Mini Reviews: Spellbinding & The Dead and Buried

Spellbinding

by Maya Gold

Release Date: April 1, 2013
Publisher: Scholastic
Pages: 272
Received: ARC from publisher
Stars: 3
Goodreads Page

I'm pretty neutral on this book. I didn't love it and I didn't hate it. The main character didn't make much of an impression one way or the other and the romantic lead was inoffensively bland. The plot was fairly predictable and there wasn't a whole lot to it.

But, I liked it. I wanted to find time to read it and I ended up pushing aside other things in order to spend time reading. The main character didn't make much of an impression on me, but the writing style was languidly engaging and a lot more mature than I would have expected with that cover. I was expecting light and fluffy, which was pretty off base. 

The whole thing felt almost like an adult narrating. Not in the cringe-inducing adult-author-trying-and-failing-to-sound-hip way. But more like an adult looking back on her teenage years and telling her story. It had that vibe, and I tend to like that approach. Going along with that, the story focused more on Abby discovering what kind of person she wants to be than on the blurb's love spells and action.

Recommended if you're looking for a pleasant way to kill an afternoon or two.

The Dead and Buried

by Kim Harrington

Release Date: January 1, 2013
Publisher: Scholastic Point
Pages: 295
Received: ARC from publisher
Stars: 3.5
Goodreads Page

I'm always up for a good ghost story, and The Dead and Buried hit the mark of being sufficiently chilling without being *too* scary for a wimp like me.

It probably could have even been a little scarier. The scariness lost some steam as the book progressed. Actually, it lost a lot of steam overall.

Mostly that's because I figured out whodunnit way too early and then spent about half the book somewhat impatiently waiting for main character Jade to catch up. This is always a big let down.

That's ok though, because even though I figured out the big mystery, there was still a lot to like and hold my interest. Jade herself is just straight up likable. I enjoyed spending time with her. She's not a push over and she doesn't lose her perspective (or dignity) the second a cute guy shows interest. She pretty much made the book for me.

She also had her own hobbies and interests that she engaged in with little care to what other people thought about them (and what I thought about them was that they were super cool! I love gemstones).

All in all, a nice standalone mystery that I liked more than Kim Harrington's first book Clarity (mostly because I liked Jade a whole lot and I didn't like Clarity that much. The romance was better than Clarity's romance, too. The mystery was about the same though, which is a solid good for both books).

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