School Spirits by Rachel Hawkins

Series: Standalone spin-off to Hex Hall

Genera(s): Paranormal Romance/Mystery

Subjects: supernatural, ghosts, hauntings, spirits, hunters, magic, witches

Setting: mainly in Ideal, Mississippi

POV/Tense: 1^st person POV, past tense: Izzy Brannik

Age/Grade Level: Teen

Length: 297 pgs.

HC/PB: Hardcover originally, now in Paperback

List Price: $9.99

Publisher: Hyperion

Summary/ product description: “Fifteen-year-old Izzy Brannick was trained to fight monsters. For centuries, her family has hunted magical creatures. But when Izzy’s older sister vanishes without a trace while on a job, Izzy's mom decides they need to take a break.

Izzy and her mom move to a new town, but they soon discover it’s not as normal as it appears. A series of hauntings has been plaguing the local high school, and Izzy is determined to prove her worth and investigate. But assuming the guise of an average teenager is easier said than done. For a tough girl who's always been on her own, it’s strange to suddenly make friends and maybe even have a crush.

Can Izzy trust her new friends to help find the secret behind the hauntings before more people get hurt?

Rachel Hawkins' delightful spin-off brings the same wit and charm as the New York Times best-selling Hex Hall series. Get ready for more magic, mystery and romance!”

My Review:  This is a very fun spin-off. I am disappointed that there is no sequel to it since the ending wasn’t completely satisfying, with Izzy’s missing sister. There’s no cliffhanger, so it works as a standalone. Izzy Brannik was a character introduced in Spellbound, the final Hex Hall novel. She was a tween in that book and now she’s almost 16. So this takes place a few years after the events of Spellbound.

Finley, her sister went missing and her mother send Izzy out on her first job alone. She goes after a vampire, but her mom has to save her. They find out about a violent haunting in Ideal, Mississippi and move there. There’s a deadly ghost at the high school and Izzy gets her first chance of going to a real school. She makes friends with the ghost-hunting club member Romy, Dex and Anderson.

She learns about what happened to the biology teacher that was killed. Another student in threatened similarly. Also Izzy feel magic when she touches Dex. It’s very usually since she can usually sense Prodigium at a distance, not only by touch. So, what is Dex? He’s quirky, fashionably dressed, and likes to talk fancy, but he’s not a vampire or warlock and he doesn’t smell like a werewolf. Izzy’s falling for him. He reminds me a lot of Archer (who had blue eyes too) with his humor.

I really enjoyed this and the series that it came from. Rachel Hawkins’s humor is pretty awesome. Sure, Izzy is more tough-girl than Sophie, who was a total smart-alec. I notice that she uses “Fair enough” too much and family disfunctionality stuff. Some humor is dialogue get repetitive, but I still love it. If you never read the Hex Hall series and love magic and paranormal romance, then you should check it out.

Cover Art Review: Funky and fun like the covers for the previous books.

Shutter by Courtney Alameda

Series: Shutter (bk. 1)

Genera(s): Paranormal Romance/Horror

Subjects: supernatural, ghosts, spirits, hunters, abilities, psychic ability

Setting: San Francisco, California

POV/Tense: 1^st person POV, past tense: Micheline Van Helsing

Age/Grade Level: Teen

Length: 367 pgs.

HC/PB: Hardcover 

List Price: $17.99

Publisher: MacMillan: Feiwel & Friends

Summary/ product description: “Horror has a new name: introducing Courtney Alameda.

Micheline Helsing is a tetrachromat—a girl who sees the auras of the undead in a prismatic spectrum. As one of the last descendants of the Van Helsing lineage, she has trained since childhood to destroy monsters both corporeal and spiritual: the corporeal undead go down by the bullet, the spiritual undead by the lens. With an analog SLR camera as her best weapon, Micheline exorcises ghosts by capturing their spiritual energy on film. She's aided by her crew: Oliver, a techno-whiz and the boy who developed her camera's technology; Jude, who can predict death; and Ryder, the boy Micheline has known and loved forever.

