Failure to Read Most Windswept Books + Windswept #2 Someone Is Out There

Note: This post is from January 31, 2021.  I'm publishing it now because it fits in with my Windswept reviews.  My brief comments could be of some interest.

Windswept #2 Someone Is Out There, Carole Standish, 1982

Who would want to spend Christmas on Cape Cod in Grandmother Davies's drafty old house on the lonely beach, hidden in the winter fog?  Marcie Williams shivers at the very idea.  She's even more worried when she arrives on the Cape and meets Peter Doane.  He's quiet, sensitive, and good-looking, but so mysterious.

Peter and his uncle are suspected of murdering a fisherman.  Marcie believes Peter is innocent, but then who is it who prowls around the fisherman's abandoned hut?  Who calls Marcie with the strange warnings - and attacks her in the black of night?

Marcie is frightened, but she must stop whoever is out there, before it's too late...

This was the book that I tried in order to decide whether I should purchase the Windswept books.  I  did enjoy it, so I purchased the set.  Unfortunately, most of the set was written by authors whose style is not to my liking.  I ended up not reading most of the books.

I already mentioned how I tried many of the books and quit.  Here are some brief statements as to why.  I'm sure that many of the books are good, but a book has to grab me very quickly, or I won't take the time to read it.  If I were still young, I would be more patient.  I'm no longer like that.

#1 Don't Walk Alone - I felt information overload.  There is too much description of the setting, just way too much.  

#3 Girl in the Shadow - The book flashes back to eight years before, and I couldn't tell where it was going.  I can no longer tolerate books that don't tell the story straight.  Just get to the point.

#5 Yesterday's Girl - It was taking too long to get with the story, so I quit.

#7 The Red Room - information overload

#8 The Silvery Past - took too long to get to the point

#9 Dreams and Memories - flashbacks

#10 A Forgotten Girl - too slow to start

#11 The Ghost of Graydon Place - too slow to start

#15 The Girl Cried Murder - too slow to start

#16 House of Fear - too slow to start

#24 The Burned Letter - story about how she first fell in love with Roger - summary of the past

#25 The Castle Murder - aversion to teen books set in France

#28 The Disappearing Teacher - way too colloquial - using "you," etc.

#32 Secret of the Dark - isolated on a mountain

Windswept #23 A Date with Danger and #27 Mystery Cruise

Windswept #23 A Date with Danger, Edward Hunsberger, 1983

The dark and silent halls of the old private girls' school cast an eerie spell...

 ...but Karen tries to brush off their strange chill, tries to laugh at her overactive imagination.  Then someone attempts to run her over, and the evil on campus becomes all too real.

Who could want her dead?  Sarge, the eccentric old caretaker?  Paul, the handsome premed student she just might be falling in love with?  Meredith, her new friend?  Karen is frantic to discover the truth and save her life.

This book is excellent and has a great mystery.  Karen is nearly run over very shortly after her arrival on campus, which sets up the suspense for the entire story.

Windswept #27 Mystery Cruise, Carole Standish, 1984

Dawn's birthday present from her aunt is a cruise on a luxury ship.  Before the ship leaves the pier, Dawn busily snaps pictures with her new camera of all the people on board.  That's her first mistake. 

Even with Kevin around to distract her, Dawn fears that someone is out to get her.  By the time the cruise is over, Dawn is convinced that her camera has recorded someone's secret, and a sweet-smelling but ominous perfume warns Dawn that shipboard life isn't all romance...

This book has a very good mystery.  I enjoyed this book.

Windswept #17 Mirror, Mirror and #33 Weekend of Fear by Virginia Nielsen

Vintage series book fans probably ignore these posts about vintage teen books.  However, some of the mystery teen books could appeal to those fans.  The second book reviewed here, Weekend of Fear, is one of those books.

I abandoned reading the Windswept series quite awhile back, but I found that I prepared two review posts that I never published.  This is the first of those posts.

Windswept #17 Mirror, Mirror, Virginia Neilsen, 1983

Gilly and Gerry are identical twins, separated at birth.  They meet for the first time when they're sixteen and find that they're so alike, even their boyfriends can't tell them apart!

Then Gilly visits Gerry's home, and when the vacation is over, Gerry convinces Gilly to switch places secretly.  It's fun at first, but soon strange accidents begin, and Gilly receives frightening phone calls meant for Gerry.  More confusing, Gilly is falling in love with Gerry's boyfriend.  

Is Gerry in some kind of trouble?  Why didn't she tell Gilly?  And why did she set Gilly up to be in such terrible danger?

This book starts off with a good hook.  Identical twins who have just met for the first time is compelling.  As the story progresses, it gradually becomes more and more suspenseful.  Since Gilly and Gerry have changed places, Gilly ends up in grave danger because of the danger that Gerry is in.

This is a very good book.

Windswept #33 Weekend of Fear, Virginia Nielsen, 1984

When the school loner, Brick, falls heir to a fortune of jewels, his life is threatened.  He asks Jacey to hide the jewels for him until he can get them into a bank after the weekend.  Then he disappears.

But with Brick out of the way, Jacey is now the target of unwanted attention.  And in a department store, normally bustling with hopping crowds and clerks, Jacey finds herself alone, in the dark, facing a killer.

