Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Review: Texas Gothic

Texas Gothic, by Rosemary Clement-Moore. The GoodReads summary:
Amy Goodnight's family is far from normal. She comes from a line of witches, but tries her best to stay far outside the family business. Her summer gig? Ranch-sitting for her aunt with her wacky but beautiful sister. Only the Goodnight Ranch is even less normal than it normally is. Bodies are being discovered, a ghost is on the prowl, and everywhere she turns, the hot neighbor cowboy is in her face.
Even though the reviews I read about this book were kinda mixed, I still knew that it would be a book I would totally enjoy. Isn’t it weird how that happens sometimes? And I was proved right about liking it from the first sentence: “The goat was in the tree again”--I don’t know what else I could ask for in a first sentence. The whole first chapter is probably one of my favorites that I’ve read recently. Let me give you a teaser: it involves Amy chasing a cow out of her yard in her underwear and (of course) running into a hot cowboy while she’s doing it.

I loved Amy so much. She’s one of those characters that I know without a doubt I would be friends with if she were real. She’s funny and sarcastic and level-headed; she’s confident and brave without doing completely reckless things (and the reckless things she does do she has a reason for). Ben is a hot cowboy, so that’s pretty much all I needed to know to fall in love. He’s cranky and uptight (for fairly good reasons), but he’s always a gentlemen and he’s there when it counts. And hooray for no insta-love! Amy and Ben argue a lot throughout the book, but it’s, you know, the sexual-tension-building kind of arguing, so I was on board.

This book was a mystery/ghost/witch story--which I was so, so happy about. I love mysteries, and I’m always glad when they pop up in YA. This was more of a Scooby-Doo or Nancy Drew kind of mystery though, so don’t go into it expecting a complicated and suspenseful mystery where you don’t know who the bad guy is until the very end.

Overall, I really liked this book. Amy was such a great character (and she graduated from high school, so it’s older YA--yay!) and I never got tired of her or annoyed. The mystery was a lot of fun and I loved that Amy and her sister are witches. Basically, this book was a win all around for me.

3 comments:

  1. Sigh, if not for the ghost thing I would be all over this one. I am such a chicken and even if the book isn't that scary, my mind will make up for it. On a scale of 1 to 10, how spooky would you rate this? I so want to read it...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. If 10 is super scary, I would give this book a 3 or so. Maybe a 4 if you include the suspenseful things that don't include the ghost. They talk about the ghost way more than it actually shows up, and it doesn't show up all that often anyway.

      Delete
  2. Haha I really want to read this it sounds so fun! I also often become the black sheep when everyone seems to either love or hate a book. Great review Karen!

    Giselle
    Xpresso Reads

    ReplyDelete

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...