It had been a few months since I read the first book in this series, Hush, but I remembered enough about it to be surprised to find out this book features completely different characters. The set-up that happened in the first book by creating the whole new country Tamura felt very weird in retrospect as it's completely ignored in Whisper. Truth be told, they mention a holiday to Tamura and just how splendidly it all is, but that makes it hardly a part of the story.

Far more interesting of course is following the somewhere-in-Canada boarding school, where Blakely's younger sister Halle is now a student. Immediately we get immersed in this old ghost story that's supposed to be very well known around the students and gets a lot of attention each year (except it wasn't mentioned once in the complete first book). When cleaning out an attic for a school renovation, a mysterious diary is found that once belonged to the supposed school ghost. It comes with the ghost attached. How handy.

What follows is the kind of story you've read before (I think) starring, a very slow reading of the diary (seriously, if it's that important why not read it in one night? It's not that long!) and an overly easy search around the school grounds for lost treasure. (And I thought the first book was unrealistic).

This all said, it was an easy read and I didn't hate it. It was just very easy (with a plot similar to something I came up with myself when I was like 14 but discarded later on) and not really realistic. There's also this annoying romance thing that I found to be completely unnecessary. Shame.

Whisper is the second book in the Lakeview series, you can also read my review for the first book Hush.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for providing me with a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

Follow my travels as I visit the world via books (since I have neither the money nor the time to do it in real life). It's not meant as a challenge (for my) but I'm just curious to see how many places I visit whilst reading. So I keep track of them and update the maps every ten books. Prepare and get ready for the next ten stops...

After my exams I now had one week to relax before starting again, and I think it's safe to say I used it one reading. I read more than 10 books, which means it's time for another update on my 'travelling'.

Only one book this time that didn't really have a setting that was made clear: Chronicles of Steele: Raven.

This episode focusses mostly on North America it seems. After starting in Chicago (Illinois, US) for Under Different Stars, I moved on to Michigan (US) for 18 Things to which I returned for 18 Thoughts after a short break in the UK for a literary festival (Fest). I then went to Boston (Massachusetts, US; The Scarlet Letter - Manga Classics), followed by New York (US; Seventh Heaven) and Seattle (Washington, US; Zhukov's Dogs). A short trip to Canada (Whisper) eventually lead to Florida (US; Half Lies), the last stop on this part of the journey.

Part 21-30:

Countries Visited: 3 (Canada, UK, US)

New Countries Visited: 1 (Canada)

Continents Visited: 2 (Europe, North America)

New Continents Visited: 0

American States Visited: 6 (Florida, Illinois, Massachusetts, Michigan, New York, Washington)

New American States Visited: 5 (Florida, Illinois, Massachusetts, Michigan, New York)

New Places: 6

Most Visited Country: USA (7)

Most Visited Place: Michigan, US (2)

Not Set: 1

Total:

Countries Visited: 6 (Canada, France, Germany, Spain, UK, US)

Continents Visited: 2 (Europe, North America)

American States Visited: 10 (California, Florida, Illinois, Massachusetts, Michigan, New York, North Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Washington)

Most Visited Country: USA (14)

Most Visited Place: London, UK (3)

Not Set: 5

Also read my earlier travels:

Part 1 - Part 2

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review, thank you!

Hush is the first book in the Lakeview series.

Tamura is a small European country that's hopelessly old-fashioned because it's still completely ruled by a monarch. And after an attack on the complete royal family, the country seems to lack a monarch. Enter Blakely, the secret natural daughter of Tamura's crown princess. And this year she's 'not interested in anything with a penis' unless of course they are hot British exchange students that stare at her all the time. Truth be told, I don't know if Max has a secret tragic backstory were he got castrated  that hasn't been mentioned in the series yet, in which case Blakely would keep her promise...

It was a fast read. But I found it very hard to accept certain of the plot points. I knew it was going to be difficult to convincingly portray a non-existing world in the otherwise completely normal world. Tamura never came to life for me. It looks like it's somewhat similar to Liechenstein or Monaco, but more old-fashioned in it's ruling. And from the story I got the idea the country is supposed to be larger than those mentioned earlier. Also Tamura doesn't really sound like a name for an European country.

