From My Notebook #4: Book Review - The Evolution of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin

When I read I write notes, thoughts, and quotes about the book in a notebook. I sometimes write drafts or full book reviews in my notebooks too. And sometimes I forget to write up a review from those notes. Or sometimes I would forget to type up and/or post those reviews. So From My Notebook will be the notes, thoughts, quotes, or full reviews that I had in one of my notebooks from other the past years that I forgot to share before. 

Title: The Evolution of Mara Dyer 
(Mara Dyer #2)
Author: Michelle Hodkin
Length: 528 pages
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
Classification: Young Adult, Paranormal, Mystery
Release Date: October 23, 2012
Source: Paperback
Read: May 2015

The truth about Mara Dyer's dangerous and mysterious abilities continues to unravel in the New York Times bestselling sequel to the thrilling The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer. Mara Dyer once believed she could run from her past.She can't. She used to think her problems were all in her head. They aren't. She couldn't imagine that after everything she's been through, the boy she loves would still be keeping secrets. She's wrong. In this gripping sequel to The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer, the truth evolves and choices prove deadly. What will become of Mara Dyer next?

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*This is the second book in a trilogy, so this review may contain possible spoilers for the first book, The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer. This is your warning, if you haven't read the first book, then proceed at your own risk of any possible spoilers.*

From My Notebook #1: Book Review - The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin

When I read I write notes, thoughts, and quotes about the book in a notebook. I sometimes write drafts or full book reviews in my notebooks too. And sometimes I forget to write up a review from those notes. Or sometimes I would forget to type up and/or post those reviews. So From My Notebook will be the notes, thoughts, quotes, or full reviews that I had in one of my notebooks from other the past years that I forgot to share before. 

Book Review of The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer

Read: May 2015

Mini Review: Fairest by Marissa Meyer

Title: Fairest 
(The Lunar Chronicles # 3.5)
Author: Marissa Meyer
Length: 222 pages
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Classification: Young Adult, Fairy Tale Retelling, Science Fiction
Release Date: January 27, 2015
Source: Hardback
Read: December 2015

In this stunning bridge book between Cress and Winter in the bestselling Lunar Chronicles, Queen Levana’s story is finally told.
Mirror, mirror on the wall,Who is the fairest of them all?
Fans of the Lunar Chronicles know Queen Levana as a ruler who uses her “glamour” to gain power. But long before she crossed paths with Cinder, Scarlet, and Cress, Levana lived a very different story – a story that has never been told . . . until now. 
Marissa Meyer spins yet another unforgettable tale about love and war, deceit and death. This extraordinary book includes full-color art and an excerpt from Winter, the next book in the Lunar Chronicles series.

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Need by Joelle Charbonneau

Title: Need
Author: Joelle Charbonneau
Length: 352 pages
Publisher: HMH Books for Young Readers
Classification: Young Adult, Thriller, Mystery
Release Date: November 3, 2015
Source: e-galley via NetGalley (Thank you, HMH Books for Young Readers!)
Read: November 2015

"No one gets something for nothing. We all should know better."
Teenagers at Wisconsin's Nottawa High School are drawn deeper into a social networking site that promises to grant their every need . . . regardless of the consequences. Soon the site turns sinister, with simple pranks escalating to malicious crimes. The body count rises. In this chilling YA thriller, the author of the best-selling Testing trilogy examines not only the dark side of social media, but the dark side of human nature. 

