THE BOOK OF BLOOD AND SHADOWS by Robin Wasserman-REVIEW

Nora, her best friend Chris, his girlfriend Adriane and Chris' best friend and roommate Max all  are working on a translation project for a professor. Nora is assigned to translating letters written by Elizabeth Weston over 400 years before. What she discovers is a recipe for a machine that is believed to open up channels to God.

This discovery leads to murder, secret brotherhoods and betrayal. When Chris is found murdered in his home, Adriane catatonic by his side in a pool of blood and Max the last person seen leaving the house, Nora is determined to prove Max's innocence in the murder and to put together the puzzle pieces of where Elizabeth hid the parts of the machine(Lumen Dei).

When Max contacts Nora she and Adriane sneak away from a class trip and head to Prague to meet Max. They are followed by Chris' cousin Eli who has family connections in Prague and also has family secrets he is unwilling to share with Nora. From the time they reach Prague they are faced with those trying to protect the Lumen Dei and others that are trying to find it for their own purposes. Nora soon finds that she doesn't know her friends as well as she thinks she does. Hers and Elizabeth's lives seem to mirror each others and betrayal is around the corner for her just as it was for Elizabeth.

My Thoughts:

I found myself comparing this book to a cross between The DaVinci Code and an Indiana Jones movie. It reminded me of The DaVinci Code with the secret sects protecting a spiritual being/object along with lots of supposedly spiritual connotations. It reminded me of Indiana Jones in the fact that once the object was acquired the greedy person seeking the power suffered a grizzly demise of supernatural dimensions. Not to say that being compared to these is a bad thing, but the fact that this is marketed as a Young Adult book had me scratching my head. The writing was fairly technical and also at times hard for me to slog through. If I had a hard time keeping my attention on the text I cannot imagine a teenager staying with it through to it's ending. I have to say though that I did become invested in the characters and continued to read on just to find out what happened at the end.

Pet Peeve:
Like I said, The Book of Blood and Shadow is marketed for 12 and up. I started seeing very early in the book that the author was peppering the story with words that were not common for most adults not to mention middle school grades or high schoolers. This was frustrating for me, but I began to write down each word that I either didn't know the meaning of or knew from the sentence what the author meant, but wasn't quite sure that a YA student would know the word. I then looked these words up after I finished the book. I probably should have looked them up while reading, but seriously, what Young Adult would stop reading during a story to look up a word? So here is my list of words:

Ameliorated-heard of it, but don't use it!

Iterations-never heard of it

Ensorcelled-huh?

Egalitarian-heard of

Disingenuous-heard of

Caesura-never heard

Karass-couldn't even find it when I looked it up

Vertiginous-heard of

Soporific-heard of

Ethos-heard of

Matrices-plural of matrix!

Defenestration-never heard

Inchoate-never heard

Those are just the words that stood out to me. There were other words such as detritus that I knew the meaning of, but is not really a common word. I understand an author wanting to enlighten and improve our vocabulary, but if I had to stop and look up every word then that to me would detract from the story.  And once again this is a Young Adult book, stick with what they know because the unfamiliar will lose them just as it almost lost me.


Sexual Situations=Some, but nothing graphic
Violence=There are a couple of murders that are bloody
Language Content=Mild

BLOOD WOUNDS by Susan Beth Pfeffer-REVIEW

     

       Julie's Review:   

 Willa lives with her mom, step-father and 2 step-sisters. They are an unusual blended family in the fact that they all get along, they love each other and they are one big happy family.

There are secrets being kept in Willa's family though. Willa's mom will never talk about Willa's real father. In fact she will not talk about her life before Jack, Willa's step-father. Willa has a few secrets of her own. She can never share how resentful she is of Jack's 2 daughters. But there is another darker secret that Willa knows she can never share with any of them. It is a secret that keeps her in control of her own life. Something she turns to for comfort when she really wants to scream.

When Willa's real father murders his present family and seems to be heading for Willa and her mother, Willa's life seems to spiral out of control. Bent on learning about her father's family Willa returns to the small town that her mother and her escaped from when Willa was only 4 years old.  Learning about her father, step-brother and step-sisters helps Willa discover who she is as a person.

At first I thought that this book was going to be more of a suspense/mystery. But that is only part of the story. The majority is Willa discovering who she is and where her place in her family is. I really enjoyed the story.

Karin's Review:

 
            Willa lives in a "happy family." Everyone gets along. Everyone loves each other. Everyone works together to keep their super busy lives in order. Willa does her part to keep everyone happy. She doesn't say anything about how she can't take private voice lessons or go on trips to other countries because her mother can't afford it. She sits quietly as her two stepsisters travel to Europe, take dressage lessons, play competitive tennis, the list goes on and on. Their mother pays for everything - leaving Willa to stay home and wait.

