"Dungeons & Drama" by Kristy Boyce

 Holy cuteness, that was adorable!!!

This book had me laughing out loud at the one liners between the main characters and then tearing up during the intense moments with the main character and her family. I was smiling throughout most of this book and getting weird looks when I would giggle out loud.

I honestly wasn't expecting much when I picked up this book. After reading two paranormal suspense novels followed by a thriller, I was just looking for a fluff novel to break up the intensity of the books I have been selecting lately. 

But I LOVED this book!

I loved the characters, their interactions, the friendships, the family discord and the resolutions, and I LOVED that the theater and gaming were such as integral part of this story.  There aren't many romances out there featuring an outside-of-the-box theater kid and a die hard Dungeons & Dragons gamer. 

THE PREMISE:

After borrowing her mother's car without permission (note: she doesn't have her driver's license) and driving across the state to see the Broadway Musical "Waitress" on tour, musical enthusiast Riley finds herself in deep trouble with her parents. As punishment, Riley is grounded for eight weeks, and to make matters worse, she is forced to take an after school job at her father's gaming store. Dreading spending countless afternoons with a father she hasn't been close to since the divorce, Riley can't help resent working in a store that she believes is part of the reason her parents split. Also, she knows next to nothing about gaming, so how the heck is she supposed to sell gaming products?

Riley would rather be spending her time trying to figure out a way to save their school's spring musical, which has just been cut due to budget reasons. To make matters worse, her ex-boyfriend, who dumped her for his co-star at the community theater, is constantly hanging around giving her pitying looks and showing off his new girlfriend.

However, Riley is not going to sit back and take it. She is going to find a way to save the musical and get back at her ex, but she is going to need the help of her father's supper annoying, if somewhat cute, classmate in order to accomplish her goal. Nathan is a die hard gamer and he has been working with Riley's father for years. After a misunderstanding upon their first meeting, Nathan quickly decides that the sooner Riley is gone, the better. 

But Riley offers him a deal he can't refuse. If Nathan agrees to be Riley's fake boyfriend for the next few weeks in order to wipe the condescending look off of her ex's face, then she will join his D & D group with the sole purpose of flirting with him in front of his crush, Sophia, in order to make her notice him. 

Let's just say that hilarity ensues and the second hand embarrassment is real in this book. And the slow turn from enemies, to friends, and then to Riley wanting more is just..."Chef's Kiss".

"That's Not My Name" by Megan Lally

 Wow!

This one had my heart racing!!! My anxiety went through the roof!

And I LOVED every minute of it!!!!

This might be my new favorite thriller!

If you liked any of the following books,

Then, you will LOVE "That's Not My Name".

A teen girl is found injured and bloody on the side of the road with no memory of who she is or what happened to her.  A police officer happens to stumble across her in the middle of the night and takes her back to the police station to try to figure out what happened. Not long after they arrive, a middle aged man shows up claiming the injured girl is his daughter, and he even has her birth certificate and pictures of her on his phone to prove it. After the police officer verifies the documents, "Mary" is released back into his care, hoping that her memories will return and she will remember this man. However, a series of odd incidents leads "Mary" to question if this man is who he says he is. And if he isn't her father, what does he want with her?

Drew, a teenage boy from a town about 2 hours away, is vilified by the entire town when his girlfriend, Lola, goes missing and he was the last person to see her alive. Most people in the town think Drew killed Lola, including the sheriff. Instead of actually looking for Lola, everyone just expects Drew to tell the police what he did to Lola so her family can have closure. But Drew isn't going to stop looking for Lola, no matter what it takes. With the help of his cousin, Max, and an unlikely ally, Drew finds a lead that proves Lola is still alive and he will do whatever it takes to bring her home. 

This short, fast paced thriller is told in alternating points of view between Drew and "Mary", which I loved but it also drove me nuts at times. I was so desperate to know what was going to happen next with the current character I was reading about that I didn't want to switch points of view.  