When a routine ghost hunt goes awry, Micheline and the boys are infected with a curse known as a soulchain. As the ghostly chains spread through their bodies, Micheline learns that if she doesn't exorcise her entity in seven days or less, she and her friends will die. Now pursued as a renegade agent by her monster-hunting father, Leonard Helsing, she must track and destroy an entity more powerful than anything she's faced before . . . or die trying.

Lock, stock, and lens, she’s in for one hell of a week.”

My Review:  I got a lot more than I expected reading this book. I though this was going to be about a group of friends that are ghost hunters, the main one who can see ghosts and is armed with a camera. I didn’t realize that our main character, Micheline Helsing, was a descendent of Van Helsing. The book is set in San Francisco. I didn’t think that the setting would be a an alternate world in which the public is aware of spirits and the undead being real and that Helsing Corps reapers are the people who trap or kill this creatures.

Oliver Stoker is descended from Bram Stoker, a historian, who’s Dracula tale was actually based off a true account. Jude Drake has vampire blood, but is not a vampire. He can read blood and see visions of a person’s potential death when touching someone. Ryder is from Australia and he’s part aboriginal. He’s also Micheline’s boyfriend, and her father doesn’t know. Leonard Helsing has quite the temper and he’s the leader of Helsing corps.

Micheline (not sure how it’s pronounced) Helsing is a tetrachromat. She has four cones in her eyes, which makes her to see more color than the normal person. Some believe they can see ultra-violet light. Tetrachromats are a real genetic mutation, often caused by sex-linked chromosomes. They are usually females and they usually have a father who is colorblind (dichromat). Tetrachromats in this book can see ghostlight, which comes in different color depending on the speed/intelligence of the entity. Red for necros or zombies, the slowest. Violet for ghosts, the fastest.

The book starts off in a hospital where Micheline, Ryder, Jude, and Oliver are tracking a ghost and planning the exorcise it. Micheline’s special camera, which captures ghostlight, fails to exorcise the ghost and the group ends up swallowing a smoky gas (miasma) coming from the ghost. This causes an infection called soulchains and the group must find a way to free themselves before the soulchains trap them forever. The gather knowledge, weapons and help along the way. They even discover thing they never though of.

The book has action and a lot of unique weapons (like mirrors and ameras). It’s full of fun and horror. I really enjoyed the humor, especially Jude’s funny comments. The characters are all pretty interesting with their own quirks. This book reminds me of Unbreakable by Kami Garcia and Shine by Jeri Smith-Ready. I love it when a book contains multiple paranormal creatures. I kind of got sick of only-vampire books. Ghost, demons, and zombies. If you love creeptastic YA tales, you’ll enjoy Shutter.

Cover Art Review: Awesome creepy cover. Very scary. Would not want to see that in my own photos.

Blood Prophecy by Alyxandra Harvey

Series: Drake Chronicles (bk. 6)

Genera: Paranormal Romance

Subjects: Vampires, hunters, supernatural, royalty, princesses, Canada

Age/Grade Level: Teen

Length: 440 pgs.

HC/PB: Hardcover and Paperback

List Price: $16.99/ PB: $9.99

Publisher: Bloomsbury

Summary/ product description: “In the thrilling conclusion of the Drake Chronicles, love and loyalties will be tested ... and proven once and for all.

Solange Drake has been officially crowned Queen of the Vampires, fulfilling the centuries old prophecy that foretold the rise to power of a daughter born to an ancient vampire line. Except Solange's thoughts and actions are no longer her own—she's been slowly being possessed by the spirit of Viola, the first daughter born into the Drake line, since her bloodchange. And instead of uniting the vampire tribes under the rule of an ancient daughter as the prophecy predicted, Viola would rather destroy them all and enslave humans in a personal vendetta for the devastation both wrought to her life centuries ago. Can Solange break her hold in time to save everyone she loves from a vampire civil war, hunter attack, and each other? Not everyone will survive the prophecy . . . perhaps not even her”

My Review: The 6^th and final book of the Drake Chronicles was also the longest book in the series. Blood Prophecy is a wonderful, well resolved wrap up to an exciting vampire series.

