RELEASE DAY! : The Lost Sister

The Lost Sisterby Megan Kelley HallI spent the weekend reading this book because I was so excited to get it in the mail last Thursday. Everything else I was currently reading was tossed aside (my apologies to Maggie Stiefvater as I only have about 70 pages left of Lament!) as I snuggled up with The Lost Sister. I really wish I could have re-read Sisters of Misery so I could refresh my memory of what exactly happened in the end, but sadly, my copy is still visiting Sassymonkey and neither of us have been visiting since last October when I lent it to her.Thankfully, there's a prologue where events were recounted and once I got a few pages into the book it all came back to me.  At the end of Sisters you're left wondering what happened to Cordelia, the sister of Maddie Crane after she goes missing on Halloween night. As Maddie attempts to find out what happened to her sister she's threatened.Now, Maddie has transferred to a boarding school in Maine, leaving her small-town Massachusetts home behind. She's not given up the quest to find Cordelia, though she's still thwarted at every turn. Now it also seems that everyone once connected to the Sisters of Misery in some way are received Tarot cards in the mail. When Maddie returns home for Winter break to help take care of her mother who has cancer, she's drawn back into the mystery of Cordelia.And I have been trying to think of what to say about this book. I liked it, though not as much as the first, but I found the second half of the book... I dunno, rushed or something. Sisters was so full of suspense and very creepy at times and there was this whole mystery surrounding Cordelia's disappearance and in this book, well, it's sort of like no one gets phased about anything! I don't want to give anything away, but there's just something bothering me about everyone's reaction to one BIG thing that just doesn't jibe. You'd think after all this terror and mystery in the first book that people would, you know, have a reaction, but they don't. Things are just accepted and then they move on.I would have liked a little more suspense in this novel. Part of what I loved about Sisters of Misery was the suspense. The Sisters aren't even really in this book, it's more about Maddie's short visit and some other stuff that happens (at least there are murders! I love murders! -- In books, that is!!).I found that the book started in one tone and one path and then flips both tone and path half-way through. I like that everything was resolved, but at the same time I was yelling "What? Is everyone in this town on Valium? Why is everyone so bloody calm about everything!? You thought this person was dead and when you see the person again you're like, 'Oh, hey, how's it going?' Ahhhh!"I am  not saying at all that I didn't like this book, because I did. I just felt like it wasn't going to keep me awake at night, like the first one did. (It did help that I was reading this through 3 huge thunderstorms and I am terrified of thunderstorms!)** Upon rereading this review in my blog feeds (yes, I follow my own blogs to make sure they are updating ok!) I realize it sounds a lot more negative than I ever meant it to! I focused too much on what I didn't like in the book and not enough on what I loved, like the writing and the fact that the author writes a GREAT mystery! There is SO much going on in the book that though I had trouble keeping up with it, it takes a fantastic creative brain to even think of every little nuance and clue/hint and then tying it all together! I really like Maddie, and I HATE her mother (forgot about how much I wanted to smack Abigail in the first book. GAH!) and I loved the relationship that Maddie and Cordelia had. I love Reed and Finn is such an interesting character - Megan needs to write a story just about him! I was surprised by the revelations at the end of the book. The Whodunnit was not what I expected at all - and that happened twice! It's rare that an author can write a book that I will not be able to figure out of the ending to! So take my word-of-mouth  : this book is worth picking up (but read Sisters of Misery first!!). It is so worth it!! **And lastly, I would like to thank Megan Kelley Hall for not only writing great books, but for also being an author who cares. Last summer when I posted about my woes in trying to buy a copy of Sisters of Misery in Canada, she was kind enough to help me out. She was also kind enough to put me on a review list for this new one, which I was about to pre-order. Sadly due to some, er, "technical difficulties" we'll say, she ended up having to send me a copy herself yet again. I am sure I am not her only Canadian fan, but I want to let her know how much I appreciate what she's done and I am very happy to have gotten to know Megan over the last year.