Book Review: Dear Pen Pal (The Mother-Daughter Book Club, #3) by Heather Vogel Frederick

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Dear Pen Pal (The Mother-Daughter Book Club, #3)  by Heather Vogel Frederick  is the third book in a middle grade book series that is being rereleased. Chaos erupts in this third installment as the daughters in the book club get themselves into trouble. Each of the girls have big changes in their lives:  Jess is going to boarding school; Megan's grandmother comes to live with her; Emma starts a campaign against school uniforms; Cassidy has a lot of unexpected change coming to her family. Will the mother daughter book club stay together? I'd like to thank NetGalley, Simon and Schuster Children's Publishing, and Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers for an Advanced Readers Copy (ARC) of Dear Pen Pal  by Heather Vogel Frederick with it's upcoming rerelease to the public. I always love a good book that involves books, even if its target audience is children between the ages of eight and twelve. It wasn't until I reached the end of the book that I realized that it...
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Book Review: The Strange Power (Dark Visions, #1) by L.J. Smith

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L.J. Smith churned out yet another winner with The Strange Power (Dark Visions, #1). It was originally published in 1994 by Archway Paperback. Kaitlyn Fairchild is an out cast in her Ohio town because of her drawings that predict the future. That along with her violet rimmed eyes have made the town called her a witch. When she is presented with the opportunity to attend the Zetes Institute with four other psychic teens, Kaitlyn jumps at the chance for a new start.

Let me begin by saying that I absolutely loved this book and engrossed from the very first page, even as an adult. I first read The Strange Power (Dark Visions, #1) as a sophomore in high school. It is slightly different from her other trilogies in that it deals with psychics instead of vampires, witches, and/or werewolves. There is a bit of suspense, thriller, mystery, romance, and fantasy throughout. For a young adult book, the characters are very well developed, and the plot moved along very well. There weren't any slow parts. I am so glad I reread this book because there was so much I had forgotten.

With that being said, there are a couple of things that drove me crazy about the book, and both of them are typos.  On one page, the word abstracted is used when it clearly should have been distracted. Another typo, at least in my opinion, is one of the characters said, "Include me out." It should have been "Count me out." Additionally, I forgot how much the character Rob got on my nerves. He's completely oblivious of girls in the romantic sense throughout most of the book. On top of that, he is so black and white about things and is very uptight about it. This is the first book I ever read where I couldn't stand one of the main characters. All in all, The Strange Power (Dark Visions, #1) is worth a read, and I gave it four out of five stars.

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