Two Fall Thrillers: Remember Me by Romily Bernard and Blood of My Blood by Barry Lyga

If you're a regular reader of the blog, you know that I love mysteries and thrillers. Often, perhaps because of adult squeamishness over the appropriateness of scary, gory books for teens, YA thrillers don't always seem that thrilling to me.  But these two books offer suspense and chills that should please most readers. Also, both of them feature main characters who are the children of criminals.

Remember Me (Find Me #2)

by Romily Bernard

To be published on September 23, 2014

by Harper Teen

Source: eARC from publisher

My review of Find Me

Synopsis from Goodreads: Wick had thought her troubles were over. But she should’ve known better.
Not only is she embroiled in a new murder case, which starts with a body with “Remember Me” carved into it and doesn’t stop there, but she also discovers new evidence surrounding her mother’s suicide…which leads her right back to her imprisoned deadbeat dad. And she has to deal with her flirty new hacker friend, Milo, sniffing around—which her boyfriend, Griff, isn’t too happy about.  The pressure might be too much as secrets—including Wick’s own—climb to the surface.

My take: I really enjoyed Find Me, which came out a year ago, even if I did guess the killer's identity right off. What I love about these books is the whole set-up -- Wick is a teen hacker who is the also child of a jailed drug dealer. In book one, with their father in prison and their mother dead, Wick and her younger sister have been adopted by a nice, middle-class couple. Wick's life should be easier, but instead is drawn into two different problems: the suspicious death of a classmate and a local cop's desire to pump her for information about her father's drug dealing.

Remember Me follows that same pattern. The assistant of a local judge turns up dead, and Wick realizes that the judge had a lot of suspicious secrets, some tied to her own past. The cop, Carson, is still on her case, pressuring her to help him. As if that's not bad enough, someone is sending Wick videos of her mother, who committed suicide.

I really enjoyed Remember Me. It was well-paced and well-plotted, with all the intertwined storylines working together. My favorite part of the story was all the intrigue surrounding Wick and her parents, and her attempts to thwart Carson as he tries to manipulate her. As with the last book, I guessed the killer right off. What I didn't guess was that, as the synopsis suggests, a very bothersome love triangle would develop toward the end -- hit button for spoiler about both these things:

In both books, the killer is made to look so unthreatening that I was sure s/he was guilty as sin. And I was right in both cases. Now, to the love triangle. I definitely had a big issue with that, because it used some of my very least favorite love triangle tricks. 1) Griff became kind of a jerk, 2) They start hiding things from each other, 3) There was a bit of the "must push you away from your own good" thing going on, and 4) Wick goes running right to a new guy, who's a friend of Griff's. Whhhhyyyy?

 I can see the triangle creating a lot of angst in the next book, which does not please me, but I think it will also offer some interesting revelations about Wick's family. If you're a fan of thrillers and mysteries and can tolerate a triangle, you might want to check these books out.

Blood of my Blood (Jasper Dent #3)
by Barry Lyga
Published by Little, Brown
on September 9, 2014

Source: bought

My review of I Hunt Killers
My review of Game

Synopsis from Goodreads: Jazz Dent has been shot and left to die in New York City. His girlfriend Connie is in the clutches of Jazz's serial killer father, Billy. And his best friend Howie is bleeding to death on the floor of Jazz's own home in tiny Lobo's Nod. Somehow, these three must rise above the horrors their lives have become and find a way to come together in pursuit of Billy. But then Jazz crosses a line he's never crossed before, and soon the entire country is wondering: "Like father, like son?" Who is the true monster?  The chase is on, and beyond Billy there lurks something much, much worse. Prepare to meet...the Crow King.

My take:  I've enjoyed this trilogy so much, and am happy to say that Blood of My Blood does not disappoint.  Book one, I Hunt Killers, set up such an intriguing premise -- the son of a serial killer is trying to live on the straight and narrow, even help police catch other killers. But ... are criminals made or born? Does Jazz have any hope of a happy, normal life, or is he doomed to follow in his father's murderous footsteps?

I felt that book two, Game, was a bit of a detour, plot- and theme-wise. But Blood of My Blood gave me everything I'd been waiting for -- some information on the triple cliffhanger that ended book two, a showdown between Jazz and Billy, information about Jazz's mother, resolution about a nightmare that had been haunting Jazz, the unmasking of the Crow King and Ugly J -- it was all there.

Jazz, his girlfriend Connie and his best friend Howie make a great team, and this story gave each of them a chance to shine. These books have also been a psychological study of Jazz, and this book took Jazz to the very edge, making me really wonder whether he'd ever be able to pull himself back.  Blood of my Blood was gory, suspenseful and thoroughly satisfying!