Always Watching by: Brandilyn and Amberly Collins

The daughter of a rock star has it all - until murder crashes her world.

Sixteen-year-old Shaley O'Connor has the life that many people could only dream of. Her Mom, Rayne, is the lead singer in a band. Shaley's excessive life is full of limos, hotels, and behind-the-stage secrets. Besides that, Shaley is beautiful and famous. But then something happens. Shaley finds her friend, Tom Hutchens's, body backstage... he was shot in the eye.

From then on Shaley isn't even allowed out of her hotel room without a personal bodyguard. But bodyguards can't do it all. They can't keep her safe from the notes and white roses that keep appearing in mysterious places. They can't quiet her fears that Tom's death was just the beginning. They can't keep the paparazzi from stalking her non-stop all day. One of the paparazzi even goes to serious measures to get a picture of Shaley, including setting off a fire alarm, harassing her, and following her wherever she goes. The paparazzi don't care about Tom's death, they only want a "good story" to send into a magazine, where Shaley's life, now a living nightmare, would be displayed for the world to see.

But Shaley's mother refuses to believe that someone in the band could be responsible for this. After all, she knows them all too well for them to do something like that... right?

Somebody keeps sending Shaley white roses.White roses have a special symbolism to Shaley and her mother. White roses were what Shaley's Dad gave her Mom when he was courting her, no one is supposed to know that, though. But Shaley doesn't know where her Dad is, or even who he is. Where is God in a time like this?

Shaley learns that the person who was murdered, Tom, was secretly in love with her. This only raises more questions. Is the killer out to get her? Shaley's friend, Brittany, senses that something evil is going to happen. Life may seem pretty bad, but it's about to get worse.



My thoughts:

I liked this book!

One thing I would like to point out, though, is that this is a Christian book, but God is only mentioned twice. Once on the back-cover, and once inside the book. Actually, I didn't even realize it was a Christian book until my sister told me. To me, I think that a Christian author should make God shine through in their books so that it's clear that he's there.

I really liked the ending. It was such a surprise! Though I was kind of hoping it would be someone else who did it. But isn't that what everybody does? Makes you like the bad guy?

I thought the bad guy's reason for killing the two men was kind of silly, but it's never not silly to murder someone.

Language: Though they never specify the words, they will sometimes say things like 'Mom uttered a curse,' stuff like that.

*SPOILER ALERT*

Romance/Sexual Content: As I mentioned above, Tom (the person who was murdered) was secretly in love with Shaley. She found out after his death, because a detective found some paper with the words "I love Shaley" written on it, and he has pictures of him with her plastered all over the wall. I don't want to get into specifics, because that could spoil the book, but the reason that Tom (and another man) were killed, was because the killer was in love with Shaley.

Violence: Of course, having the two men die, is violence. Also the fact that the two men were shot in the eye doesn't make it any more pleasant. After that it's just smaller things, like the paparazzi (which Shaley is terrified of) crowding in so close that Shaley can't breath and having the possibility of them trampling her... things like that.

Drugs/alcohol: None that I remember, but there might be some, I'm not sure.

8/10 stars

13 and up (one review I read said sixteen and up. But I didn't want to rate it that high, since I don't think it needs it. Besides, I'm not even thirteen yet, so I guess, according to my own review, I shouldn't be reading it :)