Review: Confessions: The Private School Murders

Confessions: The Private School Murders
Author: James Patterson & Maxine Paetro

Publication Date: October 24th 2013

~A copy was provided by Arrow (Young) in exchange for an honest review.~



 Tandy Angel may have played the hero when she solved the case of her magnificently wealthy parents' mysterious deaths, but she isn't done yet. Her brother Matthew stands trial for homicide, young girls are found murdered all around New York's Upper West side, and Tandy is determined to use her piercing intellect to get to the bottom of both cases. But the biggest mystery of all may be what actually happened to James Rampling, the handsome son of a family enemy, whom Tandy fell in love and ran away with--though most of her memories of the affair are disturbingly absent...

The confessions keep coming as Tandy delves even deeper into her own tumultuous history and the skeletons in the Angel family closet.




Oh dear everything that's holy, my heart hurts. It freaking hurts.

Ugh, I don't know where to start.

The Private School Murders kicks off three months after Confessions of A Murder Suspect, Matthew's still in jail pending trial on a charge, the mystery of James Rampling is fracturing, and we get to know him and oh my fictional guy. This is the part where I could gush and fangirl, but you know what? James Rampling deserves more, so I'm saying I wish this guy was real. So damn real. Anyway, back to topic, where was I? Right...

Stacking the Shelves (#12) & Recap

Stacking the Shelves is hosted by Tynga's Reviews.

 

I have no voice. *croak* Lost it last night thanks to a lovely chest infection. But I don't care because this is the longest book haul I've gotten, and it includes a few I've picked for my Waiting on Wednesday's.

 

 

 

 

 (Thanks to HarperCollins, Edelweiss, Harlequin (UK) & Netgalley.)

Really, I requested most of them over a month ago, and I've just gotten auto-approved. So I got them. All. At. Once. So. Excited! I also now have a reading schedule.

I also bought one book this week, which I'll leave until next week, because I won't be reading it any time soon.

What did you get this week? :)

 

 

 

A recap of posts this week

 

• Monday I reviewed  In The After by Demitria Lunetta
• Teaser Tuesday from After Eden by Helen Douglas
• Waiting on Wednesday,  Premeditated by Josin L. McQuein   
• Thursday Cover Reveal of Booking Through Thursday: Best or Favourite
• Friday I reviewed Confessions of A Murder Suspect by James Patterson &  Maxine Paetro

 

This week I have read:

• After Eden by Helen Douglas
• Countdown by Michelle Rowen  
• Mind Games by Kiersten White

 

Review: Confessions of A Murder Suspect

Confessions of A Murder Suspect
Author: James Patterson & Maxine Paetro

Publication Date: September 27th 2012

~A copy was provided by Arrow (Young) in exchange for an honest review.~

On the night Malcolm and Maud Angel are murdered, their daughter, Tandy, knows just three things:

1. She was one of the last people to see her parents alive.

2. She and her brothers are the only suspects.

3. She can't trust anyone - maybe not even herself.

Having grown up under their parents' intense perfectionist demands, none of the Angel children have come away undamaged.

Tandy decides that she will have to solve the crime on her own, but digging deeper into her powerful parents' affairs is a dangerous game. As she uncovers haunting secrets and slowly begins to remember flashes of disturbing past events buried in her memory, Tandy is forced to ask: What is the Angel family truly capable of?

The Angel household is about to be changed, for the worse or better, you pick. Matthew (the oldest) Tandoori "Tandy", her twin Harry, and Hugo (The youngest) are woken up to police threatening to break down their door, and find out that their parents are dead. Not only have their parents been murdered, but there was no break-in, nothing unlocked or out of normal, no sign of a struggle, and they are the main suspects.

Even our Narrator, Tandy, thinks it could be one of them, even herself, thanks to her little black-out tendency and holes in her memory. She even thinks it could be her twin. With little evidence of outside foul play, all evidence points to them, and since she's the most methodical and emotionless one, all fingers point to her. But being all of those things also make her the sharpest and intelligent of them.