The book starts off a little slow, but it quickly picks up in intensity once the department store closes for the weekend.  Jacey spends the entire weekend (and most of the book) inside a dark, closed department store being stalked by someone who knows that she has the jewels and is determined to get them.

The book also has a twist which I wasn't expecting.
 
This is an extremely tense, suspenseful book.  It is excellent.

Trying and Quitting 24 Books in the Last 24 Hours Including Many Windswept Books

In June 2020, I compiled this list of Windswept titles as I worked on building a set of the books.  I have all of the books on hand, and this is the correct order.  Some sites have some titles in the wrong order.

  1.  Don't Walk Alone, Mary Bringle, 1982

  2.  Someone Is Out There, Carole Standish, 1982
  3.  Girl in the Shadows, Miriam Lynch, 1982
  4.  The House of Three Sisters, Virginia Neisen, 1982
  5.  Yesterday's Girl, Madeline Sunshine, 1983
  6.  The Snow's Secret, Carole Standish, 1983
  7.  The Red Room, Kay Dobkin, 1983
  8.  The Silvery Past, Candice Ransom, 1983
  9.  Dreams and Memories, Lavinia Harris, 1983
10.  A Forgotten Girl, Elisabeth Ogilvie, 1983
11.  The Ghost of Graydon Place, Dorothy Francis, 1983 
12.  The Silent Witness, Meredith Hill, 1983
13.  The Empty Attic, Jean Francis Webb, 1983
14.  Murder by Moonlight, Dorothy Woolfolk, 1983
15.  The Girl Cried Murder, Dorothy Woolfolk, 1983
16.  House of Fear, Willo Davis Roberts, 1983
17.  Mirror, Mirror, Virginia Nielsen, 1983
18.  The Missing Sunrise, Joan Oppenheimer, 1983
19.  Dark Magic, Miriam Lynch, 1983
20.  Mysterious Summer, Marion Schultz, 1983
21.  Phantom Light, Susan Dix, 1983
22.  The Lost Holiday, Elizabeth Olsen, 1983
23.  A Date With Danger, Edward Hunsberger, 1988
24.  The Burned Letter, Conrad Nowels, 1984 25.  The Castle Murder, Vivian Schurfranz, 1984 
26.  The Secret, Carol Beach York, 1984
27.  Mystery Cruise, Carole Standish, 1984
28.  The Disappearing Teacher, Conrad Nowels, 1984  
29.  The Hidden Room, Jennifer Sarasin, 1984
30.  The Accident, Jesse Osburn, 1984
31.  The Warning, Dorothy Francis, 1984
32.  Secret of the Dark, Barbara Steiner, 1984
33.  Weekend of Fear, Virginia Nielsen, 1984

34.  The Mansion Murder, Vivian Shurfranz, 1984

Here are my books.  Almost all of them have the Windswept packaging.  The Girl Cried Murder is the only one that doesn't.

I read Someone Is Out There before I began building the Windswept set.  I enjoyed that book.  I took a risk in building the set based on my liking of that book.  Meanwhile, my reading of Sweet Dreams went very badly last year.  I started reading the Wishing Star set and got on quite well with those for a time.  I then had to quit.  

Months and months came and went.  

I have read 10 books this month that I have really enjoyed.  I want to read.  I actually want to read, which has mostly not been the case for the last year.  This is amazing!

I tried reading a couple of Whitman books.  Nope.  After some thought, I found where I left off in Wishing Star, which was #21 But This Girl Is Different.  Uh no, I can't do it.  I tried Wishing Star #22, 23, 24, 25, 26, and 27 last evening.  I read varying amounts of each book.  It's a "no" on all of them.  

I then switched to Windswept:  #1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, and 16.  I did not like any of them.  I try to give the books at least a few chapters, but the authors open the books with excessive details about each girl's entire life or other stuff that probably has nothing to do with the story.  How boring!  For goodness' sake, I'm not reading the biography of a famous person.  I'm reading teen fiction that is supposed to be light reading.  Ugh.

There is a reason why the Sweet Valley series and Christopher Pike's books were so successful.  The authors got to the point on the very first page, immediately captivating the reader.  The authors didn't force the readers to slog through minutiae for chapter after chapter.  

I am actually reading Windswept #17 Mirror, Mirror, and I might make it through the book.  I also might not.  I have skimmed a little bit to get past certain unnecessary boring details.  I do think I will make it to the end even if I have to skim in places.

At least I'm going to be able to clear even more books off of my shelves.  Yay!

I will resume selling books sometime between March 13 and June 1.  Either I must be immune after vaccination or the school year must be over, whichever comes first.  I do not expect to be vaccinated for at least another month, which means that selling as soon as March 13 is now in doubt.  

Whenever this subject comes up, I get asked to let you know when certain books will be sold.  Really, the easiest thing for both you and for me is for you to simply follow my online stores.  Whenever I open them again, you will receive an email telling you about my "new" listings, which will actually be my old listings from August 2020.  And then, as I do begin creating actual new listings, you will receive an email each day when I list new books.  It's that easy.

Go to this page on eBay.  Click on "Save this seller" on the line where my user ID appears.  That's all you have to do.

Go to my Etsy shop.  Right under where you see 2,055 sales, there is a box that has a heart followed by "Favorite shop" and the number of followers.  Click on that box to follow my Etsy shop.