The story felt a little bit too easy at times. Max gets his assignment really easy and I doubt it would count as a serious school project. There are signs of insta-love which I couldn't really appreciate. But besides, it was a nice read. I kept reading it, I wanted to know what happens next. Which is good as I also got an ARC for the second book, Whisper. I'll try to read that book sometime soon.

Moonlight Reader started the TBR Thursday, and I think it's a good way to a) show what new books I've got and b) confront myself with my ever rising TBR pile. Only the books that after the next TBR Thursday remain on the TBR will be mentioned here (to make things look slightly less catastrophic!).

It has not been a good week for my TBR, unfortunately. It started well enough, Saturday I met with one of my online bookclubs for some bookshopping and dinner, and I only bought one book! There were more than enough nice books, that's for sure, but not always what I was looking for. (I was surprised to see that none of the seven (!) bookstores visited was selling Outlander even though the series is just new and I wanted to start by reading the first book. Which they apparently don't sell, for some reason. I can always just order it online, but prefer to buy in an actual bookstore.) After that, I spent a bit too much time on Netgalley, I'm afraid to say.

TBR pile currently stands at 162. (+4)

(Netgalley ARCs at 53 (+3))

*Sigh* I can only hope next week will be better. And I'm seriously considering to take the 30-day-NG-break I've seen some people do. I'm just not sure if I could make it.

A Discovery of Witches (the book I bought Saturday) I wanted to read because the reviews I saw lately on the latest book that's just been published.

Whisper I got because I already had the first book in the series Hush and I wanted to be able to continue the series.

I read a splendid review on Zaya (I can't remember who posted it, sorry) that really sparked my interest in the book.

Unbreakable was a book I already wanted to read for some time, so when Netgalley pulled the 'First 500 Readers' trick, I couldn't resist...

The Traveler's Wake and The Girl and the Clockwork Cat are both books that sounded interesting from publisher I usually like to read.

So, have you been strong last week? Or, if you got new books, which ones? Have you read any of these books (yet)?

Stacey R. Campbell takes a very unique approach with her Lakeview Academy novels. While the first novel, Hush, was a take on a fairy tale and a mystery, her second novel is a ghost story. Both Novels have the ties of family members and romance, but other than that, each novel shows a different side of Lakeview Academy and the students there.

Whisper starts out with Leigh, who was (and still is) one of Blakely's friends and was a secondary character in the first Novel about Blakely & Max. Here she gets to star, though the supporting roles go to Blakely's sister Halle and an old beau of Leigh's, Calum. But the true star of the story is Elsie, the daughter of the original Headmaster of the school. Even though she died in 1914, she is as present in this book as any of the other characters after Halle finds Elsie's journal and learns some shocking facts about the fire that took place shortly before her death.

This novel is wonderful because it has so many stories intertwined into one, and it all works well together. You have Leigh and Calum, who have been attracted to each other for five years, yet can't have a civil conversation because of hurtful words shared in the past. You have Halle, the sister of the Queen of Tamura, who is haunted by the ghost of Elsie after reading her journal. Mixed in with this, you have all of the students trying to make it through their normal school year.

I am very impressed by this series. It's difficult enough writing a good YA Romance series, set in the same location, but Stacey R. Campbell manages to create the atmosphere of the school while making the stories completely different from each other. You also might expect the second book to be primarily about Halle, since she is the sister of Royalty, but she is just a normal school girl... well, if you ignore the ghost and haunting. But Stacey instead uses Halle as a major character in the story... but not the main character, which leaves room open for Halle to have her own story in the future.

NOTE: I received a free copy of this book through netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

If Whisper is a book that interests you, you can find the kindle version available at http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00J0CWVRY/?tag=shasworofboo-20. While you don't have to, since the stories can be read separately, I also recommend that you read the first novel, Hush. You can read my review for Hush at http://shaykitteh.booklikes.com/post/944976/review-hush-lakeview-series-book-1-kindle-edition.

If you enjoyed my review, I would appreciate if you could mark it as being helpful on Amazon as well, as this is useful to both the reviewer and the author. I have included the link to the Amazon review in the Source section at the bottom of this review.