I received a copy of this book for my stop on the blog tour at Donnie Darko Girl.

I've done my best to keep spoilers out of this review in case you haven't read the first two books, but there may be a tiny detail or two I've forgotten. :P

Buried in New Orleans starts off with Jolie, Brit, and Drew heading to New Orleans so he can cross over. They search for April, Drew's girlfriend from when he was alive, to get answers as to why he hasn't been able to. They run into Jolie's old ghost hunting group NOSH (New Orleans Spirit Hunters), and she's less than thrilled to see them because Drew has been hanging around her for so long. Jolie's kind of been putting off helping him move on, and it's a huge no-no to allow a spirit to hang around.

I love these characters and this series! It's an amazing story line which gets better with each book. Each character has his or her strengths and weakness, but they all bring something to the table which makes them such a great team.

I truly believe Jolie was born to help spirits. She gets part of her talent through her mother and grandmother, but she also puts her heart into everything she does. Her downfall? Drew, but I can't blame her!

Brit is so spunky it gets her into trouble sometimes, but I like her spunk. She's completely fearless and a great partner in crime. Her downfall? The color pink. And money. ;)

Drew has been there for Jolie - helping her get ghost hunting jobs, supporting her on the move to Massachusetts and starting a new school. He's been her only friend until Brit. He's comforted her, and it's totally understandable why she wouldn't want to let all that go.

So when the mystery of why he can't cross over is revealed, it's a complete shocker. Never saw it coming! It makes it even more difficult for Jolie to help him because helping him means letting him go. I really empathized with her - I wouldn't want to lose my best friend either.

Buried in New Orleans is a fantastic addition to the RIPSTERS series! I love the modernized Nancy Drew-like paranormal mystery aspect this series has. Reading Buried in New Orleans was like visiting with old friends. I love the dynamics in Jolie and Brit's friendship. I highly recommend this series if you love young adult books with paranormal mystery, and romance.

I received a review copy of this book for my stop on the blog tour at Donnie Darko Girl.

A thoroughly addictive and entertaining read, Accumulation had me enthralled from the first page. I. Love. This. Book. The writing, the plot, the cast of characters, the pacing...all of its elements came together perfectly and gave me a new book in the zombie genre to recommend to friends and family.

When Accumulation begins, news reports are coming in about an infection spreading causing people to become violent and attack each other. People have even begun posting videos to YouTube of the attacks. Once infected, the victim goes through a transformation similar to that of a werewolf with the distinct sound of bones snapping. Then the victim lunges for whomever is nearby and eats them like a zombie.

The governor, Steve Landis, is a madman and doesn't care about anyone surviving the apocalypse except himself. He was so calm and matter-of-fact about everything that it freaked me out much more than if he had been a raving lunatic. I think the bizarrely calm megalomaniacs are much scarier than the loud in-your-face ones. He has delusions of grandeur in thinking himself to be the commander-in-chief after having the bridge to the peninsula destroyed, cutting off access so no infected can cross into the area and to use up all the energy and resources for himself.

The Riley family (grandparents, parents, kids, and uncle - they're a large family!) hides out together in a cabin the grandparents, Pop and Nan, bought a long time ago in case of a situation such as this. Totally great to have a conspiracy theorist in the family in times such as these! The dynamics of this family were really interesting and added tension to the story.

One of the aspects of Accumulation I thought was so cool was how the large cast of characters start out separate and end up coming together in a realistic and believable way. Plus I really liked the unique twist on zombies - I wouldn't quite call the people who turn after infection zombies; it's a little more complicated than that with their strange transformation that always includes the body contorting in a way that should not be humanly possible. It's so creepy!

Overall, Accumulation is a story about the world going to hell in a completely realistic way and in which the government can't be trusted to help its own people, which also seemed way too realistic. I kept thinking while reading this novel that I hope nothing like this ever happens and how much worse it would be to go through it with young kids. I was freaked out and yet couldn't stop reading - definitely a novel you shouldn't miss!

I received a review copy of this book for my stop on the blog tour at Donnie Darko Girl. 

I wasn't sure what to expect from Pieces of Autumn after reading the synopsis. I remember feeling intrigued to find out who this girl was and what happened to her. Told from two different characters' POV, this novel was so much more than the synopsis leads you to believe. 

Hints are dropped here and there that the world has gone to hell and now only the extremely wealthy have luxuries such as running water and electricity. Society didn't collapse too terribly long ago; Autumn, the main character, can still remember vividly what life was like before the collapse. I've never come across this in a dark romance before, and it made for an interesting backdrop to the story. 

Spending several years living homeless, Autumn became desperate to stay one step ahead of the man searching for her. With her life in jeopardy from both the man searching for her and the dangers of living on the streets, she decided to trade safety for freedom. It's been said that you can't have both - to be safer, you have to give up some freedom. Autumn gave up all of her freedom for only a small bit of safety. 

Autumn is given to a man named Tate, also known as the Viper. Their relationship is dark and twisted but also has moments where they understand each other better than anyone they've come into contact with for a very long time. I didn't understand why Autumn was so attracted to Tate right away without knowing him, and even she questioned herself time and time again. She saw something in him that he didn't want her to see, and he did his best to hide it but it was too late. She already knew it was there. 

I haven't thought of people as all good or all bad since I was a little girl. I know we're all a mixture of both with some of us having a little more of one or the other. Admittedly, that's a terribly simplistic way of explaining my view on human nature, but we're bad or good in degrees. Even people whom we see as truly evil started out as innocent babies. Pieces of Autumn forced me to examine not only the dark side of humanity but my own as well, and it was uncomfortable at times. 

Pieces of Autumn couldn't have been a better title for this book. Autumn was in pieces at the beginning, and I'll leave it to you to find out if she's still in pieces by the end. This novel gave me much to think about while at the same time delivering a story that won't be forgotten anytime soon, if ever.

I received a review copy of this book for my stop on the blog tour at Donnie Darko Girl. 

The Light of the World takes place in 1995, which music wise was the height of the decade for me. In the fall of '95, I was a freshman in high school, so while the subject of this novel is intense, the cultural references of that time were a fond trip down memory lane for me. I feel so old saying that since it's been nearly twenty years. 

Kimmy is Chinese American, and I can't tell you how happy I was to read about a character from a different background than mine! There isn't enough diversity in books, so it was refreshing. Black wrote this story in a way that was believable and gave insight into the Chinese American culture in an organic way that added to the story rather than detracting from it. 

To say that Kimmy has been through a lot would be an understatement. At the age of sixteen on the same day Kurt Cobain was found dead, she was sexually assaulted. The Light of the World does not shy away from dealing with her trauma as it shouldn't - otherwise, it would be trivialized and this is most definitely not a trivial matter. 

Kimmy's fiance, Walter, treated her horribly and even made fun of the imaginary friend she used to cope with the sexual assault. He doesn't want her to go away to college, but I'm so glad she did anyway. She feels suffocated with him, and I can see why. I really didn't like him, and although she begins cheating on Walter with Franz, I had my suspicions Walter was also cheating on her. 

During Welcome Week at her college, she meets Franz, a handsome German man. He's a few years older than her, but they find they have music in common and are sexually compatible. Be prepared for explicit sex scenes! Just saying. Franz is gentle with Kimmy, and I fell in love with him, too. No matter how many times she tried to ignore him or push him away, he remained patient. She wanted to be with him, but she was afraid of how much she wanted him. 

The Light of the World is gritty, messy, and raw - Kimmy's life lays bare for all to see. I was swept up into her story and am definitely picking up the previous novel, Miss World, to read.