Twinepathy (Part 14): It’s A Mystery

Hullo, everyone! How crazy is it that we’re nearly to part fifteen? I’m so glad for all of your support, and enjoy!!! If you missed Part 13 on Saturday, check it out, and if you’re new, check out Part 1.

“She can stay,” Mom finally says, looking at Dad for confirmation. He nods, pleased.

I’m shocked. Mom never changes her mind like that. And I thought it would be way harder to convince them. What did Blaze do?

“Okay,” Brooklyn agrees, confused. “We’ll take her upstairs and get her set up in our room.” She looks around the living room pointedly, hoping that Blaze gets the message – we want to talk to him. Now.

We head upstairs with Maddie while Mom and Dad go into the kitchen. I drag my sleeping bag out from under my bed for Maddie, but that’s not what we’re really doing up here. Brooklyn puts her hands on her hips. “Blaze, we know you’re here. Come out.”

Blaze appears, an annoying grin on his face as he leans against the wall. Maddie goes over and – to my surprise – hugs him. “You were right that they would agree,” she told him.

“Of course,” Blaze says, attempting to look offended that she wouldn’t trust him, but his eyes sparkle a little. “Everything worked out fine.”

“Fine?!” Brooklyn squeaks. “I don’t know what you did, or how you did it, but you messed with their brains! That is not fine!” If she was a cat, she’d be hissing and spitting.

Blaze’s eyebrows lift. “Who, me? I didn’t do anything to your parents.”

My eyes narrow. “Then what did happen? Obviously something happened to change Mom’s mind, and it had to be something in her mind.”

Blaze laughs. “Ohhh, you mean that! That was all Nudge. And he did an amazing job, let me tell you.” He grins impishly.

Silence.

“Nudge?” Brooklyn gives him a skeptical look.

Blaze nods. “Yeah.” He motions towards the closed door, and a boy appears. He looks like he’s only about fourteen or fifteen. He gives us a small smile and an awkward wave.

“Nudge,” I say icily. I’m probably getting that look in my eye that Brooklyn calls my “dangerous” look.

“Yeah.” Blaze is smirking at me. “’Cause he nudges peoples thoughts in different directions. Get it?”

“Yes, I get it,” I say. Brooklyn steps between me and Blaze. Calm down pops into my head, so I sink grumpily onto my bed.

“Please explain what you just did in detail,” Brooklyn says firmly.

Blaze shrugs. “I thought you two would need more help, so I got authorization from Data to bring Nudge in to help out. Which, I might add, was a very good decision. You may have noticed that.”

Data agreed to this? That makes me feel a teensy bit better… but just a teensy bit. “Well, then I guess your work here is done,” I hint, crossing my arms.

Is it my imagination, or does Blaze’s grin fade a little? He tosses a shrug. “Sure, sure, we’ll leave. But be careful, and don’t hesitate to contact us. We don’t want anything happening to… to you guys.” His face turns serious. “Something’s up.” He motions over to Nudge and the two of them disappear. Brooklyn and I double-check to make sure they’re actually gone before we sink onto our respective beds, facing each other. Maddie sits down next to Brooklyn.

“Well, what are we going to do?” Brooklyn asks softly. It’s only been a couple hours, and everything has changed so drastically.

I look over at Maddie. “It’s a mystery. And mysteries need to be solved, one way or another.”

So Albany’s stating the obvious a teensy bit, but they’re finally jumping into action! Woohoo! Can’t wait to see what happens next…

Next Part –>

Book Review: Invisible by Lorena McCourtney

WARNING: This is book one of the Ivy Malone Mystery Series. So just keep in mind that it’s part of a series if you decide to buy it and read it.

Hello, fellow booklovers. Let me start off by saying that the description for this book ended up being a little misleading, but I definitely enjoyed it in spite of that. Here’s the description from Amazon.com:

She’s not your average crime fighter!

Ivy Malone has a curiosity that sometimes gets her into trouble, and it’s only aggravated by her discovery that she can easily escape the public eye. So when vandals romp through the local cemetery, she takes advantage of her newfound anonymity and its unforeseen advantages as she launches her own unofficial investigation.

Despite her oddball humor and unconventional snooping, Ivy soon becomes discouraged by her failure to turn up any solid clues. And after Ivy witnesses something ominous and unexplained, she can’t resist putting her investigative powers to work again. Even the authorities’ attempts to keep Ivy out of danger and her nosy neighbor’s match-making schemes can’t slow her down. But will the determination that fuels this persistent, quirky sleuth threaten her very safety?

*MINOR SPOILER WARNING: If you want to be completely surprised when you read this book, don’t read any farther. I will not reveal any big spoilers, only a few things that show what was misleading about the description (to me, at least). You have been forewarned.*

So now that we got that out of the way, let us begin. First off, my interpretation of this description was that Ivy Malone finds out that she can turn invisible.

I quickly found out that Ivy Malone was not a teenager, a twenty- or even thirty-something-year-old, but was a… well, she was somewhere between sixty and seventy, I believe. Never figured that out for sure. However, because I had already gotten connected to her as only awesome authors can do, I continued to read, and soon found out she was not literally invisible, she was LOL invisible. No, no, not laugh out loud. Little old lady.

Trust me, I didn’t come up with that myself. There’s a reason I kept reading.

So maybe the character wasn’t what I was expecting, but other than that, this book was awesome! Lorena McCourtney kept me on the edge of my seat with her awesome suspense building, whether it was with the mystery or with the slight bit of romance mixed in. And of course, all that humor… I was LOL-ing while reading about a LOL.

And then the quotable moments, of course.

“…if I had to spend the next three months hiding in a closet eating grits.”

“‘BLOL.’ ‘What?’ ‘Busybody Little Old Lady.'”

“The good Samaritan with a gun. I didn’t stop to ponder the inconsistencies inherent in that.”

There were so many more awesome funny spots and memorable quotes in this book that I’d have to reread it and highlight (on my Kindle) if I wanted to find them all. And Lorena McCourtney has an awesome way with words. There’s also a lot of good messages in this book, and Ivy Malone’s faith is so strong and such a great example. Read it.

There is some mention of blood, bullet wounds, murder, death, uh, Ivy visits a morgue, and she also does some crazy LOL things, like camping out in a cemetery, but no gory descriptions of any of that. And the ending definitely entices you to read the next book. 😉

Oh, and did I mention that it’s free on Kindle? 😉

So go read it! You’ll enjoy it, that’s for sure!