Review--Existence by Abbi Glines

What happens when you're stalked by Death? You fall in love with him, of course. 
 

Pagan Moore doesn't cheat Death, but instead, falls in love with him.

Seventeen year old Pagan Moore has seen souls her entire life. Once she realized the strangers she often saw walking through walls were not visible to anyone else, she started ignoring them. If she didn't let them know she could see them, then they left her alone. Until she stepped out of her car the first day of school and saw an incredibly sexy guy lounging on a picnic table, watching her with an amused smirk on his face. Problem is, she knows he's dead.

Not only does he not go away when she ignores him, but he does something none of the others have ever done. He speaks. Pagan is fascinated by the soul. What she doesn't realize is that her appointed time to die is drawing near and the wickedly beautiful soul she is falling in love with is not a soul at all.

He is Death and he's about to break all the rules.

I decided to read one of the many ebooks that have been on my Kindle for too long, Abbi Glines' Existence was the one to go with since she'll be at RT and I thought I'd better get a jump on reading this series she's written. She writes a lot of books from what I've been seeing but I think this is her only paranormal read. So I decided to give this one a try!  

I guess after finishing the book II can say that I enjoyed it, but it does have its issues with me. I'll still read the next ones because Abbi leaves you with a helluva a cliffhanger, yet I suspected something based on the books she has. Won't go into details on that thought.  

Pagan is your typical teen, with the exception that she can see souls; ghosts that wander the earth. She sees them and they see her, but talking to them is pointless because they don't talk back. Until she meets one that does. But we don't find out that he's Death until later on, but there are some hints along the way. Although, in my honest opinion, I'd rather not be told that this soul that talks is Death. I kind of wished it would've been more of a surprise. But here you go, right in the cover description we know he's Death. Pagan doesn't really know this until the very end. Which in some ways is a black mark on her record. I mean, she can see souls floating around and then there's the one that talks and he even hints at his "job" in the things that he tells her, but saying that there are things he can't tell her. It's almost like she was a little dense, I mean come on Pagan, we know he's different.   But I can understand why Pagan wasn't suppose to know that he was Death. I just wish that I didn't know he was Death as well, then I wouldn't have been so annoyed with Pagan.  

Things get more complicated for Pagan when Leif, the star quarterback needs her to tutor him in his speech class and since Pagan is signed up to be a tutor, she has no choice in the matter. She thinks Leif is your typical jock/a-hole, but she soon realizes that there is a lot more to the guy. And before she knows it, she's kind of falling for him. Which is what leads to her accident that she barely walks away from.

The soul, aka Death, is there the whole time, bugging her in ways, but he also protects her. At night when nightmares start to attack--and the other scary looking soul who keeps haunting her--he's there to chase the shadows away.  

It's then that things get really really complicate when the rockstar Dank comes to her school to enroll. Dank--weirdest name ever--who looks exactly like her talking soul (Death) and who is very much alive and breathing and visible.  

Pagan and Leif begin dating and all, being a sweet couple, yet Pagan cannot get her mind off of Dank. Love triangle, anyone? Yet it's really not as simple as that, Dank--her now alive soul--tells her they can't be together. Yet she still pines for him, it becomes a little annoying sometimes too, only because she's still with Leif. I am not a fan of heroines who are with one guy and pining for another. I want to yell, just break up with the first guy! I always find it unfair that she's constantly leading him on, thinking that there is something to their relationship when the heroine makes it clear to the reader that there's nothing. I find it cruel and annoying.  

The pacing to this one was a little slow at times. I kept waiting for scenes with Dank because he made them interesting. Death is always an interesting persona in books, because it generally is a guy playing the role, one who has the whole bad boy look down and can be total swoon worthy. (Reyes, anyone?) Pagan's friends Miranda and Wyatt were enjoyable for the little page time that they had. Miranda was wild and a tad obnoxious, but still enjoyable.  

As far as romance it was mostly the pining for Dank/Death. There were moments between Leif and Pagan that were sweet, but it lost its romantic effect when you knew Pagan didn't care for Leif in that way. The action was few and far between really. There wasn't any really except for a big scene at the end that got the blood racing a tad! And then of course we have the ending where big shocking secrets are revealed.  

Overall, Existence, was a pretty enjoyable read, but not without its flaws. Overall it was just a good book, nothing too outstanding about it, although there were a few chuckle-worthy moments as well. I will definitely read the remaining books though because that cliffhanger cannot be just left alone like that!

Overall Rating 3.5/5 stars