Showing posts with label Gretchen McNeil. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Gretchen McNeil. Show all posts

Ten by Gretchen McNeil



It was supposed to be the weekend of their lives - an exclusive house party on Henry Island. Best friends Meg and Minnie each have their reasons for being there (which involve T.J., the school's most eligible bachelor) and look forward to three glorious days of boys, booze and fun-filled luxury.

But what they expect is definitely not what they get, and what starts out as fun turns dark and twisted after the discovery of a DVD with a sinister message. Vengeance is mine.

Suddenly people are dying, and with a storm raging, the teens are cut off from the outside world. No electricity, no phones, no internet, and a ferry that isn't scheduled to return for two days. As the deaths become more violent and the teens turn on each other, can Meg find the killer before more people die? Or is the killer closer to her than she could ever imagine?

My Review:

It was Mrs. Peacock in the Living Room with the rope. No wait, it was Mr. Green in the Conservatory with the candle stick. Or was it the pipe?!

Ten is a quick read that turned out to be a masterful YA whodunit meets Clue. It kept me guessing until the end of the book. The guess I did make proved to be W R O N G **sounds loud, obnoxious FAIL buzzer** but a big kudos to Gretchen for stumping me! 

Although I wasn't shaking in my boots scared I'm still hoping Ten will encourage more ya authors to join the growing trend that's bringing thriller plots to ya novels.

Overall Rating: 4 out of 5

The Army of Ten


The Army of TEN

Have you heard the buzz about the Army of Ten?

Gretchen McNeil is recruiting bloggers to spread the word about her upcoming book Ten (<=linked to Goodreads) which is due to release September 18th. She has some great incentives for her army!  Check out http://armyoften.blogspot.com/ to learn more.

Shelf Candy Saturday (4)


Shelf Candy Saturday is hosted by Five Alarm Book Reviews

I enjoy doing somewhat themed Shelf Candy posts. This weeks theme is books with 'posses' in the title. I'm not sure how three similar titled books all ended up with gorgeous covers but you won't hear me complaining about it!



Possess by Gretchen McNeil

Rule #1: Do not show fear. 
Rule #2: Do not show pity.
Rule #3: Do not engage.
Rule #4: Do not let your guard down.
Rule #5: They lie.


Fifteen-year-old Bridget Liu just wants to be left alone: by her mom, by the cute son of a local police sergeant, and by the eerie voices she can suddenly and inexplicably hear. Unfortunately for Bridget, it turns out the voices are demons – and Bridget has the rare ability to banish them back to whatever hell they came from.



Terrified to tell people about her new power, Bridget confides in a local priest who enlists her help in increasingly dangerous cases of demonic possession. But just as she is starting to come to terms with her new power, Bridget receives a startling message from one of the demons. Now Bridget must unlock the secret to the demons' plan before someone close to her winds up dead – or worse, the human vessel of a demon king.


So so pretty! I love the focus and texture of her face.





The Repossession by Sam Hawksmoor


34 kids missing. Vanished without a trace.

Believing she is possessed, Genie Magee's mother has imprisoned her all summer encouraged by the sinister Reverend Schneider. Beautiful Rian, love of her life, sets her free, and their escape washes them up at Marshall's remote farmhouse downriver. But why are there newspaper clippings of the missing kids pinned to Marshall's bathroom wall? And should they believe his stories about the experiments at the Fortress, an underground research station nearby?

Genie meets Denis. Missing two years now, but hasn't grown an inch. Rian is haunted by Renée, who insists she's not actually dead. Soon they discover the terrible truth about Reverend Schneider and worse, Genie is next ... and Rian can't do a thing to prevent it.
The Repossession is just the beginning.




I hadn't heard of this book until this week so thank you to my friend Emma for bringing it to my attention! This is such a beautiful, eye catching cover! I love the blue tone to the girl's face, she almost looks ceramic! The cover has an artsy feel with the way the face is coming undone/disappearing. I also like how the title looks like it's about to come undone as well, it helps the title feel connected to the rest of the cover.


Author's Site




Possessions by Nancy Holder


The It Girl meets The Exorcist in this chilling, haunted boarding school tale 

New-girl Lindsay discovers all is not right at the prestigious Marlwood Academy for Girls. Ethereal, popular Mandy and her clique are plotting something dangerous. Lindsay overhears them performing strange rituals, and sees their eyes turn black. It doesn’t help that the school itself is totally eerie, with ancient, dilapidated buildings tucked into the Northern California woods, a thick white fog swirling through campus. There are hidden passageways, odd reflections in the windows at night, and scariest of all is the vast lake rumored to have captured the ghost of a girl who drowned many years ago. 

What Lindsay doesn’t yet realize is that Mandy and her cohorts are becoming possessed by spirits who have haunted the school for two hundred years. Spirits who want someone dead... 

And that someone is Lindsey.


I bought a copy of this book partially because of the cover and was so disappointed when it showed up and was a different cover! Anyway, I'm sure you've figured out by now that I'm really attracted to dark covers and this is another good example of that. I like everything about this cover, the text and little swirls at the bottom, the darkness of her eyes, the stillness of the black water, the reflection of her face, and the use of similar colors for text at the top and bottom and her face!