Mystic Monday

Book Reviews

Okay, I had the opportunity to read some of the books available on HSN through Ravenous Romance as well as a lot of other books. I may not always get to read the books when the authors guest blog with us, but I do try to get to them and read at least one.

YA Spotlight Books
Give Up the Ghost by Megan Crewe - I really liked this story. Okay, yeah, so I've liked most of the stories by authors featured in the YA Spotlight. The characters were well developed, all of them, including the ghosts.

Cass McKenna started seeing ghosts the night her older sister, Paige, dies. The problem is, she didn't just see Paige, but she saw others and it scared her. It scared her so much that she tells her best friend all about it, to get some perspective, but that friend abandons her. The friend tells everyone Cass' secret and they all end up taunting her, making Cass an outcast, severing their friendship. Cass' social life deteriorates to the point that she prefers the dead to the living.

As an outsider, Cass sees the cruel treatment given to the lower students for what it is, cruel and mean. Wanting to balance the scales, Cass soon learns that her otherworldly connections offer insight to do just that, so she sets her sights on putting these "uppity" people in their place by humiliating them as much as they humiliate other people or have humiliated her. Now, after a couple of years in the school of her knowing things she couldn't possibly know, Cass has earned a relatively hassle free life, even though it's as an outcast. But that's okay, because she still has Norris' face and Bitzy's dancing to look forward to everyday.

In all of her standing up for the poorly treated, there's one thing Cass has yet to accomplish, and that's getting even with Danielle. In her pursuit for revenge, nothing could have prepared Cass for what happens next. She never expected to be completely discovered, but somehow, Tim seems to have figured it out. He approaches her not because he wants to make fun of her, but because he desperately needs to talk to his mother, to know that she's alright. She was the best thing in his life, and now she's gone, and he's left with a drunken father. Cass does find his mother, but Cass soon realizes that his mother makes it Cass' mission to save Tim. Can she do it? You'll have to read the book to find out.

This book has complex characters mixed into complex storylines and plot twists. It's a page turner! I definitely recommend it!

The Harrowing by Alexandra Sokoloff - So not what I expected! Yes, I expected a tale of ghosts, but not to the extent to which this story is taken!

FOR THE MORE MATURE YA READERS - due to the content in the story. This story takes place on a college campus, so it has drinking, sex and some drug usage and harsh language in it. We know that this behavior is typical of college kids, so be sure that your teen is mature enough to handle reading about these topics. There's also some violent sex depicted here, but it's not gratuitous in anyway, it's just slightly graphic and is probably not suitable for the under 17 crowd.

Okay, now that I've given the appropriate warnings, I can tell you what I found in the pages of The Harrowing: So, what happened that I didn't expect? Well, I didn't expect the degree to which Alexandra did her homework. She really delved into the religious aspect of the spirit world and used it to tell a gripping and scary tale of mammoth proportions. This is one book I can honestly say would make an awesome scary movie to rival The Exorcist, the original version.

Five students don't go home for the Thanksgiving holiday because they all have something to avoid, which means they are all vulnerable in ways they do not understand. The main character, Robin Stone, thinks she's all alone for the holidays, but slowly comes to find out that five other people share her predicament:

Patrick - the jock boyfriend of her annoying roommate Waverly, who she secretly has been crushing on since she met him

Martin - the quiet guy in her psyche class

Cain - the cute guy who happens to play guitar and studies law, but she's never really talked to him before

Lisa - the resident slut, or at least as far as the stories, rumors, and her own outward personality go

What about Robin? What is she? Well, she is someone trying to escape life. In fact, on that first day, she is so depressed with the way she sees her life going, she wants to die. In fact, that's how she learns she's not alone. Her situation isn't helped by Waverly, who constantly puts her down and makes her feel even more inadequate than she already does. She has no relationship to speak of with her mother, which is why she doesn't go home in the first place. In an effort to console her aching soul, she goes into Waverly's stash of alcohol and pills. Robin decides that this is the best weekend to end her sorry life and no one will be there to stop her. They'll find her body when they all return from their holiday and that will be that. Robin makes her way down to the dorm common room, half-drunk already, bottle of pills in the pocket of her black skirt. As she sits there further contemplating her death and her eyes adjust to the darkness of the room, she realizes that she is not alone.

This realization puts some sort of weird fear inside her, and when she sees Patrick strut into the common room, her thoughts move to the back burner as she wonders why he made Waverly think he was going home and why he doesn't want her to know and asks for Robin's silence. For now, she has something to distract her. But for how long?

