When by Victoria Laurie (ARC)

When
Victoria Laurie
Exp. Pub.: January 13, 2015 (TOMORROW!!!)

Maddie Fynn is a shy high school junior, cursed with an eerie intuitive ability: she sees a series of unique digits hovering above the foreheads of each person she encounters. Her earliest memories are marked by these numbers, but it takes her father’s premature death for Maddie and her family to realize that these mysterious digits are actually death dates, and just like birthdays, everyone has one.

Forced by her alcoholic mother to use her ability to make extra money, Maddie identifies the quickly approaching death date of one client's young son, but because her ability only allows her to see the when and not the how, she’s unable to offer any more insight. When the boy goes missing on that exact date, law enforcement turns to Maddie.

Soon, Maddie is entangled in a homicide investigation, and more young people disappear and are later found murdered. A suspect for the investigation, a target for the murderer, and attracting the attentions of a mysterious young admirer who may be connected to it all, Maddie's whole existence is about to be turned upside down. Can she right things before it's too late?

 

Maddie's never been a true fan of seeing the random numbers on everyone's foreheads. Especially once her father died on the exact same day that matched the sequence on his forehead. Now riddled with guilt, she moves forward always wondering if she could have some how stopped his death had she only understood what she was seeing. These days, she's a teenager who accepts money to tell people their death dates. When a client comes in asking about her daughter, Maddie realizes it's her son she needs to worry about, with a death date just a week away. Unfortunately, the mother takes her remark as a scam and leaves in a huff, calling Maddie a fraud. Even more unfortunate, when her son goes missing and dies by means of torture, she's quick to poke the finger at Maddie, who now becomes the number one suspect in his murder, despite a bunch of evidence pointing elsewhere.

 

Her lawyer uncle runs interference, but Maddie is unable to keep her death dates to herself like he asked. When she spots that her best friend's crush is going to die soon too, he becomes obsessed with finding a way to save her, which only drags him into the suspect pool as well. With her alcoholic mother falling apart even more than usual, the teachers and students turning on her at school and the FBI breathing down her neck, Maddie finds it exhausting to keep her head above water, especially once the serial killer begins taking an interest in her.

 

I'm not really sure if I'd go around telling strangers their death dates if I had that special ability. Would you? Neither would Maddie, but thanks to her alcoholic mother, they needed the extra money to make up for all the vodka bottles. Bad luck really, because it's responsible for spotlighting her gift to naysayers and doubters and attracting attention where she could've gone without. Gotta feel for the girl, especially when she continually tries to get her mother to beat her addiction just so she won't have to continue doing the readings.

 

As for the serial killer, I guess I found it a bit unrealistic that the FBI would focus so hard on as Maddie as a suspect when it was clear that the evidence was screaming someone else did it. Not to mention she was just a female teenager with good grades and not a strike of red on her permanent record. I guess I could've found their interest in her more plausible if at least some of the evidence had a legitimate chance of being left by her before testing results came in... I don't know. It seemed discrimination drove their investigation instead of the hard facts, which I don't see the FBI doing against a teenage girl. This lack of realism is the main reason I've docked it a little in the star department. Otherwise, it was a pretty good read that kept my attention, and I think most people will find it an enjoyable quick read with just enough mystery to keep you guessing.

ARC provided by Disney-Hyperion for honest review.

Vanished by Elizabeth Heiter (ARC)

Vanished (The Profiler #2)
Elizabeth Heiter
Exp. Pub.: December 30, 2014

Sometimes the past can haunt you...

Eighteen years ago, FBI profiler Evelyn Baine's best friend, Cassie Byers, disappeared, the third in a series of unsolved abductions. Only a macabre nursery rhyme was left at the scene, a nursery rhyme that claimed Evelyn was also an intended victim. Now, after all these years of silence, another girl has gone missing in South Carolina, and the Nursery Rhyme Killer is taking credit. But is Cassie s abductor really back, or is there a copycat at work?