Booking Through Thursday: Best or Favourite?

Booking Through Thursday is a weekly meme, hosted by btt2, about (mostly) books and reading.

Are “best” and “favourite” the same thing? If someone asked you “What’s the best book you ever read?” would the answer be the same as for “What’s your favourite?”

I'd like to say yes, because that would be easier. Haha, but no, I don't think they are, so bear with me. Saying best and favourite are the same is pretty much the equivalent  of saying, say, all cheeses are the same. They're not. Different flavour, different texture, etc, etc.. "Best" books could mean anything, you know? Best one you've read all year, or month, or in a while, or in it's genre or even one that really surprised you. It doesn't necessarily mean it's the best book ever, or your favourite. Favourite books don't come easily, favourites are the ones that stick around forever, that stay in your head for ages after reading, and maybe ones you have to read regularly. Favourites also doesn't mean that they're the best book in existence, sometimes their the ones you struggled through, or made you feel something.

It's hard to pick the best book I've ever read because I've read so many, so I'm saying this year. And the best one I've read this year was All Our Yesterdays.

My favourite? I'm sticking with this year, too, and besides I can't just pick one Harry Potter, or Vampire Academy so I'm sticking with the solo's. The Fault in Our Stars.

So no,  my "best" and "favourite" are not the same, and in context are totally different.

Waiting On Wednesday (#12)

"Waiting on" Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Breaking the Spine that spotlights upcoming releases.

 

 

 Premeditated by Josin L. McQuein 

Expected publication: October 8th 2013 by Delacorte Books for Young Readers 

 

 

 

 A week ago, Dinah’s cousin Claire cut her wrists.

Five days ago, Dinah found Claire’s diary and discovered why.

Three days ago, Dinah stopped crying and came up with a plan.

Two days ago, she ditched her piercings and bleached the black dye from her hair.

Yesterday, knee socks and uniform plaid became a predator’s camouflage.

Today, she’ll find the boy who broke Claire.

By tomorrow, he’ll wish he were dead.

 

Reasons...

1) Have you seen that cover?

2) Have you read the above?

 

Today, she’ll find the boy who broke Claire.

By tomorrow, he’ll wish he were dead.

 

Also, there's that.

 

What are you waiting on? :)

 

 

 

 

Teaser Tuesday (11)

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly bookish meme hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading.

 

 

Title: After Eden

Author: Helen Douglas

Release date:  November 7th 2013 (UK)             

Publisher: Bloomsbury Childrens  

Place: 14% in Kindle.

 

 

Eden Anfield loves puzzles, so when mysterious new boy Ryan Westland shows up at her school she's hooked. On the face of it, he's a typical American teenager. So why doesn't he recognise pizza? And how come he hasn't heard of Hitler? What puzzles Eden the most, however, is the interest he's taking in her.

As Eden starts to fall in love with Ryan, she begins to unravel his secret. Her breakthrough comes one rainy afternoon when she stumbles across a book in Ryan's bedroom - a biography of her best friend - written over fifty years in the future. Confronting Ryan, she discovers that he is there with one unbelievably important purpose ... and she might just have destroyed his only chance of success.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"He hasn't been drinking," I said,

"I saw him with a bottle of beer."

"He hasn't taken a single sip." I pointed to the full bottle of beer, still standing in the sand.

Connor snorted. "How do you know that's the same bottle?"

Review: In The After

In The After
Author: Demitria Lunetta

Publication Date: June 25th 2013      

Publisher: Harper Teen

 

 

They hear the most silent of footsteps.
They are faster than anything you've ever seen.
And They won't stop chasing you...until you are dead.

Amy is watching TV when it happens, when the world is attacked by Them. These vile creatures are rapidly devouring mankind. Most of the population is overtaken, but Amy manages to escape—and even rescue “Baby,” a toddler left behind in the chaos. Marooned in Amy’s house, the girls do everything they can to survive—and avoid Them at all costs.

