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Humor and mayhem ensue when a teen girl gets caught up in the death of a hi-tech hitman and must try to stay one step ahead of the killers lurking in the shadows of an exclusive prep school.
Source: hard copy provided by publisher in exchange for an honest review
Meet Emmy Danvers, an ambitious sixteen year-old who dreams of being a writer. The girl lives inside all her made up fantasies and sometimes they're quite hilarious. But not even her imagination comes close to real life when she enters bizarro world. While at a coffee shop she's confronted by a stranger who unloads some cryptic messages on her and then suddenly dies. On top of her. That'd be enough to convince anyone to give up coffee forever. Emmy is shocked as it is until the police question her relationship to the deceased man and behave as if she knows more than she's letting on. It gets even crazier when she learns that the old man who died on her is the grandfather of Sebastian St. James, the best friend of her best friend's ex. Got that? Sebastian mysteriously appears at the police station to talk to Emmy believing that his grandfather gave her something that she's unaware of. Something that's meant for him. He knows more than he's willing to share which infuriates her to no end. Apparently whoever killed his grandfather is after her. As if things can't get more bizarre, he arranges for Emmy to attend his private school, Emptor Academy so that she can be closer for him to keep an eye on her. Her best friends and mother protest but give up the fight much too easily as she accepts the offer and heads off to a new school, making new acquaintances, managing mean girls and in her spare time, solving this big mystery that has something to do with her family.
I enjoyed the story overall though I was dubious about one plot line in particular: the rather quick arrangement for Emmy to leave her public school to go to the Academy. That one detail nagged at me because I felt like it was just too easy. It's kind of explained later how that came about but it still felt a bit flimsy to me. I did enjoy Emmy's personality. She tends to have a hyperactive imagination, especially when she's writing her novels which I could totally relate to. I mean who hasn't on occasion just dreamed up something in their heads and let them take on a life of their own? I just thought she was adorable and funny. Sebastian ... I mentioned he's mysterious. He has that vibe down but I didn't sense anything more from him than just that he's hiding something.
Dial Em For Murder is a cute mystery with some interesting characters that had me giggling at certain moments. The end did raise my eyebrows a bit, in a good way. I think it leaves room for a sequel though I'm not sure if there are plans for that. Check it out and share what you think!
~ Bel
* * 3/4
April is alone in the world. When she was only a baby, her teenage mother took off and now, unbelievably, her dad has died. Nobody's left to take April in except her mom's sister, a free spirit who's a chef in New Orleans--and someone who April's never met. In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, April is suddenly supposed to navigate a city that feels just like she feels, fighting back from impossibly bad breaks. But it's Miles, a bayou boy, who really brings April into the heart of the Big Easy. He takes her to the cemetery where nineteenth-century voodoo queen Marie Laveau is buried, and there, April gets a shocking clue about her own past. Once she has a piece of the puzzle, she knows she will never give up. What she doesn't know is that finding out the truth about her past and the key to her future could cost her everything--maybe even her life.
When April's father passes away, she is left in limbo. Her mother has been out of the picture for years and so now her only family is her estranged aunt, Kate, who lives in New Orleans. This arrangement while necessary is not ideal since April knows nothing about Kate or her mother's side of the family. It's evident how painful this situation is for both of them based on the stilted conversations and awkward silences. April is in a difficult place where she is almost an adult living with her aunt who has never wanted kids but who abruptly has to be responsible for one. There's some hostility between them which is why April seeks solace elsewhere. She meets Miles, a tour guide, when she decides to join his graveyard tour. He sparks in her an interest in New Orleans' voodoo history and gets especially intrigued when she senses a connection that has something to do with her family background.
There were aspects of the story that appealed to me such as the setting and voodoo since that was a new topic for me. I was so intrigued by it that I was secretly hoping the plot would explore more of that but it didn't. Voodoo being as important as it was at the beginning ... I guess I just felt it petered out by the end and a part of me was disappointed. Instead, the second half of the book zeroes in on family and April learning to get used to her new one. The contentious relationship between April and Kate lost me slightly because I didn't connect with either of them. They never hit it off so that was a pall over most of the book. At the same time, I do think it says something about Sobel's writing that I was affected as I was by their poor rapport.
This wasn't really my cup of tea but I recognize that's due to my wishful thinking as far as what I wanted the story to explore. A mystery and some highly suspenseful moments are also included in the plot.In the end, Color Blind reminds us that family can some about in unexpected ways.
~ Bel
