Review: Relic by Gretchen McNeil

First, thanks to Epic Reads Impulse and Edelweiss for allowing me to read an e-galley of this title.  I have been a huge fan of Gretchen McNeil's horror stories for quite a while.  And this one doesn't disappoint.  In fact it is one that I could seriously see being done as a movie.  It had all the perfect qualities of that.  The scenes and visual descriptions in her writing even made it seem like a movie playing in my head as I was reading it.  I'm also really glad that we were able to read this.  There was a time during one publisher closing its doors that it looked like this book would  not make it to the public.  So thanks again to Epic Reads Impulse for saving it for us to read.

The main character is Annie.  School is out for summer, and she and her friends have decided it will be an epic summer, where they will do the things they normally wouldn't do.  The first thing is going to camp on an island and explore an old abandoned mine.  She plans to maybe even take the next step with her boyfriend.  Making things a little more difficult is the fact that her boyfriend Jack's ex-girlfriend has been invited on the trip by one of Annie's friends who is interested in her.  But his ex really wants him back, and does whatever she can to come between Jack and Annie.  Along with those normal teen issues, there is a mystery around the mine.  Some people have disappeared into the mine and not been found.  Annie and her friends have a visit with some water patrol and cops shortly after they arrive, who also make very clear that they shouldn't be going to the mine. 

Another visitor that night is a man that they haven't seen, but who claims some really weird things.  When he runs off, they go looking for him, and can't find him anywhere.  They go to the mine the next day, but something weird happens after they just barely get inside.  All of a sudden they are all by themselves, and they have to find their way out of the mine.  When they all arrive back at the campsite, one after another, hours apart, they head home.  The cops just happen to find a mummified body outside the mine shortly after the group gets home.  And it turns out the body is the man they saw the night before.  Soon other things start happening.  People end up dead, they find a notebook of history about the mine and the area around it.  Soon one by one they will meet with danger, and only Annie and her friends that survive will be able to figure it out, using the clues in the scrapbook and what else they can figure out.  They don't know for sure if the killer is even one of their group. 

The ending was definitely a good one, like I said, would be a perfect end to a horror movie.  We get some mysterious history of the mine and I guess that is where the title comes in.  My only complaint in the story is that I kind of wanted a little more to the "relic" part of the story.  Would have maybe liked it to come into play earlier in the story somehow.  I'm not sure how, but overall it didn't really affect the story, as it still ended up being a good one.

I believe this story may only be available as an ebook at this time, but you can get it for a great deal of only $1.99, here are the links:

Barnes and Noble
 Amazon

Waiting on Wednesday: Relic by Gretchen McNeil

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine where we spotlight upcoming releases that we're eagerly awaiting.  This week I've picked a standalone novel by one of my favorite authors, Gretchen McNeil.  It sounds like a really great horror story, and I can't wait to read it!  This is a genre that this author does such a great job on.  Here is the blurb from Goodreads:

From Gretchen McNeil, the author of Ten and Possess, comes this teen horror novel perfect for young fans of Stephen King, and Lois Duncan's I Know What You Did Last Summer.

For Annie Kramer, the summer before college is bittersweet—both a last hurrah of freedom and the last days she'll spend with her boyfriend, Jack, before they head off to different colleges. So she and her friends plan one final adventure: a houseboating trip on Shasta Lake, complete with booze, romance . . . and an off-limits exploration of the notorious Bull Valley Mine.

The legends of mysterious lights and missing persons on Shasta Lake have been a staple of sleepovers and campouts since Annie was a kid. Full of decrepit bridges that lead to nowhere, railroad tunnels that disappear into the mountains, and terrifying stories of unexplained deaths and bodies that were never recovered, Bull Valley Mine is notorious and frightening—perfect for an epic conclusion to their high school lives.

The trip is fun and light—at first. But when a deranged stranger stumbles upon their campsite, spouting terrifying warnings and pleas for help, it's clear that everyone is in danger. And when their exploration of the mine goes horribly wrong, Annie and her friends quickly discover that the menace of Bull Valley Mine doesn't stay at Shasta Lake—it follows them home.

As one by one her friends fall victim to this mysterious and violent force, Annie must do whatever it takes to discover the ancient secrets of the mine and save her friends . . . if she's not already too late.