After years of hiding, they are miraculously rescued and taken to New Hope, a colony of survivors living in a former government research compound. While at first the colony seems like a dream with plenty of food, safety, and shelter, New Hope slowly reveals that it is far from ideal. And Amy soon realizes that unless things change, she’ll lose Baby—and much more.

 

 

 

The world as you know it has ended. For Amy, she was watching television when it happened, when the world was invaded by aliens and ended her life as she knew it. Her father was assumed dead, and her mother was protected, but still unsure whether she was alive. Amy was left alone, but after a few days she stopped wallowing and stepped up. She adapted. She lived.

She survived.

Day in, day out, a day at a time but she's here, she's still alive.

She doesn't know who else is still alive, and for all she knows, she's the last human on earth.

Slowly, she starts seeing more and more survivors and meets Baby, a toddler in the supermarket and takes her under her wing.

They start living.

Stacking the Shelves (#11) & Recap

Stacking the Shelves is hosted by Tynga's Reviews.

 

 

Shhh, type softly, I have a concert hangover. I'm going back to images of the books this week as everything hurts. Haha.

 

 

For Review(Invite)

 

After Eden by Helen Douglas

 

Bought

 

Look what I finally got my hands on! It took a while, since my first copy must have gotten lost in the mail, and the Book Depository had to send another one out. I haven't had a problem with any order from them before, but they were nice and sorted it really quickly.

 

The Coldest Girl in Coldtown by Holly Black

 

 

What did you get this week? :)

 

 

A recap of posts this week

 

• Monday I reviewed  Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy by Ally Carter
• Teaser Tuesday from Don't Judge a Girl by Her Cover by Ally Carter
• Waiting on Wednesday,  This Wicked Game by Michelle Zink
• Thursday Cover Reveal of The Rising by Terra Harmony
• Friday I reviewed Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea by April Genevieve Tucholke

 

This week I have read:

• Confessions: The Private School Murders by James Patterson &  Maxine Paetro
• Don't Judge a Girl by Her Cover by Ally Carter
• The Rules by Stacey Kade

 

 

Review: Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea

Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea
Author: April Genevieve Tucholke

Publication Date: August 15th 2013         

Publisher: Dial



You stop fearing the devil when you’re holding his hand…

Nothing much exciting rolls through Violet White’s sleepy, seaside town… until River West comes along. River rents the guest house behind Violet’s crumbling estate, and as eerie, grim things start to happen, Violet begins to wonder about the boy living in her backyard.

Is River just a crooked-smiling liar with pretty eyes and a mysterious past? Or could he be something more?

Violet’s grandmother always warned her about the Devil, but she never said he could be a dark-haired boy who takes naps in the sun, who likes coffee, who kisses you in a cemetery... who makes you want to kiss back.

Violet’s already so knee-deep in love, she can’t see straight. And that’s just how River likes it.

 

 

All her life Violet White has heard stories about the Devil from her grandmother Freddie, they're rich, live on this big mansion on top of a mountain, but money goes only so far and they're not as rich as you think. Freddie's dead, Violet and her twin brother Luke, are living alone as their painter parents who care more about paint than their own flesh and blood are off in Paris after drying up most of the money that's left. Violet and Luke are running out on money and have no option but to rent the guesthouse, and in comes River, all cocky and arrogant and kind and strange and things start happening.

Troubles stirred and the Devil's just around the corner.

 

Well, that was...disturbing. Disturbing? Yes, I think I'll stick with that. I'll stick with that. Yes. Disturbing. Can I burn my eyes out now? Please? I had to bribe myself with white chocolate pretzels.

Cover Reveal: The Rising by Terra Harmony

So today, we have a cover reveal, and it's a pretty one! I'm always sucked in by a pretty cover.

Let's see what it's about...

