Shade by Jeri Smith-Ready

Shade
Shade #1
Author: Jeri Smith-Ready
Genre: Young Adult Paranormal
Source: Library Loan
Publisher: Simon Pulse
 (May 4, 2010)
ISBN-13: 978-1416994060

SUMMARY

(From Goodreads)

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.

MY THOUGHTS

Where do I even begin with this review?  It is so hard to put my feelings into words and that is how you know you have found a book that blows you away.  When this book first came out, I was not as excited as everyone else.  For some reason or another, I kept putting it off and it got buried on my list of books to read.  Now that book three has finally arrived -- and the hype for the series is once again high -- I finally caved and decided to give the series a chance. Again, I am having trouble getting my thoughts together for this review, so please be patient in reading this one.

When I first started reading Shade, I wasn't a huge fan of Aura.  I am still on the fence about her character.  She can't make a decision and keep it which really aggravated me.  Here she has this great boyfriend -- who yes, at times likes to be in the spotlight -- and she is trying to decide if she should stay with him because of her doubts.  Yet, once he hits it big one night with his band, she decides she wants to be with him. She decides that they should finally give their relationship another chance at taking it to the next level.  The only problem is Logan parties a little too hard that night and gets drunk.  He has a problem with "performing" intimately and decides to take some drugs he was give by some talent scouts to wake him up.  He ends up dying from the lethal combination of alcohol and drugs.  Since this happens after the world has discovered ghosts, some people can see him and Aura is one of them.  She is considered a post-shift meaning she was born after The Shift happened.  If you are post-shift you see ghosts in violet.  If your are pre-shift -- born before The Shift -- you are unable to see ghosts at all.

This was a part that was confusing to me with all of the references to the pre-shift and post-shift with the characters.  I had to keep remembering who was born before and after the Shift event.  Eventually it finally clicked in place for me, but it was a little overwhelming at first for me.  Aura now has to deal with seeing Logan as a ghost and not being able to touch him.  It is hard enough dealing with the death of a loved one, but Aura has to also mourn the loss of a 'true' relationship with him.  While others in the book deal with the death of Logan and not being able to communicate with him, others are dealing with seeing him around still and realizing that Logan will never truly be the same guy he was in life.  Ghosts also can turn into Shades or ghosts who are dark and miserable.  There is a paranormal group who captures ghost if they show signs of going Shade and they are determined to catch Logan when he starts to show signs of it.

Enter Zachary. Holy goodness I am in love with this Scottish guy!  Not only did the author write him beautifully, but she also made sure to write in his Scottish accent.  Every time his character spoke in the book, I melted.  Of course this causes a triangle of sorts for Aura.  She is now having to work with Zachary on a school assignment and split her time between him and Logan.  She also starts to fall for Zachary and deals with guilt in doing so because of Logan being around still.  Zachary has secrets of his own that involve Aura.  Together they are trying to figure out what happened during The Shift and what it all means.

I will say that this book left me with a lot of unanswered questions.  This was a book which is better described as the set-up book with some bare bones structured throughout.  Not many things get answered, but what you do read sets up the series and gets you so invested in the plot and characters that you find it impossible not to follow up with the other books.  I am hooked. I am torn between Logan and Zach. I am intrigued and curious to know more of the world created. I am a new fan of the author -- even if she did leave us with a climatic ending that had me pulling my hair out in frustration.

MY RATING

Very Good! I would recommend this book!