Camping and Reading and Bears, oh my!

We went camping last week, I read a lot, had a run in with a 600 pound bear (story for another day) and had a lot of fun. 😀

The Strange Message in the Parchment – Carolyn Keene

★★★★

This is a Nancy Drew book that I had never read. It was enjoyable and I liked the characters that we met. 🙂

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/178160.The_Strange_Message_in_the_Parchment

A sheep farmer receives a mysterious telephone call shortly after he buys a series of pictures painted on parchment. “Decipher the message in the parchment and right a great wrong,” the voice says. Puzzled, the owner asks Nancy to help.

With Junie, his daughter, Nancy tracks down a kidnapper and a group of extortionists. Clues weave in and out of several puzzles, two of which are linked with Italy. Is there a connection between the message in the parchment and a boy artist on another farm? And who is responsible for the atmosphere of fear in the neighborhood?

After several harrowing experiences, Nancy begins to tighten the net around a ruthless villain and calls on the assistance of her friends Ned, Burt, Dave, Bess and George to bring his nefarious schemes to a dead end.

The Ringmaster’s Secret – Carolyn Keene

★★★★★

This was also the first time I read this one and I couldn’t get to the end fast enough. I sped through this in about an hour and read most of it by campfire light.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/48741.The_Ringmaster_s_Secret

Nancy Drew is given a beautiful gold bracelet and finds that one of the horse charms is missing. When she learns the unusual story behind the jewelry, she sets out to solve the fascinating mystery.

The Clue in the Crumbling Wall – Carolyn Keene

★★★★★

This is one of my old favorites. I love the house in it. I want to live there. I was happy to reread it.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/862004.The_Clue_in_the_Crumbling_Wall

While trying to locate a missing dancer who is about to gain a large inheritance, Nancy Drew finds a clue leading to the solution of yet another mystery.

Ruby Red – Kerstin Gier

★★★★★

I liked this one the first time I read it and it was just as enjoyable this time.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8835379-ruby-red

Gwyneth Shepherd’s sophisticated, beautiful cousin Charlotte has been prepared her entire life for traveling through time. But unexpectedly, it is Gwyneth, who in the middle of class takes a sudden spin to a different era!

Gwyneth must now unearth the mystery of why her mother would lie about her birth date to ward off suspicion about her ability, brush up on her history, and work with Gideon–the time traveler from a similarly gifted family that passes the gene through its male line, and whose presence becomes, in time, less insufferable and more essential. Together, Gwyneth and Gideon journey through time to discover who, in the 18th century and in contemporary London, they can trust.

Sapphire Blue – Kerstin Gier

★★★★★

I read this when it first came out and loved it. I decided to reread it because it was such a good book.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12637458-sapphire-blue

Gwen’s life has been a rollercoaster since she discovered she was the Ruby, the final member of the secret time-traveling Circle of Twelve. In between searching through history for the other time-travelers and asking for a bit of their blood (gross!), she’s been trying to figure out what all the mysteries and prophecies surrounding the Circle really mean.

At least Gwen has plenty of help. Her best friend Lesley follows every lead diligently on the Internet. James the ghost teaches Gwen how to fit in at an eighteenth century party. And Xemerius, the gargoyle demon who has been following Gwen since he caught her kissing Gideon in a church, offers advice on everything. Oh, yes. And of course there is Gideon, the Diamond. One minute he’s very warm indeed; the next he’s freezing cold. Gwen’s not sure what’s going on there, but she’s pretty much destined to find out.

Emerald Green – Kerstin Gier

★★★★★

I also read this when it came out but I couldn’t remember quite how it ended. So I reread it. I thought “might as well, I’m rereading the other two.” I’m glad I reread it.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17620267-emerald-green

Gwen has a destiny to fulfill, but no one will tell her what it is.
She’s only recently learned that she is the Ruby, the final member of the time-traveling Circle of Twelve, and since then nothing has been going right. She suspects the founder of the Circle, Count Saint-German, is up to something nefarious, but nobody will believe her. And she’s just learned that her charming time-traveling partner, Gideon, has probably been using her all along.
This stunning conclusion picks up where Sapphire Blue left off, reaching new heights of intrigue and romance as Gwen finally uncovers the secrets of the time-traveling society and learns her fate.