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***I received an e-galley of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review***

Reread Review: Cress by Marissa Meyer

Title: Cress
(The Lunar Chronicles #3)
Author: Marissa Meyer
Length: 550 pages
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Classification: Young Adult, Fairy Tale Retelling, Science Fiction
Release Date: February 4, 2014
Source: Hardback
Re-Read: December 2015

In this third book in the Lunar Chronicles, Cinder and Captain Thorne are fugitives on the run, now with Scarlet and Wolf in tow. Together, they’re plotting to overthrow Queen Levana and her army. 
Their best hope lies with Cress, a girl imprisoned on a satellite since childhood who's only ever had her netscreens as company. All that screen time has made Cress an excellent hacker. Unfortunately, she’s just received orders from Levana to track down Cinder and her handsome accomplice. 
When a daring rescue of Cress goes awry, the group is separated. Cress finally has her freedom, but it comes at a high price. Meanwhile, Queen Levana will let nothing prevent her marriage to Emperor Kai. Cress, Scarlet, and Cinder may not have signed up to save the world, but they may be the only hope the world has. 

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Reread Review: Scarlet by Marissa Meyer

Title: Scarlet
(The Lunar Chronicles #2)
Author: Marissa Meyer
Length: 452 pages
Publisher: Feiwel and Friends
Classification: Young Adult, Fairy Tale Retelling, Science Fiction
Release Date: February 5, 2013
Source: Paperback 
Re-Read: November 2015

Cinder is back and trying to break out of prison—even though she'll be the Commonwealth's most wanted fugitive if she does—in this second installment from Marissa Meyer.
Halfway around the world, Scarlet Benoit's grandmother is missing. It turns out there are many things Scarlet doesn't know about her grandmother, or the grave danger she has lived in her whole life. When Scarlet encounters Wolf, a street fighter who may have information as to her grandmother's whereabouts, she is loath to trust this stranger, but is inexplicably drawn to him, and he to her. As Scarlet and Wolf unravel one mystery, they encounter another when they meet Cinder. Now, all of them must stay one step ahead of the vicious Lunar Queen Levana.

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Reread Review: Cinder by Marissa Meyer

Title: Cinder
(The Lunar Chronicles #1)
Author: Marissa Meyer
Length: 390 pages
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Classification: Young Adult, Fairy Tale Retelling, Science Fiction
Release Date: January 3, 2012
Source: Hardback
Reread: September 2015

Humans and androids crowd the raucous streets of New Beijing. A deadly plague ravages the population. From space, a ruthless lunar people watch, waiting to make their move. No one knows that Earth’s fate hinges on one girl.
Cinder, a gifted mechanic, is a cyborg. She’s a second-class citizen with a mysterious past, reviled by her stepmother and blamed for her stepsister’s illness. But when her life becomes intertwined with the handsome Prince Kai’s, she suddenly finds herself at the center of an intergalactic struggle, and a forbidden attraction. Caught between duty and freedom, loyalty and betrayal, she must uncover secrets about her past in order to protect her world’s future.

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Wolf By Wolf by Ryan Graudin

Title: Wolf By Wolf
(Wolf By Wolf #1)
Author: Ryan Graudin
Length: 400 pages
Publisher: Little Brown Books for Young Readers
Classification: Young Adult, Alternative History, Fantasy
Release Date: October 20, 2015
Source: ARC via the NOVL Newsletter (Thank you, NOVL!)

Code Name Verity meets Inglourious Basterds in this fast-paced novel from the author of The Walled City.
The year is 1956, and the Axis powers of the Third Reich and Imperial Japan rule the world. To commemorate their Great Victory over Britain and Russia, Hitler and Emperor Hirohito host the Axis Tour: an annual motorcycle race across their conjoined continents. The victor is awarded an audience with the highly reclusive Adolf Hitler at the Victor's ball.
Yael, who escaped from a death camp, has one goal: Win the race and kill Hitler. A survivor of painful human experimentation, Yael has the power to skinshift and must complete her mission by impersonating last year's only female victor, Adele Wolfe. This deception becomes more difficult when Felix, Adele twin's brother, and Luka, her former love interest, enter the race and watch Yael's every move. But as Yael begins to get closer to the other competitors, can she bring herself to be as ruthless as she needs to be to avoid discovery and complete her mission?

