Review: How To Hang A Witch

HOW TO HANG A WITCH
Adriana Mather
Paranormal Young Adult
368 pages
Knopf Books for Young Readers
Available Now
Source: BEA

THE STORY:
Salem, Massachusetts is the site of the infamous witch trials and the new home of Samantha Mather. Recently transplanted from New York City, Sam and her stepmother are not exactly welcomed with open arms. Sam is the descendant of Cotton Mather, one of the men responsible for those trials and almost immediately, she becomes the enemy of a group of girls who call themselves The Descendants. And guess who their ancestors were?
 
If dealing with that weren't enough, Sam also comes face to face with a real live (well technically dead) ghost. A handsome, angry ghost who wants Sam to stop touching his stuff. But soon Sam discovers she is at the center of a centuries old curse affecting anyone with ties to the trials. Sam must come to terms with the ghost and find a way to work with the Descendants to stop a deadly cycle that has been going on since the first accused witch was hanged. If any town should have learned its lesson, it's Salem. But history may be about to repeat itself.

MY THOUGHTS
How to Hang Witch gives us a look at how quickly mass hysteria can build and mob mentality can take over, and though it's not a story meant to be a profound examination of current affairs through the lens of the past, it's something that deeply resonates nonetheless given the tragic events around the world this year.

While we can't help but draw comparisons between the prejudice and hatred running rampant in Salem during the witch trials with that of today, this story also gives us an intriguing family curse to try and solve right alongside Sam and the mean girls clique that is the Descendants. The mystery surrounding the families with direct ties to the trials is well done, small clues given here and there to keep us interested, with Ms. Mather mixing just enough history with the paranormal to have us itching to do more in depth research once we close the back cover.

Though unraveling the family curse makes for the rapid turning of pages, older readers of YA like myself will likely find themselves needing to channel their inner teenager with regards to Sam, trying to see her fiery temper, snap judgements and impressive ability to push people away with a few cruel words through our younger eyes in order to keep from getting overly frustrated. In addition to Sam's youthful drama we also have a love triangle in which one point of said triangle is dead while the other two are living, and a group of high school girls who are a bit over the top in terms of nastiness, making it a bit hard to really settle in character-wise.

That being said though, those looking for something more story-driven than character-driven will likely appreciate this as a quick read and a fascinating take on a tragic event in our history, made even more so due to the author's direct link to Cotton Mather.

Rating: 3/5

Find Adriana:

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This book was sent to me by the publisher free of charge for the purpose of a review. 

I received no other compensation and the above is my honest opinion.

Review: Sisters of Salt and Iron

SISTERS OF SALT AND IRON
Sisters of Blood and Spirit #2
Kady Cross
Paranormal Young Adult
352 pages
Harlequin Teen
Available Now
Source: ARC from publisher for review

THE STORY (from Goodreads)
Lark Noble is finally happy. She’s trying to move on and put the events of the past behind her: the people who avoided her because she talked to the ghost of her dead twin sister, the parents who couldn’t be around her anymore and even the attempt she made on her own life. She finally has friends—people who know her secrets and still care about her—and she has Ben, the cute guy she never saw coming.

Wren Noble is lonely. Unable to interact with the living, she wants to be happy for her sister’s newfound happiness, but she feels like she’s losing her. It doesn’t help that Kevin, the very not-dead guy she was starting to fall for, seems to be moving on.

Then Wren meets Noah, the spirit of a young man who died a century ago. Noah is cute, he’s charming and he makes Wren feel something she’s never felt before. But Noah has a dark influence on Wren, and Lark’s distrust of him drives the sisters apart for the first time in their lives. As Halloween approaches and the veil between the worlds thins, bringing the dead closer to the world of the living, Lark must find a way to stop whatever deadly act Noah is planning, even if it means going through her sister to do so.