The Close Shave – Wilbert Awdry

★★★★★

This was one of Baby’s picks for bedtime story. I loved curling up with him and reading it. 🙂

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1879702.The_Close_Shave

THOMAS’ FRIEND DUCK likes to be Really Useful and Right on Time. One day, some Troublesome Trucks start pushing and they will not stop, and a station is just ahead! Duck works himself into a lather trying to brake in time, but ends up crashing into the station’s barber shop.

Go, Train, Go! – Wilbert Awdry

★★★½

Another of Baby’s picks. I wasn’t quite so thrilled with this one. I can’t quite put my finger on why though.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/734541.Go_Train_Go_

Thomas is taking the judge to the train show! He speeds up a hill, across a ridge, through a tunnel, and over a bridge. But as soon as Thomas starts to go fast—screech!—he has to slow down. A goat is in the way, the wind is pushing him back, the tunnel is very dark, and logs are on the track! As soon as Thomas gets past each delay, he gets to go fast—at last! But will they reach the show on time? Go, Thomas, go!

Henry and the Elephant – Wilbert Awdry

★★★★★

Ahh, Henry and the Elephant. Baby’s third pick and an old favorite. 😀

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/157742.Henry_and_the_Elephant

The engines are very excited when the circus comes to Sodor. Everyone wants to pull the special freight cars and coaches. Henry carefully pushes an empty truck into the dark tunnel to clear the track. Imagine his surprise when something starts to push back!

Ghost House – Alexandra Adornetto

★★★

This book was a typical haunted house YA book. Guy is dead, main character falls in love with him, sad sad sad when he finally moves on. I knew what would happen before it happened. I will probably read a sequel but it won’t be on my “I have to read this right now” list.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/19486754-ghost-house

From the New York Times bestselling author of Halo comes the start of a beautiful and powerful new series.

After the loss of her mother, Chloe Kennedy starts seeing the ghosts that haunted her as a young girl again. Spending time at her grandmother’s country estate in the south of England is her chance to get away from her grief and the spirits that haunt her. Until she meets a mysterious stranger…

Alexander Reade is 157 years dead, with secrets darker than the lake surrounding Grange Hall and a lifelike presence that draws Chloe more strongly than any ghost before. But the bond between them awakens the vengeful spirit of Alexander’s past love, Isobel. And she will stop at nothing to destroy anyone who threatens to take him from her.

To stop Isobel, Chloe must push her developing abilities to their most dangerous limits, even if it means losing Alex forever… and giving the hungry dead a chance to claim her for their own.

Faces of the Dead – Suzanne Weyn

★★★★★

I don’t know if I liked this book because it was so well written or if historical fiction just seriously appeals to me. I never much thought about Marie Antoinette having kids, she was just someone who got her head cut off during the French Revolution. Marie-Thérèse was an enjoyable character and I thought it was cool that she switched places with a chambermaid. This is on my To Be Reread list.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20578956-faces-of-the-dead

When Marie-Therese, daughter of Marie Antoinette, slips into the streets of Paris at the height of the French Revolution, she finds a world much darker than what she’s ever known.

When Marie-Thérèse Charlotte of France learns of the powerful rebellion sweeping her country, the sheltered princess is determined to see the revolution for herself. Switching places with a chambermaid, the princess sneaks out of the safety of the royal palace and into the heart of a city in strife.

Soon the princess is brushing shoulders with revolutionaries and activists. One boy in particular, Henri, befriends her and has her questioning the only life she’s known. When the princess returns to the palace one night to find an angry mob storming its walls, she’s forced into hiding in Paris. Henri brings her to the workshop of one Mademoiselle Grosholtz, whose wax figures seem to bring the famous back from the dead, and who looks at Marie-Thérèse as if she can see all of her secrets. There, the princess quickly discovers there’s much more to the outside world – and to the mysterious woman’s wax figures – than meets the eye.

Suspicion – Alexandra Monir

★★★

This book had some serious potential but it skipped around too much and tried to cram too much in. It would have been fine as a supernatural romance or as an American Heiress takes control of her kingdom book. But it was just too much.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17285326-suspicion

Mysterious. Magnificent. Creepy. Welcome to Rockford Manor.

“There’s something hidden in the Maze.” Seventeen-year-old Imogen has never forgotten the last words her father said to her seven years ago, before the blazing fire that consumed him, her mother, and the gardens of her family’s English country manor.

