Sanctuary Bay by Laura J. Burns & Melinda Metz + a Giveaway

Hi, everyone! Today I'm part of the Sanctuary Bay blog tour with TWO posts. First up, my review and a chance to win your very own copy. After that, head on over to the second post to read an excerpt and get a taste of what's in store!

Sarah is floored when she's accepted into the exclusive Sanctuary Bay boarding school. An orphan who's been living in the foster system most of her life, she's understandably suspicious considering the school's elite status and the fact that she didn't even apply. Certain it's a mistake, she readies herself to be booted upon arrival but it turns out she is the one and only Sarah Merson the school was interested in.

As Sarah settles in she begins to realize all the opportunities Sanctuary Bay will offer her - a first class education, a ticket into the best universities, not to mention the chance to make friends who see her for who she truly is. But there's something sinister hiding beneath the facade of Sanctuary Bay forcing Sarah to question whether it's all worth it in the end or not.

So on top of being drawn to just about every book with a boarding school or abandoned asylum thread out there (I'm not alone, folks, and this one has both!) the fact that Melinda Metz and Laura Burns cowrote Roswell High and then worked on the show was a HUGE draw for me here. I love, love, loved that show. I'm not ashamed to admit that I still think it's completely fantastic. So yes, the chance to review another title by the minds behind that series was something I definitely was not going to pass up.

It did mean pretty high expectations on my part and I was a bit worried at first that Sanctuary Bay wasn't going to live up to that.

Sarah has a huge chip on her shoulder when she arrives at Sanctuary Bay. It comes out full force any time she interacts with her roommate's boyfriend, Nathan, a boy Sarah believes is little more than a spoiled rich kid unappreciative of the advantages and opportunities life has given him. Even beyond that Sarah is quick to jump the gun assuming that people are judging her based on her history. Understandable considering it's apparently happened to her throughout her life. This aspect of Sarah's personality, though, bordered on becoming a bit too excessive for my taste.

Bordered on. As soon as I thought it was getting to be too much, the secrets of Sanctuary Bay began revealing themselves and we were off!

So the island was home to an insane asylum and then a POW prison. The crumbling ruins of the asylum itself remain, stocked with (we soon find) creepy equipment, dusty bottles, and files (oh to be an urban explorer in THAT world) and the old POW prison cells remain as well. What's more, there are even stories of suicides and ghosts! These pieces of the puzzle that is Sanctuary Bar are both creepy crawly and cool, and were aspects I certainly hoped would pay off before the end. (They do, readers.)

THEN we find out there may or may not be a secret society lurking in the halls of Sanctuary Bay. We find this out very close to the time Sarah realizes her roomies have been frequently ditching her in the middle of the night, headed off together to whereabouts unknown. So yeah, she follows them...

It's clear by the end of the book that there is more to this story. It's not quite clear whether we'll get more (so far there's just the one title listed). A girl can hope, though, right?! I mean Sarah finds out some pretty surprising things by the end. Things that would make a pretty fabulous sequel for all of us to read :)

Rating: 4/5

If you're interested in checking this one out, be sure to head over to today's OTHER post, the one with the excerpt. But before you do, make sure you enter to win your very own copy of Sanctuary Bay courtesy of the publisher.

To get your name in the hat, just fill out the Rafflecopter below before Monday, February 1. Open US only and no PO boxes please.

a Rafflecopter giveaway