Stay In The Shadows, Where You Belong

Published: February 12th, 2013

Dance of Shadows (Dance of Shadows # 1)

By: Yelena Black

Bloomsbury USA Children's Books

ISBN-13:  9781599909400

Dancing with someone is an act of trust. Elegant and intimate; you're close enough to kiss, close enough to feel your partner's heartbeat. But for Vanessa, dance is deadly – and she must be very careful who she trusts . . .

Vanessa Adler attends an elite ballet school – the same one her older sister, Margaret, attended before she disappeared. Vanessa feels she can never live up to her sister's shining reputation. But Vanessa, with her glorious red hair and fair skin, has a kind of power when she dances – she loses herself in the music, breathes different air, and the world around her turns to flames . . . 

Soon she attracts the attention of three men: gorgeous Zep, mysterious Justin, and the great, enigmatic choreographer Josef Zhalkovsky. When Josef asks Vanessa to dance the lead in the Firebird, she has little idea of the danger that lies ahead – and the burning forces about to be unleashed . . .

Review

     Being a completely uncoordinated, average schmuck I have a secret addiction to books or movies involving ballet - especially teen ones!  Center Stage and Save The Last Dance are my life's blood people (especially the soundtracks, which are awesome!) and I revel in them! :)  So I went into this thinking that it would be a dark, paranormal version of one of my favorite movies.  I was wrong in the extreme.  The book started out promisingly creepy and devolved very obviously into something subpar and disappointing.  The main character, Vanessa, is dealing with disappearance of her sister Margaret from her ballet academy months earlier, after which Vanessa vowed to find her - which she spends the book not really doing at all.  The idea that a demon could literally be abducting ballerinas and stealing their souls is a very interesting and original one, but when done with someone as bland as Vanessa being the searchlight it died for me.  She makes pretty much no attempt to find her sister (even though it's what she's supposedly there for) and is described as dancing with supernatural ability and being almost perfect.  Yet she never PRACTICES and shows some serious disinterest in dancing!  When girls start to disappear, one of them being a girl Vanessa is friends with, no one ever calls her parents to find out if the school's story about her going home is true.  Vanessa's two guys, Zep a.k.a Zeppelin Black and Justin, were both paint by numbers and the ways the author described them read like something out of a twelve year old's Twilight fan fiction story - only less believable at times.  The plot dragged because it was predictable to the very last 'twist' at the end.  All of the side characters were cardboard cutouts.  Their personalities were waiting to be delivered and never arrived.  I was unimpressed with the constant stupidity of everyone in the book (especially Vanessa) to see what was right in front of them.  Seriously, I knew who the villain(s) were less that halfway into the book and the constant overlooking of something smacking these people right in their faces just made me mad.  Just because they're teens doesn't mean they're complete and total oblivious morons!  I will say that in the last 15% or so the author redeemed it a little bit for me and I did like the ending.  But I won't be moving on to the next one because I'm sure that it will be just as badly written.  And a cliffhanger is not a good enough reason to read a sequel no matter what anyone says...  Not recommended to anyone except possibly fans of the Tiger's Curse series by Colleen Houck, Twilight by Stephanie Meyer and Fallen by Lauren Kate.  In other words, just say no.

VERDICT:  1.25/5  Stars

**I received an Advanced Reading E-book Copy from the publisher, via NetGalley. No money or favors were exchanged for this review. This book was published February 12th, 2013.**

Keep It Down Now, Voices Carry

Expected Publication: July 17th, 2012

The Unquiet

By: Jeannine Garsee

Bloomsbury USA

ISBN-13: 9781599907239

Sixteen-year-old Rinn Jacobs has secrets: One, she’s bipolar. Two, she killed her grandmother. 

After a suicide attempt, and now her parents' separation, Rinn and her mom move from California to the rural Ohio town where her mother grew up. Back on her medications and hoping to stay well, Rinn settles into her new home, undaunted by the fact that the previous owner hanged herself in Rinn's bedroom. At school, her classmates believe the school pool is haunted by Annaliese, a girl who drowned there. But when a reckless séance goes awry, and terrible things start happening to her new friends—yet not to her—Rinn is determined to find out why she can’t be "touched" by Annaliese...or if Annaliese even exists. 

With the help of Nate Brenner, the hunky “farmer boy” she’s rapidly falling for, Rinn devises a dangerous plan to uncover the truth. Soon reality and fantasy meld into one, till Rinn finds it nearly impossible to tell the difference. When a malevolent force threatens the lives of everyone she cares about--not to mention her own--she can't help wondering: who should she really be afraid of?

Annaliese? Or herself?

Review

   Corinne 'Rinn' Jacobs has had a difficult life.  She's hoping to leave the past behind after her parents separate and she moves to the town where her Mom grew up, in backwoods Ohio.  After having a bipolar episode that inadvertently resulted in the death of her beloved Grandmother, Rinn is determined to stay on her medication and not give in paranoia due to the creepy rumors floating around town about ghosts in the school...and her new house.  Rinn makes a lot of popular friends and catches the attention of the cute, boy next door Nate Brenner.  Then, at the Homecoming dance, she participates in a seance at the school pool to draw out the ghost of a girl named Annaliese who drowned there.  It turns out not to be quite so harmless when each of the kids who were in the seance are targeted one by one, some malevolent force trying to do away with them.  Rinn is untouchable for some reason and she's determined to find out why and to know with certainty whether Annaliese is real or not.   Enlisting Nate's help, Rinn is on a mission to save herself and her friends, even if it means facing what she fears the most - herself.  Will she be the next to die or can Rinn finally be strong enough to save herself?  This was an intriguing book.  I normally stay away from the creepy, ghost-story YA books because they never turn out as good as they sound.  I liked Rinn's blunt, 'take-me-as-I-am' attitude because it's not necessarily the norm in YA books nowadays.  Most authors seem to favor the shrinking violet heroines for their novels.  I found myself drawn in to the mystery of Annaliese's existence, why she was haunting the school, and whether or not she was a figment of Rinn's imagination after all was said and done.  I liked the side characters, Meg and Tasha especially even though they met tragic endings.  I thought that Annaliese's cause of death was kind of cliched - at least the involvement the other people who were there was to a very large extent.  Nate made a good romantic interest for a book that wasn't focused on the romance.  It was largely about the mystery and his involvement reflected that.  I was reminded of Lois Duncan's style of writing and I was thoroughly creeped out so many times while reading this.  It is highly recommended for YA fans who enjoy horror, mystery and ghost stories.  Just don't read in a dark room with a creepy closet like I did! :)

VERDICT:  4/5  Stars

*I received an Advanced Reading E-book Copy from the publisher, via NetGalley. No money or favors were exchanged for this review. This book's expected publication date is July 17th, 2012.*