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: Betrayal (The Secret Diaries, #2) by Janice Harrell

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young adult ya suspense book review betrayal the secret diaries 2 by janice harrell

Betrayal (The Secret Diaries, #2) by Janice Harrell picks up where the first book in the series leaves off.  When Casey starts drinking and blackmailing Johanna's group of friends, they start to worry about his well being and whether he will spill the beans about what happened to Laurie Jenkins.

This is one of my favorite series from when I was a teenager, and I have to reread it every so often . . . it's that good and in my opinion, has stood the test of time despite none of the kids having cell phones.  Although cell phones were a thing in the early 1990's, they were still expensive to make phone calls on, so not everyone had one, and that is the reason they aren't featured in this story.
 
Part suspense, part horror, this is a great young adult novel for kids thirteen and up.  It even has some romance in it.  One of the characters does have sex in the book, but it doesn't go into any detail at all about it other than the characters were kissing.  It was all very chaste, so parents needn't worry about their kids reading about it, but if you're worried about it, then I would read the book before letting your kid read it.

The group of friends do have a lot of free time to hang out.  Unfortunately, there isn't a lot to do in Barton, North Carolina.  The thing that still surprises me is how uninvolved the parents are and have no idea where their kids are going or what they are doing.

Five out of five stars is what I give Betrayal (The Secret Diaries, #2) by Janice Harrell.  I would love to see this series turned into a movie or a mini-series.  I can still hope, right?  After all, The Secret Circle by L.J. Smith was turned into a television series a few years ago.

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