGalley publisher/reader connection program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Delirium, by Lauren Oliver

They say that the cure for love will make me happy and safe forever. And I’ve always believed them.

Until now.
 Now everything has changed. Now, I’d rather be infected with love for the tiniest sliver of a second than live a hundred years smothered by a lie.
(from the book jacket)

(From the front cover flap:)
Ninety-five days, and then I'll be safe. I wonder whether the procedure will hurt. I want to get it over with. It's hard to be patient. It's hard not to be afraid while I'm still uncured, though so far the deliria hasn't touched me yet. Still, I worry. They say that in the old days, love drove people to madness. The deadliest of all deadly things: It kills you both when you have it and when you don't.


Imagine a world where the simple (and oh, so complex) emotion of love is outlawed. And not just outlawed, but eliminated. It's dystopian, to say the least.

The world, right down to the Bible, has been rewritten. "Uncured" boys and girls cannot mingle. The "cured" are told what life will bring, or at least the highpoints. Those who cannot conform are dead or imprisoned, or delivered to mental institutions.

Lena's marked--her mother couldn't conform. The time for her to be cured is fast-approaching, and though she's always been certain that the prescribed way is the way (if only to avoid being like her mother), suddenly she's not so sure.

Lauren Oliver has delivered a page-turner. Literally. It took me all of 4 hours to read this book because I couldn't put it down. I love Lena, her insecurity even when she is certain of the direction she should go. Her innocence and her passion when she realizes how things should really be, at least for her. This story has no slow moments, no time you wish things would pick up a bit. It's a coming of age-love and adventure story. The best part is that it's the first in a trilogy. The worst part is that I have to wait until next February to read the next installment. :(

Oliver, Lauren. Delirium. Harper Collins, February 2011.

Disclosure of Material Connection: This book is part of the library collection for the school library I work in. I was not solicited to write a review, nor am I receiving any compensation. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”



Stitches, by David Small

Created by my student worker, Kari.

Origins, by Sean Hayden



Cover art from Echelon Press

 From the publisher's site

Ashlyn Thorn was born different. Born with all the characteristics of a vampire, she lives in a world where vampires, elves, and werewolves work, play, and die side by side with normal humans. But everyone knows vampires aren’t born, they’re made. The only thing she wants is to know her true origins.


Ashlyn’s quest to discover the truth of her differences is all that matters. But with every answer, she uncovers more uncertainties. To make things worse she has found herself an enemy of the most powerful vampires of the city who fear her powers are too dangerous to let go unchecked.

Salvation comes at the hands of the government, or does it, who trains her in the ways that best serve their purposes. Ashlyn is torn between two worlds. She can either be a monster, or she can help destroy the monsters.


Fun story (in the sense that it's a fun/quick read). Ashlyn is a walking dysfunction. She's sorta a vampire, she's not really a vampire. She's orphaned suddenly, after never having had anything interaction with the outside world--yet she somehow manages to be recruited by a government agency (that has lots of other "sups"--super humans--working for it).

The action picks up almost immediately, and runs through out the story. It's a page turner (well, would be if it was offered in print). Characters are likeable, but no one but Ashlyn is very well-developed. There's a few loose ends as you go that I would've liked tied up. The story development is just too neat and tidy, although it is a short-ish novel, so there's not a lot of room for messiness.

If I had to rate it out of 5, I'd give it a 3.


Hayden, Sean. Origins. Echelon Press, February, 2011. (eBook only)
 
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this ebook free from Echelon Press. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Invasion, by Jon S. Lewis (a C.H.A.O.S. Novel)

From the publisher's blurb:

He didn't ask for the job, but now all that stands between us and chaos . . . is Colt.


Colt McAlister was having the summer of his life. He spent his days surfing and his nights playing guitar on the beach with friends. He even met a girl and got his first car. But everything changes when his parents are killed in a freak accident.

He's forced to leave his old life behind and move to Arizona with his grandfather. The only person he knows at the new high school is a childhood friend named Dani. And Oz, a guy he's sure he's never met but who is strangely familiar.

But what if his parents' death wasn't an accident? His mother, and investigative reporter, was going to expose a secret mind-control program run by one of the world's largest companies. Before she could release the story, what if agents from Trident Biotech made sure she couldn't go public?

Vowing to uncover truth, Colt gets drawn into a secret world of aliens, shapeshifters, flying motorcycles, and invisible getaways.

The invasion has begun.

I love that line..."The invasion has begun."

Anyone that knows me knows that I'm a big fan of the Marvel Comics movies. As I read this book (which is in no way related to the Marvel series), I was reminded of what it is about those movies that I enjoy. The story line is technically possible, albeit in a far-fetched kind of way, but has that plausibility that can only come with a super hero feel. And then, with the whole semi-government/military agency focused on aliens, there was a "Men in Black" twist.

Colt is a real teenager, living through a real crisis. He has no clue what his family's background has been in, yet he's suddenly thrust in the middle of saving the earth from the bad guys--aliens from another planet that have apparently been sharing ours for decades. There's the cool toys, the alien encounters, a comic book superhero tie-in, AND Colt seems to have natural abilities that impress the big wigs in a big way.

Fast-paced and packed tight, this book almost reads like a movie-novelization. Definitely a good read, and I look forward to the coming books in the series.


Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this ebook galley from Thomas Nelson Publishers through the netGalley publisher/reader connection program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”