Between the Pages

Reading and writing, reading and writing, reading and writing: that's what I hope to keep doing all summer (with some swimming and seeing friends mixed in there too!). Here's another review! This is Stuart Turton's The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle,  and it's a doozy.  SUMMARY THE RULES OF BLACKHEATH Evelyn Hardcastle will be murdered at 11:00 p.m. There are eight days and eight witnesses for you to inhabit. We will only let you escape once you tell us the name of the killer. Understood? Then let's begin... Evelyn Hardcastle WILL die. And every day Aiden Bishop WILL try to identify her killer and break this neverending cycle he has somehow found himself in. But every time a new day begins, Aiden inhabits the body of a different guest at Blackheath. Some of Aiden's hosts will be more helpful than others. Some of Aiden's hosts are more capable than others. Some of Aiden's hosts start to overcome Aiden's true personality. Then again, who is Aiden? A...

  SUMMARY Until now, Nora Seed's life has been one big regret. Well, not actually. Nora has many regrets - not getting married - not continuing her teenaged band with her brother - not majoring in another field of study. From big to small, Nora Seed's regrets are more numerous than her friends. Nora Seed, after a particularly horrendous day (worse than the rest of her days), decides to end her life.  Upon overdosing, Nora Seed arrives in The Midnight Library, a place between life and death. Each book on the shelves holds a life Nora Seed could have had if she had made one decision, small or large, differently. Not every life is a more opportune one either. With the help of an old friend and mentor, Nora Seed tries hundreds of lives on for size. She's a rockstar, a pub owner, a winery-wife, a cancer patient, a glaciologist: Nora tries to sort out her perfect life. But things aren't always as they seem. Before her time runs out, will Nora find the best way to live? REVIEW...

Dracula by Bram Stoker is truly horrifying and a classic EVERYONE should read.  Summary Johnathan Harker is off on business. He always has a plan, Except, this time he doesn't. His mysterious business associate has not given him any direction. Johnathan Harker travels to Transylvania to meet his host. Instead of a professional, businessman, Harker is greeted by a seemingly mythical, ghastly white-haired and skinned man. Count Dracula, or the Count for short, terrorizes the town below the cliffs of his lair. Throughout Harker's time at the castle, he is almost killed from scaling the castle windows' ledges, three ghost women who cackle and try to suck the blood out of the veins in his neck, and the Count himself.  Meanwhile, Harker's fiance, Mina Murray, is with her beloved friend, Lucy Westenra, in Whitby. Lucy starts having dreams and sleepwalking. One night, Lucy sleepwalks to a misty churchyard where Mina spots a ghostly figure on a bench next to an extremely pale Lu...

Murder, Magic, and What We Wore Murder, Magic, and What We Wore by Kelly Jones is a fast-paced novel about a young Annis Whitworth who tries desperately to make her own way in a difficult situation in which she, for the first time, must work very hard. Plot Summary: Annis Whitworth is young women living in London just after its war with France. Annis lives alone with her aunt Cassia Whitworth, her father’s sister because her father has always traveled for “business”, shall we say, a lot and her mother died when Annis was about two years old. Annis knows about her father’s job no matter how clueless her aunt and her father think she is. Her father is a spy for England. England still wants spies on France just in case Napoleon gets any ideas or escapes his captivity/prison cell. One morning, early in the novel, Annis and Aunt Cassia find out her father has died in a carriage accident. (Annis classifies this as suspicious.) She decides she should become a spy as well so that...

Flunked Flunked by Jen Calonita is a spin on all of your favorite fairy-tales, while incorporating some new details as well. Plot Summary: Gilly is a thief. Let me rephrase that, a “minor” thief. But she steals for a good reason, right? She steals for her family, a poor, rag-tag, group of people who live in a very cramped boot. Her father, is a shoemaker who was the actual inventor of the glass slipper. Now Princess Ella’s fairy godmother can make them with a flick of her wand, but her family must put in a lot of work for just a standard boot, much less a glass slipper they created . But she does not just steal from anybody. She steals items from people who can live without them. Taking back what is rightfully her’s and her family’s. She steals from royals. She steals anything from dragon tooth clips to day old bread. One day, this has never happened before and she swears it will never happen again, she gets caught by the Enchantasia Police. (An initiative headed up by ...

Between the Lines Between the Lines by Jodi Picoult and Samantha van Leer is a captivating story about an adolescent girl, Delilah, and a boy the same age, Oliver, who both want to be somewhere else and live someone else’s life. Plot Summary: Delilah is a 14 year old girl who is miserable. She and her father split after he decided she and her mother just were not good enough to live with. She is completely depressed until she finds a beautiful, hand illustrated, children’s fairy tale hidden between an assortment of books on the shelf. She had never seen this book before. She becomes obsessed with the book because she can connect very well to the main character of the fairy tale, Oliver. Oliver’s father died in the beginning of the story. Oliver is a 16 year old boy who, much like Delilah, is miserable. He acts the same part every time a Reader opens the book. He hates being stuck in the same boring world day after day after day. When Delilah starts reading the b...

My Lady Jane My Lady Jane by Brodi Ashton, Cynthia Hand, and Jodi Meadows is a story focusing around a page-turning plot, well developed characters, and a love story (or stories) that will make your heart melt. Plot Summary: Edward is the King. Keep in mind, he is only sixteen. Sadly, he is dying from an infectious disease called The Affliction. His cousin, sixteen also, is named Jane. He and she have been best friends well, always. When he becomes ill however the Grand Duke, Dudley, decides he needs to pick who will be King, or Queen *squeal*, when he dies. No one is suitable for the job in his family but Jane, the redhead, spunky girl with a book permanently glued to her face. Dudley suggests that she wed his son, Gifford. (He likes to be called ‘G’.) He also suggests that she bear a child, a son, to rule the kingdom. This leads into  complex, but understandable story, that keeps you on your toes. Author Praise: This story combines romance and a dash of ...