Reviews written by C.J. Redwine

I devoured SEVENTEEN magazine when I was a teen, and one of my favorite segments was the "true story" column detailing the terrifying, exciting, or weird experience of some other teen girl. It was the perfect way to live vicariously while still remaining safe from the consequences of that experience....

ARISE continues the story of the ghost Amelia and her Seer boyfriend, the very much alive Joshua. This time, Amelia is on the run from demons who want to forcibly drag her into the underworld and use her for their own purposes, and she's worried the demons will hurt Joshua...

The premise of HEREAFTER is interesting: girl dies under mysterious circumstances and a boy comes along who nearly dies and then is able to see her and hear her. The first chapter was captivating as we meet Amelia, wander the streets in a fog with her, and relive her nightmarish...

The premise of DARK KISS is very interesting to me--a new form of evil that requires Heaven and Hell to work together to defeat it? Sounds intriguing. Unfortunately, this book didn't quite grab my attention the way the premise did. Part of what held me back was the fact that...

I'll be honest. When I picked up this book to read it for this review, I assumed I probably wouldn't like it. Most of this assumption came from the cover, which doesn't draw me in. The rest of this assumption was the fact that I felt I wouldn't necessarily connect...

ODDFELLOW'S ORPHANAGE is a charming, magical little book with the same kind of lyrical, otherworldly quality as the Series of Unfortunate Events, but without any of the darkness of that particular series. Each character, from the orphans to the orphanage staff members, are vivid, distinct, and interesting. Ms. Martin begins...

When I first heard that Julie Kagawa had a vampire book coming out, I thought ... um, hasn't that subject been done to death and then some? But then I read the description and saw the trailer, and despite my misgivings, I found myself intrigued enough to give the book...

Ice Island is the story of thirteen year old Tatum, who loves sled dogs, the Iditarod, and everything about mushing a team of dogs. She dreams of owning her own dog team and entering the Iditarod when she turns eighteen. Her dreams seem very far away as her father works...

In this last installment of Mr. d'Lacey's The Last Dragon Chronicles, we get adventure, philosophy, and a grand finale that brings together each of the worlds and heroes we've followed throughout this series. I don't want to give away spoilers, so I won't go into great detail on what I...

I went into this book with no expectations. I'd never read anything by Charles Benoit, and a contemporary book has to really be exceptional to keep me enthralled. Mr. Benoit hit this one out of the park. The characters are immensely relatable. I recognized...

Prince Khemri is one of ten million Princes raised from a toddler to be a ruler of the Empire. Or so he believes. His body has been augmented with tek to make him nearly immortal, and he's been conditioned to believe that everything and everyone exists to serve his every...

This picture book is absolutely lovely. The story of a book's journey from the shelf of brand new library books to (many years later) the almost forgotten piles of used books in the library's basement reads like a beautiful little fairy tale. And the determination of one little girl, who...

In HOW TO BABYSIT A GRANDPA, a kid gets a crash course in all the fun things to do when a grandpa comes to visit. There are instructions on how to be quiet during a game of hide and seek, what games to play outside and in, and how to...

ABRAHAM LINCOLN: VAMPIRE HUNTER reads like an historical documentary. It's a fabulously well-researched account of Lincoln's life and the events leading up to and occuring during the Civil War. The author has taken liberties within these events, journal entries, and photographs to weave in a fantastic tale of vampires feeding...

In STARTERS, a spore missile wiped out all non-vaccinated citizens and left only teenagers and the very old alive. The elderly, called Enders, run everything, and the teenagers/children, called Starters, are either claimed by an Ender family member or are condemned to a life on the streets where they run...