Review: Pretty Girl - 13

Book: Pretty Girl-13
By: Liz Coley
Published: March 19, 2013
Published By: Katherine Tegen Books

Description: Reminiscent of the Elizabeth Smart case, Pretty Girl-13 is a disturbing and powerful psychological mystery about a girl who must piece together the story of her kidnapping and captivity.

Angie Chapman was thirteen years old when she ventured into the woods alone on a Girl Scouts camping trip. Now she's returned home…only to find that it's three years later and she's sixteen-or at least that's what everyone tells her.

What happened to the past three years of her life?

Angie doesn't know.

But there are people who do — people who could tell Angie every detail of her forgotten time, if only they weren't locked inside her mind. With a tremendous amount of courage, Angie embarks on a journey to discover the fragments of her personality, otherwise known as her "alters." As she unearths more and more about her past, she discovers a terrifying secret and must decide: When you remember things you wish you could forget, do you destroy the parts of yourself that are responsible?

Liz Coley's alarming and fascinating psychological mystery is a disturbing - and ultimately empowering page-turner about accepting our whole selves, and the healing power of courage, hope, and love

My Thoughts: Holy freaking crap this book was good, but good in a really messed up way. I dont want to give up too many details so I'll just say a little

We follow Angie, a girl who has just turned up on her street after a camping trip, but only, she's 16, not 13 like she was when whe went camping, and she has no idea what happened in the last 3 years. Slowly we see the loss of time. The breaks in events as Angie tunes in an out of things and originally she has no idea what's going on. She's missing time with her family, losing sleep and feeling things she shouldn't. Soon she realizes due to some traumatic events, her mind has created multiple personalities to preserve her original self. That's it, that's all I'm saying about the plot...just know you should read it.

This book tore me apart, and then patched me up only to tear me apart again. There were so many feelings. so many things that happened that I almost felt like I needed a different personality just to deal with the book. It was great and amazing and filled with happy times, and bad times, and times in between. It was haunting, kind of like a ghost story but not quite. It was scary, not in a terrifying sort of way, but a how can she deal with all this sort of way and makes you think in depth of the power of the human brain.

I'll admit, this book didnt originally interest me. In fact, I only got it because it was on someone's list as the best book ever, and still, I let it sit in my library bag until it was almost due. But once I started the book, I couldnt get enough. This review doesnt even do it justice, but there's nothing else for me to say

Do yourself a favor and read this one, now. Its just that good! My review? 5 BIG stars!

Review: Into the Hollow by Karina Halle

Book: Into the Hollow (Experiment in Terror #6)
By: Karina Halle
Published: November 15, 2012
Published by: Self Published

Description: Perry Palomino has fought her demons – and won – but the battle is far from over. She’s now left broken and on her own, leaving behind her life and family in Portland to focus on giving Dex Foray – and the Experiment in Terror show – a second chance. But their past mistakes continue to tease and test their relationship, as does the wild and desolate terrain of the Canadian Rockies. The snow-covered peaks and ravenous forests hide an urban legend too unbelievably frightening to be true and the only way the duo has a chance of surviving is if Perry can let in the very man who sent her to hell and back.
Rated 16+ for language, gore and sexual content


My Thoughts: I didn’t want to waste a second after reading this story to write a review of it. I wanted to feel everything I felt and be able to somehow someway show you all how much I absolutely loved it.


We begin with Perry in her home after the fallout from the last book (I’ll try not to give any spoilers). She decides to move out of her parent’s house and in with a certain someone. She decides to think about Experiment in Terror some more and decides that taking on an investigation of a Sasquatch sighting may just be the safest route. After all, Sasquatch doesn’t exist anyway.

Things are strange between her and Dex, as expected and we see the fluctuations in feelings Perry feels. We see the changes they experienced in their lives after the last books events. There’s just so much emotion and I have no way to explain how great it is to see after the terror that was the last book.

I loved Dex so much in this book. I never felt I should love him more but somehow I did. He’s just awesome. I love Perry even more but she also pisses me off, probably because she reminds me of myself and I often piss myself off too. *wink* It’s also because she’s afraid to let Dex in (as always) and for good reason and I so want them together but I completely understand her reasoning. It doesn’t mean I have to like it.

This book had my heart racing in suspense. So many things have been happening and I just love it. The Experiment in Terror series just keeps getting better and better. Yes, it’s terrifying but it’s so much more than that. This series focuses on the intricacies that are our innermost feelings. It’s not about fear for the ghosts or demons or scary man-killing beasts. No, that’s not what it is at all. This series is about facing your fears, all of them, and overcoming them somehow. It’s about understanding that although you’re scared and tired and all hell is literally breaking loose, if you only have the courage to face those fears, you may just be surprised of what you end up with.