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***I received an ARC of this book from the NOVL Newsletter in exchange for an honest review***

The Trouble With Destiny by Lauren Morrill

Title: The Trouble with Destiny
Author: Lauren Morrill
Length: 272 pages
Publisher: Delacorte
Classification: Young Adult, Contemporary, Romance, Music
Release Date: December 8, 2015
Source: e-galley via NetGalley (Thank you, Delacorte!)
Read: November 2015

It’s not about the destination, it’s about the journey... 
With her trusty baton and six insanely organized clipboards, drum major Liza Sanders is about to take Destiny by storm—the boat, that is. When Liza discovered that her beloved band was losing funding, she found Destiny, a luxury cruise ship complete with pools, midnight chocolate buffets, and a $25,000 spring break talent show prize. 
Liza can’t imagine senior year without the band, and nothing will distract her from achieving victory. She’s therefore not interested when her old camp crush, Lenny, shows up on board, looking shockingly hipster-hot. And she’s especially not interested in Russ, the probably-as-dumb-as-he-is-cute prankster jock whose ex, Demi, happens be Liza’s ex–best friend and leader of the Athenas, a show choir that’s the band’s greatest competition.
But it’s not going to be smooth sailing. After the Destiny breaks down, all of Liza’s best-laid plans start to go awry. Liza likes to think of herself as an expert at almost everything, but when it comes to love, she’s about to find herself lost at sea.

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***I received an e-galley of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review***

Six Impossible Things by Fiona Wood

Title: Six Impossible Things
Author: Fiona Wood
Length: 304 pages
Publisher: Poppy
Classification: Young Adult, Contemporary, Romance
Release Date: August 11, 2015
Source: ARC via NOVL Newsletter (Thank you, NOVL!)
1. Kiss Estelle.2. Get a job.3. Cheer my mother up.4. Try not to be a complete nerd/loser.5. Talk to my father when he calls.6. Figure out how to be good.

Nerd-boy Dan Cereill is not quite coping with a reversal of family fortune, moving, new-school hell, a mother with a failing wedding cake business, a just-out gay dad, and an impossible crush on Estelle, the girl next door. His life is a mess, but for now he's narrowed it down to six impossible things…
In this charming story of one guy’s efforts to get it together when his life is falling apart, award-winning author Fiona Wood introduces an irresistible voice and a delightfully awkward character who is impossible to forget.

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***I received an ARC of this book from the NOVL Newsletter in exchange for an honest review***

Hunter by Mercedes Lackey

Title: Hunter
(Hunter #1)
Author: Mercedes Lackey
Length: 374 pages
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
Classification: Young Adult, Dystopia, Fantasy
Release Date: September 1, 2015
Source: e-galley via NetGalley (Thank you, Disney -Hyperion!)

They came after the Diseray. Some were terrors ripped from our collective imaginations, remnants of every mythology across the world. And some were like nothing anyone had ever dreamed up, even in their worst nightmares.
Monsters.
Long ago, the barriers between our world and the Otherworld were ripped open, and it’s taken centuries to bring back civilization in the wake of the catastrophe. Now, the luckiest Cits live in enclosed communities, behind walls that keep them safe from the hideous creatures fighting to break through. Others are not so lucky.
To Joyeaux Charmand, who has been a Hunter in her tight-knit mountain community since she was a child, every Cit without magic deserves her protection from dangerous Othersiders. Then she is called to Apex City, where the best Hunters are kept to protect the most important people.
Joy soon realizes that the city’s powerful leaders care more about luring Cits into a false sense of security than protecting them. More and more monsters are getting through the barriers, and the close calls are becoming too frequent to ignore. Yet the Cits have no sense of how much danger they’re in—to them, Joy and her corps of fellow Hunters are just action stars they watch on TV.
When an act of sabotage against Joy takes an unbearable toll, she uncovers a terrifying conspiracy in the city. There is something much worse than the usual monsters infiltrating Apex. And it may be too late to stop them…

