Surviving The Fog - By Stan Morris

Surviving The Fog is another book that I'd place Parental Guidance on for the younger Young Adults because there are references to sex, rape, murder and hanging as well as sporadic violence scattered throughout the book.

The story follows a group of children who are attending an abstinence awareness camp up in the mountain when they find that all connections to the outside world are cut off. The camp adults set out to find out why they've had no mail for the children and fail to return. When it becomes clear to the children at the camp that the adult's haven't returned, they band together and begin preparations for their long term survival in the camp.

As far as books go, I guess it wasn't that bad a read since it grabbed and kept my attention from cover to cover - but there were some things that I think could and should have been dealt with differently.

I liked some of the ideas that the children came up with... although, for a camp housing children of the age range that they had, I feel that more basic survival ideas should have kicked in and been implemented. Thirteen year old children should know that they can grow certain foods and vegetables from the ground without needing a neighbor from up the street to tell them that this could be possible.

The point where the army became involved could have been made better if there'd been more umming and harring before the decision was made to leave the kids down at the camp - in reality, the army wouldn't be wanting to enter into this decision as lightly as they seemed to do because they'd have had concerns about the welfare of the children in the camp.

I also feel that the ending was a little rushed and I'd have liked to have seen what would have happened as the fog gradually receded.

I found the characters to be likable enough though with enough variation to tell that they each had their own personality and skill set that they bought to the table in order to ensure that the camp survived.

The Child Thief - By Melissa Snark

This book is suitable for young adults aged 13 and over. The Child Thief is a short story, although it does make up part of a series of short stories. Someone or something is going around town and killing parents so that they can have the children. Is there any way that they can be stopped?

For Alpha werewolf Victoria Storm, the survival of her pack is her main priority but when she hears about a missing boy is it possible that she could save him and still lead her pack to safety or are they all doomed? One thing I always find with short stories is that they tend to be good books – although their length always seems to leave you feeling somewhat disappointed, and this was no exception. The plot flows nice and smoothly and I wasn’t able to find any typing errors within the story itself – although the reverences to “Victoria” and “Victory” does make the read a little more confusing at times.

I liked the way that the author has taken a supernatural creature and given it a spiritual twist – for me, this actually makes the story a little more believable in a way that I’m able to better relate to the character. I didn’t like the height of the bad guy quite so much though. Sure, I get that if you add a spiritual twist to it, you can see exactly what the author’s point was by making the baddie so big, but since many spiritual children don’t begin their spiritual journeys until much later in life this point and it’s meaning are going to be lost on them.

Summer Of My Secret Angel

Summer of my Secret Angel is a Young Adult Paranormal Romance book. For the most part, it is suitable for young adults – although I have to put a “Parental Guidance” warning on it because there are some scenes that parents might feel are unsuitable for younger young adults.

Summer of my Secret Angel in itself was an interesting book – not only for what I found between it’s pages but also because of what I learned while I was researching this page. Before I get into the review, you might be interested to know that Summer of my Secret Angel has also previously been published as Loving Your Lies and Her Game, His Rules.

The book is set in modern day London to start with, then progresses to France. It follows the story of a child in a children’s home who just happens to be a petty thief after associating herself with the wrong people. After being caught stealing once too often, she is sent to court and the judge sentences her to go and spend a few months living with her mother and her family in France. A mother that she has no intention of getting to know. Is it possible to turn things around or have all the bridges been burned?

One thing I didn't like was that the story is a little slow to build up to the main part of the plot – and in that build-up, the author inadvertently gives away where she is heading with the book. That spoiled my enjoyment of the book a little.

With that said, the book is worth taking the time to read for the Angel scenes that come later on in the book, which, for me, redeemed the act of giving away the plot so early on in the book.