One Hundred Candles

First, I love this series. I love Charlotte. She is very smart and quite courageous. A one-sentence recap of the story-so far: Mom and Dad hunt ghosts and Charlotte is better at attracting deadly demons than hot guys at school.

I have never heard of the one hundred candle game (ritual?) that begins this book. I did, being a librarian, investigate some more online and there are variations on how to play but it sounds like fun. And here I had thought me and my friends had covered all of the usual sleep over party games: light as a feather, Ouija board, frozen bras....

Poor Charlotte has, this time, attracted something “worse than” a demon, a cute football player, and a bunch of hauntings at school. I thought the pacing of this book was great. I also adore how, even though Charlotte is dealing with many things, the minor characters run independently of her and have their own lives (Jared with the memorial for example). I really recommend these titles to mystery fans as YA mystery is lacking. Like Scooby Doo, the hauntings are usually solved with humans behind them, but unlike Scooby Doo there are “real” supernatural creatures at work here too.

Two things: the ending cut off. Seriously, I went back to the source to see if my egalley file was incomplete, it wasn't. It didn't feel like a cliffhanger, it felt like the author ran out of time. And, two, Noah needs to be a little more....more. Yeah, he is supportive (and hot?) but except for complaining about his mom, he's kind of a non-entity. Man up, Noah!!! Get proactive. I know it's hard when the female character is so strong ...but you can do it.