The five students are bored of studying, want to connect but are afraid to because of what it might mean, what secrets of their lives might be revealed. So, they play games to avoid any real connecting. However, the one they choose to play connects them even stronger than they ever could have expected.

What game do they play?

Why, the Ouija Board of course! But not any ordinary board, but one of the original boards from the Baltimore Board Company in the 1920's. They find more than simple parlor tricks here, much more than any of them are ready to believe or able to handle. They open a door, a door that five students did once before. Those five did not survive. What did they open the door to? Only one of them knows for sure, but he wasn't sharing because he didn't truly believe, and thought to use this "game" to prove or disprove the beliefs he's been struggling with. The struggle that kept him from going home that weekend...

What they didn't expect is that their game would go beyond the weekend and have real world consequences. None of them realized that what they opened the door to could effect the mortal coil. But when they do figure it out, they are in a race to save themselves and each other from what they unleashed.

This is a well-constructed, well-developed tale of horror with characters so well-defined and real that it's hard not to identify with at least one of them. It's a page turner that draws you in deeper and deeper. It stays with you even after you close the pages. That is how deeply haunting The Harrowing is.

I definitely recommend this book to anyone 17 and older!

Adult Romance Books
Ripping the Bodice by Inara Lavey - This story is about a woman, Cassandra, obsessed with the bodice rippers from the likes of Kathleen Woodiwiss and a host of others. She has one idea of what the perfect man is, but finds her perfect man is not what she thought.

I was excited when I was given the opportunity to read it, but was disappointed in the outcome of it. The characters are flat and the plot is weak. In my opinion, it overuses a neat idea to the point of nausea for the reader. For the 192 pages, there's not much there when you subtract the blank pages in between each chapter and the overdone, super-cheesy romantic imaginings of the main character, there's not much room left to really develop the story or the characters created.

I was hoping the author would have explored the characters of Cassandra, Connor, Rafael and Val a bit more. Why does Val choose the superficial and overly-annoying Gerald? What happened in Cassandra's life that reinforces her sexual beliefs that bodice-ripping romance books initiated? What makes Rafael seem so cold and indifferent? What about Connor? Why does he understand these romance novels so well? How is it that he knows what Cassandra is looking for?

All of these questions arise, but none of them are answered and yet we're supposed to believe that in just 3 days, Cassandra can change her outlook on romance that has been in existence her entire life.

I wanted to believe it, but there's just not enough to the characters or the plot to make it believable. It's a good start, but it needs much more work on the characters and plot before I would honestly recommend this one to anyone.

Erotica tries to distinguish itself from porn by declaring that if you remove the graphic sex scenes within the story, the story still floats. While with porn, there really isn't much to it besides the sex scenes.

My impressions of this book - that it's more like soft porn than a romance novel. Take away all the sex scenes, or hints of sex, and there's not much left to it to enjoy. How can there be when it's limited by 192 pages and 16 of them are blank and 3 of them are the title pages? Not to mention the close to 20 pages of the unnecessary cheesy romantic imaginings of the main character.

I don't mind graphically described sex scenes, but I do need a decent story to go with them and well-defined characters. People complain about the bad rep that Erotica gets, well, then change the way you write them. Add more content and develop the characters and storylines enough to be believable!

Haunted Seduction by Morgan James - So far, I'm only 23 pages in and not as turned off by this one as I was Ripping the Bodice. Of course, I wasn't impressed by the first chapter because it seemed to throw in what I consider to be gratuitous sex and not really relevant to the story, at least not right away. In fact, even though I understand why the author wanted to start with that chapter, it should have been marked as a Prologue or skipped entirely. What little information there was in that first chapter could have been sprinkled in later.

As unnecessary as I feel the first chapter is, I already feel like there is more substance to this story and the characters. Jaz seems much more defined compared to Bodice's Cassandra. No, the reason that I like this one has nothing to do with the fact that Jaz stumbles onto a defunct amusement park.

This story is proving to be a page turner already. I went to scan a few pages and had difficulty "putting it down" to come back and finish this post.

So, I guess I'd have to say that I'd recommend this one, as it seems to have a decent story with it. However, it too is only 192 pages and has a blank page after every chapter. The question here is: Does it make efficient use of the space allotted to it? I'll let you know.

Starlight Saturday

YA Author Spotlight Presents...

