Review: Indelible (The Twixt, #1) by Dawn Metcalf

Pub. Date: July 30^th, 2013

Publisher: Harlequin Teen

384 pages

Paperback

Joy Malone is blissfully unaware that the paranormal world of The Twixt exists simultaneously to ours, until a night out leaves her with a sliced cornea, and weird-beings approaching her with nonsensical messages. Indelible Ink, a Scribe from The Twixt, is responsible for receiving messages from other beings of his world, marking humans with an invisible to the human eye signature of ownership. When Joy can see him, instead of blinding her, eliminating her ‘sight’, he mistakenly marks her as his property. Joy and Ink must convince Ink’s world that he intentionally claimed her, or risk their lives. Their relationship, real or fake, is constantly tested, and through these tests they discover that something seriously deceptive is going on within The Twixt.

The characters and their relationships, for me, was the best part of the novel. Joy and Ink’s relationship has just the right mix of love, hate, understanding and misunderstanding, to keep things interesting. In keeping up appearances, Ink and Joy have to act like they are romantically together, something that is completely unnaturally to Ink. He is not human, he does not feel as humans do, and through their relationship Ink experiences many firsts. From holding hands, to feeling jealous, to fearing for someone else’s safety, Joy enlightens Ink to what caring about someone else feels like. I really appreciated the twist of the guy experiencing the firsts, because it is not something we see often. Their relationship was very natural, with the ups and downs that normal relationships have, which I felt made the entire novel realistic, and that much more compelling.

Review: Earthbound (Earthbound #1) by Aprilynne Pike

Pub. Date: July 30^th, 2013

Publisher: Razorbill

352 pgs

Hardcover

Before I review Earthbound, let me just say that I absolutely adored Aprilynne Pike’s Wings series, and I’m always afraid I’m not going to like the new, when I loved the old. Wings was something that I picked up a few years ago expecting a cute, fun, light read, and I found myself surprised by its complexity and world building. My feelings for Earthbound were thankfully the same. I’m not sure how Pike is able to seamlessly create an entire paranormal world with a complex mythology, while keeping the story straightforward, understandable and simple in its delivery. She amazes me, this book amazed me, and you should read it.

Tavia Michaels shouldn’t be alive. She was the only survivor of a plane crash that killed hundreds, including her parents. Now living far away from everything she ever knew, and trying desperately to recover physically and mentally from the damage done in the crash, Tavia questions just how damaged she is when she starts seeing things. Buildings appear and disappear, symbols start popping up everywhere, and Quinn, a guy she swears she has never met, yet feels she has known forever, keeps

Review: Undercurrent by Paul Blackwell

Pub. Date: July 23^rd, 2013

Publisher: HarperTeen

320 pg.

Hardcover

Before I start my review let me just say that I acknowledge I am probably not the target reading audience for this book. Even still, I was completely drawn in, especially for the first few chapters, and I really couldn’t wait to find out what was going to happen. The problem I guess is that I am the type of reader who always works at figuring out the mystery. With Undercurrent I figured it out in less than 100 pages. I don’t know about you, but once I put the pieces together, I have a hard time staying engaged, waiting for the characters to catch up.

Slowing waking in a hospital bed, at first being unable to move, speak, or blink, Callum Harris knows that something is wrong. People keep telling him that he should be dead, and not in a, you’re so lucky way, but an, if karma existed you would be dead, kind of way. Once he’s ‘home’ the wrongness of his life becomes more apparent. His once divorced parents are happily together, his books have been replaced by football trophies on his shelves, a box with a gun and hundreds of dollars is found in his room, people are afraid of him, and most significantly his older brother was apparently in an accident leaving him paralyzed years before.