The suspense was intense and this is easily one of my favorite books that I have read in the past couple of months. Although it seems like the story is pretty straightforward, there were plenty of twists and turns in the plot that kept me constantly guessing and holding my breath.  I even had tears in my eyes by the end of the book. 

I can already tell I am going to have a Book Hangover after this one. 

HIGHLY RECOMMEND!

"Holly Horror" by Michelle Jabes Corpora

 Please don't judge this one by it's title...

Or the pink and purple cover with a skull wearing a bonnet.

If you are looking for a ghost story with Annabel vibes, then you need to read this series!

This series has a haunted house, ghosts, creepy dolls that sing creepy songs, and an evil presence that is just waiting to claim it's next victim. 

Sign. Me. Up.

Sixteen-year-old Evie Archer is trying to pull her life together after her parents' messy divorce.  Her father has flown off to Paris to pursue his art career while Evie, her socially ambitious mother, and her younger brother are forced to sell their apartment in New York and move to Ravenglass, Massachusetts. 

Evie's new home is no posh, sleek apartment. It is a giant, creepy, manor house that has set empty for years and is known as the Hobby House. However, most of the citizens of Ravenglass don't refer to the manor as the Hobby House.

It is the "Horror House". 

Forty years ago, a 15 year old girl named Holly Hobby went missing from the house and despite an extensive search by her family and the police, she was never found. Some people believe she ran away, and others believe that she never left that house.

They were right. 

As Evie tries to settle into her new home and her new life, she feels another presence within the house. A series of disturbing experiences drives Evie to start looking into the dark history of the Hobby House, and she discovers that Holly Hobby wasn't the first girl lost to the Hobby House.

And she may not be the last.

This book has everything you need if you want a great creepy ghost story. The scenes where the hauntings took place were very well written and created the perfect vibe for the story. 

I did get a little frustrated with some of Evie's choices throughout the book. I was literally rolling my eyes at some of her decisions, but I guess there is no story or character grow to be had if the main character always makes the right decisions. 

When I started this book, I had no idea it was part of a series. While the main plot of the story is resolved in this book, there is one major reveal at the end that will have you running to pick up the 2nd book.

"The Longest Night" continues Evie's story and takes us even further back into the history of the Hobby House. This was a great sequel that took some inspiration from Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol". Once again, the main plot of the story wraps up in this one, but it is very obvious that there is going to be a third book in the series. 

This is definitely a solid choice for anyone looking for a new horror series. 

Enjoy!

"If I Have to Be Haunted" by Miranda Sun

 

5 Stars!!!

I stayed up way later than I should have to finish this one. 

I'll admit, the cover really sold me on this book. I was definitely in the mood for a fall book with spooky vibes.  Well, the setting is in the fall and there are ghosts in this book but it was not what I was expecting.

I was expecting a spooky rom-com with a cute enemies to lovers style of romance. I was only partly correct, but I  really enjoyed this book.

Cara Tang knows two things:

1. Zach Coleson, the towns perfect, handsome golden boy, is the most irritating and annoying person alive.

2. She can see and talk to ghosts ( Not that she wants to).

Cara is a ghost speaker, like her mother and grandmother before her.  Her grandmother was renowned for her ability and power, but Cara's mother has spent so many years ignoring her gift that she has lost her ability to see ghosts. Now, she wants Cara to follow in her footsteps and leave the family legacy of ghost speaking far behind. 

Cara has always been the dutiful daughter, following her mother's wishes despite her grandmother's ghost constantly encouraging her to embrace her gift. But she has never come close to breaking the promise she made to her mother until she stumbles across the body of the town's golden boy in the woods near her tree house.

Zach Coleson was dead, but he wasn't gone.