"

Fifteen-year-old Serena is the youngest member of a dying race. The increasing acidity of the ocean is destroying her home, slowly eating away at the once thriving underwater landscape. But since the night of Serena’s birth, it is an outside force that most threatens their dwindling population. Werewolves, who once served as protectors for mermaids in the Kingdom of the Undine, now seek to eliminate all who dwell in the ocean — and Serena is about to find herself right in the middle of the deadly conflict.

 

Given the title of Werewolf Liaison, Serena is determined to make things right for her people. When she ventures to The Dry, she meets Liam, the werewolf with hazel eyes, and her whole world gets turned upside down. As Serena discovers the real history between werewolves and mermaids, she is left wondering who her true enemies are.

"

Waiting On Wednesday (#11)

"Waiting on" Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Breaking the Spine that spotlights upcoming releases.

 

 

 This Wicked Game by Michelle Zink Expected publication: November 14th 2013 by Dial

 

  

Claire Kincaid’s family has been in business for over fifty years.

The voodoo business.

Part of the International Guild of High Priests and Priestesses, a secret society that have practiced voodoo for generations, the Kincaid’s run an underground supply house for authentic voodoo supplies. Claire plays along, filling orders for powders, oils and other bizarre ingredients in the family store, but she has a secret.

She doesn’t believe.

Struggling to reconcile her modern sensibilities with a completely unscientific craft based on suspicion, Claire can’t wait to escape New Orleans – and voodoo – when she goes to college, a desire that creates almost constant conflict in her secret affair with Xander Toussaint, son of the Guild’s powerful founding family.

But when a mysterious customer places an order for a deadly ingredient, Claire begins to realize that there’s more to voodoo – and the families that make up the Guild – than meets the eye.

Including her own.

As she bands together with the other firstborns of the Guild, she comes face to face with a deadly enemy – and the disbelief that may very well kill her.

Why?

Three words.

New. Orleans. Voodoo.

Teaser Tuesday (10)

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly bookish meme hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading.

 

 Ugh, I think I've officially hit a reading slump, not feeling it today at all, which has nothing to do with the book because I really loved the last two. Could also be that it's rained non stop since last night.
 

Title: Don't Judge a Girl by Her Cover (Gallagher Girls #3)

Author: Ally Carter 

Release date: January 6th 2011 (first published June 9th 2009)        

Publisher: Orchard            

Page: 159

When Cammie "The Chameleon" Morgan visits her roommate Macey in Boston, she thinks she's in for an exciting end to her summer break. After all, she's there to watch Macey's father accept the nomination for vice president of the United States. But when you go to the world's best school (for spies), "exciting" and "deadly" are never far apart. Cammie and Macey soon find themselves trapped in a kidnappers' plot, with only their espionage skills to save them.

As her junior year begins, Cammie can't shake the memory of what happened in Boston, and even the Gallagher Academy for Exceptional Young Women doesn't feel like the safe haven it once did. Shocking secrets and old flames seem to lurk around every one of the mansion's corners as Cammie and her friends struggle to answer the questions, Who is after Macey? And how can the Gallagher Girls keep her safe?

Soon Cammie is joining Bex and Liz as Macey's private security team on the campaign trail. The girls must use their spy training at every turn as the stakes are raised, and Cammie gets closer and closer to the shocking truth....           

 

Review: Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy

Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy (Gallagher Girls #2)
Author: Ally Carter

Publication Date: 2010 by Orchard Books (first published October 2nd 2007)

Source: Own

 

Cammie Morgan may have a genius IQ and attend the best school in the country, but as she starts the spring semester of her sophomore year there are a lot of things she doesn't know. Like will her ex-boyfriend even remember she exists? And how much trouble did she really get in last semester? And, most of all, exactly why is her mother acting so strangely?

All Cammie wants is a nice, normal semester, but she's about to learn her greatest lesson yet—that when you go to a school for spies, nothing is ever as it seems

 

 

 

 

Oh, you totally had me going there for a bit, and I do not like being punked. I do not like being duped, but dammit it was amazing.

Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy starts off a month after I'd Tell You I'd Love You, But Then I'd Have To Kill You left. New term, new drama, new trouble and...the start of truth and character development.

