The Vampire Knife (The Witching Hours: Book 1) by Jack Henseleit

Siblings Anna and Max love scary stories, but when they find an enchanted knife on a dark and stormy night in Transylvania, truth becomes stranger than fiction. Suddenly, they find themselves dragged into a world of monsters and magic...a world where it soon becomes all too clear that vampires are not just a fairy tale. And when Max mysteriously vanishes, it's up to Anna to find him. But can the siblings find a way to survive their own scary story?

REVIEW:
This is a great spooky tale for middle grade readers; heck, I’m an adult and I enjoyed it! Anna’s ability to tell a scary story combines well with Max’s desire to be frightened (but not too frightened). When they go on an adventure with their father, the Professor, they find themselves in a real life scary story featuring wolves, fairies, a bear, and a vampire. Thankfully they also make a new friend Isabella whose grandmother makes a mean garlic soup. Scary, funny, and engaging – I definitely recommend this one! 

The Bookshop of Yesterdays by Amy Meyerson

Miranda Brooks grew up in the stacks of her eccentric Uncle Billy’s bookstore, solving the inventive scavenger hunts he created just for her. But on Miranda’s twelfth birthday, Billy has a mysterious falling-out with her mother and suddenly disappears from Miranda’s life. She doesn’t hear from him again until sixteen years later when she receives unexpected news: Billy has died and left her Prospero Books, which is teetering on bankruptcy—and one final scavenger hunt.

When Miranda returns home to Los Angeles and to Prospero Books—now as its owner—she finds clues that Billy has hidden for her inside novels on the store’s shelves, in locked drawers of his apartment upstairs, in the name of the store itself. Miranda becomes determined to save Prospero Books and to solve Billy’s last scavenger hunt. She soon finds herself drawn into a journey where she meets people from Billy’s past, people whose stories reveal a history that Miranda’s mother has kept hidden—and the terrible secret that tore her family apart.

REVIEW:
I love books about books or bookstores or book lovers, but even that was not enough to carry this novel. The central “mystery” that Miranda spends her time unravelling was clear to me as a reader just a few pages in, so it was hard for me to imagine an intelligent character couldn’t have seen the big reveal coming long before she did. I thought Miranda was surprisingly shallow; she casually dropped both her live-in boyfriend and her job in Philly without offering anyone a true explanation of why; I admit Jay seemed like a drip, but Miranda honestly never gave him a chance to really understand what was happening in LA. The literary references were the best parts of the book- those and Sheila who came across as the only fully realized character. A sadly disappointing read.

What You Don't Know About Charlie Outlaw by Leah Stewart

After a series of missteps in the face of his newfound fame, actor Charlie Outlaw flees to a remote island in search of anonymity and a chance to reevaluate his recent breakup with his girlfriend, actress Josie Lamar. But soon after his arrival on the peaceful island, his solitary hike into the jungle takes him into danger he never anticipated.

As Charlie struggles with gaining fame, Josie struggles with its loss. The star of a cult TV show in her early twenties, Josie has spent the twenty years since searching for a role to equal that one, and feeling less and less like her character, the heroic Bronwyn Kyle. As she gets ready for a reunion of the cast at a huge fan convention, she thinks all she needs to do is find a part and replace Charlie. But she can't forget him, and to get him back she'll need to be a hero in real life.

REVIEW:
This book was a surprisingly deep look at the tribulations of love and loss and stardom. Both Charlie and Josie are wonderful characters – you can’t help but cheer for them as the story progresses. The writing was vibrant and evocative, and the author skillfully portrayed the perils of both kidnapping and fame without judgement and without minimizing the impact of either. I was pulled into the story from the very first pages and stayed up late to finish because I just couldn’t bear to put it down. Highly recommended!

The Magic Misfits: The Second Story by Neil Patrick Harris

Growing up in an orphanage, Leila was bullied for being different. She turned her hardship into skill by becoming an escape artist--a valuable trait when you belong to a group of magical best friends. But when a famous psychic comes to town, Leila and her pals can't escape the big mystery heading their way. Whether chasing mad monkeys or banishing ghosts from haunted hotels, these six friends will do their best to keep their home of Mineral Wells safe--but can they protect themselves?

REVIEW:
This second in the Magic Misfits series is another enjoyable read but definitely not a standalone – you’ll want to read these in order. I love the group of kids involved in this story though this book didn’t focus as much on character development as the first. The glimpses into Leila’s backstory helped round her out, even if there was a little too much Little Orphan Annie about the elements of it. It is clear the series is building to a bigger denouement across all the books; I for one can’t wait to learn more about how Theo does what he does with a bow! The magic tricks and codes provide some additional fun for any budding sleuths or performers.

Wired by Julie Garwood

Allison Trent doesn’t look like a hacker. In fact, when she’s not in college working on her degree, she models on the side. But behind her gorgeous face is a brilliant mind for computers and her real love is writing—and hacking—code. Her dream is to write a new security program that could revolutionize the tech industry.

Hotshot FBI agent Liam Scott has a problem: a leak deep within his own department. He needs the skills of a top-notch hacker to work on a highly sensitive project: to secretly break into the FBI servers and find out who the traitor is. But he can’t use one of his own. He finds the perfect candidate in Allison. Only, there’s one problem—she wants nothing to do with his job and turns him down flat.

What Liam doesn’t know is that Allison is hiding secrets that she doesn’t want the FBI to uncover. But Liam will do nearly anything to persuade her to join his team, even break a few rules if that’s what it takes. A temptation that could put his job—and both of their futures—on the line...

REVIEW:
I love Julie Garwood’s older historical novels and so was excited to try a more modern offering but this book was a sad disappointment. Part of a sprawling series, it seemed dialed in to me. The main characters were never really developed, especially Liam, and they were just too unbelievable. Allison is 22/23 going on 16 in terms of emotional maturity, she is a beautiful in demand model, a computer genius, and her body is referred to as “perfect” more than once. Liam has “the body of a Greek god” and is a hotshot FBI agent whose actual job details are never really explained. The suspense element is never that suspenseful and I found myself completely uninterested in unravelling the mystery. All in all a disappointing read.

Promise Not to Tell by Jayne Ann Krentz

Seattle gallery owner Virginia Troy has spent years battling the demons that stem from her childhood time in a cult and the night a fire burned through the compound killing her mother. And now one of her artists has taken her own life, but not before sending Virginia a last picture...a painting that makes Virginia doubt everything about the so-called suicide—and her own past...

Like Virginia, PI Cabot Sutter was one of the children in the cult who survived that fire—and only he can help her now. As they struggle to unravel the clues in the picture, it becomes clear that someone thinks Virginia knows more than she does and that she must be stopped. Thrown into an inferno of desire and deception, Virginia and Cabot draw ever closer to the mystery of their shared memories—and the shocking fate of the one man who still wields the power to destroy everything they hold dear.

REVIEW:
This is the second in a series but it worked well as standalone read (though I did enjoy it enough to order the other two in the series after I finished.) I thought Virginia’s struggles with anxiety were well drawn, and found the relationship between Virginia and Cabot was well drawn. The mystery element helped build tension that mirrored the relationship tension, and kept me guessing about the identity of the villain. All in all, a great beach read!