Review: Our Little Dung Beetle came of age!!!!!
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 10 8, 2013
Well time flies. I just noted I have been following the Spirit Guide series since  August of 2010, when EJ Stevens sent me her first novel to review... The cover grabbed me immediately, the quote below is from my 5*****Star Amazon review and the rest is history.I have just come upon an enchanting new Paranormal Mystery Story written by Dark  Poetess , EJ Stevens. She Smells the Dead is just what the Moms and Librarians have been looking for. A New Series of YA books with enchantment, mystery, love and commitment.Yuki is a High School Senior with a unique psychic awareness. SHE SMELLS THE DEAD. Actually, they come in the form of "smell impressions" according to Calvin Miller, her Alpha male soul mate. Both Yuki and Calvin have totems who guide them in their lives. Yuki has a special calling, which is to lead lost souls to the light.Through this book, readers from all walks of life have lived vicariously through the teen years with Yuki in Spirit Storm, Legends of Witchtrot Rd, Brush With Death and now the last of the series The Pirate Curse. A teenager in high school, called names, shunned, and finally bullied by most of the cool crowd for being different in her quirky clothing choices and her Goth dress. We have watched this young lady grow, through the pen of this author, not to buckle and be the  underdog, but to gather up her strength and roar!It is now the summer after graduation. The gang will be splitting up to go in different directions. It is Yuki and Calvin who will remain; Yuki opening an artist shop in town and Cal remaining as his pack Alpha. Through all of these stories her best friend Emma and her new boyfriend Simon (Cal's Lieutenant) are always there to work their magic and buy pizza. Emma is going off to school to be a Vet while separated from Simon who also remains behind.Three couples all BFF's are spending a week at a beach cottage together. It is here the final ghosts descend as Yuki, arriving early, grabs some pads and pencils and finds a quiet spot to sketch, as her new shop still needs some more canvasses for the upcoming Grand Opening.Yuki falls asleep in the shade and awakens to find the tide has come in and she has no access to leaving the spot before the tides go down. Getting up on a bit of higher ground, a new odor assails her and she realizes she is not alone. She sees the filmy shadows of a few unsavory characters and then there is another clearer spectre of a very handsome man with long black hair, a gold earring, dressed like a pirate? I had the thought while reading it of Pirates of the Caribbean and a Johnny Depp like character was who Ms Stevens was describing. We learn that he has lost something and it would be Yuki's job to help him find his treasure.  Could it be gold and jewels or the treasure of the heart?Ms Stevens, you have done the writing community a great service writing a story like this. My granddaughter is just 10 and has been reading Yuki since she is 8 . I want her to see it is okay to be different.  I want her to see bullying is wrong. I want her to know that if it happens to her, to let someone know. You have given us a wonderful role model and I thank you.Review by Gloria LakritzSR Reviewer and Review Chair for the Paranormal Romance Guild