A Little Hard to Swallow

 Wake was okay.  I have read others by McMann, but this one just didn't spark my interest like the others.  It kinda reminded me of Slide, in which a young girl has narcolepsy and "slides" into the minds of other people.  In Wake however, Janie slides into other peoples dreams!  I love the idea, but maybe I just blew through it too quickly.  I do want to read the others though, so that says a lot!  There were just some parts that were a little unbelievable, even for a paranormal kinda book. 

Great book set in Montana, no less! (tiny spoiler)

As the Reading Road Trip rolls into Montana, I loved Cryer's Cross.  The audio wasn't so great, I just couldn't get into the narrator's pace, but the story came through and here was a good, solid, ya horror story with real characters.
Kendall is a senior in a small Montana town and it is pretty good life, even though she deals with OCD.  She's got a good mom and dad, a best friend in Nico and all is pretty decent.  Then a girl from their very small school goes missing and is not found.  When I saw small I am talking 24 kids in high school.  That is small.  There's only 200 odd folks in town, too.
Two new kids have moved into town and Kendall is drawn to the dude.  Then another student disappears and well, it is really terrible and tied to something really dark in the town's past.  Great horror story.  I also liked that the Kendall didn't automatically get into her dream college.  The book was just very real, even though, you know, it had ghosties!

Dead (Possible Spoilers)

As soon as I started Dead to You I was reminded of Double, even before I got to the end of DTY. I never saw the ending coming, but this was one of the rare books that I skimmed somewhat, then went back and reread, incase I missed anything good. I didn't. I just should have gone with the skimming.

Even though it is set in the great state of Minnesota, this book just couldn't keep my interest. I am in the minority here, if you look at all of the other reviews of the book, though. Folks really liked DTY and I probably will read more by the author because she gets some serious praise. It could be that I just didn't like this particular story or the characters.

Ethan was abducted from his front yard when he was in second grade. Now he has returned home at age sixteen. It is a tough adjustment. His younger brother Blake doesn't believe that Ethan is really Ethan and Ethan admits that he doesn't remember much about his life before the abduction. Ethan is not a likable guy. No one in the story is likable, except for the mom. The whole book was just a downer and the swearing didn't seem natural at all. It was almost like the author was just throwing in swear words to make Ethan sound tough or distraught. It just sounded phony and forced. Maybe I'm just on a bad streak of books, but this one didn't do anything for me, though it might be good for guys, so I will tag it that way, but I do so with hesitation.