Signed by Jennifer Allison. ( )

This the second book I have read in the Gilda Joyce series and I'm hooked. I enjoyed the first book, but I loved, loved, loved The Ladies of the Lake. Gilda is an absolute HOOT! She has no "internal editor" and just says whatever pops in her head which often has disastrous yet humorous results.

In this latest book in the series, Gilda has been accepted into the exclusive private school, Our Lady of the Lake. She wasn't all the excited about attending the school until she found out that a student had drowned in the lake and that there might be a paranormal mystery to solve. Gilda is also dealing with her mom's new boyfriend and she is not happy about her mother dating.

If you enjoy spunky heroines, mysteries and humor than pick up your copy of Gilda Joyce: The Ladies of the Lake today. ( )

This was a lot of fun! How unexpected! When I was at the library, I wanted to grab a couple of audiobooks since I spend a lot of time driving during the week, but didn't have a lot of time, and saw this sitting on the top of the display case and figured "what the heck, it looks cute". Turns out it's the second book in a series about a middle-school girl named Gilda Joyce, who considers herself a psychic investigator. In this book, she transfers to a private academy called Our Lady of Sorrows, partly because it's a "better school with better opportunities" (says her mother), but mostly because a girl died there a few years ago, and there are rumors of her haunting the school. Naturally, it sounds like a job for a psychic investigator, so Gilda jumps at the opportunity... but gets more than she bargained for when she begins to uncover the truth behind the girl's death.

There were only a few concerns I had with the book, mostly to do with the main character. Gilda can get somewhat annoying and repetitive at times, and she lies far too easily without remorse. I realize that's often the case with young teens, but I didn't feel comfortable that there were no repercussions for her lies and that she didn't apologize. She also has a tendency to act rather egotistical, and sometimes treats others with surprising contempt, even while bemoaning her own plight among the school's social scene. That said, the adults in the book sound like adults, act like adults, and react like sensible adults, even when Gilda thinks they're wrong. In that sense, I think the author has an excellent grasp on teen / adult relationships and how they're perceived from both sides.

I listened to this as an audiobook, and the narrator did an excellent job. She pulled off the young teen voice and vibe, without delving into sounding too annoying or whiny. Her voices for the other characters were also very well done and consistent all the way through.

I'm definitely planning to pick up more Gilda Joyce, and hopefully in audio format! ( )

Natalie Cordaro 11-10-11
English 7 Rough Draft Critical Review

Jennifer Allison, author, wrote a creative and suspenseful book, “The Ladies of the Lake”. Allison grew up in a small town in Michigan. She was a news reporter and high school English teacher. Allison has written 5 books, including “The Ladies of the Lake”, all based on the series “Gilda Joyce: Psychic Investigator”. She currently lives in Washington, D.C. “The Ladies of the Lake” is a very interesting story that I didn’t know would end up being one of my favorite books.

Jennifer Allison came up with the name of her novel very cleverly. In the book, there is a secret club that may be responsible for Dolores Lambert’s death, a freshman at our Ladies of Sorrows, a catholic school, three years ago. Allison creates a main character, Gilda Joyce, to try to solve the mystery of Dolores lambert’s death. Something that I found very interesting and different from most books was that in 18 of the 41 chapters, Gilda types letters to her father who died a couple of years ago, informing him on everything that is happening in her life, good or bad. In chapters 6 and 35, the whole chapter is the letter Gilda wrote to her father. It made me more excited and curious as I continued reading the novel. This book is similar to Kelly Easton’s, author, book “White Magic”, where the main character’s father dies, and has a ghostly atmosphere to it, similar to “The Ladies of the Lake”.

Jennifer Allison’s creativity made this novel extremely unique and entertaining to read. I would rank “The Ladies of the Lake” a 5 out of 5 based on originality and much detail. If you love to read mysteries and ghost-type stories, you’ll love to read “The Ladies of the Lake”. I look forward to reading more of Jennifer Allison’s novels in the future.

Gilda Joyce, a self-proclaimed psychic investigator has been given the opportunity of a life time. She has been offered a scholarship to a private school, "Our Ladys of Sorrow School for Girls. How did she get this lucky opportunity? It was her mother's boyfriend's doing. Gilda really did not want to go until she saw the place. Anything that looked like a haunted castle had to be haunted, right? The mystery surrounded the death of Dolores who fell through the ice into the lake and drowned. Now Gilda is determined to get to the bottom of this mystery. I loved her attitude toward the snobby girls at the school. She tends to be over-dramatic and to put her nose where it doesn't belong. Her reason is that it is justifiable if it will get to the bottom of the mystery. She can't believe that Dolores was stupid enough to just step out onto the ice. Someone must be responsible for her actions that night, and Gilda is going to find out who. ( )