Megan Crewe!!!

Imagine if you were like Allison Dubois (Medium) or Melinda Gordon(Ghost Whisperer) and could not only see ghosts and talk to them, but unlike with Allison and Melinda, your ghosts never went away.  Yeah, see, Allison and Melinda do things to help ghosts move on.  But what if that didn't happen?  What if, everyday you went to school or work, you saw the same ghosts and they were just itching to tell you all the office gossip you could handle and then some?  Would you listen?  

Well, in Give Up the Ghost, high school student Cassie, faced just such a dilemma.  However, because of the fact that practically the entire school teased her and spread false rumors about her, her decision was easy.  She listened and used what she learned to essentially blackmail the rest of the students into silence.  They had no way to know how she knew what she knew.  Or did they?  

Cassie finally had the dirt that would settle an old score for her and even the scales, but in her pursuit of personal justice, she finds a disturbing, anonymous note in her locker:
"I know how you know.  Meet me at the basketball courts, final bell, this afternoon."

But the note isn't as anonymous as the culprit thinks because one of Cassie's ghostly friends saw him and told Cassie who he was.  So, what does he want?  Will he expose her? 

You'll have to read on to find out.  In the mean time, let's get to the interview.

Let’s start with some trivia about you:

Q. Do you have a movie that you must watch every Halloween? What's your favorite scary movie? Do you have a favorite scary character or character type?

A. I like to watch a different scary movie each Halloween—variety is fun! I think my favorite scary movie is Wait Until Dark. It’s an oldie, but so chilling and creepy. I prefer psychological suspense over gore, so I like villains who mess with their victims’ heads rather than hacking them up.

Q. Do you have any Halloween traditions like decorating your house, having house parties, wearing costumes, etc.?

A. At my parents’ house, we’d always carve a jack-o-lantern and hand out candy, of course. Since then I’ve lived in apartments where we don’t get trick-or-treaters, but when I have a house of my own, I’m looking forward to decorating it and maybe getting dressed up, too!

Q. If you do you dress up for Halloween, what will you be dressed up as this year? What was your all-time most favorite costume that you ever wore? Why?

A. These days I don’t usually get dressed up. My favorite costume as a kid was a bat costume my mom made for me when I was eleven. I had cloth wings that stretched my back to my hands so I could flap them like actual wings. I thought it was very cool because I’d never seen anyone dress up as a bat before. J

Q. Are you superstitious? Do you find yourself knocking on wood or throwing salt over your shoulder? If not one of these two, what is your superstition?

A. I’m a little superstitious. If I spill salt I’ll usually toss a pinch over my shoulder. Little things like that. I don’t actually think that it accomplishes anything but better to be safe than sorry!

Q. Do you believe in ghosts? If so, have you ever had a ghostly encounter and tell us about it?

A. I’m on the fence when it comes to ghosts. I think it’s possible that they exist, but not having ever seen one myself, I’m not convinced they definitely do.

Q. Tell us 3 funny or strange things that happened to you, or someone you know, on past Halloweens.

A. They used to set up a haunted house in the gym at my school. One time I got lost in it—I took a wrong turn and ended up in part that wasn’t really part of the “house”—but it was actually scarier than the haunted house itself because I didn’t know where to go!

One year I went trick-or-treating with a friend. As we were walking up to one house I saw a man slumped in a chair near the door, done up to look like he was just a decoration. But I could tell it was a real person. I didn’t say anything to my friend, though, and when he jumped up, she jumped even higher! We laughed for a long time after.

I go trick-or-treating with the kids I work with most years now. They have autism, so they’re not always interested in the same things most kids are. Our biggest challenge is keeping them at the doorway, not heading on into the house. The one boy is far more interested in checking out people’s ceiling fans than getting candy!

Q. If you could be any paranormal creature, what would it be and why?

A. Probably a faerie. I like the idea of being able to do magic, and possibly having access to other worlds. It could be fun being some sort of shape shifter, too, but that always seems to come with a lot of problems as well.

Now, let’s get to your writing:

Q. Why the paranormal genre? What was the draw for you?

A. I’ve always liked exploring what might happen if things we think aren’t real really existed. How people would react when faced with something like ghosts. It brings out a side of people you might not otherwise see. And it’s exciting pushing characters out of their comfort zone.