Sometimes the past is best forgotten...

Evelyn has waited eighteen years for a chance to investigate, but when she returns to Rose Bay, she finds a dark side to the seemingly idyllic town. As the place erupts in violence and the kidnapper strikes again, Evelyn knows this is her last chance. If she doesn't figure out what happened to Cassie eighteen years ago, it may be Evelyn s turn to vanish without a trace..
 
 

 

Hmm... I'm hitting quite a few novels lately that are just ho-hum, and Vanished was no exception. The story follows Evelyn Baine as she travels back to her hometown, where a girl has gone missing. Kicker is, Evelyn herself was meant to be a kidnap victim of the Nursery Rhyme Killer eighteen years ago, so she puts her stubborn foot down and all but forces her way onto the case as the FBI's profiler. But it's not just the killer who awaits her return, but the police officer who grilled her to the bone last time she was there, determined to do anything to finally close this case.

 

I've always loved books and movies where you have a serial kidnapper or killer wrecking havoc on a small town, but this one just didn't do it for me. Evelyn and her comrades continually went between three possible suspects with very little to show for it, and it slowed the pace of the story so much it was triumph just to make it to the next chapter. Maybe it was Evelyn's complete disregard for the rules and allowing her emotions to say screw you to the necessary steps needed to gather legitimate evidence that wouldn't be thrown out in court because of unlawful obtainment, but her attitude really rubbed me the wrong way.
 

I get that she was meant to be a victim herself and that her childhood best friend was probably dead, but she seemed to be on a one-girl mission of stupidity going off doing illegal searches and putting herself in dangerous situations without backup or communication. I mean seriously? You're trying to get an abductor/killer put away. Don't mess it up. There are two little girls missing out there, so try not to make it all about you and your almost-but-never-happened kidnapping twenty years ago.

Be mad, be vigilant, just don't be stupid and blow it to the point this scumbag never sees the inside of a prison.

Sadly, by just a third of the way in, I thought the person who was responsible for the abductions was as obvious as a goldfish in a piranha tank, but for some reason, Evelyn and company were completely blind to what was right in front of them, so law enforcement comes off looking pretty stupid in this novel.  It was either the killer's doing or just dumb luck that they managed to unearth anything at all.

 

So, meh. Don't get me wrong, This was by no means a bad book, but it lacked the necessary mystery and suspense and actual police work to get me to read the other books in this series.

 

ARC provided by Mira for honest review.

I Am The Weapon by Allen Zadoff

I Am The Weapon (The Unknown Assassin #1)
Allen Zadoff
Pub.: May 13, 2014

Boy Nobody is the perennial new kid in school, the one few notice and nobody thinks much about. He shows up in a new high school, in a new town, under a new name, makes few friends and doesn't stay long. Just long enough for someone in his new friend's family to die -- of "natural causes." Mission accomplished, Boy Nobody disappears, and moves on to the next target.

When his own parents died of not-so-natural causes at the age of eleven, Boy Nobody found himself under the control of The Program, a shadowy government organization that uses brainwashed kids as counter-espionage operatives. But somewhere, deep inside Boy Nobody, is somebody: the boy he once was, the boy who wants normal things (like a real home, his parents back), a boy who wants out. And he just might want those things badly enough to sabotage The Program's next mission. 

Boy Nobody lost his parents when he was just a kid, his father by the same assassin who took him to the program he worked for. There Nobody was given a choice to either work for the Program or die. Hard choice, right? Several years later he's been working one case after another, where he goes in, befriends the kid of the target, kills their parent, then disappears into thin air, just to start the process all over again. He's kind of the perfect assassin. Because really, who would expect a kid? Not too many.

Now, Nobody's newest case has him targeting the governor of New York and his very opinionated young daughter. But all is not what it seems, and Nobody begins to question his assignment - which just isn't smart when you work for a group with assassins at the ready - because they may just turn them on you.

