The Bursting Bookshelf

Review:
After reading The Hollow, I knew I would need to read The Haunted because of how much build up The Hollow had for The Haunted. And it did live up to all the build up. I found the characters had grown into who they are more than they had before. I really enjoyed Abbey more than I did in The Hollow. She was much stronger, more independent and she handled tough decisions much better than she did before. I also enjoyed how the relationships played out between her and all the other characters around her. In the end she made a very tough decision about her future. Another thing that I thought had been improved on since the last book was the pacing of the story, I really liked how evenly spread the exciting scenes were throughout the book. The one downside with The Haunted that it had the feel of too much building up for the next book. Altogether, I enjoyed The Haunted quite a bit and I would definitely give it a 4/5 for being a fairly exciting read and for making me want to pick up the next book.

Hey this week I chose Jessica Verday for New In The World Of... The reason I chose her is because I just found out the name of the third and final book in her Sleepy Hollow series. The new book will be called The Hidden according to Goodreads. That's it for now.

The Bursting Bookshelf

Title: The Hollow
Author: Jessica Verday
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Release: September 1, 2009
Rating: 3/5
Series: The Hollow Trilogy
Pages: 509
Synopsis:
When Abbey's best friend, Kristen, vanishes at the bridge near Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, everyone else is all too quick to accept that Kristen is dead…and rumors fly that her death was no accident. Abbey goes through the motions of mourning her best friend, but privately, she refuses to believe that Kristen is really gone. Then she meets Caspian, the gorgeous and mysterious boy who shows up out of nowhere at Kristen's funeral, and keeps reappearing in Abbey's life. Caspian clearly has secrets of his own, but he's the only person who makes Abbey feel normal again...but also special.
Just when Abbey starts to feel that she might survive all this, she learns a secret that makes her question everything she thought she knew about her best friend. How could Kristen have kept silent about so much? And could this secret have led to her death? As Abbey struggles to understand Kristen's betrayal, she uncovers a frightening truth that nearly unravels her—one that will challenge her emerging love for Caspian, as well as her own sanity.

Review:
When I picked up this book I had only picked it up because I liked the cover and because it was on sale for half price. Then afterward, I read the synopsis and fell in love with it. It just sounded so intriguing and different. It just seemed so YA fiction but with a hint of something else a lot of other YA books don't always have. Uniqueness. With the whole vampire fad going on, all other books kind of get dwarfed by the popular vampire books. But this one just seemed different overall. And boy was it ever.

This book was just OK. That's the part I found disappointing. It had great potential but it kind of flopped a bit. I mean the summary is supposed to be like a movie trailer. It's supposed to entice possible readers into buying/ reading it. The summary to this book was great! It's just it only makes what's actually in the book sound better if that makes sense. The book was all description and a bit of building towards something that barely gets touched on at the end of the story. I almost feel that this book was simply put into existence to set up for the next book or so the author wouldn't have to cram it all in one book. It was a bit of a let down for me after all the excitement I built up.

But the cover. OMG I love this cover. No, I don't love it, I adore it. No I am obsessed with it. It is only sort of connected to this book but I just love it. I'm not even sure why really. I love the font, and the simplicity of it. I love the spine and the pattern. I love the background with the maple leaves and the texture. I love the phrase on it ('A love like no other..'). I just love it. Way more than the hardcover one. This one just speaks to me so much. This cover deserves all the italics I gave it and more!

Overall the book was just OK with an amazingly epic cover. It was more a 'if you can get it from the library, do and if not don't bother hunting it down kind of book. I was a little disappointed.

PS: Though the one cool thing about this book was that you can go here and order perfumes uniquely designed for each character, get Abbey's snickerdoodle recipe and more.

PSS: One of my all time favorite authors did a review on The Hollow:

“Spectacular! The Hollow keeps you reading from beginning to end without coming up for air.” --L.J. Smith, bestselling author of The Vampire Diaries and Night World

Even though I disagree, she is still amazing!