Testimony by Anita Shreve

Pages (Mass Market Paperback): 352 pages

Publisher: Little, Brown and Company; Reprint edition

Released: Aug 31, 2010

Description: At a New England boarding school, a sex scandal is about to break. Even more shocking than the sexual acts themselves is the fact that they were caught on videotape. A Pandora's box of revelations, the tape triggers a chorus of voices--those of the men, women, teenagers, and parents involved in the scandal--that details the ways in which lives can be derailed or destroyed in one foolish moment.

Writing with a pace and intensity surpassing even her own greatest work, Anita Shreve delivers in TESTIMONY a gripping emotional drama with the impact of a thriller. No one more compellingly explores the dark impulses that sway the lives of seeming innocents, the needs and fears that drive ordinary men and women into intolerable dilemmas, and the ways in which our best intentions can lead to our worst transgressions.

Review: Testimony is a book that I wanted to read for awhile now. Even though, I didn't like the twist about the unnamed boy and I hated what Sienna, the girl in the video, did, I did enjoy premise and the writing style. Each chapter was told by a different character, which was nice since it helped show how something like this can affect a multitude of people in complete different ways.

Grade: 7.5 lines out of 10

Extraordinary by Nancy Werlin

Pages (Hardcover): 400 pages

Publisher: Dial Books

Released: September 7, 2010

Description: Phoebe finds herself drawn to Mallory, the strange and secretive new kid in school, and the two girls become as close as sisters . . . until Mallory's magnetic older brother, Ryland, shows up during their junior year. Ryland has an immediate, exciting hold on Phoebe but a dangerous hold, for she begins to question her feelings about her best friend and, worse, about herself.

Soon she'll discover the shocking truth about Ryland and Mallory: that these two are visitors from the faerie realm who have come to collect on an age-old debt. Generations ago, the faerie queen promised Phoebe's ancestor five extraordinary sons in exchange for the sacrifice of one ordinary female heir. But in hundreds of years there hasn't been a single ordinary girl in the family, and now the faeries are dying. Could Phoebe be the first ordinary one? Could she save the faeries, or is she special enough to save herself?

Review: I'm torn. On one hand, I enjoyed my time reading this. I thought Mallory was an excellent character, she's sympathetic, relateable, and you want to root for her, but don't at the same time. The relationship between Phoebe and Ryland, while it reminded me of an abusive relationship, was interesting as well. AND! Nantucket is in this book. On the other hand, Phoebe, the main character, is...

Grade: 7.5 lines out of 10

Thank you to Penguin Canada for providing this book for review.

In the Woods by Tana French

Pages (Paperback): 464 pages

Publisher: Penguin

Released: May 27, 2008

Description: As dusk approaches a small Dublin suburb in the summer of 1984, mothers begin to call their children home. But on this warm evening, three children do not return from the dark and silent woods. When the police arrive, they find only one of the children gripping a tree trunk in terror, wearing blood-filled sneakers, and unable to recall a single detail of the previous hours.

Twenty years later, the found boy, Rob Ryan, is a detective on the Dublin Murder Squad and keeps his past a secret. But when a twelve-year-old girl is found murdered in the same woods, he and Detective Cassie Maddox — his partner and closest friend — find themselves investigating a case chillingly similar to the previous unsolved mystery. Now, with only snippets of long-buried memories to guide him, Ryan has the chance to uncover both the mystery of the case before him and that of his own shadowy past.

Review: In the Woods is a beautifully written mystery that will get you sucked in and wanting more. And when I mean wanting more, I mean wanting more, because the most interesting aspect of the novel never gets solved. It's annoying, frustrating, and it makes you want to scream, but it works. Strange, eh? Lovely novel, it did have some rough spots, but the writing makes up for it.

Grade: 7.5 lines out of 10