MY THOUGHTS
The setup for Sisters of Salt and Iron is a common one (especially for second books in a series) that can be tricky, wherein a new character enters the picture and effectively drives a wedge between a previously established relationship. In this particular case that relationship exists between twin sisters Lark and Wren, but the same kind of anxiety exists as we're able to do nothing but watch helplessly as said character delivers one resounding thwack to that wedge after another, driving us closer to the moment the crack created between sisters becomes a full break.

What makes this familiar trope successful in Sisters of Salt and Iron is not only the fact that Wren and Lark are sisters and we therefore don't have to deal with an interloper threatening any kind of romantic relationship, but also that Ms. Cross keeps the drama between the girls to a minimum as Noah whispers his dark untruths in Wren's ear. Wren does fall for him quickly and grow distrustful of her sister's motives at every turn, but the moment things come to a head is relatively low key (in a good way), and the bond between sisters quickly proves to be far stronger than the charms of a ghostly boy.

A truly fascinating aspect of this second installment is the way Ms. Cross continues to highlight Wren's otherness, giving us small reminders here and there that she's not simply a young woman who just happens to be a ghost, but rather that she's in no way human given she's never lived. Born dead, Wren doesn't experience human emotion in the same way as her sister, and every now and then as we spend time with her (the narrative alternates between both sisters) we're smacked in the face with unexpected proof that Wren is delightfully and gruesomely different from us "breathers".

Overall, Sisters of Salt and Iron is a quick read that ensures we consider sleeping with the lights on for a night or two after we close the back cover just in case one of the residents of Haven Crest decides to pay us a visit.

Rating: 4/5

Find Kady:

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This book was sent to me by the publisher free of charge for the purpose of a review. 

I received no other compensation and the above is my honest opinion.

Review: The Girl from the Well

THE GIRL FROM THE WELL
Rin Chupeco
Paranormal Young Adult
272 pages
Sourcebooks Fire
Available August 5th
Source: ARC from publisher for review

THE STORY (from Amazon)
I am where dead children go.

Okiku is a lonely soul. She has wandered the world for centuries, freeing the spirits of the murdered-dead. Once a victim herself, she now takes the lives of killers with the vengeance they're due. But releasing innocent ghosts from their ethereal tethers does not bring Okiku peace. Still she drifts on.

 Such is her existence, until she meets Tark. Evil writhes beneath the moody teen's skin, trapped by a series of intricate tattoos. While his neighbors fear him, Okiku knows the boy is not a monster. Tark needs to be freed from the malevolence that clings to him. There's just one problem: if the demon dies, so does its host.

MY THOUGHTS
A darkly unusual story, The Girl from the Well has us acting as cheerleaders throughout for a truly horrifying and vengeful spirit as she kills her victims in the most nightmare-inducing way possible. To go along with a tale that is both fascinating and off-putting is a rather unique format, one that includes sporadically placed indentations, one-word lines and various parenthetical asides that include numbers thanks to our ghostly narrator's mild obsession with counting. Okiku is a seemingly omniscient narrator (though being completely clueless as to official point of view definitions, I have no idea if this is in fact an omniscient POV), able to travel back and forth between a number of different characters and share with us their thoughts and feelings while occasionally jumping in with an “I” or “me” to remind us of her presence.

Okiku, given she's been wandering the earth for hundreds of years freeing the spirits of dead children from the shackles binding them to their murderers, is extraordinarily detached from the world itself, refusing for majority of the book to refer to anyone by name, instead calling them “the tattooed boy” or “the girl” when letting us know which character she happens to be following. As a result, we too are a touch detached from the story with the exception of the fervent hatred we feel when it comes to her victims, making the moments when she tortures and kills them, however terrifying, the times we feel most engaged in the story. Those who began this tale with no particular feelings towards dolls, mirrors, bathrooms or ceilings will likely find themselves looking at each with new eyes after reading, glancing at them with no shortage of wariness or fear while hoping against hope that we won't catch anything moving out of the corner of our eyes.

