Day 25 April A to Z Challenge my theme is characters from books I’ve read plus some audience participation.
Letter Y is for Yvette from The Mystery Box by Eva Pohler.
I really didn’t know what to expect from this book. It’s a mystery thriller with many different emotions running through it. Yvette and her family live in Texas. They share a fence with a cranky women they’ve nicknamed Cruella she moans when their dog barks and the kids are too noisy. One day a mystery package arrives and Yvette discovers it belongs to Cruella.
Cruella’s real name is Mona and when Yvette deliveries the package she finds a strange lonely woman who has a tale to tell. Mona invites Yvette to her house and begins a spine chilling story. Yvette becomes hooked by the tale and Mona drip feeds her instalments each day. However all Yvette’s instincts are on high alert, something’s not right.
A second story evolves, Yvette’s life is mundane and she’s becoming estranged from her husband. Memories of her childhood and relations with her mother surface as the book continues. Yvette is appalled by Mona’s tale but each day she’s left on a cliff edge and like a drug she wants to hear more. But who is Mona? She tells Yvette about the Taliban spy’s lover and her relationship with Professor Ahmed Jaffar.
Yvette believes Mona may have suffered from the Stockholm syndrome. Feelings of affection of a kid-napping victim for their captor. With the family away camping Mona’s tale comes to a shocking end. One which makes Yvette flee, but running won’t keep Yvette and her family safe.
I was never sure if Mona could be trusted or not, and like Yvette my instincts saw red. This was a very clever tale which turned eerily sinister.
Find a copy here from Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com
For my audience participation I’m asking readers to create book titles using the letter Y for the picture below.
A book title and cover picture can often make or break a book sale. Is a book cover eye-catching? Does the book title appeal to the reader?
Have fun creating book titles from my own pictures, you might even think about a genre they could fit.
Leave your answers in the comments below and I’ll choose my favourites.
Randomly selected fellow challenge bloggers for you to visit.
https://shailajav.wordpress.com/
https://blogarhythmblog.wordpress.com/
http://bish-randomthoughts.blogspot.co.uk/
As part of the tour we ask that readers leave comments on blog posts, thank you
Fifteen-year-old Therese watches her parents die. While in a coma, she meets the twin sons of Hades—Hypnos, the god of sleep, and Thanatos, the god of death. She thinks she’s manipulating a dream, not kissing the god of death and totally rocking his world. Than makes a deal with Hades and goes as a mortal to the Upperworld to try and win Therese’s heart, but not all the gods are happy. Some give her gifts. Others try to kill her. The deal requires Therese to avenge the death of her parents. With the help of Than’s fierce and exotic sisters, the Furies, she finds herself in an arena face to face with the murderer, and only one will survive. 
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For Kaeden Parish, life in Solace has always followed certain rules—everything makes sense, everything can be planned for, and everything is as it seems. Unfortunately, the secret harbored by his gorgeous, albeit guarded girlfriend is about to shatter all of that. After a successful attack on his life opens his eyes to a world of war, shadows, and supernatural creatures—a world he didn’t plan for—Kaeden finds himself resembling the sort of monster he has always feared. As he desperately struggles to resist a new temptation, danger draws ever nearer, threatening the ones he loves most. A prophecy tells of a final battle and great destruction, and Kaeden must decide which side he is on, a choice that could mean the end of the world. In Book 1 of the Solace Series, P.K. Gallagher pulls readers into a realm where good and evil are at war, and the outcome of it all rests on one young man’s decision to either go and live…or stay and die. This is where Parish begins. 
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Leah Vindral is suffocating–trapped in her own skin. In a land where magic is feared, magic saved her from death … but it came with a terrible price. Marked forever, she is shunned and isolated by those she loves most. Brimming with bitter rage at those who abandoned her, Leah flees from her childhood home only to be swept into an impending war: Mora, a wicked witch, has been imprisoned for years, waiting like a spider in the folds of her web for the chance to regain the powers once stripped from her. It is there, while she waits, that she learns of a strange young girl … a girl who can speak to unicorns. Now Leah must save the country that shuns her, for if Mora returns to power, all will be lost. But can Leah, who is so frightened and confused herself, find the strength to save them all?
One September evening, around twilight, Francesca Shaunessy calls out for her dog to come to heel – however instead of a black Labrador, a dragon like beast emerges from the mists surrounding the twelfth century church and graveyard, followed closely by his rider. Frankie is astounded to discover she has an unexpected gift: She is a “Griffin Cryer”. Balkind is the sweetest most loveable griffin ever. Unfortunately his rider is the rudest man in this world or any other. Despite problems at school, and a complicated home life, Frankie feels compelled to help the Rider and his griffin return home to Ella-Earth. In doing so, Frankie escapes her own emotional prison, and becomes aware that there’s a chance that she can help her comatose twin brother back into this world. 
When fifteen-year-old Jacob Lau is pulled from the crumpled remains of his mother’s car, no one can explain why he was driving or why the police can’t find his mother’s body. A beautiful and mysterious neighbour offers to use her unique abilities to help him find his mom. But in exchange she requires Jacob to train as a Soulkeeper, a protector of human souls. He agrees to her demands, desperate for any clue to the mystery of his mother’s disappearance. But soon Jacob finds himself trapped in a web of half-truths, and questions her motives for helping him. 
Ever since her sixteenth birthday, strange things keep happening to Seraphina Parrish. The Lady in Black… burns Sera’s memories. Unexplainable premonitions… catapult her to other cities. The Grungy Gang… wants to kill her. And a beautiful, mysterious boy… stalks her. But when Sera moves to Chicago, and her aunt reveals their family connection to a centuries old, secret society, she is immediately thrust into an unbelievable fantasy world, leading her on a quest to unravel the mysteries that plague her. In the end, their meanings crash into an epic struggle of loyalty and betrayal, and she’ll be forced to choose between the boy who has stolen her heart and the thing she desires most. Wander Dust is the breath-taking fantasy that will catapult you through a story of time, adventure, and love. 
Rosie Amber 