For me, summer conjures images of sunlight glittering off warm water and a
shaded lounge chair with me stretched out on it. In one hand is a nice, cold
lemonade. In the other hand is one of the many books from my To-Be-Read pile,
which has grown so large it can no longer really be considered a pile really but
more of a mountain. The reality of summer is a little less picturesque, but any
time I get a chance to bask in the sun with a new book and the sound of water in
the background, I take it.
Here in Missouri we’re over a 1,000 miles from either ocean, so we head to one
of the many lakes for our beach fun. The Lake of the Ozarks is a sprawling lake
with 1,375 miles of shoreline (more than California), but what is truly
fascinating to me is what is hidden beneath the water. When Bagnell Dam was
built between 1929 and 1931, there were 60 cemeteries with nearly 2,800 hundred
graves located in the projected flood plain. Union Electric Company, who’d
contracted to build the dam, did everything they could to locate the graves,
exhume the bodies, and relocate them to six new cemeteries they’d prepared. Many
of the graves were unmarked and locations came down by word of mouth through
families. Only half of the bodies were moved before the valley filled with the
tons of water that is now Lake of the Ozarks.
This hidden history, the buried secrets and unmarked graves, fascinates me.
Which is why for my summer reads, I prefer the mysterious, the haunting, and the
chilling. What secrets are buried beneath the beautiful world, hidden from sight
just waiting for the day they will be exposed?
Here are my top three picks for YA novels with secrets that lurk beneath the
surface, stories that will haunt you long after you’ve finished the final page.
Summer YA Reads That Will Give You Chills
VENGEANCE
|
No one really believes in curses. Until people
start dying. VENGEANCE
is the sequel to Megan
Miranda’s first novel FRACTURE. Delaney Maxwell died. She went into the frozen waters of
Falcon Lake and her heart stopped for eleven minutes, and yet she came back
despite all medical predictions. She wants to be normal, but she knows she came
out of that water different. When people around her begin to die, whispers of a
curse swirl in her wake. Is Delaney cursed, and if so, how can she save those
she loves from herself? |
LIV, FOREVER
|
Liv Bloom is thrilled to have earned a scholarship
to study artwork at Wickham Hall and finally get out of the foster system. So
the place is a little stuffy with weird rituals and traditions, but it is her
chance to make something of herself. Her happiness is doomed, because two weeks
after her arrival, Liv is brutally murdered. In death, she discovers that she’s
the latest victim of conspiracy. Can Liv expose the secrets that haunt Wickham
Hall? Fresh Fiction reviewers Lynn Cunningham, Samantha Randolph, and Debbie
Wiley have all praised LIV,
FOREVER, calling it spooky, hard to put down, and to die for. I can’t wait
to learn the secrets of Wickham Hall and what happens to Liv. |
BLUR
|
A young girl is found dead in Lake Algonquin, and
Daniel Byers believes it was an accident just like the rest of the town, until
he sees a terrifying vision of Emily at her funeral. Convinced he’s not
hallucinating, Daniel begins to look into Emily’s death even as his grip on
reality begins to blur. BLUR is the first in a new trilogy by Steven James, a master
storyteller who know how to keep his readers on the edge of their seats. I’m
excited to see where James takes this new trilogy and what is in store for
Daniel as reality shifts around him. |
Tell me, dear readers, what mysteries and hidden secrets will you uncover
this summer?
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