Desires of the Dead by Kimberly Derting

Violet Ambrose has a special gift; she senses the echoes of people who have died brutally and tragically. Not only can she sense the echoes of the dead, she can also see the imprint on their killers. The only downside to this gift is that Voilet never reaches the victims in time to save them. 

When the echo of a young boy leads her to his body, she gains the attention of certain law enforcement who want to use her "talents" to crack a cold case. Not sure if she's ready to expose her secret, she retreats into the security of her perfect family, boyfriend, and friends only to be unsettled by eerie phone calls, threatening notes, and little "presents" left for her at her home. The more Violet tries to deny her gifts, the more the dead refuse to let her. 

This is the second book in the series, and other than a few references to the near-death experience at Homecoming and serial killers, it's completely stand-alone. I had no problem getting to know the characters or following the plot - maybe because it was so simplistic. This leads to the downside to this book. It was boring and predictable. The book jacket boasts of suspense, but the author's writing style left little doubt as to who the stalker and killer were long before the end of the novel. Not only that, but too much attention was spent on Violet's perfect relationship with her perfect boyfriend Jay. Even when they were fighting, he was perfect. Instead of adding to the story, it became annoying, and I found myself gravitating towards Chelsea, the spunky, off-color, totally inappropriate best friend.

The Chosen One by Carol Lynch Williams

Kyra has been chosen. She's been chosen to marry her sixty-year-old uncle who is an apostle: the Prophet has spoken. In the world of The Chosen Ones, girls must "obey," get married when they are 13, and NEVER question the Prophet. If they do, bad things happen. 

Williams uses the voice of a thirteen-year-old girl, Kyra Lee, to provide a window into the lives of The Chosen Ones, polygamy, and how one man, The Prophet, uses "God's will" to control, manipulate, and kill

The She by Carol Plum-Ucci

Evan Barrett and his older brother, Emmett, grew up listening to tales of sea monsters and superstitions from their sea captain father. Therefore, when his parents went out for a simple voyage, and their cries of Mayday mix with the terrifying shriek of an unnatural being, Evan is convinced that the The She has claimed another set of victims.

Blocking out the events of that horrible night, Evan's memories flood back as he interacts with Grey Sheiley, a classmate who watched The She claim another victim. As they try to discover the fine line between fact and fiction, they develop a growing respect as well as the understanding of each other's personal demons. And, Evan finds out that with Grey, still waters run deep.

I had to work to read this novel. The cover was so cool that I figured it had to get better, but the reality is that it never did - "don't judge a book by its cover." The author took nearly 300 pages to get to any kind of action, and the love story was too contrived and predictable. In fact, the entire story was cliche and boring. Very disappointing.

Crescendo by Becca Fitzpatrick

This book was a pretty big let-down for me. I really enjoyed HUSH, HUSH with its suspense and spunky heroine, Nora Grey. I thought that I had finally found a series that broke away from authors trying to mimick TWIGHLIGHT'S version of "romance" by having a strong plot, in-depth characters, and a heroine who can hold her own - with or without a boyfriend. Unfortunately, I was wrong.

The book was "supposed" to be about Nephilim's (half human, half angels) gathering recruits to fight fallen angels. Of course, Nora is a Nephilim, and the danger is always lurking that a fallen angel wants to kill her to become human, but Patch is her guardian angel, which means that probably won't happen. That was SUPPOSED to be the plot. Instead, the author spent 327 pages chronicling Nora's angst about breaking up with Patch, and his going out with Marcie, her slutty arch-enemy. Fitzpatrick tried to create a double-love triangle by having Nora run into her childhood friend, Scott, and develop a romance, but the whole thing was weak and contrived. In fact, the whole novel was one big, awful romance novel depicting three weak and pathetic girls who strove for male attention. Some might argue that all of this angst is based in reality, and I admit that I knew one or two girls in high school like this, but I wouldn't call them the norm, and I wouldn't want them to be the norm. Nora even contemplates suicide at one point, which I thought was totally irresponsible of the author. We want females to be empowered, not constantly fed the idea that they can't function without a boyfriend. And, definitely not that their lives aren't worth living without one!

The novel finally focused on the REAL plot around page 357 but not before Fitzpatrick exhausted the whole "Can we trust Patch" thing. Honestly, that was beaten to death in Book One, it was simply annoying in Book Two and detracted from the plot. Also, the reader heard a lot about Rixon throughout the novel, but never even met him until she was 300 pages in. Then, all of a sudden, the whole plot revolved around him. The whole novel was like this. All of the characters were shallow and underdeveloped, and their functions throughout were disjointed.

I won't read Book Three. In fact, regardless of the overall ratings on Goodreads, most people (I'm referring to my friends) despised this novel, and were too nice to give it the rating it deserves. Every author deserves a "dud," and I hope that this is simply the case with this one. Like I said, I really loved HUSH, HUSH, so I know Fitzpatrick is talented. I just don't know why she sold out on this one.