Grab Instantly Circle Of Silence (WiHi, #2) Illustrated By Carol M. Tanzman Supplied As Digital Format

Rating:.out ofstars.

Disclaimers: I received a temporary egalley from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for my honest review,

My Overall Thoughts/Impressions: I didn't know this was a sequel until I had finished reading this one so you can definitely read it as a standalone novel.


I'll admit to being curious to see what happens in the first one now, I'll have to go back and read that one,

But let's get into what I thought of this book, I picked it up because it was a bout journalism and I'm a journalist granted I'm on the print side not broadcasting,

I didn't have high expectations for this novel, I liked the idea of a secret society being formed and figured it would be interesting, What I didn't expect was the secret society to be actually dangerous and so creepy,

Tanzman's writing style drew me in and I loved the characters, I loved Val. She was so intense that she was sometimes narrowminded but I loved watching her interact with her friends and then of course her ex Jagger, I'm definitely a Jagger fan, He was a bad boy who was not really a bad boy,

I don't know why I love characters like that so much I just do,

The plot was slightly predictable and I felt like that the police and the faculty should have stepped in much sooner, In that regard, I found the plot slightly unrealistic, These pranks weren't so innocent and were more crimes than pranks, They should have stepped in more forcefully and much sooner,

But having said that, Carol created a thrilling tale full of suspense and while I had unraveled the plot very early it was still a compelling read.
My heart was racing while I watched Val recklessly track this story,

In horror movies, there are always the moments where you want to scream at the protagonist "don't go into the creepy dark basement" "don't open the closet.
" While reading this book, I had those moments several times,

I still thoroughly enjoyed this novel, Carol's characters were compelling. The writing was for the most part very well done, Definitely an enjoyable read. It was entertaining and suspenseful, However, it lacked that extra something to push it up to a book that I really loved,

I wouldn't reread this one or buy it since I've already read it, but wouldn't hesitate to recommend it to fans of this genre,

In Summary: Carol's novel presents a suspenseful and compelling read that mixes mystery with enough romance to make this a book I adored reading, Compelling characters juxtaposed with an intriguing plot will keep you turning pages until the very end,

The Wrapup: This is the sequel but this acts as a standalone novel, Carol's writing was intriguing and I'll definitely be curious to see what she writes next, If you like mystery/suspense in the young adult genre, then I recommend this one to you,

Love,

Danica Page More of my reviews sitelinkwww, obsessionwithbooks. blogspot. com

Circle of Silence is the second book in the WiHi series by Carol M, Tanzman and was kindly provided to me by Harlequin Teen it was an entertaining, thrilling and suspense filled read which kept me turning the pages,

Valerie ValGal Gaines is trying to prove herself worthy of running Campus News at Washington Irving High School by getting the most newsworthy stories and being the best reporter.
When a few pranks are pulled by a secret group calling themselves MP which start off minor but escalate to something more sinister, Val chases the story along with her trusty news crew.


For some reason, Circle of Silence reminded me a little of the Deadly Cool series by Gemma Halliday which I loved it has a mystery solving plot which revolved around the secret society within WiHi and Val and her team trying to work out who was behind the pranks.
It is a tad predictable and I was able to guess one of the people involved early on in the book but I was unable to

work out the groups motives which was a good thing because I always enjoy the element of surprise.


There is a small amount of romance although it isnt at the forefront of the story Jagger who is new to Campus news is Vals ex whom she still has feelings for despite his cheating kissing and although I found his reasoning weak I enjoyed the way he tried to earn back her respect and trust, I would have made him grovel a tad more but she was weakwilled when it did come to him.


I especially enjoyed the POV written by the MP leader which were more sinister and intriguing he had a lot of angst and it really came across in his actions.
The mystery, drama and small plot twists and turns certainly made for an entertaining read,

The only thing I didnt like was the recklessness at times of Val, I wish she could have advised a teacher, parent or the authorities sooner rather than let things escalate to the point they did.
Other than this it was a great read,

There were a few secondary characters I liked best friend Marci, Raul, Omar and Henry were great crew team members and it was nice to see Val had a solid family unit and despite my dislike of her sister Bethany who had a huge chip on her shoulder, the parental presence was a welcomed relief to what I have read more recently in YA novels.


