Teaser Tuesday (July 12)

What is Teaser Tuesday?
It's a meme hosted by Should Be Reading and here are the rules:Grab your current read...
Open to a random page
Share two teaser sentences from somewhere on the page
Don't include spoilers

"I dream about fields, dark tunnels, but nothing is clear. I dream that a dark shape puts me in the crib, puts a hand over my mouth, and whispers in my ear."

-The Replacement, Page 1, by Brenna Yovanoff

In My Mailbox (July 11)

In my mailbox was created by Kristi of The Story Siren, who was inspired by Alea of Pop Culture Junkie. Here are the books I got this week...

For Review:

The Replacement by Brenna Yovanoff

Mackie Doyle seems like everyone else in the perfect little town of Gentry, but he is living with a fatal secret - he is a Replacement, left in the crib of a human baby sixteen years ago. Now the creatures under the hill want him back, and Mackie must decide where he really belongs and what he really wants.

A month ago, Mackie might have told them to buzz off. But now, with a budding relationship with tough, wounded, beautiful Tate, Mackie has too much to lose. Will love finally make him worthy of the human world?

Part of Traveling Arc Tours

Purchased:

The Reckoning (Darkest Powers #3) by Kelley Armstrong

Only two weeks ago, life was all too predictable. But that was before I saw my first ghost. Now, along with my supernatural friends Tori, Derek, and Simon, I’m on the run from the Edison Group, which genetically altered us as part of their sinister experiment. We’re hiding in a safe house that might not be as safe as it seems. We’ll be gone soon anyway, back to rescue those we’d left behind and to take out the Edison Group . . . or so we hope.





Deadly Little Secrets by Laurie Faria Stolarz

Some secrets shouldn't be kept...

Until three months ago, everything in sixteen-year-old Camelia's life had been fairly ordinary: decent grades, an okay relationship with her parents, and a pretty cool part-time job at the art studio downtown. But when a mysterious boy named Ben starts junior year at her high school, Camelia's life becomes anything but ordinary.

Rumored to be somehow responsible for his ex-girlfriend's accidental death, Ben is immediately ostracized by everyone on campus. Except for Camelia. She's reluctant to believe he's trouble, even when her friends try to convince her otherwise. Instead, she's inexplicably drawn to Ben and to his touch. But soon, Camelia is receiving eerie phone calls and strange packages with threatening notes. Ben insists she is in danger, and that he can help--but can he be trusted? She knows he's hiding something... but he's not the only one with a secret.

Bad Girls Don't Die by Katie Alender
Alexis thought she led a typically dysfunctional high school existence. Dysfunctional like her parents' marriage; her doll-crazy twelve-year-old sister, Kasey; and even her own anti-social, anti-cheerleader attitude.

When a family fight results in some tearful sisterly bonding, Alexis realizes that her life is creeping from dysfunction into danger. Kasey is acting stranger than ever: her blue eyes go green sometimes; she uses old-fashioned language; and she even loses track of chunks of time, claiming to know nothing about her strange behavior. Their old house is changing, too. Doors open and close by themselves; water boils on the unlit stove; and an unplugged air conditioner turns the house cold enough to see their breath in.

Alexis wants to think that it's all in her head, but soon, what she liked to think of as silly parlor tricks are becoming life-threatening--to her, her family, and to her budding relationship with the class president. Alexis knows she's the only person who can stop Kasey -- but what if that green-eyed girl isn't even Kasey anymore?

Blogoversary Contest Winners!

It's time to post the winners of my blogoversary contest! I got a lot more entries than I was anticipating, and a lot more blog buttons, too. A huge thanks to Audrey, Katie, Shy, Jen, Fiona, and Aik for creating some fabulous blog buttons for me. You can check them out at the top of my page, or by clicking here. Now, on to the winners:

1st Prize (Winner of the Private Series books 1-9):
SARAH L

2nd Prize:
KATE

4th Prize:
LEA

5th Prize:
SAB H

6th Prize:
JESSICA

7th Prize:
ANDREA

8th Prize:
HEATHER

9th Prize:
TERESA

10 D0llar Amazon GC Winner:
AUDREY

International Winner:
REBECCA

Build A Button Winner:
FIONA

Congratulations to all the winners! I'll be emailing each of you with the details, and need to hear back within 48 hours of sending it out. If I don't hear from you, another winner will have to be chosen.

Blogoversary Contest Update

Since my blogoversary contest ended on June 30, and it is now July 9, I thought I would just post a little update. I'm hoping to have a winners list up tomorrow at the latest. I'll be emailing the winners with details around the time that post goes up.

Thanks to everyone who entered, and sorry for taking so long to total up the entries!

Mini Book Review: The Body Finder by Kimberly Derting

Violet Ambrose is grappling with two major issues: Jay Heaton and her morbid secret ability. While the sixteen-year-old is confused by her new feelings for her best friend since childhood, she is more disturbed by her "power" to sense dead bodies—or at least those that have been murdered. Since she was a little girl, she has felt the echoes the dead leave behind in the world . . . and the imprints that attach to their killers.

Violet has never considered her strange talent to be a gift; it mostly just led her to find dead birds her cat left for her. But now that a serial killer is terrorizing her small town, and the echoes of the local girls he's claimed haunt her daily, Violet realizes she might be the only person who can stop him.

Despite his fierce protectiveness over her, Jay reluctantly agrees to help Violet find the murderer—and Violet is unnerved by her hope that Jay's intentions are much more than friendly. But even as she's falling intensely in love, Violet is getting closer and closer to discovering a killer . . . and becoming his prey herself. (From Goodreads)

I read quite a few reviews of this one before I picked it up. Some were good, others bad, and there were a few smack dab in the middle. In an effort to avoid repeating everything all the other reviews have said, I'm just going to briefly share my general thoughts on the plot and characters.

I really liked the idea behind the plot. Violet can sense dead bodies that are the result of murder. This ability doesn't just work with animals, Violet can sense human bodies as well. She hears their "echoes" calling out to her, and can also sense their imprints upon their murderers. I thought that knowing a murderer would always carry the imprints of those they had killed was a particularly thought-provoking part of the story.

As I said above, my main issue was that I didn't connect with the characters. I'm not sure what it was exactly, but for some reason I didn't really agree with some of Violet's choices (particularly involving Jay). Had I been able to connect to someone, I think my rating for this book would have increased.

The Body Finder
By Kimberly Derting
Published by HarperTeen
Rating: C