My Shelf Confessions | because every good story is an author's confession

Review: The Girl in the Park by Mariah Fredericks

Posted by April on May 18, 2012 in 3 stars, book review | 0 comments

The Girl in the Park by Mariah Fredericks

When Wendy Geller’s body is found in Central Park after the night of a rager, newspaper headlines scream,”Death in the Park: Party Girl Found Strangled.” But shy Rain, once Wendy’s best friend, knows there was more to Wendy than just “party girl.” As she struggles to separate the friend she knew from the tangle of gossip and headlines, Rain becomes determined to discover the truth about the murder. Written in a voice at once immediate, riveting, and utterly convincing, Mariah Frederick’s mystery brilliantly exposes the cracks in this exclusive New York City world and the teenagers that move within it.

The Girl in the Park starts off on the right foot. I’m all about the murder mysteries and throw in a prep school setting and my mouth starts to water.

Through the eyes of our narrator and main character Rain, we learn about her friend Wendy. Wendy is the girl found in Central Park after a party, murdered. At the time of the murder Rain and Wendy are no longer the best of friends and slowly all the reasons why are revealed.

Rain is a very interesting character who I felt immediately drawn to. She’s a listener, someone people confide in. She’s been the outcast and she knows how it feels to feel less than adequate. I have a huge amount of respect for Rain. Even though they are not the friends they once were, when Wendy is found Rain is determined to figure out the truth.

Wendy reminded me quite a bit like New Girl’s, Becca. Except unlike Becca she had to work her way into the “in crowd.” Wendy craves attention; she’ll do almost anything to get it. She makes a habit of going after other girl’s boyfriends – and usually gets them. She’s made a lot of enemies and yet she’s not completely unlikeable. She doesn’t always bring out the worst in people, sometimes she brings out the best. She’s vulnerable – and in the end completely human, a person with flaws and cracks and yet also moments of sharing sunshine. A girl who didn’t deserve to be left to be found dead in a public park.

Overall, I thought the premise of The Girl in the Park was good. The execution of the premise was fairly average. There were definitely a few moments of suspense but I had the murderer pegged about halfway through. Maybe I’m just jaded and thus can smell the rat WAY too easily? I can’t say for sure.

The thing I loved the most was the end. I did have tears in my eyes. I think the ending was as beautiful as it could’ve been.

My final verdict: The Girl in the Park is a solid read, worth reading if you’re into young adult murder mysteries with a school setting.

Find The Girl in the Park: AMAZON | BD | GOODREADS

Follow Mariah Fredericks: BLOG

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Giveaway: Wrecked by Anna Davis

Posted by April on May 16, 2012 in giveaway | 9 comments

Giveaway for Wrecked by Anna Davis

I’m happy to announce that My Shelf Confessions has TWO copies of Wrecked by Anna Davis to giveaway courtesy of Simon & Schuster!

In the wake of a tragic boating accident that killed her friends, 16-year-old Miranda is consumed by guilt. She has no memory of how she managed to survive the crash, only the murky dreams of a strange boy in the dark water. Her only refuge is in the late-night swims she takes alone— until one night on the beach when she meets Christian, a boy who seems eerily familiar, but keeps many secrets.
The more she fights it the faster love pulls her under. Soon she finds herself in over her head when the dangerous true nature of Christian’s secrets rise to the surface.
Wrecked is a seductive contemporary reimagination of The Little Mermaid, with a paranormal twist, from debut author Anna Davies.

Scroll down further for an excerpt.

Giveaway Details

This giveaway is for TWO copies of Wrecked, which means there will be TWO winners. This giveaway is open for residents of US/CA only, sorry INTL’s, I promise there is a hop coming soon that is open for you! This giveaway will run from May 16 – 23. Winners will be notified via email and will have 48 hours to respond to my email before another winner will be selected – so if you enter PLEASE watch your inbox on May 23, 24th; I’ve had SO many giveaways lately where winners do not respond.

Fill out the rafflecopter – easy entry only!

