Book Review: The Sixes by Kate White

Phoebe Hall is a celebrity biographer disgraced by a plagiarism scandal in New York City, fortunately, her best friend Glenda is the President of Lyle University and hires Phoebe to teach journalism.  Lyle is a sleepy New England college that has had some unusual disappearances and shortly after Phoebe's arrival a student is murdered.  Glenda and other school staff are certain a secret society "The Sixes" are behind the crime and she asks Phoebe to research and destroy The Sixes.  Phoebe must face her own demons and endure several terrifying experiences as she solves the murder and uncovers the Sixes.
This is Chic lit at its most mediocre, it's equivalent to watching a Lifetime movie on a snowy Sunday, its not good but not bad enough to take your arms out of the blanket and change channels. You are half asleep but still predicted the ending.  
The plot is weak and the Sixes do not figure into the story as much as you would think.  Of course the story needed the handsome brooding love interest with a mysterious past, Duncan Shaw. Phoebe and Duncan's affair is full of turmoil and you never really feel a connection between them, even though she is frequently weak with desire. 
The Sixes are a pretty lame secret society, the "terrorize" Phoebe by leaving six apples in her kitchen and six spoons wrapped in a Tarot card in her dish washer.  They did leave six live rats in her freezer - that was a decent prank.  Phoebe never calls in the police in any of these incidents, just campus security and Glenda.  If someone broke into my house a left rats in my freezer, I'd call the cops.  The sixes also use Phoebe's past incidents with a secret society and her trouble with plagiarism to scare her.  It's all pretty weak.
The book solves everything very neatly and conveniently, however, it felt odd because the culprits were really strung out. Several people were involved but yet they were not connected.  I felt like the author wanted to make things more complex yet it made the ending seem rushed and lets just place blame on weird characters
I would not recommend this book, its not a guilty pleasure, its not fun, its not original, it barely held my interest, it was just ok.  So if you are in the mood for a bad Lifetime movie and don't have a TV, read this. 

Hardcover, 384 pages

Published August 2nd 2011 by Harper (first published August 1st 2011)

ISBN

006157662X (ISBN13: 9780061576621)

edition language

English

The Yonahlossee Riding Camp for Girls review

My first blogged book review - I had other intentions for my first book blog but I finished this, wrote my Goodreads review and though why not just jump in with a review!    If you need a good vacation read this summer I recommend......

The Yonahlossee Riding Camp for Girls 

Anton Disclafani

 

Hardcover, 400 pages

Published June 4th 2013 by Riverhead Hardcover (first published January 1st 2013)

ISBN

1594486409 (ISBN13: 9781594486401)

edition language

English

Thea Atwell is a naive, sheltered, spoiled 15 year old girl sent away from her Florida home after a scandal that shakes up her family. You figure out pretty quickly what the scandal is even though the full details do not emerge until the very end of the book.  The story bounces back and forth between the present and the past and we get the background of the scandal slowly through out the book.  Thea spends one year at Yonahlossee, however nothing much happens and the passage of time can be difficult to understand. One paragraph they are at a dance the next its two months later and Christmas.  The scene near the end of the book where she is preparing to leave and is up looking at a photo and flashing back to home really threw me, even after rereading several times I just didn't get what was happening when and why some of it was important.
Thea's flippant attitude about what happened to her what continues to happen to her was the most irritating thing about the book - she was there and bad stuff happened and she moved on.  She never learned or grew from any of these experiences.  I sort of struggled with what was Thea's role in the scandal - was she a victim or did she know the consequences of her actions and was a willing participant?  I think she knew on some level, but a teenage mind could not understand the far reaching consequences and she was sort of a victim, her cousin understood more than she did and I thought a bit manipulative.  However, Thea learns nothing and repeats her errors while at camp. Up until the end she could never see her part in anything that happened, bad stuff just happened around her.
The riding part of the story was interesting, however, it was unbelievable that she was as an advanced a rider as she was considering she had just been riding around her property in Florida on her pony - she had never had formal lessons etc.  Hard to believe she was the best rider there.
Overall, I really enjoyed this book.  The story stuck with me, the descriptions were lush and beautiful and I couldn't put it down.  I can understand why it is on many must read lists.