Hold Onto Your Soul--INTRINSICAL Review

Lani Woodland has woven a ghost story so fantastic I'd label it one of the best I've ever read. Yeah. That good. It's called INTRINSICAL and I just spent the whole day immersed in it, although I have loads of chores to do and a graduation to go to. Just like Yara Silva (cool name by the way) this book kept me locked in place.

This story is full of everything you want in a YA ghost story (besides the obvious ghosts) and absent of everything you don't want except a bit of violence--and I can't imagine a ghost story without at least one death. I am so glad to say there was no sex or bad language. Just delicious terror and an outstanding plot. The characters were believable and likable (except for nasty James).

Yara is special. She can talk to ghosts. From the first day she shows up at school, crazy, jacked up things start happening--deadly things. Whoever is up to those tricks is absolutely seriously intent on taking souls. Yara is only one step ahead of that terrible someone.

Until she isn't.

Please, if you like to chew your nails to the quick over a good book, get this one and hunker down with a strong flashlight, because you're going to need it. And now I'm going to go hunt down the sequel, INDELIBLE. You can get INTRINSICAL here. Enjoy the shiver!

The Engine Plunges Over

 
I've been busy busy busy! Right now I'm deep into the final editing process for SUNRISE OVER SCIPIO and going back and forth with Walnut Springs in a flurry of publishing rumpus. I'm also trying to finish LETTERS FOR STEPS. Plus I have other duties all over the place. It's graduation time and I have a niece and a nephew graduating, plus all the visiting dignitaries to contend with, two other blogs to write for, Scout charters to deliver, other people's blog hops to do, and a renovation (our hallway ceiling fell on us because of a leaky cooler and now we have a gaping hole in our roof).

I've also had it with the kids' school. Every time I turn around, they're dumping programs (like all the languages and both the drama and music sections are taking major hits) and favorite teachers. I have to find my kids another high school because this one has flushed too many things that made it a great school down the toilet. I'm going down there to give them a tornado of tongue lashing as soon as I get dressed in real clothes.

The scorching summer months are coming, complete with languid children draping themselves over the furniture like Seuss animals to watch episodes of Psych. I'll probably retreat to my room with my laptop most of the time and let them regenerate, since they barely have a summer to do it in. (They go back in July this year!) They'll think about going out and getting a summer job for a month, but they won't end up actually doing it. Summer's too short.

Some time in there SUNRISE OVER SCIPIO will come out and I'll be pushing it like a long lost friend pushes a pyramid scheme--with an upbeat connotation and just as much energy...:o)

Somewhere in there I'll stuff in a boatload of reading (scriptures and other peoples' work), promotional services, some necessary housework and abandoning of junk, staffing at summer camp, and enough running to help me shed a few ugly tons of fat (the boy is going to run with me and finish his Personal Fitness merit badge for Scouts), and many hours of service to friends and to the community because it's the right thing to do. There might even be a family reunion in there somewhere.

That doesn't even account for the random things that come up.

And now I have to call up two Cub Scout pack leaders and apologize for not getting their charters to them in a timely manner plus I've got to find a frame for my Mom's Mother's Day present (and yes, I know it's late but she's in town so I can put it right into her hot little hands and not worry that the glass is getting broken) and deliver three order forms...sigh.

I'm always busy. Never bored. I'm not complaining at all, merely telling you where I'm living. But before all that, I think I need a nap.

PURE BLOOD Review

Today I'm reviewing PURE BLOOD by Melissa Pearl. I greatly enjoyed this third book of the Time Spirits trilogy.

Gemma has found out that the people she thought were her parents are not only her kidnappers and her mother's murderers, but they are bent on forcing her to sleuth through time to find seven ancient necklaces. Together those pieces of jewelry will allow her 'parents' to snap back and forth in time changing history at will.

Gemma has already come up against their selfish choices in the first and second books of the Time Spirit trilogy. Now she has to figure out how to stop them. Gemma is joined in this venture by her soul mate, Harrison and her real father, Gabe.

To me, Gemma's problem is understandable. The Harts have been all the family she ever knew. They hone her time travel skills and life-saving martial arts. They give her a fairly happy home, a nice car, seem like they can make some concessions to her moodiness, and have in general been understanding, loving parents. She thinks they have been traveling through time helping people like some kind of superhuman family. She has a horrible time seeing them as anything but loving parents, even with her real father's proofs stacked up against them.

So when she finds out that the Harts have not only kidnapped her from loving parents and killed her mother, but are totally using her for less than honest purposes, it takes some time to swallow. If I found out something like that about my parents, I'd go ballistic too. I'd have a horrible time trying to figure out what to do. They've been my parents for my whole life, for crying out loud--which is how Gemma feels.

Gemma doesn't really have time to freak out, though. She has to stay a leap ahead of her people while working with her real father, keep her sweetheart safe in the present and a secret from her parents, and figure out how to stop them from getting the wherewithal to blaze a trail of wreckage through time.

A misstep puts Gemma in the Harts' clutches. They take her blood in order to make a key, not worrying about her basic well-being. They're done with the Nice Family Thing. You'll have to read the book to find out how she extricates herself from the maze of lies and deceit.

I almost would have liked her to really beat the tar out of the Harts. I was looking for that really juicy, pithy soliloquy, which didn't really happen. The trilogy did end well, however. I loved that she made sacrifices and they worked. I really don't like it when characters seem to slide through life with no responsibilities to make things right.

I definitely enjoyed this book and this trilogy. Money well spent.

You can purchase PURE BLOOD here.

BLACK BLOOD Review

BLACK BLOOD is the second book in the Time Spirits trilogy. I enjoyed GOLDEN BLOOD by Melissa Pearl so much that I went right out and bought both of the sequels, something I rarely do. Then I hopped them both ahead of my mountain of other books to review, another thing I never do. That's how much I had to know how this series would end.

Gemma Hart is a time traveler, in a family of time travelers. Her parents are strict but loving. They take their children through time helping set things right. 

At least that's what Gemma thought.

The reality is that the strange man (Gabe) who has been stalking her turns out to be her real father, who has the goods on the Harts. She refuses to believe him and her boyfriend, Harrison, until the Harts themselves prove Gabe right.

What's more, the Harts don't care about keeping Harrison safe. When they find out that their daughter likes him, they do everything they can to separate the two.

Which is more than Gemma ever thought possible.

Who knew someone could be so completely obliterated from history?

To find out if she can ever get the love of her life back from the dim recesses of her mind, you can buy BLACK BLOOD here.