Wednesday 4 December 2013

Sarah's Review of Shade by Jeri Smith-Ready

6648020


I wasn’t sure what to expect from this book, but I was pleasantly surprised. In this book, Aura is a teenage girl who was the first one who was born and could see and communicate with ghosts from birth. Every child born after her has the ability to see ghosts and talk to them. No one is sure why this Shift happened or what caused it, but Aura is curious to figure it out as she seems to be the catalyst, at least the first one that it happened to, and she wonders if she had something to do with it.

Aura’s boyfriend, Logan, is in a band with his siblings, and they are playing a very important gig on the same day as Logan’s birthday. This birthday was supposed to be Logan’s best birthday ever, but something happened and it turned out that it was his last birthday. Logan is dead, and Aura is left all alone. Well, not entirely alone. Since the Shift happened, Aura and those younger than her can see and talk to ghosts. Even though Aura wanted to figure out why it happened so she could fix things, now that Logan is dead and she can still communicate and spend time with him, she suddenly has a change of heart. Even though Logan is dead, to her he is almost real.

In the meantime, Aura meets a new friend, Zachary, who is very understanding, and Aura finds her feelings for him growing. She must figure out her relationships with both the dead and the living, and figure out which boy should be in her heart. While these relationships are very complicated, each boy seems to play a key role to figuring out the secret of the Shift.

As soon as I began reading Shade, I was immediately drawn into Aura’s world. How devastating would it be to not only lose who you thought was the love of your life, but to continue to see him as a ghost every day, but not be able to touch him? Aura has to deal with so many mixed feelings all while trying to figure out why the Shift took place and what secrets it holds. As Aura is struggling with her grief and trying to find ways to make her ghost boyfriend seem real, she is faced with feelings for a new friend, Zachary, who is good looking, has an accent, and is beyond understanding. Aura’s relationship with Zachary grows and she has to decide who her future is going to be with? You may think it is an obvious answer, obviously the boy who is still alive, but there is more to it than that. Since the Shift happened, all ghosts are violet-hued, and try to talk to you to clear up any unfinished business. They can even testify in their own murder cases. But some ghosts turn Shade, which is to say they lose all control and are unstable and very dangerous. Aura is afraid of Logan turning Shade and is willing to do anything for him.

I loved the plot of the book, and by the end, even though one problem seems to be worked out for the time-being, Aura still doesn’t have answers to the Shift and why it happened. I am left wondering where this series is headed and what we will learn in the books to come. Even though this book has a sad undertone, the author writes in a way that is not too upsetting, overall a very pleasant read.

Release Day Tour - Mortal Heart by L.J. Sealey

Title: Mortal Heart Series: Divine Hunter Series Book #4 Release Date: 20th September 2019 Blurb: When two hearts ...