Publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers


Friday, April 22, 2016

Blog Tour: The Darkest Corners by Kara Thomas – Review

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I received this book for free from Random House Children's Books in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Blog Tour: The Darkest Corners by Kara Thomas – ReviewThe Darkest Corners by Kara Thomas
Published by Delacorte Books for Young Readers on April 19th 2016
Genres: Mystery, Suspense, Thriller, YA
Source: Random House Children's Books
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four-stars

The Darkest Corners is a psychological thriller about the lies little girls tell, and the deadly truths those lies become.

There are ghosts around every corner in Fayette, Pennsylvania. Tessa left when she was nine and has been trying ever since not to think about it after what happened there that last summer. Memories of things so dark will burn themselves into your mind if you let them.

Callie never left. She moved to another house, so she doesn’t have to walk those same halls, but then Callie always was the stronger one. She can handle staring into the faces of her demons—and if she parties hard enough, maybe one day they’ll disappear for good.

Tessa and Callie have never talked about what they saw that night. After the trial, Callie drifted and Tessa moved, and childhood friends just have a way of losing touch.

But ever since she left, Tessa has had questions. Things have never quite added up. And now she has to go back to Fayette—to Wyatt Stokes, sitting on death row; to Lori Cawley, Callie’s dead cousin; and to the one other person who may be hiding the truth.

Only the closer Tessa gets to the truth, the closer she gets to a killer—and this time, it won’t be so easy to run away.

This was one of those rare books that actually stumped me until almost the very end. I am usually very good at figuring out a mystery and what is really going on, but this one kept me second guessing myself the whole time. It was fantastic and held my attention the whole time. The characters were great, and the emotional impact was spot on. It was a bit slow moving at times, especially to start, but it really helped build things up. One of the major things I noticed (and loved) was that there was no romance thrown in. It wasn’t necessary and it would have taken away from the story.

Tessa has had a very rough childhood. Her father is in jail, and her sister and mom have abandoned her. She has been living with her grandmother since she was younger. With her father being about to die, she goes back to her hometown to stay with Maggie, who has always been kind to her. Maggie is also Callie’s mom. Callie who used to be her best friend until she moved away. Until what happened in their childhood put a wedge between them, though Tessa doesn’t know why. Now she is back, and they are second guessing if what they testified as kids was right. Especially after another person ends up dead. She also holds a secret from when they were questioned all those years ago by the police. Something she didn’t tell anyone. Tessa is also trying to find her sister and her mom, but the more she uncovers about things, the more she feels like she is running into more dead ends. She is a smart girl, but she is also pretty broken. She has no one, she needs answers, but all she is getting is more questions. She proves brave and determined though, and she definitely gets more than she bargained for by digging for the truth.

Callie seems stuck up and snobby, but she is just as broken, if not more, than Tessa. She never left and has been left to live in the same place where the bad things happened. She feels like she can’t question what she saw that awful night because if they were wrong, then a horrible person is still out there. She just wants to get as far away from that town as she can. She drowns her pain and thoughts with alcohol. Surprisingly, even though the last person she wanted to see again was Tessa, they start to bond again through finding out the truth of everything. At first I didn’t like Callie, but by the end I really did. She was much different underneath than what we initially see when we meet her.

So of course this is a mystery, but there are also a lot of twists. One especially that I totally didn’t see coming. And I love that!! It’s not often that a book can catch me off guard like that. I tend to be very observant and can figure things out with tiny clues, but not this time. Maybe I’m getting old. It was dark at times, and suspenseful. I was intrigued by all the things that Tessa found out and how one thing led to another, even if they weren’t really directly connected to one another. The characters were great and very real to me as well. I loved watching Tessa and Callie reconnect, and I also really loved the whole family dynamic. The way the story was told, it was so believable. There were no easy outs, or coincidental things that made things just fall into place. This was fabulous!!

four-stars

4 Hot Espressos

Review: Everything Everything by Nicola Yoon

Review: Everything Everything by Nicola Yoon

Posted by on 09/30/2015 • 8 Comments

When I went to BEA, there seemed to be quite a bit of buzz about this book. Since I am a big fan of contemporary and issue books, I knew I had to have this. I am so glad that I got this one too. It was seriously good. I was intrigued by the characters illness and how she lived her life. A lot about her actual illness was left out, but it was good enough that I didn’t feel there was lack of information. I mean, this book is really about her wanting to have a real life. As real and normal as it possibly can be with her condition anyways. There were a few little issues here and there, like her having to have books go through a…

