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Welcome to The Romantic Scholar, a book review blog. Thanks for stopping by and I hope that you enjoy your stay.

After an eight month long hiatus, I am back. And I could not be more excited about it.



***My comments are located at the top of my posts***

Saturday, May 30, 2009



My Overall Rating:
4.3/5


Age Rating:
This book is age appropriate for 15 and up. There are some disturbing references that may not be appropriate for a younger audience, such as: violence, stalking, and some mild sexual references.


Cover Art:
The cover is fairly well done. I do wish however, that it gave a little more insight to the story, but I guess that it just adds to the mystery of the whole novel. 


Summary:
SOME SECRETS SHOULDN'T BE KEPT

Until three months ago, everything about sixteen-year-old Camelia's life had been fairly ordinary: decent grades; an okay relationship with her parents; and a pretty cool part-time job at the art studio downtown. But when Ben, the mysterious new guy, starts junior year at her high school, Camelia's life becomes far from ordinary.

Rumored to be somehow responsible for his ex-girlfriend's accidental death, Ben is immediately ostracized by everyone on campus. Except for Cameila. She's reluctant to believe the rumors, even when her friends try to convince her otherwise. Instead, she's inexplicably drawn to Ben...and to his touch. But soon, Camelia is receiving eerie phone calls and strange packages with threatening notes. Ben insists she is in danger, and that he wants to help--but can he be trusted? She knows he's hiding something...but he's not the only one with a secret.


My Review:
I was so psyched when I got this book. I started reading it right away and I couldn't put it down. That is how good this book was. I was constantly on the edge of my seat, so anxious to find out what would happen next. Much like when I read Stolarz's Blue is for Nightmares series. This book is full of suspense and mystery, and for my fellow romantics there is a sweet little romance in there as well. I was disappointed however with Stolarz's character development. I don't feel like I really know the characters all that well. And the names weren't too memorable either which is important, especially in a series. I am hoping that as she progresses through the series, we will come to know Camelia and Ben more, as well as Wes and Kimmie (the two supporting characters). Even now as I am writing this, I am having to look back at the book to get the character names correct. 

The plot development of this story was very solid though and Stolarz stayed true to her writing style. Throughout the book, we follow Camelia on her search to discover the secrets about Ben, her new classmate, and the identity of her mysteriously creepy stalker. We experience two POV's getting the story from both Camelia and her stalker through journal entries. Even though these journal entries give some kind of insight as to who the stalker may be, you never know until the end. I was so sure as to who it was in the beginning of the novel and I was completely WRONG. Stolarz did an amazing job with keeping the stalkers identity a secret. 

Where as some of the situations in this story are easy to relate to (grades, friendships, and family relationships), others such as the stalking and paranormal experiences are not. It was rather fascinating witnessing the paranormal experiences that Camelia and Ben had. Each one leaving questions behind and the shared puzzlement with Camelia as well as the frustration of trying to get her friends to understand her position and beliefs. The whole stalking scenario left me absolutely horrified for the well being of Camelia and the other students' well being, seeing as it was so foggy to discover who the stalker may be. I didn't want to walk alone at night because of those feelings for about a week haha. 

This book was a terrific read and I would highly recommend it to anyone who has to the time to go out and get a copy. It gives a great rush of suspense and also gets the wheels in your brain turning to figure out who the mystery stalker is. If you love paranormal stories this one is great. And for my fellow romantics, the love story is really cute, even though I wish the romance was more developed in this book, I am expecting that it will go further in the next installment of the series, Deadly Little Lies, which comes out November 24th this year. This book is definitely re-readable, especially since there is a second installment to the series. So, if you get the chance, go out and get Deadly Little Secrets so you can add it to your list of books to read.


4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great review. I absolutely adored this one. I reread it several times before passing it on to a fellow blogger and hopefully, I'll be getting my own final copy soon.

Ali said...

Thank you! I can't wait until Deadly Little Lies comes out. I'm really anxious to see how the story unfolds. :)

Unknown said...

Glad you liked it. I thought it was a pretty entertaining read. I am very curious about what will happen next in the series that's for sure. :D

Eli said...

Me too. I'm wondering where this series is heading...

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