The plot was pretty interesting. In this book, Solange is possessed by Viola. Viola takes the crown and uses Solange’s pheromones to give orders that can’t be refused. She’s putting in place archaic traditions and just being plain evil in general. Poor Solange, trapped in her mind. Nobody realizes that Viola is inside Solange, so Solange must fight her way out.

Also, there are murders that Solange is being framed for. They’re calling it the Dracula Killer. It’s still Blood Moon, so the vampire tribes are gathered. It’s possible that the killer could be another vampire, or even a human. I kind of got the tribe mixed up, but it was pretty cool to see their differences. My only complaint was the beginning of this book was kind of slow. And I didn’t like the memory flash-backs.

The Drake Chronicles is very character driven. Each book is from 2 different character’s

perspectives, usually the ones who fall in love in that book, or just the main protagonists. In Hearts at Stake, it was best friends Lucy and Solange Drake. In Blood Feud it was Logan Drake and Isabeau. In Out for Blood is was Hunter and Quinn Drake. In Bleeding Hearts it was Christabel. You get the point.

I’m so happy that this book switches between Lucy and Solange’s perspectives like in the 1^st book. They’re such great protagonists! Solange POV is okay, but Lucy’s POV is where my favorite parts were. I know it’s stupid to say, but as a character, I love Lucy (aka Lucky). She is so funny and quirky. I bet she was also the funnest character to write. I’d want to be her friend, even if we’d get into trouble. In this book she’s still going to the Helios-Ra academy boarding school, and she get detention pretty often.

There were also one-chapter perspectives of Christabel, Isabeau, and Hunter. None from the Drake brothers, sadly, or even Kieran. But all the characters came together in this book. I still can’t decide which Drake brother is my favorite. Maybe Quinn, because his funny charming attitude. He reminds me of Damon from the Vampire Diaries.

This has been a very fun and lite vampire series. I’m sad to see if go be happy about how it ended. There’s a few novellas I can read still, so it’s not truly over yet.

Cover Art Review: Nice couple but kind of boring and generic. I like the vector design, but there’s not much else.

Blood Moon by Alyxandra Harvey

Series: Drake Chronicles (bk. 5)

Genera: Paranormal Romance

Subjects: Vampires, hunters, supernatural, royalty, love

Age/Grade Level: Teen

Length: 298 pgs.

HC/PB: Hardcover (also available in paperback)

List Price: $16.99

Publisher: Bloomsbury: Walker

Summary/ product description: “When the vampire tribes convene for the rare Blood Moon ceremonies, Solange’s fight with her feral nature, a mysterious stranger, family secrets and forbidden magic put all of the Drakes in danger.”

My Rating: êêê1/2

My Review: This series is still the funniest vampire series I’ve ever read, but this book was not the best in the series. I liked Out For Blood the best, and I don’t think any of the others were as good. This book was not as exciting. Lucy is one of my favorite characters, and I love her voice/narration. The events in this book weren’t done as well as some of the other books. Having it switch between 3 perspectives, rather than two, is taking away from the story, even if it’s showing more. The opening was pretty good, but Solange’s behavior was just so weird. I’m hoping we get to see Kieran’s perspective in the next book. I think the next book is probably the series conclusion. Also it’ll probably rotate between Kieran, Lucy and Solange.

Sorry for the short review, I wasn’t in a vampire-book mood, and I was just hoping for more. Some people like might this 5^th book, some won't. I liked it, just not enough. Not like I loved book 3.

Cover Art Review: Generic/boring. I do like the swirl textures, though. I miss the old covers.

~Haley G