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***I received an e-galley of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review***

Persuasion by Martina Boone

Title: Persuasion
(The Heirs of Watson Island #2)
Author: Martina Boone
Length: 464 pages
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Classification: Young Adult, Fantasy, Magic, Paranormal
Release Date: October 27, 2015
Source: e-galley via Edelweiss (Thank you, Simon Pulse!)
Read: October 2015

Beautiful Creatures meets The Raven Boys in the spellbinding second novel in the Heirs of Watson Island trilogy that “skillfully blends rich magic and folklore with adventure, sweeping romance, and hidden treasure” (Publishers Weekly, on Compulsion).
Grieving the death of her godfather and haunted by her cousin Cassie’s betrayal, Barrie returns from a trip to San Francisco to find the Watson plantation under siege. Ghost-hunters hope to glimpse the ancient spirit who sets the river on fire each night, and reporters chase rumors of a stolen shipment of Civil War gold that may be hidden at Colesworth Place. The chaos turns dangerous as Cassie hires a team of archeologists to excavate beneath the mansion ruins. Because more is buried there than treasure.
A stranger filled with magic arrives at Watson’s Landing claiming that the key to the Watson and Beaufort gifts—and the Colesworth curse—also lies beneath the mansion. With a mix of threats and promises, the man convinces Barrie and Cassie to cast a spell there at midnight. But what he conjures may have deadly consequences.
While Barrie struggles to make sense of the escalating peril and her growing and forbidden feelings for Eight Beaufort, it’s impossible to know whom to trust and what to fight for—Eight or herself. Millions of dollars and the fate of the founding families is at stake. Now Barrie must choose between what she feels deep in her heart and what will keep Watson’s Landing safe in this stunning addition to a series filled with “decadent settings, mysterious magic, and family histories rife with debauchery” (Kirkus Reviews, on Compulsion).

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***I received an e-galley of this book from the publisher via Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review***

A Thousand Nights by E.K. Johnston

Title: A Thousand Nights
Author: E.K. Johnston
Length: 336 pages
Publisher: Disney Hyperion
Classification: Young Adult, Retellings, Fantasy
Release Date: October 6, 2015
Source: e-galley via NetGalley (Thank you, Disney Hyperion!)
Read: October 2015

Lo-Melkhiin killed three hundred girls before he came to her village, looking for a wife. When she sees the dust cloud on the horizon, she knows he has arrived. She knows he will want the loveliest girl: her sister. She vows she will not let her be next.
And so she is taken in her sister's place, and she believes death will soon follow. Lo-Melkhiin's court is a dangerous palace filled with pretty things: intricate statues with wretched eyes, exquisite threads to weave the most beautiful garments. She sees everything as if for the last time.But the first sun rises and sets, and she is not dead. Night after night, Lo-Melkhiin comes to her and listens to the stories she tells, and day after day she is awoken by the sunrise. Exploring the palace, she begins to unlock years of fear that have tormented and silenced a kingdom. Lo-Melkhiin was not always a cruel ruler. Something went wrong.
Far away, in their village, her sister is mourning. Through her pain, she calls upon the desert winds, conjuring a subtle unseen magic, and something besides death stirs the air.
Back at the palace, the words she speaks to Lo-Melkhiin every night are given a strange life of their own. Little things, at first: a dress from home, a vision of her sister. With each tale she spins, her power grows. Soon she dreams of bigger, more terrible magic: power enough to save a king, if she can put an end to the rule of a monster.

