I found this author through Facebook. She was looking for ARC readers, and I loved the cover, so I volunteered.

Read: September 30 – October 2, 2023
*Self-published author

Genre: Fantasy
Audience: Young Adult
Book contains: emotional abuse from a parent, aftermath of torture, character death

Purchase a copy from Amazon.ca

[I received a free copy of this book and am voluntarily leaving a review]

---

A Little Slow to Get Started

Robin Hayes is an ordinary teenage girl trying to navigate family drama, a broken relationship, and terrifying nightmares of a woman screaming her name. Everything changes when a mysterious new student, Matthew, arrives at Milton High and sends paralyzing chills through her every time he’s nearby.

As mentioned above, I volunteered to be an ARC reader for this book’s second edition because of the cover. I had no idea what I was expecting. Embarrassingly, since I’m currently reading the Twilight Saga, I drew a lot of similarities between the two books, and at first, I even thought Matthew was a vampire. (Since vampires are also mentioned, I feel like this was something the author was trying to accomplish, Twilight or not. A good red herring nonetheless.)

I originally planned to read this book in Mexico, though since I had an ePub version, and the sun in Mexico is too bright for my screen for outside reading, I left it until I got back, and restarted the book from scratch. It’s over 100K words, so reading it over three days was a bit tricky, but I managed.

The book is written in first person from Robin’s perspective, in the past tense. There are thirty-three chapters, and hardly any cliffhangers, though enough of a mystery to keep you reading.

As a main character, Robin wasn’t too bad, but to me, she seemed too noble. Like, to a point that it was a little annoying. Otherwise, I liked her a lot. Once she and Ben made up, their relationship was going strong from start to finish with no drama, and despite a brief hiccup, so was her relationship with her best friend, Felicity. I really loved her relationships with her mother and little sister (Dawn) as well; it actually made me emotional near the end.

And, of course, the character who spurs the story into action: Matthew. Drawing comparisons to Twilight again, he reminds me a lot of Edward, even though he’s the new kid, not Robin. He fulfills the mysterious new loner guy, and I was radically surprised that he was not a love interest for Robin, not even in the love triangle sense (aside from a little forced drama that doesn’t go far). It was a breath of fresh air once I got used to it.

I admit that the start of the book was a bit slow, because while Robin’s reoccurring nightmare about the screaming woman was interesting, it wasn’t quite enough to drag my attention through the first three chapters before Matthew shows up. I quite honestly forgot all about the dream by the time it was mentioned again. The real action actually gets going about halfway through when Robin discovers something incredibly important about herself—something that was hinted at but which I was not expecting. I expected her to be a regular human and for Matthew to be different, not for both of them to be. It was incredibly unique.

As for the writing style, I liked it. The text itself was simple—no terribly advanced words—which is good for the target audience. There were about a dozen errors, however, mostly just using the wrong word (which means it doesn’t get flagged as an error). It didn’t diminish the reading experience at all, as I knew exactly which word it was trying to say, but I can’t forgive errors in a second edition as readily as a first, which is why I mention it here.

Overall, I definitely recommend this book to readers who love supernatural powers. It’s a book for teens for sure, considering a few of the scenes integrated into the story, but it’s super fun with a wave of mystery and sprinkle a drama and a splash of danger.

Related Reviews:

The Twilight Saga Book 1: Twilight by Stephenie Meyer
*The Shadow Atlas Book 1: Initiate by Jenny Sandiford*
*Wolf Book 1: Under Your Skin by Ellen Hunter*
*The 13th Zodiac Book 1: Keepers of the Zodiac by Natalie Brianne*
*Dawned by Michelle Areaux*
*The Other Side of Daylight by Nicole Chartier*