Girl at the Grave by Teri Bailey Black

Title: Girl at the Grave

Author: Teri Bailey Black

My Rating: 4 stars

I've had this young adult book for a while and finally got around to reading it, and then still I wasn't sure I was going to be able to get into it. Once I started though, it went by so quickly and and I engaged and excited. It turned out to be a nice, kind of spooky, murder mystery, perfect for October!

It is the set in the 1800's. Valentine is a teen girl who is a bit of an outsider, but not for the typical reasons one might be. Her mother was hanged when she was a little girl for murdering a man, who was a prominent member of society. The man's son, Rowan, is now a classmate of Valentine's, and he tends to watch her closely, in contempt she thinks.

Soon after the book starts Valentine finds out her mother was innocent, but the person who tells her this turns up dead, and it may have been murder. Surprisingly Rowan wants to help her find out who the new murderer is ; meanwhile Valentine's dad and another townsperson also come up missing.

There is a also a love triangle between Valentine, her friend Sam, and Rowan.

I'm a little tired of love triangles, but this one was handled fairly well. The murder mystery was engaging for me, and my guesses about the killer were wrong, so it's not immediately obvious. There are twists and turns, likeable and unlikeable characters. Some characters demeanors changes, making you question whether they are the killer, but their shifts in personality aren't entirely uncalled for.

I was a little unsure about Valentine though. I do tend to have problems with the main female characters in most books and tv shows, and this was no different. My problem with Valentine was just that she was so convinced that the murderer was this one person, and I felt like she was blinded and couldn't see that she had no real evidence to blame that person. There were other people who could have been suspects.

It was still a very good book, and I recommend it for teens and adults!

Comments

Deconstructed by Liz Talley

Update 8/24/22: Liz Talley has written a sequel! If the Dress Fits comes out October 25, 2022! There are so many things I love about this book. First and foremost, Liz Talley's writing style is fun, easygoing, and feels like a chat with your best friend. Cricket and Ruby are both fierce women, and their friendship is strong, with them truly being there for each other when it mattered. I particularly loved Ruby -- her background, her personality, her style and fashion designs. I wish I could see those designs in person or a drawing of them! No spoilers here, but her love interests and how they turn out are perfect. Yellow carnations -- nice touch. As for Cricket, her journey to catch her husband cheating is a wild, and enjoyable, ride (for the reader, not her!). Along the way, who can blame her if she wants to get to know Griffin better. My only complaint with the book is the little jumps forward between chapters (a week, a month near the end). I wanted more time to know everyth

Shiver and Linger by Maggie Stiefvater - Slight Spoiler Alert

Review written on August 7, 2010 ** Mildly Spoilerish** Books 1 and 2 in the Mercy Falls series I read Shiver last year, shortly after it came out. I did really enjoy the book and even voted to be sure it would appear on the list for the committee I'm on. However, I always had one problem with the book -the "cure". No one else seemed as bothered by this as me, but I just can't get past that. I did like that there was some science involved with why they turned into the wolves when it was cold. Despite the so-called cure, the book was good, so of course I wanted to read the second book, Linger . Only ten chapters in, I was highly annoyed by the book already. The moment that Grace said that Isabel was cold and Isabel said it was Grace that was hot, I just knew that she was going to be sick and how she would be "cured". At first I thought that Sam had gotten her sick somehow, but at least that wasn't the case. At least what Cole decipher

Initial thoughts on Mockingjay

Don't worry, I'm going to try and stay away from spoilers, at least for now! In my opinion, the hardest part of writing any book or story is writing the ending. I imagine that it's probably incredibly more difficult when you are writing the ending of a book that has been a popular series. The author always knows that some fans will love it and some fans will hate it. Of course you can't please everyone. That said, how do I feel about Mockingjay? As I book, I loved it, and I wasn't disappointed at all. The action was just as fast-paced and captivating as the two previous books of the series. Suzanne Collins has mastered the art of keeping the reader from getting bored. Around half way through the book, I got a little teary, but I won't say why just yet. Nor will I reveal what part of the ending of the series made me cry. Maybe later I'll come back, when more people have finished the book, or when I figure out if there's a way to do something

Across the Library

Search This Blog