The Spooky Bookshelf

In my quest to work through my NetGalley queue, I started reading If You Can Hear This by Faith Gardner. I have another book by Ms. Gardner in my NetGalley queue as well, so I was hoping that I would enjoy this book. I did - immensely.

What do you get when you mix a group of misfit kids who make up an audio/visual club, a missing teacher, and an apathetic town? You get If You Can Hear This. And believe me, this is a book you won't want to miss.

Our main characters - Posey, Sal, Jeremiah, Athena, Yash, and Lexy make up the Wild Pines High School AV Club. They each have their own unique perspectives on life and what's happening.

Posey is a girl who came to Wild Pines from San Francisco. She's the new kid - she's weird, quite a bit on the bossy side, and to be honest, obnoxious. I found myself wanting to reach through the screen and swat her upside the head, telling her to relax.

Sal is an enigmatic character, about whom we find out quite a bit. He's mysterious and can seem suspicious at times, but he's got a good heart and he cares about people.

Jeremiah isn't seen as much but he's an interesting character, what we do get to see of him.

Athena is the actress of the group but she's got her own issues. I liked her quite a bit because she seemed more real than most of the other characters.

Yash is another character who is more or less in the background - we find out bits and pieces about him, but not much.

Lexy is seen fairly often in If You Can Hear This, but she's another background character whom we don't learn a lot about. I do wish we'd learned a bit more about her - especially considering she's an activist at heart.

I loved the plot for this book. A teacher goes missing and her students set out to figure out what happened to her and where she went. They also want to raise awareness as it seems no one in authority wants to actually do anything about the missing teacher. It shows what students can do when they set their minds to it. It also shows some of the realities of people being on social media and what can come of social media use.

I gave this book a solid four stars because I thought it was a really good YA Mystery/Thriller. The start was a bit slow and it took a few days for me to really get fully into the book, but once it got going, it was awesome. I can't wait to read the other book by Ms. Gardner that is in my queue.

If you're a fan of urban legends, then One House Left by Vincent Ralph is definitely a book you should check out. Playing around with Bloody Mary or Death Number 999-9999 is one thing, but living in an urban legend? That's a whole different story.

For the most part, I wasn't overly attached to our main character, Nate. Something was off about him - and not just the fact that he was oddly obsessed with Murder Road and keeping people away from there. He just wasn't a character that I really connected with, to be honest. But sometimes you don't need to connect with the characters.

I loved Max - she was someone I'd probably have been friends with when I was in high school. She's fiery but she also has a soft side. She's my favorite of the characters in this book.

The other two main characters, from whose point of view we get to see parts of the story, Seb and Tyler are interesting characters, but I didn't really connect with either of them. They were more or less background noise - someone more for Nate and Max to interact with.

The plot for One House Left is fairly simple - Nate and his family used to live near Cherry Tree Lane, also known in the world of urban legends as Murder Road. Unfortunately, Murder Road isn't just a legend, it is real. Now Nate and his family are on the run from Murder Road... but why? The twist is something you won't see coming... and even then, it's a slow burn twist to get the full story.

I didn't have the massive "can't put this down" feeling like I have for other books, but I also didn't hate it. I still wanted to know what was happening, but it wasn't as much of a burning need as it has been for other books. To be honest, One House Left is the first Vincent Ralph book I've actually finished. I tried to read Lock the Doors a couple of years ago and just couldn't get into it. Maybe it is time to revisit that book, now that I have a better idea of Mr. Ralph's writing style.

Vincent Ralph's writing style is slow burn rather than fast paced. It will take you quite a while to get the main action. Sure, there will be bits and pieces to keep you entertained and help keep your attention, but to get to the good stuff, you'll have to read over half the book. Trust me, it's worth it.

The ending was great - it left the book with an ending that was both final and not at the same time. The book could have a sequel if Mr. Ralph wanted to write one, but it doesn't need one. If he did write a sequel, I'd love to read it.

I'm giving this book 4 stars because it's a great slow burn horror novel that will make you want to know more, but not to the point of obsessing over it.

When I chose to read The Debutantes by Olivia Worley, I did so based purely on the cover. I love the cover to this book so much, even though I can't exactly tell you why. It just jumped out at me as something I should read. And my intuition was spot-on.

