White Is For Magic by Laurie Faria Stolarz.

Rating: 2/5.

Summary:A year has passed since Stacey Brown saved her best friend from a horrible death. Now she's having nightmares again, haunted by ghosts of the brutally murdered . . . and by a crazed stalker. As she desperately casts healing spells, a new student named Jacob enters her world. Beautiful and mysterious, he reveals that he is also having dreams. To stop a killer, they must join together. But can Jacob be trusted? Or will this new love cause her darkest dreams to come true?

Review: I feel like I’m writing lots of negative reviews recently. Oh well. Let’s get on with this. White is for Magic is the second novel in the Blue is for Nightmares series.

I felt like the series would get better, but I feel that it’s stayed the same, or even gotten a little worse. I feel like the characters haven’t grown at all since the tough times they’ve been through last year. Stacey is annoying and fickle. Drea is once again getting herself in trouble and I wish that she could look out for herself. None of them have grown at all. The new addition and love interest Jacob is cool and I hope that his character is more awesome and has more to him then Stacey and magic in the next novel. I think that Stolarz could have made the characters more human this time around. Instead of making the only thing they care about the mystery of the story and the person they’re interested in romantically.

The mystery was odd and I felt like it didn’t really make much sense, but I knew who the “bad guy” was going to be. One positive is that Stolarz allowed you to doubt who the bad guy was, like she did in Blue is for Nightmares.

For some reason I have a compulsion to finish this series, something has me hooked and I don’t want to be, so there’s another positive about the novel.

Two out of five for this sequel. I feel like it could have been much better though, I have still have a little hope that the series will improve.

Allie.

A Walk to Remember by Nicholas Sparks

Rating: 2/5.

Summary: In 1958 Landon Carter is a shallow but well-meaning teenager who spends most of his time hanging out with his friends and trying hard to ignore the impending responsibilities of adulthood. Then Landon gets roped into acting the lead in the Christmas play opposite the most renowned goody two-shoes in town: Jamie Sullivan. Against his best intentions and the taunts of his buddies, Landon finds himself falling for Jamie and learning some central lessons in life.

Review: I feel bad writing this review. But I’m going to express what I really thought about this novel.

I expected to really like A Walk to Remember. This is the first novel I’ve read by Nicholas Sparks and I thought that it would be better. Read the summary and it’s my kind of story. Only a small amount of time to spend with someone you love, it’s amazing and tragic and I adore stories like that.

Problem number one: I didn’t feel it. I didn’t feel like Landon and Jamie were in love, no matter how hard I tried, I just couldn’t. It wasn’t passionate enough for me.

Problem number two: Heaps of stuff was explained and never shown.

Problem number three: There weren’t enough major events or exciting things, even though I powered through this novel in a mere few hours, I did so because I felt like something really amazing was going to happen. It didn’t.

The beginning is so powerful, so amazing, so well written, the only thing you can do is have your hopes up high. The rest of the novel really lets down such amazing writing. It hooks you, and then deteriorates.

The characters were very well written, Landon was really realistic as far teen males go, I got a little sick of the way he explained everything though. Jamie, is sweet and nice. And just so sweet I could hardly stand it. I’ve read Nicholas’s notes on the novel and I agree, they should be innocent as they’re portrayed. But, I was hoping for a little corruption. Sometimes I felt with Jamie the only personality trait she had was her love and devotion to God.

It’s a good story about faith, starting off amazingly and slowly getting worse and more rushed. It took a long time to come into the main plot which is Jamie’s leukaemia. The way the town came together to express their sympathy is corny, but kind of beautiful.

I hate to do this, I really do. But I’m giving this novel two out of five. Too much explaining, too rushed. Not passionate enough.

Allie.