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***I received an e-galley of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review***

Ash & Bramble by Sarah Prineas

Title: Ash & Bramble
Author: Sarah Prineas
Length: 464 pages
Publisher: HarperTeen
Classification: Young Adult, Fairy Tale Retelling, Fantasy
Release Date: September 15, 2015
Source: e-galley via Edelweiss (Thank you, HarperTeen!)
Read: September 2015

A prince.
A ball.
A glass slipper left behind at the stroke of midnight.
The tale is told and retold, twisted and tweaked, snipped and stretched, as it leads to happily ever after.
But it is not the true Story.
A dark fortress.
A past forgotten.
A life of servitude.
No one has ever broken free of the Godmother’s terrible stone prison until a girl named Pin attempts a breathless, daring escape. But she discovers that what seems to be freedom is a prison of another kind, one that entangles her in a story that leads to a prince, a kiss, and a clock striking midnight. To unravel herself from this new life, Pin must choose between a prince and another—the one who helped her before and who would give his life for her. Torn, the only thing for her to do is trade in the glass slipper for a sword and find her own destiny.

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***I received an e-galley of this book from the publisher via Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review***

Spinning Starlight by R.C. Lewis

Title: Spinning Starlight
Author: R.C. Lewis
Length: 336 pages
Publisher: Disney Hyperion
Classification: Young Adult, Fairy Tale Retelling, Science Fiction
Release Date: October 6, 2015
Source: e-galley via NetGalley (Thank you, Disney Hyperion!)
Read: September/October 2015

Sixteen-year-old heiress and paparazzi darling Liddi Jantzen hates the spotlight. But as the only daughter in the most powerful tech family in the galaxy, it's hard to escape it. So when a group of men show up at her house uninvited, she assumes it's just the usual media-grubs. That is, until shots are fired.Liddi escapes, only to be pulled into an interplanetary conspiracy more complex than she ever could have imagined. Her older brothers have been caught as well, trapped in the conduits between the planets. And when their captor implants a device in Liddi's vocal cords to monitor her speech, their lives are in her hands: One word and her brothers are dead.Desperate to save her family from a desolate future, Liddi travels to another world, where she meets the one person who might have the skills to help her bring her eight brothers home-a handsome dignitary named Tiav. But without her voice, Liddi must use every bit of her strength and wit to convince Tiav that her mission is true. With the tenuous balance of the planets deeply intertwined with her brothers' survival, just how much is Liddi willing to sacrifice to bring them back?Haunting and mesmerizing, this retelling of Hans Christian Andersen's The Wild Swans strings the heart of the classic with a stunning, imaginative world as a star-crossed family fights for survival in this companion to Stitching Snow.

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***I received an e-galley of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review***

Ruthless by Carolyn Lee Adams

Title: Ruthless
Author: Carolyn Lee Adams
Length: 256 pages
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Classification: Young Adult, Mystery, Thriller
Release Date: July 14, 2015
Source: e-galley via Edelweiss (Thank you, Simon Pulse!)

A spine-tingling debut about the ultimate game of cat-and-mouse in reverse as a teen struggles to retain hope—and her sanity—while on the run from a cunning and determined killer.
Ruth Carver has always competed like her life depends on it. Ambitious. Tough. Maybe even mean. It’s no wonder people call her Ruthless.
When she wakes up with a concussion in the bed of a moving pickup truck, she realizes she has been entered into a contest she can’t afford to lose.
At a remote, rotting cabin deep in the Blue Ridge Mountains, Ruth’s blindfold comes off and she comes face-to-face with her captor. A man who believes his mission is to punish bad girls like Ruth. A man who has done this six times before.
The other girls were never heard from again, but Ruth won’t go down easy. She escapes into the wilderness, but her hunter is close at her heels. That’s when the real battle begins. That’s when Ruth must decides just how far she’ll go in order to survive.
Back home, they called her Ruthless. They had no idea just how right they were.

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***I received an e-galley of this book from the publisher via Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review***

Silver in the Blood by Jessica Day George

Title: Silver in the Blood
(Silver in the Blood #1)
Author: Jessica Day George
Length: 358 pages
Publisher: Bloomsbury USA Childrens
Classification: Young Adult, Fantasy, Historical Fiction, Paranormal
Release Date: July 7, 2015
Source: e-galley via NetGalley (Thank you, Bloomsbury!)

