Notice for Review Requests

I receive review requests weekly. However, my personal schedule is hectic and I no longer review actively. (I also manage another blog called The Toronto Cafe and Food Blog). I do read every request sent but I apologize in advance that I do not reply to them all.

If I do take on a request, I will forewarn that it may take some time before I can review it. I am now looking to review adult fiction and self-help books instead of young adult fiction because I have grown out of it. If you are to request a review for either adult fiction or self-help, I will more likely to give it a shot.

In the meantime, Stop, Drop, and Read! serves as an archive book review blog. When I have the time, I may post a review. Thank you for understanding.

Thursday, August 27, 2009

Shadowed Summer by Saundra Mitchell

Title: Shadowed Summer
Author: Saundra Mitchell
Age Group: Teens
# of Pages: 192
My Rating: 3/5

Iris is bored this summer. Like she is every summer. Her best friend, Colette, and herself pretend there are magic and evil just to kill time and occupy themselves.

While lying on a grave, Iris catches someone saying, "Where y'at Iris?" Completely spooked, she discovers that the ghost who spoke to her was none other than Elijah Landry. He is a boy who disappeared many years ago and no one knows how and why. But he didn't just up and vanished, he died. And now he is haunting Iris.

Why Iris? Can she solve this mystery before it gets out of control?

Shadowed Summer was indeed a chilly read. But for the most part, wasn't so exciting for the majority of the time. It only got good when Elijah came around. Other than that, Iris would be trying to figure out why he was still lingering around, which was not exactly thrilling.

I was not particularly fond with the accent the author had going for the characters (ex. ya'll). Even though I should have gotten used to it as I progressed through the story, I still didn't when it ended. I guess it gave a bit of a flare to the characters.

I actually thought in the beginning that this novel would be heavy on the romance. You know, normal girl and ghost boy fall in love. But to my surprise, there was none of that. Except for Elijah creepily popping up here and there to scare the hell out of Iris. So I was glad that the cliche was avoided in this situation.

Shadowed Summer is a short but haunting story for those who want to get away from those fun, beach reads of the hot season.

Won ARC copy from Brooke Taylor Books.

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4 comments:

Thao said...

The concept sounds familiar but I do hope to find something interesting in this book. Thanks for the review, Diana ^^

Kelsey said...

Nice review. I really want to read this(:

wdebo said...

Hm, sounds pretty good. Great review!

It just gets to me how it says she's just "lying on a grave" as if it is a very normal thing for teenagers to do :)

Wdebo :)

Allison said...

I barely remember the southern twang the author gave the characters, or maybe I just read it too fast. Nice review, now that it reminds me why the name Elijah might be stuck in my head.