Review: Shade

Shade by Jeri Smith-Ready

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



Aura loves Logan and decides to gift him with her for his birthday. Unfortunately he dies that night. Aura is devastated but thankful she was born after the “shift”. What is the Shift? It was something, unexplainable, that allowed everyone born afterwards to see and interact with ghosts.

Aura is devastated by the loss of Logan. Seeing him just isn’t the same. And when oh-so-Scottish and hunky Zachary moves to town, he makes it clear he only has eyes for Aura and is willing to wait!

I’ve discovered I’m not big on the ghost stories…THIS would be the EXCEPTION! There is the initial story of loss, in Aura’s case, the loss of her first love. But on the flip side she can still see and talk with him. Does that make the loss worse or better? Personally, using Aura as my case study, I think being able to see and talk to him would make the loss worse. There would be that constant reminder of what you had and can no longer have. I would think that would wear on both Aura and Logan after a while. And there are consequences to sticking around too long as well. As you can see Jeri Smith-Ready created a complex set of circumstances.

Then there is the other storyline that is occurring simultaneously…That would be the one with Zachary. He was born just before the shift and can’t see ghosts. Zachary and Aura’s storyline starts out simply but takes on a more sinister tone because they both learn there are several government watching them. For their own safety they shouldn’t be together, but yet are thrown together with school projects and burgeoning feelings toward one another.

I was impressed with how Smith-Ready was able to interweave two completely different storylines so deftly and without confusing the reader or allowing one to die out. Complex characters and very complex storylines make for a highly addictive read! I have the second book in the series and can can’t wait to see what happens next.




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