Kate Brian

Ok I'm going to write a review soon, but first CAN SOMEONE PLEASE TELL ME WHAT THE HELL IS UP WITH THE ENDING????????? I am seriously sitting here like WHAT!?!?!? I had no clue and I still don't!! WHY?????

REVIEW:
Rory Miller was stalked and attacked by a serial killer (her math teacher, Mr. Nell). Somehow she managed to survive, but Mr. Nell got away.... and he's not one to give up. Now that he got so close to having Rory, he won't quit until he finishes his plan. The FBI are out of options show more and decide to put Rory, her sister Darcy, and their dad into the witness protection program. When they get to their destination, they realize they've been sent to a small island-resort town. Darcy and Rory make friends easily as the townies are quite friendly... but also maybe a little too friendly. Rory can't quite shake the feeling that she's being watched again and starts thinking maybe Mr. Nell is close. She's met with a lot of dismissiveness... but maybe she should listen to her instincts because people are disappearing on Juniper Landing and it's only a matter of time before she's next.

This book got me hooked from page 1. It starts out so INTENSE!! The first 50 pages are insanely thrilling and scary! Imagine if a serial killer was after you or your family?? It's crazy! I thought it was odd that the sister and dad didn't take it as seriously as I wanted them to. Hello, your sister/daughter was just almost killed by a man who's already killed 14 girls, can you be a little bit more thankful that she's still here and take some precautions to make sure it stays that way?? But I guess with the death of the mother years earlier they had some family issues that made them not act right.

After they arrived at Juniper Landing, the girls immediately connect with a group of kids all wearing these weird leather braided bracelets. At that point I knew there was some kind of secret... but no clue what it could be. They were extremely friendly people, but they were just taking a little bit too much interest in Rory for my liking... stalkerish.

I flew through this book. It was so addicting that I just had to know!! There were short chapters where we would hear from Mr. Nell and they freaked me out to where I had to continue reading and make sure Rory was going to be okay!

I must say I loved the island setting. The foggy small-town was a perfect creepy setting. Plus I just happen to love island books! I love that isolated feel.

Now we get to the end. While I was reading this book I noticed how quickly the end was coming and there were still no answers!! I started getting really nervous, until it was revealed on the very last page (so don't read the last page unless you want to ruin the book for yourself). I WISH I could tell you what happens because it made me be like "WTF" for a good hour or so. I seriously was just sitting around being like "What the hell???" until my husband told me to go read another book. I'm not going to lie I had to email someone who already read the book to completely understand what exactly happened... and now that I know?!?!?! I'm not sure what I think! I guess I'll just have to read the next book in the series to truly know if it's going to be for me or not.

Overall: A really great thriller with an exciting twist. I would totally recommend if only for the fact that you will get addicted once you start reading it. If you liked Hysteria by Megan Miranda or Unraveling Isobel by Eileen Cook or The Lying Game by Sara Shepard, this reminds me slightly of those books (but I think it's even better).


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I almost, almost didn’t read ‘She’s So Dead to Us’ because of a review I had read about the book. Reading about mean girls and cliques is not really my thing, and sometimes makes me uncomfortable. However, I decided to give the book a shot. I am SO glad I did!

The story is about ex-Crestie, Ally. At first, I thought she was going to be a snobby protagonist that I wouldn’t connect with. I was totally wrong. (We do see small bits of it sneak out at times, though.) Ally is a very show more strong character. She is out-casted by all of her previous friends, made the butt of one too many jokes, and still she over comes this. That takes a lot of courage. I’m so glad she wasn’t a whiny character. I don’t think I could have taken that. I really loved this character.

The other characters I had a love/hate relationship with, even Jake. I wanted to like him, but damn boy, grow up! I really dislike it when the ‘hero’ doesn’t stand up for… well, anything. When he and Ally were together, it was great. But when he chose his Crestie friends over her, it just ticked me off. Shannon, Faith, Hammond and most of the other characters were absolutely annoying as well.

The writing in this book was really creative. Very fast paced, and kept my attention. The plot was well thought out and interesting. I tend to avoid drama like the plague. (I’ve had more than enough of THAT in my life.) That being said, I could not get enough of it in this book. Thankfully, I didn’t have to wait to read the second book, which I liked as well. If you want a quick read that will draw you in, this is definitely the book to read! show less

As Charmed books go, this is a very good one. It begins with some non-magic conflict between the sisters. Phoebe is feeling under-appreciated by her sisters, who don’t realize she also has important things to do. Soon, everyone will see how important she is because during a battle with demons, Phoebe gets separated from her sisters. A knock on the head, and a spell from bad witches later, she’s convinced by the evil witches seeking amulets which will give them ultimate magical power, show more that she’s their good friend, Ruth, and together they battle evil.

