Paint Me Like Your Dead Girls by Cynthia Murphy

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Serial killer or curse?

Fliss and Izzy are attending an artist retreat to delve deeper into their personal interests. They meet other teens who love different types of artistic expression and enjoy the social interaction until everything comes to a halt, when a murder occurs. Immediately, Fliss uses her sleuthing skills to find the suspect and to understand the connection between now and the 1911 murders that revolved around four paintings the killer created to immortalize his victims. He also created a self portrait that shows up at an estate sale after being lost for decades. Rumors about a curse being released when the painting was found are rampant and causing people to panic. Will Fliss be able to stop the murders before history repeats itself?

Likes/dislikes: Such a fascinating premise! I enjoyed this mystery and I didn’t want the book to end. The writing and background building pulled me in and made this story extremely interesting! Fliss is a natural detective and her friendship with Izzy balances them both out. The debate over whether or not the painting is cursed added a nice touch of supernatural spookiness.

Language: R for 53 swears (god, damn, hell) and 2 f-words.
Mature Content: PG-13 for teens smoking joints and being drugged unknowingly in their drinks.
Violence: PG-13 for bloody deaths.
Ethnicity: Mixed ethnicity includes white, Irish, British-Korean, and Italian. Noah has olive skin and Fliss is white.

Arcana Academy, Book 1, by Elise Kova

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Unique take on magical cards!

Enemies to lovers!

Clara has been in prison for creating tarot cards, which is illegal for anyone not at the Arcana Academy. When Prince Kaelis discovers that Clara’s sister Arina gave her the tools to ink the cards, Clara worries for Ariana’s safety. She escapes from prison to warn Arina at the academy, only to have to be rescued from the water when she passes out. Clara wakes up and discovers she’s now inside the academy and is shocked when Kaelis tells of his plans for her to become his bride.

Clara now has to take the challenge of the Chalice, choose one of three pieces of her future, and fight it. If she wins, she’ll become an academy student. If she loses, she’ll be branded and sent to the mill to work until a hard death takes her.

Poison Princess

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Poison Princess by Kresley Cole is the start of an amazing series. This book contains many genres, such as dystopian, supernatural, romance, adventure, mythology and fantasy. Poison Princess immediately intrigued me with the feeling of doom in the first chapter. I was pulled into the story because it is interesting in so many ways; the Louisiana culture and language and the fantastical and mythological pull around Evie. I love the Cajun vocabulary lessons and culture and I think I felt at home with it because I lived in Louisiana during an impressionable age while growing up. I lived in several areas of Louisiana between the ages of nine and twelve. The Cajun references made me smile and sometimes cringe because they were spot on.

The author changes the point of view from Evie to the kidnapper for the prologue and one other chapter. This strategic writing gives readers insight into the enemy’s world. Clever, Kresley Cole! There is a bit of swearing and sexual innuendo that I will warn students about, but I absolutely love this book with its dynamic characters and I plan on reading it again and finishing the Arcana Chronicles series as soon as possible.