Review: Ethereal, Book One of the Celestra Series
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 07 26, 2011
I am a huge fan of this entire series. I'll admit Ethereal falls a little flat as the first book. It was hard for me to get into the story, but I did find it interesting and decided to at least read the second book (Tremble). I am so thankful I did, because it is truly an original, creative storyline.Ethereal is about a teenage girl, Skyla Messenger, who moves with her family to an island called Paragon. As soon Skyla and her family pull into the driveway of their new home on Paragon, Brielle, the teenage next door neighbor, comes over to greet them. Skyla learns that Brielle's best friend, Chloe, used to live there. Skyla asks the obvious questions of why/where did Chloe move, only to find out that Chloe was murdered. Brielle drives Skyla into town to show her around and they wind up at the bowling alley. While there, Skyla meets Logan and Gage Oliver for the first time.Logan and Gage are cousins, both very attractive. Skyla and Logan soon discover that they share a very unique gift. Logan may have some answers about their ability, only he's very hesitant to share them with her. And, she also soon becomes aware that Gage is attracted to her as well, and neither cousin is afraid to fight the other for her.<<Minor Spoiler Alert>>At this point in the story I felt things were just a little too convenient. I mean, come on, Skyla moves into a dead girl's house, somehow ends up in the dead girl's bedroom, starts dating dead girl's ex-boyfriend, becomes best friend's with dead girl's ex-best friend, the chance encounter with the Oliver boys, both boys want her, both boys are hot as sin...yeah. But, I decided to keep going (if for nothing else to find out what happened to Chloe).<<End Spoiler>>You don't get answers to many of the plentiful questions thrown at you in Ethereal. Read on, though, because we find out that nothing is as it seems on the island of Paragon, and most importantly, everything happens for a reason.I really like the characters, Skyla in particular. I can't say that I relate very well with her, but that doesn't make her character any less awesome for me. All the character's histories are not laid out in this book, but the author does give us a good feel for them. This series is rife with secrets, so it is appropriate not to have a full characterization of all characters in Ethereal (I'm currently reading Expel, book 6, and I still don't know everything about everyone).Addison Moore has a wonderful, original writing style. I've never read anything like her books. Not only is the premise creative, but the way Moore puts things into words is different (and incredible). There are some errors in the books, but it was never enough to distract me from the story. Also, these books are not necessarily for the faint of heart: there's some violence (some of it graphic) and some really creepy stuff. There is also some bad language, and a few fairly steamy scenes. Oh my, I almost forgot to mention the HUGE cliffhanger endings Moore leaves us with in most of the books - love them!The books are not strictly for the YA audience; older readers will be able to lose themselves in this story as well (I'm 30 and I obviously love them).I highly recommend this book series.