Review: Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie

Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie

My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Received: Bought
Publication Date: 1934
Publisher: Kerkley
Point of View: 3rd Person
Recommended Age: 13+
Genres & Themes: Mystery

BLURB:

Just after midnight, a snowdrift stopped the Orient Express in its tracks. The luxurious train was surprisingly full for the time of the year. But by the morning there was one passenger fewer. A passenger lay dead in his compartment, stabbed a dozen times, his door locked from the inside.

Review: Prep School Confidential (Prep School Confidential, #1) by Kara Taylor

Prep School Confidential by Kara Taylor

My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Received: Bought
Publication Date: July 30th 2013
Publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin
Point of View: 1st Person & Feminine
Recommended Age: 13+
Genres & Themes: Young Adult, Boarding School, Mystery

BLURB:

In this breathtaking debut that reads like Gossip Girl crossed with Twin Peaks, a Queen Bee at a blue-blooded New England prep school stumbles into a murder mystery.

Anne Dowling practically runs her exclusive academy on New York’s Upper East Side—that is, until she accidentally burns part of it down and gets sent to a prestigious boarding school outside of Boston. Determined to make it back to New York, Anne couldn’t care less about making friends at the preppy Wheatley School. That is, until her roommate Isabella’s body is found in the woods behind the school.

When everyone else is oddly silent, Anne becomes determined to uncover the truth no matter how many rules she has to break to do it. With the help of Isabella’s twin brother Anthony, and a cute classmate named Brent, Anne discovers that Isabella wasn’t quite the innocent nerdy girl she pretended to be. But someone will do anything to stop Anne’s snooping in this fast-paced, unputdownable read—even if it means framing her for Isabella’s murder.

Review: The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner

The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner

My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Received: Bought
Publication Date: 1996
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Point of View: 1st Person & Masculine
Recommended Age: 12+
Genres & Themes: High Fantasy

BLURB:

The king’s scholar, the magus, believes he knows the site of an ancient treasure. To attain it for his king, he needs a skillful thief, and he selects Gen from the king’s prison. The magus is interested only in the thief’s abilities.

What Gen is interested in is anyone’s guess. Their journey toward the treasure is both dangerous and difficult, lightened only imperceptibly by the tales they tell of the old gods and goddesses.

Review: Loving Mr. Daniels by Brittainy C. Cherry

Loving Mr. Daniels by Brittainy C. Cherry

My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Received: Borrowed
Publication Date: May 11th 2014
Publisher: Indie
Point of View: 1st Person & Alternative
Recommended Age: 13+
Genres & Themes: New Adult, High School, Student-Teacher, Death, Family

BLURB:

To Whom it May Concern,

It was easy to call us forbidden and harder to call us soulmates. Yet I believed we were both. Forbidden soulmates.

When I arrived to Edgewood, Wisconsin I didn’t plan to find him. I didn’t plan to stumble into Joe’s bar and have Daniel’s music stir up my emotions. I had no clue that his voice would make my hurts forget their own sorrow. I had no idea that my happiness would remember its own bliss.

When I started senior year at my new school, I wasn’t prepared to call him Mr. Daniels, but sometimes life happens at the wrong time for all the right reasons.

Our love story wasn’t only about the physical connection.

It was about family. It was about loss. It was about being alive. It was silly. It was painful. It was mourning. It was laughter.

It was ours.

And for those reasons alone, I would never apologize for loving Mr. Daniels.

-Ashlyn Jennings