June Book Haul

I was lucky enough to win a $30 gift card to Barnes and Noble from Amanda @Anchored to Sunshine. She has a fun little lifestyle blog that I started following a few weeks ago–go ahead and click. You know you want to!

Of course, I had to get to Barnes and Noble ASAP. I ended up getting two books. I generally try to get my books used (just to save a little money) but it is such a treat to not have to hunt for a book that you want. Also, these books are in PRISTINE condition. Amazing.

Top to bottom:
Scarlet by Marrisa Meyer – Checked out from the library. I am LOVING this series.
Welcome Caller, This is Chloe by Shelley Coriell – I bought this from the library for $1. I haven’t heard of it before, but it looked fun and it’s about a high school radio station which is something I’ve always been a little interested in. Let me know if you’ve read it and what you thought!
Revenge of the Girl with the Great Personality by Elizabeth Eulberg – Okay, so I actually forgot that I’d included this one in my last haul…but yeah, I still have it.
This is What Happy Looks Like by Jennifer E Smith (B&N) – I LOVE JEN E SMITH. I love this book and I’m definitely planning on getting the rest of her books eventually.
All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr (B&N) – I loved this book so much. I used to be really against marking up books, but I’ve recently gotten over that. I cannot wait to go through this book again and mark my favorite passages.

Who else has a book haul to share? Link it in the comments because I’d love to check it out!

Unknown Sender by Ryan Lanz

Jessica is focused on her schoolwork. She doesn’t have time for boys or partying like her roommate, Aubrey, does. On the one night she does agree to go out, she starts receiving mysterious text messages. They’re benign at first, but become increasingly familiar and creepy. It’s starting to look like Jessica might have a stalker…

I don’t generally like horror books, but the creepy stalker kind are something that I can stomach a little easier. Just because there tends to be less gore and because I feel more separated from the story maybe? It’s not like I’M getting creepy stalker texts or anything like that. This book was just the right amount of creepy. I was a little unsettled with what the texts were saying, but I wasn’t “keep the light on all night” scared. I will admit, I didn’t start reading this until my husband started watching a baseball game (I wanted to make sure he was with me in case I got too scared). But that ended up not being an issue.

This book is a fast read! Much faster than I’d originally anticipated. The author described it to me as a novelette, but it’s probably more short story length (I don’t know if there’s really a difference, I just picture novelette’s being around 100 pages whereas this is only 25). It’s good if you only want to feel a little spooked or unsettled because you can get that feeling, but then be done and move to something more lighthearted afterwards if you need that (I needed that).

Okay, now that we’ve established what a scaredy cat I am, let’s move on to actually discussing the book! The characters were interesting. I was surprised with how much I liked Aubrey, the roommate. I expected her to be shallow and slightly demeaning towards Jessica, but she was actually really nice and a good friend. Ricky, Aubrey’s boyfriend, was appropriately creepy. I did not like him (we’re not supposed to anyway).

Plot-wise: Like I said earlier, those texts? Creepy. Then we get to the very end…did not see that coming. I don’t want to spoil it for anyone, but it was almost like the story switched horror genres just for the very end. I’ll admit, at first I was a little confused. But then the author got me the revised copy and I thought about it a little more and then everything clicked. I just had to think about the story (and the narrator) a little differently.

Overall, creepy but the length of the story makes it something even non-horror readers could enjoy.

Overall Rating: 4
Violence: Moderate
Language: Mild
Sexual Content: Moderate
Smoking/Drinking: Moderate

Note: I received this book for free from the author in exchange for an honest review.