Book Blast and Review: The Third Twin by CJ Omololu ($50 Amazon or Paypal Giveaway) COYER Challenge #11

The Third Twin by C.J. Omololu When they were little, Lexi and her identical twin, Ava, made up a third sister, Alicia. If something broke? Alicia did it. Cookies got eaten? Alicia’s guilty. Alicia was always to blame for everything. The game is all grown up now that the girls are seniors. They use Alicia as their cover to go out with boys who are hot but not exactly dating material. Boys they’d never, ever be with in real life. Now one of the guys Alicia went out with has turned up dead, and Lexi wants to stop the game for good. As coincidences start piling up, Ava insists that if they follow the rules for being Alicia, everything will be fine. But when another boy is killed, the DNA evidence and surveillance photos point to only one suspect—Alicia. The girl who doesn’t exist. As she runs from the cops, Lexi has to find the truth before another boy is murdered. Because either Ava is a killer . . . or Alicia is real.

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Praise:

•  "[An] original, riveting thriller." -- Melissa Marr, New York Times bestselling author of Made for You.

•  "Delicious and deceptive, The Third Twin is a twisty-turny thrill ride! I couldn't flip the pages fast enough!" --Kimberly Derting, author of the Body Finder series and The Taking.

•   "A classic whodunit."--Kirkus Reviews

Author:
 CJ OMOLOLU is the author of the ALA-YALSA Quick Pick Dirty Little Secrets and several other YA novels. She loved to read but never thought to write until she discovered that the voices in her head often have interesting things to say. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband and their two sons.

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My Review:

First I'd like to thank Delacorte Press and Edelweiss for allowing me to read an e-galley of this title.  I have been a huge fan of this author since I read an e-galley of her book Transcendence  back in May of 2012.  It was one of the first e-galleys I think I ever got. But I just loved the book.   Ever since then I've been a huge fan and supporter of her and her books.  I have to definitely say that I have yet to be disappointed, and this book definitely kept up my support!

I won't give a summary this time, since I've got the official one above.  But a few details not given are that Lexi is more of the nerdy sister.  Once in awhile she enjoys being Alicia, and acting totally the opposite of how she normally is.  Her sister Ava is more like Alicia, in that she is all about the boys and dressing to impress.  Lexi's goal has always been to get into Stanford like their adopted father.  Now, they have always lived with their adoptive father, in fact they have no idea who their real parents are.  They were just left on his doorstep.  But now there is someone out there pretending to be their imaginary sister.  And she looks very similar to them, at least from the photos that have shown up at the different sites of the murders.  Lexi wonders if it is her sister Ava and she is just not telling her.  We get the story from Lexi's viewpoint.  Lexi often ends up being Alicia to go out with guys that Ava is done with.  Now both of them have promised they are going to stop. But it seems to keep going one more time, and one more time.  Lexi meets a cute boy in a band that Ava had gone out with, and she finds even as Alicia, she likes him, But how will she ever tell him the truth?

The story was very suspenseful.  While there were lots of clues that kind of gave me either glimpses into what was really happening, or else the little misleading things to keep me guessing, I kind of had an idea what was going on from one of them that happened early on.  That's not a bad thing!  I just want to say that it turned out even though I'd kind of guessed part of the mystery, even that took a twist I in no way saw coming to solve it!  My only complaint, and this is one I have with a LOT of mystery books, tv shows, and movies, is the not telling people things.  Like she doesn't want to tell the guy in the band about the danger to him in front of any witnesses.  If it was me?  I'd be all about making sure everyone knew what was going on so that they would be more aware of what is going on and would notice that when something happened I wasn't there or whatever.  But that's me.  I guess it makes for more suspense in the stories.  

It's nice to have a standalone story as well.  Definitely a great mystery, and one that I'll be purchasing for the high school library I work in, and promoting at the bookstore where I work part time.

  $50 Amazon Gift Card or Paypal Cash Ends 3/19/15 Open only to those who can legally enter, receive and use an Amazon.com Gift Code or Paypal Cash. Winning Entry will be verified prior to prize being awarded. No purchase necessary. You must be 18 or older to enter or have your parent enter for you. The winner will be chosen by rafflecopter and announced here as well as emailed and will have 48 hours to respond or a new winner will be chosen. This giveaway is in no way associated with Facebook, Twitter, Rafflecopter or any other entity unless otherwise specified. The number of eligible entries received determines the odds of winning. Giveaway was organized by Kathy from I Am A Reader and sponsored by the author. VOID WHERE PROHIBITED BY LAW.
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Dirty Little Secrets by C.J. Omololu