Is it possible to love a sequel than the original? After all, if there wasn't the foremost there wouldn't be a latter...but I did, love the second than the first, that is.

Know why?

Stacking the Shelves (#10) & Recap

Stacking the Shelves is hosted by Tynga's Reviews.


I've had the best reading week, it's been a while, and received three good ones, too! Two for review and one I've bought.

For Review

Thanks to Random Houses' Young Arrow for these awesome two! I actually featured (Confessions #2) on this weeks Waiting on Wednesday, so I'm super psyched! (Please ignore my DVD player's wire.)

Confessions of a Murder Suspect by James Patterson &  Maxine Paetro 

Confessions: The Private School Murders (Confessions #2)

Bought

The Dream Thieves by  Maggie Stiefvater

So, that's it! What did you get? :)

 

A recap of posts this week

 

• Monday I reviewed I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have To Kill You by Ally Carter
• Teaser Tuesday from Antigoddess by Kendare Blake
• Waiting on Wednesday,  Confessions: The Private School Murders by James Patterson &  Maxine Paetro
• Booking Through Thursday: Imagery
• Friday I reviewed Skulk by Rosie Best

 

This week I have read:

• Antigoddess by Kendare Blake
• The Naturals by Jennifer Lynn Barnes
• Confessions of a Murder Suspect by James Patterson &  Maxine Paetro  

 

 

Review: Skulk

Skulk
Author: Rosie Best

Publication Date: October 1st 2013        

Source: An advanced copy was provided by  Strange Chemistry in exchange  for an honest review.

To some, Meg Banks’ life might look perfect – she lives in a huge house in West London, goes to a prestigious school, and has famous parents. Only Meg knows the truth: her tyrannical mother rules the house and her shallow friends can talk about nothing but boys and drinking. Meg’s only escape is her secret life as a graffiti artist.

While out tagging one night, Meg witnesses the dying moments of a fox… a fox that shapeshifts into a man. As he dies, he gives Meg a beautiful and mysterious gemstone. It isn’t long before Meg realises that she’s also inherited his power to shift and finds an incredible new freedom in fox form.

She is plunged into the shadowy underworld of London, the territory of the five warring groups of shapeshifters – the Skulk, the Rabble, the Conspiracy, the Horde, and the Cluster. Someone is after her gemstone, however, someone who can twist nature to his will. Meg must discover the secret of the stone and unite the shapeshifters before her dream of freedom turns into a nightmare.

The night Meg snuck out of her bedroom to leave her mark behind her schools wall as graffiti artist Thatch, she gets a little more than she bargained for in the form of a dying fox...that transforms into a human right in front of her eyes and hands her a stone. On a night out with friends, on the verge of getting attacked Meg...shifts into a fox, and within doing so gets sucked into an underworld of rivalry and the power of The Skulk- the foxes, like her, and other shape shifters. The Rabble- The Butterflies The Horde- The rats, the Cluster- The Spiders and the Conspiracy- The Ravens.

Booking Through Thursday: Imagery.

Booking Through Thursday is a weekly meme, hosted by btt2, about (mostly) books and reading.

 

This ones interesting for me! So, when reading I really don't visualise much, I see the basics.  I concentrate more on the plot and the characters, their personalities, and stuff like that. But, when thinking back at things when writing a review, I can see the scene play in my head, the place, how the people look. I think I can then because I can process it all without worrying about following along, while reading I don't like processing every little bit because I get distracted.

 

How about you? 

 

Waiting on Wednesday (#10)

"Waiting on" Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Breaking the Spine that spotlights upcoming releases.

 

 

Confessions: The Private School Murders (Confessions #2) by  James Patterson &  Maxine Paetro

  

Expected publication:  24 Oct 2013 by Random Houses' Young Arrow

 

 

Wealthy young women are being murdered, and the police aren't looking for answers in the right places. Enter Tandy Angel. Her first case was the mystery of her parents' deaths. Now she's working to exonerate her brother of his girlfriend's homicide. And danger just got closer.

