Book Review: The Last Carolina Summer by Karen White

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The Last Carolina Summer by Karen White is the story about Phoebe Manigault returning home to Mt. Pleasant, a suburb of Charleston, South Carolina, to help her sister with their ailing mother. When past memories resurface, Phoebe is thrown back into some childhood turmoil. I requested an Advanced Readers Copy ARC of The Last Carolina Summer from NetGalley, and I was ecstatic when the provided me with a copy for free in exchange for my honest review. So, a big thank you goes out to them! When I began reading this story, I just happened to be vacationing in Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina. I loved hearing about the different places, including streets and a bridge called the Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge, which I had to cross to get into Mt. Pleasant as well as Isle of Palms. It's always nice to be able to visualize the places and author writes about. With that being said, I'm not a fan of traveling over bridges, and one of the scenes of The Last Carolina Summer mentions a car going off ...
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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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