" Ruined" by Paula Morris

WELCOME to NEW ORLEANS:
CITY of VOODOO and BEAUTY.
HURRICANES and HAUNTINGS.

A New Orleans Garden District setting, complete with a ghost, a cemetery and voodoo , is ALWAYS going to grab my attention!
This is my first Paula Morris read but it won't be my last! I really enjoyed this book! As someone who knows and loves New Orleans and is familiar with the Garden District, it was very important to me that Paula capture place, she did a wonderful job !

Rebecca Brown is 15 years old, she loves her New York City home, her school, her friends, the last thing she wants to do is spend 6 months in New Orleans with Aunt Claudia ( who isn't really her aunt) and her daughter Aurelia! She has no choice in the matter though. Her Dad is being sent to China on business and her mother is deceased, so that leaves no one else to care for her. Arriving in New Orleans she finds that Aunt Claudia lives in a creepy house in the Garden District, and reads Tarot Cards in the French Quarters Jackson Square for a living. The city is still reeling after Hurricane Katrina and she's been enrolled in a private school full of Orleanian blue blood divas!

When boredom sends her eaves dropping on a group of teenage blue bloods in the Lafayette Cemetery across the street, she runs straight into Lisette Villieux, a teenage ghost from 1853 ! Through her friendship with Lisette she discovers secrets of New Orleans past and uncovers secrets about her own life! A mysterious read with a delightful ending! Considered a young adult book that I can tell you is a great read for any age!

Copyright 2009 by Paula Morris
IBSN: -10:0-545-04215-1
Published by Point
Hardcover 309 pps.

" MY DAY"

Tuesday, September 22nd, my day! I arose at my usual 5:AM to a day of HEAVY Fog. I had to have my 3 boys, Jake-A- Boo, Patch-A-Poo and Duke-A-Bear at the Vets @ 8:AM for neutering. It's a 30 minute drive so I began loading @ 7:15. I put a sheet across the back seat and set one carrier in for Jake. I get the other carrier and load Patch and Duke in it. I picked up Jake and tote him to the garage to put in his carrier. In the meantime, Sadie, who knows somethings up, is going berserk. She jumps in the backseat when I put Jake in. I shut the door and Hubby gets her out the other side when he sets the other carrier in. I get in, strap on my seat belt and start engine.
OMG! What is that smell? I decide someone has had a BM! I get back out and discover Jake had decided the carrier was the backyard! So, I get the paper towels and do a clean up. We're off! While driving, the cell phone rings constantly with B'day wishes. About midway there, I hear one of the pups getting car sick and the other one starts whining. I'm thinking the whiner had something on him he's not liking too much! I get the boys dropped off and take a deep breath!
This was not Marilyn Monroe's B'day Ride for sure!

I head over to my Dad's to visit and pick up my present. He and Jeanette got me a beautiful key ring that clips on your purse so your keys don't fall to the bottom. I had been wanting one of these forever and I also picked up another Birthday Cake! My present from Hubby is a new Laptop like this.........

But I'm waiting till October when the new Windows 7 is released..............

My sister who lives in Tennessee, sent me this gorgeous card and it had some money with a sticky note attached to it on the inside. Click to enlarge and read the note, I laughed so hard!

After I got back from Dad's, my SIL (actually she's my ex as she is my 1st husbands sister) sent her husband over with yet another B'day Cake so we have two in the freezer and we're eating on one and we are thinking it's time for another get together cause we already have the desert! HA!

It has been raining everyday so my day was no different, at noon it let in raining. I fixed us some lunch and dived into a new read! IT IS SO GOOD ! So I've just been reading and relaxing for the past couple of days.

I also got my 1st Issue of this magazine yesterday and have read it cover to cover! Making it special was the fact that it had a wonderful article by my North Carolina friend Gary Carden in it!

This is the article and that is a painting by Gary!

We picked the boys up yesterday morning and they were sure glad to see us! Poor Jake just lays on his bed with such a sad look! I know he feels bad, but it had to be done! :)

However the little squirts don't seem to know anything has changed with them except they got to come back home from that scary place they spent the night! HA! " Could you please let us out, gotta go, gotta go, gotta go right now".................

So that was my day............Thanks for all the B'Day wishes both on the blog and Face Book!!