Doesn't this sound so good!  Can't wait to read it!  So, what book are you eagerly awaiting this week?

A to Z April: R Reviews - Rude Awakenings of a Jane Austen Addict by Laurie Viera Rigler/Relic by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child

My books today are from two opposite genres.  The first is one of two books that draws on the obsession so many people have with Jane Austen books, both readers today as well as those when the books were written.  The second is a science fiction book, the first in a series that I got behind after four or five, but hope one day to maybe get back into them.

First is Rude Awakenings of a Jane Austen Addict by Laurie Viera Rigler, and it is actually the 2nd book in the Jane Austen Addict series.  But it fit into my A to Z to do this one, so I'll discuss it today.  The first book in the series had to do with a modern day girl, Courtney, back into time period of the Jane Austen books. This 2nd book takes the girl she kind of replaced in that time period, Jane, and plops her in modern day life in Los Angeles.  Here's the blurb from Goodreads:
While Confessions took twenty-first-century free spirit Courtney Stone into the social confines of Jane Austen's era, Rude Awakenings tells the parallel story of Jane Mansfield, a gentleman's daughter from Regency England who inexplicably awakens in Courtney's overly wired and morally confused L.A. life.

For Jane, the modern world is not wholly disagreeable. Her apartment may be smaller than a dressing closet, but it is fitted up with lights that burn without candles, machines that wash bodies and clothes, and a glossy rectangle in which tiny people perform scenes from her favorite book, Pride and Prejudice. Granted, if she wants to travel she may have to drive a formidable metal carriage, but she may do so without a chaperone. And oh, what places she goes! Public assemblies that pulsate with pounding music. Unbound hair and unrestricted clothing. The freedom to say what she wants when she wants-even to men without a proper introduction.

Jane relishes the privacy, independence, even the power to earn her own money. But how is she to fathom her employer's incomprehensible dictates about "syncing a BlackBerry" and "rolling a call"? How can she navigate a world in which entire publications are devoted to brides but flirting and kissing and even the sexual act itself raise no matrimonial expectations? Even more bewildering are the memories that are not her own. And the friend named Wes, who is as attractive and confusing to Jane as the man who broke her heart back home. It's enough to make her wonder if she would be better off in her own time, where at least the rules are clear-that is, if returning is even an option.

Second is Relic by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child.  It is a really cool story about a plant that has some kind of mutative powers when ingested.  And it has created a monster.  A monster that is transported to a museum where it creates havoc. Loved this story, and just ignore the horrible movie made from it!   Also this story brings together two people who will be a duo that the series will follow.  Here is the blurb for the first one from Goodreads:
Just days before a massive exhibition opens at the popular New York Museum of Natural History, visitors are being savagely murdered in the museum's dark hallways and secret rooms. Autopsies indicate that the killer cannot be human...

But the museum's directors plan to go ahead with a big bash to celebrate the new exhibition, in spite of the murders.

Museum researcher Margo Green must find out who-or what-is doing the killing. But can she do it in time to stop the massacre?


Are you a big Jane Austen fan?  What would you do if you were all of a sudden living in that time period?  What do you think about a mystery in a museum of a killer creature that no one has ever seen before?  Scary?  Have you seen the movie they made of the book, which for the most part was pretty bad?

While you're here, don't forget to enter my month-long giveaway that goes along with the challenge.

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Terminal Freeze by Lincoln Child

Another book that was a strip copy. I picked it up because I love the books Lincoln Child writes with Douglas Preston, and I did enjoy Utopia and Deep Storm.

This was a fun science type book as well. There is a creature in it that was flash frozen in ice a long time ago. It is a strange unknown creature. There are many theories thrown around about it. One I wonder if it is a real theory, that scientists say every so often nature creates a creature that is just to weed out some sort of species or something. I'll have to look that up at some point, because it is very interesting. I don't like how it does talk about Global Warming. Yes, maybe the polar ice caps are melting, but once again, as I've posted before, that happens in nature! So anyway.

Another good, quick read by Lincoln Child. I think there is only one other book by Lincoln Child, Death Match. Not sure what it is about, but I'll have to look it up and check it out. I still need to get back to the series he writes with Douglas Preston that started with Relic one of these days. I do have to note, that as I was looking for an image of the cover for this book, I really like the British cover better, so I posted it above as well.