Haunted by her parents’ deaths, Imogen moves to New York City with her new guardians. But when a letter arrives with the news of her cousin’s untimely death, revealing that Imogen is now the only heir left to run the estate, she returns to England and warily accepts her role as duchess.

All is not as it seems at Rockford, and Imogen quickly learns that dark secrets lurk behind the mansion’s aristocratic exterior, hinting that the spate of deaths in her family were no accident. And at the center of the mystery is Imogen herself–and Sebastian, the childhood friend she has secretly loved for years. Just what has Imogen walked into?

Combining a fresh twist on the classic REBECCA with a spine-tingling mystery and powerful romance, SUSPICION is an action-packed thrill ride.

Stay awesome ♥ Christa

The Haunted Museum #1: The Titanic Locket – Suzanne Weyn

★★★★

This book was cool. A little confusing at times, but cool. It takes place on a replica of the legendary Titanic. I love the Titanic. Ever since I was a little girl and my grandmother told me that her cousin had a ticket for the return trip on the Titanic. He didn’t get to use it, of course, but I always thought that it was a cool piece of family history.

I would recommend this for young teens who are interested in the Titanic but maybe aren’t old enough for the 1997 movie. Suzanne Weyn did a great job of taking history and weaving it in with the present day. Sam and Jess are fantastic main characters and young people should be able to relate to them.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18527475-the-haunted-museum-1

Don’t touch anything in The Haunted Museum!

It looks like the high point of Samantha’s spring vacation is going to be a glimpse of a cute boy she sees at The Haunted Museum in England. She and her sister, Jessica, and their parents are taking a cruise on the Titanic 2, a replica of the original Titanic, and there’s not even wifi! At least the Titanic exhibit at the Haunted Museum had wax figures and beautiful jewels to look at.

But from their first day, Samantha and Jessica notice strange things happening. Their cabin number keeps changing. There are creepy scratching sounds coming from between the walls. And a locket that Jess opened at the museum seems to be . . . following them.

Is the locket haunted? Or could it be the ship itself? Are there actors in costume walking about the ship . . .or could they be ghosts? Why is Sam’s sister calling her by another name? Samantha will have to unravel the threads tying her and her sister to the past, or they could go down with the ship!

Happy 100th post! Thanks for sticking with me these last few months.
Stay awesome ♥ Christa

The Night Dance – Suzanne Weyn

★★★½

Another Twelve Dancing Princesses retelling. I CAN’T HELP MYSELF! I liked the references to the legends of King Arthur. I liked that it was a TDP story but it didn’t quite feel true to the original. I know it’s a retelling and the author can take liberties with the story so I’m just going to say this: read it and decide for yourself. 😀

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/975076.The_Night_Dance

Under the stars, in a secret world…

Rowena, the youngest of twelve sisters, loves to slip out of the castle at night and dance in a magical forest. Soon she convinces her sisters to join her. When Sir Ethan notices that his daughters’ slippers look tattered every morning, he is certain they’ve been sneaking out. So he posts a challenge to all the suitors in the kingdom: The first man to discover where his daughters have been is free to marry the one he chooses.

Meanwhile a handsome young knight named Bedivere is involved in a challenge of his own: to return the powerful sword, Excalibur, to a mysterious lake. While looking for the lake, Bedivere meets the beautiful Rowena and falls for her. Bedivere knows that accepting Sir Ethan’s challenge is the only opportunity for him to be with Rowena forever. But this puts both Bedivere and Rowena in a dangerous situation…one in which they risk their lives for a chance at love.

Stay awesome ♥ Christa

Friday Five

Water Song: A Retelling of “The Frog Prince” (Once Upon A Time Fairytales) – Suzanne Weyn

★★★★

I love retellings of classic fairy tales. Stories retelling The Frog Prince are starting to become my favorites. Water Song is a good book to curl up with on a rainy day or in my case, a snowy day. The setting is awesome and so is the story. 😀

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/725806.Water_Song

Young, beautiful, and wealthy, Emma Pennington is accustomed to a very comfortable life. Although war rages abroad, she hardly feels its effect. She and her mother travel from their home in Britain to the family estate in Belgium, never imagining that the war could reach them there. But it does.

Soon Emma finds herself stranded in a war-torn country, utterly alone. Enemy troops fight to take over her estate, leaving her with no way to reach her family, and no way out.

