Mortal Danger by Ann Aguirre

Revenge is a dish best served cold.

Edie Kramer has a score to settle with the beautiful people at Blackbriar Academy. Their cruelty drove her to the brink of despair, and four months ago, she couldn’t imagine being strong enough to face her senior year. But thanks to a Faustian compact with the enigmatic Kian, she has the power to make the bullies pay. She’s not supposed to think about Kian once the deal is done, but devastating pain burns behind his unearthly beauty, making him impossible to forget. 

In one short summer, her entire life changes, and she sweeps through Blackbriar, prepped to take the beautiful people down from the inside. A whisper here, a look there, and suddenly . . . bad things are happening. It’s a head rush, seeing her tormentors get what they deserve, but things that seem too good to be true usually are, and soon, the pranks and payback turn from delicious to deadly. Edie is alone in a world teeming with secrets and fiends lurking in the shadows. In this murky morass of devil’s bargains, she isn’t sure who—or what—she can trust. Not even her own mind . . .

Ruth's Journey by Donald McCaig

Authorized by the Margaret Mitchell Estate, here is the first-ever prequel to one of the most beloved and bestselling novels of all time,Gone with the Wind. The critically acclaimed author of Rhett Butler’s People magnificently recounts the life of Mammy, one of literature’s greatest supporting characters, from her days as a slave girl to the outbreak of the Civil War.

“Her story began with a miracle.” On the Caribbean island of Saint Domingue, an island consumed by the flames of revolution, a senseless attack leaves only one survivor—an infant girl. She falls into the hands of two French émigrés, Henri and Solange Fournier, who take the beautiful child they call Ruth to the bustling American city of Savannah.

What follows is the sweeping tale of Ruth’s life as shaped by her strong-willed mistress and other larger-than-life personalities she encounters in the South: Jehu Glen, a free black man with whom Ruth falls madly in love; the shabbily genteel family that first hires Ruth as Mammy; Solange’s daughter Ellen and the rough Irishman, Gerald O’Hara, whom Ellen chooses to marry; the Butler family of Charleston and their shocking connection to Mammy Ruth; and finally Scarlett O’Hara—the irrepressible Southern belle Mammy raises from birth. As we witness the difficult coming of age felt by three generations of women, gifted storyteller Donald McCaig reveals a portrait of Mammy that is both nuanced and poignant, at once a proud woman and a captive, and a strict disciplinarian who has never experienced freedom herself. But despite the cruelties of a world that has decreed her a slave, Mammy endures, a rock in the river of time. She loves with a ferocity that would astonish those around her if they knew it. And she holds tight even to those who have been lost in the ravages of her days.

Set against the backdrop of the South from the 1820s until the dawn of the Civil War, here is a remarkable story of fortitude, heartbreak, and indomitable will—and a tale that will forever illuminate your reading of Margaret Mitchell’s unforgettable classic, Gone with the Wind.

A Sudden Light by Garth Stein

When a boy tries to save his parents’ marriage, he uncovers a legacy of family secrets in a coming-of-age ghost story by the author of the internationally bestselling phenomenon, The Art of Racing in the Rain.

In the summer of 1990, fourteen-year-old Trevor Riddell gets his first glimpse of Riddell House. Built from the spoils of a massive timber fortune, the legendary family mansion is constructed of giant, whole trees, and is set on a huge estate overlooking Puget Sound. Trevor’s bankrupt parents have begun a trial separation, and his father, Jones Riddell, has brought Trevor to Riddell House with a goal: to join forces with his sister, Serena, dispatch Grandpa Samuel—who is flickering in and out of dementia—to a graduated living facility, sell off the house and property for development into “tract housing for millionaires,” divide up the profits, and live happily ever after.

But Trevor soon discovers there’s someone else living in Riddell House: a ghost with an agenda of his own. For while the land holds tremendous value, it is also burdened by the final wishes of the family patriarch, Elijah, who mandated it be allowed to return to untamed forestland as a penance for the millions of trees harvested over the decades by the Riddell Timber company. The ghost will not rest until Elijah’s wish is fulfilled, and Trevor’s willingness to face the past holds the key to his family’s future.

A Sudden Light is a rich, atmospheric work that is at once a multigenerational family saga, a historical novel, a ghost story, and the story of a contemporary family’s struggle to connect with each other. A tribute to the natural beauty of the Pacific Northwest, it reflects Garth Stein’s outsized capacity for empathy and keen understanding of human motivation, and his rare ability to see the unseen: the universal threads that connect us all.

***Descriptions used from Netgalley

This reminds me of a mix of Massie (and the privileged Hamptons outlook) and a prolonged fight between Blair and Serena from Gossip Girl (from the t.v. show, as I have not yet read the books). As Massie played with passive-aggressive privileged white girls and social satire, so did this book in the varying forms of petty schemes dealt by these girls and the karma that comes back to haunt them along with the urge for revenge.

I liked that this book was very upfront and matched with what you're told about it. If you were a fan of the series I mentioned above, you may well be a fan of this book. It tells you what Gemma did from the very beginning so that you'll understand the context behind how she and Hallie interact rather than keeping that secret for prolonged tension. The fun comes from the various schemes and trying to predict what each girl would do next. How one would get out of a situation and the other would plan it. Some of these plans? Man. These girls are thorough. Caught in the middle of the passive aggressive sort-of-fight is Hallie's brother Josh and the adorable romance that forms between Gemma and him. I'm rooting for you, Josh. You're probably the most morally guided one of the lot and maybe the least fun except for your dorky jock-ness, but hey, you're adorable and I'm wondering what role you'll play in the next books...

This is a contemporary series and I can't help but admire the way Katie Finn has set up the series. There were a lot of hints in this novel of things to come and I'm interested in seeing how the consequences play out. I like how the titles match and give you a clue of what to expect from Gemma. I'm glad she fought back in her own way in this novel, at least trying somewhat to make things right after doing something horrible, and I'm curious to see what she'll be like when she's no longer eleven-year-old Gemma but a much older version, more elaborate in her revenge. You definitely get to see the good, the bad, and the ugly in these characters. Definitely different from most YA contemporary out now and a fun beach read.

Ten Likes/Dislikes:

1. (+) Cress, the protagonist - In one sense, Cress is the most "typical" of the YA heroines who Meyer has featured: she's quiet, idealistic, waiting for that fairy tale romance (as the characters in fairy tales seem to be), but Cress defies that stereotype by showing her competency in her hacking and computer skills, her intelligence, and her strength, consistently being the one who everyone else has to rely on despite her earlier imprisonment on the satellite. When her entire world is turned around, she's still standing, pushing through to find a solution, and learning how to deal with old and new problems. Plus her coping mechanism -- her very active imagination -- is amusing to read and I imagine, easy for any reader to identify with.

International giveaway of my ARC of Cress (Lunar Chronicles #3) by Marissa Meyer.