mystery – Page 39 – Down the Rabbit Hole

Review: Bloodlines by Richelle Mead

May 4, 2015May 25, 2015 Andge @ Down the Rabbit Hole

Series: Bloodlines #1

I wasn’t free of my past, not yet.

Sydney’s blood is special. That’s because she’s an alchemist – one of a group of humans who dabble in magic and serve to bridge the worlds of humans and vampires. They protect vampire secrets – and human lives. But the last encounter Sydney had with vampires got her in deep trouble with the other alchemists. And now with her allegiences in question, her future is on the line.

When Sydney is torn from her bed in the middle of the night, at first she thinks she’s still being punished for her complicated alliance with dhampir Rose Hathaway. But what unfolds is far worse. Jill Dragomir – the sister of Moroi Queen Lissa Dragomir – is in mortal danger, and the Moroi must send her into hiding. To avoid a civil war, Sydney is called upon to act as Jill’s guardian and protector, posing as her roommate in the unlikeliest of places: a human boarding school in Palm Springs, California. The last thing Sydney wants is to be accused of sympathizing with vampires. And now she has to live with one.

The Moroi court believe Jill and Sydney will be safe at Amberwood Prep, but threats, distractions, and forbidden romance lurk both outside – and within – the school grounds. Now that they’re in hiding, the drama is only just beginning.

3.5 Drink Me Potions

Sydney is unlike a lot of protagonists I have the pleasure of following around in a long series. She’s brilliantly smart, yet tries to dumb her knowledge down when it seems to bother people around her, and attentive to what others need. She truly cares for people, which is the root cause of her problems.

Because vampires, even half-vampires, are not technically considered “people” to the Alchemists.

It’s forbidden to even like them, let alone associate with them, yet her job forces her to live with them. Of course, she doesn’t fight or argue with her superiors about any of the things they demand of her. She sounds like a mighty pushover, but that’s because she was raised that way by a tyrant for a father.

This story could simply be another human falling for the charms of a vampire. But, to be honest, that is remotely nothing like what Bloodlines is about. It’s about honour and duty and finding that thin balance between caring for her charge, a vampire princess, while maintaining a professional distance. In fact, there really is NO romance in this story for Sydney. It’s strange as most stories seem to love the romance angle, but it doesn’t really take in the first installment of the series. And it works even better that way.

There are so many things happening in the plot. From dealing with the craziness of human high school while watching over a bunch of vampires in hiding, to Alchemist-like tattoos surfacing on humans and dealing with the ever-annoying Alchemist co-worker of hers, Sydney has WAY too much on her plate to consider romance into it. There’s definitely plenty of intrigue and mystery going on that needs to be solved to keep a reader happily reading.

Also, the characters are all a wonderful group. Besides Sydney, each and every vampire “family” member she’s taking care of has such unique personalities. Adrian’s laidback and the typical party boy but there are moments where I really wonder what his true story is. Given, I haven’t read a ton of the the Vampire Academy series yet, so there may be more to him there. Eddie, a dhampir, is charming and protective. Jill can be stubborn sometimes, but she learns to work it out with her new situation. If it’s so easy for me to love them, you can see why it’s so easy for Sydney to as well.

I could go on about this story, but that’d be way too long of a review. I love the idea of the Alchemist group. It’s so unique and fascinating, intermingling their stories with the vampires. A group of humans dedicated to keeping the vampires a secret from humans for their safety? Totally cool and can go in so many ways. Especially ’cause they consider vampires as unnatural and…well, evil. Let’s just say I can’t wait to finish this series (thankfully they’re all out now), and see where all the foundation and groundwork Mead put in goes. I couldn’t stop reading. Finished it in one day.

By the way, that ending? Didn’t quite see the culprit coming. Although I really should have what with all the mysteries I read. That’s a big compliment.

Overall Recommendation:
Although the vampire genre has really been overdone by this point, this new series following Sydney, an Alchemist, is a far cry from anything I’ve seen yet. Mixed heavily with the chaos of having to protecting a vampire princess from harm while keeping her distance from them, both physically and emotionally, is already hard, but add in a mysterious Alchemist-tattooing parlour and human manifestations of magic, Sydney really has it coming for her. There are so many problems she has face, although the hardest ones are the ones dealing with the fundamental Alchemist teachings she now sees in a different light. Balancing her duty with her genuine care for these “unholy creatures” is definitely gonna come back and bite her. Richelle Mead’s newer series may very well be more exciting than the Vampire Academy series.

Review: The Body in the Woods by April Henry

March 3, 2015May 25, 2015 Andge @ Down the Rabbit Hole

Series: Point Last Seen #1

In this new series told from multiple perspectives, teen members of a search and rescue team discover a dead body in the woods.