I would suggest this series to anyone who likes books that are open, that aren’t all gumdrops and rainbows and daisies. To those of us who understand that love sucks sometimes. It rips your heart open to leave it bleeding onto the street for you to pick up and attempt to assemble into a somewhat decent mess. That after something like that, you can’t and don’t ever want to love again, because how can one heart go on after something like that. How you can face the fear of being hurt time and time again? If you want a story that’s real, I’d suggest you give the Experiment in Terror Series a try. I give it 5 large stars, and I cant wait for the next book in the series, “Come Alive”

Review: The Devil's Metal by Karina Halle

Book: The Devil's Metal
By: Karina Halle
Published: September 21, 2012
Publisher: Metal Blonde Books

Description: It’s the summer of 1974 and 21-year old Dawn Emerson has only three things she wants to do: compete one last time in the Ellensburg Rodeo, win back her ex-boyfriend Ryan, and become the best damn music journalist at Central Washington University. But all her plans are left in the dust when she’s contacted by Creem magazine to go on the road with one of her favorite groups, the up-and-coming metal band, Hybrid.


At first the assignment reads like a dream come true. Not only will Dawn land some much-needed credibility as a female music journalist, but she’ll finally get to experience life from the other side of the stage, and maybe crack the drunken, enigmatic code that is guitarist Sage Knightly. Instead, Dawn finds herself on an aging tour bus filled with ego-maniacs, band politics and a whole lot of sex, drugs and rock n’ roll. When monsters start showing up in dressing rooms and some of Sage’s groupies become increasingly strange and dangerous, Dawn discovers the band is not only going places – they’re going straight to Hell.

And Dawn has a backstage pass.

My Thoughts: First let me start off by saying "OH SHIT, OH SHIT, OH SHIT" (sorry for those of you that don't like profanity but after reading this book, you'll be saying the same thing). Now that that's out of the way, I can get to my review.

The Devil's Metal follows Dawn Emerson alias, Rusty a tall red head on her journey to becoming an amazing journalist by documenting the tour of her favorite band, Hybrid. After receiving the call, Dawn jumped at the opportunity. I mean really, how often does something this monumental happen to a girl, and with their favorite metal band of all bands. She goes to join the tour leaving behind her alcoholic father and her little brother suffering from tourettes. At first, it's amazing. Granted the bands only woman, Noelle, doesn't seem to like her and treats her like a groupie, and the band's drummer, Graham, seems to be a little...er...strange, and the bands leading guitar player, Sage, doesn't want her there but so what. She's on tour darnit and she's making the best out of it.

It's not long though before things start to go downhill. First, there are these 3 groupie women, the GTFO's (Get the F**k Outs...too funny I must admit) that follow the band around and are at every stop. They're creepy, and we know from the beginning that something is not quite right with them. Then there's Graham. He's all dark and satanic and upside down crosses and all that, but is it for real or just a show? Then there's Sage and Jacob who seem as if everything is okay, but is it really? And why do they always seem to be at the middle of things. Eventually we find the answers to our questions, and some big surprises along the way, things we didn't even consider, things that make you fear for these poor characters lives and enforce the ever popular saying, "Be careful what you wish for." This book ends in such a way that I'm still somewhat shaken up and I'd die to get my hands on the second book. (Please, don't take that literally. I'd prefer not to die)Yes, this book was so good and creepy that I'm somewhat worried about the promises, deals, and general statements I may or may not have made in the past, and it's a good thing when a book is so good that it makes you question your own choices.

In terms of the characters, I loved Dawn. She just made sense, she wasn't an idiot and she knew when things got a little fishy. She could have been a real person for all I knew (and I suppose she was since the author took some real life occurrences and added them to the story....I'd like to know which ones were real...hmmm). In terms of Sage. OMG SAGE. He's a sexy mix of Mexican and Caucasian and I'd love to meet him and....oh! I forgot you were still here. Just know that Sage is definitely a man. The secondary characters, Noelle, Jacob, Graham, Robbie, and Mickey were designed in such a way that I loved every last one of them (except Graham) in different ways. I even liked the GTFO's (as far as bad guys go). This book was so well thought out and I loved it.

This book does take place in the 70's, and does follow rock stars so u can expect to hear quite a bit of vulgar language, encounter some very sexual scenes, and read about gratuitous drug use so be advised that you should probably be 18 to read this. For all you scaredy cat's out there, I must say that this book is no more scary than Karina's other series Experiment in Terror. Somewhat less so even. And, to further bring you over to the dark side (pun intended), know that this book isn't like a scary movie. Your mind can skitter over the scary parts and still get by without keeping you up at night. The pictures don't haunt your dreams because you can choose not to completely visualize them. It's a book you MUST read (this means you!) Give it a chance, or checkout Darkhouse (it's free on kindle right now. You have nothing to lose). Trust me, you'll love them, and all things Karina Halle.

Karina Halle is a very talented author. I absolutely love all her work and am now a die hard fan. I'd read anything she put out (and tell me that cover isnt gorgeous. I'm in love). As for this book, I give it 5 stars!