Shade Review

Author: Jeri Smith-Ready
Release date: May 4, 2010
Pages: 309 (ARC)
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Most appropriate for ages: 14+
Where I got it: From publisher for review

Best. Birthday. Ever. At least, it was supposed to be. With Logan's band playing a critical 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 born after the Shift, Aura can see and hear ghosts. This mysterious ability has always been annoying, and Aura had wanted nothing more than to figure out why the Shift happened so she can 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 the living grow 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.

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So I'm ready to go to Vegas. I think that it is really the only place where I can truly proclaim my love for Shade by marriage. I would love to marry several books, and Shade is definitely one of them for several reasons, such as:

1. Punks! I am completely obsessed with music, and Shade mentions a lot of music, specifically one of my favorite genres, punk. It also mentions Death Cab For Cutie (who are most certainly not punk, by the way), and I love them. I loved how into music everyone was, and I loved that concerts were just a regular thing for them (it made me try and talk my parents into moving to Baltimore, where the story takes place). The music really added to the book for me.

2. Originality! I love paranormal books, but most of them have gotten kind of similar to me lately. Not Shade. I've never read a book like it before.

3. Characters! Aura was incredibly strong, fierce, sarcastic and easy to love. What more can we ask for from a main character? As for the guys, I love them both so much that it feels like I'm cheating on both of them. Logan is so sweet, and musical, and wonderful. But Zachary is so confident, and Scottish (accents=WIN), and wonderful. So you can see my-...er, I mean Aura's dilemma. But by the end I'm definitely rooting for Aura and Zachary to be together.

4. Writing! So, sometimes you have a good teen voice, and other times you have very descriptive, beautiful writing. Jeri Smith-Ready is one of the rare types of authors that can greatly combine both.

5. Grabbing! It completely grabbed me and sucked me in from the first page. I didn't want to put it down.

6. Ending! AHHHHHH! That was a nice little cliffhanger. I need the next book, Shift. Now please.

How kid friendly is it? Not very. While I loved Shade (a lot, obviously), I think this is a book that should stay with more mature readers as it contains language, sexual content, as well as drug use and drinking.

I'm off to the bookstore to grab my own hardcover of Shade, and then to Vegas.