Bite Me! by Melissa Francis

Very strange! I just discovered this book this morning at Books-A-Million while I did a little buy 2 get 1 free shopping! When I got home and checked my Twitter, I saw the author, Melissa Francis, is promoting the book! I was intrigued so I went over to her blog http://fictionistas.blogspot.com/ to check things out. Here is a little synopsis straight from her website:

AJ Ashe isn't your typical seventeen-year-old vampire—as if there is such a thing! She's stuck in the middle of a huge fight between her two BFFs. Her ex-boyfriend—whom she's still totally in love with, by the way—is now her stepbrother. A former classmate—who, um, she may or may not have turned into a vampire—is stalking her. And now, apparently, the fate of humankind lies in her little undead hands. What ever happened to the good old days, when all a vampire girl had to worry about was the occasional zit and hiding her taste for blood?

Even though I haven't read this book yet, why don't you all go buy a copy, read it, then let me know your recommendation? Leave them in the comments below!

Update on Suite Scarlett sequel, Scarlett Fever

I just got an email from Maureen Johnson yesterday (not a personal email; I'm not that cool. She just updates her blog followers via email occasionally). She said her book Scarlett Fever will be coming out in February of 2010! That is just a few short months away. Also, she is currently writing the sequel to 13 Little Blue Envelopes in London! She is a busy lady!

Suite Scarlett by Maureen Johnson

I don’t know why I feel I need to tell you all how I discovered a book or why I read it, but alas, I do. It’s a compulsion. So, I will tell you how I came to find this little gem of a book by Maureen Johnson. It all started when I stumbled upon MJ’s blog (see link under my blog list) via Justine Larbalestier’s and Scott Westerfeld’s (also see my blog list). She was so splendidly funny and entertaining; I thought I would check out her actual books. Her first book I read, 13 Little Blue Envelopes, (which I will review for you at a later time) really drew me in to her writing style and character voice. Since I enjoyed that book, and saw that she had many other books, I thought I would give more a try. At the time on her blog, she was promoting the release of Suite Scarlett in paperback. She was giving away advanced copies of the book to her blog followers. Well, I didn’t win one, but it motivated me to order the book and read it so I could book talk it to you guys!

Suite Scarlett is about a girl named Scarlett Martin who lives in her family’s hotel, The Hopewell, in New York City with her parents, her oldest brother Spencer (who is an actor and a hit with the ladies), her older sister Lola (who dates a rich guy, but works at Bendel’s), and her younger sister Marlene (who had cancer when she was younger, but has fully recovered). When the book begins, it is Scarlett’s fifteenth birthday. In the Martin household, on your fifteenth birthday, you are given the responsibility to take care of a suite in the hotel. Scarlett is given the best suite in the hotel called the Empire Suite. She is slightly relieved because the Empire Suite is the most expensive one and it is rarely inhabited. It will be easy to take care of this suite, or at least that is what Scarlett thinks.

The next day Scarlett gets a big surprise when a permanent summer guest arrives at the hotel and specifically requests the Empire Suite. This guest is Mrs. Amberson who is a crazy, kooky, older, ex-starlet. Scarlett’s summer completely changes. Mrs. Amberson expects Scarlett to be at her beck and call, insists on calling her O’Hara, and unabashedly flirts with her brother Spencer.

Meanwhile, Scarlett’s parents are having trouble keeping the hotel open because of money problems, Spencer is told he has to go to college or finally get a role in a real theatre production, Lola and her boyfriend have some trouble, and Marlene is a pain in the butt to everyone. Scarlett feels like she needs to be there for everyone in her family, but is having trouble with her new summer guest who keeps getting Scarlett into trouble one way or another.
One day when Scarlett is helping Spencer rehearse for a role, she meets Eric. Eric is a hot, young, southern gentleman who moved to NYC to pursue his acting career. Just when Scarlett thought her days couldn’t get more complicated, she develops a huge crush on Eric. Not to mention that Mrs. Amberson gets her hand in the action and causes major mayhem. How will Scarlett survive the summer with all this chaos?

