The Secret of Scarlet Stone by T.L. Clarke

The Secret of the Scarlet Stone

Can You Help the Gabby Girls Solve the Clues?The Gabby Girls Adventure begins at the Vineswell Academy a very formal and strict elite all-girls school located just outside of upstate New York. The Gabby Girls, Gabrielle who is street-smart and very opinionated, Zora who is super-smart, Jessica who is painfully shy and a bit clumsy; and Rosalinda who is a diva and daddy's little-girl. They are drawn together by the only thing that they have in common, which is the mysterious scarlet pendant they each possess. But things seem even stranger when they find a clue that tempts them with the answer to the question they have longed to know. This unlikely bunch struggle to navigate through solving clue-after-clue. Each clue brings them closer to the key to unlocking their future and the answer to the mysterious deaths of their mothers. After all, Gabby Girls always stick together and everyday is an.........Gabby Girls Adventure! (edited by author)

Received from author.

Gabby Girls takes place in an elite all-girls school. Four girls, united by the secret of their pendants, get together to solve the mystery and discover their legacy.

The novel is more MG than YA literature. It's cute in some parts while in others, unfortunately, it's quite dull.

The good thing about this novel:
1) It has a good premise that catches the reader's attention.
2) It has a good ending, making the reader anticipate the second installment.

Now, to the bad things, which slightly outnumber and outweight the good things.
1) The book is flooded with adverbs. And I know this may not be major to some people, as a writer and avid reader, it bothered me. I couldhandle one or two in a page, but this novel had more than three in almost every sentence.

2) The dialog. The dialog was another problem for me. It was unreallistic and very cliched. It made me groan almost every time a girl said something because I just couldn't believe it.

3) The characters. While at times the characters do redeemed themselves, they didn't really pull it off for me. They're unrealistic and quite bratty and snotty. There's no way I could relate to the girls, especially when they were so mean and spoiled. I've read books where characters were spoiled before but those characters had a vulnerable side, too. These were just flat.

Overall, the writing didn't impress me at all, the characters made it unreadable sometimes and I thought about quitting it a few times, actually. The only thing that redeemed at least a bit was the ending which did leave me slightly interested in the next book.

In one sentence:
"Flat characters, a weak dialog and writing left me a bit annoyed with this book."

Plot: 3
Characters: 1.5
Writing: 2
Cover: 3
Overall Feeling: 1.5
Average: 2.2 stars

Magickeepers: The Pyramid Of Souls (Book #2) by Erica Kirov

Magickeepers: The Pyramid of Souls

It was stolen from Alexander the Great. To keep it safe, Edgar Allen Poe bargained away his sanity. And somebody suckered P. T. Barnum to get their hands on it. It's the most closely guarded secret in the magician community. And it's missing.

What would you do to protect your family from an ancient pyramid capable of stealing your very soul?

Nick Rostov finally has the life he's always dreamed-and he'll do anything to protect it.

Nick has only now discovered he is part of an extended Russian family of magicians: the Magickeepers. He lives with his eccentric new relatives at the Winter Palace Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, where they perform daring feats of magic to a packed house. Real magic.

But Nick and his family face a new danger in the form of a stolen relic, the Pyramid of Souls. The tiny pyramid has traded hands many times throughout history. Its power can steal a magician's very soul.

Nick knows who took it: Rasputin, leader of the Shadowkeepers. Using his unique ability as a Gazer-one who can see into the past-Nick enlists his cousin Isabella to help him find it. Soon, the two are hot on the evil sorcerer's trail...until Isabella's soul is trapped by the very relic they're trying to find.

Nick will do anything to rescue Isabella and recover the Pyramid of Souls. But will it be enough to save his family?

I was a bit surprised when I received this one. I had almost forgotten all about it. Then I realized it's the second one in the series. Thankfully, I read it and enjoyed it without reading the first and I was able to understand everything and not get confused.

I loved the folklore in this book. I loved seeing historical characters such as my personal favorite, Edgar Allan Poe. Like Harry Potter, this book weaves the magical with the ordinary. It's really well done, too!

The characters are likable and entertaining, sometimes funny. This will be a vague review because it is targeted to younger audiences but it was still really fun and entertaining. And the fact that it's just under 200 pages made it a fun, fast-paced, quick read.

In one sentence:
"A great story for kids who are fans of Harry Potter and the Narnia tales."

Plot: 4
Characters: 4
Writing: 4
Cover: 5
Overall Feeling: 4
Average: 4.2

The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson and The Olympians, #1) by Rick Riordan

The Lightning Thief

Percy Jackson is about to be kicked out of boarding school...again. And that's the least of his troubles. Lately, mythological monsters and the gods of Mount Olympus seem to be walking straight out of the pages of Percy's Greek mythology textbook and into his life. And worse, he's angered a few of them. Zeus's master lightning bolt has been stolen, and Percy is the prime suspect.

Now Percy and his friends have just ten days to find and return Zeus's stolen property and bring peace to a warring Mount Olympus. But to succeed on his quest, Percy will have to do more than catch the true thief: he must come to terms with the father who abandoned him; solve the riddle of the Oracle, which warns him of betrayal by a friend; and unravel a treachery more powerful than the gods themselves.

When they started announcing the movie I said, "I want to read the book first." But then my friends wanted to go out and see it so I agreed to go along. I liked the movie a lot but this isn't a movie review, it's a book review.

I am so mad at myself for not reading this book sooner. The book is fantastic and it can never be compared to the movie. It has been such a long time since I've enjoyed a middle grade/fantasy series. I can't even begin to do a small synopsis of the book so I will leave the above synopsis and I hope it suffices.

The story, the mythology, the characters. It's amazing how everything told in here rings with such honesty and truth. You truly believe everything that's happening there could happen around you. Thanks to the first person POV, I was completely submerged in all of the action and sometimes it was even too fast to almost keep up!

Percy and the rest of the characters are unique and very distinctive. There is also a mix of humor in this book so I found myself laughing out loud quite a few times. It's such a fun and light read, perfect for the beach! (I do not intend any sort of pun here).

In one sentence:
"Mesmerizing! It would have you googling Greek Mythology for a while."

Plot: 5
Characters: 5
Writing: 5
Cover: 5
Overall Feeling: 5
Average: 5