| JENINE'S AMAZON.COM REVIEWS AND RECOMMENDATIONS |
| "Twilight" is one of the most unusual and compelling vampire stories I have ever had the pleasure to read (and believe me, I've read A LOT of vampire stories). Bella's obsession with Edward quickly becomes ours because he is such an extraordinary creature. The final climactic scene had me rivited and unable to stop reading until the book was finished! Stephenie Meyer has a gift for putting the reader in Bella's skin to the extent that we feel her longing, pain and emptiness as if it were us that had lost the most important thing in our lives. |
| My next recommendation is the Mediator Series by Meg Cabot (Who also authored "The Princess Diaries" and many other books). This set of six wonderful novels is the story of Susannah (As in "Don't you cry for me") "Suze" Simon. Suze is a mediator for ghosts, which means she has been given the ability to hear, see and feel those spirits who, for whatever reason, have not been able to move onto the great beyond, or wherever it is spirits are supposed to go after death. When Suze moves from New York to California she thinks that maybe her ghostly problems will disappear. Unfortunately for her this does not turn out to be the case. In fact, Suze is soon faced with a problem. A ghost that instead of wishing to move on, decides to become her roommate. Suze's exciting, daring and sometimes humorous adventures will keep you glued to the print and leave you wanting more. |
| The Mediator Series Meg Cabot |
| Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse and Breaking Dawn Stephenie Meyer |
| Tantalize Cynthia Leitch Smith |
| Quince Morris isn't like most teenagers. Instead of hanging out with friends during her free time she spends all her time in her family's restaurant trying to live up to the legacy her mother and father left to her before they died. Instead of dating she has been crushing for years on her best friend, Kieren, who happens to be half werewolf. Quince kind of suspects Kieren likes her too but thanks to an incident that almost cost Quince her hand when they were in middle school, Kieren is determined to keep a romantic distance between them. However, the summer is almost over and Quince is determined she's going to get Kieren to admit his true feelings, one way or another, before the end of the summer. Well, you know what they say about best laid plans and just before school starts tragedy strikes Quince's life again. The restaurant's head chef is murdered and it looks like a were is the culprit. Refusing to jump to conclusions about Kerien's guilt becomes harder for Quince as more strange things start to happen. Suddenly Quince finds herself only able to turn to her new head chef and faux vampire, Brad. Will Brad be the one to not only unearth the murder suspect, but to also be the one to save Quince's restaurant and sanity? Tantalize was a very good book and I can happily say I enjoyed the story very much. This story provided an imaginative twist on the old vampire vs. werewolf legend. Although I found some of the beginning of the story confusing in parts once I was about halfway through everything smoothed out and I quite happily read the entire book in one evening. This is definitely an urban fantasy keeper and one that I wouldn't hesitate to recommend. |