Okiku's journey with Tark (the tattooed boy) and his cousin Callie (the girl) is a bit of a wandering one, moving forward quickly and easily but also bouncing us around from one crime scene to the next before moving us to Japan and immersing us in their numerous ghost stories and demonic legends. Though we never find ourselves emotionally attached to either Tark or Callie, Okiku's ability to be both protector and executioner keeps us riveted throughout, tense up to the very last page as we wonder if she'll be able to free Tark from his complicated demonic bindings. Those readers looking for something a little different–and a whole lot unnerving–will likely find themselves easily swept up in Okiku's bloody freedom mission, the story itself strongly unique enough to overcome a (likely intentional) lack of character intimacy.

Rating: 3.5/5

Find Rin:

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This book was sent to me by the publisher free of charge for the purpose of a review. 

I received no other compensation and the above is my honest opinion.

Review: My Last Kiss

MY LAST KISS
Bethany Neal
Paranormal Young Adult
368 pages
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Available June 10th
Source: ARC from publisher for review

THE STORY (from Goodreads)
What if your last kiss was with the wrong boy?

Cassidy Haines remembers her first kiss vividly. It was on the old covered bridge the summer before her freshman year with her boyfriend of three years, Ethan Keys. But her last kiss--the one she shared with someone at her seventeenth birthday party the night she died--is a blur. Cassidy is trapped in the living world, not only mourning the loss of her human body, but left with the grim suspicion that her untimely death wasn't a suicide as everyone assumes. She can't remember anything from the weeks leading up to her birthday and she's worried that she may have betrayed her boyfriend.

If Cassidy is to uncover the truth about that fateful night and make amends with the only boy she'll ever love, she must face her past and all the decisions she made--good and bad--that led to her last kiss.

MY THOUGHTS
My Last Kiss is a story that has those of us who abhor cheating in all its various forms nervous from the moment we crack the spine, wondering if we’ll be able to connect with Cassidy or understand the whys of her disloyalty enough to forgive her. Though her reasons for turning to someone other than Ethan in the weeks leading up to her death are perhaps not quite as strong as we might like, through the piecing together of her splintered memories it’s easy for us to see how what started out as simple comfort suddenly became quicksand, pulling her down and trapping her in a lie that forced her to become the type of young woman she never dreamed she’d be.

Aiding us in our mission to withhold judgment and attempt to get to know Cassidy through our anger at her unfaithfulness is the fact that Cassidy, post-death, is as disappointed in herself as we are. As she slowly relives small fragments both from when she was younger as well as just before her death, she sees herself from the very perspective we see her–as an outsider bearing witness to the heightened emotion of the moment rather than living it–and is therefore able to acknowledge the role she played in her untimely demise. She doesn’t make excuses for herself or rationalize her behavior, instead she recognizes her mistakes and the hurt she caused in a way she didn’t or couldn’t as it was actually happening. We then find our ire simply cannot maintain its strength in the face of her clear remorse and desire to fix as much as she can in the time she has left.

The mystery aspect of the story keeps us turning the pages with increasing speed, eager to see what bit of information the next chapter will provide for us that we can file away as a brushstroke on the canvas in our minds that holds the half-formed painting of Cassidy’s last moments. While the final reveal of who was with Cassidy seconds before her death doesn’t come as a jaw-dropping surprise given Cassidy from page one understands she knew her attacker even if the specifics are blurry, the thrill lies much more in all we learn about who she was along the way rather than who was responsible for giving her a helping hand over the bridge’s railing.

Though there’s certainly a romantic aspect to this story, those readers who typically shy away from ghost stories with prominent romances for their sheer lack of believability shouldn’t discount My Last Kiss. It’s more a tale of a young girl who held something solid in her palms one minute only to have it turn to sand and slip through her fingers the next, each chapter helping both her and us as readers understand the choices she made and how they led her to a place where the only person who can see her is the one she hurt the most. There are certainly moments where pre-death Cassidy and post-death Cassidy have us wanting to shake her until the whole truth spills from her lips, but overall My Last Kiss is a truly entertaining read with a beautifully bittersweet ending.