This book is the second in the WiHi series and I dont feel I was missing anything by not reading the first book dancergirl it could certainly be read as a standalone.


Circle of Silence is well paced and engaging and I was immersed in Ms, Tanzmans writing and storytelling. I will definitely be picking up the first book in this series as well as future books written by this author,
FINAL RATING:.STARS

CATCHALL
I didn't like Circle of Silence quite as much as I loved dancergirl ack!, which was a shame.
dancergirl really drew me in with it suspenseful plot and fun, easily lovable characters, Circle of Silence wasn't like that for me, The mystery was lackluster, and the characters weren't nearly as likable, While I definitely really liked it to a point, it's not a favorite, Circle of Silence was missing some things for me,

THE HEROINE
VAL
I didn't really connect to Val the way I did to Ali, Like Ali, Val has a passion, Hers is reporting. Still, I couldn't connect to her, She seemed to be to stubborn about some things, charging in without ever thinking twice, And then she could be totally oblivious, She missed a lot of obvious clues and made a lot of choices that probably weren't the smartest, At the same time, Val wasn't completely unlikableeven if it was on occasion foolish, she was brave,

THE LOVE INTERESTS
JAGGER
Jagger is Val's exboyfriend, who cheated on her, I actually liked quite a few things about him, He didn't try to make excuses, for one, He owned up to his mistake and didn't try to make excuses, which was awesome, What he wanted was to show Val that he really did care about her and he won't hurt her again, Sometimes his attitude did seriously tick me off, but honestly, I think that's just one of those things that happens, He was a fairly likable character, despite first glance,
RAOUL
From the beginning, it's obvious that Raoul is just a distraction, Even so, he's very sweet, and there're hints that he gets his own happy ending anyway, And he cares about Val and when things don't really work out for them, he wants her to move on and be happy like a good friend.


THE PLOT
Unfortunately, I figured out the answer to the mystery probably about halfwayish into the book, So, sadly, there wasn't nearly enough suspense in this book for me, I wish that fewer hints had been dropped, It's no fun to figure everything out too early, And I don't consider myself a very perceptive person or anything,

What I did like was not just that there were people who were pulling these dangerous pranks, but that it was a ganglike group who called themselves MP.
That aspect was really great to read about and learn more about,

Additionally, the plot had a nice pacing, Not too fast, and not too slow either, That was a huge improvement on dancergirl, It wasn't erratic, and I could keep up without getting bored,

Circle of Silence is a lot darker than dancergirl, Oh, things are still at stake in that book, but I didn't get as strong of an impression, In this book, the danger was clear, It slowly got darker until the very end, when the darkness was smoothly lifted off,

THE ROMANCE
The romance in this book is really sweet, I loved the dynamic between Jagger and Val, and it was really unique that they had a romantic history before this book because that's not something you see every day.
I like how Val distrusts him and first and doesn't want to have anything to do with him, and the way he slowly earns her trust back even though she doesn't make it easy for him.


THE WRITING
Carol's writing is really descriptive, and I like that about her, She's also great at capturing a character's unique voice, Even though I didn't happen to like Val's voice, I can absolutely appreciate Carol's ability to write it, Another thing that was super awesome was the fact that we also get to go into the leader of MP's headand that was horrifying and yet thrilling to go into his messedup mind and try to figure out why he was doing what he was doing and why he justified it.


THE ENDING
While a bit anticlimactic, the ending I actually liked, Val gets her happy ending, which made me smile, Everything worked out. Though a few things did seem too convenient, at the same they fit into the story so that they didn't stick out too much, I like that everything closed up too, no loose strings left hanging, The pacing was also better than that of the previous book and didn't rush or drag,

WRAPUP
So, while Circle of Silence was not dancergirl, I still really, really liked it and can definitely recommend it.
It's not too much of a mystery, but the romance is cute and the story is still fun, even if the heroine isn't always perfect, I definitely am loving Carol's books, and I do hope that she writes more novels in this series because I will definitely read them!

FINE.


Read more of my reviews on sitelinkSparkles and Lightning!,