Review: Second Verse by Jennifer Walkup

Title: Second Verse 
Author: Jennifer Walkup

Publisher:  Luminis Books 
Publishing Date: October 1st 2013

Pages: 288
Genre:  YA Mystery Thriller

Series: Stand Alone
Source: ARC 

  

Bad things come in threes. In Shady Springs, that includes murder.

Murder Now
Lange Crawford’s move to Shady Springs, Pennsylvania, lands her a group of awesome friends, a major crush on songwriter Vaughn, and life in a haunted, 200-year-old farmhouse. It also brings The Hunt: an infamous murder mystery festival where students solve a fake, gruesome murder scheme during the week of Halloween. Well, supposedly fake.

Murder Then
Weeks before The Hunt, Lange and her friends hold a séance in the farmhouse’s eerie barn. When a voice rushes through, whispering haunting words that only she and Vaughn can hear, Lange realizes it's begging for help. The mysterious voice leads Lange and Vaughn to uncover letters and photos left behind by a murdered girl, Ginny, and they become obsessed with her story and the horrifying threats that led to her murder.

Murder Yet to Come
But someone doesn’t like their snooping, and Lange and Vaughn begin receiving the same threats that Ginny once did. The mysterious words from the barn become crucial to figuring out Ginny's past and their own, and how closely the two are connected. They must work fast to uncover the truth or risk finding out if history really does repeat itself.

I was excited for this book after seeing it around and was so thrilled to receive the ARC in the mail. I couldn't wait to open it up and dive in. The book was a good read. The thrills started right from the start and carried on right through to the end. 

Lange Crawford has recently moved to a new town, new house, new school. She has made some friends, found a crush, and seems to be adjusting pretty well. The local high school seniors run a murder mystery hunt around Halloween, to get things off to a good start, the festivities start in the barn at Lange's house with a seance. Then things get weird. Lange finds herself being stalked, threatened, and so much more. The only way that Lange can solve the mystery of the one behind her threats is to solve a murder that happened almost 80 years ago. 

I liked how the story started off quickly and I was grabbed immediately. I liked the characters and I liked the story. The book was very fast paced and a lot was going on, maybe a little too much. I loved the story of old murder and I loved how it tied in to Lange. I was very happy with story and its development; however close to the end I did feel the story veer a bit into a resolution I didn't quite feel. I was happy to see the story go in the opposite direction of where I saw it going, but I wish it would have been a bit simpler. I never saw it coming. I can say that this book had me on my toes most of the way through. I was able to predict a few things but not even close to the end. 

The characters were alright. I liked the main character, Lange.  She was cool. Smart and independent. I also liked a few of the supporting characters. I did feel that the supporting characters were a bit cliche. I didn't mind so much because the main characters, Lang and Vaughn. They were original, like their names. I liked the relationship between the two. It wasn't real quick but it didn't develop slow. Their relationship was a main part of the story and it played its part very well. 

The story was a quick read and it was very enjoyable. I was never bored and felt very invested in the story. I think my only complaint was the ending. It felt a bit too much and a bit muddled but the story was worth the read. 

Good solid read. I would recommend this book anyone who likes a good mystery thriller with a bit of supernatural thrown in. Its a great book for a Halloween read. 

Genre Definition & Recommendation #34

Genre Definition and Recommendation is a feature where I will define a genre and a sub-genre definition and the make some recommendations.  

Science Fiction - Definition found on Wikipedia

Science Fiction- is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible (or at least non-supernatural) content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities. 

Post- Apocalyptic 

Definition found on Wikipedia 

Post-apocalyptic fiction is set in a world or civilization after such a disaster. The time frame may be immediately after the catastrophe, focusing on the travails or psychology of survivors, or considerably later, often including the theme that the existence of pre-catastrophe civilization has been forgotten (or mythologized). Post-apocalyptic stories often take place in anagrarian, non-technological future world, or a world where only scattered elements of technology remain.

My Recommendations:

Angelfall by Susan Ee

  

        

It's been six weeks since angels of the apocalypse descended to demolish the modern world. Street gangs rule the day while fear and superstition rule the night. When warrior angels fly away with a helpless little girl, her seventeen-year-old sister Penryn will do anything to get her back.

Anything, including making a deal with an enemy angel.

Raffe is a warrior who lies broken and wingless on the street. After eons of fighting his own battles, he finds himself being rescued from a desperate situation by a half-starved teenage girl.

Traveling through a dark and twisted Northern California, they have only each other to rely on for survival. Together, they journey toward the angels' stronghold in San Francisco where she'll risk everything to rescue her sister and he'll put himself at the mercy of his greatest enemies for the chance to be made whole again.

