The Kari AnnAlysis

Posts Tagged ‘private series’

Noelle Lange is missing. Kidnapped to be exact. And Reed is the only one who can save her. She receives a text painting the picture of how she will get Noelle back, alive:

WE HAVE NOELLE LANGE. IF YOU GO TO THE POLICE, SHE DIES. IF YOU GO TO HER FAMILY, SHE DIES. IF YOU GO TO THE HEADMASTER, SHE DIES. YOU WILL FOLLOW OUR EVERY INSTRUCTION TO THE LETTER, OR SHE WILL DIE. THE GAME IS ON, REED BRENNAN. THE PRIZE? NOELLE’S LIFE.

So now Reed has to follow the rules. Her first task is a trip to Europe, to get an excuse for Noelle being absent from school and from there, they only cause more havoc on her life.

Wow! I can’t believe this is the 12th book in this series! I knew I had read quite a few, but didn’t realize until I got on Amazon that it was 12. Reading flies when you have awesome books, ey?

This book was fun, different from the others though. The books until now were about sisterhood and group activities. Don’t get me wrong, this is all about saving your sister, but it’s Reed alone. That bond with the other girls isn’t there are much in this book as the others and now that Billings is gone, well …. Billings is gone.

I liked the plot of this book. I like the goals that Reed had to complete to save her friend. They were a stretch, but attainable for a high school girl.

I however don’t really like how the book ended. I don’t want to ruin it for everyone… so I’m not going to add a specific spoiler, but I am going to say the reason I loved this series was because it was real. It could really happen and it’s a peak into the live of the rich and famous, through the eyes of an ordinary teenager. I always had a hankering for a private school, with the rich and famous and this series has given me a chance to live vicariously through Reed. But in this book, it takes a turn for the….unreal and unimaginable.

I will give Kate Brian…Kieran Scott… the benefit of the doubt with this book. My mouth dropped at the end, like it has in every other book. She is the queen of cliffhangers. I have already gone and gotten Ominous, the last book in the series, but am kind of nervous to read it. I was a tad disappointed with the revelation in this book and I hope the series doesn’t end on a sour note for me.

I give Vanished 4 bookmarks. If you have read this series, and read this book, just let me say what came out at the end is what kept this from being a 5 star book for me. I’ll give the final one a try though.

ISBN: 978-1416984719
Released: August 31, 2010
Author Website
Kari bought this book

Reed comes back from St. Barths to find her whole life at Easton has been bulldozed. Everything she knew, everything she loved, the one thing that made her feel like she was something special, gone. But she is bound and determined not to let Billings die. And when she gets a book, dating back to 1915, explaining a secret society of former Billings’ girls, she has her answer. Now she has to find the right girls, find the right place to hold the meetings and do it all under extreme care because the new headmaster is out for the head of the Billings’ girls.

Now of course the drama follows Reed. Don’t think that a near-death experience on a tropical island would slow her down. Reed has as much drama as ever, well, that may be a lie. No one tried to kill her in this book, but she has plenty of boy and girl drama to go around.

This is my least favorite book out of the series. I had waited a while between the last book and reading this one. The last one was filled with crazy twists and turns and this one just didn’t live up to the hiatus hype as I had wished.

I have always liked Reed throughout this series. She was the low man on the totem pole who worked her way up the ranks. There were times where she turned her back on friends, but I was still able to understand. In this book, I couldn’t. I know she was going with the “rituals” and history, but I felt like she really turned to the B word side. There was no reason she couldn’t add 4 more people into the Billings Literary Society. As mentioned by one of the girls, no one was going to rise from the dead and confront Reed for adding and extra person.

Now while I pretty much hated Reed in this book, I did admire her for standing up to the former Billings women who came after her. She has gotten some serious confidence since entering the school, but as mentioned in the last paragraph, it may be too much for her own good.

The only thing that will keep me reading this series after this book is the very last couple of pages. If anything, Kate Brian leaves us with great cliff hangers. I give Scandal 2 bookmarks.

ISBN: 9781416984702
Published: March 9, 2010
Buy from Amazon
Kari bought this book from Borders

On my bookshelf is my own little twist to In My Mailbox hosted by The Story Siren.

Take a look at what I scored this week:

Bought:
I had a coupon and $5 in Borders Bucks this past week, so I bought myself a couple of books I needed in the series’ I am reading.
Finger Lickin’ Fifteen by Janet Evanovich
Scandal by Kate Brian

Publicist:
I got contacted by Jamie Freveletti’s publicist, Kaye Publicity, about her new book Running Dark. It sounded great and i have heard a lot of goof things about it from other readers, but I wanted to read the first in the series first. They were awesome enough to send me both copies.

