WiHi: Book 2 Circle of Silence by Carol M. Tanzman

Release date: July 24, 2012
Publisher: Harlequin
Format: ebook (ARC by Netgalley)
Age Group: Young Adults
Pages: 283 (275 not counting the title/cover page, etc)
Source for Synopsis: Goodreads
Challenge: (personal) 2012 Reading Challenge

THE BIGGEST STORY OF MY LIFE COULD BE HOW IT ENDS It’s my turn to run a “Campus News” crew, and I’ve put together a team that can break stories wide open. And Washington Irving High has a truly great one to cover, if only we can find a lead.

A secret society has formed in our school. It announced its presence with pranks: underwear on the flagpole, a toilet in the hallway, cryptic notes. A circle of silence keeps the society a mystery. No one knows its members, agenda or initiation secrets-until a student lands in the hospital under “strange” circumstances.

I “will” blow this story wide open and stop others from being hurt…or worse. And while my ex, Jagger, might want to help, I don’t trust him yet. (And, no, not because of our past together. That is “not” important to this story.)

But whether you find me, Valerie Gaines, reporting in front of the camera, or a victim in the top story of the newscast…be sure to watch “Campus News” at 9:00 a.m. this Friday.

Some Quotes

I forgot to look for and write some when I was reading this book, and since it’s an ebook, I don’t feel like skimming through it. So, this time, like a few other times, there are no quotes to share here, unless I feel like skimming the book later for some quotes.

Gore: no
Magic: no
Romance: yes

Action: This one is hard to say, so I’m not going to rate it this time.
Pacing: 4 stars
Plot: 4 stars

I finished reading this book on Monday, but I didn’t have time to post a review until now.

After reading Solstice for a blog tour, I needed a non supernatural read as a break, so I checked my netgalley account to see which books I have that I didn’t review, I decided to read this one mostly because it’s a mystery and because it’s going to release to stores soon. I didn’t read the first book, which is called Dancegirl, I read on goodreads that people who read it say that Dancegirl is better and creepier than Circle of Silence, which made me want to read Dancegirl, so it’s on my tbr list now. Even though Dancegirl is the first book in the series, I don’t think it’s necessary to read them in the order that they were published, since there are different main characters in each book.

The story starts with a girl named Valerie Gaines and her best friend Marci walking to one of their classes, the one that Valerie says is her most important class. She wants to be the producer of the group and she’s pretty dedicated to it.

MP (the secret society) plays some pranks, but later on they’re not pranks anymore, they get serious. From hanging underwear on flagpoles and a toilet in the hallway, to some students ending up in the hospital. In the beginning, it feels normal, no creepiness or anything, just weird school days, but later on, when the “pranks” started getting worse and more serious, it got creepier. I really needed to know who these MP people are. The suspense and the mystery are great, it kind of reminded me of Nancy Drew, my most favourite childhood series, I loved mysteries since I was a little kid, so naturally, I would enjoy this.

In Circle of Silence, Val and her team are looking for a story, so they try to figure out what’s going on, plus later on a few people getting hurt is another reason why they’re trying to figure out who these people are. We also learn a little about filming, reporting and working on news broadcasts. I remember learning that in grade my grade 12 communications technology class.

I like the characters, but for some of them it was hard for me to understand what their personality is. I liked Val, she’s focused and determined, and very relatable. There’s also a nice romance story as a side story, at least it seems like a side story compared to the MP mystery.

I was kind of disappointed by the ending. I’d figured out the biggest twist a few pages before Val does. I wasn’t satisfied with who most of the MP members are, because I don’t even know them, I was hoping that at least more than half of them would be people we know about from the book (like in Case Closed and Nancy Drew mysteries), but unfortunately that wasn’t the case, so when Val found out who these mysterious people were, it wasn’t as exciting as I hoped it would be.

Other than what I said above, I loved this book. This is definitely a book I enjoyed reading and I might buy it when it’s in stores.
Circle of Silence was a great book, it has lots of mystery, suspense, a little bit of romance, and danger in it, yet it’s still a light read compared to other mystery stories.

So far there are only two books in this series, I’m not sure if there are going to be more:

-(Book 1) Dancegirl (published November 15, 2011)
-(Book 2) Circle of Silence (Release date: July 24, 2012)

I rated this book: 4 stars.