Bookworm 4 Life

by Laurie Faria Stolarz

Camelia’s life is pretty ordinary until the day she almost dies.  Walking across the school parking lot, she is barely missed by a careening, out-of-control car.  The car only missed her because a young man saved her, pushed her out of the way in the nick of time then left before she could learn who he was.  Now, it’s the beginning of a new school year and guess who’s a new student at her school?  Her savior.  His name is Ben Carter.  She’s happy to finally have a name to the face and to be able to say thank you but things aren’t exactly as they seem with Ben.  He is sullen, withdrawn, a loner.  He looks like he has a secret.  Rumor around school is that he killed his last girlfriend.  Is it true?  Is Ben dangerous?  Camelia is determined to find out.  Camelia begins to get strange phone calls and gifts left for her inside her locked house.  At first, the messages are just creepy but soon they become threatening and even deadly.  Who is stalking Camelia?  Could it be Ben?  Could it be anyone else?

Reaction: Meh.  I just wasn’t that into this one.  It wasn’t bad but it wasn’t that great either.  While I have a laundry list of minor complaints, my main ones were that I felt as though the author was throwing suspects at me by telling me about all of the guys that seemed to be into this plain, otherwise nondescript girl.  Ex-bf Matt, hunk John, boss Spencer, and, of course, probably killed his ex-girlfriend Ben.  When each guy is introduced Camelia’s best friend is there telling Camelia how they are all into her and staring at her.  It was a bit over the top.  Speaking of over the top, Camelia’s two best friends, Kimmie and Wes, seemed like outrageous caricatures, not real people.  Finally, I just didn’t get the relationship between Camelia and Ben.  I really couldn’t figure out the attraction between the two.  I think that I will be in the minority with my average feelings of this one.  While I’m not sure that anyone is going to be wowed by it, I believe there will be many that will thoroughly enjoy it and not really share my complaints.  I was pretty spooked out by some of the stalker parts and I did enjoy that horror-movie feel to it but I think I may just skim the sequel.

Btw, doesn’t the saving-girl-from-car scene sound a little familiar?  Hello, Bella and Edward.  And then Ben’s presence and ability to save Camelia is never really explained.  Hm.

Next: Deadly Little Lies (Dec. 2009?)