If Cara thought Zach was annoying in life, it is nothing compared to him now that he is a ghost.  As the only person who can see or hear Zach's ghost, he has no one else to turn to and he is determined to convince Cara to help him.  As Cara and Zach investigate the mysterious circumstances surrounding his unusual demise, they discover a loophole. As a ghost speaker, Cara has the ability to resurrect Zach from the dead, but they will have to embark on a dangerous quest through a parallel world to make that happen. 

As Zach and Cara face constant dangers on their quest, they begin to realize that despite knowing each other for their entire lives, they actually don't know each other at all. Revelations come to light and suddenly they are each seeing another side of the other that they never knew existed. 

And as the danger increases, Cara and Zach will have to answer the question:

Will saving Zach cost Cara her own life? And are they each willing to take that chance?

Overall,  I loved the scenes when Cara and Zach interacted. Even when they were fighting, there was so much tension on the page that I was completely absorbed. Then, during their softer interactions, I loved how they slowly opened up to each other and learned knew aspects of each other's lives. 

Also, this book definitely had more of a fantasy feel than I was expecting. In a weird way it reminded me of the movie "Willow" because of the epic quest, all of the obstacles they had to face, and the new characters that were introduced along the way. 

Finally, the ending of this book is clearly paving the wave for more books in this series, or at least more stories set within this world. I look forward to reading the next one!

"I am NOT a Serial Killer" by Dan Wells

 "I am NOT Serial Killer" has been on our library shelves for a few years now, and at the urging of my younger sister and a fellow librarian, I finally moved it to the top of my TBR list.

If you are looking for a dark murder mystery with supernatural vibes, then look no farther!

If you are a fan of the TV show "Dexter",

Or "Criminal Minds",

Or if you are a fan of Barry Lyga's "I Hunt Killers" trilogy,

Then, I strongly recommend "I Am NOT a Serial Killer".

The Book: 

John Wayne Cleaver is a 15 year old teenager.

He is obsessed with learning about serial killers. Reading about them, building profiles on them, writing reports about them, etc. 

He works in a morgue with his mother, his aunt, and his older sister.  He helps embalm the dead before burial.

Oh, and he is a clinically diagnosed sociopath.

John knows he is different than other people. Emotions, attachments and basic empathy are not something he possesses, and from his obsessive study of serial killers, he knows that he has all the major markers of a budding serial killer.

He is fascinated by the dead.

He likes to watch people and stalk them.

He has dark fantasies that would horrifying his family if they knew.

But John also knows that these behaviors are wrong. He knows it is wrong to stalk people, he knows it is wrong to fantasize about death even if he feels nothing. 

So John has rules for himself to prevent himself from going down this path. He is determined to NOT become a serial killer.

However, when a serial killer comes to town and starts murdering the residents of Clayton County, John finds himself tempted in a way he has never been before. 

As the bodies start to pile up, John decides that he is going to let his own monster out and end the serial killer before someone else dies. 

But what John discovers is darker and more horrifying than anything he could have imagined, and now that his own monster has been let out, there is no going back. 

Overall, this was a pretty dark story, which makes sense as the narrator is a sociopath, but the story itself was fast paced and highly engaging.  There were several pulse pounding moments that had goosebumps spring up on my arms and chills running down my back. This was NOT a boring mystery.

MILD SPOILER

I must admit that there were times that I felt more sympathy for the "bad guy" than I did for John. John is a hard character to root for as there is nothing more driving him than his own dark needs and a basic knowledge of right and wrong. The "Bad Guy" in this story had motivations that I could understand even if they made him a monster. 

Read the book and you will know what I am talking about. 

Overall, I would give this book 4.5 stars.

There are 2 other books in the series, but I will be taking a break from this series for now. I think I am going to go find a nice fluffy comedy to read next. 

"The Voice Upstairs" by Laura E. Weymouth

 That. Was. Creepy.

(Rubbing my arms and trying to shake off the goosebumps.)

A haunted nursery.

Disembodied voices singing childhood rhymes.

Bed covers being slowly pulled off while you sleep.