Society girls from New York City circa 1890, Dacia and Lou never desired to know more about their lineage, instead preferring to gossip about the mysterious Romanian family that they barely knew. But upon turning seventeen, the girls must return to their homeland to meet their relatives, find proper husbands, and—most terrifyingly—learn the deep family secrets of The Claw, The Wing, and The Smoke. The Florescus, after all, are shape-shifters, and it is time for Dacia and Lou to fulfill the prophecy that demands their acceptance of this fate... or fight against this cruel inheritance with all their might.
With a gorgeous Romanian setting, stunning Parisian gowns, and dark brooding young men, readers will be swept up by this epic adventure of two girls in a battle for their lives.

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***I received an e-galley of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review***

Lock & Mori by Heather W. Petty

Title: Lock & Mori
(Lock & Mori #1)
Author: Heather W. Petty
Length: 256 pages
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
Classification: Young Adult, Mystery, Retelling, Crime
Release Date: September 15, 2015
Source: e-galley via Edelweiss (Thank you, Simon & Schuster!)
Read: September 2015

In modern-day London, two brilliant high school students, one Sherlock Holmes and a Miss James "Mori" Moriarty, meet. A murder will bring them together. The truth very well might drive them apart.
Before they were mortal enemies, they were much more.
FACT: Someone has been murdered in London's Regent's Park. The police have no leads.
FACT: Miss James "Mori"Moriarty and Sherlock "Lock" Holmes should be hitting the books on a school night. Instead, they are out crashing a crime scene.
FACT: Lock has challenged Mori to solve the case before he does. Challenge accepted.
FACT: Despite agreeing to Lock's one rule--they must share every clue with each other--Mori is keeping secrets.
OBSERVATION: Sometimes you can't trust the people closest to you with matters of the heart. And after this case, Mori may never trust Lock again.

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***I received an e-galley of this book from the publisher via Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review***

Mechanica by Betsy Cornwell

Title: Mechanica
Author: Betsy Cornwell
Length: 304 pages
Publisher: Clarion Books
Classification: Young Adult, Fairy Tale Retelling, Science Fiction, Steampunk, Fantasy
Release Date: August 25, 2015
Source: e-galley via NetGalley (Thank you HMH Books!)
Read: August 2015

Nicolette’s awful stepsisters call her “Mechanica” to demean her, but the nickname fits: she learned to be an inventor at her mother’s knee. Her mom is gone now, though, and the Steps have turned her into a servant in her own home. 
But on her sixteenth birthday, Nicolette discovers a secret workshop in the cellar and begins to dare to imagine a new life for herself. Could the mysterious books and tools hidden there—and the mechanical menagerie, led by a tiny metal horse named Jules—be the key to escaping her dreary existence? With a technological exposition and royal ball on the horizon, the timing might just be perfect for Nicolette to earn her freedom at last.
Gorgeous prose and themes of social justice and family shine in this richly imagined Cinderella retelling about an indomitable inventor who finds her prince . . . but realizes she doesn't want a fairy tale happy ending after all.

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***I received an e-galley of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review***

Mini-Review: Hollywood Witch Hunter by Valerie Tejeda

Title: Hollywood Witch Hunter
Author: Valerie Tejeda
Length: 250 pages
Publisher: Bloomsbury Spark
Classification: Young Adult, Fantasy, Paranormal
Release Date: July 20, 2015
Source: e-galley via NetGalley (Thank you, Bloomsbury!)

From the moment she first learned the truth about witches…she knew she was born to fight them.
Now, at sixteen, Iris is the lone girl on the Witch Hunters Special Ops Team.
But when Iris meets a boy named Arlo, he might just be the key to preventing an evil uprising in Southern California.
Together they're ready to protect the human race at all costs. Because that's what witch hunters do.
Welcome to Hollywood.

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***I received an e-galley of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review***