 

Sorry, but I'm keeping my plot summary vague on this one, as very little could be said without revealing the mystery behind it all. This was a good YA read with mild spy antics. The story focused more on Nobody's growing relations his target's daughter and learning to think for himself than actual spy stuff you'd expect to get from the adult novels. But it's definitely one worth checking out for the younger readers.

 

Novel provided by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers.

 

Bones Never Lie by Kathy Reichs (ARC)

Bones Never Lie (Temperance Brennan #17)
Kathy Reichs
Exp. Pub.: September 23, 2014

In the acclaimed author’s thrilling new novel, Brennan is at the top of her game in a battle of wits against the most monstrous adversary she has ever encountered.

Unexpectedly called in to the Charlotte PD’s Cold Case Unit, Dr. Temperance Brennan wonders why she’s been asked to meet with a homicide cop who’s a long way from his own jurisdiction. The shocking answer: Two child murders, separated by thousands of miles, have one thing in common—the killer. Years ago, Anique Pomerleau kidnapped and murdered a string of girls in Canada, then narrowly eluded capture. It was a devastating defeat for her pursuers, Brennan and police detective Andrew Ryan. Now, as if summoned from their nightmares, Pomerleau has resurfaced in the United States, linked to victims in Vermont and North Carolina. When another child is snatched, the reign of terror promises to continue—unless Brennan can rise to the challenge and make good on her second chance to stop a psychopath.

But Brennan will have to draw her bitter ex-partner out of exile, keep the local police and feds from one another’s throats, and face more than just her own demons as she stalks the deadliest of predators into the darkest depths of madness.

I now remember why I stopped reading these novels. While the murder mysteries are always intricate and well thought out, the facts and science behind them read a little too textbook for me to really sit back and enjoy. Also, Dr. Brennan hardly ever shares her feelings about anything, and the only way I ever know them is if she says them verbally, which let me tell you, is incredibly rare. I was also a little put off about the cliffhanger. Not that there was a cliffy, but how the last scene played out. Really? Who acts like that with such an important decision? Not any adults I know, and most of them are mature and well educated.

Here's the 411. The reason I'm only giving this only two stars is because I didn't feel a connection to the character. Hell, the only character I even liked in this story was Slidell, 'cause quite frankly, at least his speech was amusing. I want to feel an MC's ups and downs, experience her misery and leap for joy for her triumphs. Unfortunately these novels still don't offer an emotional side to Dr. Brennan. She comes off numb, as if everything in life bores her to the point that nothing is significant or worthy of emotion. So, sorry, but I still can't find myself to are about her story when she can't be bothered herself.

If you're a fan of these stories already, nothing's changed, so you'll continue to be happy. But for anyone like me who likes to feel a connection when they're reading a novel, it's still not happening. Which is too bad, because I do like the concept for this series.

 ARC provided by Bantam for honest review.

Elite by Rachel Van Dyken (ARC)

Elite (Eagle Elite #1)
Rachel Van Dyken
Pub: July 9, 2013

For Tracey Rooks, life with her grandparents on a Wyoming farm has always been simple. But after her grandmother's death, Tracey is all her grandfather has. So when Eagle Elite University announces its annual scholarship lottery, Tracey jumps at the opportunity to secure their future and enters. She isn't expecting much-but then she wins. And life as she knows it will never be same . . .

The students at Eagle Elite are unlike any she's ever met . . . and they refuse to make things easy for her. There's Nixon, gorgeous, irresistible, and leader of a group that everyone fears: The Elect.

Their rules are simple.
 1. Do not touch The Elect.
2. Do not look at The Elect.
3. Do not speak to The Elect.

No matter how hard she tries to stay away, The Elect are always around her and it isn't long until she finds out the reason why they keep their friends close and their enemies even closer. She just didn't realize she was the enemy -- until it was too late.  

When you attend a university filled with future mobsters and political figures, you better believe the hazing will be a little extreme.