Scary Mary by S.A. Hunter

Book Blurb:
Mary just wants to be left alone, but the cheerleaders, jocks, guidance counselors, and ghosts won't stop harrassing her. When a new boy starts school, he surprises Mary by befriending her. That's a rare thing for the school freak, but her unusual abilities put a rift in their budding friendship when Mary has to tell Cy that his home is haunted and not by Casper, the friendly ghost. 

My review:
Another one just in time for Halloween!

This is the perfect YA (Young Adult) ghost story. Not too scary but just scary enough. It's clean too! Safe for teens and even tweens.

Mary is a clairaudient. She can hear ghosts - not see them. She also seems to give them energy. Mary's Grandma is a fortune teller/medium. All the kids at school think high school junior Mary is a freak.

Cowgirls & Vampires by Tim O'Rourke

Book Blurb:

Samantha Carter believes that a vampire is responsible for the brutal deaths of four women in her hometown.

Desperate to prove this, Samantha accepts the friendship of a Preacher, two Cowgirls, and a Cowboy. Together, they are hired by the mysterious Englishman, Spencer Drake, to travel by steam train into the mountains in search of gold. It’s on this journey that Samantha finds romance with a man who keeps a dark and terrifying secret and discovers that vampires are not only very real, but are far more dangerous than she ever imagined. In order to stay alive, Samantha needs to figure out why things have gone so terribly wrong for her. But more importantly, why is she out of time?

Poisoning Sylvie by Christina Westover

Book Blurb:

It starts with forgetting to lock the refrigerator door, with the letter received from the mother who abandoned her twenty-five years earlier, in a whirlwind of awakening which will force Sylvie out of the predictable life she has come to know.

Poisoned in a nearly fatal accident as a child, Sylvie now exists in a world where strict self-imposed limitations are never to be questioned. Sometimes, though, entire empires are forced to crumble, and hers is no exception.

After learning she occupies the apartment of a once murdered woman, Sylvie uses news reports about the murder to create another identity--a dual identity capable of accomplishing anything.

Widow by Billie Sue Mosiman

Book Blurb:

A chilling novel by the Edgar Award-nominated author of Night Cruise. After the shattering murder/suicide of her children and husband, Kay Mandel seeks out abusive men and fatally poisons them. Soon she puts her past demons behind her and vows never to kill again. But someone has been watching Kay--and takes up where she left off.

My review:

Great story. Complicated but not hard to follow.

Sold and A Promise to Nadia by Zana Muhsen and Andrew Crofts

I've actually written two reviews in one this time folks. I've never done this before and may never do it again, but this time I feel it is justified.

Book Blurb for Sold:

Zana Muhsen, born and bred in Birmingham, is of Yemeni origin. When her father told her she was to spend a holiday with relatives in North Yemen, she jumped at the chance. Aged 15 and 13 respectively, Zana and her sister discovered that they had been literally sold into marriage, and that on their arrival they were virtually prisoners. They had to adapt to a completely alien way of life, with no running water, dung-plastered walls, frequent beatings, and the ordeal of childbirth on bare floors with only old women in attendance.

Sara's Game by Ernie Lindsey

Book Blurb:
Two years ago, Sara's husband left for the gym one morning...and never came back. His car was found. He wasn't. Unbelievably, the police report said, "No foul play suspected." There were a few unreliable sightings over the following months, but little else.

Now, on the last day before summer break, her three children have gone missing from their schools, all at the same time.

And the note under her windshield wiper asks one simple question: Are you ready to play the game?

Becoming Jolie by Monique O'Connor James

Book Blurb:

Jolie Bourque is trying to finish her thesis and get on with her life. She wanders into Folette, Louisiana, a place plagued by ghost sightings, convinced the residents are all crazy. No one wants to help her, no one except, Hutch Landry and his brother, Tucker.

Will she find the monster that is preying on the town's children? Can she stay sane surrounded by madness? What are her ties to the small town? How will she choose between the brothers?

This is the nightmare that is her life and all just a part of Becoming Jolie.

The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker

Book Blurb:

“It still amazes me how little we really knew. . . . Maybe everything that happened to me and my family had nothing at all to do with the slowing. It’s possible, I guess. But I doubt it. I doubt it very much.”

Luminous, haunting, unforgettable, The Age of Miracles is a stunning fiction debut by a superb new writer, a story about coming of age during extraordinary times, about people going on with their lives in an era of profound uncertainty.

On a seemingly ordinary Saturday in a California suburb, 11-year-old Julia and her family awake

The Prophet Motive by Eric Christopherson

Book Blurb:

San Francisco Homicide detective John Richetti spent part of his childhood living inside an infamous cult known as the People's Temple. As a boy he'd lost his parents to cult-instigated mass suicide. The memories come flooding back when he investigates the bizarre suicide of a former member of Earthbound, a New Age cult--and suspects murder instead. To uncover the truth he infiltrates the group, along with police psychologist Marilyn Michaelsen.

The new recruits find themselves pushed to their physical and mental limits by a series of sophisticated brainwashing techniques as well as by a cult leader, known only as The Wizard, who appears to possess psychic and paranormal powers.