Ever Lost

New town, new school, new ghost.

Jade has a dedicated boyfriend, an overprotective mom, and a full scholarship. Uprooted from Nantucket, Jade is installed off-island at her dad’s new house so she can attend snobby Layton Academy. Leaving Charlie behind is sheer torment, but living with her father has plenty of dangerous distraction—in the form of a terrifying spirit haunting her new school. Hottie classmate Mateo Fernandez can’t see the ghost, but he knows its story. He’d like to know hers, too, but Jade still misses Charlie, even though distance seems to be changing him.

With support from Mateo and the mysterious Noemie, Jade commits to helping the agonized spirit cross over. As she delves into the ghost’s past, the disturbing secrets Jade learns draw her into a deadly confrontation with a desperate man. If she can’t play his demented game, the spirit’s harrowing fate could become her own.

*May Contain Spoilers*

In Ever Lost, the second novel of the Secret Affinity series, Jade has been forced to move in with her dad away from Nantucket, her friends, and her boyfriend. Angry and alone, Jade starts her new school with a ghostly greeting. She knows she has to help the ghost as soon as possible so that she can have a normal life at the Academy, but Jade's having trouble remembering exactly what her Grandmother taught her to help them move on. Not that the ghost would leave without completing his unfinished business.

Jade's character has grown since the the first book. She's still the typical in-love, little bit selfish, teenage girl, but she isn't as moody. And because of what she can do, Jade has to be careful when it comes to sharing her secrets. Readers will enjoy the new location and the new characters, especially Mateo. The love triangle created is a little off because Charlie seems to be becoming an angry semi-controlling boyfriend, which will have readers leaning toward Mateo. Jade's bravery and strength as a medium has definitely grown. That was something I wanted in the first book and I'm glad to see the character evolving. Young adult readers will be intrigued by the continuation of Jade's ability and connect well with her experiences as a new student and as a teenager. 

The story line begins after Jade's move away from Nantucket. She begins school and promptly discovers the ghost of a teacher who committed suicide earlier that year. However the ghost keeps rambling on about how he didn't do it and how it wasn't his fault, pushing Jade to pursue a murderer. The plot was nicely paced and entertaining, not to mention frightening at times. When Jade gets into trouble toward the end, I didn't agree with everything she did but I understood why she chose those specific actions. Readers who enjoyed the first novel will no doubt enjoy this installment as well. 

Rating: 3.5/5 Cups

Review of Ever Near: Secret Affinity Book 1

Ever Near - Blog Tour

Synopsis:
Love is ever near. But trouble is never far.

Nantucket Island is haunted, but only sixteen-year-old Jade Irving knows it. Ignoring the disturbing spirits isn’t an option, because one dwells in the enormous historic home she shares with her newly blended family. Jade is finding it more and more difficult to explain away Lacey’s ghostly, anguished tantrums, especially with Charlie, her gorgeous, almost step-brother, living right across the hall.

When a power-hungry ghost hunter tracks down Jade and blackmails her, Jade’s secret teeters on the edge of exposure, and her entire future hangs in the balance. If anyone finds out Jade can talk to ghosts, her life will be forever changed.

Can she save herself, free Lacey, and hang on to her tenuous connection with Charlie? Or will everything she ever wanted slip through her fingers?

Review:

I've always been intrigued by novels about mediums, psychics, and the supernatural. Melissa MacVicar gives her teenage main character the ability to see ghosts but not a clue about what to do with it in her novel, Ever Near. Jade has been able to see spirits since she was a young girl and she never told a soul. Until now. She's falling in love with a boy who happens to be in line to become her step-brother and when he wakes up to her screaming across the hall - she doesn't have the option not to tell him what's happening. And then the real trouble starts which includes blacking out multiple times, ending up in the mental ward of a hospital, and trying to force a ghost to pass on in peace. 

The only part of the plot I didn't like specifically was the mingling of Jade with the Nantucket ghost hunter. He came off way too creepy for me to believe she'd travel to an abandoned house with him just to prove her abilities. And when she threatens him with her innocence so he'll keep her secret... I think that went a bit too far. I want to think that the plot could have been better developed if he played a larger role and was someone that Jade could trust. She is, after all, facing down angry violent ghosts. She needs all the help she can get.

Jade has many qualities of the stereotypical teenage girl. She's moody, secretive, sneaky, and head-over-heels in love. Young adult readers will relate to the teenage atmosphere and situations, while adult readers will have a few flashbacks of their own teenage years. Some of the dialogue throughout seemed awkward, but when viewed with a YA perspective it flows more smoothly. I enjoyed Jade's character but wanted her to be stronger when it came to her medium abilities. Perhaps this is something the author will focus on in the continuation of the series. 