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Wrecked by Anna Davies – Extended Excerpt

Review: The Weepers: The Other Life by Susanne Winnacker

Posted by Pabkins on May 14, 2012 in 4 stars, book review, Pabkin's Reviews, young adult | 12 comments

The Weepers: The Other Life (The Other Life #1)
by Susanne Winnacker

3 years, 1 month, 1 week and 6 days since I’d seen daylight. One-fifth of my life.

Sherry and her family have lived sealed in a bunker in the garden since things went wrong up above. Her grandfather has been in the freezer for the last three months, her parents are at each other’s throats and two minutes ago they ran out of food.

Sherry and her father leave the safety of the bunker and find a devastated and empty LA, smashed to pieces by bombs and haunted by ‘Weepers’ – rabid humans infected with a weaponized rabies virus.

While searching for food in a supermarket, Sherry’s father disappears and Sherry is saved by Joshua, a boy-hunter. He takes her to Safe-haven, a tumble-down vineyard in the hills outside LA, where a handful of other survivors are picking up the pieces of their ‘other lives’. As she falls in love for the first time, Sherry must save her father, stay alive and keep Joshua safe when his desire for vengeance threatens them all.

Zombies right? nope nope, not quite – but definitely close enough!! These nasties are Alive! – and more intelligent than the zombies we are used to in other books. They sleep in packs and horde their food, having enough control to save some for later, mm mm tasty.

Our main character, Sherry, was a pretty typical teenager before her family had to seek refuge in a bunker from a “rabies” virus that was killing many people and mutating a smaller percentage of others into animalistic predators. Flash forward – and they’ve been in their little private underground bunker for over 3 years. That is a long time to live underground with your only company being your family *personal shiver here*. To make matters worse they’ve just run out of food.

That is where the story actually starts and shortly thereafter it gets it’s real jump into action with Sherry and her father leaving the bunker in search of food. At that point the action keeps a very steady pace the entire length of the book. Now and then you will have short flashbacks to Sherry’s past. These are very short, mundane scenes of her everyday past life before the crisis. Personally, I felt we really could have done without these flashbacks. Not to mention I could have done without Sherry’s constant counting of days. Those would have been more tolerable if they were fewer and farther between.

The secondary character Joshua was definitely my favorite. He is tough, resilient, determined and filled with a piss cart full of vengeance for these Weepers. As he starts to open up to Sherry I like his story more and more, but I do believe Winnacker did well by making him the secondary character rather than the lead. His personality compliments hers and I hope continues to rub off on her. Sherry can be a bit annoying at times with her inner turmoil over not wanting to kill “any living thing.” This probably annoyed me more than it will other people, because I have a very aggressive and confrontational mindset. “One Shot, One Kill” I say!! Huah!!

My main picky point is that it felt more like an episode in aTV series with how short the book was and knowing that more was coming. It wasn’t that it ended on a cliffhanger, it’s just that I didn’t see a main plot point central to this particular book that was completed. Don’t get me wrong, in most series type books you know there is more coming – but in most for me I still see that main struggle or goal that is being reached for and usually achieved by the end. So you still walk away with that bit of contentment.

Overall, I felt The Weepers is a really good addition to the zombie fiction genre. It has a few things that I haven’t seen before in other zombie fiction. Because of this I really enjoyed it and found it refreshing and definitely plan to read any future books.

Tabitha the Pabkins

Look at this lovely alternate cover! I think it is for the UK edition

Find The Weepers by Susanne Winnacker: AMAZON | BD | GOODREADS

Follow Susanne Winnacker: TWITTER | WEBSITE

*Review Copy provided by Publisher for an honest review. All opinions expressed are my own.

Mailbox Madness (2)

Posted by April on May 13, 2012 in Mailbox Madness | 29 comments

Mailbox Madness

I’m excited to be joining Mailbox Monday, albeit a bit early, I’ll be posting every Sunday. This month is hosted by Martha’s Bookshelf, for full details on the host schedule and the meme go to the main blog.