One of the best parts about this book is the extremely likable Scarlett Martin. After reading, I want to be her friend and help her get out of all the messes she gets into! Plus Scarlett wants to be a writer someday, which is an interesting touch to her personality. Also, the setting is fun and fabulous. Using New York City as the back drop for this story makes the plot, which is filled with crazy hijinks, believable. The Hopewell Hotel is an extremely unique place to have a character live and the way Maureen Johnson describes it, I want to visit there myself.

Maureen Johnson’s writing is very smooth and easy to read. Her natural wit that I loved from her blog comes straight through in her novels. She adds quirky details to the story just for pure entertainment (i.e. Naked Lady). I have a feeling that some of these events from the book may have actually happened to Maureen herself!

Good news! Suite Scarlett’s sequel, Scarlett Fever, will be coming out soon. I’m not positive on the release date, but I know it is written and in proof form right now. I will keep you posted on the sale date. And, just so you know, I have another Maureen Johnson book in my book reading queue called Devilish, which includes soul selling and demons! I can’t wait!

Evernight by Claudia Gray

I bought this book one day about a year ago on a whim. Well, frankly because I liked the cover and when I skimmed the prologue, I saw there were vampires involved. A month or so ago I needed a new book to read, so I went to my bookshelf (which is now sadly deceased because I accidentally got Pledge on the floor, which made the bookshelf slide down the wall, which then made it crash onto the floor. No books were harmed in the accident) and pulled this book off the shelf. As soon as I started reading, I was hooked!

Evernight Academy is an eerie, old Gothic style private school for privileged rich kids (ooow, spooky). Bianca Olivier is dreading the first day of school because she is convinced she will not fit in with the too perfect, well-bred students. Plus the place just really freaks her out. She sleeps in a room with gargoyles right outside the window and there is something sinister and spooky about the whole campus.

Unfortunately, Bianca has no choice but to attend the school because her parents are both teachers there, but she is determined not to like it, until she meets Lucas.

Lucas Ross is a bad boy outsider whose ancestors were once banned from Evernight Academy for breaking a rule about dueling. He and Bianca hit it off right from the beginning because they both feel that they don’t truly belong at this school. Neither one of them want to be like the other snobby students who flaunt their money, experiences, and status. Plus Lucas thinks there is something evil at the school and he is determined to find out what it is.

A great aspect of this book is the character Balthazar who is one of the students at Evernight Academy. Even though we suspect he might be evil, he is very sexy and alluring. At one point I was kind of hoping Bianca would start dating him!

However, Bianca and Lucas have an undeniable attraction to each other, which reminds me of the epic romance between Buffy and Angel (If you do not get this allusion, please watch seasons two and three of Buffy the Vampire Slayer; that is your homework for this post). Like Buffy and Angel, there are strong tensions between the two of them that will make the reader want them to be together, but there is also a strong forbidden love theme going on here, which makes it almost impossible for them to be together.

Claudia Gray, which is actually the author’s pen name, does a great job creating suspense in this novel. From the opening scene where Bianca is running away from the school and someone starts to chase her, to the part where Bianca has to save her friend Raquel from a terrifying predator, the action will have you biting your nails until the end. Also, Gray introduces some major plot twists that I didn’t see coming. The first one really threw me off guard and had me skimming back through the beginning of the book to see if there were clues I missed that should have led me to this discovery. The second plot twist is just as mind blowing and leads straight into the climax of the story. Without giving anything away, I will say that these plot twist have Bianca questioning everything she has ever thought was true and real in her life. I hope you all are as surprised as I was with these plot twists!

If you read this book and like it, you will be happy to know that it is the first of a four book series. The second book, Stargazer, is already out and in my hot little hands to start reading. I will let you all know what I think about it! Oh, and if you are wondering why I never mentioned anything about vampires in the plot of this book, I guess you will have to read the book to find out why!

For more on this book and others by Claudia Gray, check out her website http://www.claudiagray.com/index.htm