Review: The Sleepwalker Tonic (Nightmares! #2) by Jason Segel and Kirsten Miller

Review: The Sleepwalker Tonic (Nightmares! #2) by Jason Segel and Kirsten Miller

Posted by on 09/14/2015 • 1 Comment

I really enjoyed the first book, so I was eager to get to this one right away. Just when Charlie is finally happy with his family and life, things start to get weird again. Him and his brother Jack have sealed the portal to the nightmare realm, but now he has discovered that Jack has been visiting, and with the odd stuff happening in the waking world his little brother may become the one they blame. Things aren’t going so well with Charlotte’s business either, and they may lose their house.The purple mansion with the portal that they must protect. Charlie starts to discover that the weird events, and the pending doom of Charlotte’s store are connected. Now it’s up to him and Jack to save the nightmare world again,…

Review: Nightmares! by Jason Segel and Kirsten Miller

Review: Nightmares! by Jason Segel and Kirsten Miller

Posted by on 09/10/2015 • 4 Comments

I love a good middle grade book filled with adventure and fun! This is a somewhat horror, but it’s not really all that scary. Of course, it’s for kids so that makes sense. The characters in this book were great, and I loved getting lost inside their adventure along with them. It’s such a great blend of fantasy, adventure, and great lessons. I think that is what really draws me to MG books. There is usually such a great lesson for kids thrown into all the fun and fantasy of reading the story. This one is a lot about family and I thought it was done so well. This book was published last year, but since I was invited to review the second book, I needed to read and review…

Fearless Playlist!

Fearless Playlist!

Posted by on 04/22/2015 • 2 Comments

The Fearless blog tour is stopping by the blog today with the book’s Playlist! Here’s a little about the book first:

Fearless Playlist Biffy Clyro – Many of Horror

Ludovico Einaudi – I Due Fiumi

Mumford and Sons – I Gave You All

Paramore – Playing God

Erik Satie – Gnossienne no. 1 (Lent)

Mumford and Sons – Awake My Soul

Dustin O’Halloran – Fragile No. 4

Message to Bears – Running Through Woodland

The Temper Trap – Soldier On

Fleet Foxes – Tiger Mountain Peasant Song

Miike Snow – Silvia

Ludovico Einaudi – La Nescita Delle Cose Segrete About the Author

Emma Pass grew up at an environmental studies centre near London, went to…

Review: And We Stay by Jenny Hubbard

Review: And We Stay by Jenny Hubbard

Posted by on 01/17/2014 • 17 Comments

And We Stay is a book that will resonate with some, and left others feeling detached. It’s a very poetic writing style which on one hand gives us a beautifully written novel, but on the other hand it makes it hard to embed yourself into the main character’s thoughts and emotions.

The main reason for this detachment is due to the fact that it’s written in 3rd person present. This tense always makes it hard for me to feel anything but indifference towards a story and its characters. It does make for a pretty writing style – and it is – but Emily’s emotional turmoil is kept out of reach as a result. It felt like she was telling someone else’s story, not reliving her own. This writing is…

Review: Steelheart by Brandon Sanderson

Review: Steelheart by Brandon Sanderson

Posted by on 09/02/2013 • 34 Comments

This book = insanity!

This will prove my living under a rock, but I had not heard of this author before I went to Book Expo and got told all about his awesome status, and let me tell you, the praise is not unwarranted! Steelheart does not hold back; it’s an edge-of-your-seat read with an intensity that requires you to put the book down regularly just so you can take a breather!

There are book beginnings… then there are Sanderson beginnings; the prologue is all it took to make me fall in love with this book. Already, my heart was pounding, I was left gasping, and my knuckles were white from clutching the book. Sanderson’s writing brought me thoroughly and completely in David’s world – a very dark, merciless world…

Review: Thousand Words by Jennifer Brown

Posted by on 05/17/2013 • 26 Comments

The first Jennifer Brown book I read made me an instant fan of her work, and Thousand Words shows me she has more than one story to tell; one she tells admirably. This time, we meet a girl – Ashleigh – who had her life turned upside down when a private picture text to her boyfriend goes viral.

With technology allowing us constant and worldwide communication, sexting is an issue that was not even possible when I was in high school (way to make me feel old!), so stories like these are real eye openers to the damages that an online world can have with a simple error in judgment. Especially to someone as young as Ashleigh who is in an age where you feel invincible, yet mistakes happen, friends…