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.

Gabriel by Nikki Kelly

Series: The Styclar Saga (bk. 2)

Genera(s): Paranormal Romance

Subjects: supernatural, immortality, vampires, angels, demons, magic

Setting: The U.K.

POV/Tense: 1st person POV, past tense: Cessie/Lailah

Age/Grade Level: Teen (12 & up, but also feels like New Adult)

Length: 375 pgs.

HC/PB: Hardcover

List Price: $17.99

Publisher: Macmillan: Feiwel & Friends

Summary/ product description: “The handsome Angel from Lailah gets center stage in this continuation of Wattpad sensation Nikki Kelly’s romantic and action-packed series about mortals, vampires, and angels.

Gabriel is an Angel Descendant. He's also an ally to a generation of vampires who want to break away from the demon who controls them. His faith in the power of good over evil wavers, however, when he discovers that Lailah, the woman he considers his only true love, may be both angel and demon. Is their love enough to overcome the dark forces who are ready to go to war with Gabriel, the vampire Jonah, and the angel and vampire forces? And can Gabriel compete with Jonah, who is also in love with Lailah?

Once again, Nikki Kelly looks deeply into the heart and soul of good and evil to create a romantic, action-packed reading adventure.”

My Review:  This sequel is slightly more interesting than the first book. I gave both 3 stars. I love the mythology, the angel stuff and that made up word of Styclar which is like heaven. This is set in the U.K. or at least I think it is. There were moments in this book where I was excited and moments when I was bored. Maybe because I am so sick of vampire stuff, or because I don’t like British-y books. I love magic and sci-fi stuff and this defiantly had some but it’s not as compelling as other paranormal books I’ve read.

I thought it was cool that Lailah had changed and now had angel and vampire abilities and her hair is now blong and black, and her eye are blue with dark spots. Transformations in characters are cool. Though I don’t get why so many female heroines lately want to get short haircuts. Like a haircut is a great disguise or something. She can now travel by thought and quickly. She can feed on sunlight or blood. She’s a pretty unique character in those ways, but I feel a lack of personality. She seems kind of quiet, I guess. Possibly a little Mary-su. We get to meet a new set of character that are Irish demon-hunters. They use like at the end of sentences a lot.

I wish that there was more romance with Jonah. Lailah forgot him and now only loves Gabriel. The love triangle was broken, but maybe only temporarily. In the previous book, Jonah had reminded me of Damon from the Vampire Diaries. Jonah’s American. He’s got a bad boy persona and a romantic nicer side. He’s get-under-your-skin annoying, but you can’t help but like him. Gabriel is more mysterious and very loving and caring. He’s light and love. He’s not the real Gabriel, the Arch Angel, but a younger angel “descendent.”

I recommend this book to fans of Twilight, Fallen, Hush, Hush, Everneath by Brodi Ashton, The Dark Element series by Jennifer Armentrout, the Halo series by Alexandra Adornetto, the Embrace series by Jessica Shirvington. If you still love reading vampire books or even angel books, then you should try reading this book. If you are sick of vampires or angels, then it’s probably not a series for you.

Cover Art Review: Somewhat cool looking cover. The fire and the birds are cool.

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.