I hadn't heard about this book until I listened to the author at a YA Panel at the RT Convention this past May.  It was a panel on tough issues, which this definitely is one.  So once she talked about it, I had to buy it.  And I was not disappointed.  As with the other books I've enjoyed by this author, Transcendence and Intuition, the writing was very good.  And what I mean by that is that it flowed so seamlessly it was hard to put the book down because I wanted to know what would happen next, I was so involved in the story.
Dirty Little Secrets is the story of Lucy.  Lucy's mother is a hoarder.  Lucy has had trouble in the past keeping friends once they saw what her house really looked like on the inside.  The piles of newspapers, and stacks of boxes, and the disgustingly dirty kitchen, what counter space there is showing, is covered by mold. The house smells of rotten trash.  When she lost her last friend from seeing the house, Lucy asked to be transferred from the private school to public school, to get away from all the teasing.  To get where no one knew.  And now she has a best friend named Kaylee.  And the book starts with the girls out for a movie.  And they see in line two boys that they're interested in.  When Kaylee goes up to talk to the guy she likes, Lucy is left with Josh, a guy that she thinks is cute.  And they kind of seem to hit it off.  He even invites her to a party that his band is playing at the next night.  Lucy kind of floats home on cloud nine.  Only to walk in and find her mother on the floor under one of the piles of trash.  And she is dead.  Lucy can see that she was reaching for her asthma inhaler, and unable to get to it.  All Lucy can think about is that once she calls 911, the secret will be out, everyone will know that her mother was a hoarder.  The house is so bad in fact, that Lucy knows the paramedics won't even be able to get a stretcher through the house to get her mother.  And so she comes up with the plan that she must get as much cleaned as she can before they come.  It's cold out, and she hopes that if she keeps the house cold enough, she'll be able to get by without calling 911 long enough to get the house cleaned enough to help her not be so ashamed.  As she starts cleaning, we get to read memories of her past, and how things got to this point.  We learn more about her sister and brother, and how they got out of the house as soon as they could.  Now Lucy must decide if she can go meet Josh at the party or not.  And she must figure out how in the world to clean up the house, when before it had even got to this point, when they'd still been able to use the kitchen, it had taken 3 people 2 weeks to clean it.
This is such a good story.  And I'm sure there are people out there, kids, that are dealing with things like this at home.  While you may not agree with how Lucy decides to handle the situation, you'll have to admit after reading her story, that it is easily understandable why she makes the decisions she does at her age.
Now, reading this made me really start itching to get my house cleaned.  My upstairs bedroom has definitely started piling up, books, stuff from school, stuff from working on my last degree, and things that I had intended to sell in a garage sale that we've not ended up having this summer.  So after reading this, I'm pretty motivated to get in there and start throwing things away as well as cleaning and organizing.

Intuition (Transcendence #2) by C.J. Omololu

Once again I am thanking Netgalley and Bloomsbury Publishers for allowing me to read the e-galley of this book.  And I was jumping up and down and squealing because I was so happy when I got approved for this!  I had loved the first book, Transcendence, although, from my review, you can't quite tell that.  As I went back and looked at it, I can't believe I gave it a 4 out of 5 on Goodreads, and my very short review doesn't quite give me the answer as to why I did that.  The first book was the one book that I saw on a shelf at BEA last summer, 2012, and asked the person at the booth if I could have it, and they told me to come back the last day and ask.  So I did, and when I went back, a different person told me they would be doing the giveaway at 2 pm.  So I went back then, and guess what, they'd already given it away.  I was so disappointed.  But then, when I got to see the author at the RT Convention this past May, she was so nice!  And so of course, I had to buy it then.  Let's see if I can do a better review of the 2nd book.  Although I will try not to give away too many spoilers if you haven't read the first one.  If you haven't read it, you should go to my link on the title of the first book above and read that first.
We start the book back with Cole and Griffon.  They are able to be together now and are in love.  But Cole is now not sure of her future with the cello as her left arm was damaged so bad in the confrontation with Veronique in the first story.  Cole also came away with a scar.  But everything seems to be going perfectly other than that.  She is still able to teach students even as she relearns to play with her other hand, even the really annoying ones that don't want to be there.  But now the boyfriend of her ex-boss at the clothing store, Drew, has started acting funny.  Saying that they were together in a past life.  And when he touches her, with her empathic abilities, Cole sees the life he is talking about, and feels that he was her husband in that life.  Cole doesn't want to feel this connection as she is in love with Griffon and doesn't want to lose him for anything.  She is continuing her lessons with Griffon's mom to try to improve her empathic ability.
But Drew keeps coming back and pestering her.  And while at first she doesn't tell Griffon, when she does, he tells her she needs to give that connection a chance, and breaks up with her.  And not only is this going on, her best friend Rayne is being pestered by Veronique, who is trying to convince her that she is Akhet as well.  Shortly after Cole convinces Rayne it is not true, Rayne get seriously ill.  And it seems that Griffon and his mom and the others in their group can help.  Meanwhile Cole gets to know Drew better, and the Akhet that he spends his time with.  She gets to meet so many famous people, as well as people that were famous in past lives, and at least one other that she may have a connection with from a past life.
I'll stop there, just know that it has a lot of suspense and you have to wonder if Drew really isn't the perfect guy.  He's 20 years old, yet has millions of dollars!  Lives in a really fancy apartment, penthouse to be exact!  And he can buy anything.  Cole could have the perfect life with no responsibilities other than to be with Drew and have a family.  But is that what Cole wants?  She has to decide.  And it's not just a romantic story, as I said, they have to figure out why Rayne got sick, and what other things it might be leading to in the Akhet world.
Such a great story.  I know I was a bit upset that Griffon wasn't on the cover of this book like he was on the first one.  But it makes sense as I read it.  And I wasn't left unhappy with how things turned out, I was happy.  And of course, more loose ends left, so there has to be ANOTHER one!  Again, it will definitely be a staff recommendation for me at the bookstore where I work.
And finally, a picture of me with the author, C.J. Omololu at the RT Convention in May.