Rating: 4/5
 

Find Bethany:

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This book was sent to me by the publisher free of charge for the purpose of a review. 

I received no other compensation and the above is my honest opinion.

If you haven't had a chance yet, be sure and check out my character interview with Ethan!

Review: Ashes to Ashes

ASHES TO ASHES
Ashes #1
Paranormal Young Adult
Melissa Walker
356 pages
Katherine Tegen Books
Available Now
Source: ARC from publisher for review

THE STORY (from Goodreads)
When Callie's life is cut short by a tragic accident, she expects to find nothingness, or maybe some version of heaven.

Instead, her spirit travels to the Prism, an ethereal plane populated by the ghosts she thought were fictional. Here she meets a striking and mysterious ghost named Thatcher, who is meant to guide her as she learns to haunt and bring peace to the loved ones she left behind.

However, Callie uncovers a dark secret about the spirit world: The angry souls who always populate ghost stories are real, dangerous, and willing to do whatever it takes to stay on Earth, threatening the existence of everyone she ever cared about.

As she fights to save them, Callie will learn that while it may no longer beat, her heart can still love-and break.

MY THOUGHTS
Ghost stories can be tricky beasts, particularly ones with a romance mixed in, often testing the boundaries of believability even with the generous dollop of disbelief we already suspend when cracking the spine of a paranormal tale taken into consideration. Ashes to Ashes gives us the most believable version of a ghostly romance though, one wherein both parties are on the same plane of existence rather than struggling to bridge the life and death gap to find lasting happiness. While the romance does play a role, it's a fairly minor component overall, and we instead get to take a closer look as the word haunting is given new meaning thanks to Callie's guide Thatcher. No longer is haunting a word that inspires fear, causing goosebumps to scatter across our skin at the thought of an unseen presence watching our every move; rather we come to see it as a word synonymous with comfort, Callie's haunting of those she left behind a way for her to fill them with the peace and acceptance of her passing.

Though the setup of Ashes to Ashes is a deeply fascinating one and the pages turn quickly and easily as Callie struggles to let go of a life unfinished, Callie herself can be extraordinarily problematic at times. At first, her disorientation and her desire to let her friends and family know that she's not entirely gone is completely understandable, as is her bristling at Thatcher's attempts to tell her how her new world works, but as the story progresses and Callie continues to buck Thatcher's authority at every turn, we find ourselves losing our sympathy for her plight. Despite all signs pointing to the fact that Thatcher is both knowledgeable and not without compassion for her situation, she always allows herself to be persuaded otherwise by those who give her a bad feeling, one she readily ignores again and again.

For most of the book, she wallows in a selfishness masquerading as the selfless desire to help those she loves, staunchly refusing to see just how much pain her way of going about haunting her friends and family causes them and convincing herself that Thatcher's way of bringing them solace is something it clearly isn't. Callie continues to hurt Thatcher with each blatant disregard of his teachings, and given his stoicism and quiet suffering profoundly affect us whenever he's on page, we can't help but work up a little resentment of her misguided attempts to contact her best friend and boyfriend. Though it takes a while, Callie does come to see the error of her ways before crossing a line she'd never be able to uncross, and in the final few chapters she makes great strides toward repairing the damage she's caused to her character in our eyes.

Overall, Ashes to Ashes is a story that flows well and inspires a myriad of reactions as we read, and while one of those reactions is undoubtedly frustration, this book is still easily devoured in a short amount of time. The ending is wrapped up – while perhaps not neatly as there are still some questions floating around seeking answers – definitely satisfactorily, though we can't help but hope there's more to come with Callie's story now that she's seen the proverbial light and has a new appreciation for the people who matter to her.

Rating: 3.5/5

*Update: When I wrote this review, I wasn't sure whether or not this story was going to have a sequel, but it turns out it will, so I imagine some of those lingering questions will be answered in book two:)

  

Find Melissa:

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This book was sent to me by the publisher free of charge for the purpose of a review. 

I received no other compensation and the above is my honest opinion.