Nightmares about corpses coming out of the walls.

 

(Another shiver)

If you're looking for a creepy paranormal mystery, then "The Voice Upstairs" definitely fits the bill.

Wilhelmina Price has never fit in with the other village people of Thrush's Green. Ever since her mother's untimely death. Wil has had the gift, or curse, of being able to see a person's spirit leaving their body days or even hours before their death. When Wil first realized she had this ability, she tried to warn people of their impending demise. Of course, they didn't believe her, and when those people actually started dying, the village people came to fear and despise Wil for her "unholy" gift. 

As a result, Wil has only ever had one true friend: Edison Summerfield, the youngest son of a local Lord.

When a maid on the Summerfield estate dies in the same suspicious way that Wil's mother did, Wil decides she is going to get a job as a maid on the Summerfield Estate and use her gift to find out what happened to the maid, and ultimately, what happened to her mother.

But Ed Summerfeld has been keeping a secret from Wil. 

He's being haunted.

Eerie noises. Disembodied voices. Furniture moving. Doors slamming. Frightening Dreams.

Ed believes he is being haunted by the spirit of his dead brother, Peter, who died in the war. However, no one experiences any of these events except for him. This terrifies Ed because if Wil, with her connection and power over the dead, can't sense that he is being haunted, then it means his family is right and he is losing his mind. 

Set in the 1920's, this historical paranormal murder mystery was a highly entertain read. I read it in one day. I definitely enjoyed the creepy vibes that the haunting created, and the twist ending caught me off guard. 

An elegant ghost story with a sweet romance intertwined. 

"Hatchet Girls" by Diana Rodriguez Wallach

Lizzie Borden took an ax. 

And gave her mother forty whacks, 

And when she saw what she had done, 

She gave her father forty-one.

This book would have made an excellent horror movie!

I love horror stories that are inspired by true events.  I love making connections between the true story and the author's reimagined story as they twist and mold those events into something completely new.

"Hatchet Girls" is based on the real life events of the Borden family.  The Borden family was a rich and prosperous family, but not a very happy one. Andrew Borden, the father and family patriarch, was a somber and tight fisted man who like to control his money and his family. His first wife passed away when his two girls were quite young, and he eventually remarried a woman named Abby. 

No one really knows what happened that fateful day, but the popular belief is that Lizzie Borden just snapped. She was fed up with her father controlling every aspect of her life, so while he was out, she went upstairs to her stepmother's room and killed her with an axe, striking her multiple times. Her father came home later, having no idea of his wife's fate, and laid down on the couch to rest. While he was resting, Lizzie Borden killed him with the axe as well. 

However, Lizzie Borden was never convicted for these murders. 

During the trial, there was never enough information to prove that Lizzie was the murderess, and fingers were also pointed at Lizzie's uncle and even disgruntled business partners as the potential murderers. 

So someone got away with murder.

"Hatchet Girls" is a novel inspired by the mystery surrounding the Borden family and intertwines those events with the supernatural as history repeats itself in a present day setting.  

One hundred years after the Borden murders, tragedy has struck again. 

In the town of River Falls, a wealthy businessman and his wife have been murdered in their upscale home that is located just miles from the historic Lizzie Borden home. And when Tessa's older brother Vik is the prime suspect in the double homicide, Tessa knows she is going to have to do everything in her power to prove his innocence and expose the real murderer.

Tessa's hunt for the truth leads her into the dark history of River Falls, and the supposedly cursed forest that her brother was hiking in on the night of the murders. There is something different about that forest, something sinister.  

Did something happen to her brother that night in those woods? Or is some sinister force reaching out from the beyond to ensure that history repeats itself?

Gothic vibes, VERY creepy descriptive scenes, and a engaging method of storytelling that flashes back and forth between the night of the murder and the aftermath makes this a quick and compelling read. 

Perfect for fans who love horror, murder mysteries and the supernatural.