REVIEW: Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen

Title: Northanger Abbey
Author: Jane Austen
1st Published: 1817 (Written: 1798)
Genre: Classic Fiction, Parody of Gothic Novels,
Language: English (British, late 1700s/early 1800s)
Narrator: Third person omniscient
Tense: Immediate past
Setting (time): January–April 1798.
Finish Reading: April, 2012
First Sentence: No one who had ever seen Catherine Morland in her infancy would have supposed her born to be an heroine.

Goodreads Synopsis: The story’s unlikely heroine is Catherine Morland, a remarkably innocent seventeen-year-old woman from a country parsonage. While spending a few weeks in Bath with a family friend, Catherine meets and falls in love with Henry Tilney, who invites her to visit his family estate, Northanger Abbey. Once there, Catherine, a great reader of Gothic thrillers, lets the shadowy atmosphere of the old mansion fill her mind with terrible suspicions. What is the mystery surrounding the death of Henry’s mother? Is the family concealing a terrible secret within the elegant rooms of the Abbey? Can she trust Henry, or is he part of an evil conspiracy? Catherine finds dreadful portents in the most prosaic events, until Henry persuades her to see the peril in confusing life with art.

REVIEW: The Ghoul Next Door by Lisi Harrison

Title: Monster High: The Ghoul Next Door (Monster High #2)
Author: Lisi Harrison
1st Published: 2011
Genre: Chick-Lit, Fiction
Page Count: Hardcover, 241 pages
Finish Reading: August, 2012
First Sentence: TThe amber-infused air snapped with anxiety. (excerpt)

Synopsis: Fitting in is out.

• Cleopatra de Nile: Cleo was the queen bee of the RADs, the normies, and everyone in between at Merston High. But now it's "Frankie this" and "Melody that" . . . these new girls sure know how to get her lashes in a tangle. When Cleo lands a golden Teen Vogue photo op for her friends, everything seems to be back on track . . . until they bail to be in some film . . . Frankie and Melody's film! Can't a royal get some loyal?

• Frankie Stein: Frankie lost her head over Brett once and vows never to do it again. Not that she has a choice: Bekka is clinging to her guy like plastic wrap. But when Brett comes up with a plan that could help the RADs live free, sparks fly, and Bekka will stop at nothing to put out the flames . . . even if it means destroying the entire monster community.

• Melody Carver: The clock is tick-tick-ticking. Melody has a serious deadline to save her boyfriend, Jackson, from being exposed by the vengeance-seeking Bekka. But Cleo is making it royally difficult for the normie while threatening her acceptance into the RADs' exclusive group . . . a group that Melody suspects she has more in common with than she ever thought.

REVIEW: Monster High by Lisi Harrison

Title: Monster High (Monster High #1)
Author: Lisi Harrison
1st Published: 2005
Genre: Fiction
Page Count: Hardcover, 255 pages
Finish Reading: August, 2012
First Sentence: The fourteen-hour drive from Beverly Hills, California, to Salem, Oregon, had been total Gitmo. (excerpt)

Synopsis: From Lisi Harrison, the New York Times bestselling author of The Clique and Alphas, comes a new series with a fresh twist on high school, romance, and the horrors of trying to fit in.

They prefer to call themselves RAD (Regular Attribute Dodgers), but some call them monsters. So far, the "monster" community has kept a low profile in Salem, but this year two new girls enroll at Master High School, and the town will never be the same.

Created just fifteen days ago, Frankie Stein is psyched to trade her father's formaldehyde-smelling basement lab for parties and cheerleading. But with a student body totally freaked out by rumors of monsters who might be stalking the halls, Frankie finds that life in the "normi" world can be rough for a chic freak like her.

She thinks she finds a friend in fellow new student Melody Carver--but can a normi be trusted with her big secret?

July 2012 || Five Book Wrap Up.