The Phantom Paragrapher

Review: Ali Cross - The Secret Detective - #Book 3 - Ali Cross - James Patterson - June 2022 One of James Patterson's series that I have been enjoying is Ali Cross's teen detective series. Ali Cross is Alex Cross's youngest child and he is following in his father's footsteps. This book starts with Ali's best friend Gabe creating an app that turns the police scanner into transcription and sends an alert to their cell phones. One early morning Ali and his friend Gabe snuck out to call at an apartment that is known for its gangs. On the scene, Ali sees his dad and then learns a cop has shot one of the gang members. This incident sparks a discussion and debate at school about police shootings and Ali starts to encounter bullying as a "cop kid". What I did like though was that Ali's friends who knew him stood by him during this and his family of course I have always adored. The part that frustrated me the most was Sienna; I hate her character as Ali likes...

Review: Scorned Princess - Book #1 Crooked Paradise - Eva Chance and Harlow King - April 2021 Mercy Katz was the only daughter and heir to the Claws family gang and she was now engaged to Colt who was the heir to their rival Steel Knights. On the night of their rehearsal dinner, Colt changed the rules and took out her whole family including her grandmother in a Red wedding scene like Game of Thrones. Mercy escaped only just with a shot to the elbow and found her way to the house of the Nobles. The most elite and wealthiest of the gangs in Paradise Bend. These guys were at the top of the food chain and now she wants their help to get revenge on Colt. They won't make it easy for her though as they will run her through a series of tests to prove not only her loyalty but also her strength and that she will prove to them that she will do anything to get revenge on the guy who killed her family and loved ones in one evening. However, what will happen when it looks like the Nobles have go...

Review: Friends Til' The End - Book #6 Good Girlz Series - ReShonda Tate Billingsley - February 2009. Back in 2007-2009, I started a great YA Christian series set with a strong African-American / Hispanic feel to it. That series was called Good Girlz by ReShonda Tate Billingsley. As many readers of my reviews will know, this year I made the goal to try and read some of my older books off my devices. As I was scrolling through, I came across ReShonda Tate Billingsley's books of the Good Girlz. I clicked into Friends Til the End and was instantly reunited with the characters of Jasmine, Angel, Camille, and Alexis and their youth group leader Rachel. In Friends Til' the End we mainly focus on Jasmine as she is caught in a Romeo and Juliet situation when her boyfriend's twin brother is accused of shooting Jasmine's brother. Jasmine's brother was clean and on his way to big things until his life was drastically cut short. Now Jasmine is torn between her love of CJ...

Review: Her Silent Spring - Book #4 Veronica Lee Series - Melinda Woodhall - December 2020 Her Silent Spring is the 4th book of the Veronica Lee series and I am almost nearing the end of reading all of Melinda Woodhall's books as I started with her Mercy Harbor series and then jumped to the spin-off starring Veronica Lee who was a news reporter. It's funny as we see quite a few of the other characters from the Mercy Harbor series but we don't hear of Eden and Leo Steele, though in this book Leo's name does get chucked out as being an amazing lawyer, that you don't want to go head to head with. In Her Silent Spring, we have two storylines and both are follow on's from previous books. The first is the secret identity of El Diablo - the group of criminals that have been trafficking and running drugs and then the identity of Skylar's mother - Summer. As those who have read Book #3 of this series, will remember that Veronica and Skylar's father Donovan Locke...

Review: Play The Game - Book #3 Hannaford Prep Series - J.Bree - December 2019 In a bit of a book slump this past week, I decided to try and catch up on older books from my devices and hopped back into the Hannaford Prep Series with Book #3. I had a look on Goodreads and it had been about 9 months since I read Book #2. I have to admit, I wasn't overall impressed with Book #3 Play the Game as I felt the storyline was way too busy and I found the relationship between the guys Ash, Blaise, and Harley and then her friendship with Avery odd. It was like in a way she was a tease and that despite the four of them being under her wing, it was too strange a relationship as was a very slow burn, and in this book is so many characters - I found their story frustrating. I did love the darkness of when Ash told the story about his dad and Joey and OMFG that ending was like WOAH as I knew the particular character was going to be gone by other reviews and later books but didn't know-how. I al...