Shadow Hills Paperback Cover!

By now you might know that we're unveiling the paperback cover of Shadow Hills in puzzle pieces. How cool is that!? I cant wait to see the whole thing!

The full cover will be available November 20th in Anastasia's Blog! You can also follow her on twitter or like Shadow Hills on Facebook.

My piece:

Trivia questions are also part of the fun, so if you've read Shadow Hills be sure to answer the questions in each of the stops so you can enter to win a signed Shadow Hills Poster! Fill out the form below answering the question to be entered.

You can also find this piece and a different trivia question at DJ's Life in Fiction
Yesterday, A Good Addiction and I Heart Monster posted another piece and two trivia questions. Tomorrow, Just Your Typical Book Blog and Book Nerds will be posting the remaining and two questions.

Goodreads / Amazon / Book Depository

Author Guest Review (2) - Anastasia Hopcus

What better recommendation than one from our beloved authors, right? This post features Author Guest Reviews for books I've really loved. This post was inspired by YA Reads.

Shade by Jeri Smith-Ready

Anastasia's thoughts:

Shade by Jeri Smith-Ready was absolutely fantastic! I had a feeling I would love it before I even cracked it open. In fact, I was so convinced that I bought the book without even reading the first page--something I never do. (Of course, I did have some reason for thinking this; I'd seen that a few bloggers that enjoyed Shadow Hills had also really liked Shade. I figured they must have impeccable taste. ;D (I kid. Sort of.)

Luckily, my instincts proved to be correct. As soon as I started reading Shade, I became enthralled and ripped right through it. I loved all of the details about music---surprise, surprise! It helped me get to know the characters and made them feel like real teenagers. I often listen to this traditional Irish pub songs CD that includes the song ‘The Parting Glass’ and I was totally blown away when it was mentioned in Shade. I’ve even told my boyfriend several times over the years that I would like to have that song played at my funeral. While he’s always found the suggestion creepy and my fixation on funerals morbid, that little detail just helped to increase the immediate connection I felt with the characters in Shade.

The characterization is excellent. Each character is very distinct, even the more minor ones like Logan's parents or Aura's aunt. Both, Zachary and Logan are completely crush-worthy. This is one of the only books I've read where I really felt torn between the two guys. I just loved both of them so much!

The whole set-up Jeri Smith-Ready established regarding ghosts and those who can see them was really fascinating to me. I'm so eager to find out more about the whole mystery regarding Aura's mother. And what happened at the end really surprised me, too, which is not usually the case.

The only problem I have with Shade is that I don't know how I'm going to manage to wait for the
next book!

_______________________________

Thank you SO MUCH, Anastasia! I also loved Shade.
Be sure to check out Ansatasia's awesome debut novel Shadow Hills! See my review of Shadow Hills here.

Other posts:

- Author Guest Review (1) - Tara Kelly

Shadow Hills - Anastasia Hopcus

Young Adult
Pages: 400
Publisher: EgmontUSA
Release Date: July 13, 2010

Since her sister’s mysterious death, Persephone “Phe” Archer has been plagued by a series of disturbing dreams. Determined to find out what happened to her sister, Phe enrolls at Devenish Prep in Shadow Hills, Massachusetts—the subject of her sister’s final diary entry.

After stepping on campus, Phe immediately realizes that there’s something different about this place—an unexplained epidemic that decimated the town in the 1700s, an ancient and creepy cemetery, and gorgeous boy Zach—and somehow she’s connected to it all.

But the more questions she asks and the deeper she digs, the more entangled Phe becomes in the haunting past of Shadow Hills. Finding what links her to this town…might cost her her life. 

Lately, I've been slowly falling 'out of love' with Supernatural/Paranormal books within YA titles, because they seem to be more blindingly cheesy romance than about otherworldly mysteries. More than that, it appears to be the male lead who once was frightening yet interesting, now falls into the extremely rude category, inexplicably leaving the female lead swooning over him all the same. This formula can become quite boring specially if the female protagonist is stupidly innocent. So I've found myself avoiding paranormal romance as much as possible.

Even though I read Shadow Hills a while ago, the one thing I found more interesting is that, even though romance is present, it does not become an issue nor does it interfere with the supernatural telling. Phe's character reacts as any normal teenager would under extraordinary and dangerous circumstances and Zach is mysterious and yummy in his own way. Their romance and the supernatural plot are separated and intertwined in a fully creative way.

Anastasia's writing is also original. She mixes wonderful prose with modern writing, splashing in some well-known brands and expressions that made me giggle. The cover is gorgeous and mysterious just like the story. Not exactly fast paced but very enthralling, Shadow Hills promises readers a fresh new formula for Urban Fantasy.

Overall, a charming and haunting debut novel that will leave all supernatural fans -and the rest of us- pleased and starved for more. I hear there might be a second book in process. I cant wait!

Goodreads / Amazon