Eden's Root By Rachel E. Fisher

  

        

The year is 2033 and the world hovers on the edge of explosion as unexplained crop deaths lead to severe global food shortages. In the United States, the Sickness is taking lives slowly, creeping its way into every family. Fi Kelly has already faced the Sickness in her own family, toughening her beyond her years. But a shocking confession from her dying father will push her toughness to its absolute limits. Saddled with an impossible secret and the mission of saving her little sister, Fi sets out to transform herself into the warrior that she must become to survive the coming collapse. Along the way, she will discover that evil can be accidental and that love can be intentional.

What Do you Recommend?

Weekly Wrap Up #28

Weekly Wrap-Up 

September 22nd - September 29th

Trying to get back on track guys. Here is my week. 

Reviews:

The Coldest Girl in Coldtown by Holly Black
If You Find Me by Emily Murdock
Scorched by Mari Mancusi
The Darkest Minds by Alexandra Bracken


Weekly Memes:

Genre Definition and Recommendation
Teaser Tuesday and Top Ten Tuesday

Waiting on Wednesday and W.W.W. Wednesday 

Delightful Discoveries
Follow and Feature Friday

Stacking the Shelves

Books Read: 

Reading Plans:

Upcoming Reviews: 

Stacking the Shelves #51

Stacking The Shelves is a hosted by Tynga's Reviews. Come join the fun and share all the book you received this week. 

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Review:

Insanity by Susan Vaught

                                       

Never, Kentucky is not your average scenic small town. It is a crossways, a place where the dead and the living can find no peace. Not that Forest, an 18-year-old foster kid who works the graveyard shift at Lincoln Hospital, knew this when she applied for the job. Lincoln is a huge state mental institution, a good place for Forest to make some money to pay for college. But along with hundreds of very unstable patients, it also has underground tunnels, bell towers that ring unexpectedly, and a closet that holds more than just donated clothing....When the dead husband of one of Forest's patients makes an appearance late one night, seemingly accompanied by an agent of the Devil, Forest loses all sense of reality and all sense of time. Terrified, she knows she has a part to play, and when she does so, she finds a heritage that she never expected.

With her deep knowledge of mental illness and mental institutions, Susan Vaught brings readers a fascinating and completely creepy new book intertwining the stories of three young people who find themselves haunted beyond imagining in the depths of Lincoln Hospital.

Being Sloan Jacobs by Lauren Morrill

     

Meet Sloane Emily Jacobs: a seriously stressed-out figure-skater from Washington, D.C., who choked during junior nationals and isn’t sure she’s ready for a comeback. What she does know is that she’d give anything to escape the mass of misery that is her life.

Now meet Sloane Devon Jacobs, a spunky ice hockey player from Philly who’s been suspended from her team for too many aggressive hip checks. Her punishment? Hockey camp, now, when she’s playing the worst she’s ever played. If she messes up? Her life will be over.

When the two Sloanes meet by chance in Montreal and decide to trade places for the summer, each girl thinks she’s the lucky one: no strangers to judge or laugh at Sloane Emily, no scouts expecting Sloane Devon to be a hero. But it didn’t occur to Sloane E. that while avoiding sequins and axels she might meet a hockey hottie—and Sloane D. never expected to run into a familiar (and very good-looking) face from home. It’s not long before the Sloanes discover that convincing people you’re someone else might be more difficult than being yourself.

Hexed by Michelle Krys

                                       

If high school is all about social status, Indigo Blackwood has it made. Sure, her quirky mom owns an occult shop, and a nerd just won’t stop trying to be her friend, but Indie is a popular cheerleader with a football-star boyfriend and a social circle powerful enough to ruin everyone at school. Who wouldn’t want to be her?

Then a guy dies right before her eyes. And the dusty old family Bible her mom is freakishly possessive of is stolen. But it’s when a frustratingly sexy stranger named Bishop enters Indie’s world that she learns her destiny involves a lot more than pom-poms and parties. If she doesn’t get the Bible back, every witch on the planet will die. And that’s seriously bad news for Indie, because according to Bishop, she’s a witch too.

Suddenly forced into a centuries-old war between witches and sorcerers, Indie’s about to uncover the many dark truths about her life—and a future unlike any she ever imagined on top of the cheer pyramid

Pawn by Aimee Carter 

                                       

Ava, a teenage girl living aboard the male-dominated deep space merchant ship Parastrata, faces betrayal, banishment, and death. Taking her fate into her own hands, she flees to the Gyre, a floating continent of garbage and scrap in the Pacific Ocean, in this thrilling, surprising, and thought-provoking debut novel that will appeal to fans of Across the Universe, by Beth Revis, and The Handmaid's Tale, by Margaret Atwood.

I went to the Austin Teen Book Festival this weekend and bought lots of goodies...      

Bought On Audio :