One Hundred Candles by Mara Purnhagen

Summary/Cover Image from Goodreads:

It’s taken a long time for Charlotte Silver to feel like a normal teenager. But now that she’s settled in a new school, where she’s made friends who know about her parent’s infamous paranormal investigations, it feels like everything is falling into place. And what better way to be normal than to go on a date with the popular Harris Abbott? After all, it’s not as if Noah is anything more than a friend.

But Charlotte’s new life takes a disturbing detour when Harris takes her to a party where they play a game called One Hundred Candles. It all seems like harmless, ghostly fun. Until the spirits supposedly unleashed by the game start showing up at school. Now, Charlotte, her friends and her family are in very real danger, and the door that she’s opened into another realm may yield deadly consequences.

Review:

With every one of Mara Purnhagen's books I read I come to like her more and more as an author, and with One Hundred Candles this trend has continued thankfully. Because not only is One Hundred Candles Mara's best book yet, but this one is filled with even more suspense, romance, and intrigue than its prequel Past Midnight.

One Hundred Candles begins on Charlotte Silver's Christmas day, and while most families spend the day relaxing and having fun at home, Charlotte's doesn't, though, they've never been one to be normal. Instead they are spending their day at a empty and supposedly haunted sanitarium filming a segment for one of Charlotte's parents' documentaries. Though, a quick trip to the sanitarium soon turns deadly, landing Charlotte in the ER with a bruised arm and her parents in one of their biggest clashes ever. Returning home Charlotte hopes everything will quickly return to normal, though everything soon goes amiss when she plays a game called One Hundred Candles at a party. With the game comes mysteries and paranormal happenings, as well as the most deadly energies Charlotte's dealt with yet. So, will Charlotte be able to rise to the task and finish it off once and for all, or will she fail at the task? Better yet, what about Harris, the new guy who is paying attention to her? Does he truly like her, or this something more sinister to his intentions? Only time will tell in this deadly and spooky follow up to Past Midnight!

In this fantastic, action packed sequel there's more of everything- plot development, character development, you name it...

Though, my absolutely favorite out all of it was the character development. In Past Midnight, I was only to quickly come to like Charlotte and in One Hundred Candles this trend continued. One of the things I love most about Charlotte is her spunk that always leads her to be fearless when it comes to helping her friends and family out and in this addition this trait continued to be prevalent. Better yet, I loved how Charlotte got some romance in this one, because not only did it lead to an interesting sub-plot, but it also lead to some much needed tension between Charlotte and her friend Noah, a guy who may just be perfect for Charlotte if they gave each other a chance.

Adding to this, I loved the plot of this book. It was filled with enough action and suspense to keep my hands stuck to the pages like glue. I was ceaselessly wondering what would occur next, especially when it came to the events following the One Hundred Candles game. And while I'm one to get annoyed with cliff-hanger endings, the one at the end of One Hundred Candles was fabulous and well worth the frustration I'm now feeling over having to wait until Fall '11 to find out what will happen next.

In all, if you're a fan of paranormal books, be sure to pick up Past Midnight as well as One Hundred Candles. These are two books that are sure to rock your world and they may even add a certain new author to your list of favorite authors ever!

Grade: A+

One Hundred Candles is now out!

Source: Netgalley