Meanwhile back at Halliwell Manor, Leo can’t locate the missing Phoebe, and scrying doesn’t work either. As of yet, no one realizes what’s going on, or that a spell is preventing them from finding Phoebe, and keeping Phoebe’s memories of Piper and Paige buried. While Ruth/Phoebe helps her “sister” witches retrieve the amulets, despite a feeling of unease, Piper and Paige have to deal with Flector demons, and could really use the power of three. They could also use Phoebe on the home-front. Piper and Paige have a house full of magical creatures demanding the counseling and advice session promised them by Phoebe.

While the magical creature part of the story can get a bit frivolous at times, and the bad witches’ interactions with Ruth a tad tiring, things get much better once Paige encounters Phoebe and her fellow “good” witches in action, and realizes Phoebe has completely forgotten her real sisters. It’s all well written, and for the most part pretty enjoyable. The conclusion helped a great deal, as it was both exciting and fun, and had a couple of wonderful moments between sisters toward the end. It very much retained the feel of the show, so gets high marks on that front.

Probably a 4.2 for me, just because a few frivolous moments bored me, and the series works best when all three sisters have more scenes together. Overall, however, this is a very enjoyable entry which captured nicely the feel of the series. Highly recommended for fans of the show as a light and entertaining read which now has the added bonus of being nostalgic; this show debuted two decades ago! My, how time flies… show less

Note: This review does not contain any spoilers.

This is Book Two of the “She’s So Dead To Us” trilogy. At the end of Book One, I had one of those GAAAAHHH moments upon realizing the book “ended” [loosely speaking] with a cliffhanger. Ergo, not only did I have to RE-READ Book One before starting on Book Two, but Book Two does THE SAME THING. GAAAAHHH!

These are fun books though, even though in Book Two, Ally, the main character, morphs into a sullen, surly, self-absorbed version of show more the sweet, spunky girl of the first book. In She’s So Dead to Us, one wonders how anyone could resist this appealing character. In He’s So Not Worth It however, one wonders why the title wasn’t “SHE’s So Not Worth It.”

Brief summary of Book One: Ally Ryan’s world is turned upside down when her family must abruptly leave “The Crest” in Orchard Hill, New Jersey - a small neighborhood where the rich people live - and escape to her grandparents’ house in Maryland. Ally’s father, an investor, has lost all their money, as well as most of the savings of all of their friends on The Crest. As if that weren't devastating enough, after two weeks in Maryland, the father abandons them and doesn’t return. Eighteen months pass before Ally’s mother saves to return to Orchard Hill (albeit in the poorer section), but Ally and her mother are shunned by their old friends. Nevertheless, Ally, now seventeen, begins a surreptitious relationship with same-aged Jake Graydon, the “hot” boy who now occupies her room in her former house. But Ally’s old friends are determined to destroy her as thoroughly as Ally’s father destroyed their lives.

On to Book Two:

This book is interspersed with the notebook observations of Ally’s new friend Annie, who takes over the job of being fun and genuine, since Ally clearly is no longer in those categories.

Ally’s mother is now dating, and Ally resents her for it, and hates the new guy, Gray, who has the nerve to try to be nice to her when he is not her father! They all head off with other “Cresties” to spend the summer at Gray’s place at the New Jersey shore, but Ally is determined to be as antagonistic and unpleasant as possible.

She is so self-absorbed and grouchy that even other characters get sick of it (along with the readers, one might add). As one character shouts: "‘I am so sick of hearing about you and your problems with your mother and how your dad bailed on you and wah, wah, wah,’ he said, his eyes blazing. ‘News flash, Crestie Girl, everyone’s lives suck! The only difference between you and the rest of us is that we don’t spend every waking second whining about it.'”

Alas, this does not produce an epiphany for Ally. It only makes her feel hostile toward the speaker, Cooper, a “hot” boy Ally meets at the shore.

Eventually, Ally’s rebelliousness gets her into trouble, and she finds out who her real friends are. Maybe. There’s that cliffhanger at the end…

Discussion: Both books are told in alternating chapters narrated by Jake and Ally. Book Two adds frequent interludes by Annie’s “Daily Field Journal,” injecting much-needed humor and warmth to mitigate all the melt-downs in Book Two. And almost everybody is having melt-downs (or personality changes).

Interestingly, much of the Sturm and Drang comes from a puzzling lack of introspection by all of the characters, who each make at least one bad choice in behavior. After the mistake, the character is then punished and/or shunned, and is crushed by the repercussions of having made just one mistake. And yet, when the next character comes along and makes a mistake, all the previous mistake-makers join in with the punishment and shunning. These Orchard Hill people are not much for reflection and self-examination.

But that’s part of their characters, which are really quite well drawn. Scott has great instincts for limning the thought-patterns of both teenagers and adults. You may want to send everyone to his or her room, and yet you’ll be admiring the profiles that made you feel this way. Further, the characters manage to stay likeable and real in all their permutations.

Evaluation: Entertaining teen trauma, but personally, I’d wait for the third book since the first two don’t actually end. Note for Moms: no explicit sex and no drugs, but there is drinking, implied sex, and lots of the F word. show less