Rating: 3/5 Cups

Meet the Author:

Melissa MacVicar has lived most of her life on Nantucket Island. A true native, she’s able to trace her ancestry back to the island’s first settlers. After attending The Pingree School, she went on to graduate from Franklin and Marshall College with a degree in English. She also received a master’s degree from Boston University School of Social Work. When she turned forty, Melissa decided to renew her adolescent passion for fiction writing. Having once thought writing a novel to be an impossible dream, she’s proud to be achieving her childhood ambition. Melissa currently lives with her husband and two children on Nantucket where she teaches 7th grade Writing Composition. When she isn’t teaching, parenting, and writing, Melissa enjoys running, eating expensive chocolate, and watching her beloved Patriots.

Teaser Tuesday (81)

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:
• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

Ever Near (Kindle Loc. 434-35)
   - Melissa MacVicar

After a ghost encounter, especially one with a demented spirit, I'm always sapped. Drained.

The Key Inheritance

Ten years after the trip to Scotland that changed her life, Lou is back in the misty, magical country. This time, however, she’s not on vacation: Lou is there to settle some distasteful and depressing family business. When Brian, her old Highland fling, turns up, Lou is forced to wrestle with a past that she thought was dead and buried. As tension between the former lovers mounts, something wicked is stirring in Scotland. Lou must use all her strength to handle the increasingly desperate situation, but will she be strong enough to battle both a vengeful ghost and her heart?

The Key Inheritance is a novella that takes place a decade after the events of The Burning of Isobel Key. This contemporary story crosses into the supernatural as Lou discovers evidence of a long-dead spirit who refuses to rest in peace. Lou may have thought that she was finished with the witch Isobel Key, but her inheritance is more than the young woman can handle alone.

*May Contain Spoilers*

Ten years later, the lovely Scottish Professor MacDonald, who helped Lou exorbitantly, has passed away. Unfortunately, this is Louisa's sole reason for returning to Scotland, at least at first. The country that gave her a family now holds for her an inheritance in Jen McConnel's newly released novella, The Key Inheritance. Along with another mystery to solve. 

Suspicions arise within Louisa when she discovers how much planning the professor was able to do before his death, down to knowing the date that Louisa would arrive in Scotland to take care of his belongings. When Lou stumbles upon a journal, she has a frightening revelation. And it all comes back to one Miss Isobel Key. This plot keeps the story moving along quite quickly which pulls readers in, allowing the previous formed connection with Lou to build. 

In this continuance, readers get a chance to rekindle their connections with Louisa and Brian. Louisa has obviously changed into a woman who understands her beliefs and has continued her study of magic. Flames of her past self still burn within as Lou is still uncertain of what she wants out of life. Readers who bonded with Lou based on her desire to know her past, will strengthen that bond when Lou starts opening herself up to love. 

Brian plays a bigger part in this novel; as it is more about their relationship with a side dish of mystery and ghost stories. He becomes a pillar of Louisa's strength, giving her someone to lean on in hard times. Readers also get a peak at how he was affected by Louisa ten years ago. To say the least, I nearly had to reach for a tissue.

Highly recommended. Promise these will not bring disappointment. Read them. =) 

Rating: 4.5/5 Cups

The Key Inheritance (The Key Legacy)

The Ghosts of Nagasaki: Silence

One night a foreign business analyst in Tokyo sits down in his spacious high rise apartment and begins typing something. The words pour out and exhaust him. He soon realizes that the words appearing on his laptop are memories of his first days in Nagasaki four years ago. Nagasaki was a place full of spirits, a garrulous Welsh roommate, and a lingering mystery. Somehow he must finish the story of four years ago--a story that involves a young Japanese girl, the ghost of a dead Japanese writer, and a mysterious island. He must solve this mystery while maneuvering the hazards of middle management, a cruel Japanese samurai, and his own knowledge that if he doesn't solve this mystery soon his heart will transform into a ball of steel, crushing his soul forever. Though he wants to give up his writing, though he wants to let the past rest, within his compulsive writing lies the key to his salvation.

*Review of sample: "Silence"*

Daniel Clausen's sample of his book, The Ghosts of Nagasaki, has my interest piqued. The creativity that accompanies this book is astounding and I have no doubt that the full novel will hold readers hostage until the final period. 

The sample, Silence, seems to take place in the early-middle of the novel. The main character has already met the ghosts and the people in his life are becoming them (or perhaps, vice versa). He's a very open character who is aligned with the apostatized (someone who renounces their beliefs). The ghosts that surround him are a part of some mystery that he needs to solve. I think readers of the full novel will connect with him based on his openness and honesty, as those are the two biggest traits displayed in the excerpt. Though I firmly think that the mysterious and paranormal aspects of the plot will keep the readers reading. 

For readers that love historical fiction, fantasy, and paranormal genres, this book is highly recommended. 

Rating: 3.5/5

The Ghosts of Nagasaki