Shade - Jeri Smith-Ready

Shade (Shade #1) - Jeri Smith-Ready
Grade: YA
Rating: 5/5 stars

Love ties them together. Death can't tear them apart.

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. (Description from Goodreads.)

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Wow. I think that’s the best way to describe how I feel about ‘Shade’. I love the concept of 'Shade'. It's a fantastic mix of hauntingly-spooky moments (as to be expected when ghosts are involved) and sweet tragic-romance that leaves you tingling. Add to that the mystery of the Shift and you’ve got yourself an awesome story that you can’t put down. An emotional story, full of love and sadness, and that left me wanting more.

Aura Salvatore lives in a changed world. The minute of her birth marks the start of this change, where children are now born with the ability to see and talk to ghosts (violet spectral beings that can only haunt places they visited in their living days). A cool skill, right? Well there’s a downside. Ghosts can’t see or talk to other ghosts so it means these kids, none of which are older than Aura’s own 16 (almost 17) years; which means ghosts spend a lot of time trying to talk to these kids, the Post-Shifters.

Aura can deal with all the ghost madness though, as long as she doesn’t face a Shade: a ghost who turns dark, black instead of violet, and who now has no limitations in the world except for obsidian and the colour red. Shade’s a scary things, dangerous and make you sick. Aura’s faced a few and I can’t imagine how she feels coming in contact with one.

Enter the guys: Logan Keeley, long term boyfriend and music god, who unfortunately has a sad beginning and faces heartbreaking moments throughout the book. And Zachary Moore, Scottish exchange student who may hold some answers to Aura’s burning desire to uncover the mystery to the Shift. As a story that has a large focus on romance, the loss of a loved one and the potential for new love, it’s hard not to focus on the guys. ‘Shade’ is another one of those YA books where you can't pick one guy over the other and part of me loves and hates that feeling. I love it because there’s never that moment when you’re thinking “Gee, I hope the other guy turns up soon.” But I hate the idea that one guy is going to be picked in the end and I have no idea who it will be, but I know someone's going to end up hurt and that kills me. When Aura's with Logan you melt. He's saying all these sweet things about staying with her...for her, and you can't help but sigh. But then Zachary pops up, and he's this mystery man with a cute accent and an extremely large amount of patience and makes you shiver and smile.

I love how the cause of the Shift is still unknown. One minute kids couldn’t see ghosts and the next certain kids could. I can’t wait to find out more of the mystery, especially considering it seems to involve so many factors and people.

Awesome start to the series; can’t wait to dive into the next one.

5/5 stars

Kim
Originally posted on Goodreads