Review--Shade

Best. Birthday. Ever. At least, it was supposed to be. With Logan's band playing a crucial gig and Aura's plans for an intimate after-party, Aura knows it will be the most memorable night of her boyfriend's life. She never thought it would be his last.

Logan's sudden death leaves Aura devastated. He's gone.

Well, sort of.

Like everyone else born after the Shift, Aura can see and talk to ghosts. This mysterious ability had always been annoying, and Aura had wanted nothing more than to figure out why the Shift happened so she could undo it. But not with Logan's violet-hued spirit still hanging around. Because Dead Logan is almost as real as ever. Almost.

It doesn't help that Aura's new friend Zachary is so understanding--and so very alive. His support means more to Aura than she cares to admit.

As Aura's relationships with the dead and living grows ever complicated, so do her feelings for Logan and Zachary. Each holds a piece of Aura's heart...and clues to the secret of the Shift...

Finally got around to reading Jeri Smith-Ready's Shade and I was actually quite pleased with it. I will admit it did take me a little while to get into it with the beginning. There was quite a pacing in where the action takes off, but once it did, it was well worth the wait.

The world-building was great. This is sort of an alternate reality book where the Shift happened and after a certain point in time people who were born after that mark can see ghosts, ones born beforehand can't. Some of it got a little confusing, but it ended up getting explained in small bits here and there. Some of it had to do with the stars as far as I could tell, the stars and the timing become greatly important as we learn further on. And Aura learns something critical regarding the Shift towards the end as well as well as a few other surprises.

The emotions Aura is hit with regarding Logan's death really hit you and having Logan's ghost still there definitely takes a toll on Aura, but she's happy because it's like the old Logan, but she soon realizes that telltale differences between Dead Logan and the Logan that was alive.

Zachary is just yet another surprise, he's a mysterious character as well being the new boy at school and he has one amazing accent! It's especially noticeable when Jeri writes his lines with the rolling of the tongue and emphasizing his accent! Loved it! The feelings growing between him and Aura is really intense as well because we don't know much about Zachary and he is so mysterious.

And we get to learn some of those mysteries as well towards the end, but I will admit some of the mysteries are still mysterious to me because the government of this world gets drawn in as well and along with science, government/politics are not my forte!

But overall it doesn't matter because it gets explained in little details here and there, enough to try to explain some things and not enough to leave a little mystery behind.

The characters were all great too, Aura and her friends were really intense, you could really see them and their character. Some of their actions were visual as well and touching in some ways, won't go into what those were, you'll see. You can tell that Aura and her friends are a tight knit group and it shows.

I will definitely be looking into the sequel of this book as well! Overall I give the book a 4/5 stars! Right now I am already getting lost in Waking the Witch and am already loving it! Took a short break and am ready to dive back in!

Once again, don't forget about my contest I'm holding here on my blog! A chance to win a SIGNED copy of Alyana Williams' Dark Oracle! Click here for details.