One of the recent victims was a student at Tandy's own elite school. She has a hunch it may be the work of a serial killer... and Tandy perfectly fits the profile of the killer's targets. Can she untangle the mysteries in time? Or will she be the next victim?







I can't wait for this one, and I love that cover.

What are you waiting on? :)

 

Teaser Tuesday (9)

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly bookish meme hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading.

 

 

Title: Antigoddess

Author: Kendare Blake

Release date: September 10th 2013        

Publisher: Tor Teen

Page: 301


Old Gods never die…
Or so Athena thought. But then the feathers started sprouting beneath her skin, invading her lungs like a strange cancer, and Hermes showed up with a fever eating away his flesh. So much for living a quiet eternity in perpetual health.

Desperately seeking the cause of their slow, miserable deaths, Athena and Hermes travel the world, gathering allies and discovering enemies both new and old. Their search leads them to Cassandra—an ordinary girl who was once an extraordinary prophetess, protected and loved by a god.

These days, Cassandra doesn’t involve herself in the business of gods—in fact, she doesn’t even know they exist. But she could be the key in a war that is only just beginning.

Because Hera, the queen of the gods, has aligned herself with other of the ancient Olympians, who are killing off rivals in an attempt to prolong their own lives. But these anti-gods have become corrupted in their desperation to survive, horrific caricatures of their former glory. Athena will need every advantage she can get, because immortals don’t just flicker out.

Every one of them dies in their own way. Some choke on feathers. Others become monsters. All of them rage against their last breath.

I'm cheating a little, since I just finished this, but I had to use it.

 

 

Review: I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have To Kill You

I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have To Kill You
Author:  Ally Carter

Publication Date: April 25th 2006        

Publisher: Orchard Books


Cammie Morgan is a student at the Gallagher Academy for Exceptional Young Women, a fairly typical all-girls school-that is, if every school taught advanced martial arts in PE and the latest in chemical warfare in science, and students received extra credit for breaking CIA codes in computer class. The Gallagher Academy might claim to be a school for geniuses but it's really a school for spies. Even though Cammie is fluent in fourteen languages and capable of killing a man in seven different ways, she has no idea what to do when she meets an ordinary boy who thinks she's an ordinary girl. Sure, she can tap his phone, hack into his computer, or track him through town with the skill of a real "pavement artist"-but can she manoeuvre a relationship with someone who can never know the truth about her?

Cammie Morgan may be an elite spy-in-training, but in her sophomore year, she's on her most dangerous mission-falling in love

On the outside the prestigious all girls boarding school, The Gallagher Academy for Exceptional Young Women is for the rich, the snobby and the genius.

They prefer it that way.

On the inside, it is for genius's, the only thing that is true. A training ground for young girls with the potential of being spies, the up-and-becoming from a line of iconic women through the ages.

Beginning their sophomore year marks the beginning of life changing decisions, of being more than just a Gallagher girl, their CoveOps starts, and with their first field mission changes everything for Cammie.

Stacking the Shelves (#9) & Recap

Stacking the Shelves is hosted by Tynga's Reviews.

It's been a pretty good week! I'm finally reading the one book I've been waiting for since last year, and I received one I'm really looking forward to.

 

For Review

 

The Naturals by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

A major thank you to Quercus! 

 

 

 Bought  

 

United We Spy by Ally Carter  

 

Antigoddess by Kendare Blake

 

 

A recap of posts this week

 

• Monday I reviewed The 100 by Kass Morgan
• Teaser Tuesday from In The After by Demitria Lunetta
• Waiting on Wednesday, Uninvited by Sophie Jordan
• Booking Through Thursday: Choosing
• Friday I reviewed Poison by Bridget Zinn

 

This week I have read:

• Cross My Heart and Hope To Spy by Ally Carter  
• In The After by Demitria Lunetta
• Earthbound by Aprilynne Pike

 

What did you get this week? :)