Running from the Devil: “A chemist for a cosmetics company and an ultramarathon runner, Emma Caldridge in en route from Miami to Bogota when her plane goes down int he mountains near the Venezuelan border. Thrown unhurt from the wreckage, she watches in horror as guerrillas drag the other passengers into the jungle. Stranded and alone in a deadly environment, Emma has no choice but to follow — and stumbles across Cameron Sumner, an injured government agent who was left behind to die.

As a Washington, D.C. , task force races to the crash site in hopes of finding survivors, Emma and Cameron creep closer to a nightmare they may be powerless to prevent. But Emma is no ordinary woman — and she guards a secret both powerful and deadly that her adversaries would gleefully kill to possess.

And now she must run…”

I am getting ready to start Running from the Devil, as fast as my little fingers can get this post typed out!

Running Dark: “Emma Caldridge is on mile thirty-six of the fifty-five-mile Comrades ultramarathon in South Africa when a roadside care bomb explodes. Dazed and disoriented, she regains consciousness after the blast to find a man standing over her with a white plastic injector. She feels the prick of a needle and the rush of the medication under her skin, but before she can make a sound, the man is gone.

Shaken by the event and unsure of what substance was pumped into her, Emma calls the one person who can help her figure things out: Edward Banner of the security company in Darkview. But Banner has his hands full with another emergency: Somali pirates int he Golf of Alden have attacked a cruise ship, and Darkview has been hired to assist with the rescue.

However, according to intelligence sources, the ship is carrying cargo far more valuable than wealthy passengers — something that could be a new weapon of unknown origin. Suspecting the weapon may be chemical in nature, Banner asks Emma to infiltrate the ship and use her professional expertise to identify it.

Emma konws it’s a risky job, one that she might not survive, But when she learns that special agent Cameron Sumner — a man who has saved her life in the past — is among the hostages, nothing will stop her from getting on board, no matter what the cost.”

Librarything:
And finally, I won an ARC of Infinite Days from the Early Reviewers Program

“After centuries of terrorizing Europe, Lenah Beaudonte, with the help of the handsome Rhode, has been able to realize the dream of all vampires — to be human again. Now, as a raven-haired, sixteen-year0ld, Lenah believes her greatest challenge is fitting in at her new school. But the challenges have only begun. The vicious coven Lenah once ruled is threatening the new found pleasures of her human life, including the one guy who makes her feel most alive, Justin. Can this ex-vamp survive in an alien time and place or will her past come back to haunt her…forever?

How fun does that sound? And I can’t wait to see what brings them back to life! Wonder if the Cullen’s would do it

What did you guys get this week?

When we last left Reed Brennen, she was treading water in the middle of the ocean in a couture ball gown. When we meet Reed again, well, she’s still treading. She’s been pushed of a boat on Casino Night in St. Barths. While she thought this would be a great way to relax after finding out her roommate at Easton was trying to kill her, it’s been nothing but. She’s had three near-death experiences, but that’s nothing compared to what she’s got coming. Someone on the island is trying to kill her and not until she is seeing visions of her dead boyfriend do people realize how serious this is.

Kate Brian AKA Kieran Scott has done it again. Once I think that there can’t be much more drama than we’ve already witnessed, my heart sinks as death looms over the characters. I  must admit after reading this though, an exotic vacation is not going to be in my near future. I am going to be paranoid even to go to my dad’s closed-in pool!

Oh and I think I forgot to mention that the drama doesn’t end in St. Barths. There’s a little surprise waiting for the girls when they get back to Easton. And my hunch after reading Paradise Lost was correct. We haven’t seen the last of Sawyer, and I’m kind of happy about it.

I must admit, I am kind of bummed to get this far in the series. I am loving these girls, but I only have Last Christmas left on my shelf. Looks like I am going to have to get to the bookstore and pick up Scandal  and I’m ready to start the Privilege series. I did not like Ariana, but if these books are anything like the Private series, I will love them!

Anyway, back to the point of the post, I give Suspicion 5 bookmarks!

Teaser Tuesdayis brought to you by MizB at Should Be Reading. The rules say to open your current book to a random page and pick a random, 2 sentence passage. I cheat, but you can always count on great teasers

Today’s comes from Suspicion by Kate Brian.

Pg1: “I had been treading water in the dark of night for maybe ten minutes, but it might as well have been ten hours. The floaty chiffon gown that had seemed so light and airy when I had selected it for the Ryans’ Casino Night now clung to my skin and tangled around my legs, threatening to pull me down. Down into the deep, dark depths of the ocean where who-knew-what disgusting, slimy, razor-toothed things were waiting to nibbled on my toes and fingers and –”

Bahaha don’t you wish you knew what happened next? That’s the point What are you reading?