Search

Search only in certain items:

    Travelbug

    Travelbug

    Travel and Finance

    (0 Ratings) Rate It

    App

    Do you want to make your travel money go further? Take the guesswork out of prices abroad and stay...

    DreamBox Math Green

    DreamBox Math Green

    Education and Games

    (0 Ratings) Rate It

    App

    ***Celebrating ten years of improving math achievement with our award-winning research-based...

    DreamBox Math Blue

    DreamBox Math Blue

    Education and Games

    (0 Ratings) Rate It

    App

    ***Celebrating ten years of improving math achievement with our award-winning research-based...

    EPOCH.2

    EPOCH.2

    Games and Entertainment

    (0 Ratings) Rate It

    App

    The epic saga of post-apocalyptic robot combat continues! EPOCH 2 featured in Best Indie Games in...

    Streets App

    Streets App

    Navigation and Travel

    (0 Ratings) Rate It

    App

    CONVENIENT Drop a pin, search for a city or address or find a person from your contacts to view a...

    Basketball Stat Tracker HD

    Basketball Stat Tracker HD

    Sports and Productivity

    (0 Ratings) Rate It

    App

    Basketball Stat Tracker takes basketball statistics to a new level. Coaches, scouts, parents, and...

    Moneybox

    Moneybox

    Finance

    8.0 (1 Ratings) Rate It

    App

    Round up your card purchases to the nearest pound and invest the spare change into thousands of...

Spring Thaw:
A Chris Matheson Cold Case
We are introduced to Chris and his family when we get a premonition of what is going on six years earlier.

Who came into the church and started shooting up the church while trustees were in a meeting.

Was it a trustee or was it someone else? Was it Duance McCall? Why stick it to him? Why investigate him? Why does he have a mystery that was unsolved in the case of why he cut off his family and friends when the church split?

Chris got some information about what might be going on, but not much. Though we hear Kirk and what was going on around the time of the shooting.

Though we get more of Kelly's father's story. Why all of a sudden do we have new witnesses come about, and now a murder weapon?

A 6-year-old cold case seems to be reopened again, but why? Is someone covering for their own family member?

Lauren Carr can do it with short stories, too. She hooked me with this one as it was only just starting. I am only a few pages in.

Well, we get more information, and now we don't know who did it. Was bishop really the target? Lauren Carr put twists and turns even in the middle of the story. Who is lying and why?

Killing Bid:
A Mac Faraday Mystery Short
We are introduced to Mac and Artchie through Mac's perspective, primarily through his troubles with bag snatching.

We are also introduced to Ben and Catherine's Flemings, who are Archie's friends.

While shopping, they talked about Celeste Taylor and the Estate auction Mac was invited to.

When they get an auction or a lease, look at the jewelry left here. Archie and Catherine come up to respect their husbands' statement that all of Celeste Taylor's jewelry is fake.

Is this true or is it not? La Chat is mentioned in the book. Did he do it or not? Who is La Chat?

A Beauty to Die For:
A Lover In Crime Mystery Short
We meet up with Joshua and Cameron. It all starts with a 2 am phone call from his cousin Tad Macmillan.

This is the start of a series of secrets. But clarify one person's name for a dying person so she can have peace.

Who is covering up murders, but especially Rachel Burke? Who framed Billy and murdered him? But made it look like something else and cover it up?

There are twists and turns, and even more to unravel this mystery.

Cameron and Joshua seem ready to prove that the dying mother's son did not do it, but to catch the real ones? But who did we seem to have found another murder along the way?
  
40x40

Hazel (1853 KP) rated Blood and Stars in Books

Sep 24, 2017  
Blood and Stars
Blood and Stars
Jaime Lee Mann | 2017 | Children, Science Fiction/Fantasy
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
No cliffhanger (0 more)
Children's Fantasy
This eBook was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

Finally, after leaving everyone on tenterhooks, the fifth book in the Legend of Rhyme series is here. Blood and Stars by Jaime Lee Mann continues on from the tense ending to book four, finally resolving a lot of loose ends. With all the favourite characters from the series, this book transports readers back into the fantasy world of Coraira for more adventure and magic.

