Before I Fall by Laruen Oliver

Author: Lauren Oliver
Genre: Coming of Age, drama
Rating: 8

I'm still angry, and I haven't really even finished the book. And I don't know if I'm going too. Lauren, you're killing me.

Before I Fall is about super popular Sam, ala Mean Girls and her last day of life, all of times it happens. Sam lives her last Cupid Day like any other, until the car crashes and she wakes up once more on Cupid Day morning. Sam must decide what she has to do to get out of the loop of forever repeating her last day, and hope she comes out on the better side of things.

For the most part I did like this book. Asher's quote on the cover is perfectly correct, you have to tear through this book. The characters themselves were not the most likeable of characters and what they do were not exactly a picture of my high school years, but as a high school teacher I can see these things happening.

What I liked most about the book was how you got to learn more about the connections between the characters and their backgrounds, even though you were running through the same day. You got the same picture seven different ways through various people's point of view, much like Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult, another book I was quite smitten with.

I'm too disgruntled to start reading Delerium, another of her novels just yet, but it is on my to-read list. And honestly, if I wasn't so mad right now, this book would probably have a higher score. I hold grudges.

Nighttime is My Time by Mary Higgins Clark

Author: Mary Higgins Clark
Genre: Mystery, suspense
Rating: 9

I read this book while I was reading The Great Gatsby.  I tend to be one who enjoys mystery novels, so I read it mostly for fun. I enjoyed reading this book, and I liked the various twists and turns that the book took. The weren't too forced, nor were they outrageous or reached for, which I think can be accredited to the fact that Clark is truly the queen of this field.

The book revolves around Joan, and her graduated class who is back in town for a high school reunion, I would say their 20th or so. At the reunion it comes to pass that there is a picture of a group of girls at lunch, and since graduation they have been dying off in the order that they sat. This was the only sketchy part of the story. I think that once a couple of girls who were friends in high school started to die, someone would have noticed this coincidence, but maybe not.  The list of suspects is as large as the class itself when one reunion attendee, and lunch table sitter goes missing during the reunion. Joan is caught in the middle, as the last girl to be harmed and because her unknown daughter she put up for adoption shortly after graduation is being threatened.

For anyone who enjoys a good mystery, Clark is your lady. I personally need to read more of her books.