Review: Forevermore

FOREVERMORE
Cindy Miles
Paranormal Young Adult
288 pages
Scholastic Point
Available Now
Source: ARC from publisher for review

THE STORY (from Goodreads)
On a misty cliffside, mystery and romance await. . . .

Ivy Calhoun's life has been turned upside down. Her new stepdad has uprooted Ivy and her mom, bringing them to live in an actual castle in the misty Scottish countryside. There are stone-faced servants and shadowy corridors, and the ancient walls seem full of secrets. Ivy is at once frightened and intrigued.

Especially when she meets Logan, a gorgeous, elusive ghost who has haunted the castle grounds for decades. Ivy is immediately drawn to him . . . but Logan is not the only spirit around. Something dark and deadly is afoot, and soon Ivy finds herself in mortal danger.

Is Logan exactly what he seems? Could his mysterious past be tied to Ivy's present? And can Ivy stop herself from falling in love with him?

MY THOUGHTS
Forevermore is a quick and engaging read; the type that doesn't test boundaries, push the envelope, or challenge us emotionally, but one that keeps us interested throughout and leaves us with a sweet smile on our faces nonetheless. The story itself is not overly complex, Ivy and Logan's relationship largely drama-free and their supernatural problems resolved with relative ease, but Ms. Miles ensures we are utterly charmed by Logan's thick Scottish brogue and deeply intrigued by the eerie hollowness of the highlands. A couple short hours will see the entirety of this story read from beginning to end, and we then set it aside with all the warmth a pleasant, sweet story leaves lingering in its wake.

Ivy is not a young woman whose layers we peel back chapter by chapter, instead she's simply someone we enjoy spending a short chunk of time with, content with what we do know of her and without a driving need to know more. Despite a strong focus on the romance between her and Logan, she doesn't fall for him instantly or build her days around seeing him again, rather she shows an appropriate amount of fear and hesitation given Logan's ghostly status, and even when they've moved beyond fear, a declaration of love is thankfully a bit longer in coming.

Like Ivy, Logan is a fairly straightforward character, a cute love interest with an undeniably attractive accent that causes our hearts to stutter a time or two in their regular rhythm. He's everything we might dream of meeting should we ever find ourselves in Scotland (minus the ghost part), and his romance with Ivy is full of soft murmurings and quiet hopes for a magical outcome for the two of them, leaving us comfortable and happy even though we know their story will not be one our minds cling to as we begin our next read.

Overall, Forevermore is the perfect light escape into the murky depths of the highlands, the rich brogue of majority of the characters making the story feel almost as though it's being read aloud, and we breeze quickly through it before filing it away as something to be picked up when having a bad day.

Rating: 3.5/5

Find Cindy:

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This book was sent to me by the publisher free of charge for the purpose of a review. 

I received no other compensation and the above is my honest opinion.

Review: Rebel Spirits

REBEL SPIRITS
Lois Ruby
Paranormal Young Adult
304 pages
Scholastic Point
Available now
Source: Finished copy from publisher for review

THE STORY (from Goodreads)
Lori Chase doesn't know what to think about ghosts. She may have seen a few in the past, but those were just childish imaginings...right? Only now that she is living in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, spirits seem to be on everyone's mind. The town is obsessed with its bloody Civil War history, and the old inn that Lori's parents run is supposedly haunted by the souls of dead soldiers.

Then Lori meets one such soldier--the devastatingly handsome Nathaniel Pierce. Nathaniel's soul cannot rest, and he desperately needs Lori's help. Because Nathaniel was not killed in the famous battle. He was murdered. Lori begins to investigate the age-old mystery, stumbling upon shocking clues and secrets.

At the same time, she can't help falling for Nathaniel, just as he is falling for her....

