Shine

Shine by Jeri Smith-Ready
4/5 stars
Simon Pulse, 2012
401 pages
YA Paranormal
Book #3

Source: Bought

After enjoying Shade and loving Shift, Shine moved to the top of my want to read list of 2012 so I was so happy when my copy finally arrived in the mail. I was pretty good about avoiding spoilers so that I could read this with little expectation beyond what Smith-Ready had promised throughout the earlier books. This review is more aimed at those who have already read the first two books and avoids spoilers for this book.

I was pretty happy to dive into this book and with the developments about the shift. We get answers to the questions we had about why Aura can see ghosts, why Zachary can repel them, about the powerful corporate and government interests and the lengths they will go, about the ancient Irish history, etc. Yay for answers from YA paranormal!

I appreciated that there was no more triangle. Logan passed on at the end of Shift and he does not return in this book. Although he will always have a little part of Aura's heart for the history they shared, his part is done and she can move forward to building a new life with Zachary, who goes through some hell in this book. While Zach and Aura move to new levels of trust with each other,  there is conflict from a dark situation experienced by him. Honestly I was a little frightened by him in some scenes but how could that not wreak havoc on a person?

But for whatever reason, this book didn't blow me away with awesome the way that the previous book Shift had. I don't know if it's because I had my expectations too high or if it's because I'm in a bit of a reading/reviewing funk. This was still a very enjoyable reading experience, well-written and fast paced (I flew through the book). There is character development for our leads and we get at least a glimpse of every character we've cared about from the previous books.

Content Warnings: Language and sexual situations-I feel like this series is definitely for the older end of YA.

Cover Rant: While I find the yellow more understandable now (in the context of what occurs in the books), I am seriously upset that the covers of my books no longer match. I actually bought this series as the books came out, expecting no changes and then there was. I also hate when the cover model is staring out at us-creeps me out!