Review: Unique Way of Looking at Death
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 09 23, 2013
Cipher is one of those ideas for a story where you are like. Wow this makes sense and could totally be believable, if you believe in things like the angel of death. It's a whole system like the business of death is run like, well a business. It is a great idea for a plot and Cindi Madsen does a wonderful job of executing it. The book sucks you in from the beginning and is fast paced, and encourages book devouring.The romance in this book was perfect. No insta love here, in fact I felt like it played out more like a real high school experience. Summer has a boyfriend the book starts and due to some probably normal teenage issues they end up breaking up. Even broken up she admits to still caring about him and has those, almost back together moments. Then the true romantic lead is not some guy that pops up out of nowhere. They have been friends since she moved to town. I loved how I was fueled by anticipation for the two to get together. I would actually wonder if it was ever going to happen. I loved that about the book.All of the characters have great interactions with one another. I love that in trying to help Ashlyn, Summer finds out things about herself that she may have forgotten or let get lost in the shuffle. She develops through the story as a stronger person rather than just going with the flow like she does at the beginning of the book. I also love Summer's back bone and how she doesn't let girls being mean get to her. She pretty much sticks it right back at them rather than running and hide.It's one of those books that you know is going to be sad. It has to be sad right, they tell you right off at the beginning that Ashlyn is going to die and Summer's purpose is to put her affairs in order. We are talking about a girl who sees people's deaths right before they happen. You hope though, you think maybe Summer can find a way around this, maybe it doesn't have to be the end. It's that drive that keeps you reading.Beginning, middle and end this was a great book. I can't wait to read book two.I actually refrained from reading the sneak peak at book two, Rift,  at the end because I knew I would be sucked in immediately.