MY THOUGHTS
Rebel Spirits has an appealing premise, promising us an impossible romance between a young woman and the ghost of a Civil War soldier as well as the uncovering of a mystery surrounding his death all those years ago. Set in beautifully atmospheric Gettysburg, the opening chapters of this story have us fairly thrumming with anticipation, eager to experience a party of history page by page. Unfortunately, what unfolds is a tale that fails to set itself apart from a myriad of young adult romantic suspense stories, giving us a heroine who reads younger than her nearly seventeen years and a soldier who is every bit as untouchable to us as readers as he is to those around him when in spirit form.

In the opening chapters Lori appears to be a cute girl who's less-than enthused about having to move away from her home in the pursuit of her parents' dream to own a bed and breakfast, but she's not whiny or sulky and she immediately has us feeling at ease in her presence. Problems start to arise when Nathaniel enters the picture (though she does handle the fact that he's a ghost quite well), becoming suddenly very judgmental and quick to believe whatever newest piece of information about his past is revealed. She fully supports him and revels in her rapidly escalating love for him one minute before suddenly questioning what type of person he was when he died the next, her emotional turmoil churning at a pace we can hardly keep up with before finally settling on a supposed deep and abiding love.

The highlight of the story is secondary character Evan, a young man doing whatever manual labor the B&B needs to keep it up and running, his quick wit and easy charm making Nathaniel's quiet and more reserved nature almost bland in comparison. Granted, a great number of their differences can be attributed to the time period in which they both grew up, but Evan is vibrant, charismatic and the first part the story that feels tangible, making our detachment from Lori's obvious feelings for Nathaniel all the more apparent. He's sweet to her even when she's quick to dismiss him in favor of Nathaniel and the responsibility she feels she owes the soldier to solve his murder, and our frustration with her only continues to grow as Evan tries harder and harder to win a little of her affection.

Overall Rebel Hearts, while a quick and easy read, doesn't quite captivate or enthrall, it simply relates the tale line by line and page by page, the difference between it and some other standouts in the genre like that of a speech delivered in monotone versus one full of inflection and passion.

Rating 2.5-3/5

Find Lois:

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This book was sent to me by the publisher free of charge for the purpose of a review. 

I received no other compensation and the above is my honest opinion.

Review: Notes From Ghost Town

NOTES FROM GHOST TOWN
Kate Ellison
Paranormal young adult
336 pages
EgmontUSA
Available today!
Received from Media Masters Publicity for review

THE STORY (from Goodreads)
They say first love never dies...

From critically acclaimed author Kate Ellison comes a heartbreaking mystery of mental illness, unspoken love, and murder. When sixteen-year-old artist Olivia Tithe is visited by the ghost of her first love, Lucas Stern, it’s only through scattered images and notes left behind that she can unravel the mystery of his death.

There’s a catch: Olivia has gone colorblind, and there’s a good chance she’s losing her mind completely—just like her mother did. How else to explain seeing (and falling in love all over again with) someone who isn’t really there?

With the murder trial looming just nine days away, Olivia must follow her heart to the truth, no matter how painful. It’s the only way she can save herself.

MY THOUGHTS
Notes from Ghost Town is one of those reads that lets us know from the first page that our hearts are going bear a few new scars once it’s done with us, our knowledge of Stern’s death thanks to the synopsis and prologue made an even heavier burden to bear given he’s alive briefly in the first chapter. Those few precious moments with him–a young man full of color, life, and love for his best friend–makes the abrupt transition from life to death all the more painful, the color we could have sworn we saw on those few pages we spent with him suddenly a stark black, a haunting echo of Livie’s own colorblindness.

Livie is someone we come to care for instantaneously, her nervousness over the subtle changes taking place between her and Stern something we wrap around our shoulders to preserve heat and ward off the chill we know is coming. The Livie we find waiting for us just one chapter later and almost ten months after Stern's murder is a very different young woman, someone we stare at long and hard searching for remnants the sweet and nervous art lover we just embraced, but ultimately finding a grieving, angry and painfully lost little girl in her place. While it’s hard to bear witness to the continued downward spiral Stern’s death has caused, we more than understand her inability to control how her hurt escapes the tight lockdown she tries to keep on it, often erupting with more volatility in order to get past her vise like grip than it would if she simply released it on her own.