Alexis, Nick, and Ruby have very different backgrounds: Alexis has spent her life covering for her mom’s mental illness, Nick’s bravado hides his fear of not being good enough, and Ruby just wants to pursue her eccentric interests in a world that doesn’t understand her. When the three teens join Portland County Sheriff’s Search and Rescue, they are teamed up to search for a autistic man lost in the woods. What they find instead is a dead body. In a friendship that will be forged in danger, fear, and courage, the three team up to find the girl’s killer—before he can strike one of their own.

This first book in April Henry’s Point Last Seen YA mystery series is full of riveting suspense, putting readers in the middle of harrowing rescues and crime scene investigations.

1.5 Drink Me Potions

I wasn’t expecting too much when I started The Body in the Woods. Yet, I still found myself wanting to stop reading every here and there. Let me dive into the exact reason why I didn’t necessarily enjoy it too much.

The characters
I understand that these days all protagonists seem rather monotonous. “They’re all so unoriginal”, people would say. And yes, I do agree that sometimes, changing the name of the protagonist of one book to the name of another girl in a second book would show that their personalities are almost hilariously identical. BUT, I think there’s a fine line to how far authors can change the protagonist’s attitudes to something so original and unique before they become unrelatable/unlikeable.

There are 3 protagonists in The Body in the Woods and here is what I thought of them.

Nick wants the attention of others. He wants to be a hero, like his deceased war hero father. He seems to be attracted to every single girl at his darn school, and when he gets the slightest inkling that others think Alexis might be into him, he’s suddenly all gung-ho on her possible attraction to him as well (which is just a no, if you ask me). Yeah, I get that he’s not perfect, but it’s just unattractive to want to gain some attention as the “guy who found a dead girl in the woods”, dropping hints to his classmates to talk about his part in the case. Some respect for the poor girl, dude. No need for the attention to be on YOU.

And Alexis? She was the most enjoyable character of the 3, in my opinion. She’s terrified of others finding out that her mom has a mental illness. I guess that’s understandable, but that makes her distrust anyone who tries to get too close. Sometimes I just want to shake her and tell her to LET SOMEONE HELP YOU, or at least trust them with this burden.

…And that leaves Ruby. Where do I start with Ruby? She’s…a gem of a character. Found a dead girl in the woods? Pfft, let’s go examine it and recall what every crime show CSIs do when inspecting a crime scene. She also adopts different personas for different occasions to benefit her situation. For example, she feels she needs to “get close” with her fellow SAR friend, Alexis, so she adopts her “Best Friend” role which she gathered information from watching shows or observing other people. If she wants to get out of trouble from her parents, it’s the “Good Daughter” role. It’s a little eerie, to be honest. Sure, she may have Asperger’s syndrome or something like it (which by the way, the author never explicitly mentions) but this is borderline stereotypical “I can’t feel or empathize with a single person or thing in this world”. Saying she’s eccentric is by far an understatement .

Her love of random things is kind of quirky, I’ll admit. It’s interesting the way she describes how society builds these “boxes” or “unspoken rules” that supposedly everyone should know and stay within, but she apparently is clueless about them.

And there were so many rules….
Don’t stand too close.
Don’t stare.
Take turns.
Don’t assume everyone is interested in the same things you are, even if those things are fascinating.
Don’t talk about sex.
Don’t talk about surgery.
Don’t talk about anything that happens in the bathroom.
But the biggest taboo was death.

She is arrogant though for assuming that what she knows/has to say/her interests are more important than others. It was terribly annoying hearing her ask the cops so many things and seemingly implying that she knew more of what she was doing than they do. It may not be her fault being as she is, but it doesn’t DO anything to lessen my annoyance.

Now onto what was enjoyable about it
Because the protagonists are how we as the readers view the story, it’s hard to enjoy it when we’re limited to their views and attitudes. The mystery wasn’t all that original either. Come on, a dead girl in the woods. Cool. Now what? Maybe I’m just expecting too much as I absolutely ADORE mysteries. I grew up on them. And now I even watch crime shows to death. So it’s hard to match up to some very well-written mysteries.

I will say that I did have to guess for a while for the culprit. I feel that Henry wrote too many scenes from the culprit’s POV (point of view) that really made the identity guessable by the middle of the book. Of course, it was interesting to figure out the WHY so at least something kept me going.

I won’t go on much longer. I think I’ve ranted enough. Apparently there will be more in this series, starring all 3 protagonists still. Yay….(not quite sure if I can stand reading more of their POVs). Who knows? I may give it a try, but if you just want a mundane mystery and don’t mind annoying characters, go for it. The Body in the Woods wasn’t terrible but even with lowered expectations it wasn’t en par.

