Sparkles and Lightning

***FINAL RATING: 2.70 STARS***CATCHALLI didn't like Circle of Silence quite as much as I loved dancergirl (ack!), which was a shame. dancergirl really drew me in with it suspenseful plot and fun, easily lovable characters. Circle of Silence wasn't like that for me. The mystery was lackluster, and the characters weren't nearly as likable. While I definitely really liked it to a point, it's not a favorite. Circle of Silence was missing some things for me.THE HEROINEVALI didn't really connect to Val the way I did to Ali. Like Ali, Val has a passion. Hers is reporting. Still, I couldn't connect to her. She seemed to be to stubborn about some things, charging in without ever thinking twice. And then she could be totally oblivious. She missed a lot of obvious clues and made a lot of choices that probably weren't the smartest. At the same time, Val wasn't completely unlikable—even if it was on occasion foolish, she was brave.THE LOVE INTERESTSJAGGERJagger is Val's ex-boyfriend, who cheated on her. I actually liked quite a few things about him. He didn't try to make excuses, for one. He owned up to his mistake and didn't try to make excuses, which was awesome. What he wanted was to show Val that he really did care about her and he won't hurt her again. Sometimes his attitude did seriously tick me off, but honestly, I think that's just one of those things that happens. He was a fairly likable character, despite first glance.RAOULFrom the beginning, it's obvious that Raoul is just a distraction. Even so, he's very sweet, and there're hints that he gets his own happy ending anyway. And he cares about Val and when things don't really work out for them, he wants her to move on and be happy like a good friend.THE PLOTUnfortunately, I figured out the answer to the mystery probably about halfwayish into the book. So, sadly, there wasn't nearly enough suspense in this book for me. I wish that fewer hints had been dropped. It's no fun to figure everything out too early. And I don't consider myself a very perceptive person or anything.What I did like was not just that there were people who were pulling these dangerous pranks, but that it was a ganglike group who called themselves MP. That aspect was really great to read about and learn more about.Additionally, the plot had a nice pacing. Not too fast, and not too slow either. That was a huge improvement on dancergirl. It wasn't erratic, and I could keep up without getting bored.Circle of Silence is a lot darker than dancergirl. Oh, things are still at stake in that book, but I didn't get as strong of an impression. In this book, the danger was clear. It slowly got darker until the very end, when the darkness was smoothly lifted off.THE ROMANCEThe romance in this book is really sweet. I loved the dynamic between Jagger and Val, and it was really unique that they had a romantic history before this book because that's not something you see every day. I like how Val distrusts him and first and doesn't want to have anything to do with him, and the way he slowly earns her trust back even though she doesn't make it easy for him.THE WRITINGCarol's writing is really descriptive, and I like that about her. She's also great at capturing a character's unique voice. Even though I didn't happen to like Val's voice, I can absolutely appreciate Carol's ability to write it. Another thing that was super awesome was the fact that we also get to go into the leader of MP's head—and that was horrifying and yet thrilling to go into his messed-up mind and try to figure out why he was doing what he was doing and why he justified it.THE ENDINGWhile a bit anticlimactic, the ending I actually liked. Val gets her happy ending, which made me smile. Everything worked out. Though a few things did seem too convenient, at the same they fit into the story so that they didn't stick out too much. I like that everything closed up too, no loose strings left hanging. The pacing was also better than that of the previous book and didn't rush or drag.WRAPUPSo, while Circle of Silence was not dancergirl, I still really, really liked it and can definitely recommend it. It's not too much of a mystery, but the romance is cute and the story is still fun, even if the heroine isn't always perfect. I definitely am loving Carol's books, and I do hope that she writes more novels in this series because I will definitely read them!FINE.Read more of my reviews on Sparkles and Lightning!