Review: Shade By: Jeri Smith-Ready

Title: Shade
Author: Jeri Smith-Ready
Publisher: Simon Pulse, 320 Pages (May 4th 2010)
From: Author/Publisher - Thanks Jeri and Simon Pulse!

Synopsis: When her boyfriend dies a most untimely death, Aura--who can see ghosts--is forced to reconsider her relationship with the living and dead in SHADE.

Review: 5 Stars - I’ve been trying to write this review for a couple days now and the words just don’t want to come to me. Not because this book was bad, it was far from it. It was amazing. It’s not often that I find a book that I love a much as this one – examples of books that fall in this same category for me would be Shiver, The Twilight Saga and handful of other books out there.

From the dark, beautiful and mysterious cover to the fact that anyone born post Shift can see and talk to ghosts…. To our main characters, Aura, Logan and Zachary everything just flowed and fit together like every great story should.

When Aura’s boyfriend Logan dies it’s hard not to feel for both of them as the emotions of what their each going through almost jump off the page. Seeing him come back as a ghost was a different kind of pain that only any post Shift born would understand. She’s a strong character with a strong voice, and watching her struggle and deal with the aftermath of Logan’s death was tough with all those emotions that come through on each page. My heart ached for her and Logan often throughout the story and I’m sure anyone who loved or will fall in love with this book as I have will understand.

Then we have Zachary, the new student at school who just moved from Scotland who is patient and kind and helps to take Aura’s mind off of things for a while. During their time together working on a school project about Megaliths, she’s able to find some peace from how painful life has become since Logan’s death. With this project, Aura is secretly trying to solve a mystery of just how or what or even who might have created the Shift in the first place. All she knows is that there has to be a reason and won’t stop until she finds the answers she’s looking for.

See, that’s where the mystery part of the story comes in. No one knows how it happened or why it happened, just that one day the world was normal and then the next POOF anyone born after said date and time can see and talk to Ghosts.

With a Ghost of the person you love the most trying to deal with his death at the same time you are, Aura was bound to have mixed emotions over Logan and Zachary. Which then finds them in the never prefect, often heartbreaking Love triangle. It was hard to pick or choose who Aura should end up with since I loved both boys… well as equally as you can love them both when ones a ghost.

The end left us with a HUGE cliffhanger on many different levels, and left me asking more questions. I had a feeling there was one around the corner since there was still so much to learn about when it comes to our characters and then I mean the Shift itself, but those last couple lines in the book… WOW, huge! For me even a little bit epic. I mean yeah, I loved this book THAT much.

Smith-Ready has made a fan out of me, I can’t wait to read her other books and then see what happens in this series from her when the sequel – Shift comes out…. But that’s not until May 2011. I have a long time to wait and wonder where she’ll lead us next in her characters lives. Now, I have to say that if this was one of those books for you that has caught your eye, don’t pass it up when it hits the bookshelves in May. I think after many read there will be much more love of this series found, looking forward to hearing what you guys all think, Happy Reading.

Keep an eye out here for a interview with the author and a give away!

FTC Disclaimer: I did not pay for this book, nor have I been compensated at all in any way or means for reading and writing this review.