Willa isn't overly popular at school. She is known mostly because of her popular stepsister, but when Willa's biological father kills his current family (wife and three daughters) and is possibly on his way to kill her too, everyone finds out who she is. Willa, against her mother's wishes, starts to dig into the life she and her mother left behind when they ran away from her father years ago. It is a journey that will change her and her "happy family" forever.

BLOOD WOUNDS is a great book about family dynamics - especially for blended families. I was expecting there to be a little more suspense, but even without it I enjoyed the story. I wanted to keep reading to see what happened next and, in my opinion, that is a good indicator of the quality of a story. Definitely a book for those who like to read about family drama.

What amazed me is that I really liked Willa's stepsisters - even though they were portrayed as very privileged girls. I'm so glad the author didn't paint them as the stereotypical wicked stepsisters.

               

CLARITY-by Kim Harrington-REVIEW

Clare is a member of an unusual family. They all have special abilities. Her mother can read minds, her brother can sense spirits that haven't moved on, and Clare can "see" what happened to someone by touching one of their objects. Together, they run a family business giving tourists an authentic paranormal thrill.

When Clare's small town is rocked by the murder of a young woman, she is asked to use her ability to help solve the crime.

While Clare is excited and willing to assist law enforcement her job isn't easy. One problem, her brother is a suspect in the murder because he was with the victim the night she died. Another issue is that her ex-boyfriend is involved in the investigation too. His father is the mayor up for re-election and really wants to solve the case to reassure the tourists the town is safe. The new police investigator has a hot son helping out too. The problem-apparently he hates her and thinks she's a fraud.

Clare has to juggle her unresolved feelings for Justin(ex-boyfriend), her attraction to Gabe(the new hottie), and her loyalty to Perry(her brother). All while attempting to solve a murder and not get killed in the process.

Clarity is a quick and fun read. My only issue is the fact that the police asked Clare, Justin, and Gabe to investigate the murder! I just kept saying to myself, How Stupid! The police would never do that! If you can get passed that, you'll be okay.

Clarity(Clare), her brother Periwinkle(Perry), and their mother Starla(Mary, but nobody better ever call her that) all have special psychic abilities. Clare can touch something of a person and can see and hear images of the past. Perry can speak to the dead and Starla can hear a persons thoughts. They give readings in their tourist town to make a living. 

Clare has suffered at the hands of her classmates for years because of her freakish ability. She has just gone through a breakup with her boyfriend Justin. When a young girl is found shot to death in a local motel a new detective moves into town along with his "hot" teen son. 

Clare, along with her former boyfriend Justin and the new hottie Gabriel are asked to help work on the case to find out who the murderer is. What is really wanted is Clare's ability to touch something that the victim had come in contact with in order to find out who the killer is. Law enforcement can't officially ask her because it would look bad to rely on a psychic for information.

What Clare doesn't count on is having her brother involved with the dead girl. Clare doesn't believe that he is the killer, but so many things are pointing in his direction. She finds that she doesn't know whom she can trust.

Regardless of what I believe about psychic ability this was a very good book! The suspense and mystery kept me turning the pages late into the night(or should I say morning!) in order to finish the book and find out "who dunnit". 

Edifying meets Edgy halfway on this because I thought it was a story that could keep young adults on the edge of their seats without using excessive language or sensuality. There were a couple of murders in the story though that would keep it from being a "feel-good" read. 

IN THE SHADOW OF EVIL by Robin Caroll-Repost from October 2010

MY ONLY VICE(Julie's other blog) is offering this book as a giveaway on her blog. Check it out to enter the drawing. 

Layla is a contractor. An unusual profession for a woman. But she is very good at her work. In fact she has just been nominated for a prestigious award. When one of the homes that she has built burns down and a dead body is found in the remains Layla becomes a suspect.


Maddox is the detective working the case. He too is good at his job. His one regret is that he was never able to find the person who murdered his mother. With a broken relationship with his father, and resentment towards a God that would allow his mother to die Maddox is only too willing to believe the worst of Layla.

Layla decides that she is going to try to discover who burned the house and murdered the person inside. While seeking answers from the various people that she contracted to work the site the killer realizes that she needs to be warned off. Layla is side-tracked when people she knows are brought to the hospital with bleeding noses that won’t stop and respiratory problems. The doctors can’t figure out what is the common denominator in the symptoms and they can’t identify what is causing the symptoms.

When Layla’s sister Alana’s fiance’ is hurt in an explosion, Maddox and his partner decide that they need to protect Layla from whomever is trying to hurt her. With their growing attraction for each other sparks fly! But Layla’s faith baffles Maddox. As the mystery unfolds and relationships are mended Maddox begins to see how faith is an important part of our existence.

As the killer becomes more desperate Maddox and Layla race the clock to find out the reason behind the killings. Will they be in time to prevent another tragedy?

Robin Caroll has written an excitement-filled story that will keep the reader wanting to turn the pages until the very end.

This is an inspirational novel appropriate for Young Adults and older.