The Unlocked by J.D. Stonebridge

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Unlocked by J. D. Stonebridge begins when a baby, Charlie, is rescued from a car accident. The couple that rescued Charlie also raises her. Charlie’s dialogue is staunch, stark, boring and she talks like she swallowed a textbook or a thesaurus. The dialogue becomes more smooth as the story progresses and the plot begins to take shape. The Unlocked is reminiscent of X-men because of the institute and powers, but the students aren’t born with their powers. The powers are unlocked with a syringe and a shot of a chemical mixture. Charlie learns of her twin sister because of the institute and she discovers that she and her twin sister Jeanne had their powers as long as they can remember and didn’t need to be unlocked. A sinister plot and deception are revealed as things spiral out of control. 4 stars for this science fiction mystery.

The Queen of Blood by Sarah Beth Durst

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The Queen Of Blood by Sarah Beth Durst is an ebook I checked out on Overdrive through Delta High School’s access. The story opens with a mythical quality and the setting of the village in the trees is described beautifully. The first chapter is in Daleina’s Point of view and alternates with Champion Ven. A few chapters are in Queen Fara’s point of view. The Queen is a complex and complicated character. She’s continuously having replacements trained to become Queen. There’s an academy where training takes place to turn girls into heirs for the Queen. She’s tired of hearing about being replaced and she seems to have an underlying cunning and possible ruthlessness. Daleina travels and trains with Ven and the healer Hamon and they take great care of her and help her when she loses her eyesight. The three companions visit the village that Daleina was born in and where her family still resides. She’s saddened by how much time has changed her home. As a challenge, Queen Fara wants Daleina to reclaim a lost village and the village happens to be her hometown. She’s supposed to claim the village from the spirits, then rebuild it and make it safe. Her companions think the Queen is cruel to ask this of Daleina. As often as she works well with her companions and other candidates and proves to others that she’s capable, Daleina never gets over her self-doubt and insecurities. Ven and Hamon have always been confident in Daleina though. The world is interesting and unique because the people completely rely on spirits for everything from warmth, growing vegetation, cooking and all things that come from air, earth, water, trees and fire. The spirits have a natural tendency and desire to destroy all that is human- people and their creations. The story picked up the pace towards the ending and I’m looking forward to reading the sequel, The Reluctant Queen. 4 stars for this new vision of a fantasy world.

M School by Kevin T. Johns

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M school by Kevin T. Johns packs a punch! Lilith has the emotions and mannerisms of a sociopath. She blends into school life fine and she’s a great goalie for their soccer team. The captain of the team and Lilith’s best friend is brutally murdered and the loss devastates the school. The soccer coach approaches Lilith and states that he needs a replacement for Lara. Immediately, Lilith thinks he means as a soccer captain and when he states that’s not the replacement he needs, she assumes it’s as a sex partner replacement and she becomes extremely and awkwardly uncomfortable. It takes the coach a bit to realize what she’s thinking. He’s a bit flabbergasted, but the truth is even harder for Lilith to believe. Coach Taylor and Lara are undercover agents for M School and they’re trying to take care of The Dissidents, a domestic terrorist organization. Lilith’s life changes completely after she is recruited to M School. Her parents believe that Lilith will be attending school for gifted students but she’s going to become a trained killer. All Lilith wants is vengeance for Lara’s murder but she gets so much more. The M School setting is creative and the characters are strong, but in turmoil. 4 stars for this action packed adrenaline rush of a story!

I received an arc from author for a fair review.

Little Monsters by Kara Thomas

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Thanks to NetGalley and Random House Children’s for the opportunity to read and review Little Monsters by Kara Thomas! Kacey and her younger stepsister, Lauren, sneak out of the house with Bailey and Jade, two of Kacey’s friends. On a Friday night, they venture to the local haunted site and the snowy roof collapses in on them. They’re spooked and run away. Alternately, Bailey tells the story of the night she supposedly caused the popular high school football player to wreck and her story continues to be told throughout the rest of the book using her journal entries in interspersing chapters. Bailey and Jade attend a party and Bailey is not seen again. She’s reported missing and the community rallies together to help find her. The suspect list changes and grows while Bailey is still missing and presumed dead by most of the community. The suspicion and the suspense keep twisting and kept me riveted to the very end. 5 stars for this realistic mystery!

A List of Cages by Robin Roe

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Thanks to NetGalley and Disney-Hyperion for the opportunity to read and review A List of Cages by Robin Roe! Julian doesn’t feel as though he belongs anywhere, at school or at home where he lives with his uncle. He likes to hide in a small secret room behind the school stage where he can be alone and no one knows where he is. I immediately felt protective of Julian and hated how people assumed that he was stupid and treated him horribly. He’s had a tragic past and he’s presently living in an unhappy world. Adam knows Julian because his family fostered him for a while after the death of his parents until Julian’s Uncle Russell stepped into their lives and took Julian away. Uncle Russell is a force to be reckoned with and has more issues than anyone realizes. This tragic and touching realistic fiction story earns 5 stars!