Though she often lashes out at any who dare get close to her, Livie never comes across as needlessly cruel or gets to the point where her anger pushes us away as it does those around her, instead her words and actions only have us opening our arms up wider in the hope she might find some comfort in them despite her fictional status. Behind the pain of a two-fold loss in both Stern and her mother, Livie is also dealing with the appearance of Stern’s ghost, something that seems for her to be the confirmation of a very real and profound fear that her mother’s mental illness is beginning to manifest in her. Just when it seems as though we can’t possibly bear any more darkness in Livie’s life however, Ms. Ellison grants us a bit of beauty and light thanks to Stern’s presence, however real or imagined, their time together heavy with words unspoken and promise unfulfilled, causing grateful tears to well in our eyes just to see them reunited even knowing it’s only for a short time.

In addition to a stunning relationship between two best friends who ran out of time to be anything more, Ms. Ellison gives us a truly engrossing murder mystery, the circumstances of Stern’s murder suspicious at best and growing more so with everything Livie learns as he guides her with cryptic memories. With romance (both of the ghostly and real-life variety), heartache, action, and complicated family dynamics, Notes from Ghost Town delivers on every possible level, and I cannot wait to get my hands on whatever Ms. Ellison writes next.

Rating: 4/5

Review: The Dead and Buried

THE DEAD AND BURIED
Kim Harrington
Paranormal Young Adult
304 pages
Scholastic Point
Available January 1st
Received from publisher for review

THE STORY (from Goodreads)
Jade loves the house she's just moved into with her family. She doesn't even mind being the new girl at the high school: It's a fresh start, and there's that one guy with the dreamy blue eyes. . . . But then things begin happening. Strange, otherworldly things. Jade's little brother claims to see a glimmering girl in his room. Jade's jewelry gets moved around, as if by an invisible hand. Kids at school whisper behind her back like they know something she doesn't.

Soon, Jade must face an impossible fact: that her perfect house is haunted. Haunted by a ghost who's seeking not just vengeance, but the truth. The ghost of a girl who ruled Jade's school — until her untimely death last year. It's up to Jade to put the pieces together before her own life is at stake. As Jade investigates the mystery, she discovers that her new friends in town have more than a few deep, dark secrets. But is one of them a murderer?

MY THOUGHTS
The Dead and Buried is a quick and entertaining read, one that’s just creepy enough to encourage daytime reading for those of us who are easily unnerved and just romantic enough to have a few breathy sighs escaping our lips as we flip the pages. While the murder mystery aspect is fairly easy to solve once we look past the abundance of very obvious and very motivated choices, ultimately the discovery of the culprit is not really the sole point of the story. Yes, we want to know who is responsible for Kayla’s death, but more interesting than a simple identity reveal is both Kayla’s presence in Jade’s new house as well as her absence in her circle of friends, a telling contrast that slowly rips the mask of perfection off a young woman to reveal the true face beneath.

Jade is a delightful depiction of normalcy; intelligent, compassionate, and honest but, within those desirable attributes, are shades of gray that make her feel utterly and appealing real. She’s clearly smart, however she’s susceptible to a touch of ego, often convincing herself that she's doing the right thing and has absolutely no other choice but to follow the path she’s on when, if she just took a few moments to look past herself and put a little trust in someone else, she would clearly see a fork in her road. Though we sometimes want to shake our heads at her, she’s often quick to remedy the minor mistakes she makes, allowing us to easily forgive them knowing how easy it is to get caught up in a moment and then think better of a decision after the fact.

The romance is sweet, present enough to satisfy our desire for a little warmth to battle the bitter cold of Kayla’s spectral presence and the truth of her cruelty without overwhelming the other aspects of the story. There are two boys vying for Jade’s affection, however, Jade’s clear preference for one and her utter lack of romantic interest in the other prevents the Jade, Kane, and Donovan dynamic from wedging itself into a tidy triangle shape. Donovan is the clear choice from almost the beginning, and despite a bit of inadvertent game playing with Kane that’s a touch bothersome as Jade tries to integrate herself into Kayla’s circle of friends in order to do a bit of amateur sleuthing, the time spent with Jade leaves a lingering smile on our faces.

