Touch: Deadly Little Secret- Laurie Faria Stolarz (review)

Camelia's always played life safe. Her friends even tease her about acting older than her age.
Then the unsafe happens. Camelia's life is narrowly saved by a mysterious boy whose touch is strangely...alluring. He's nowhere to be found after the accident, but Camelia can't seem to forget him.
When Ben arrives at Camelia's school, she instantly recognizes him as the boy who saved her life. But no one else believes he's the saving type; rumors are circulating about Ben having killed his past girlfriend. Camelia overlooks her classmates' warnings and is drawn closer to Ben and his irresistible touch. The closer she gets, though, the more dangerous her life becomes.
A stalker is leaving her threatening notes and messages. Ben wants Camelia's trust, but how can she give anyone trust in a time like this?

I remember noticing Stolarz's Nightmares series in a bookstore a few years ago and thinking about how great the books sounded. But I never actually got a chance to read the series. When I found out about Stolarz's new Touch novels, I was really excited to have another chance at reading one of her series.
Deadly Little Secret starts off the Touch books with a bang. First, let me describe the gorgeous cover. I know it looks good in the Internet pictures, but it's even better in real life. I love the old-fashioned undertone. The color scheme is eerie but pretty, much like the story itself. This has got to be one of my favorite covers of the year.

What's inside the book holds it's own to the cover. The suspense builds up gradually throughout the novel. I loved the stalker's journal entries. They actually started out kind of sweet and normal but grew increasingly disturbing as the novel progressed. If someone had written the first entry about me, I probably would've been flattered. But with the next few, I would've been completely sketched out and by the end, freaked out beyond imagination. This development of the antagonist really impressed me.
Camelia, our narrator, was truly likable. She has a really good heart, and it shows throughout the novel. I won't mention much about the male characters (I wouldn't want to rat out the stalker) except that the chemistry was really strong between Ben and Camelia. Wes and Kimmie, Camelia's quirky friends, were terrific and had great depth for secondary characters. I look forward to getting to know them better in the rest of the series (which I will definitely be reading). I can't wait for the next Touch book. I won't say who, but there's a certain male character I'm rooting for...

Overall, Deadly Little Secret was a very promising beginning. I see much potential for the Touch books, and have every intention of reading the entire series in the future. Fans of suspense, mystery, romance, paranormal...heck, fans of reading should love Deadly Little Secret.

Check out this fabulous book trailer of DLS:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fzMpVMy2fQ

For those who'd like to get to know more about the author, here's her myspace:
www.myspace.com/lauriestolarz

And this is where you can preorder Deadly Little Secret (to be released December 23):
http://www.amazon.com/Deadly-Little-Secret-Touch-Novel/dp/1423111443/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1229556902&sr=8-1

~bella aire~