The Debutantes is what Pretty Little Liars would have been if it was set in New Orleans. Dead and missing friends, danger, secrets being exposed, mysterious masked people.... Yep, Pretty LIttle Liars in New Orleans backed by Krewe culture and, to an extent, Debutante culture. Honestly, that's one of the reasons I loved it so much. I loved Pretty Little Liars.

Reading this book kept me on my toes. I didn't want to put it down, and honestly, I stayed up until 6AM to finish it! It was so easy to read, so easy to follow that I just didn't want to stop reading. That's one of the ways in which it differs from Pretty Little Liars - you won't need a spreadsheet to keep track of what's going on. Also, The Debutantes won't need sixteen books to wrap everything up - it was all wrapped up neatly at the end. Or was it?

The ending was amazing and wrapped the book up well. Does it wrap the full story up? It actually could. But could there be more books? I think there could, if Ms. Worley wants there to be more books. I'm sure there's a way to add a sequel or two to this plot.

As for the characters, I really enjoyed Vivian and April. I wasn't as much of a fan of Piper's, mostly because she drove me crazy with the way she behaves. However, I didn't like Lily at all. Granted, we don't see a lot of her, but she just doesn't seem to be a genuine person in this story. She isn't sincere in anything she says or does and it just bugs me.

I gave this book five stars because it was an excellent book that made me want to keep reading - even after it was over. I hope to read more from Ms. Worley in the future!

• - substance abuse
• - mentions of suicide
• - death/harm of a child
• - mentions of sexual assault/child sexual abuse
• - gore/violence

I periodically receive emails from NetGalley telling me what books are "Read Now". In the most recent email, _What the Woods Took_ was listed among the books on offer. While I had previously seen Courtney Gould's other books on NetGalley, I had not been lucky enough to be chosen to read them. But since this one was "Read Now" I managed to snag it. I'm so glad I was able to get it.

In this book we follow five teenagers who have been sent away to "wilderness therapy" by their parents/guardians. Our illustrious group consists of:

• - Devin - nearly 18 years old, has been in foster care for most of her life, resorts to violence to solve her problems.
• - Sheridan - a rich girl with a tragic past, she has a tendency to be quite the bitch to others
• - Hannah - a girl you'd think would be the last person on earth to be sent to "wilderness therapy"
• - Aidan - a younger teen who just wanted to be liked
• - Ollie - a teen relatively close in age to Devin who did something bad, but not what his dad thought

As we follow these five teens on their wilderness therapy journey, we find that things in this wilderness aren't exactly what they seem. One of the things I loved about this book is that the enemy isn't what you'd expect - and in some cases might actually be someone you know!

I found the writing style in _What the Woods Took_ to be extremely easy to follow and I was very impressed with it. Ms. Gould crafted this story with the utmost care and made it so easy to read that I finished in just a few hours. It also helped that I didn't want to put the book down!

I gave this book a four star rating - I can't wait to pick up Ms. Gould's other novels from the library. She has gained a fan for life.

I picked up Buried Secrets a while ago while perusing the Edelweiss+ gallery of books that could be freely downloaded, but didn't get around to reading it right away. Now I kind of wish I had.

For one, it is a clean thriller. No foul language, no sex, nothing that would make your grandmother cringe. The author even states it is meant to be a clean book. Which is a nice change of pace from the overly sexualized, over-filled with cuss words thrillers I often read. Not that I'm opposed to a little bit of sex or some swear words. I'm not. I just would prefer that the books have less rather than more of those things.

Buried Secrets is the revised edition of The Secret, the prequel novella to the Mirror Estate series. I'd not read The Secret, so I went into this book blind. But that didn't stop me from enjoying it thoroughly.

For two, I like Dylan. He's grieving the loss of his mother, a period I remember all too well. He's also a loyal friend, something you'll understand when you read the book. But suffice it to say, he doesn't forget where he came from. Or who was there for him when his life turned upside down.

In all honesty, the Marino family secrets were good ones. While one of them didn't totally surprise me, another one did. As did a few other surprises that were in store for readers. And this was the prequel novella! This isn't even one of the full novels.

I gave this a solid four star rating and I look forward to obtaining and reading the rest of the Mirror Estate series. Do yourself a huge favor and Buried Secrets when you get the chance. I don't think you'll be disappointed!