The Scattering by Kimberly McCreight

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Thanks to NetGalley and HarperCollins for the opportunity to read and review The Scattering by Kimberly McCreight. This sequel begins where The Outliers left off then jumps ahead to six months later. Jasper and Wylie both feel guilty about Cassie. Wylie tries to save Jasper from jumping off a bridge after Jasper’s mom says she’s worried about him. Wylie gets to the bridge and while she’s looking for Jasper, police show up and arrest her, assuming she’s going to jump. Wylie finds herself in a hospital with other other Outliers, all young women, and the girls are told lies about why they have been committed as patients. People are constantly deceiving Wylie, or trying to and the most information she seems to get is half truth. Needless to say, Wylie doesn’t trust easily. She has a difficult time trusting her feelings also, because she’s an Outlier, but she’s learning to tell the difference between her feelings and other people’s feelings. This sequel has a floor-dropping ending also and I’m beginning to think that is the author’s writing style. 4 stars for another book full of mystery!

Dividing Eden by Joelle Charbonneau

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Dividing Eden by Joelle Charbonneau is an intense fantasy adventure. Carys and Andreus are royal twin siblings hiding a secret from the kingdom. When the power outage overwhelms Garden City, chaos follows. Andreus helps fix the outage problem right before their brother Micah and their father, the king, are brought home from the warfront by the King’s guards. Both Micah and the king have been killed and the only witnesses to their deaths are soon killed also. The secret the twins are hiding is the sickness Andreus suffers from; it causes him weakness and is supposedly the curse that the seer prophesied after the birth of the twins. The Elders have set up a tournament for Andreus and Carys to compete against each other for the throne, since both the king and his heir are dead. The winner will be the new ruler of their kingdom. They compete unwillingly and try to make the tournament go in favor of Andreus. The danger builds and the suspicion grows stronger as Andreus and Carys struggle to learn who they can trust. It saddened me how quickly Andreus believed that his worth was above everyone else’s. I love the ingenious, clever way the story is told with the alternating points of view of Carys and Andreus and how they overlap at times. This way of telling the story makes the reader’s emotions take a roller coaster ride. I would love to see a map in the sequel and I give this book 5 stars for the adventure and intrigue!

Bad Girl Gone by Temple Mathews

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Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the opportunity to read and review Bad Girl Gone by Temple Mathews. Echo wakes up in a strange place and she’s having a difficult time getting her bearings. It’s too dark to make out much and as she’s feeling around she touches something stringy like hair. She realizes she’s not in her bedroom or even her home. She hears creepy laughing and screaming and what she thinks might be a cutting tool. She’s spooked and terrified and she’s told by a scary nurse/nun that she’s now in Middle House. The other residents are young people also and Echo assumes that Middle House is an orphanage but the truth freaks her out even more. She learns to accept being a Middle House resident and gains friendship and help from the others as she discovers why and how she was brought to Middle House. The beginning of the book led my mind one direction and the continuation led it to a completely different direction. I don’t want to give the mystery away because it’s the reason I kept reading. Reminiscent of Everlost by Neal Shusterman, Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs and a tiny bit of The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold. Bad Girl Gone is a supernatural romance surrounded in mystery, 4 stars.

Daughter of the Burning City by Amanda Foody

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I received a paperback copy of Daughter of the Burning City by Amanda Foody through a Goodreads giveaway and I also received an ARC from Harlequin Teen and NetGalley. Everything is a bit confusing with the descriptions of the illusions as the story begins. Sorina creates illusions, she’s the daughter of a freakshow master and she has no eyes. Her family members are actually all illusions created by Sorina. The illusions act as real people do and they are leading their own lives. Someone starts killing the illusions and investigations begin. People are accused and finally the killer is found. The writing conventions are done well, but I just had a difficult time with and understanding the concept and world building of the story. 3 stars.

Freeze by Kaitlyn Davis

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I am reviewing Freeze by Kaitlyn Davis for a blog tour. Freeze begins where Frost left off. Pandora is imprisoned in a cell and Sam visits often. He teaches her to transport, and that along with her power to hide in the shadows and become invisible, helps her escape with another prisoner, Naya. Naya is a werejaguar and a necromancer. Pandora and Naya help each other through escapes and attacks. They also become friends and share their secrets with each other. Naya wants to save her brother who has been turned into a vampire while Pandora wants to speak to her mother that is no longer alive. This is how Pandora plans to find out the mysteries of her past. Pandora isn’t sure about Sam or Jax , the two men she cares for, and she doesn’t fully trust either of them. Pandora’s life continues to become more complicated and confusing. When she finally speaks to her mother, she’s given advice and more vague warnings about her future and the people she knows. The story continues in the third book, Fractured. The complex characters and situations keep the mysteries strong and the story interesting. 5 stars for a intriguing supernatural read!