The Book of Blood and Shadow by Robin Wasserman

This book bills itself as a Da Vinci Code for Teens. I can't remember (and am too lazy to check) whether this is the official publisher tagline or whether I read that on a blog somewhere. The verdict: oh boy, is it ever.

Lot's of fun this one. I liked Nora our main character's voice quite a bit. She's prickly, defensive, and desperately trying to appear jaded and blase about it all. She's also a bit of a phenom at Latin, which is what gets her into this whole mess.

Her best friend Chris and her begin an independent study translating some old letters and working on a coded book. As they begin to break the code Nora also is translating letters that are secretly the key to the whole shebang. Her professor suffers a mysterious "heart attack," her friend is murdered, and her other friend suffers a mental breakdown while covered in his blood.

Enter secret societies from stage left and you've got the set up pretty much figured out. I liked how the author made several people equally shady so that I ended up suspecting everyone and having a lot of fun discovering exactly who was the actual guilty party. It did require a bit of suspension of disbelief, but I was more than willing since I was having such a good time.

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Book Source = e-book from Library

Girl Stolen by April Henry

Cheyenne Wilder was having a lie-down in the back of her step-mom’s SUV when she heard the door open. The creak of the seat, the way the door shuts, the sound of breath coming from the front seat all sound wrong. Someone has entered the car and that someone is not her step-mother.

The setup for this book just plain freaked me out. It is such a major source of fear for me. I never leave keys in the ignition and I lock all the doors when I’m sitting in a car. Heck, I lock the doors when I’m driving a car. When I was a kid, one of my cousin’s schoolmates was left in the car by his mom. It was winter and the car was running. Someone stole the car and he tried to escape and was run over. It was shocking and terrible and made a big impact on me.

So yeah, scary situation. Add to that the fact that Cheyenne is blind and you just ratchet up the fear-o-meter. It turns out that Cheyenne has been accidentally kidnapped. Griffin, the teenager that steals the car, was tempted by the keys in the ignition. He saw an easy score. Once he’s driven away he’s unsure of what to do with Cheyenne and keeps on driving. He sort of decides to keep her by default – he’ll let his dad figure it all out. And his dad? Not such a nice guy.

Griffin is also a victim of circumstance – he’s been badly abused by his father. He dropped out of school and works for his father as a petty thief as well as his chop shop. He’s partly seduced by the life and partly disgusted by it. He’s beat down and insecure and caught up in a situation that has spiraled out of control.

This is a very suspenseful novel. I really got caught up in the tension and the what-is-going-to-happen-next. There are people who get involved that would very much like to hurt Cheyenne. She is never sure she is going to make it out of this situation alive. And as a reader, I wasn’t too sure either – I saw her as a resourceful character, but dang. The odds were stacked against her. Not only is she blind, but she is also suffering from pneumonia. Luckily homegirl brings it.


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Book Source: ARC sent for review by publisher