Overall Recommendation:
With a cast of protagonists that bugged me endlessly and an unoriginal mystery that didn’t keep me guessing for long, The Body in the Woods could’ve been better in a lot of areas. Personally, I’m an avid mystery reader so I guess lower expectations are still somewhat high. It might just be a “it’s me and not so much the book” kind of thing. Who knows? If the protagonists don’t make you want to hit them over the head at some point within the first 40 pages, then this may be a decent read for you.

Review: Trust Me, I’m Lying by Mary Elizabeth Summer

January 1, 2015June 3, 2015 Andge @ Down the Rabbit Hole

Series: Trust Me #1

Fans of Ally Carter, especially her Heist Society readers, will love this teen mystery/thriller with sarcastic wit, a hint of romance, and Ocean’s Eleven–inspired action.

Julep Dupree tells lies. A lot of them. She’s a con artist, a master of disguise, and a sophomore at Chicago’s swanky St. Agatha High, where her father, an old-school grifter with a weakness for the ponies, sends her to so she can learn to mingle with the upper crust. For extra spending money Julep doesn’t rely on her dad—she runs petty scams for her classmates while dodging the dean of students and maintaining an A+ (okay, A-) average.

But when she comes home one day to a ransacked apartment and her father gone, Julep’s carefully laid plans for an expenses-paid golden ticket to Yale start to unravel. Even with help from St. Agatha’s resident Prince Charming, Tyler Richland, and her loyal hacker sidekick, Sam, Julep struggles to trace her dad’s trail of clues through a maze of creepy stalkers, hit attempts, family secrets, and worse, the threat of foster care. With everything she has at stake, Julep’s in way over her head . . . but that’s not going to stop her from using every trick in the book to find her dad before his mark finds her. Because that would be criminal.

3 Drink Me Potions

I had been anxiously waiting a long time to get my hands on this book. The synopsis made it sound really suspenseful and good. But what I ended up reading was something on borderline mediocre.

Trust Me, I’m Lying started off strong. There was a conspiracy/mystery afoot! Somebody’s kidnapped Julep’s dad! *gasp* (By the way, Julep is an amazing false-name to give a child). There were interestingly strange clues left behind for her to solve and, fingers crossed, hopefully help her find her father. I absolutely love a good quest for cryptic clues. Amongst plot twists here and there, the ending didn’t satisfy as much, what with the build up in the beginning.

The plot twists had a few unexpected moments, and some that were WAY too obvious. For someone who doesn’t let people in very easily, Julep trusted others….well, rather easily. That’s all I’m going to say for that, and hopefully you’d understand why some things were seen a mile away.

As for romance and the “love triangle”….what love triangle?? There was obviously one guy she fell for, and another guy who was pining for her that she never let herself see that (no duh, since she doesn’t have many friends). Plus, I couldn’t see any chemistry building between Julep and either boys. Yes, attraction was definitely warranted for one of the potential suitors, but it wasn’t done well!!. Urgh, and that frustrates me. Just because he has a PRETTY FACE doesn’t mean there’s anything beyond mutual attraction. Which brings me to wonder, why did this hot guy fall for HER? Summer NEVER really mentioned why he cared about her in the end.

Oh. Hold on. You think I was annoyed in my above comments? Let’s see…how about we talk of that ENDING? With many mixed emotions currently running through my head, I’m thinking of settling on angry, WTF, confused, sad, and semi-satisfied. Too many? OK. Let’s sum it up to BITTERSWEET . I’m not sure what the sequel, Trust Me, I’m Trouble, will be about yet but since I wasn’t TOO too attached to anyone, I guess I shall give it a shot.

Although there wasn’t too much love coming from me, Trust Me, I’m Lying still earned a 3 star rating. It had its moments that surprised/jolted me awake. Julep was the only character that felt any bit real to me. Mary Elizabeth Summer put a lot of effort researching into “grifting” and how to con others. Yes, some tips were quite interesting (ie. innocent people always look a little bit guilty). But she lacked very heavily in the character building category.

With that said, I shall end off this rant–*cough* review with possibly the most-touching line in the whole book that actually made me feel something.

“Don’t worry,” I say. “I’ll watch the world while you sleep.”

Overall Recommendations:
Trust Me, I’m Lying has definitely done its research into conning others and learning how to wear different layers depending on the mark you’re dealing with. However, where its plot twists were somewhat mystifying and its scavenger hunt for clues were intriguing, it lacked HEAVILY in characterization (beyond building Julep’s character) and the chemistry between the protagonist and her 2 male suitors (erm, friends).
Oh, and its ending may be somewhat astonishing to those who were actually drawn into Julep’s story and life. Whatever feelings you may have, bittersweet would be my conclusion.