Review of Dead Is the New Black by Marlene Perez

Rating = 3
Young Adult

Everyone in Daisy's family is psychic... except her. She appears to be a "normal" like her father who mysteriously disappeared a year ago. Daisy's mother uses her talent to solve crimes and when teenage girls in the town of Nightshade begin to die mysteriously, Daisy decides to solve the case herself. She is aided in her task by her best friend Ryan. When she and Ryan discover that cheerleaders in their high school seem to be targets and the killer appears to be a particularly vicious form of vampire, Daisy joins the cheerleading squad to get investigate. Daisy soon finds herself in grave danger; Ryan is starting to become more than just a "friend; and most importantly of all, Daisy discovers she has some psychic talent after all!

This is a light, humurous and entertaining read. In general, I'm not a huge fan of the vampire genre, but this one was fun. The romance beween Ryan and Daisy is a realistic teen romance and the focus is more on psychic talent than vampirism. This is the first book in the "Dead Is..." series by Perez. Read by Suzy Jackson.

Review: The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner by Stephenie Meyer

Rating: 3

I am a great fan of Stephenie Meyer...all of the Twilight books, of course, and also her adult fiction novel, The Host.  So, I couldn't pass up this novella, related to the Twilight series.  If you are a Twilight fan, you will remember that Victoria vowed to kill Bella and raised a newborn army of vampires to do so.  One of those newborns was a girl named Bree Tanner.  The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner is told from Bree's perspective as a newborn vampire, hanging with a group of other newborns and answering to an older vampire, Riley. Bree isn't sure she likes Riley and doesn't trust the other newborns because they are so out of control.  Being a newborn, all she can think of is her hunger, but Riley has decreed that they must not feast on anyone but the dregs of society so they can keep out of the public eye until "she" is ready for them. Bree isn't sure who "she" is, but she sounds frightening.  Bree gets to know another new vampire named Diego who is equally distrustful of Riley and together they try to find out what is going on.
Bree Tanner is a quick read and very suspenseful in its own way, considering that we really know what's going to happen. It's not an essential part of the series, but it's entertaining.