Two years ago when a girl died, she betrayed the boy she loved and she lost everything. Although cleared of any involvement in the murder by the police, that didn't stop her small town of assigning her the guilt. After all it was well known that she was close with the Indian boy who had committed the crime. A white girl should have known better then to get involved with an outcast half-breed Indian, so any trouble she got she brought on herself.

Having spent the past two years in Carolina she had done her best to run from her past, from what had happened to her and what she had done. Now with her grandmother's death she is forced to return to the small town that was once home, that was once hell. Returning she has found many ghosts from the past waiting for her and without facing her fears, without her willingness to sacrifice for those she loves, she will never escape her past and nor will the boy she loves.

In The Arms Of Stone Angels Brenna has always found a peace, a second home where she can lay her head and find comfort amongst the dead. A girl who has always felt like an outsider, shunned and scorned will find strength in her uniqueness and an ability see what others can not. A dark mystery of murder, betrayal and jealously that is emotionally charged and completely absorbing. A must read for all ages. ( )

dnf FOR NOW.

Because I was enjoying this, I was! But I don't think I started reading it at the opportune time. THis book is sort of slower, and creepy, and I started reading it when I was really in the mood for fast-paced dystopias. I still own this book, so I'll hopefully end up reading it sometime in 2014.

**I finished it**

So, I started reading this book mid-December 2013. At that time, I’d been hovering in slump territory for around four months. I distinctly remember thinking the writing was beautiful. And I was enjoying the creepy, mystery storyline. Unfortunately, creepy means slow, and slow books on the edge of slump territory don’t really work out. So I stopped half way through, with plans of picking it up again.

I didn’t think I’d get to pick it up again so soon, but it felt comtemporary, and since February is the contemporary month for a blogger challenge I’m doing this year, it seemed perfect. February being what I call the three-month threshold (after three months, I’d have to start it over again) I pretty much just picked up where I’d left off.

Now, I’m pretty sure I would have enjoyed it better if I’d read the whole thing in one straight shot. When I dived back into it, I had to orient myself into the story and the characters, and apparently, right after the place where I’d stopped is where things picked up because things started happening very quickly.

I LIKED it. But I was a little annoyed at the things that were happening, not because the events or the characters or the writing or the plot was annoying, because it wasn’t. it was all good. I just wasn’t sitting right in the story.

Will I ever reread this? I want to. I want to read it in once straight shot and see how I enjoy it.
But we’ll see.
For the meantime, since I own it, it’s staying on my shelf

( )

This review is also published at http://thebookaholiccat.com

When Brenna was 14, she saw her best friend, White Bird, on top of a dead girl (Heather), cover in blood and holding a knife. As any good citizen she didn’t think twice and called the police. White Bird was arrested and she was brought for questioning. She was considered a suspect of the crime because of her friendship with White Bird. But without any prove against her the police had to release her, but the town of Shawano, Oklahoma wasn’t too forgiven. Soon after, her mom had to close down her real estate business for lack of clients. After all this they moved to North Carolina to start a new life, leaving her grandmother behind.
She has always question herself about the day of Heather’s murder, she feels stuck on that day for betraying her best friend and is not sure she did the right thing by calling the police.
Two years later after her grandmother’s dead, she returns to Shawano to help her mother with the fixing and selling of her grandma’s house.
In Shawano she learns that White Bird is in a mental hospital, in catatonic state since the day of the murder. And she knows she has to help him to be able to free herself.
Shawano’s folk are not happy to see her back and old acquaintances return to her life to make her life impossible, making her feel not wanted and a freak. But she won’t stop for anybody or anything until she has deal with her past.

At the beginning of the book I didn’t like Brenna’s character, I though she was too rude to her mother and her way of thinking was too irritating for me. But with the turn of the pages I started to understand, and could say, accept her behavior. She’s not a normal kid; she has a “gift” that makes her feel different and unaccepted. She is very conflicted, but she’s strong and over passing many obstacles she learns to accept herself.
We just see some flashes of White Bird, he seems to be a very sweet and noble soul. He loves and accepts Brenna for who she is. And fights for what he wants the most, to belong to the Euchee tribe.
Another character I enjoyed very much was Joe. I love his insightful thinking. He gives great advices and lots of support to Brenna, helping her in her quest.

What I didn’t like: Brenna’s “gift” is mentioned many times, but it didn’t play any role in the book, I thought that aspect could have enriched the book but Ms. Dane didn’t use it. Also there are couple of references to Brenna’s father, not by name, we don’t know who he is. But because of his mentions I thought he will play an important roll, but nothing happened with that too. I don’ know if Mrs. Dane has another book coming after this one and is planning to use those aspects and that’s why she gave us these tidbits. Is the only explanation I could have.
Another thing I didn’t like, was that Brenna suffered an attack and her assailants were not brought to justice for what they did to her.
Also this book is written in the first person of Brenna and the third person of other characters. I don’t know if it was because I read a Galley or because of the format of my reader but it was difficult to notice when these changes were occurring. In many occasions I had to go back and reread that same part to see when this changes were happening to be able to understand. But as I said, this may be because it was a galley. Maybe the final book won’t have this problem.

I didn’t know what to expect from this book and being honest I wasn’t expecting much from it, but I started to read it and it was a really nice surprise.
In the Arms of Stone Angels is a different YA novel, is dark, it has suspense, a good pace and is an easy read. I think Mrs. Dane did a great job. I love that I learn something of the Native American traditions, I also liked that she writes about the reality of racism. The end of the book was completely unpredictable, and I really liked to have that surprise at the end.
I recommend it. And I would love if Mrs. Dean writes a sequel to this book. ( )

I had no idea what to expect with this book. I hadn't read anything else by the author, however the synopsis sounded interesting. I was pleasantly surprised to find myself drawn in rather quickly. I connected deeply with the main character, Brenna. So much so, that at the end of one chapter I was almost in tears. I think the fact that I was at work was the only thing that kept me from actually being in tears. And I'm not one to tear up easily over a book. There is a lot of Native American influence in this book which I enjoyed as that is an area of interest to me. Though this is a paranormal book, the paranormal takes a backseat to the main story. This is a very plot driven book, again something I liked. The very real issue of bullying is touched upon. I was fortuante enough to never have been bullied, but the bullies in this book truly scared me. They were almost like sociopaths. But Brenna's evolution is at the heart of this beautifully written story. I highly recommend this book and plan to read more by this author. ( )

Brenna Nash finds her best friend, Whitebird, holding the body of a dead girl. She reports it and soon after her life becomes a living hell forcing her and her mother to escape the small town. They return 2 years later after the death of her grandmother to wind things up, only to find that not much has changed.

She is still tormented and harassed by the dead girl's 'friends', shunned by everyone else and has the local sherriff regarding her with suspicion. This, along with her feelings of guilt about Whitebird, who has been catatonic since they found him with the body, she undertakes to find out what really happened, leading to some interesting conclusions.

I really enjoyed this book even though it does deal with some dark issues and the prejudice shown by the people in this town is somewhat mind boggling. The characters are well defined and I enjoyed the references about the native american culture.

quote: "He looked tall and strong, the way he used to, but somewhere along the way, without me, he’d stepped into the shoes of a man. And a part of me ached for those missing years.” ( )