Q. If you could describe your paranormal writing with a word or phrase, what would it be? Please be creative and look beyond words like vampire, werewolf, etc., and delve into the core of your writing to tell us what word or phrase you want readers to take with them when they've finished reading your story.

A. The unreal can still be true.

Q. Do you prefer playing tricks on people or bestowing treats? Does that show through in your writing? If so, how?

A. I like to trick people and then give them a treat to make up for it! ;) And I think that does show in my writing. I put characters in painful or difficult situations, but I always give them some hope and happiness by the end.

Q. Who decides what creatures you write about, you or your muse? What kind of influence do you have over your story, or is the muse always the one stirring the cauldron?

A. I think of my inspiration as being a part of me. And it’s a joint process. Certain ideas just grab me more on an unconscious level (which I guess is the muse part). But I also make practical choices based on what I think would make an engaging story and what’s already been done.

Q. What was the creature that you had the most fun creating and why?

A. My ghosts were a lot of fun. Both because they each had such individual and quirky personalities, and because I got to make up rules for how they would behave, how their memory worked, the scent they’d leave behind.

Q. If you had the opportunity to meet just one of your characters in real life, who would it be and why? Which of your characters would you never want to meet under any circumstance and why?

A. I’d like to meet my main character, Cass. I think it’d do her a lot of good to have someone who understands her situation completely to talk to, and she’s got a great sense of humor. I wouldn’t want to meet Matti—he’s vindictive and narrow-minded, and I can’t imagine I’d enjoy talking with him at all.

BLURB:

Cass McKenna much prefers the company of ghosts over "breathers." Ghosts are uncomplicated and dependable, and they know the dirt on everybody... and Cass loves dirt. She's on a mission to expose the dirty secrets of the poseurs in her school.

But when the vice president of the student council discovers her secret, Cass's whole scheme hangs in the balance. Tim wants her to help him contact his recently deceased mother, and Cass reluctantly agrees.

As Cass becomes increasingly entwined in Tim's life, she's surprised to realize he's not so bad--and he needs help more desperately than anyone else suspects. Maybe it's time to give the living another chance...


EXCERPT:

You would think it'd be easy to get along with a person after she's dead. Not Paige. She took her big sister duties very seriously. It'd been four years since she drowned, and she still got on my case.

"You're not really wearing those to school," she said, perched in the air just above the wrought-iron headboard of my bed, her ankles crossed and tipped to the side. It was the way she used to sit at the dinner table, way back when--pretending to be hooked on Dad's every word while her mind wandered off to choicer topics. Except these days she did it without a chair.

"What's wrong with them?" I asked, zipping up my jeans. She was wearing jeans, too. Of course, her jeans were tight, low cut capris. Mine were big and baggy. I'd stepped on the hems so many times they were as thready as my violet carpet, but hey, they were comfortable.

Paige wrinkled her pert nose and shook her head. Very few things got her as worked up as my untapped fashion potential. Most of the time she had this faded tissue-paper look, so filmy I could see right through her. Get her interested, though, and she brightened up like a Chinese lantern. Right then, she was beaming from her bleached-blond hair to her strappy sandals.

A few years ago it would have pissed me off. These days, I was used to it. It was like a game: how bossy could she get, how bratty could I get. Playing at being normal.

"Don't you ever look at yourself, Cassie?" Paige said. "You've got nicer stuff in your closet. It's like you want to be a slob."

"There are more important things than clothes, you know."

"You could at least brush your hair. Please."

I stuck out my lip to blow my bangs away from my eyes, and grinned. "All right, if it's so important to you."

I found my brush in the heap of comic books, dirty dishes, and loose change on top of my dresser and tugged it through the mud-brown mess of my hair. Paige drifted over, her hand grazing my head with a faint tingle. The smell of candied apples and cinnamon wisped from her fingers.

"You could be pretty, Cassie," she murmured. "You've got an okay figure, if you dressed to show it off... A little make-up--I bet your eyes could look really green if you did it right, and a new hair cut..."

"Why bother?"

Paige groaned. "You want to have friends, don't you? People care about that stuff. You look nice, they're nice to you. You look like a mess, they're laughing about it behind your back."

My smile died. I yanked the brush through a knot, wincing. From what I'd seen, looking nice didn't stop people from making fun of you. I'd dressed pretty decent back in junior high, and it sure as hell hadn't helped me.

But that was ancient history. The kids at Frazer Collegiate weren't laughing at me now. And I had enough dirt on all of them to make sure it stayed that way.