One Hundred Candles

Goodreads
Mara Purnhagen's site
Series: Past Midnight #2
Copy obtained: e-ARC from NetGalley
Publisher: Harlequin Teen
Release date: Feb 15th 2011
Rating: 4/5

It's taken a long time for me to feel like a normal teenager. But now that I'm settled in a new school, where people know me as more than Charlotte Silver of the infamous Silver family paranormal investigators, it feels like everything is falling into place. And what better way to be normal than to go on a date with a popular football star like Harris Abbott? After all, it's not as if Noah is anything more than a friend….

But my new life takes a disturbing turn when Harris brings me to a party and we play a game called One Hundred Candles. It seems like harmless, ghostly fun. Until spirits unleashed by the game start showing up at school. Now my friends and family are in very real danger, and the door that I've opened into another realm may yield deadly consequences.

One Hundred Candles is the second book in the Past Midnight series, picking up a couple months after the end of it. I really liked Past Midnight, despite a couple issues with the main character. I ended up enjoying One Hundred Candles much more!

Charlotte has grown up a bit I think, and she's gotten stronger, despite still not being particularly confident. She's not burying her head in the sand the way she was in Past Midnight and it made her much more likable for me. I loved seeing a little continuation on the side from various plots from book one, particularly relationship based and I like how the issues Avery and Jared face haven't been ignored, but also aren't over done. The snippets we see of what they're going through now fit in just nicely without excessive description. I actually found myself really enjoying how Charlotte's romantic life developed as well. I love Noah so much, I was a little disappointed at the idea of there being another love interest, but how everything plays out is actually very well done and it's a love triangle I don't hate for a change!

I really enjoyed the main plot in One Hundred Candles as well with the different disturbances and how they linked up with the game early in the book. I found myself getting in to it very quickly and I easily finished it within a few hours. It's not a particularly long book and it made for a good afternoons reading! I liked the twists and some of it I didn't see coming. I also really enjoyed the extension to the world building. I think there is still more to learn about Charlotte's world that she herself doesn't know right now. I really felt for Charlotte with certain events and particularly towards the end, there is a heartbreaking moment and I was tearing up a lot! Overall a really good read, well paced, some beautiful, moving moments and great characters. I'm really excited for book 3, Beyond The Grave (out Sept 2011), to see what happens next! I've never been the biggest fan of ghost stories, but I'm loving this series!

Mini Review: Past Midnight by Mara Purnhagen

Goodreads
Mara Purnhagen's site
Series: Past Midnight #1
Copy obtained: bought it
Rating: 3.5/5

"I don't believe in ghosts. Unfortunately, they believe in me...


Let me set the record straight. My name is Charlotte Silver and I'm not one of those paranormal-obsessed freaks you see on TV...no, those would be my parents, who have their own ghost-hunting reality show. And while I'm usually roped into the behind-the-scenes work, it turns out that I haven't gone unnoticed. Something happened on my parents' research trip in Charleston - and now I'm being stalked by some truly frightening other beings. Trying to fin into a new school and keeping my parents' creepy occupation a secret from my friends - and potential boyfriends - is hard enough without having angry spirits whispering in my ear. All I ever wanted was to be normal, but with the ghosts of my past and present colliding, now I just want to make it out of high school alive."

I really liked this book, more so than I first thought I would. The book kind of has two main plots, the one involving Charlotte and the ghosts haunting her, and the other involving Charlotte's new friend at school, Avery. Personally, I enjoyed the storyline with Avery more than the ghosts-attacking-Charlotte one. I don't really know why, but I certainly had more sympathy in that part of the story than when the focus was more specifically on Charlotte. I liked the writing and the ideas, it's a little spooky and it has some very funny moments as well. It also very nearly had me in tears a couple of times. There is, as you could expect with a book about ghosts, a fair bit of grief, but it also has a heavy focus on moving on, on dealing with that grief and living, which I really liked.

Charlotte is easy enough to relate to with her insecurities and desperate desire to fit in. But she also has a tendency to hide from her problems and hope they go away. She's quite passive and while that's her personality (and something she's working on, at least a little) I found it a bit frustrating at times. I prefer stronger characters who really go after things. But as it was her personality, and it's not a book heavy on angst despite the issues, I could get past it and keep going with her. And it's worth it because Past Midnight is a really good read! There are some really great moments and I'm looking forward to seeing what happens next in book 2, One Hundred Candles (out in Feb).

Shade by Jeri Smith Ready

"Best. Birthday. Ever. At least, it was supposed to be. With Logan's band playing a critical gig and Aura's plans for an intimate after-party, Aura knows it will be the most memorable night of her boyfriend's life. She never thought it would be his last.

Logan's sudden death leaves Aura devastated. He's gone.

Well, sort of.

Like everyone born after the Shift, Aura can see and hear ghosts. This mysterious ability has always been annoying, and Aura had wanted nothing more than to figure out why the Shift happened so she can undo it. But not with Logan’s violet-hued spirit still hanging around. Because dead Logan is almost as real as ever. Almost.

It doesn't help that Aura’s new friend Zachary is so understanding—and so very alive. His support means more to Aura than she cares to admit.

As Aura's relationships with the dead and the living grow ever complicated, so do her feelings for Logan and Zachary. Each holds a piece of Aura's heart…and clues to the secret of the Shift."

I heard about this book via Twitter, specifically via a few authors I follow mentioning it being good. So of course I checked it out. It sounded good but I did not expect to be blown away. This is the first in a new YA series, and it is awesome from beginning to end.

The blurb on the cover explains that one major plot thread in this book is a love triangle between Aura with her recently dead boyfriend Logan, and the very much alive Zachary. So before you even meet the characters, you know one of them is going to die early on in the book. And yet despite knowing that, despite knowing he was still going to be 'around' his death was intense and heart wrenching, and had me tearing up. Aura's pain was so obvious, so heartfelt that you can't help feeling it with her. The confusing feelings that come with grief, anger, loss, fear, are all there, carefully and fantastically written. The realness to Aura as she tried to deal with Logan's death, 'afterlife' and the other on going issues around her had me tearing up on more than one occasion.
The other major plot point is Aura's desire to not see ghosts, or to at least figure out why the Shift happened. Everyone born after than can see ghosts, and it's often far from fun, sometimes it's terrifying. It's something she's trying to figure out as a school project, close to her heart, and she intended to do so alone. But then Scottish native Zachary arrives and is told to work on it with her, causing further confusion to Aura's feelings and maybe the possibility of getting the answers she's always wanted.
Both major plots, along with a few other subplots, are woven carefully together. The book moves at a good pace and had me hooked right from the start. It was almost impossible to put down as I followed Aura's rollercoaster of emotions. Aura, Logan and Zachary are all good, well rounded characters who are pretty easy to get on with. Despite the intense, often painful nature of the book, there are a few good funny bits as well, not least of which (for me at least) all the girls going gaga over Zach's accent. I love when a book can make me laugh and cry, I adore it when it can make me do both within pages. That doesn't happen often, but it happened here.
There were some good twists and some interesting developments as the book went on. The ending was heart wrenching, yet beautiful, but left me hungry for more. I can not wait for the sequel, 'Shift', next year. I can't explain just how much I love this book. The characters, the feeling in it, the world Aura's in. It's a wonderfully written and compelling story. It's easily one of the top 3 books I've read so far this year. Two words for you: Read it!! 10/10