Ms. Harrington never fails to entertain with her stories, and The Dead and Buried is yet another strong addition to her resume. Her characters are likable and easy to relate to, radiating a sense of ordinariness despite the extraordinary situations they often find themselves in, and we can’t help but look forward to whatever she’ll write next knowing a new set of fun characters and an engrossing story will surely be waiting for us.

Rating: 4/5

Review: Paper Valentine

PAPER VALENTINE
Brenna Yovanoff
Paranormal-ish Young Adult
368 pages
Razorbill
Available January 8th
Received from publisher for review

THE STORY (from Goodreads)
The city of Ludlow is gripped by the hottest July on record. The asphalt is melting, the birds are dying, petty crime is on the rise, and someone in Hannah Wagnor’s peaceful suburban community is killing girls.

For Hannah, the summer is a complicated one. Her best friend Lillian died six months ago, and Hannah just wants her life to go back to normal. But how can things be normal when Lillian’s ghost is haunting her bedroom, pushing her to investigate the mysterious string of murders? Hannah’s just trying to understand why her friend self-destructed, and where she fits now that Lillian isn’t there to save her a place among the social elite. And she must stop thinking about Finny Boone, the big, enigmatic delinquent whose main hobbies seem to include petty larceny and surprising acts of kindness.

With the entire city in a panic, Hannah soon finds herself drawn into a world of ghost girls and horrifying secrets. She realizes that only by confronting the Valentine Killer will she be able move on with her life—and it’s up to her to put together the pieces before he strikes again.

MY THOUGHTS
Paper Valentine is a story that from the synopsis sounds like it's going to be a creepy little murder mystery, and though a serial killer does leave his mark on the pages, what we find is a more character-driven story than initially expected. It bears mentioning however that Ms. Yovanoff's approach to strong characterization is slightly different in nature –  rather than taking a chisel in hand and shaping Hannah and Finny from her mind's eye for us she instead gives us a solid block of marble and a rough sketch for reference, and then turns the tools over to us. We're able to see what she's started, with hints of who these characters are placed carefully and with purpose, but ultimately we're given the opportunity to read into everything that's left unsaid, drawing our own conclusions and ultimately having a hand in the crafting of our relationship with them.

Hannah is not a young woman we know all that well by the end of the story, but what we do know of her is intimate and poignant, and in the end, far more perfect than an in-depth character study would have been in this case. In the beginning Hannah is lacking in substance and transparent to our eyes, not because substance isn't there, but rather because we haven't yet been granted access to it. Slowly over the course of the story we learn about Hannah as she learns about herself, the focus of the story more on the person she was when best friend Lillian was alive versus the person she is now after her death, and we both struggle to determine if there is truly a difference between the two or if the real Hannah has been present all along.

Hannah's relationship with Finny is a bit like watching one of those shows on the Discovery Channel about how something is made, knowing that if we just watch closely enough, we'll walk away from this story a bit richer, privileged to have been exposed to something fascinating. Superficially, Finny and Hannah's romance seems extraordinarily quiet and a bit slow, their time together categorized by long silences not a result of sexual tension, but rather because neither quite has a firm grasp on who they are as individuals given they've both been defined by people and factors outside themselves for so long, and before they can fully relate to someone else, they must first figure out how to relate to themselves. Despite the fact that not much is said between them, they communicate beautifully, using the moments in between words to say what the other most needs to hear.

Overall, Paper Valentine is a bit of an unexpected read; those looking for a murder mystery could easily breeze through this book and find a satisfying if not completely unique story, but they would be missing out on what elevates this book from typical to special. This is a story where part of the experience is analyzing all that's not printed on the pages, spending long minutes after reading thinking over every action and thought to see what other meanings we can decipher when we look at the negative space instead of the positive.

Rating: 4/5