It’s the five-year anniversary of Jake’s death, and his 18-year-old sister Jaycee is still grieving. In order to feel closer to him, she wears his clothes and recreates the daredevil stunts he performed while exploring abandoned sites and buildings. A group of friends decide to tag along with her: Nathalie, her bossy, cautious ex-best friend, Zach, an inveterate gamer, Bishop, a broken-hearted young man, and Mik, Jake’s mysterious friend. Will Jaycee…
Category: Review
Liza Perrat
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Spirit of Lost Angels by Liza Perrat
Victoire Charpentier is a young woman living in Lucie-sur-Vionne, France, at the end of the 18th century. When her father dies in a coach accident and her mother is drowned for witchcraft, she has no choice but to go to Paris to work as a scullery maid for a noble family. Overwhelmed by the big city and abused by the Marquis who employs her, life doesn’t get any easier for…
Alexander Chee
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The Queen of the Night by Alexander Chee
Lilliet Berne is a famous opera singer in 1882 Paris when an author approaches her to ask her to star in an opera he has just finished writing. When she reads it, she realizes that the story relates her own secret past. As she tries to discover the person who betrayed her confidence, she remembers her humble beginnings as an orphan from Ohio, her travels in Europe with a circus and her…
Review
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The Witches by Stacy Schiff
In 1692, 14 women, 5 men and 2 dogs were executed for witchcraft in Salem, Massachusetts. It started in January of that year when two girls experienced strange symptoms, twitching and contorting with pain. In the course of 9 months, dozens of people were affected by this strange epidemic, and hundreds were accused of witchcraft. Daughters pointed fingers at mothers, neighbors implicated each other. A minister was accused of being…
Review
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Confessions of a Paris Party Girl by Vicki Lesage
Vicki Lesage, an American from St. Louis, Missouri, finds herself newly single at 25. When she loses her job in an IT company, she decides it is the perfect time to move to France and start over. As soon as she arrives, she relishes the delicious food and rich culture. However, she soon finds out that making new friends is not as easy as she thought and that life in Paris can be…
Reba Riley
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Post-Traumatic Church Syndrome by Reba Riley
Reba Riley was raised in an Evangelical Pentecostal household where they used Jesus-themed paper napkins. After high school, she went to ministry training but started questioning her faith when her parents got a divorce. Later, when she left the Church, she experienced a total loss of identity or, as she likes to call it, post-traumatic church syndrome. Then she started to feel really sick, and doctors were not able to…
Mike Martin
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A Twist of Fortune by Mike Martin
At the beginning of A Twist of Fortune, Sergeant Winston Windflower watches in dismay as his girlfriend, Sheila, gets arrested during an illegal protest at the local fish plant. Then a snowstorm hits Grand Bank, Newfoundland, and a pharmacist dies in a car accident on the highway. What seems to be a straightforward investigation turns out to be a lot more when a body is discovered in the trunk of the…
Audrey Niffenegger
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Ghostly by Audrey Niffenegger
Ghostly is an anthology of 16 ghost stories, edited, introduced and illustrated by Audrey Niffenegger. In the introduction, the author says the stories are about “haunted houses, lovers, children and cats”, and this about sums up the subject of the tales in this book. My favorite is “Honeysuckle Cottage” by P.G. Wodehouse where a mystery writer inherits a house from his aunt, a romance author, and strange things straight out…
James Dashner
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The Scorch Trials by James Dashner
The Scorch Trials starts a few hours after the end of The Maze Runner. Thomas and the other survivors of the Maze are resting from the ordeal they just went through. The next morning though, it becomes clear that they are not safe and that their problems are far from over. Teresa is missing, and a new boy, Aris, has taken her place. Then the Gladers are told that they…
Liza Perrat
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Wolfsangel by Liza Perrat
The novel starts in 1943, when the German army is occupying France. In Lucie-sur-Vionne, a small village near Lyon, the enemy has requisitioned everything that can be of use or that can make a profit. Because her father has been sent to a work camp in Germany, Céleste Roussel wants to be more involved in the Resistance, especially as her sister, her brother and his best friend are active members….