Blood and Stars is split into four stories, which eventually all merge together in an explosive climax. Firstly, as expected, the main characters, twins Ariana and Asher, have found themselves separated from each other once again. With Ariana destined to rule Coraira, legend suggests that Asher will be the opposite – a ruler of darkness. But, is there a chance he can be saved from this fate? Meanwhile, the present ruler of Coraira is dying. The only person who could potentially save Calla is her evil twin sister Elora, the infamous witch in the previous books. Can she be trusted enough with such an important task?

Concurrently, in the ethereal world of the mermaids, readers are reintroduced to the mer-queen, Starla and her apprentice, Teagan. Abandoned at birth, Teagan is hoping to discover what happened to her parents; however, her curiosity leads her into the lair of a sea witch. Be that as it may, some dangerous situations result in silver linings.

Eventually, with the majority of the book already concluded, another character is brought back into the story. Grimblerod is still under the curse of an evil king, but he now has hope that it can be broken. As long as his love for Freya does not fail, Grimblerod’s patient determination will lead him back to where he belongs.

With a mix of new and old characters, Jaime Lee Mann smoothly draws her fans back into the storyline with a (mostly) happy ending. There are a couple of things left incomplete, but nothing that will majorly irritate readers. There is no dreaded cliffhanger.

As it may have been some time since children read the last book, or parents and teachers are only just being introduced to the story, the author has provided an in-depth character guide in the end pages to bring everyone up to speed.

Blood and Stars was a more straightforward story than previous books. It resolved more issues than it created. There will be a final book coming (hopefully) soon, but there is no way of guessing what it will feature.

Legend of Rhyme is a series suitable for girls and boys. Mildly scary in parts, the adventure of the twins and their companions will entertain children and their parents. With discussion questions at the end, the books make readers think more about the storyline and help them to understand and interact with the narrative. This is certainly a series for young fantasy lovers.
  
Fragments of the Lost
Fragments of the Lost
Megan Miranda | 2017 | Thriller
7
7.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Enjoyable main character (0 more)
Starts off slow (0 more)
Different but enjoyable novel
When Jessa Whitworth's high school ex-boyfriend dies suddenly, it's as if the world stops. One moment Caleb is at her track meet, taking the butterfly necklace she handed to him, and the next, he's gone, his car washed over a flooded bridge on a stormy day. Caleb's mom eventually asks Jessa to pack up his room--she blames Jessa for the accident, since Caleb had gone to see her that day, and Jessa feels she cannot say no. She's left to clean out his room and winds up piecing together bits of Caleb's life as she does. Each photograph, article of clothing, and notebook reminds her of parts of her life with Caleb. Even worse, she realizes there is so much she didn't know about him. With that realization, Jessa wonders, what really happened the day Caleb went over the bridge?

This novel isn't really what I expected at all, though I should have realized that it would be less teen angst and more teen angst and psychological mystery combined, as the two Megan Miranda novels I have read, The Perfect Stranger: A Novel and All the Missing Girls, are more in the suspense/thriller category.

The biggest issue for me was that this one starts off really slow. It's hard to get into any kind of momentum as every forward plot movement is broken by Jessa finding something and immediately remembering back into her past with Caleb. I was a little frustrated in the beginning, wanting more to happen.

I really enjoyed the character of Jessa, though. She was a little hard on herself in relation to Caleb's death, but she was also a teen dealing with both the death of a loved one and a recent breakup (their split occurring not too long before his death). She came across as pretty realistic. The supporting cast was a little more nebulous for me--Caleb's mom was pretty harsh, and we didn't see too much of Jessa's family, though I liked her older brother, Julian. Caleb's best friend and neighbor, Max, was probably the other character that was easiest to get to know and he was rather well fleshed out. Caleb himself--whom we learn about through Jessa's point of view and flashbacks--is a hard one to figure out, but that only adds to the mystique of how he ended up at the bridge that day.

Overall, if you can bring a little patience, this book is one to enjoy. It eventually picks up and while the storyline is somewhat different (this whole novel is rather hard to describe), I really did enjoy it. I felt satisfied with the ending--it was worth reading. I enjoyed Miranda's two adult mysteries and while this is the first of her YA novels that I've read, I will definitely investigate others. 3.5 stars.