Heather Beck

Those of you who follow my reviews will know that I am not a fan of werewolf stories. Heck, even Shiver was a hard sell for me. So I picked up Frostbitten with some trepidation. But I was pleasantly surprised. In fact, I couldn't put it down. I finished this book in a day (that's a sure sign of a winner in my experience).

Anastasia Lockhart is a character that is appealing to the reader. And Frost, with a bit of an odd name, is a surprisingly endearing hero. In fact, one of Beck's great strengths as a writer is her ability to create characters that are believable and real.

The one weakness I found was that sometimes the romantic parts were a bit awkward. That fit well with the characters but at times were also a bit cliche.

Despite that slight weakness, the timing and pacing of the action parts swept me away as a reader and immersed me in the story from beginning to end. I would highly recommend this to readers, especially if you are a supernatural lover!… (mehr)

I received a free copy of Frostbitten in exchange for a honest review.

Frostbitten revolves around Anastasia Lockhart, a 'rebellious' teen who is sent to live with her grandparents in the supposedly sleepy and snowy town of Cedar Falls. From the off we are presented with a girl who has made bad choices in her life. She is failing at school and has fallen into bad company. She hopes to find herself again with the people and the place that hold her happiest memories. It does not turn out that way. A bad first day at school and several nasty rumors later, she soon latches onto Frost, the handsome yet somewhat ostracised son of local hardware merchant.

This could have been a five star book, it had a great setting. Snow bound town in the woods. It had a great main character, rebel trying to retrieve her life. And the romance involved a werewolf lover that locals want to kill. Unfortunately it did not quite match this promise. The main character was far too bland to be the rebel that the text told me about. I expected more fire, more temper... in fact I expected physical violence a lot earlier in the book than when it actually happened.

Part of the problem revolved about the town. Now this might be what happens in small American/Canadian towns but the amount of bullying she receives is completely over the top and for no real reason. Her grandfather is against everything and doesn't listen to anything, again for no real reason and the main character is quite happy to run off and live in the woods with a boy she barely knows. More than anything else, the motivations of these characters felt hollow and not particularly real. I appreciate that people do bully excessively but not after one meeting and not stupidly. In addition the sheep like mentality of the student body was strange and far too one note (The reaction to the rumour involving her and her teacher was ludicrous and totally unbelievable)

Having said all that however, the writing is great and the book held my interest. I did want to know how things would turn out and I happily read to the end in a very short space of time. I would recommend this book to lovers of Young Adult fiction.… (mehr)

Ghost Park – Ghost Park was a nice little story that was slightly creepy without being too scary. I liked that the main character, Chase, was interested in preserving the environment while still being sympathetic to her dad's plight of needing a job. I thought Ghost Park also had a great message about how important it can be to let go of the hurts of the past in order to get on with living life. Overall, it was probably my favorite story in the anthology and a pretty enjoyable read. Star Rating: ****

A Haunting Past – Somehow this story, with its talking skull, possessed mannequin, and a vengeful spirit that keeps mis-hearing names struck me as more funny than creepy or scary. In some ways, it reminded me of an episode of Scooby-Doo. However, the fact that A Haunting Past seemed kind of silly to me might just be because I'm a grown-up. I can see how kids, especially more sensitive ones, might truly find it frightening, since Truce, the main character is being chased by a ghost with murder on its mind. I have to say that I agreed with the girl who got herself punished for wondering out loud why they would build a conservation park dedicated to a man who'd caused so much destruction and wish that point had been explained a little better. I also would have liked to have seen a little more of Truce's relationship with his brother, and perhaps an admission from Truce that he understood where Colby was coming from after his experience at the park. Overall though, A Haunting Past was a decent story that should entertain kids, even if I did spent most of it smiling. Star Rating: ***1/2

The Manor on the Rocks (aka Rockville) – In my opinion, this was the creepiest of The Horror Diaries stories in this anthology so far, probably owing to the villain being a child who had committed some pretty heinous acts. No details were given, so it wasn't an incredibly hard-hitting story, just slightly more disturbing. I would have liked to have known a little more about why he was compelled to do these things and how he died, because as written he was pretty one-dimensional and was also perhaps a little too easily dispatched. I think that Calla Lily's parents being possessed and coming after her added to the fright factor. Calla Lilly was OK as the main character, but I didn't find her to be quite as interesting or likable as the protagonists in the other stories, mainly because she could be rather whiny. Overall, not a bad little horror tale, but a few things could have been better. Star Rating: ***1/2

A Medieval Nightmare – I love all things medieval, so this was one of my favorite stories in this anthology. The castle, knights, tournament and such made for a pretty fun read that was just slightly scary. The joker's riddle was easy to figure out, although perhaps it wouldn't be as easy for kids as it was for me. There were a couple of things near the end of the story that seemed a little silly and clichéd, but overall, I had a pretty good time reading this one. Star Rating: ****

A Watery Grave – This story was rather interesting with its ghostly legend and potential body-snatching spectre. It also had a good plot twist that I partially saw coming, although not in quite the way it happened, which means that kids might be even more surprised by it than I was. The story wrapped up in a rather open-ended way which left me with mixed feelings, but overall, this was a fun, creepy read. Star Rating: ****

Each of the individual stories had some things that I thought could have been a bit better, but overall, Haunted was a pretty good anthology of scary tales for kids. Even though most of the protagonists were teenagers, my guess is that the plots are probably too simplistic to hold the attention of older, more sophisticated readers, but the book still has just enough advanced vocabulary to possibly challenge elementary readers. In my opinion, Haunted would probably be best-suited to kids in the 7-10 (perhaps up to 12) age range who enjoy ghost stories.

Note: I received a copy of this book from the author in exchange for my review.… (mehr)