Madness Underneath by Maureen Johnson

Madness Underneath by Maureen Johnson is a great book and the second in the Shades of London series.  The first book in this series was The Name of the Star and introduced the audience to Rory Deveaux, the main character of the book.  The series is about how Rory moves from Louisiana to the UK where she attends high school at Wexford.  At the time that she moves there, there is a Ripper copycat attacking women in London, striking on the same days and in the same areas that the original Ripper murdered at.  Rory has a near death experience and develops the ability to see ghosts, which leads her to meet the Shades of London, a sort of ghost police.  They decide to hunt down the Ripper copycat, who they believe is a ghost.

SPOILER ALERT:  In the second book, Rory is recovering from her stabbing at her parent’s home in Bristol.  When her therapist suggests that she return to Wexford, she leaps at the chance.  When she gets there, she finds out that two days after the Ripper copycat died, another murder occurred, one that is unrelated.  Rory convinces the Shades of London to investigate it when she develops a theory that the murder was done by a ghost. END SPOILER ALERT.

This is a great series that I would recommend to anyone.  It has suspense and fantasy elements, though the fantasy part, seeing ghosts, is explained in a relatively scientific way.  Also, Rory has a great sense of humor, so the book will make you snort in laughter pretty often.

Book 1:  The Name of the Star

Book 2: Madness Underneath

While there are no upcoming books listed on Fantastic Fiction (www.fantasticfiction.co.uk), the end of the second book can pretty much assure you that there will be a third.

Sweet Evil by Wendy Higgins

Okay, so last Saturday I finished reading Sweet Evil, a teen book by Wendy Higgins.  I would really recommend this book, particularly for those who like the young adult paranormal romance.  This book starts with the birth of the main character, Anna Whitt, who is born in a covenant.  She is the child of a fallen angel (demon) and a guardian angel, who dies in child birth.  When her father is arrested moments after her birth, she is left in the care of a human, Patti, who does not tell her about her heritage until she is in her teens.  She meets Kaidan Rowe, the son of the demon Duke of Lust.  She travels with him across the country to meet her father in prison and to meet the woman who helped her mother give birth.  On the way there, Anna learns much about the Nephilim, children of fallen angels, and begins to fall in love with Kaidan.

I enjoyed this book immensely.  Yes, there is still the guy that basically runs away from the girl that loves him, like in Twilight.  However, in this book it is kind of not for the girl’s safety, but rather for the boy’s safety.  Kaidan fears his father’s finding out about him liking one girl, so he insults Anna and leaves her.  Still, the book is definitely a good one.  It is unique and gives you a different idea of the angels versus demons situation.

The next book, Sweet Peril, comes out this year.  I think in April.  The series will be a trilogy.

New Reason to Blog

Okay, so since the class that I created this blog for has passed, I am going to change the blog.  I would like to post book reviews on this blog.  I say that I would like to because I know of my own ability to keep up with something such as this.  We'll see how this goes! :)