With all of her attention focused on survival and escape, Emma hardly expects to find love. But the war will teach her that life is unpredictable, people aren’t always what they seem, and magic is lurking everywhere.

Jex Malone – C.L. Gaber, V.C. Stanley

★★★★★

I agree with the description. It really is Nancy Drew for a new generation. I found myself hooked from page one. I hope this is the start of a series because I want to see more of the Drew-Ids and Cooper.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18982026-jex-malone

A famous case. A missing girl. If they find her, will they be heroes? Or dead?

Bored out of her mind during a summer with her police detective father in Las Vegas, Jessica (aka “Jex”) Malone starts doing what she does best–snooping. When she meets three new friends who share her passion for crime, from the geek to the fashionista, suddenly, the stifling desert days don’t seem so long.

Her dad is never around, just like when her parents were married. But Jex’s crew, the Drew-Ids, take the pledge of eternal secrecy and then get down to the good stuff–digging through the cold-case files in Dad’s home office.

One of them, the thirteen-year-old case of Patty Matthews, is still a mystery. Finding Patty, who vanished into thin air, became such an obsession for Jex’s father that it destroyed the Malones’ marriage. So not only is this a big deal, it’s personal.

Jex is determined to find out what really happened, and her excitement is contagious. Soon her friends are all on board and so is the missing girl’s brother, the hunky Cooper Matthews.

But as they dig up more and more troubling information–more than the cops ever did–they also get the clear message that someone out there wants to prevent the truth from coming out. That somebody is also prepared to do anything, absolutely anything, to prevent it.

Jex isn’t afraid; after all, she’s a cop’s daughter. But maybe she should be.

Laced with humor, toughness, and real CSI investigation techniques, Jex Malone could be the Nancy Drew for a new generation–but with a chilling twist. These wannabe detectives are on the brink of finding out the fate of poor missing Patty. But will they disappear without a trace, too?

Endless – Amanda Gray

★★★★

I am a sucker for anything Romanov. Ever since I was 12 and saw the movie Anastasia. It took a few chapters to get into it but it was worth hanging in there with.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18157967-endless

Jenny Kramer knows she isn’t normal. After all, not everybody can see the past lives of people around them.

When she befriends Ben Daulton, resident new boy, the pair stumble on an old music box with instructions for “mesmerization” and discover they may have more in common than they thought. Like a past life.

Using the instructions in the music box, Ben and Jenny share a dream that transports them to Romanov Russia and leads them to believe they have been there together before. But they weren’t alone. Nikolai, the mysterious young man Jenny has been seeing in her own dreams was there, too. When Nikolai appears next door, Jenny is forced to acknowledge that he has travelled through time and space to find her. Doing so means he has defied the laws of time, and the Order, an ominous organization tasked with keeping people in the correct time, is determined to send him back.

While Ben, Jenny and Nikolai race against the clock – and the Order – Jenny and Nikolai discover a link that joins them in life – and beyond death.

The Westing Game – Ellen Raskin

★★★★

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/902.The_Westing_Game

The Westing Game – Ellen Raskin

A bizarre chain of events begins when sixteen unlikely people gather for the reading of Samuel W. Westing’s will. And though no one knows why the eccentric, game-loving millionaire has chosen a virtual stranger – and a possible murderer – to inherit his vast fortune, one things’ for sure: Sam Westing may be dead… but that won’t stop him from playing one last game!

Gimme a Call – Sarah Mlynowski

★★★★★

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6693333-gimme-a-call

Gimme a Call – Sarah Mlynowski

A new life is just a phone call away!

Devi’s life isn’t turning out at all like she wanted. She wasted the past three years going out with Bryan—cute, adorable, break-your-heart Bryan. Devi let her friendships fade, blew off studying, didn’t join any clubs . . . and now that Bryan has broken up with her, she has nothing left.

Not even her stupid cell phone—she dropped it in the mall fountain. Now it only calls one number . . . hers. At age fourteen, three years ago!

Once Devi gets over the shock—and convinces her younger self that she isn’t some wacko—she realizes that she’s been given an awesome gift. She can tell herself all the right things to do . . . because she’s already done all the wrong ones! Who better to take advice from than your future self?

Except . . .what if getting what you think you want changes everything?

Stay awesome ♥ Christa